Analysis-China shines regulatory spotlight on livestream retail boom as crackdown claims biggest star
Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh
Tue, December 21, 2021,
Illustration picture of livestreaming sessions by Li Jiaqi and Viya
By Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - China's 'common prosperity' crackdown has turned a harsh spotlight on the country's massive livestream e-commerce business - underlining the fragility of a surging sales channel that some of the world's biggest brands have come to rely on.
More than 100 million followers of Viya, dubbed the country's 'queen of livestreaming' by the Chinese media and public, awoke on Tuesday to find her e-commerce and social media accounts shut down after news that she had been fined more than $200 million for tax evasion.
The rise of celebrities partnering with brands from L'Oreal to Unilever and Adidas to sell consumer goods in live online streams has seen the sector billow. Consultancy McKinsey expects the trade in the world's second-biggest economy to be worth $423 billion next year - more than double estimates for 2020, and bigger than the economies of countries like Norway and Ireland.
But it has also led to an awkward tango for global players, with little choice but to partner with internet stars with the clout - until now - to make or break product sales campaigns. Some, like Viya, have even challenged how sponsors like L'Oreal do business.
Beijing's vow to be tough on tax dodgers as it seeks to eliminate vast disparities in income at a time of slower economic growth has claimed numerous high-flying victims. But the scale of the fine on Viya, a 36-year-old former singer whose real name is Huang Wei, and who once appeared on a stream with U.S. reality TV star Kim Kardashian, far exceeds that of other well-known cases.
"People were shocked to learn livestreamers make so much money," said Liu Xingliang, president of tech consultancy China Internet Data Center. "With such profitability, Viya's company could be valued at 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) if it went public."
Along with Viya's closest-selling rival by sales, Li Jiaqi - also known as 'Lipstick Brother' - the two biggest stars of the sector have come to be seen as crucial for brands seeking to get a product placed on daily evening livestreamed shows on Taobao, the online marketplace owned by Alibaba Group.
So much has their clout grown that the pair broke ties with L'Oreal last month in a public dispute after they accused the French cosmetics giant of not giving their viewers the lowest price on a facial product. L'Oreal later offered shopping vouchers to settle the dispute.
L'Oreal didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Viya.
In a statement, Viya apologised for not paying her taxes but could not be reached for further comment. Li's company told Chinese media on Monday that business operations were normal.
TRUST AND COMMUNITY
Analysts say livestreaming sales personalities like Viya and Li appeal to Chinese consumers not only because they are entertaining or are able to negotiate steep discounts for their viewers with brands. Crucially, they have been seen as a credible go-between after past scandals involving product quality and fake goods left many distrustful of brands' claims.
One typical follower is Beijing white collar worker Liang Ye, who said she usually spends most of her evenings playing Li or Viya's livestreams in the background. Her recent purchases include a Shu Uemura cleansing oil and a Yves Saint Laurent lipstick.
"They sell things that suit you," she said. "For a facial lotion, Li Jiaqi won't vaguely say it's moisturising or anti-aging like most advertising, he will recommend it to people at the right age with the right skin type."
Unilever China's chairman and North Asia executive vice president Rohit Jawa, who told Reuters the company has worked with livestreamers including Li and Viya since 2019, said the interactive element was its main appeal. Unilever didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the Viya case.
"Questions can be answered immediately and be viewed, shared and commented on by others," Jawa said. "There's a real sense of community and livestreamers have incredibly loyal fans ... China definitely leads the way in livestreaming and is Unilever’s most advanced e-commerce market globally."
GROWTH AMID HEADWINDS
The fine doled out to Viya, however, comes after a series of warnings aimed to tighten up practices in the sector and other punishments levelled against some of her smaller peers - a sign that more headwinds could be in store.
The industry saw a sharp jump in the number of new personalities last year, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, research consultancy iiMedia Research said there were over 28,000 so-called multi-channel network agencies in China, each which tend to manage multiple online influencers.
But China's internet watchdog drafted rules for the first time last year - being implemented on trial this year - to regulate the country's livestreaming marketing industry requiring internet platforms to better monitor their content and ordering livestreamers to register with their real names.
Its commerce regulator followed this up with guidelines in August, saying live streamers should speak Mandarin and dress appropriately when promoting product.
Other popular live streamers were also known to be under investigation for tax evasion prior to Viya's punishment.
On Nov. 22, the third most popular live streamer behind Li and Viya on Taobao, Xueli, was fined 65.55 million yuan for tax evasion and her Taobao livestreaming channel has been suspended ever since. She has also disappeared from social media platforms.
Some analysts, however, said the crack down could even be good for brands, weakening the bargaining power the top live streamers have and potentially sending traffic to their self-operated stores.
But for all the clouds around the business, one thing remains certain - brands will continue to seek growth via livestreaming, and not just in China.
"Live commerce has become table stakes for successful consumer companies in China and much of the rest of Asia," McKinsey concluded in a report earlier this year, "and is rapidly spreading to Europe and the United States."
($1 = 6.3741 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Reporting by Sophie Yu in Beijing and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)
Thousands of Chinese influencers are rushing to settle their back taxes as the country's top live streamer was forced to pay $210 million in tax fines
Huileng Tan
Tue, December 21, 2021
Top Chinese live streamer Viya was fined $210 million for tax evasion.Chen Zhongqiu/VCG/Getty Images
More than 1,000 live streamers have stepped forward to pay back taxes before a year-end deadline.
Chinese authorities said in September they were intensifying tax regulation for the entertainment sector.
On Monday, top live streamer Viya was slapped with a record $210 million fine for tax evasion.
Influencers in China are rushing to pay back taxes amid a government crackdown that has taken down the country's top live streamer.
Viya, who is known for hosting a popular shopping stream on the e-commerce platform Taobao, was slapped with a record 1.341 billion Chinese yuan ($210 million) fine for tax evasion.
The 36-year-old once had over 120 million followers on various platforms, according to TechNode, and is known for her ability to sell almost anything, including a 40 million Chinese yuan ($6 million) rocket launch service, in 2020.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Viya hosted a live stream to raise funds for businesses and individuals struggling in COVID-wracked Wuhan and managed to raise around $32 million within a matter of hours.
According to the state-owned China News Service (CNS), more than 1,000 live streamers have stepped forward to pay back taxes following the government's September announcement that it would strengthen its regulation of state revenue collection from the entertainment sector. Taxpayers have until the end of 2021 to rectify their taxes arrears to avoid heavy penalties, according to CNS.
Two other high-profile Chinese live streamers — Cherie and Sunny — were fined $15 million collectively in September for tax evasion, but Viya is the most significant star to have fallen so far.
Viya apologized for the breach on her Weibo microblog account, which had around 18 million followers, on Monday after news broke, saying she felt "deeply guilty" and would "totally accept" the punishment meted by the tax authority, according to a copy of the notice Insider saw. She also pledged to pay the fine on time.
Despite the apology, Weibo (China's version of Twitter), Douyin (China's version of TikTok), and Taobao took her accounts offline.
Beijing is intensifying oversight of the entertainment industry and regulating what celebrities can do. China's internet regulator said in November that celebrities in China must avoid flaunting their wealth and adhere to "core socialist values."
In November, China also revealed a blacklist which included the names of 88 celebrities it had cited for "illegal and unethical" behavior.
U.S. names Tibet coordinator, drawing warning from China
Zeya, Acting Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, speaks at a news conference in Beijing
Mon, December 20, 2021
By David Brunnstrom and Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Monday named Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya as special coordinator for Tibet, drawing warnings from China to stay out of its internal affairs.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Zeya, who is responsible for democracy and human rights, would lead U.S. efforts to preserve the Chinese-ruled territory's religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage in the face of human rights abuses by Beijing.
Beijing has consistently refused to deal with a U.S. coordinator on Tibet and denounced the move as political manipulation.
"By naming a special coordinator for Tibetan issues, the U.S. is interfering with China's domestic affairs," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters.
"China firmly rejects this, and we will never recognize this designation. We urge the U.S. to take concrete actions to abide by its commitment of recognising Tibet as part of China and not supporting Tibet's independence, and stop using Tibetan-related issues to interfere in China's domestic affairs."
Blinken said Zeya would seek to promote dialogue between China and Tibet's spiritual leader-in-exile, the Dalai Lama, or democratically elected Tibetan leaders.
"She will lead U.S. efforts to preserve the religious, cultural, and linguistic heritage of Tibetans who are facing human rights abuses and challenges to their livelihoods and environment," Blinken said in a tweet.
China reacted angrily last year and accused the United States of seeking to destabilize Tibet after the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump appointed Zeya's predecessor to the same role.
U.S.-China relations have been at their lowest point in decades over a range of issues, including trade, Taiwan, Hong Kong, human rights, the South China Sea and the coronavirus.
China seized control of Tibet after its troops entered the region in 1950 in what it calls a "peaceful liberation". Tibet has since become one of the most restricted areas in the country. Critics, led by the Dalai Lama, say Beijing's rule amounts to "cultural genocide".
China denies wrongdoing in Tibet and says its intervention ended "backward feudal serfdom".
The International Campaign for Tibet advocacy group welcomed Zeya's new role and in an emailed statement its interim president, Bhuchung Tsering, urged Zeya to take the lead in gathering support from like-minded countries to formulate a common approach on Tibet, as mandated by the Tibetan Policy and Support Act passed in the United States last year.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru, David Brunnstrom in Washington and Emily Chow in Beijing; Editing by Howard Goller and Nick Macfie)
China Ordered Amazon to Delete Reviews of Xi Jinping’s Book, Reuters Reports
Vlad Savov
Sun, December 19, 2021
(Bloomberg) -- Amazon.com Inc.’s efforts to curry favor with the Chinese government included quieting criticism of President Xi Jinping’s book on its Chinese outlet, according to a Reuters report.
The Amazon.cn entry for Xi’s “The Governance of China” had its ratings, comments and reviews scrubbed and disabled roughly two years ago in response to an edict from Beijing, the report said. Triggering the request were reviews rating the work at less than the maximum five stars, according to one of the unidentified people familiar with the incident.
The move was part of a broader campaign to ensure that Amazon could carry on with business in the world’s most populous country, where its Kindle and cloud computing operations had room to grow. By 2018, the company was receiving an “increasing number of requests from (Chinese) watchdogs to take down certain content, mostly politically sensitive ones,“ according to an internal briefing document cited by Reuters.
An Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg News that it “complies with all applicable laws and regulations, wherever we operate, and China is no exception.”
The experience recounted in the report mirrors that of Apple Inc., which has grown increasingly compliant with Beijing in recent years. Apple complied with 97% of requests from the Chinese government for user device information in 2019, up significantly from 65% in 2014.
Reviews for Xi’s book of speeches and writings are blocked only on Amazon’s Chinese website. One Amazon.com entry has received 74% five-star reviews.
Other U.S. firms, such as Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn, have, by contrast, exited the Chinese market this year, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment in the country.
Rare eagle, native to Asia, spotted in Massachusetts after sightings in Texas, Canada: 'Most likely lost'
Gabriela Miranda, USA TODAY
Tue, December 21, 2021
A rare bird spotted in Massachusetts has birdwatchers wondering how it arrived on the East Coast since the bird, known as a Stellar's sea eagle, is native to Asia.
While some of these sea eagles have appeared in Alaska, the state closest to the bird's home continent, none have been seen in Massachusetts, much less in Texas and in other states.
This eagle was rumored to be visiting the Taunton River in Massachusetts, and as it roamed the area, more than a hundred photographers and birders turned up.
The Steller's sea eagle is one of the largest raptors in the world, weighing up to 20 pounds with a wingspan of up to 8 feet. It is native to China, Japan, Korea and eastern Russia, according to Smithsonian Magazine. You can identify the bird by its yellow beak and white patterned feathers on its wings.
In November alone, the bird is believed to have traveled to Texas and parts of Canada, including Nova Scotia, Quebec and New Brunswick. Andrew Farnsworth, a senior researcher at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology told The New York Times for the bird to be so far from home is “mind-boggling.”
Phil Taylor, a biologist at Acadia University who studies bird migration, spotted the eagle on Wednesday afternoon in Falmouth, Nova Scotia.
“I knew exactly what it was, immediately,” Taylor told The Times. “I couldn’t believe it. Something like this is just one in a million.”
Bird watchers, Nate Levy (Plymouth), Tonya Tromblee (Salem NH.) and Jane Williamson (wayland) at Mallard Point in Somerset Monday.
As for how it migrated thousands of miles away, the Smithsonian reported it is "most likely lost." Birds sometimes lose their way and wind up far from their species' usual range. It's a phenomenon called "vagrancy." Changes in extreme weather and navigation errors can result in vagrancy.
What's next for the rare eagle?
"It’s like an avian soap opera,” an avian vagrancy expert Alexander Lees told the New York Times.
Lees guessed the sea eagle could migrate along with native bald eagles down the coastline, find its way back to northeastern Asia or die. All humans can do is keep an eye out.
“We’re all rooting for it. Will it make it home?
A dinosaur embryo has been found in a fossilized egg
Caitlin O'Kane
Tue, December 21, 2021
A well-preserved dinosaur embryo has been found inside a fossilized egg. The fossilized dinosaur embryo came from Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province in southern China and was acquired by researchers in 2000.
Researchers at Yingliang Group, a company that mines stones, suspected it contained egg fossils, but put it in storage for 10 years, according to a news release. When construction began on Yingliang Stone Natural History Museum, boxes of unearthed fossils were sorted through.
"Museum staff identified them as dinosaur eggs and saw some bones on the broken cross section of one of the eggs," Lida Xing of China University of Geosciences, Beijing, said in a news release. A embryo was found hidden within, which they named "Baby Yingliang."
The embryo is that of the bird-like oviraptorosaurs, part of the theropod group. Theropod means "beast foot," but theropod feet usually resembled those of birds. Birds are descended from one lineage of small theropods.
Reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur egg. Credit: Lida Xing/iScience
In studying the embryo, researchers found the dinosaur took on a distinctive tucking posture before hatching, which had been considered unique to birds. The study is published in the iScience journal.
Researchers say this behavior may have evolved through non-avian theropods. "Most known non-avian dinosaur embryos are incomplete with skeletons disarticulated," said Waisum Maof the University of Birmingham, U.K. "We were surprised to see this embryo beautifully preserved inside a dinosaur egg, lying in a bird-like posture. This posture had not been recognized in non-avian dinosaurs before."
The oviraptorosaur embryo
While fossilized dinosaur eggs have been found during the last 100 years, discovering a well-preserved embryo is very rare, the researchers said in the release.
The embryo's posture was not previously seen in non-avian dinosaur, which is "especially notable because it's reminiscent of a late-stage modern bird embryo."
The researchers will continue to study the rare specimen in even more depth. They will attempt to image its internal anatomy. Some of its body parts are still covered in rocks. Their findings can also be used in more studies of fossil embryos.
A perfectly preserved dinosaur egg highlights link to modern birds
Tom Metcalfe
Tue, December 21, 2021
A 66-million-year-old fossil of a complete baby dinosaur in its egg, apparently just a few days before it would hatch, shows the remarkable similarities between theropod dinosaurs and the birds they would evolve into, according to a study published Tuesday.
The fossilized bones of the embryo, named “Baby Yingliang” after the museum in southern China where it was discovered, can be seen curled-up inside its 6-inch elongated eggshell and looking almost exactly like a modern bird at that stage, although it has tiny arms and claws rather than wings.
Fion Waisum Ma, a paleontologist at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, said the head is particularly striking in its similarity to the head of a newly hatched bird — a resemblance heightened by a beak that was a feature of this dinosaur species, called an oviraptorosaur. Ma is one of the lead authors of the fossil study published in the journal iScience. Scientists from China, Canada and elsewhere in the U.K. were also involved.
Oviraptorosaurs, a type of theropod dinosaur with hollow bones and three-toed limbs, were very close to the dinosaur ancestry that evolved into modern birds. As well as beaks, they had feathers on their arms. They could not fly, but there’s evidence they spread the feathers out above their nests to keep the eggs beneath them warm, said John Nudds, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in the U.K, who was not involved in the study.
Embryonic dinosaur fossils are extremely rare — paleontologists have only found them at about half a dozen sites. And this is the first time any have shown signs of a distinctive posture known as “tucking” — with the head under the right arm — although some other dinosaur embryos have shown distinct “egg teeth” that they may have used to break out of their shells, Nudds said.
Life reconstruction of a close-to-hatching oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo, based on the new specimen ‘Baby Yingliang’. (Courtesy Lida Xing)
Ma said that until now the tucking posture had been seen only in birds.
“Some embryos are quite well preserved, but they don’t show this posture,” she said. “And some are very fragmentary, so it is difficult to see their posture clearly.”
Baby birds adopt the posture, with their head “tucked” under their right wing, in the egg just a few days before they hatch; and embryos that fail to get it right are seldom able to hatch properly.
Ma said tucking seems to help baby birds make their first cracks in the eggshell by restricting the movement of their head.
“It’s easier to stabilize the beak and to direct it to the same place when they try to break the eggshell,” she said.
The researchers suggest the tucking posture evolved because oviraptorosaurs had a hard shell, like those of birds, instead of a soft shell, like those of turtles — an early form of shell that was still common about 70 million years ago among dinosaurs like the sheep-sized protoceratops.
Scientists think hard egg shells gave better protection from the environment than soft egg shells, and so oviraptorosaurs and related dinosaur species may have evolved the tucking posture to break through their harder eggshells, Ma said.
Baby Yingliang was in a cache of fossils that were delivered in 2000 to the Yingliang Stone Nature History Museum in the Chinese city of Nan’an, possibly after they had been found at a construction site in the nearby city of Ganzhou.
But it wasn’t until 2015 that one of the museum staff examined the fossil egg and noticed that what appeared to be bones could be seen in a fracture.
The fossilized egg has now been scientifically analyzed, and the fossil split so that the complete skeleton of the embryo can be seen curled up in its shell.
The study suggests the fossil is 66 million to 72 million years old. The baby dinosaur would’ve been about 10 inches from beak to tail when it was hatched, and might have grown to more than 6 feet long as an adult.
Image: Baby Yingliang dinosaur embryo (Lida Xing)
Modern chicken eggs take about 21 days to hatch, although they are much smaller than this dinosaur, and scientists don’t know how long Baby Yingliang had been developing in its egg before it was fossilized. It seemed to be about to hatch within a few days, Ma said.
Many dinosaur experts have hailed the fossil as one of the best-preserved embryos they have ever seen. But some are not certain, however, that what the researchers have interpreted as a tucking posture in the embryo is actually that.
“This is an interesting discovery, but I am skeptical about the ‘tucking’ behavior as it is primarily based on a single specimen,” said Shundong Bi of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. “I think more evidence is needed.”
Bi was not involved in the latest research but studied the fossilized remains of a different oviraptorosaur crouching above a clutch of 24 eggs, some of which contained embryos.
The interpretation of the tucking posture depended on the dinosaur egg containing a pocket of air, like the eggs of birds. But that could not be seen in this fossil and had not been seen in other dinosaur eggs, Bi said in an email.
Giant millipedes "as big as a car" once roamed Earth
Li Cohen
Tue, December 21, 2021
Before dinosaurs, it was giant bugs that roamed the Earth, or at least northern England, scientists say. In a new study published on Tuesday, scientists confirmed that a fossil discovered in 2018 is that of a massive millipede "as big as a car," measuring nearly 9 feet long.
A roughly 29.5-inch piece of the giant invertebrate was discovered in a block of sandstone next to a coastal cliff in northern England's Northumberland beach in January 2018. The Arthropleura fossil is only the third such fossil ever discovered, and according to researchers, is the largest and oldest. The creature dates back about 326 million years, more than 100 million years before dinosaurs.
Reconstruction of the Howick Arthropleura. (a) and (b) Reconstruction of the Howick Arthropleura within its habitat of a lower delta plain with open woodland. / Credit: "The largest arthropod in Earth history: insights from newly discovered Arthropleura remains"/Journal of the Geological Society
When it was alive, researchers estimate, the bug measured roughly 8.8 feet long and weighed more than 110 pounds. Their findings were published in the Journal of the Geological Society.
"Finding these giant millipede fossils is rare, because once they died, their bodies tend to disarticulate, so it's likely that the fossil is a moulted carapace that the animal shed as it grew," Neil Davies, lead author of the study and researcher at the University of Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences, said in a statement. "We have not yet found a fossilized head, so it's difficult to know everything about them."
Scientists believe the millipede only existed in areas near the equator, including Great Britain during the Carboniferous period, and preferred open woodland habitats near the coast. This type of millipede is believed to have existed for roughly 45 million years before going extinct.
Davies said it's unclear exactly how the creatures became so large, but that researchers think their diet may have played a role.
"While we can't know for sure what they ate, there were plenty of nutritious nuts and seeds available in the leaf litter at the time," he said, "and they may have been predators that fed off other invertebrates and even small vertebrates such as amphibians."
The giant millipede fossil will be on display at Cambridge's Sedgwick Museum starting in 2022.
First full asteroid return sample confirms early Solar System origins
Ryugu asteroid samples obtained by the Hayabusa2 probe.
Jon Fingas
·Weekend Editor
Tue, December 21, 2021
Scientists have finally studied their first full samples returned from an asteroid in space, and they confirm what you'd expect — while providing some new insights. ScienceAlert reports researchers have released two papers revealing their first analysis of samples from Ryugu, the space rock the Hayabusa2 probe visited in February 2019. The team knew Ryugu would be a common, carbon-rich C-type asteroid, but that still makes it a good peek at the ingredients of the early Solar System.
The sampling indicates Ryugu has a carbon-dominated composition similar to the Sun's photosphere (outer shell), much like certain meteorites. It's made of the most primitive materials in the Solar System, emerging from the dust disc that formed along with the Sun itself. It's also quite porous, like many asteroids. However, it's not quite a neat and tidy example. Most C-type asteroids have a low albedo (solar radiation reflectivity) of 0.03 to 0.09 due to their carbon, but Ryugu's is 0.02. It's dark even by the standards of its cosmic neighbors.
As it stands, the very existence of these studies represents an achievement. The first attempt to return a sample, from the astroid Itokawa in 2010, only netted a tiny amount of dust. There's still more to come from Ryugu, but even the existing data could help scientists reshape their understanding of the Solar System's birth and development.
Florida manatee deaths: EPA sued over Indian River Lagoon water quality by Earthjustice
Max Chesnes, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Mon, December 20, 2021
Three conservation groups Monday announced their plan to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over degrading water quality in the Indian River Lagoon that's contributed to a record 1,056 manatees deaths so far this year.
The nonprofits want the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reinitiate a review of water-quality standards with the EPA, according to a notice announcing their intent to sue. They warn manatee deaths will continue until human-caused pollution is reduced.
The Center for Biological Diversity joined Maitland-based nonprofit Save the Manatee Club and the Defenders of Wildlife in filing the 60-day notice of their intent to sue the federal agency. The coalition is represented by nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice.
"We feel this needs to happen so they can set new water-quality standards for the Indian River Lagoon," said Pat Rose, an aquatic biologist and executive director of Save the Manatee Club. "It's just not going to be possible, in our opinion, to recover the situation without higher standards."
How's the Water? Real-time bacteria counts, advisories at Florida beaches
Lake Okeechobee discharges: What are they? A primer for newcomers
Manatee feeding: One thing was missing the day trial was supposed to start
Nutrient pollution is the focus
The nonprofits want the federal government to use the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act to strengthen water-quality measures, and they claim there's little enforcement and no accounting for legacy pollution.
"It's going to have to come with stronger enforcement provisions and assurances on compliance," Rose told TCPalm. "They don't mean anything if you have better standards but they're not adhered to."
The groups want the EPA to revisit Florida's water-quality criteria for nitrogen, phosphorus and dissolved oxygen, according to the notice. Pollution from fertilizer runoff, wastewater discharges and leaking septic systems spark algal blooms that choke out seagrass, a key food source for manatees.
Brevard County's stretch of the 156-mile-long lagoon has fared the worst this year. At least 345 manatees have died there since January, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission data.
Earlier this month, wildlife officials approved a limited feeding trial at a Cape Canaveral power plant to help starving and malnourished manatees survive the winter months. It's an unprecedented attempt at a temporary solution, Rose said.
“The Indian River Lagoon is an ecological wonder that supports not just manatees, but green sea turtles, snook, tarpon and a stunning diversity of marine life," Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director at the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote in a prepared statement.
"The mass death of these manatees, which was completely preventable, makes it clear just how critical it is that the EPA take swift action to protect the vibrant ecosystem they live in before it’s too late."
A dead manatee was found floating on its back in a canal at the Mariner Cay Marina in Stuart on Monday, March 29, 2021, by resident Julia Sansevere, who reported it to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Its cause of death is unknown.
Max Chesnes is a TCPalm environment reporter focusing on issues facing the Indian River Lagoon, St. Lucie River and Lake Okeechobee. You can keep up with Max on Twitter @MaxChesnes, email him at max.chesnes@tcpalm.com
Conservation groups to sue EPA over manatee deaths
In this Dec. 28, 2010, file photo, a group of manatees are in a canal where discharge from a nearby Florida Power & Light plant warms the water in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Normally giving food to wild animals is considered off limits, but the dire situation in Florida with more than 1,000 manatees dying from starvation due to manmade pollution is leading officials to consider an unprecedented feeding plan. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
Mon, December 20, 2021
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Three conservation groups filed a formal notice on Monday of their intent to sue the Environmental Protection Agency if it doesn't take steps to protect manatees from water pollution in Florida.
Pollution-fueled algae blooms are cited as the cause of over half of the more than 1,000 manatee deaths in Florida this year, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife and Save the Manatee Club.
The algae blooms killed thousands of acres of seagrass in the Indian River Lagoon, which highlights the inadequacy of Florida's federally approved water quality standards, the groups said in the notice letter.
They are asking the EPA to reinitiate consultation with Fish and Wildlife Service to reassess the standards. Monday's notice gives the agencies 60 days to address violations alleged in the letter before the groups file a lawsuit.
“It’s disgraceful that hundreds of manatees have died as a direct result of regulators’ failure to protect our water quality,” Jaclyn Lopez, Florida director of the Center for Biologial Diversity, said in a news release.
The Indian River Lagoon is an “ecological wonder that supports not just manatees, but green sea turtles, snook, tarpon and a stunning diversity of marine life," Lopez noted.
“The mass death of these manatees, which was completely preventable, makes it clear just how critical it is that the EPA take swift action to protect the vibrant ecosystem they live in before it’s too late," Lopez said.
The Indian River Lagoon includes important warm-water habitat for slow-moving mammals and supports more species of plants and animals than any other estuary in North America, the groups said in the news release.
They claim that despite “extensive evidence of that harmful pollution and Florida’s failure to address it," the EPA approved the state's water-quality criteria for nitrogen, phosphorous and dissolved oxygen.
“Until Florida is forced to rein in its rampant pollution, manatees will continue to die slow, agonizing deaths by starvation every winter,” Lindsay Dubin, staff attorney at Defenders of Wildlife, said in the release. “The EPA must act immediately to improve water-quality standards lest it further jeopardize the future of this iconic species.”
Last week, wildlife officials announced a pilot feeding plan that could save many manatees from starvation. However officials said manatees will still face the long-term threat of manmade water pollution stifling their food supply.
Florida Power & Light, the state’s largest electric utility, is putting up $700,000 for a “temporary field response station” to feed the manatees at its plant in Cape Canaveral on the East Coast. The money is also for rescue and rehabilitation of distressed manatees, the company said in a news release.
The program has not been tried before.
Manatee deaths in Florida this year are more than double the average annual death rate over five years, officials said. The deaths represent 19% of the Atlantic population of Florida manatees, and 12% of all manatees in Florida.
Manatees were downlisted from “endangered” to “threatened” in 2017, but since then they have suffered significant setbacks from habitat degradation, red tide, unusually cold winters and now potential starvation from the seagrass die-off.
Exclusive: Brazil shuts illegal timber schemes, sheds light on Amazon logging
Brazilian Army soldiers are pictured in a forest of wood extraction in the Amazon rainforest
Tue, December 21, 2021
By Jake Spring
BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazilian environmental agents this week shut down schemes involving hundreds of companies the agents said were covering up illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest, according to government documents reviewed by Reuters.
The operation conducted by the main federal environmental enforcement agency Ibama provides a rare glimpse into how illegally cut Amazon wood is inserted into legal timber supply chains, using shell companies and faking shipments.
The enforcement operation is one of the most complete ever conducted by the environmental agency, because it caught so many of the people hiding behind or doing business with the shell companies, one Ibama agent told Reuters.
Ibama identified more than 220 companies and 21 logging concessions involved in various schemes disguising the origin of illegal wood, according to the documents seen by Reuters.
The environmental agency will place embargoes on the companies this week to prevent them from selling wood and will hand out more than 50 million reais ($8.76 million) in fines, the documents said.
Ibama has also passed on the findings to public prosecutors and police for further criminal investigation, the documents said.
Ibama did not respond to a request for comment.
The agency can issue administrative penalties like fines and embargoes but cannot make arrests or issue criminal charges. The companies and people involved can appeal the decisions with Ibama.
Under President Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's Amazon deforestation in 2021 surged to the highest level in 15 years, according to official government statistics.
Bolsonaro has rolled back environmental protections and sought to introduce more mining and farming to the Amazon, saying it is needed to alleviate poverty.
Brazil permits legal logging, handing out a limited number of concessions that allow only a proportion of trees to be cut in a specific area, and sets quotas capping the harvest.
Those quotas are given out as credits that then accompany the wood as it is sold and resold, certifying its legal origins until it is made into a "finished product" like furniture or flooring.
But under the schemes, companies were selling the credits without the wood, the documents said.
Buyers would then attach the woodless credits to illegally sourced wood with origins such as protected nature reserves or tribal lands.
In some cases, the companies involved were shell companies that only existed on paper in order to funnel the credits, which could change hands many times before being used, the documents said.
The scheme involved more than 102,000 cubic meters of illegally cut wood from Para, Rondonia and Mato Grosso states. That amount represents the harvest of about 97 square kilometers of forest, an area larger than Manhattan, which still pales in comparison to more than 13,000 square kilometers of deforestation officially recorded in the 12 months through July.
"That's a drop in the ocean," said Raoni Rajao, a land use expert at the Federal University of Minas Gerais, when asked about the discovery.
The Ibama operation provides an example of the most common way which illegal loggers sell their wood into the legal system, according to Rajao.
"It's certainly very widespread," he said.
Most of the illegally harvested wood was sold into Brazil's domestic market for a variety of uses, said the Ibama agent, on condition of anonymity.
The final manufacturer or consumer generally has no way of knowing the wood is illegal as the timber appears to be legitimate in the government system, the agent said. Therefore, they cannot be held liable, the person said.
Selective logging to extract valuable timber is often the first step in deforestation, with the remaining forest then burned to clear land for agriculture.
($1 = 5.7052 reais)
(Reporting by Jake Spring; Editing by David Gregorio)
EPA reviews Bayer herbicide blamed for widespread U.S. crop damage
Tue, December 21, 2021
By Tom Polansek
CHICAGO, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is assessing whether the herbicide dicamba can be sprayed on soybean and cotton plants genetically engineered to resist the chemical, without the procedure posing "unreasonable risks" to other crops, an agency official said on Tuesday.
Farmers and scientists have reported problems with dicamba drifting away from where it is sprayed on fields, causing damage to plants whose genes have not been modified to resist the weed killer.
The EPA said it received about 3,500 reports this year indicating that more than one million acres of non-dicamba-tolerant soybean crops were allegedly damaged when the chemical drifted from where it was applied. Trees and crops like rice and grapes also suffered damage, the agency said.
The number, severity and geographic extent of the incidents was similar to 2020, when the EPA tightened restrictions on dicamba use after complaints about dicamba drifting from farmers and scientists, the agency said.
"Right now we don't know whether over-the-top dicamba can be used in a manner that doesn't pose unreasonable risks to non-target crops and other plants," said Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA'S Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
The EPA is evaluating all its options for addressing future dicamba-related incidents, Freedhoff said.
Further restrictions on use would be a blow to Bayer AG , which sells dicamba and seeds to grow crops engineered to tolerate it. The company has settled lawsuits brought by land owners who say their crops were damaged by neighbors using dicamba.
Some farmers and seed companies have called for regulators to limit spraying to the spring season, before crops are planted.
Regulatory changes will probably not be fully implemented by the 2022 growing season, the EPA said. The agency said it will work with states that want to impose further restrictions.
In June 2020, a U.S. appeals court blocked dicamba sales and ruled the EPA had substantially understated risks related to its use.
In October, 2020, the EPA under former President Donald Trump re-authorized the use of dicamba-based weedkillers, invalidating the court ruling. (Reporting by Tom Polansek; Editing by David Gregorio)
