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The most muscular of these new Chinese weapons is the DF-21D anti-ship ballistic missile, which counts a range of over 1,700 miles. If in some future shooting war one of these missiles targets a U.S. warship, there might be no defense against it.
China has also been hard at work developing a navalized version of the DH-10 land-attack cruise missile, which can travel nearly 2,500 miles and strike ground targets such as American bases in Guam and Okinawa...
...There’s a destroyer-launched version of the YJ-62 with an operational range of nearly 250 miles, compared to the standard Harpoon’s 77 miles. All things being equal, in a head-to-head fight a Chinese destroyer could get the first shot against a U.S. vessel.
And there’s a big push underway in China to build even newer and better ship-killing missiles. Beijing has been observed ramping-up use of special test-bed ships fitted with new sensors that could be satellite communications or fire control systems, or something else entirely.
All this activity on the other side of the Pacific has put the U.S. off its balance. “Don’t be too surprised if the Navy is scrambling to deploy in a hurry, as [the Americans] are chronically behind in EW system fleet upgrades across all three services, due to funding being diverted into [the global war on terrorism] or whatever label is attached these days,” Kopp says.
That's the kind of thing that keeps me up at night. They say you have to pick your poison. In this case America has targeted terrorism ahead of national defense maintenance. In fact the current administration has picked any domestic pork barrel spending over anything to do with national defense - terrorism or otherwise. America has been fighting a two front war for over a decade. Not Afghanistan and Iraq, but rather it has been fighting a war between geo-political national defense and trying to use resources to minimize and mitigate terrorism.
What's the right balance for those two competing needs? The numbers are pretty clear - the amount spent on Homeland Security that has saved a questionable number of lives (remember jobs saved logic? It's being used here as well) versus keeping the entire nation safe the priority should be on the latter. After all, the Boston Marathon wasn't prevented despite all of the billions spent on spying on Americans. That's because you can't prevent everything. The solution - focus on moving the big rocks. China is a big rock. Secondly, in the this-or-that decisioning, it's pretty clear that the public doesn't want to be spied upon anyway.
The decision seems to be pretty straight-forward at this point. Focus the national defense efforts on China, North Korea, Iran and Russia. Those are the real dangers. Yes, terrorism must be dealt with but containing it is simpler if America has international respect as to what it might do to a nation that supports terrorism. With that respect gone, it's open season on America. By focusing on geo-political foes, America gets a secondary benefit of discouraging support for terrorism. The reverse case - fighting terrorism helping contain potential Chinese aggression - is not going to happen.
This is a video frame grab of video shot of Backson exercising at the end of the 2013 Season. Stay tuned for the start of the 2014 nesting season which will include a new version of our custom cameras and live streaming.
The upcoming 2019 Cahow Nesting Season is off to an early start with breeding pairs returning to their underground burrows on the Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve and its surrounding islets earlier than expected. Watch CahowCam LIVE Now.
Principal Terrestrial Conservation Officer at the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Jeremy Madeiros: "Many of the birds are returning a week ahead of normal, possibly due to favorable weather and good amounts of food in their traditional feeding grounds in the cold waters north of the Gulf Stream. The remaining breeding pairs should be returning by the first week in November and all the birds examined thus far are in good condition which bodes well for a promising breeding season.”
"Conditions this year seem similar to last year when the closer proximity of food led to more frequent feeding visits which contributed to the record number of chicks (71) fledging, breaking the old record by 10. We are looking forward to see how many new pairs lay an egg for the first time this season as we had record numbers of new prospecting pairs last season.
Last year’s record number of 124 breeding pairs will hopefully also increase due to the number of new pairs coming on-line, and may approach 130 pairs; this represents a significant recovery, thanks to an intensive management program, from the original number of just 17 to 18 pairs in the 1960s.”
Cornell Lab of Ornithology Bird Cams Project Leader, Charles Eldermire: "Viewers have been asking when the CahowCam would return, and we’re excited to share these intimate views of the Cahow pair during their November courtship. The new camera will allow us to see their breeding season progress in exquisite detail, capturing the complexity of the cahows' lives at a new scale. These recordings are hopefully the first of many, chronicling the continued recovery of these petrels thanks to the efforts of everyone involved in their conservation."
Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader and CahowCam developer Jean-Pierre Rouja: “ Our star CahowCam pair were amongst the first to return with the female arriving on the night of October 25th and her mate on the 26th. The recently upgraded HD camera system was already streaming LIVE which allowed our followers from around the world to get a preview of the reunited pairs’ courtship activities, after having spending several months apart. They spent the first few days courting, preening, nest building and resting which will continue on and off for the next few weeks all of which can be viewed LIVE via the CahowCam page. If all goes well they will then spend December out at sea feeding and re-energizing before the female returns in early January to lay her single egg.”
"With the support of the DENR, this will be the seventh Season that the Nonsuch Expeditions CahowCam live-streams to the world. Over the past two seasons, through our new collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, hundreds of thousands of viewers, including students from around the world, watched over 15 million minutes of CahowCam video!
As part of our ongoing efforts to leverage technology to assist with Conservation efforts we will be bringing several new features online this upcoming season which should extend our reach and increase public engagement even further. In parallel, we continue to develop our K-12 STEAM curriculum with Cornell which is also being pegged to the Cambridge system for Bermuda and International use. Educators should contact us via this website for more and sign up for our Newsletter."
"We've been excited to watch the Cahow Cam community's response over the last two years to watching this uber-rare subterranean seabird's breeding attempts. Hundreds of thousands of viewers have spent over 15 million minutes watching the young cahow transform into a sleek juvenile. Beyond just watching, they've also shared their observations on social media, recruited new viewers into the fold, and been ambassadors for raising awareness of the tenuous success of the cahow recovery effort. We're looking forward to learning more together in 2019!"
This is the 6th Season that under our ongoing Nonsuch Expeditions project we have been streaming LIVE from the underground nesting burrows in Translocation Colony "A" on Nonsuch Island in Bermuda. The K-12 and Cambridge curriculum that we are developing with Cornell will further extend our reach into classrooms in Bermuda and around the world! To obtain resources, teachers should contact us or signup for our Newsletter selecting the educator options.
Bermuda’s National Bird, the endemic and critically endangered Bermuda petrel, or Cahow (Pterodroma cahow) has one of the most interesting stories to be found in conservation and species recovery work. After being thought extinct for over 300 years, a small number of breeding pairs were re-discovered nesting on several small, rocky islets off the east end of Bermuda in 1951. A Recovery program for the species began by the early 1960s, when there were only 18 breeding pairs, producing a combined total of only 7 or 8 chicks annually. Since then, intensive management work has enabled the cahow population to begin a slow, but accelerating recovery, with the number of breeding pairs increasing to 55 by 2000 and exceeding 100 by 2012.
There were early indications that the 2018 Cahow breeding season was going to be another record-breaking one, with both adult birds and chicks being consistently recorded at higher than average weights. The adults were evidently exploiting food sources, most likely far to the north of the Gulf Stream, using their exceptional flying ability. (Geolocator studies in 2009-2012 revealed that Cahows regularly carry out foraging trips of 1,800 to over 4,000 miles over 3 to 7 days – just to feed the chick once!)
This resulted in healthy adult birds and well-fed chicks, with almost no malnourished fledglings that needed to be taken into care and given supplemental feeding.
The level of new nest prospecting by young adult birds just reaching maturity was also exceptionally high, reflecting the increasing number of fledglings produced annually by the nesting population.
As a result, it looked like 2018 would exceed 2017’s record of 117 breeding pairs and 61 successfully fledged chicks, and by the end of January, a total of 124 breeding pairs had been confirmed as laying eggs. During January and February, Carla Marquardt volunteered to candle all accessible eggs during my routine band checks and weighing of incubating adult Cahows, when adults are briefly removed from burrows for identification and a check of body condition. Candling is a technique used to determine if an egg is fertile and to follow development of the embryo inside the eggshell, proving to be of such value that it will be incorporated into future management of the species.
The chicks hatched in late February and early March and then spent three months developing inside their underground burrows, being supplied by the adults with squid, fish and shrimp-like crustaceans. By the time the last chick flew out to sea on 28th June, it was confirmed that 71 chicks had successfully fledged, breaking last year’s record number by 10!
The two new nesting colonies on Nonsuch Island, established by translocating chicks from the original, smaller nesting islets during 2004-2008 and 2013-2017 now both have breeding Cahow populations, with a total of 18 breeding pairs. These produced a record number (for Nonsuch) of 13 fledged chicks, including “Sunny”, 2018’s “CahowCam” chick, the hatching, development and fledging of which was again live-streamed by infra-red video over J. P. Rouja’s “Nonsuch Expeditions” website and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Bird Cams project, enabling viewers in over 100 countries to follow the story of “Sunny’.
In addition, 2018 saw the first two breeding pairs establish at the second, “B” translocation colony on Nonsuch. One of these pairs consisted of a male bird translocated as a chick to the “B” site in 2014, with the female being “Backson”, the first ‘cahow-Cam” chick which fledged from the “A” site in 2013. Five additional pairs also were prospecting nest burrows at both sites during the season, and hopefully will lay their first eggs as breeding pairs next year.
It appears that the Cahow has now reached a point in which its population recovery has accelerated over the last few years. This is due to the intensive management programme, which has been able to control or reduce most of the ongoing threats facing the species, coupled with the re-introduction of the Cahow to a larger, managed habitat on Nonsuch, with room for population growth without the annual threat of hurricane damage or destruction of the nest burrows.
It should be noted, however, that 124 pairs are still a tiny overall population, and the cahow remains one of the rarest seabirds on the planet. The long-term objective of the Recovery Program is increasing the Cahow population to a minimum of 1000 breeding pairs, which will be needed to de-list the species from “Critically Endangered” to “Threatened”. We still obviously have some way to go, but the future looks increasingly positive for this symbol of Bermuda’s Natural Heritage.
Jeremy Madeiros | Senior Terrestrial Conservation Officer | Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources | Bermuda Government
NB: This article is copyrighted, please contact us via the form above for permissions to quote from it along with supporting imagery etc.
Bermuda, as the only landmass in the Sargasso Sea, was historically and continues to be the perfect location from which to launch and host Expeditions. These include the original Beebe Dives, decades of scientific research and more recent filming with National Geographic and BBC Natural History.
This is the first of a series of Sargasso themed biodiversity portraits being produced by Nonsuch Expeditions Team Leader Jean-Pierre Rouja in partnership with the the Sargasso Sea Commission.
J-P was recently named as Honorary Ambassador to the Sargasso Sea Commission (along with Dr. Sylvia Earle, David Doubilet & other renowned Conservationists), for his ongoing efforts to document and protect the Sargasso Sea.
As part of its core mission the Nonsuch Expeditions continues to showcase and protect the biodiversity found in Bermuda, its surrounding waters and the Sargasso Sea.
It has been another record breaking Cahow Nesting Season on Nonsuch Island where around 11 pm on May 28th “Sunny” the 6th consecutive chick to fledge under the ever watching eye of LookBermuda’s CahowCam, strolled out of his burrow, spent some time imprinting on his surroundings and launched himself out towards the North Atlantic.
If all goes well, he will forage there for the next 3 to 5 years before returning to Nonsuch Island to attract a mate, find or excavate a burrow and start the yearly nesting season visits that he will keep up for the next 20+ years...
“The 2018 Cahow nesting season is rapidly drawing to a close, with the rapidly maturing chicks now leaving their nesting burrows to depart to the open ocean almost on a daily basis.
This last breeding season has set many new records, including a record high number of established breeding pairs (124), a record high number of fledged chicks (71), and a record high number of newly establishing (prospecting) Cahow pairs (15). In addition, the new Nonsuch nesting colony has grown to 18 nesting pairs with a record number of 13 fledged chicks, and Nonsuch has also had the first return of translocated chicks from the second translocation colony, four of which paired up to form the two first breeding pairs at this second colony site.
It is clear that the Cahow has now reached a “critical mass”’ in which its population recovery has accelerated over the last few years due to the intensive management program , which has been able to control or eradicate most of the threats facing the species. It is a privilege to be able to work with this tough survivor, and to be a part of its recovery from the edge of extinction, providing inspiration and an example for other endangered species throughout the world.”
“An incredible 12 million minutes of CahowCam footage have been watched by scientists, students and bird enthusiasts around the world through our collaboration with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. See: LIVE CahowCam
Classrooms in Bermuda and globally have been logging in on a weekly, even daily basis throughout the nesting season using the LIVE and archived video stream to follow our chicks progress.
As part of our Educational Outreach, with the Cornell Curriculum Team, we are developing Natural History STEAM based K-12 and Cambridge curriculum modules which will be ready for the next school year, interested teachers should contact us or sign up for our Newsletter.
Whereas the nest is now empty, we are leaving the CahowCam running to see if as in the last 2 years “Stormy” the very lost Storm Petrel returns to try and attract a mate, usually followed by a range of other creatures that take over the nest in the off season…
We have more Conservation focused projects that will be announced shortly, those interested should sign up for our Newsletter.”
"As of today (Bermuda Day), I can confirm the first Cahow chick having fledged from this record breaking season (the B4 chick on Inner Pear Rock), and the number of chicks stands at 71, ten more than last year's (2017) number of 61 chicks. The total number of breeding pairs stands at 124, with 18 pairs on Nonsuch Island. What is particularly exciting is the record number of about 15 newly establishing pairs, most of which should produce their first eggs and come on-line as breeding pairs next season in 2019. Hopefully, about 5 of these new pairs should start breeding on Nonsuch Island, bringing the numbers of breeding pairs up to 23 or so pairs. Hopefully, I will be able to build additional artificial nest burrows on Nonsuch and the other nesting islets, in order to keep up with the now steadily increasing (but still small) population."
Jeremy Madeiros, Senior Conservation Officer (Terrestrial), Dept. of Environment and Natural Resources, BERMUDA
"Violet Sea-snails" or Janthina janthina have accompanied the record numbers of "By-the-wind sailors" or Velella velella washing ashore on Bermuda's beaches. Unusually warm waters and sustained winds has caused them to accumulate on the shorelines in quantities not seen in recent years. They have been accompanied by smaller quantities of "Portuguese man o' war" Physalia physalis and the Violet Sea-snails which feed upon them (as seen above).
Janthina janthina is a member of the family Janthinidae, snails that trap air bubbles with a layer of clear chitin to maintain their positions at the surface of the ocean where they are predatious on the hydrozoans. In addition to the bubble raft, only the veliger, or larval stage, has an operculum, and the shell is paper-thin to allow the animal to float upside down at the surface.
The snail's shell is reverse countershaded, because of its upside-down position in the water column. There is a light purple shade on the spire of the shell, and a darker purple on the ventral side. The animal has a large head on a very flexible neck. The eyes are small and are situated at the base of its tentacles.
The snail begins life as a male and later changes to the female of the species. The eggs are held by the female until they develop into a larval form.
The shell is almost smooth with a slightly depressed-globose shape. It is thin and delicate, and is without an operculum. The colour of the shell is violet, with a paler upper surface. The height of the species shell is up to 38 mm, the width to 40 mm.
When animals come close to extinction, as in the case of the Cahow, there is always the possibility of cross species heterozygous offspring.
Rabbits from nearby Hen Island must have swum over to Nonsuch Island at some point in the past, prior to the Cahows' rediscovery in 1951 when they were down to the last few pairs and were forced to resort to hybridization to ensure their survival. The gene for the ears seems to be recessive, only appearing every few generations (with the offspring named a "Cabit"), however all chicks in the colony still hatch with soft grey rabbit type fur instead of feathers, which they then molt prior to fledging. The Cahows have also retained the habit of nesting in deep underground burrows which they spend several seasons excavating with their mate.
Back in the 1970's when I was a cub-scout we used to go camping on Hen Island in St. Georges which was still overrun with rabbits. Prior to the Airport being built in the 1940's it would have been a relatively easy swim for them to reach Nonsuch. We spent today trying to catch one so that we could take a DNA sample, however they are just too fast. Fortunatley the CahowCam photographed one early this morning so we have further proof of their existence.
In biology a hybrid is mix of two animals or plants of different breeds, varieties, species or genera.[1] Using genetics terminology, it may be defined as follows.[2]
In general usage, hybrid is synonymous with heterozygous: any offspring resulting from the breeding of two genetically distinct individuals.
March 2nd 8:30 AM | After an extended hatching process our Chick has finally fully emerged from the egg!
Jeremy had first observed "dimpling" on the egg during a nest check 2 days prior on February 28th (learn more) indicating the start of the hatching process and by midday on March 1st a small "pip" hole had been observed by the Cornell Team monitoring the streaming video. At 7pm as the pip hole was slowly getting larger the male parent barged in to take over incubation from the female who had been on duty since February 19th and after a few exchanges she retuned out to sea to feed and re-energize.
Throughout the long night as the Bermuda and Cornell Teams watched along with numerous other followers from around the world, the chick in the egg and the father went through cycles of sleeping and bursts of activity as the chick tried to break free with the father nibbling at the edges of the hole to help it get out.
As dawn approached the Team was starting to get concerned that the chick was taking too long to emerge as once the first pip has been made the egg and chick start dehydrating and if the process takes too long this can prove fatal.
Two years ago a similar situation had occurred and thanks to the CahowCam Jeremy was able to track exactly how long the process was taking and then intervened when it became apparent that the chick might not survive. In that case he used sterilized surgical snips to very careful enlarge and weaken the edges around the existing pip hole which allowed the chick to successfully hatch after a few hours, fledging out to sea normally 3 months later.
Therefore on the morning of the 2nd, despite the building seas from incoming winter storm Riley he was preparing for a similar rescue mission out to Nonsuch (as the incoming weather would have restricted access to the island for the following few days making urgent intervention impossible) however fortunately at 8:30 AM Bermuda time the chick was finally seen fully emerging from the egg!
Both "Backson" from 2013 and "Lightning" from 2014 have returned after surviving the odds of their first few years alone at sea.
Even more incredibly Backson, now confirmed to be a female has laid her first egg with her mate in a nest that they have been prospecting in Translocation Colony B on Nonsuch Island.
The present 2017-2018 Cahow breeding season has already produced a number of surprises and developments in the Recovery Program for Bermuda’s critically endangered National Bird, the Cahow or Bermuda Petrel, one of the rarest seabirds on Earth.
Since 2013, the team has been video monitoring one of the deep Cahow nest burrows on the Nonsuch Island Nature Reserve, to help fulfill one of the primary objectives of the Cahow Recovery Program, that of public outreach and education.
In 2013 an infrared video "CahowCam" (developed by LookBermuda as part of the Nonsuch Expeditions) was installed for the first time in the R832 Cahow burrow at the “A” Cahow colony on Nonsuch Island. This chick hatched on the 13th of March, 2013, and developed normally over the next 3 months, reaching a peak weight of 393 grams on the 6th of June. It then rapidly developed its adult feathers and carried out 6 nights of pre-departure exercising activity, coming out of the nest burrow at night to exercise and strengthen its flight muscles and imprint on the nest colony site. During this period, it “slimmed down” to a normal departure weight of 293 grams, fledging out to sea on the night of 16th June, 2013. The chick was then not seen for several years, living out on the open ocean and learning how to find and catch food, avoid predators, and learn how to survive on one of the harshest environments on Earth; the North Atlantic Ocean.
Over 4 years later, on the 5th December, 2017, I was carrying out a check of nest burrows at the “B” nesting colony on Nonsuch Island. This second site has had Cahow chicks translocated to it since 2013, in an effort to establish a second nesting colony on the island, following the success of the first, “A” colony. Earlier, on October 30th, one of the nests at this second site was prospected for the first time, with a male Cahow found in it that had been translocated to this site in 2013.
On this day, I could see a Cahow in the burrow that had already begun building a grass nest, and when captured and brought out of the nest for examination, I could see that it was one of the birds that I had previously banded as a chick. The band number, E0500, also seemed oddly familiar, so I checked my records and confirmed that this bird was indeed Backson, our first CahowCam video star! It was very satisfying to see that Backson had not only survived its risky adolescent period at sea, as typically only about one-third of fledging Cahow chicks survive this period to return as adults, but that it had already paired up with another Cahow.
Normally, new pairs of Cahows do not produce eggs during their first year together, but on the 22nd January, 2018, I found Backson incubating a newly laid, fertile egg in this nest burrow. I was also able to confirm for the first time that Backson was indeed a female. As of this time, we are just waiting to see if this egg hatches, which would happen in the next two weeks or so.
As if all this was not exciting enough, on the 20th January, 2018, I had discovered another newly returned Cahow, prospecting inside a nest burrow on one of the original small nesting islets. Upon examination of its band number, this bird turned out to be the second CahowCam chick, which was named “Lightning” by Sophie Rouja in the 2014 nesting season. This bird, from the R831 nest on Nonsuch Island, hatched on March 2nd, 2014, reached a peak weight of 422 grams on May 6th, and fledged to sea on May 27th, 2014. (This bird’s name was prophetic, as the CahowCam was knocked out twice by lightning strikes on Nonsuch Island while the chick was developing, which has led to a fair weather naming policy). So far, this bird has not attracted a mate to its new nest site, but we will continue to monitor for new developments in this regard as the season progresses.
Last season the female Cahow (seen above) returned to the CahowCam burrow on January 11th, and promptly re-arranged the nest material before laying her single egg 53 minutes after her return.
UPDATE | 2018 - January 12th 4:27 am after returning at 3:05 am the female has laid her 2018 egg! Details to follow...
Jeremy Maderios | "Last year, the male returned by Jan. 15th, and took over incubation for the next 2 1/2 weeks while the female returned back out to sea to feed and regain her strength. The pair then alternated incubation duties until the egg hatched on March 2nd, 51 days after being laid.
After a record-breaking nesting season last year with 61 chicks fledging out to sea, we seem to be on track for breaking even more records this year. As of January 10th, the Senior Conservation Officer had confirmed that about half the breeding pairs on the nesting islands had so far returned and were incubating eggs, including 9 breeding pairs on Nonsuch Island. The remainder should hopefully return over the next 2 weeks. The majority of incubating adult Cahows he examined were heavier than normal, with some male birds approaching 500 grams in weight. This indicates that the birds had found good feeding conditions north of the Gulf Stream over the last month."