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WATER WORLD
China, India to court Pacific nations in Fiji
by Staff Writers
Suva, Fiji (AFP) Nov 18, 2014


Virus blamed for starfish deaths on US Pacific Coast
Washington (AFP) Nov 17, 2014 - A mysterious plague that has killed off millions of starfish along the US Pacific Coast since 2013 is now believed to be a virus that causes the creatures to melt, US researchers said Monday.

Known as densovirus, the microorganism has been found in diseased and dead starfish, and is the likely culprit for the massive upsurge in deaths, said the report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The virus causes the limbs of starfish, or sea stars, to pull apart and their skin to waste away, and has been wreaking havoc on populations from Baja California to southern Alaska.

Ian Hewson of Cornell University led the genomic analysis on sea star associated densovirus (SSaDV), a type of parvovirus commonly found in invertebrates.

"There are 10 million viruses in a drop of seawater, so discovering the virus associated with a marine disease can be like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Hewson, a professor of microbiology.

"Not only is this an important discovery of a virus involved in a mass mortality of marine invertebrates, but this is also the first virus described in a sea star."

Researchers found the virus present at low levels in museum samples of sea stars collected in 1942, 1980, 1987 and 1991.

Overpopulation, pollution or mutations in the virus could have contributed to its sudden surge to epidemic proportions, the study found.

Densovirus has also turned up in water filters from public aquariums, sea urchins and brittle stars.

More research is needed to find out what triggers outbreaks, said co-author Drew Harvell, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology.

"It's the experiment of the century for marine ecologists," said Harvell.

"It is happening at such a large scale to the most important predators of the tidal and sub-tidal zones. Their disappearance is an experiment in ecological upheaval the likes of which we've never seen."

The study was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Cornell University's David R. Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future.

Rival suitors India and China step up their courtship of Pacific island nations this week when Narendra Modi and Xi Jinping head to Fiji following the Group of 20 summit in Australia.

Indian Prime Minister Modi and Chinese President Xi will both hold mini summits during their Fiji stopovers, meeting with up to 12 regional leaders as they bid for the support of one of the largest voting blocs in the United Nations.

Sandra Tarte, director of the politics and international affairs program at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, said it is clear India and China want to build strategic ties with the Pacific.

"There is obviously an intention to have bilateral meetings and that's why so many of these other country leaders are here, but from China and India's point of view it's the region that is important and the fact that are 12 votes at the UN," Tarte told AFP.

The Asia-Pacific region has some "strategic relevance and importance, economically, politically and in terms of security," she added

A likely central issue of the talks will be climate change, where low-lying Pacific islands would welcome assistance.

"China and India, they are not just global political and economic powers, but they are contributors to the problem of climate change and the Pacific Island countries are at the receiving end of climate change but do not necessarily contribute to it," Tarte said.

"In the past there has been this deadlock between developed countries and these so-called developing countries on how to approach the issue and whether or not countries like China and India need to make concessions.

"For the small island countries it doesn't matter who makes the concessions as long as they are made."

- 'Exciting time for Fiji and Vanuatu' -

Modi arrives in Fiji on Wednesday for a three-day visit with Xi landing on Saturday.

The countries expected to be represented at the talks along with Fiji include Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, Nauru, Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia.

Vanuatu's Foreign Affairs Minister, Sato Kilman who will meet Modi before his premier Joe Natuman arrives in Suva to meet Xi, saw benefits for all countries involved.

"This is an exciting time not only for Fiji and Vanuatu but also for everyone who cares about improving the economic growth and living healthy and productive lives," he told the Fiji Sun.

Although Fiji has a substantial Indian population, Modi will be the first leader from New Delhi to visit since Indira Gandhi in 1981 and the first to have broad interaction with a wide range of island leaders.

But Tarte did not see India expanding its presence in the South Pacific to the same extent as China.

"India doesn't have the same reach as China does, diplomatic reach. It's economic ties are not that expansive or as developed," she said.

"China has had a longer history of economic inter-relationships and it is part of the Pacific whereas India is part of the India sub-continent, it's in the India Ocean so it doesn't have the same ties."

Sydney-based foreign policy thinktank The Lowy Institute has estimated that from 2005-11 China handed out US$600 million in so-called "soft loans" to Pacific countries such as Tonga, Samoa and Fiji.

Fiji, with 900,000 people, is by far the most populous and economically powerful of the South Pacific island nations and seen as a regional hub for business and diplomacy.


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