A new geographic survey, conducted by researchers from Duke University and Meredith College, located in Raleigh, N.C., has discovered more than 650 new barrier islands, spread out across the globe. The team used a collection of satellite images, navigational charts, and topographical maps, all of which are available to the general public, as part of their research. They counted 2149 barrier islands worldwide, up from 1492, the number found following a similar study conducted back in 2001.
Barrier islands are common around the world, and appear along the coasts of every continent except Antarctica. They usually are made up of deposits of sand and other sediment that collects along the coastlines, running parallel to the shore. They can be quite transitory however, coming and going with the change of tides, which may help explain why more were discovered in this recent survey, although it is also likely that many were simply missed in the previous count.
While more than 74% of all barrier islands are located in the Northern Hemisphere, they tend to serve similar purposes where ever they are found. These islands often serve as a protective barrier for shorelines against storms and high tide erosion. They are also quite often a safe haven for wildlife as well.
The study did find a few surprising results. Generally it was believed that barrier islands could only exist in a setting with seasonal tides that did not exceed 13 feet in height. But a chain of 54 islands was discovered stretching along the coast of Brazil in an area where the seasonal tides are often in excess of 23 feet. Scientists say that those islands can exist in that environment thanks to the vast amounts of sand and silt delivered to the region by the Amazon River.
The 657 new islands will obviously be welcomed with open arms by beach combers the world over. I’m sure there are already a number of resort chains that have begun scoping out this prime real estate as well. Maybe we should all launch Google Earth and start looking for a private island of our own. After all, there has to be at least a few more that are still waiting to be found.
Should we be concerned by suggestions that terrorists are taking clues from the Somali pirates and considering hijacking ships across the Indian Ocean for reasons other than ransom?
Absolutely.
There is increasing evidence of links in Somalia between the mafia-like organizations that run most of the pirating and the Somali-based terrorist group Al-Shabaab, which controls most of southern and central Somalia and both the U.S. and U.N. accuse of having links to al- Qaeda.
The obvious concern is that the rag-tag pirates are grabbing small private yachts and cargo boats loaded with lawn tractors may be providing a working model for the terrorists more interested in hijacking tankers loaded with chemicals and cargo boats carrying weapons.
The fact that the pirates seem to be getting more brazen, and successful, is not helping to deter others hoping to follow in their footsteps.
In 2010 pirates hijacked a record 53 ships and took 1,181 crewmembers from 30 countries hostage. Ninety two percent of the attacks took place off the coast of Somalia. According to the London-based International Maritime Bureau losses topped $7 billion in shipping revenue, higher insurance premiums and the expense of deploying naval warships to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Last year alone NATO spent $2 billion on efforts to safeguard the international sea-lanes off the Horn of Africa.As attacks move further eastwards, toward Oman and India, concern mounts. A few days ago an unusually large group of 30 to 50 Somali pirates seized an Indonesian cargo ship on its way to Suez, Egypt, with 20 sailors onboard. The next day they used the captured ship to attack a Liberian-flagged chemical tanker but were repelled after “an exchange of fire” with security crew on board.
The two Danish families grabbed off their yacht three weeks ago, including three teenagers, are still being held – despite that the Danish Navy has a warship parked just off shore and its government is negotiating hard for their release.
A handful of governments say the reason they pirates are flourishing is because penalties, even if caught, are insufficient. According to Jack Lang, advisor to the U.N. Security Council on piracy issues, nine out of 10 captured pirates are released because there isn’t sufficient capacity to prosecute or incarcerate them.
Some think imposing firm, tough sentences is the answer. Russia, for example, has asked the U.N. Security Council to demand that all nations enact laws to criminalize piracy. It has “urgently” encouraged creation of three distinct courts for piracy cases and construction of two prisons for convinced pirates. The idea is to build these specialized courts in the semi- autonomous regions of Somalia — Somaliland and Puntland — and a third with Somali jurisdiction in Tanzania.
In March, China agreed, leading a Security Council meeting that called for a more comprehensive international strategy for dealing with political instability in Somalia, piracy and the threat posed by the al- Shabaab militia. It suggested the U.N. needs “a comprehensive approach to tackle piracy and its underlying causes.”
In a statement, China “strongly urged” Somalia’s transitional government to operate in a more “constructive, open and transparent manner that promotes broader political dialogue and participation.” It also asked U.N. member governments for greater support for the 8,000 African Union troops trying to defeat the insurgents.
Every year San Pellegrino shakes down the world’s best eateries to anoint a reigning gastronomic king. In the competition for the top restaurants of 2011, an old king keeps the throne. Noma, in Denmark, is considered the top restaurant in the world for the second year in a row according to San Pellegrino. Noma (video above) first took the top spot in 2010, dethroning legendary El Bulli of Spain. The chef of Noma, René Redzepi, is no stranger to El Bulli and migrated over from the Spanish institution in 2004. Noma is best described as new Nordic cuisine and is noted for being exceptionally clean and inventive.
Of the top fifty, the French are not among the top eight, but rule the teens with nonchalance. The top five all hail from Europe, and in fact, thirty-three of the restaurants on the list are from the European continent. Six continents are represented in the top fifty with the inclusion of a new entry, Peruvian restaurant Astrid y Gaston, representing South America along with D.O.M. in Brazil. Eight restaurants from North America are represented and five from Asia. The fastest climber year over year was Nihonryori Ryugin in Tokyo. The Japanese eatery rose twenty-eight spots to number twenty on the list. Here are the top twenty restaurants from the San Pellegrino top fifty:20. Nihonryori Ryugin – Japan
19. L’Arpege – France
18. Le Bernardin – USA
17. Oud Sluis – Netherlands
16. Pierre Gagnaire – France
15. Hof Van Cleve – Belgium
14. L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon – France
13. L’Astrance – France
12. Les Creations de Narisawa – Japan
11. Daniel – USA
10. Per Se – USA
9. Le Chateaubriand – France
8. Arzak – Spain
7. D.O.M. – Brazil
6. Alinea – USA
5. The Fat Duck – England
4. Osteria Francescana – Italy
3. Mugaritz – Spain
2. El Cellar De Can Roca – Spain
1. Noma – Denmark
The hyenas come just after dusk. We’ve been sitting in Yusuf’s modest farmhouse on the outskirts of Harar talking about them when we hear their familiar yipping laugh. Yusuf picks up a big bucket of mule and camel meat, shoos away his well-fed cat, and strolls outside to meet them.
Yusuf is Harar’s biggest celebrity, the famous “hyena man” whom everyone who has heard anything about Harar has heard about. He’s not Harari, though, his parents were Oromo and Somali, and he lives outside Harar’s medieval walls next to the town dump, a favorite hangout for hyenas.
Yusuf calls out into the darkness, and I spot a few hulking, dark shapes beyond the clearing in front of his house. He sets the meat down and whistles, like you’d do with a pet dog. One by one, the hyenas emerge from the shadows, giant canine shapes like Rottweilers on steroids. At first they seem uncertain, creeping closer and backing away again as Yusuf pulls out ribbons of raw flesh from the bucket.
I sit down to watch.
I’ve come with Marcus Baynes-Rock, an Australian graduate student who’s doing his Ph.D. thesis on the interaction between people and hyenas in Harar, and keeps a fascinating blog about Harar hyenas. As Yusuf puts a strip of meat on the end of a stick and holds it out to the lead hyena, Marcus tells me about the strange and unique coexistence that’s sprung up between humans and hyenas in this region of East Africa.
%Gallery-120767%Hyenas are deeply rooted in Harari and Ethiopian folklore. Blacksmiths and the Argobba people and supposed to be werehyenas, turning into the animals at night. The Jews do too, but most of them left for Israel during the last civil war. Hyenas are also supposed to gobble up djinn, evil spirits, and so are useful to have around.
“I met one young guy from Djibouti who had been possessed by djinn and came all the way to Harar to feed the hyenas and have them take the djinn away,” Marcus tells me.
It’s not just the Hararis who have stories about hyenas. The Somalis tell a tale of the Habercha’alow clan, which tried to drive the hyenas out of their territory by killing a bunch of them. The hyenas took revenge, picking off lone Habercha’alow.
“If a Habercha’alow and two men from other clans were sleeping by a fire, they’d take the Habercha’alow and leave the others untouched,” a Somali friend told me.
After suffering heavy losses, the Habercha’alow wanted to make peace. As mediators they hired the Idagalle, a clan well-known for their ability to talk with hyenas. They met in the desert. Delegates from the Habercha’alow sat to one side, delegates from the hyenas sat to the other, and the Idagalle mediators sat in the middle. They communicated, so I’m told, by mental telepathy. The Habercha’alow agreed to pay blood money to the hyenas in the form of a large number of slaughtered camels. And thus the war stopped.
Despite their size, hyenas are timid creatures, as I can see by the amount of coaxing Yusuf has to do to get the first hyenas of the evening to feed from his hand.
“They’re really scared of people,” Marcus says, “Dogs too. They don’t realize their jaws can break us in two.”
As if to emphasize his point a loud snap cuts through the night. A hyena has taken some meat. Yusuf fishes in his bucket for another piece as the hyenas, more confident now, crowd around.
Yusuf tells me he learned from his uncle, a farmer who started feeding the hyenas back in the 1950s. His uncle started feeding the hyenas partially to keep them away from his livestock, and partially because he liked them. While many cultures hate the hyenas and try to kill them, or shut their doors in fear, the Hararis are at peace with them. Low doorways in the city wall allow them to come and go at night, eating garbage and taking away djinn. When a Harari passes one in an alleyway, he’ll often greet it by saying darmasheikh (“young wise man”). I tried this myself one night and the hyena looked at me curiously for a moment before padding into the darkness.
But it’s not all peaceful. Yusuf’s feeding is not just out of friendliness, but also to placate the hyenas. As scavengers, they’ll sometimes root out freshly buried corpses and even snatch away small children. A beggar woman sleeping outside Selassie church had her baby taken from her one night a couple of years ago, and there have been other incidents too. When this happens the Hararis say the hyena was rabid or not from Harar. Yusuf himself was bitten by one when he was two years old.
“At that time I didn’t know the difference between a hyena and a dog so I never developed a fear,” he explains.
Yusuf has a large group of hyenas around him now. More come out of the shadows. Fights break out between the powerful beasts for the best scraps, and Yusuf shouts at them and even shoves one away like a misbehaving dog. One wanders into his compound to look around his house.
“Yusuf feeds them inside sometimes,” Marcus says.
Yusuf hands me the stick with a strip of meat hanging from the end. A moment later it’s nearly torn from my grasp as powerful jaws clamp down on it.
By now some tourists have shown up. Yusuf is a celebrity, after all. These are Ethiopian tourists, a middle-class family from Addis Ababa. One man holds his toddler son and I eye them nervously. Yusuf greets them and hands the stick to the most nervous one in the group. As a hyena hurries forward to get the meat this guy literally falls on his ass trying to get away. I think I catch a mischievous gleam in Yusuf’s eye. The man’s wife, unimpressed by her husband’s performance, offers to go next. She feeds it several times and even pets it.
“Not bad,” I say to Marcus, “Maybe you can use her as an assistant.”
Marcus likes to pet the hyenas, even though it means all the dogs in town can smell hyena on him and bark as he passes by. Not that’s he’s out in the daytime much. Usually he only comes out at night to follow the hyenas around town to see where they go.
We’re sitting on a low step in front of a Muslim shrine. Yusuf is next to me, the stick in his teeth as he feeds the hyenas from mouth to mouth. Suddenly a big furry form pushes between us. A hyena has gotten onto the platform behind us and reaches over our shoulders. He grabs a strip of camel meat and jerks it off the stick, slapping me across the face with it as he runs off.
“Would you like some toilet paper?” Yusuf asks, again with that gleam in his eye.
“No thanks, I brought some,” I say as I wipe my face.
It’s just another night feeding the hyenas.
To see the hyena man in action, check out the video below. It’s not mine, unfortunately. Upload a video on Ethiopian dialup? Yeah, right!
Razor wire, Gurkhas and sonic weapons are being routinely deployed on ships sailing in the pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa in an attempt to pirate-proof ships of all kinds. While ships try to go through the Suez Canal, pirate attacks on pretty much anything sailing off East Africa are rising and extra measures are being taken to protect the ships and their passengers.
A 25-nation naval presence is helping but earlier this year the Saga cruise ship Spirit Of Adventure was chased by and eventually outpaced pirates in the Indian Ocean.Shipping companies and cruise lines won’t say exactly what they are doing to deter pirates but Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth has been deploying razor wire to make boarding from the sea all but impossible. A Cunard spokesman told Express.co.uk “When we are in the at-risk area we deploy lookouts all around the ship to ensure that no boats are trying to get close. “On the stern, which is the pirates’ favoured point of access, we have used razor wire. The passengers can see it but it can’t harm them as it is fenced off.”
Cruise ships typically monitor the sea with radar and use speed of their ships and the height of their lower decks to thwart pirates. Sonic weapons are also being used that put out a debilitating sound that turns pirates away as are high-power water hoses to knock pirates back down to water level.
“Our ships are fast and have a lot of people on board – 2,000 passengers and 1,000 crew on the Queen Elizabeth – so the chances of pirates even attempting to tackle a ship like that are very low” Cunard said.