BEE Afraid ( an article from Australian 60 minutes worth reading.)
I watched an episode of 60 minutes last night on the 9 network in Sydney and was humbled and amazed at how reliant we are on bee's for food. I was so impressed by the importance of this little critter that I have placed the whole transcript from the story for those who may have missed it, right here on my blog. This is important stuff, and whilst I am glad that Australia is giving aid to Burma and other nations, I cannot help feel that we need to sidestep the red tape and give extra funding for this one man survival team to ensure he succeeds in finding a cure for the mite that is decimating bee populations around the world. Whilst this blog is designed for my thoughts and feelings and I wouldn't normally do this whole transcript thing, I felt that IF this story is completely factual, we cannot afford to get it wrong. I thought rather than re-interpret the story and give my take on it, and display my lack of knowledge on this vital subject, I would quote an unedited transcript. All I did was embolden one statement toward the end which I believe is vital. I have placed the 60 miutes logo and picture taken from their website at: http://www.ninemsn.com.au/60minutes
INTRODUCTION TARA BROWN: They're nature's tireless workers. No wonder they call them 'busy'. But you've probably never considered just how busy bees really are. Well, consider this - these humble little insects are responsible for pollinating much of the food we eat. Without them, we'd starve. And this is where it gets scary. Because, right now, a tiny parasite is threatening to wipe out our bees. It has already destroyed bee populations around the world. And now, it's on our doorstep in New Zealand. But, all is not lost. You see, there is one man who is fighting back. A dedicated scientist almost as busy as the bees themselves.
STORY TARA BROWN: Look at them. Listen to them. Bees never stop. 'Busy' is the only way to describe them.
DENIS ANDERSON: Wow. Look at that. Wow. That's full of honey. Wow.
TARA BROWN: Could you eat that now?
DENIS ANDERSON: Oh, yeah.
TARA BROWN: So enthusiastic is Dr Denis Anderson about his bees he has convinced me to risk the pain of a sting. You're kidding aren't you?
DENIS ANDERSON: No, no, no. You've just got to have a little bit of faith.
TARA BROWN: For the pleasure of pure honey.
DENIS ANDERSON: Just, nice and easy. That's it.
TARA BROWN: Oh, yum.
DENIS ANDERSON: Can't get fresher than that.
TARA BROWN: Mmn, no. No that's beautiful. But bees give us so much more than honey. They are critical to our very survival - providing a $100 billion/year service to world agriculture by fertilizing our crops as they go about their business, collecting pollen.
DENIS ANDERSON: All these individuals we are looking at here they are all workers, so they've got chores.
TARA BROWN: But as a bee pathologist, Denis Anderson warns these bees face a catastrophic threat from a nasty tick-like parasite called 'Varroa Destructor'.
DENIS ANDERSON: This is the most dangerous threat we have for bees around the world.
TARA BROWN: What does he do? Why is he so dangerous?
DENIS ANDERSON: Well, it's ah, it's a blood sucker. It sucks the blood of the bees, basically, and as it is doing so it transmits viruses.
TARA BROWN: Varroa has spread insidiously into every major country except Australia. Now it is on our doorstep in New Zealand and the great fear is it is only a matter of time before we are invaded.
DENIS ANDERSON: We are an island in this world of Varroa, and it just hasn't got here yet.
TARA BROWN: As you watch this spread from country to country, as a scientist with a passion for bees, what were you thinking?
DENIS ANDERSON: I guess when I saw it spreading I was, ah... ..everybody, well, was quite dismayed. I mean, how were we going to deal with this problem?
TARA BROWN: Standing here being buzzed by all these angry bees it is taking all my willpower not to run out of here. But whether you love or loathe bees it is important to know they are very crucial little creatures. The thinking goes if all the bees were to disappear it would only take five years before we would all starve.
DENIS ANDERSON: If we didn't have bees the world would be in serious trouble. Our crop yields would drop away and there would be mass starvation everywhere. We just can't do without bees.
TARA BROWN: So we should care about these, then.
DENIS ANDERSON: We should care terribly about honey bees, hmm.
TARA BROWN: And across the Tasman I soon discover why. Denis has brought me here to New Zealand to see Varroa wreak its devastation. Oh, there's another mite coming outer, yuk. The Varroa parasite jumps onto bees, hitching a ride into the hive.
DENIS ANDERSON: Look, it's gone you see. It's on the back. It's on the back of the bee, it's on the back of the bee! That's how quick it was.
TARA BROWN: So fast. They are so opportunistic aren't they?
DENIS ANDERSON: Oh yeah, they are perfectly adapted to the bees.
TARA BROWN: Once in the hive, the mites drop into the cells to breed and feed on the baby bees, slowly weakening and killing the entire colony. They are nasty little things.
DENIS ANDERSON: Oh yeah.
TARA BROWN: They're nasty and they are too close for comfort. Like Australia, New Zealand was proudly free of Varroa but then eight years ago the mite somehow breached strict quarantine to invade almost every hive in the North Island. It has very nearly destroyed beekeepers like Russell Berry. So as a beekeeper, when you see your hives have the Varroa mite, what is your reaction?
RUSSELL BERRY: The reaction when we first got Varroa was absolutely devastating. The first week you are so depressed. And every beekeeper in New Zealand is the same way. It's very serious depression that you see Varroa Mite eating your bees.
TARA BROWN: Russell and his bees produce the most honey in New Zealand. But the cost of continuing to do so has almost crippled his company. He now spends more than $500,000 a year on pesticides, trying to keep the mite under control, hoping the chemicals will continue to work. If the Varroa mite becomes resistant to the chemicals you use what happens to the bee population in this country?
RUSSELL BERRY: It dies, simple as that.
TARA BROWN: So, in Australia we have a lot to lose if Varroa strikes. At risk is our healthy bee population, our agricultural industry, and our treasured chemical-free honey.
DENIS ANDERSON: I think Australia has the best honey in the world, not just because I'm an Australian and I love our honey, you know, but when you eat that honey you know that it is, it's as pure as you're ever going to get and it's clean.
TARA BROWN: Is there anything we can do to stop Varroa coming here?
DENIS ANDERSON: It's a matter of time before one of those swarms swarms off and it's here.
TARA BROWN: It sounds like a miracle it is not here already.
DENIS ANDERSON: You said it. It's a matter of 'when' not 'if'.
TARA BROWN: The prospect of Varroa in Australia is so catastrophic because of the job the bees do. Bees are one of nature's most efficient work gangs and for Denis, one of the most intriguing.
DENIS ANDERSON: You know, they're social, they're like us and, like us, they've got behaviours and diseases, and they do things. There's 80,000 individuals in that. It's like a city in a box.
TARA BROWN: In this city there are defender bees who, like air traffic controllers, guide the bees back to the hive after a day amongst the flowers.
DENIS ANDERSON: And so, then the bees just home straight in and come straight in at the entrance.
TARA BROWN: Uh huh, they're the beacons. Come on home.
DENIS ANDERSON: That's right. But they also protect.
TARA BROWN: There are the drones, the stingless males who do nothing but eat and breed.
DENIS ANDERSON: They have these areas which they call drone congregation areas all the boys hang out.
TARA BROWN: Their pub, right?
DENIS ANDERSON: Yeah sort of like well... ..I don't know, it's like sex, there's nothing else. Not much booze going on there.
TARA BROWN: Not much booze, a lot of sex. Right. Of course, the females do all the work. They are even known as worker bees. They are the nurses, cleaners and pollen collectors, and they can all sting. And then there is the bee that it's all about - the Queen Bee. The only bee in the hive that can lay eggs. She's laying something like 1,500 - 2,000 eggs a day?
DENIS ANDERSON: About 2,000 eggs a day, yeah.
TARA BROWN: That's incredible. Because our bees are still Varroa-free they are in hot demand overseas where bee populations have been decimated. The millions of bees on this pallet are about to fly long distance to the United States, to help boost the dwindling numbers there. Terry Brown sends three loads of Australian bees each week. So how would you describe the work these bees are off to do?
TERRY BROWN: These bees are off to do a job that in the US they need desperately, otherwise they are not going to have food to put on their plates. Simple as that.
TARA BROWN: That is a pretty big statement. They wont have food to put on their plates?
TERRY BROWN: Bees are a part of the human race surviving. People just don't realise how much, how important they are for the pollination industry which we have to have.
TARA BROWN: I hope they've got a good work ethic.
TERRY BROWN: They have. Very good, very good.
TARA BROWN: These bees may deserve to fly first class but they'll spend the next 15 hours in the cargo hold on their way to their new home. When the Australian bees get to the US they are brought here to California to help their American cousins. This is the biggest bee pollination operation in the world. Scattered amongst the hundreds of thousands of flowering almond trees there are more than 50 billion bees busy at work. It is quite a sight, the almond orchards of California, and the bees only have a couple of weeks while the trees flower to get to work.
SHAD SULLIVAN: The bee will come along and actually bounce from blossom to blossom and in the process they rub pollen off on this female stem which makes the pollination process.
TARA BROWN: Which means there will be a nut?
SHAD SULLIVAN: You will have a nut.
TARA BROWN: There will be an almond there.
SHAD SULLIVAN: Yes.
TARA BROWN: Shad Sullivan has been in the bee business since he was a kid. If you didn't have bees, what would this orchard look like?
SHAD SULLIVAN: This orchard would not exist.
TARA BROWN: He has never seen it so bad. Varroa has wiped out up to 80% of the country's hives and the very existence of many of the nuts, vegetables and fruits we take for granted is now under threat. There are simply not the local bees to pollinate them. Now, you've got quite a few Australian bees here.
SHAD SULLIVAN: Yes, we do.
TARA BROWN: Are they good little workers?
SHAD SULLIVAN: They're very good workers, one of the best that weve found so far. Bringing these bees in is the only thing that has kept a lot of beekeepers alive so far.
TARA BROWN: It is a year-round, 24-hour-a-day operation. Bees are trucked across the States from orchard to orchard, crop to crop to pollinate. But it is an expensive exercise. Varroa mites have seen the cost of pollination skyrocket - a cost Americans pay at the supermarket. How lucky do you think we are in Australia?
SHAD SULLIVAN: You are the only place that doesn't have them now and your country is blessed. The need to keep your country clean and clear of these is crucial. The price of everything... Food, the price will double.
TARA BROWN: It is a big responsibility, but Dr Denis Anderson is the one man standing between Varroa and our bees. Here in his CSIRO lab in Canberra he is working on gene technology which he hopes will turn off the signal that tells the mites to breed when they are in the bee hive. So even if the parasites make it to Australia, they're doomed. He is horribly under-funded and success is at least five years away but we can't afford for Denis not to get it right. Nor can the bees. Do you feel like you are doing important work?
DENIS ANDERSON: Absolutely, absolutely. I'm dealing with one of the most important animals on the planet. You know, it contributes to every one of our lives, In fact, the saying is that one in every three mouthfuls of food we eat, in some ways bees have contributed to that, so if I am trying to keep the bees healthy, then I'm keeping you healthy too.
TARA BROWN: Thank you very much.
INTRODUCTION TARA BROWN: They're nature's tireless workers. No wonder they call them 'busy'. But you've probably never considered just how busy bees really are. Well, consider this - these humble little insects are responsible for pollinating much of the food we eat. Without them, we'd starve. And this is where it gets scary. Because, right now, a tiny parasite is threatening to wipe out our bees. It has already destroyed bee populations around the world. And now, it's on our doorstep in New Zealand. But, all is not lost. You see, there is one man who is fighting back. A dedicated scientist almost as busy as the bees themselves.
STORY TARA BROWN: Look at them. Listen to them. Bees never stop. 'Busy' is the only way to describe them.
DENIS ANDERSON: Wow. Look at that. Wow. That's full of honey. Wow.
TARA BROWN: Could you eat that now?
DENIS ANDERSON: Oh, yeah.
TARA BROWN: So enthusiastic is Dr Denis Anderson about his bees he has convinced me to risk the pain of a sting. You're kidding aren't you?
DENIS ANDERSON: No, no, no. You've just got to have a little bit of faith.
TARA BROWN: For the pleasure of pure honey.
DENIS ANDERSON: Just, nice and easy. That's it.
TARA BROWN: Oh, yum.
DENIS ANDERSON: Can't get fresher than that.
TARA BROWN: Mmn, no. No that's beautiful. But bees give us so much more than honey. They are critical to our very survival - providing a $100 billion/year service to world agriculture by fertilizing our crops as they go about their business, collecting pollen.
DENIS ANDERSON: All these individuals we are looking at here they are all workers, so they've got chores.
TARA BROWN: But as a bee pathologist, Denis Anderson warns these bees face a catastrophic threat from a nasty tick-like parasite called 'Varroa Destructor'.
DENIS ANDERSON: This is the most dangerous threat we have for bees around the world.
TARA BROWN: What does he do? Why is he so dangerous?
DENIS ANDERSON: Well, it's ah, it's a blood sucker. It sucks the blood of the bees, basically, and as it is doing so it transmits viruses.
TARA BROWN: Varroa has spread insidiously into every major country except Australia. Now it is on our doorstep in New Zealand and the great fear is it is only a matter of time before we are invaded.
DENIS ANDERSON: We are an island in this world of Varroa, and it just hasn't got here yet.
TARA BROWN: As you watch this spread from country to country, as a scientist with a passion for bees, what were you thinking?
DENIS ANDERSON: I guess when I saw it spreading I was, ah... ..everybody, well, was quite dismayed. I mean, how were we going to deal with this problem?
TARA BROWN: Standing here being buzzed by all these angry bees it is taking all my willpower not to run out of here. But whether you love or loathe bees it is important to know they are very crucial little creatures. The thinking goes if all the bees were to disappear it would only take five years before we would all starve.
DENIS ANDERSON: If we didn't have bees the world would be in serious trouble. Our crop yields would drop away and there would be mass starvation everywhere. We just can't do without bees.
TARA BROWN: So we should care about these, then.
DENIS ANDERSON: We should care terribly about honey bees, hmm.
TARA BROWN: And across the Tasman I soon discover why. Denis has brought me here to New Zealand to see Varroa wreak its devastation. Oh, there's another mite coming outer, yuk. The Varroa parasite jumps onto bees, hitching a ride into the hive.
DENIS ANDERSON: Look, it's gone you see. It's on the back. It's on the back of the bee, it's on the back of the bee! That's how quick it was.
TARA BROWN: So fast. They are so opportunistic aren't they?
DENIS ANDERSON: Oh yeah, they are perfectly adapted to the bees.
TARA BROWN: Once in the hive, the mites drop into the cells to breed and feed on the baby bees, slowly weakening and killing the entire colony. They are nasty little things.
DENIS ANDERSON: Oh yeah.
TARA BROWN: They're nasty and they are too close for comfort. Like Australia, New Zealand was proudly free of Varroa but then eight years ago the mite somehow breached strict quarantine to invade almost every hive in the North Island. It has very nearly destroyed beekeepers like Russell Berry. So as a beekeeper, when you see your hives have the Varroa mite, what is your reaction?
RUSSELL BERRY: The reaction when we first got Varroa was absolutely devastating. The first week you are so depressed. And every beekeeper in New Zealand is the same way. It's very serious depression that you see Varroa Mite eating your bees.
TARA BROWN: Russell and his bees produce the most honey in New Zealand. But the cost of continuing to do so has almost crippled his company. He now spends more than $500,000 a year on pesticides, trying to keep the mite under control, hoping the chemicals will continue to work. If the Varroa mite becomes resistant to the chemicals you use what happens to the bee population in this country?
RUSSELL BERRY: It dies, simple as that.
TARA BROWN: So, in Australia we have a lot to lose if Varroa strikes. At risk is our healthy bee population, our agricultural industry, and our treasured chemical-free honey.
DENIS ANDERSON: I think Australia has the best honey in the world, not just because I'm an Australian and I love our honey, you know, but when you eat that honey you know that it is, it's as pure as you're ever going to get and it's clean.
TARA BROWN: Is there anything we can do to stop Varroa coming here?
DENIS ANDERSON: It's a matter of time before one of those swarms swarms off and it's here.
TARA BROWN: It sounds like a miracle it is not here already.
DENIS ANDERSON: You said it. It's a matter of 'when' not 'if'.
TARA BROWN: The prospect of Varroa in Australia is so catastrophic because of the job the bees do. Bees are one of nature's most efficient work gangs and for Denis, one of the most intriguing.
DENIS ANDERSON: You know, they're social, they're like us and, like us, they've got behaviours and diseases, and they do things. There's 80,000 individuals in that. It's like a city in a box.
TARA BROWN: In this city there are defender bees who, like air traffic controllers, guide the bees back to the hive after a day amongst the flowers.
DENIS ANDERSON: And so, then the bees just home straight in and come straight in at the entrance.
TARA BROWN: Uh huh, they're the beacons. Come on home.
DENIS ANDERSON: That's right. But they also protect.
TARA BROWN: There are the drones, the stingless males who do nothing but eat and breed.
DENIS ANDERSON: They have these areas which they call drone congregation areas all the boys hang out.
TARA BROWN: Their pub, right?
DENIS ANDERSON: Yeah sort of like well... ..I don't know, it's like sex, there's nothing else. Not much booze going on there.
TARA BROWN: Not much booze, a lot of sex. Right. Of course, the females do all the work. They are even known as worker bees. They are the nurses, cleaners and pollen collectors, and they can all sting. And then there is the bee that it's all about - the Queen Bee. The only bee in the hive that can lay eggs. She's laying something like 1,500 - 2,000 eggs a day?
DENIS ANDERSON: About 2,000 eggs a day, yeah.
TARA BROWN: That's incredible. Because our bees are still Varroa-free they are in hot demand overseas where bee populations have been decimated. The millions of bees on this pallet are about to fly long distance to the United States, to help boost the dwindling numbers there. Terry Brown sends three loads of Australian bees each week. So how would you describe the work these bees are off to do?
TERRY BROWN: These bees are off to do a job that in the US they need desperately, otherwise they are not going to have food to put on their plates. Simple as that.
TARA BROWN: That is a pretty big statement. They wont have food to put on their plates?
TERRY BROWN: Bees are a part of the human race surviving. People just don't realise how much, how important they are for the pollination industry which we have to have.
TARA BROWN: I hope they've got a good work ethic.
TERRY BROWN: They have. Very good, very good.
TARA BROWN: These bees may deserve to fly first class but they'll spend the next 15 hours in the cargo hold on their way to their new home. When the Australian bees get to the US they are brought here to California to help their American cousins. This is the biggest bee pollination operation in the world. Scattered amongst the hundreds of thousands of flowering almond trees there are more than 50 billion bees busy at work. It is quite a sight, the almond orchards of California, and the bees only have a couple of weeks while the trees flower to get to work.
SHAD SULLIVAN: The bee will come along and actually bounce from blossom to blossom and in the process they rub pollen off on this female stem which makes the pollination process.
TARA BROWN: Which means there will be a nut?
SHAD SULLIVAN: You will have a nut.
TARA BROWN: There will be an almond there.
SHAD SULLIVAN: Yes.
TARA BROWN: Shad Sullivan has been in the bee business since he was a kid. If you didn't have bees, what would this orchard look like?
SHAD SULLIVAN: This orchard would not exist.
TARA BROWN: He has never seen it so bad. Varroa has wiped out up to 80% of the country's hives and the very existence of many of the nuts, vegetables and fruits we take for granted is now under threat. There are simply not the local bees to pollinate them. Now, you've got quite a few Australian bees here.
SHAD SULLIVAN: Yes, we do.
TARA BROWN: Are they good little workers?
SHAD SULLIVAN: They're very good workers, one of the best that weve found so far. Bringing these bees in is the only thing that has kept a lot of beekeepers alive so far.
TARA BROWN: It is a year-round, 24-hour-a-day operation. Bees are trucked across the States from orchard to orchard, crop to crop to pollinate. But it is an expensive exercise. Varroa mites have seen the cost of pollination skyrocket - a cost Americans pay at the supermarket. How lucky do you think we are in Australia?
SHAD SULLIVAN: You are the only place that doesn't have them now and your country is blessed. The need to keep your country clean and clear of these is crucial. The price of everything... Food, the price will double.
TARA BROWN: It is a big responsibility, but Dr Denis Anderson is the one man standing between Varroa and our bees. Here in his CSIRO lab in Canberra he is working on gene technology which he hopes will turn off the signal that tells the mites to breed when they are in the bee hive. So even if the parasites make it to Australia, they're doomed. He is horribly under-funded and success is at least five years away but we can't afford for Denis not to get it right. Nor can the bees. Do you feel like you are doing important work?
DENIS ANDERSON: Absolutely, absolutely. I'm dealing with one of the most important animals on the planet. You know, it contributes to every one of our lives, In fact, the saying is that one in every three mouthfuls of food we eat, in some ways bees have contributed to that, so if I am trying to keep the bees healthy, then I'm keeping you healthy too.
TARA BROWN: Thank you very much.
Comments
The scent molecules produced by flowers in polluted environments are travelling only a quarter of their normal distance. Consequently, the bees are having great difficulty locating the flowers.
The bee population is drastically dwindling because they cannot find the nectar they need to feed and survive.
Final paragraph:
‘Scientists say bees, which pollinate most of the world’s crops, are in unprecedented decline across the globe.'
The name of the newspaper escapes me now, however, I will do my best to locate the source.
V2T