Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 1 February 2018

Regulators vote to protect more corals in Atlantic Ocean

By PATRICK WHITTLE gal challenges and a re-
Associated Press view by President Donald
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) Trump’s administration.
— Federal fishing regula- Obama is a Democrat,
tors on Tuesday approved Trump a Republican.
a compromise they said On Tuesday, conservation
would expand the amount group Oceana said the
of coral habitat preserved newly approved protec-
in the Atlantic Ocean while tions are a step in the right
also protecting fishing in- direction but the council
terests. could have done more
The New England Fishery to keep fishing gear that
Management Council vot- dredges the ocean floor
ed on coral protections in away from corals.
an area south of Georges “Protecting deep-sea cor-
Bank, one of the most im- als is a win-win for both
portant commercial fishing fishermen and healthy
areas in the Northeast. The oceans,” said Gib Brogan,
decision came about sev- This 2013 photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows a coral Oceana’s fisheries cam-
en months after the coun- located 165 nautical miles southeast of Cape Cod, Mass. paign manager.
cil approved protections in Associated Press Fishing groups at Tuesday’s
another key New England meeting said they were
fishing area, the Gulf of Pew Charitable Trusts said. but may have missed a ago when then-President glad the council backed
Maine, in June. The council had a chance chance at more dramatic Barack Obama planned off protections that would
Environmentalists, regu- to approve a broader protection for corals. a national marine monu- have displaced more fish-
lators and harvesters of coral protection plan but “In all these kind of things, ment dedicated to sav- ermen from the area.
species including squid, backed off after numerous getting some is better than ing corals and preserving “We need room to maneu-
scallops and lobster have fishing groups said it was getting none,” he said. ocean biodiversity. ver,” said Meghan Lapp,
debated the proposal for unfairly punitive to the in- “Future actions could still Northeast Canyons and a representative for North
years. The new protections dustry. take place.” Seamounts Marine Na- Kingstown, Rhode Island-
mean 100,000 square miles Peter Auster, marine sci- Preservation of New Eng- tional Monument, created based fishing company
(259,000 square kilometers) ence research professor land’s slow-growing, can- in 2016, protected about Seafreeze.
of deep-sea coral habitat emeritus at the Univer- yon-dwelling corals has 5,000 square miles (13,000 The U.S. Department of
would be protected from sity of Connecticut, said long been a subject of square kilometers) off New Commerce must still im-
the Canadian border to the council “took action debate, and interest in it England, but its future is plement the changes ap-
Florida, pro-conservation where none was required” accelerated a few years uncertain because of le- proved by the council.q
Stone tools in India suggest earlier

human exit from Africa

By MALCOLM RITTER the date might be pushed cessful. Last week’s report
AP Science Writer back further. Homo sapi- of a human jaw showed
NEW YORK (AP) — Just a ens arose in Africa at least some members of our
week after scientists re- 300,000 years ago and species had reached Is-
ported evidence that our left to colonize the globe. rael by 177,000 to 194,000
species left Africa earlier Scientists think there were years ago. Now comes a
than we thought, another several dispersals from Af- discovery in India of stone
discovery is suggesting rica, not all equally suc- tools, showing a style that
has been associated
elsewhere with our spe-
cies. They were fashioned
from 385,000 years ago to
172,000 years ago, showing
evidence of continuity and
development over that
time. That starting point is This image provided by the Sharma Centre for Heritage
a lot earlier than scientists Education, India in January 2018 shows a sample of artifacts
generally think Homo sapi- from the Middle Palaeolithic era found at the Attirampakkam
ens left Africa.q archaeological site in southern India.
Associated Press