Persian Gulf is a partially closed marine environment which is connected to open waterways only at one end.

Although Iran has the lowest share of Persian Gulf pollution among the eight littoral states, environmental experts are still deeply concerned about the serious consequences of the pollution in the oil-rich gulf, CHN reported.
Prolongation of critical conditions in the Persian Gulf has endangered its aquatic ecosystem. Water purification equipment, refineries, wastewater emitted by onshore installations--especially petrochemical plants, urban sewage, population density and extensive oil operations of Arab states are factors contaminating the Persian Gulf waters.
An expert of marine biology, Seyyed Mohammad Reza Fatemi, warned against such conditions, saying Arab countries take the most blame for polluting the Persian Gulf.
This is while, he added, Iranian littoral cities of Hormuzgan, Bandar Abbas, Bandar Lengeh and Bushehr, have a much smaller population.
“Population density has been the major cause of pollution and environmental degradation in the Persian Gulf,“ he analyzed.
Persian Gulf is a closed marine environment which is connected to open waterways only from one way. It usually takes between three and four years for the gulf’s water to be completely replaced. Therefore, any pollution entering the water will remain there for a relatively long time.
Presently, the high temperature and excessive salt level in the water have exposed the marine creatures to extra threats, which means they have to survive very tough conditions.
The natural environment of the Persian Gulf is very rich with good fish grounds, extensive coral reefs and pearl oysters in abundance, but has become increasingly under pressure due to the heavy industrialization and in particular the repeated major oil spillages associated with the various recent wars fought in the region.

Commander of Gilan Aquatic Resources Guard Unit demanded stronger judicial action be taken against poachers, reported IRNA.
At a joint meeting with the province’s judiciary officials, Colonel Ali Moradi added, “Although our patrol teams are keeping round-the-clock watch over water resources and hand over illegal fishermen to judiciary officials, the courts’ leniency toward violators is a cause for concern.“
He insisted that the judiciary confiscate the boats of poachers and heavily penalize sturgeon smugglers.
Moradi recalled that one of patrollers had been wounded by a poacher’s gunshot, while another had lost one eye while trying to guard against violators in Gilan.
Reacting to the criticism, director general of Gilan Justice Department, Sohrab Beig, pledged that every coastal city will assign one of court branch to hear cases of poaching.
He also warned that boats, with their horsepower exceeding 48, are forbidden in the Caspian waters and will be confiscated as per an endorsement by the Supreme National Security Council.

Some 3,000 garganeys flocked to Anzali's Sorkhatkal wildlife sanctuary.

Director general of Gilan Department of Environment said the first flock of migratory birds landed in local wetlands, ILNA reported.
Shabanali Nezami cited reports by wildlife guards based on which close to 3,000 garganeys flocked to Anzali’s Sorkhatkal wildlife sanctuary.
The bird which is a medium-sized duck, smaller than a mallard and slightly bigger than a teal, migrates to northern Iranian wetlands from Siberian regions in August, resting and feeding there during September and November, and continuing its journey afterward.
He expressed hope that the environmental guards would manage to create a safe refuge for wildlife in marshlands, especially the migratory waterfowls, as in previous years.
Nezami referred to the no-hunting season in wetlands and asked locals to avoid hunting and help preserve the genetic reserves in wetlands.
The director warned that intruders into protected areas would be harshly penalized.
Garganey lives among long grasses and in thickly vegetated areas near water. It can be observed almost all around the country, but reproduces in small numbers.

Head of Kohkilouyeh-Boyerahmad Cultural Heritage and Tourism Department said the province possesses the highest number of caves across the country, IRNA reported.
Jamshid Moini added that some of the caves had not been yet identified, because they were located in deep and difficult-to-reach locations.
The local caves have been classified according to their physical characteristics and tourism attractions, he said.
“Some can serve as a magnet for sightseers, while others are attractive for mountain climbers, speleologists and geologists,“ he stated.
Moini noted that Kohkilouyeh-Boyerahmad Speleology Committee was established in 1997 and started its work to discover the caves, but it gave up after two years due to poor support.
The committee discovered 102 caves across the province and issued identity documents for 47 of them, containing information about their geographical position, year of discovery, the name of explorer, as well as ecological and environmental conditions of the cave.
According to him, some of the caves are located in rocks and sites which are not easily accessible and only rock climbers can reach them.
He named Dangzlou and Shah Bahram in Gachsaran, Nideh Khayeez in Yasouj, Per Eshkoft in Loudab, Mohammadi in Tasooj and Kiler in Dishmook as the most picturesque caves of the province.
The discovery and exploration operations have been halted due to lack of a speleology board and financial shortfalls.

Accounting for 2 percent of the national territories, Dena region is an ecosystem of global significance.

The protected area of Dena in southern Zagros heights is home to 16 percent of all indigenous plant species, director of Kohkilouyeh-Boyerahmad Department of Environment said.
As reported by ILNA, Mousavi added that some 100,000 hectares of Dena region had been declared as prohibited zone and were under control of DoE. “About 20,000 hectares of the territory have been designated as safe zone,“ he mentioned.
“The region is properly guarded and those who violate the law will be strictly penalized,“ Mousavi warned.
He complained about insufficient personnel and facilities as the major hindrances to protection of the zone.

Qalat region, Fars province (Photo by Oshin D. Zakarian)

Cane toads are so toxic that crocodiles, death adder snakes and wild dingo dogs can die of cardiac arrest within 15 minutes of eating them.

Australian scientists were given A$3.6 million ($2.7 million) to find a biological way to combat the rising population of poisonous cane toads, Reuters reported.
The pests have spread across northern Australia since 100 cane toads were imported from Hawaii in 1935 in a bid to fight greyback beetles, which were threatening the country’s sugarcane fields.
“The cane toad is a blight on our landscape,“ Australia’s Environment Minister Ian Campbell said.
He said the state-owned Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) will conduct research into ways of manipulating cane toad genes to stop tadpoles from becoming adult toads.
“While short-term measures like traps are important to slow the toads down, their capacity to breed means we will not stop them for good unless we find a biological solution,“ he said in a statement.
Australia has fought the cane toad menace for four decades, but has been unable to stop the spread of the toxic creatures, which have highly poisonous sacs behind their heads that quickly kill native animals that prey upon them.
Cane toads now number in their millions and are so toxic that crocodiles, death adder snakes and wild dingo dogs can die of cardiac arrest within 15 minutes of eating them.
Australia’s environment department says cane toads have been expanding their range across tropical northern Australia by up to 50 kilometers a year, while they are moving south by about 1.6 kilometers a year.
Female cane toads can lay 8,000 to 35,000 eggs at a time and may produce two clutches a year. The toads reach maturity within a year and have a lifespan of at least five years.

Lions are doing a roaring trade, with baboons, giraffes, zebras and chimps also on sale on the Internet, AFP said.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare UK (IFAW) found 146 live primates up for grabs and nearly 9,000 wildlife products, including elephant tusks.
Among the animals for sale were chimpanzees dressed as dolls for $60,000, a “sweet-natured“ giraffe in need of a loving, caring home ($15,000), and a London gorilla needing a new home as its owner is relocating--yours for $8,100.
Most of the products come from protected species and the trade in some animals is outlawed internationally.
After months of monitoring the nature and scale of wildlife trade on the Internet, IFAW UK concluded the Internet is becoming the key market for poachers.
Better inter-agency cooperation and a better coordinated response from legislators is no doubt essential in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade organized on the Internet, the report said.
IFAW called for a code of practice for Internet auction sites and for the laws on animal trading to be clarified.

Green and yellow Great Tit (Parus major) is a bird species that makes its home in Malaysia’s coastal mangrove swamps and both are disappearing as the country redoubles it attempts to boost agriculture, Reuters reported.
Commercial farmers are turning swamps in Kuala Selangor, 90 km northwest of the capital, Kuala Lumpur, into shrimp farms and threatening a delicate ecosystem that is home to hundreds of species, environmentalists say.
Wood and marine products from the swamps provide a source of income for villagers and the swamps themselves form a natural protective buffer against rough seas or tsunamis, like the one that struck parts of peninsular Malaysia last December.
“Directly and indirectly, the mangrove swamp has, for thousands of years, protected us in one form or another,“ said Andrew Sebastian, parks director of conservation group Malaysian Nature Society (MNS).
“The tsunami has shown how important the mangrove swamps are for the ecosystem and our lives.“
The swamps shielded several Indonesian islands and Malaysia’s northwest coastline from the worst effects of the tsunami, prompting Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to call for their preservation.
“Mangroves should not be touched, they act as a barrier for big waves...they break the waves,“ Abdullah said. But despite Abdullah’s directive, an 8-km stretch of mangrove forest was turned into a shrimp farm in Kuala Selangor early this year.
MNS, which runs a park to the north of the stretch, is puzzled about the location of the shrimp farm, because it says considerable investment is required to neutralize the acidic mangrove swamp water to sustain marine life.
“Projects like this, if not well thought out, offer only short-term benefits and at the end, will come back and haunt us in terms of the environment, economy and tourism,“ said Sebastian.
Mangroves have luxuriant and complicated root systems that combat soil erosion by helping to bind the shore together, forming a shield against destructive waves and sustaining a varied ecosystem that is home to insects, fish and otters. blue and orange fiddler crabs scuttle sideways across the swamp in Kuala Selangor along with mud skippers and snails while silver-leaf monkeys swing from the branches of trees through which flit 156 varieties of birds.
Forestry Department statistics show that peninsular Malaysia had 85,800 hectares of mangrove swamp forests in 2003, down from 86,497 hectares in 2002.
The shrimp farms have also changed the lifestyle and diet of animals in the Kuala Selangor swamp. Kingfishers, shrikes and waders now head for the farms for easy pickings instead of hunting their prey in the thick mangrove forest within the 200-hectare nature park, Sebastian said.
“To make matters worse, the owners of the farm have put nets along the boundaries which trap the birds and the otters, which are left in the snares,“ Sebastian added.
Despite the threat to the ecosystem, the Forestry Department says the farms are legal as part of the Kuala Selangor swamps are now classified as agricultural land rather than the forest reserve they were formerly.
Authorities are encouraging aquaculture, by putting fish ponds and shrimp farms in rice fields and mangrove swamps, to boost food production for both domestic and foreign markets.