My Science School

Big Major Cay, an island in Exuma, the Bahamas, has a rather than unusual attraction – the swimming pigs. Also known as Pig Beach, the island is about 82 miles south-east of Nassau. It is inhabited by feral but friendly swimming pigs that paddle around in the beautiful blue green water of the Bahamas.

The swimming pigs have populated the island for decades, but their actual origin is somewhat of a mystery. Local legend claims that they swam ashore after a shipwreck or were left on the island by sailors who planned to come back and eat them, but never returned. Today, the colony of these feral pigs has become a tourist attraction. Tourist can drive up to the pigs, and it’s legal for tourists to swim with them. Other islands of the Bahamas too have swimming pigs but not exclusively of them.

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A deadly bloom has hit Chile, where more than 4,200 tonnes of fish have been killed. It’s the latest mass mortality event recorded in Chile, the second largest salmon producer after Norway.

Some 18 salmon farms in the south of Chile, which produces around 26% of the world’s salmon, have been affected.

Scientists attribute the die-off to algal blooms that reduce the amount of oxygen in water, thus suffocating the salmon. The same phenomenon killed thousands of tones of salmon in 2016.

Greenpeace, the international environmental organisation, says the algal bloom is due to pollution caused by salmon farming. Emission of ammonium and urea from salmon farms into closed fjords or with little circulation can exacerbate blooms, it points out.

What is algal bloom?

When the normally occurring aquatic algae reproduce faster and grow out of control, it is called algal bloom. It may turn waterbodies orange, yellow, brown or purple depending on the algae species in question. Some of the blooms have the potential to be harmful.

Combination of factors

The blooms are caused by a combination of factors: high concentrations of nutrients that feed algae, warm temperatures, sunlight and shallow, slow-flowing water.

When humans channel agricultural runoff, sewage and industrial effluents into waterways, the amount of nutrients in the water increases. the excess nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorous, lead to a spurt in the growth of microscopic algae called phytoplankton.

Algal bloom often happens during the warm summer season or when water temperatures are warmer than usual. Warmer temperatures make water stagnant, thus allowing algae to grow thicker and faster. Further, algal blooms absorb more sunlight, making water even warmer and promoting more blooms.

In different ways

Not all algal blooms are harmful, but some are deadly. They affect the marine ecosystem in different ways. First, the physical presence of so many algae may suffocate fish by clogging or irritating the gills. Second, phytoplanktons use up all the nutrients, grow, die and sink to the bottom, where they are decomposed by bacteria. The bacteria respire using the dissolved oxygen in the water, leading to the depletion of oxygen available for other marine organisms, which eventually suffocate and die. Third, some algal species produce deadly toxins which either kill the animals or accumulate in the body of animals and spread through the food web.

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Sheikh Hasina also known by her married name Sheikh Hasina Wazed is a Bangladeshi politician serving as the 11th Prime Minister of the government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, having held the office since January 2009. Having previously served as Prime Minister for five years, she is the longest-serving Prime Minister in the history of Bangladesh.

Hasina is considered one of the most powerful women in the world, ranking 39th on Forbes Magazine' list of The World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2020, 26th in 2018, and 30th in 2017. She has also made a list of "top 100 Global Thinkers" of the present decade. Hasina is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders, an international network of current and former female presidents and prime ministers. Sheikh Hasina was included in Time magazine's 100 Most Influential People in the World of 2018.

Sheikh Hasina was born in Tungipara, East Pakistan on 28 September 1947. Her father was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the 'father' of the Bengali Nation, and the first President of Bangladesh. Her mother was Sheikh Fazilatunnesa Mujib. She has said in many interviews that she had grown up in fear due to her father's political works. She married physicist M. A. Wazed Miah in 1968, who was chosen for her by her father. During the peak of violence in the 1970 Pakistani general election, as well as her father's arrest, she had lived in refuge with her grandmother. She was active in the student politics of the University of Dhaka.

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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is the 24th President of the Republic of Liberia and the first elected female Head of State in Africa. She is serving her second term as President after winning the 2011 presidential election.

After decades of fighting for freedom, justice and equality in Liberia, in 2011 President Sirleaf shared the prestigious Nobel Prize for Peace with two other women – fellow Liberian Leymah Gbowee, and Tawakkul Karman of Yemen. They were recognized, by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work.

Among her other distinguished honors are: France’s highest award and public distinction, the Grand Croix of the Légion d’Honneur (2012), and the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development (2012). In 2007 she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor bestowed by an American President.

Born Ellen Eugenia Johnson in Monrovia on October 29, 1938, she is the granddaughter of a traditional chief of renown in western Liberia and a market woman from the southeast. She grew up in Liberia and attended high school at the College of West Africa in Monrovia, subsequently studying at Madison (Wisconsin) Business College, the University of Colorado and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where she obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Administration in 1971.

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World's first female Prime Minister Sirima Ratwatte Dias Bandaranaike commonly known as Sirimavo Bandaranaike was born into an aristocratic Kandyan family. She was elected as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka in 1960. She served three terms: 19601965, 19701977 and 19942000. Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the world's first non-hereditary female head of government in modern history when she was elected Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

She was the wife of a previous Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Solomon Bandaranaike and the mother of Sri Lanka's third President Chandrika Kumaratunga. She was also mother of Anura Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan Tourism Minister and Sunethra Bandaranaike, philanthropist. A committed socialist, she aimed to raise the standard of living of her people and to reduce inequality. She succeeded in the latter but high government spending also resulted in economic stagnation. Her pro-Buddhist and pro-Sinhalese policies alienated the Tamil minority, resulting in a bloody civil war. Since 1983, about 68,000 people have lost their lives. Although relations with her own children have at times been strained, they have nonetheless followed her into public service. Despite the civil war that blemishes her record, to have served, as a woman, three terms as Prime Minister is no insignificant achievement. That an Asian woman, too, became the first ever female Prime Minister somewhat challenges the notion that Western countries have made greater strides in equalizing gender opportunities.

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