Iceland review - 2007, Page 12

10 ICELAND REVIEW
Views of Iceland | IR 4.07 | Vol. 45
www.bluelagoon.com
Energy for life through forces of nature
“I didn’t know what the word negri meant, but I
knew the kids were calling me that to hurt me,”
Bryndís Eiríksdóttir, a mother of two who was bul­
lied as a child simply because she had darker and
curlier hair than most other children, told Frétta-
bladid October 27. Eiríksdóttir added her hus band,
an African­Portuguese man, had once been attack ed
for the sole reason that he has dark skin. The couple
opposes the rerelease.
Atlantic Seabirds at Risk
Nordic ornithologists expressed their fears about
the deteriorating living conditions of seabirds
in the North Atlantic at a conference held in the
Faroe Islands this September, attributing their plight
to both natural causes and human activity. Scientists
fear that if the living conditions of the seabirds con­
tinue to decline at the same rate, many speci es in
the region like the puffin, fulmar, guillemot and arctic
tern could become seriously threat ened.
Though fishing and oil pollution are among the
causes of the decreasing numbers, the most signi fi­
cant factor is believed to be climate change. Higher
sea temperatures have caused red plankton, the pri­
mary source of food for the sand lance, to move
further north. The sand lance is the most impor­
tant food source for seabirds.
Aevar Petersen, an ornithologist at the Icelandic
Institute of Natural History, told Morgunbladid Oc­
tober 9 that the shag, one of Iceland’s sea birds, is
already vulnerable and may disappear altogether
from the country ś fauna. He added that more than
150,000 seabirds get caught in the nets of Ice landic
fishing boats every year.
Icelandic Cyprine May Be World’s
Oldest Animal
A specimen of the clam species Icelandic Cyprine or
ocean quahog (Lat. Arctica islandica) discove red
last fall is estimated to be more than 400 years old,
thus making it the world’s longest living animal.
The species was discovered during an expedition
in Icelandic coastal waters by a group of scientists
from the School of Ocean Sciences at Bangor Uni­
versity in Wales as part of the EU Millennium
project to investigate climate changes over the
last 1,000 years.
By counting the annual growth lines in the
shell, postdoctoral scientist Al Wanamaker has
come to the conclusion that the clam, which has
been living and growing on the seabed in the
cold waters off northern Iceland, is between 405
and 410 years old, Science Daily reported October 29.
Until now, a 220­year­old Arctica clam found in
American waters in 1982 has officially held the
record for being the world’s oldest organism. Unof­
ficially, however, the record belonged to anot her
Icelandic clam that is believed to have lived for 374
years. Clam shell­growth is related to environ mental
con ditions such as seawater temperature, salinity
and food availability, and Icelandic waters seem to
provide the ideal conditions for extreme longevity.