PT Facts

PT Facts

‘Cockroaches of the ocean’ are eating away California’s underwater forests

• The purple urchins are commonly being called as ‘Cockroaches of the ocean’ owing to the dangers they pose to the danger to the underwater kelp forests.
• The climate change has helped trigger a 60-fold explosion of purple urchins off Northern California’s coast in Albion Cove.
• Moreover the disappearance of predators of purple urchins, e.g. Sunflower starfish and Sea otters have further increased its numbers.
• The kelp forests have declined by 93 percent in Northern California, due to purple urchins.
• The Tasmania kelp forests have already succumbed to a purple urchin outbreak.
• The purple urchin pose dangers as Kelp forests exist along the cooler coastlines of every continent.
• The underwater Kelp forests absorb carbon emissions and provide critical habitat and food for a wide range of species.

An African island’s troubled waters

• For over a decade, Migingo has been a source of tension between Uganda and Kenya, who have been unable to decide to whom it really belongs.
• Migingo Island rises out of the waters of Lake Victoria (largest lake in Africa and the largest Tropical Lake in the whole world)
• The island is densely populated island and barely a quarter of a hectare large.
• The local Kenyan politicians have called on Nairobi to ask the International Court of Justice to intervene and make a decision on whom the island belongs to.