The Ford Motor Company said on Monday that it supports the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) new regulations to reduce passenger vehicle tailpipe emissions by 49 percent over 2026 levels by 2032, reported Reuters.

Ford is the second-largest automobile manufacturer in the country.

“Complying with emissions regulations requires lengthy advance planning, and Ford has taken steps to transform its business to ensure compliance with stricter emissions standards,” the Michigan-based automaker said, as Reuters reported.

Ford said the new rule would provide regulatory stability to the industry.

Alliance for Automotive Innovation — a trade group representing most major automakers, including Ford, Toyota Motor, General Motors, Honda Motor, Hyundai Motor and Volkswagen — said it approved of two of the regulations’ key provisions.

Specifically, it agreed with the inclusion of electric vehicles (EVs) in averages of fleetwide emissions and the exclusion of upstream emissions in compliance calculations.

The auto alliance said the requirements “are essential if vehicle manufacturers are to have any possibility of demonstrating compliance with the GHG reduction targets,” reported Reuters.

Republican state lawmakers have expressed concern that the Biden administration wants to force American passenger vehicle manufacturers to transition to EV production.

Former President Donald Trump has said he will reverse Biden administration regulations that support EVs if he regains the White House.

A California-led group of 22 states support the tailpipe emissions rule, saying without future vehicle emissions reductions they could suffer harm.

“Motor vehicle emissions standards are intended to help achieve and maintain air quality goals that benefit human health and the environment,” Ford said on its website.

The final rule — Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3 — is one of the most important environmental rules of the Biden presidency, Reuters reported.

However, according to EPA chief Michael Regan, it does not impose a mandate of adopting EVs on manufacturers.

“The final ‘Phase 3’ standards build on EPA’s Heavy-Duty Phase 2 program from 2016 and maintain that program’s flexible structure, which is designed to reflect the diverse nature of the heavy-duty vehicle industry,” EPA said. “The standards are technology-neutral and performance-based, allowing each manufacturer to choose what set of emissions control technologies is best suited for them and the needs of their customers.”

EPA has projected that from 35 to 56 percent of new vehicles sold would be electric between 2030 and 2032.

“[T]he standards can be met with a diverse range of heavy-duty vehicle technologies, including advanced internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrid vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, battery electric vehicles, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles,” EPA added.

The post Ford Announces Support for EPA Automobile Tailpipe Emissions Rule appeared first on EcoWatch.

In a historic win for a group of small island nations — including the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda — the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) has found that human-produced greenhouse gas emissions absorbed by the world’s oceans are considered marine pollution.

In its first ruling related to climate, the tribunal — a United Nations maritime law court — advised that countries are obligated to safeguard marine environments by doing more than is required by the 2015 Paris Agreement, reported Reuters. Many small island nations are threatened by rising sea levels due to global heating.

“As the legal guardian of the Ocean Treaty, ITLOS has taken a critical first step in recognising that what small island nations have been fighting for at the COP negotiations for decades is already a part of international law,” said professor Payam Akhavan, the legal representative of the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law (COSIS), as Euronews Green reported. “The major polluters must prevent catastrophic harm to small island nations, and if they fail to do so, they must compensate for loss and damage.”

COSIS — a group of nine small island nations in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean that are threatened by sea-level rise — requested the opinion of ITLOS.

Though the decision is an “advisory opinion,” it should provide precedent for future cases.

“What happened today was that the law and science met together in this tribunal, and both won,” said Cheryl Bazard, European Union of the Bahamas ambassador, as reported by Reuters.

In its opinion, ITLOS said nations must monitor and reduce emissions and specified what their environmental impact assessments need to contain.

The court also said goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are required to be objectively set and based on relevant international standards and rules, as well as the best available science — a higher standard than the Paris Agreement.

“To those that would hide behind the weaknesses of international climate treaties, this opinion makes clear that compliance with the Paris Agreement alone is not enough,” said Nikki Reisch, Centre for International Environmental Law director, as Reuters reported.

In its opinion, ITLOS makes clear what countries must do about climate change in their national climate plans, national and regional courts and international obligations, such as during talks like the COP29 United National Climate Change Conference, reported Euronews Green.

The tribunal was asked to consider whether greenhouse gas emissions qualified as marine pollution, what a country’s obligations were to prevent and reduce pollution and what their obligations were to preserve and protect oceans from climate change impacts.

The decision of ITLOS that greenhouse gas emissions produced by humans are a type of marine pollution means states’ legal obligation to preserve and protect marine environments under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea applies to the main contributors to the climate crisis as well.

“States also have the obligation to protect and preserve the marine environment from climate change impacts and ocean acidification,” said Judge Albert Hoffman in the delivery of the advisory opinion in Hamburg, as Euronews Green reported. “Where the marine environment has been degraded, this obligation may call for measures to restore marine habitats and ecosystems.”

Other countries that brought the case before the tribunal were Niue, Vanuatu, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Palau, Nevis and St. Kitts.

The post Small Island Nations Secure Historic Climate Win From International Ocean Tribunal appeared first on EcoWatch.

When the war in Ukraine upended the global energy supply in 2022, South Korea suddenly found itself competing for natural gas. Cut off from Russia’s supply, an energy-starved Europe began buying up supplies worldwide. In 2022 alone, South Korea saw electricity costs rise approximately $17 billion because of the global spike in natural gas prices.

To improve its energy security after this upheaval, South Korea is doubling down on its imports. The country is using government financing to develop liquid natural gas (LNG) supply terminals, both at home and abroad. Its over-investment in LNG has already been costly: Citizens of South Korea are paying higher energy prices, without any gains in energy security, economic strength, or sustainability. 

And even as the government invests billions in new capacity, the country’s demand for natural gas over the next decade is projected to plummet. By the time the new South Korean terminals start operating, they may end up sitting idle for much of the time. 

A complex and expensive fuel 

Today, natural gas fuels about 25% of South Korea’s energy mix, used for everything from cookstoves to industrial manufacturing. Much of this is transported as liquified natural gas, or LNG — a process which cools the gas until it transforms into fluid, making it safer and easier to transport. The process requires enormous, specialized infrastructure. Custom cooling and regasification terminals must be built on either end of the shipping route, and the specially built tankers that move the LNG also require super-cooled tanks. 

This infrastructure is colossally expensive. From 2013 to 2023, South Korea’s public finance investment in new LNG carrier ships totaled approximately $44.1 billion, and the government plans to pay as much as $5 billion U.S. dollars for the new LNG terminals in the next few years.

“This will hinder the country’s energy transition to cheaper, domestically sourced renewable energy,” writes Michelle Kim, an energy finance specialist with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, in a recent report about South Korea’s LNG industry. Kim’s research shows that the country is on track to more than double its LNG import capacity. Yet as the country works to transition to net-zero by 2050, the government’s own projections show a dramatic decrease in natural gas demand.  The new terminals South Korea are building are projected to fall to under 20% of their capacity by 2036. This will create what is known as “stranded assets,” meaning the government is investing billions of dollars into highly specialized infrastructure that soon will sit nearly unused. 

South Korea’s focus on LNG also has major implications for the global climate. “What we’re seeing is the development of a massive surplus capacity of LNG, compared to what’s needed for keeping warming to 1.5 degrees,” says scientist Bill Hare, the CEO of Climate Analytics, a climate science and policy institute. A new report by a global collaborative of clean energy advocates shows that South Korea is one of the top international public financiers of fossil fuels.

Over the past decade, South Korea has invested over $3 billion of government financing into major U.S LNG infrastructure projects, such as the enormous new Rio Grande and Port Arthur facilities. And South Korean energy giant Hanwha is planning to invest still more in the Rio Grande project, with multi-million dollar loans from public and private banks in Korea.  

This investment is dramatically increasing the United States LNG export capacity. “The US is set to double its existing capacity by the end of 2027,” says Jamie Lee, an international climate specialist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “That’s startling because the United States is already the top LNG exporter in the world.” Much of this rapid expansion is driven by South Korea’s investment – the country is one of the largest consumers of United States LNG exports.

Such investment is out of step with other developed countries, who are throttling back on gas: Other regions, including the European Union, the UK, and Canada, have committed to halt government financing for international fossil fuel infrastructure.

Ironically, the South Korean government has prioritized natural gas in part because of a misconception that it is cleaner than coal, which plays a large role in South Korea’s energy use. But when the emissions from its extraction, transport, processing, and consumption are taken into account, natural gas shows little or no improvement over other fossil fuels. In fact, natural gas currently accounts for 22% of global fossil fuel emissions.

Sejong Youn, the founder of the climate policy advocacy organization Plan 1.5, says, “The myth was appealing. If you didn’t look too closely, it appeared to be a better alternative. And that myth allowed policymakers and companies to continue business as usual, without the complexities that renewable energy introduces to the energy system.”

A financial black hole

Youn also points out other dangers of pouring public money into new natural gas infrastructure. “Whatever we build at this point will decide our future. Expanding gas infrastructure locks our country into a fossil fuel system,” he says. 

Public financing of LNG infrastructure is based on financial calculations that assume it will be used for many decades. But to meet the country’s goal of global carbon neutrality by 2050, these facilities would need to cease operations well before their functional lifetime expires, creating an enormous net loss for South Korea’s government. 

But despite the government’s current illogical funding trajectory, it may still be possible to reverse course. 

Think globally, act locally 

The coastal South Korean city of Dangjin is a fossil fuel hub, where coal-fired power plants and blast furnace steel mills spew pollutants. A 2021 report from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air found that pollution from Dangjin’s plants causes over 210 premature deaths annually. Plans for new LNG terminals would add to these pollutants, making the city the third-largest LNG storage hub in the world. 

Jungjin Kim, a leading local activist with the Korea Federation for Environmental Movements (KFEM), says Dangjin bears the burden of powering the country, while energy demand is concentrated in densely urban areas like Seoul. “Because most energy facilities cause large environmental impact and damage, these facilities are located in Dangjin to avoid the backlash from city residents,” he says. 

Focusing public investment on natural gas, he says, also has serious economic risks for the area. “If all the jobs are in the fossil fuel sector, the entire region will be in a very dire economic situation when the demand for it declines,” he says. “It will be similar to what happened to Detroit.”

Government investment in domestic renewables could have the opposite effect. Research by Climate Analytics shows that if the South Korean government refocused on offshore wind, solar, and other domestic production, it could both boost employment and increase energy security. “There’s enormous potential in South Korea for renewable energy development that would create a net increase in local jobs,” says Hare. This could also support other industries in South Korea, such as transitioning LNG shipbuilders into green fuel transport to support the country’s chemical and steel industries. A 2023 report by NRDC shows that replacing LNG with renewable alternatives could be far less costly for both the government and consumers.

Despite the push to build natural gas infrastructure, activists in Dangjin have already successfully halted government funding for coal there. Korea Beyond Coal, a coalition of South Korean climate organizations working to end coal, successfully campaigned to end their government’s overseas coal investments in 2021. The effort helped shift private investment away from the sector. “South Korea can play a major role in accelerating the global energy transition,” says Dongjae Oh, the head of the oil and gas program at Solutions for our Climate (SFOC). “South Korea can shift its massive overseas fossil financing to renewable energy and work with other governments to expand clean, healthy and affordable energy, such as solar and wind.” 

That’s not to say the path to energy security and economic growth via renewable energy would be smooth. The Korean Peninsula’s history of geopolitical instability, South Korea’s mountainous terrain, and urban population concentration all present challenges. But the biggest barrier to renewable energy is the lack of political will and concrete policies to support the country’s renewable energy production potential.

And that potential is huge: A 2023 report  by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that with the right government policies and supports, South Korea could meet 80% of the country’s electricity needs with clean power by 2035. 

A golden opportunity 

Advocates argue that despite its difficulties, such a transition would be deeply worthwhile. “Renewables are the biggest economic opportunity we’ve had since the Second World War,” says Hare. “The scale of government investment needed is huge, and it will generate many more jobs than continued funding of fossil fuels. It’s a win-win. Governments can make investments that get us to zero emissions, and citizens will benefit economically.”

Project 1.5 founder Sejong Youn agrees. “The government should spend money on renewable energy infrastructure and creating jobs,” he says. “It’s an area where, as citizens, we can and should demand change.”

Solutions for Our Climate (SFOC) is an independent non-profit organization based in South Korea that works to accelerate global greenhouse gas emissions reduction and energy transition. SFOC leverages research, litigation, community organizing, and strategic communications to deliver practical climate solutions and build movements for change.  We work collaboratively with partners from around the world and aim to grow and strengthen the global network of climate actors that drive bold solutions.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline South Korea’s energy trap: Government-funded dead end fossil fuel investments on May 21, 2024.

Why do European countries and 10 U.S. states tout very high bottle and can recycling…

The post We Earthlings: Can & Bottle Deposit Programs Work appeared first on Earth911.

A new federal report found that federal agencies frequently fail to collect the same amount of data about U.S. territories that they collect, and maintain, for states, which advocates say has wide implications for climate adaptation and mitigation.

The report, authored by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, or GAO, examined federal data collection in five island territories: Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. The latter three are home to relatively large communities of Indigenous Pacific Islanders. Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands are currently on the United Nations’ list of non-self-governing territories, a list of modern colonies whose peoples have not yet achieved self-government. All U.S. territories are experiencing the impacts of warming oceans, more frequent and violent storms, and bleaching coral reefs.

“As the saying goes, if you don’t count, then you don’t count,” said Neil Weare, co-director of Right to Democracy, an advocacy group for residents in U.S. territories. “If folks are serious about environmental justice, they need to be serious about addressing equity issues in U.S territories, particularly when it comes to issues of data collection.” 

The GAO report doesn’t specifically mention climate change, but much of the missing data is closely related: demographics, economics, and agriculture. For instance, of all the National Agricultural Statistics Services’ statistical products, only one includes data from the territories. In American Samoa, where subsistence agriculture is becoming increasingly important to address gaps in food security and is also highly susceptible to the impacts of climate change, local officials say the census may undercount farms by relying too heavily on the presence of electric meters.

Some of the barriers to data collection are statutory: Federal legislation often leaves out U.S. territories. But other barriers include limited sample sizes due to relatively small populations; the high cost of collecting data, especially when agencies lack local staff; and technical challenges including a lack of residential postal addresses or postal delivery services on many islands that the Census Bureau normally relies on to mail surveys. The Bureau of Labor Statistics includes Puerto Rico in just four of its 21 statistical products, and it doesn’t include American Samoa or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in any of them. The agency says it excludes Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands from many of its labor statistics in part because they don’t have local unemployment insurance programs. 

On Guam, local officials said they’re often excluded from the federal Social Vulnerability Index, which estimates communities’ susceptibility to natural disasters, and worry that the lack of inclusion leads to underestimates of their need for resources. Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, which make up the same western Pacific archipelago, are frequently hit with typhoons and are still recovering from Typhoon Mawar and Yutu, the latter of which was the strongest storm in nearly a century to hit the U.S. 

The report said that the Biden administration should ensure that the chief statistician at the Office of Management and Budget develop a plan for how to address the data gaps in consultation with the territories. This is encouraging to Neil Weare, who says it puts the onus on the Biden administration to act quickly.

“One of the key takeaways from that report is that the Biden administration can take action on many, if not almost all, of these items without further congressional approval,” Weare said. “So this really does set the stage for the Biden administration to act on these issues.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline How data gaps could put US territories like Guam and Puerto Rico at greater risk for climate change on May 21, 2024.

Any climate action plan that wants to quickly turn the tide of global warming has to tackle methane, which traps orders of magnitude more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide in the first years after it’s emitted. For this reason, the Environmental Protection Agency recently required oil and gas drillers to monitor for leaks of the potent greenhouse gas — and fix them immediately if they’re found. The new regulations also empower community groups and environmental advocates to report fossil fuel companies if they can provide evidence of leaks themselves. 

However, none of these requirements apply to one of the largest sources of human-caused methane emissions in the U.S.: landfills. As food waste and other organic matter decompose, they generate methane and other noxious gases. As a result, landfills are responsible for nearly a fifth of the country’s methane emissions, but almost half of U.S. landfills have not installed gas-capture systems, nor are they required to. In fact, emissions from many smaller landfills are not regulated by the EPA at all. For those that are subject to regulation — because of their size and estimated toxic emissions — landfill operators are required to walk around their facility’s perimeter and take methane measurements every 100 feet four times a year.

There are more than 2,600 landfills across the country, and they leak the equivalent of 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year into the air — a volume comparable to that which would result from operating 74 coal plants. A recent study by Carbon Mapper, a nonprofit that operates methane-detecting satellites, found methane emissions from landfills are 40 percent higher than previously estimated by the EPA.

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“Landfills were actually found to be worse than oil and gas in the sense that when methane plumes happen, they’re more persistent,” said Katherine Blauvelt, a campaign director at Industrious Labs, an environmental organization working to decarbonize heavy industries. “If there was a canary in the coal mine, it’d be dead.”

Despite this, new federal regulations do not yet appear to be on the horizon. The EPA last revised regulations to reduce methane emissions from landfills in 2016. And while the agency is nearing an August 2024 statutory deadline to begin reviewing existing standards, it hasn’t initiated a new rulemaking process yet. (EPA representatives did not immediately respond to Grist’s request for comment on Monday.)

Last year, Industrious Labs obtained EPA inspection reports for four landfills in Oregon and Washington. The group found that inspectors reported dozens of instances when methane levels exceeded the EPA’s limit of 500 parts per million. In a follow-up report published last week, Industrious Labs broadened its analysis and examined inspection reports for landfills in an additional six states. The findings were alarming. The group found that nearly half of the inspections showed methane levels above the EPA’s threshold — even though, in many cases, landfill operators themselves had recently assured the agency of their compliance. 

“That’s where you immediately say to yourself, ‘Something is wrong with the system,’” said Blauvelt. “The landfill operators are being set up to fail if they’re missing these large methane leaks.”

Blauvelt added that operators should opt for aerial monitoring technology such as drones and satellites, which can provide more accurate coverage, rather than the quarterly ground-level measurements that are the current standard. 

Meanwhile, residents who live near landfills are battling nasty odors and explosions. In Southern California, an underground fire at Chiquita Canyon landfill has produced noxious fumes and contaminated runoff for the last two years. In Berkeley, explosive levels of methane were detected at a shuttered landfill beneath a park. 

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Joseph Winters

Joel Geier became very familiar with the nauseating odors associated with these sites in 2005, when he moved into his house less than half a mile from Coffin Butte Landfill near Corvallis, Oregon. Most days the wind blows away from his home, but on the days that the wind blows south, he’s hit with a “toxic chemical smell,” he told Grist, along with a “sour decomposition-type smell.”

Geier is a hydrogeologist, and he has been closely tracking the flow of runoff from the landfill. In recent years, high levels of arsenic have been found in monitoring wells around Coffin Butte. When it rains, water seeps through the landfill, reacting with the various chemicals it encounters on the way. The resulting brew is called leachate, and it can end up in groundwater and contaminate water wells that residents like Geier rely on. (Representatives from Coffin Butte Landfill did not immediately respond to Grist’s request for comment on Monday.)

Leachate also interferes with methane collection systems. Buried inside landfills are perforated pipes that trap and treat gases before they can escape and pollute the atmosphere. Coffin Butte collects about 30 million gallons of leachate a year. When EPA inspectors visited the dump in recent years, they observed that methane levels exceeded the agency’s 500-parts-per-million regulatory threshold at the leachate cleanout locations. Gas buildup was sometimes so high that inspectors noted that some tarped areas of the landfill were visibly inflated.

Blauvelt is hopeful that, when the EPA issues new landfill rules, it will borrow from its strategy for the oil and gas industry. By tackling methane, the Biden administration can reduce planet-warming emissions and improve living conditions for communities across the country, she said: “It’s an issue that has a lot of wins attached to it, if they choose to act.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Landfills leak methane with impunity, new research shows on May 21, 2024.

In natural landscapes, rainwater and snowmelt filter down into the ground slowly. This slow infiltration…

The post How To Create a Rain Garden appeared first on Earth911.

A keystone species, bison once roamed the American Great Plains in the tens of millions, but were hunted to near extinction.

Bison are known as ecosystem engineers because they perform many services for the habitats in which they live, like rolling around and packing down soil in wallows that collect rainwater and grazing on different heights of grasses, which provide birds with nesting grounds.

A new study by researchers from Yale University and Memorial University of Newfoundland has found that a herd of 170 bison being reintroduced to the Țarcu mountains of Romania could help sequester carbon dioxide emissions equal to removing at least 43,000 gas-powered cars from United States roads for one year, reported The Guardian.

“Most carbon cycle models do not consider animal-mediated effects, focusing instead on carbon exchanges among plants, microbes, and the atmosphere. Yet, a growing body of empirical evidence from diverse ecosystems points to pervasive animal effects on ecosystem carbon cycling and shows that ignoring them could lead to misrepresentation of an ecosystem’s carbon cycle,” the study said.

More than two centuries ago, Romania lost its last European bison. However, in 2014 the species was reintroduced to the Carpathian mountains by WWF Romania and Rewilding Europe, The Guardian reported. The 100 who were brought to the Tarcu mountains have grown to more than 170 — one of the biggest free-roaming bison populations on the European continent. The landscape can accommodate as many as 350 to 450 individuals.

For the study, the researchers used a model developed at the Yale School for the Environment. It calculates how much atmospheric carbon wildlife assists in capturing and storing in soils through their ecosystem interactions.

“Bison influence grassland and forest ecosystems by grazing grasslands evenly, recycling nutrients to fertilise the soil and all of its life, dispersing seeds to enrich the ecosystem, and compacting the soil to prevent stored carbon from being released,” said professor Oswald Schmitz, lead author of the study and a professor of population and community ecology at Yale University, as reported by The Guardian.

The herd of 170 graze in a grasslands area of nearly 19.3 square miles inside the wider Țarcu mountain range. The research team found that the bison could potentially capture another 59,525 tons of carbon annually.

The team said the number corresponds with the amount of annual carbon dioxide released by an average of at least 43,000 gas-powered cars in the U.S., or 123,000 in Europe, due to their increased energy efficiency.

“These creatures evolved for millions of years with grassland and forest ecosystems, and their removal, especially where grasslands have been ploughed up, has led to the release of vast amounts of carbon. Restoring these ecosystems can bring back balance, and ‘rewilded’ bison are some of the climate heroes that can help achieve this,” Schmitz said.

When bison browse and graze, it helps with the maintenance of a biodiverse landscape of scrub, grasslands, forests and microhabitats.

Their return to the Țarcu has inspired eco-businesses and tourism centered around rewilding.

Schmitz explained that the climate and soil conditions of the Carpathian mountain grasslands are specific, so bison’s impacts might not be the same in other locations around the world, such as prairies in the U.S., which are much less productive.

“This research opens up a whole new raft of options for climate policymakers around the world. Until now, nature protection and restoration has largely been treated as another challenge and cost that we need to face alongside the climate emergency. This research shows we can address both challenges: we can bring back nature through rewilding and this will draw down vast amounts of carbon, helping to stabilise the global climate,” said Magnus Sylvén, Global Rewilding Alliance’s director of science policy practice, as The Guardian reported.

The team explored the details of nine species — including sea otters, musk oxen and tropical forest elephants — and have started looking into others.

“Many of them show similar promise to these bison, often doubling an ecosystem’s capacity to draw down and store carbon, and sometimes much more. This really is a policy option with massive potential,” Schmitz said, as reported by The Guardian.

The study, “Rewiring the Carbon Cycle: A Theoretical Framework for Animal-Driven Ecosystem Carbon Sequestration,” was published in the journal JGR Biogeosciences.

The post Reintroduction of 170 European Bison Could Help Remove CO2 Equivalent of 43,000 Cars, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

The adorable otter is North America’s smallest marine mammal, as well as the largest species of the weasel family, which also includes skunks, badgers and wolverines.

With roughly 3,000 southern sea otters left in California, they are listed as threatened under the United States Endangered Species Act and play a crucial role in the restoration of the state’s damaged kelp forests, a press release from UT Austin said.

A new study by a team of researchers from Monterey Bay Aquarium; University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz); The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin); and elsewhere has found that otters who use tools like rocks and shells to break open the thick outer layers of mollusks are able to eat bigger prey, giving them higher rates of energy consumption while reducing wear on their teeth.

According to Chris Law — a UT Austin postdoctoral researcher who was the study’s lead author while a UC Santa Cruz graduate student — sea otters prefer to eat abalone and sea urchins, which are relatively easy to break apart, but those delicacies are declining, reported The Guardian.

The researchers said that, due to the absence of their preferred foods, sea otters often look for clams, mussels, marine snails and crabs. However, the snails’ hard shells can be damaging to their teeth.

“There’s fishing and habitat destruction, so their favorite prey are gone and they have to switch to alternative preys,” Law said, as The Guardian reported. “What we found is that [using tools] actually allows them to switch to those prey.”

The research team enlisted volunteers to track 196 southern sea otters off the California coast to gain a better understanding of how they use tools in a habitat that is changing quickly, the press release said. The team monitored tool use and linked it to the otters’ dental health and dietary patterns.

They found that using the tools meant less tooth injuries.

“Sea otters vary in how often they use tools,” Law said in the press release. “The females are likely using tools to overcome their smaller body size and weaker biting ability in order to meet their calorie demands. Raising pups takes a lot of energy, and the females need to be efficient in their foraging. The study shows that tool use is an important behavior for survival.”

The study, “Tool use increases mechanical foraging success and tooth health in southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis),” was published in the journal Science.

While using tools widened the availability of different types of prey for both female and male otters, the researchers found that female otters had less damage to their teeth. It is more likely for female otters to use tools, research has shown, and the new study found that those who did had access to larger or harder prey than those who did not. The researchers found that females were able to eat prey that were as much as 35 percent harder in comparison with males who used tools.

Females of other species, such as chimpanzees, bonobos and dolphins, have also been known to utilize tools more often than males. Females of these species tend to raise their offspring and are the ones who pass down their tool-using behavior.

“This behavior really allows them to eat other prey items and in an environment where that’s depleted. It really just showcases how it’s important for their overall survival. If there are no urchins and abalone for them to eat and they are faced with other prey types they can’t open, they can’t survive,” Law said, as reported by The Guardian.

The post Sea Otters Use Tools to Break Open Larger Prey, Sparing Their Teeth, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.