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North American beaver

The North American beaver (Castor canadensis) is one of two extant beaver species, along with the Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber). It is native to North America and has been introduced in South America (Patagonia) and Europe (primarily Finland and Karelia). The North American beaver is one of the official national wildlife of Canada symbols and is the official state mammal of Oregon and New York. North American beavers are widespread across the continental United States, Canada, southern Alaska, and some parts of northern Mexico.

In Canada and the United States, the North American beaver is often referred to simply as "beaver", although this can cause some confusion because another distantly related rodent, Aplodontia rufa, is often called the "mountain beaver". Other vernacular names, including American beaver and Canadian beaver, distinguish this species from the other extant beaver species, Castor fiber, which is native to Eurasia.

Evolution
The first fossil records of beaver are 10 to 12 million years old in Germany, and they are thought to have migrated to North America across the Bering Strait. The oldest fossil record of beavers in North America are of two beaver teeth near Dayville, Oregon, and are 7 million years old.

Subspecies
At one time, 25 subspecies of beavers were identified in North America, with distinctions based primarily on slight morphological differences and geographical isolation at the time of discovery. However, modern techniques generally use genetics rather than morphology to distinguish between subspecies, and currently the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (which provides authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world) does not recognize any subspecies of C. canadensis, though a definitive genetic analysis has not been performed. Such an analysis would be complicated by the fact that substantial genetic mixing of populations has occurred because of the numerous reintroduction efforts intended to help the species recover following extirpation from many regions.

The most widespread (formerly recognized) subspecies, which perhaps are now best thought of as populations with some distinct physical characteristics, are C. c. acadicus (New England beaver), C. c. canadensis (Canadian beaver), C. c. carolinensis (Carolina beaver), and C. c. missouriensis (Missouri River beaver). The Canadian beaver originally inhabited almost all of the forested area of Canada, and because of its more valued fur, was often selected for reintroductions elsewhere. The Carolina beaver is found in the southeastern United States; the Missouri River beaver, as its name suggests, is found in the Missouri River and its tributaries; and C. c. acadicus is found throughout the New England area in the northeastern United States.

Description

The beaver is the largest rodent in North America and competes with its Eurasian counterpart, the European beaver, for being the third-largest in the world, both following the South American capybara and lesser capybara. The European species is slightly larger on average but the American has a larger known maximum size. Adults usually weigh from 11 to 32 kg, with 20 kg being typical. In New York, the average weight of adult male beavers was 18.9 kg, while non-native females in Finland averaged 18.1 kg. However, adults of both sexes averaged 16.8 kg in Ohio. The species seems to conform to Bergmann's rule, as northern animals appear to be larger. In the Northwest Territory, adults weighed a median of 20.5 kg. The American beaver is slightly smaller in average body mass than the Eurasian species. The head-and-body length of adult North American beavers is 74 - 90 cm, with the tail adding a further 20 - 35 cm. Very old individuals can exceptionally exceed normal sizes, weighing more than 40 kg or even as much as 50 kg (higher than the maximum known for the Eurasian beaver).

Like the capybara, the beaver is semiaquatic. The beaver has many traits suited to this lifestyle. It has a large, flat, paddle-shaped tail and large, webbed hind feet. The unwebbed front paws are smaller, with claws. The forepaws are highly dextrous, and are used both for digging, and to fold individual leaves into their mouth and to rotate small, pencil-sized stems as they gnaw off bark. The eyes are covered by a nictitating membrane which allows the beaver to see under water. The nostrils and ears are sealed while submerged. Their lips can be closed behind their front teeth so that they can continue to gnaw underwater. A thick layer of fat under its skin insulates the beaver from its coldwater environment.

The beaver's fur consists of long, coarse outer hairs and short, fine inner hairs (see Double coat). The fur has a range of colors, but usually is dark brown. Scent glands near the genitals secrete an oily substance known as castoreum, which the beaver uses to waterproof its fur. There is also another set of oil glands producing unique chemical identifiers in the form of waxy esters and fatty acids. The lush, workable fur was made into a number of products, most notably hats. Demand for furs for hats drove beavers nearly to the point of extinction, and the North American species was saved principally by a sudden change in style.

The beaver possesses continuously (or constantly) growing incisors, and is a hindgut fermenter whose cecum, populated by symbiotic bacteria, helps to digest plant-based material. These traits are not unique to beavers, and are in fact present among all rodents. Nonetheless, the beaver is remarkably specialized for the efficient digestion of its lignocellulose-heavy diet.

Brain anatomy of the beaver is not particularly specialized for its semiaquatic life history. The brain masses of a beaver weighing 11.7 and 17 kg are 41 and 45 g respectively. C. canadensis has an encephalization quotient of 0.9 compared to other rodents; this is intermediate between similar terrestrial rodents and arboreal squirrels, and higher than similar aquatic terrestrial rodents, the muskrats and nutria. The cerebrum is well developed, and the neocortex comparatively large. Larger areas of the beaver's somatosensory cortex are dedicated to the processing of stimuli from the lips and the hands, more so than the tail and whiskers, which play a relatively minor role. The visual area of the brain is smaller than the gray squirrel.

Distribution
Before their near-extirpation by trapping in North America, beavers were practically ubiquitous and lived from south of the arctic tundra to the deserts of northern Mexico, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. They are widely distributed in boreal and temperate ecoregions, where populations are rebounding from historic over-exploitation. Recently, beaver have been observed colonizing arctic tundra, likely as a result of climate-induced increases in riparian shrubs.

Physician naturalist Edgar Alexander Mearns' 1907 report of beaver on the Sonora River may be the earliest report on the southernmost range of this North American aquatic mammal. However, beavers have also been reported both historically and contemporarily in Mexico on the Colorado River, Bavispe River, and San Bernardino River in the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua.

Behavior
Beavers are active mainly at night. They are excellent swimmers and may remain submerged up to 15 minutes. More vulnerable on land, they tend to remain in the water as much as possible. They use their flat, scaly tail both to signal danger by slapping the surface of the water and as a location for fat storage.

They construct their homes, or "lodges", out of sticks, twigs, rocks, and mud in lakes, streams, and tidal river deltas. These lodges may be surrounded by water, or touching land, including burrows dug into river banks. Beavers are well known for building dams across streams and constructing their lodges in the artificial ponds which form. When building in a pond, the beavers first make a pile of sticks and then eat out one or more underwater entrances and two platforms above the water surface inside the pile. The first is used for drying off. Towards winter, the lodge is often plastered with mud which, when it freezes, has the consistency of concrete. A small air hole is left in the top of the lodge.

Dam-building
The purpose of the dam is to create a deepwater refuge enabling the beaver to escape from predators. When deep water is already present in lakes, rivers, or larger streams, the beaver may dwell in a bank burrow and bank lodge with an underwater entrance. The beaver dam is constructed using branches from trees the beavers cut down, as well as rocks, grass, and mud. Where naturally-occurring woody material is limiting, beavers may build their dams largely of rocks. The inner bark, twigs, shoots, and leaves of such trees are also an important part of the beaver's diet. The trees are cut down using their strong incisor teeth. Their front paws are used for digging and carrying and placing materials. The sound of running water dictates when and where a beaver builds its dam. Besides providing a safe home for the beaver, beaver ponds also provide habitat for waterfowl, fish, and other aquatic animals. Their dams help reduce soil erosion and can help reduce flooding. However, beaver dams are not permanent and depend on the beavers' continued presence for their maintenance. Beavers generally concentrate on building and repairing dams in the fall in preparation for the coming winter. In northern areas, they often do not repair breaches in the dam made by otters, and sometimes breach the dam themselves and lower the water level in the pond to create more breathing space under the ice or get easier access to trees below the dam. In a 1988 study in Alberta, Canada, no beavers repaired "sites of water loss" during the winter. Of 178 sites of water loss, beavers repaired 78 when water was opened, and did not repair 68. The rest were partially repaired.

Beavers are best known for their dam-building. They maintain their pond-habitat by reacting quickly to the sound of running water, and damming it up with tree branches and mud. Early ecologists believed that this dam-building was an amazing feat of architectural planning, indicative of the beaver's high intellect. This theory was tested when a recording of running water was played in a field near a beaver pond. Although it was on dry land, the beaver covered the tape player with branches and mud. The largest beaver dam is 2790 ft in length—more than half a mile long—and was discovered via satellite imagery in 2007. It is located on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park in northern Alberta and is more than twice the width of the Hoover Dam which spans 1244 ft.

Normally, the purpose of the dam is to provide water around their lodges that is deep enough that it does not freeze solid in winter. The dams also flood areas of surrounding forest, giving the beaver safe access to an important food supply, which is the leaves, buds, and inner bark of growing trees. In colder climates where their pond freezes over, beavers also build a food cache from this food resource. To form the cache, beavers collect food in late fall in the form of tree branches, storing them under water (usually by sticking the sharp chewed base of the branches into the mud on the pond bottom), where they can be accessed through the winter. Often, the pile of food branches projects above the pond and collects snow. This insulates the water below it and keeps the pond open at that location. The frozen combination of branches and ice is known as a cap, sealing the food cache. Beavers often maintain an underwater entrance to their dam, and they can access their food cache from their lodge by swimming under the ice. In warmer climes, a winter food store is less common.

Muskrats have been thought to steal food from beaver lodges, but seemingly cooperative relationships exist, with beavers allowing muskrats to reside in their lodge if they gather fresh reeds.

Canals
Another component to the beaver's habitat is the canal. Canals are used to float logs to a pond, and dams may also be used to maintain the water levels in these canals. Several land trails can extend from the canals. Despite being widespread in some beaver-inhabited areas, beaver canals and their environmental effects are much less studied than beaver dams. Beaver primarily develop canals to increase accessibility of river resources, facilitate transport of acquired resources, and to decrease the risk of predation. Beaver canals can be over 0.5 km in length. Beavers build canals by pushing through soil and vegetation using their forelimbs.

It has been hypothesized that beavers' canals are not only transportation routes to extend foraging, but also an extension of their "central place" around the lodge and/or food cache. A 2012 study of beavers' mark on the landscape found that cut stumps were negatively related to distance from beaver canals, but not to the central body of water. This finding suggested that beavers may consider the canals to be part of their "central place" as far as foraging activity is concerned.

Social behavior
Communication is highly developed in beaver, including scent marking, vocalization, and tail slapping. Beaver deposit castoreum on piles of debris and mud called scent mounds, which are usually placed on or near lodges, dams, and trails less than a meter from water. Over 100 of such mounds can be constructed within one territory. Beaver colonies with close neighbors constructed more "scent mounds" than did isolated colonies, and the number of scent mounds at each active lodge is correlated with the distance to the nearest occupied lodge.

Although seven vocal sounds have been described for beaver, most zoologists recognize only three: a whine, hiss, and growl. Vocalizations and tail slapping may be used to beg for food, signal to family members to warn of predators, or to drive away or elicit a response from predators.

Beavers usually mate for life, forming familial colonies. Beaver "kits" are born precocious and with a developed coat. The young beaver "kits" typically remain with their parents up to two years. Kits express some adult behaviors, but require a long period in the family to develop their dam construction skills, and other abilities required for independent life.

Diet
Beavers are herbivorous generalists with sophisticated foraging preferences. Beavers consume a mix of herbaceous and woody plants, which varies considerably in both composition and species diversity by region and season. They prefer aspen and other poplars, but also take birch, maple, willow, alder, black cherry, red oak, beech, ash, hornbeam, and occasionally pine and spruce. They also eat cattails, water lilies, and other aquatic vegetation, especially in the early spring. Contrary to widespread belief, they do not eat fish.

Beavers select food based on taste, coarse physical shape, and odor. Beavers feed on wood, bark, cambium, branches, twigs, roots, buds, leaves, stems, sprouts, and in some cases, the sap and storax of pine and sweetgum.

When herbaceous plants are actively growing, they make up much of the beaver's diet. In the winter, beavers switch to woody plants and the food they have stored over the winter. The protein to calorie ratio of a beaver's diet is 40 mg/calorie in summer and 8 mg/calorie for the rest of the year. In northern latitudes, the water lilies Nymphaea and Nuphar are the most important herbaceous component. The rhizomes are stored in the food cache and remain actively growing.

Willow is an important protein source and is likely to be available for the longest period of time in a beaver's habitat especially in the far north. When available, aspen and poplar are preferred over willow. Conifers are also cut or gnawed by beavers, and used for food and/or building material.

Beavers do not necessarily use the same trees as construction material and as food. Inedible material is more likely to be used as the cap of a beaver family's food cache, the upper part which is frozen in the ice, while the cache itself is composed of edible, high quality branches, which remain unfrozen and accessible.

Beavers avoid red maple, which can be the only tree left standing at the edges of some beaver ponds.

The beaver's gut microbiome is complex and specialized for a wood-heavy diet, sharing a number of similarities with other mammalian herbivores. However the microbial community in the beaver shows less taxonomic diversity than the "typical" mammalian gut. The major OTUs are Bacteroidota and Bacillota.

Predators
Common natural predators include coyotes, wolves, and mountain lions. American black bears may also prey on beavers if the opportunity arises, often by smashing their paws into the beavers' lodges. Perhaps due to differing habitat preferences, grizzly bears were not known to hunt beavers in Denali National Park, Alaska. Less significant predators include wolverines, which may attack a rare beaver of up to adult size, and Canada lynx, bobcats, and foxes (predators of kits or very sick or injured animals, rather than full-grown beavers due to their increasingly smaller size). American alligators, which only minimally co-exist in the wild with beavers, also seldom threaten them. Both golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) and bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) may on occasion prey on a beaver, most likely only small kits. Despite repeated claims, no evidence shows that North American river otters are typically predators of beavers but anecdotally may take a rare beaver kit.

Reproduction
North American beavers have one litter per year, coming into estrus for only 12 to 24 hours, between late December and May but peaking in January. Unlike most other rodents, beaver pairs are monogamous, staying together for multiple breeding seasons. Gestation averages 128 days and they have a range of three to six kits per litter (usually 4-5). Most beavers do not reproduce until they are three years of age, but about 20% of two-year-old females reproduce.

Differences from European beaver

Although North American beavers are superficially similar to the European beaver (Castor fiber), several important differences exist between the two species. North American beavers tend to be slightly smaller, with smaller, more rounded heads; shorter, wider muzzles; thicker, longer, and darker underfur; wider, more oval-shaped tails; and longer shin bones, allowing them a greater range of bipedal locomotion than the European species. North American beavers have shorter nasal bones than their European relatives, with the widest point being at the middle of the snout for the former, and in the tip for the latter. The nasal opening for the North American species is square, unlike that of the European species, which is triangular. The foramen magnum is triangular in the North American beaver, and rounded in the European. The anal glands of the North American beaver are smaller and thick-walled with a small internal volume compared to that of the European species. Finally, the guard hairs of the North American beaver have a shorter hollow medulla at their tips. Fur color is also different. Overall, 50% of North American beavers have pale brown fur, 25% are reddish brown, 20% are brown, and 6% are blackish, while in European beavers, 66% have pale brown or beige fur, 20% are reddish brown, nearly 8% are brown, and only 4% have blackish coats.

The two species are not genetically compatible. North American beavers have 40 chromosomes, while European beavers have 48. Also, more than 27 attempts were made in Russia to hybridize the two species, with one breeding between a male North American beaver and a female European resulting in one stillborn kit. These factors make interspecific breeding unlikely in areas where the two species' ranges overlap.

Ecology

The beaver was trapped out and almost extirpated in North America because its fur and castoreum were highly sought after. The beaver furs were used to make clothing and beaver hats. In the United States, extensive trapping began in the early 17th century, with more than 10,000 beaver per year taken for the fur trade in Connecticut and Massachusetts between 1620 and 1630. From 1630 to 1640, around 80,000 beavers were taken annually from the Hudson River and western New York. From 1670 onwards, the Hudson's Bay Company sent two or three trading ships into the bay every year to take furs to England from Canada. Archaeological and historical evidence suggests that beaver ponds created "moth-hole like" habitats in the deciduous forest that dominated eastern North America. This nonforest habitat attracted both Native American and early colonial hunters to the abundant fish, waterfowl, and large game attracted to the riparian clearings created by these aquatic mammals. The first colonial farmers were also attracted to the fertile, flat bottomlands created by the accumulated silt and organic matter in beaver ponds.

As eastern beaver populations were depleted, English, French, and American trappers pushed west. Much of the westward expansion and exploration of North America was driven by the quest for this animal's fur. Before the 1849 California Gold Rush, an earlier, 19th-century California Fur Rush drove the earliest American settlement in that state. During the roughly 30 years (1806–1838) of the era of the mountain man, the West from Missouri to California and from Canada to Mexico was thoroughly explored and the beaver was brought to the brink of extinction.

With protection in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the current beaver population has rebounded to an estimated 10 to 15 million; this is a fraction of the originally estimated 100 to 200 million North American beavers before the days of the fur trade. These animals are considered pests in parts of their range because their dams can cause flooding, or because their habit of felling trees can pose danger to people, as in Charlotte, North Carolina's Park Road Park. Because they are persistent in repairing damage to the dam, they were historically relocated or exterminated. Nonlethal methods of containing beaver-related flooding have been developed. One such flow device has been used by both the Canadian and U.S. governments, called "beaver deceivers" or levelers, invented and pioneered by wildlife biologist Skip Lisle.

The beaver is a keystone species, increasing biodiversity in its territory through creation of ponds and wetlands. As wetlands are formed and riparian habitats enlarged, aquatic plants colonize newly available watery habitat. Insect, invertebrate, fish, mammal, and bird diversities are also expanded. Effects of beaver recolonization on native and non-native species in streams where they have been historically absent, particularly dryland streams, is not well-researched.

As introduced non-native species

In the 1940s, beavers were brought to Tierra del Fuego in southern Chile and Argentina for commercial fur production and introduced near Fagnano Lake. Although the fur enterprise failed, 25 mating pairs of beavers were released into the wild. Having no natural predators in their new environment, they quickly spread throughout the main island, and to other islands in the archipelago, reaching a number of 100,000 individuals within just 50 years. Although they have been considered an invasive species, it has been more recently shown that the beaver have some beneficial ecological effects on native fish and should not be considered wholly detrimental. Although the dominant Lenga beech (Nothofagus pumilio) forest can regenerate from stumps, most of the newly created beaver wetlands are being colonized by the rarer native Antarctic beech (Nothofagus antarctica). It is not known whether the shrubbier Antarctic beech will be succeeded by the originally dominant and larger Lengo beech, however, and the beaver wetlands are readily colonized by non-native plant species. In contrast, areas with introduced beaver were associated with increased populations of the native catadromous puye fish (Galaxias maculatus). Furthermore, the beavers did not seem to have a highly beneficial impact on the exotic brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) which have negative impacts on native stream fishes in the Cape Horn Biosphere Reserve, Chile. They have also been found to cross saltwater to islands northward; and reached the Chilean mainland in the 1990s. On balance, because of their landscape-wide modifications to the Fuegian environment and because biologists want to preserve the unique biota of the region, most favor their removal.

North American beavers were released in Finland in 1937, before it was realized that they formed a separate species; following this, 7 beavers expanded to a population of 12,000 within 64 years. Eurasian beavers had earlier been extirpated from the region, so the release was intended as a reintroduction project. By 1999, it was estimated that 90% of beavers in Finland were the American species. However, the species is not always considered invasive, as in Europe it has a similar keystone effect to European beavers, which have not recolonized the area. The beaver population has been controlled by issuing hunting licenses. A report in 2010 concluded that while the current population of American beavers was not problematic, as the species has larger litters than European beavers and builds somewhat larger dams, it could become a problem if its range continues expanding into Russia, but this does not seem to be taking place.

In Europe, significant invasive populations of Canadian beaver are only present in Finland and Karelia, as the boundary between species has somewhat stabilized, but smaller occurrences have been detected elsewhere. Ephemeral populations of C. canadensis in Germany and Poland were found from the 1950s to 1970s. Zoo escapes in 2006 created a small population of invasive C. canadensis in Luxembourg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Belgium. American beavers have not been detected in Sweden, Norway, or Denmark.

As food
Beaver meat is similar tasting to lean beef, but care must be taken to prevent contamination from the animal's strong castor (musk) gland. It is usually slow-cooked in a broth, and was a valuable food source to Native Americans. Early French Canadian Catholics considered beaver to be "four-legged fish" that could be eaten at Lent.

Symbolism
As one of the national symbols of Canada, the North American beaver is depicted on the Canadian nickel. This beaver was also featured on the first Canadian postage stamp, the Three Penny Beaver, which is considered the first postage stamp to show an animal instead of a head of state. It is also the state animal of Oregon and New York of the United States, and a common school emblem for engineering schools, including the California Institute of Technology, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Alberta as well as the mascot for Oregon State University, Babson College, and the City College of New York. A beaver is featured prominently on the stamp and seal issued to Professional Engineers and Geoscientists by APEGA. It also appears on the back on the state flag of Oregon. The beaver also appears in the coats of arms of the Hudson's Bay Company, University of Toronto, Wilfrid Laurier University, and the London School of Economics.

The beaver is also the symbol of the Royal Canadian Engineers both combat and civil.

Busy beaver is a term in theoretical computer science which refers to a terminating program of a given size that produces the most output possible.

Much of the early economy of New Netherland was based on the beaver fur trade. As such, the seal of New Netherland featured the beaver; likewise, the coats of arms of Albany, New York and New York City included the beaver.

title: North American beaver


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Jasus edwardsii

Jasus edwardsii, the southern rock lobster, red rock lobster, or spiny rock lobster, is a species of spiny lobster found throughout coastal waters of southern Australia and New Zealand including the Chatham Islands. It is commonly called crayfish in Australia and New Zealand and kōura in Māori. They resemble lobsters, but lack the large characteristic pincers on the first pair of walking legs.

Spiny rock lobsters are carnivorous, leaving their rock cover to venture out to feed during the night. They live in and around reefs at depths ranging from 5 - 200 m deep at the continental shelf. They can be dark red and orange above with paler yellowish abdomens or grey-green brown with the paler underside. The more tropical animals tend to have the brighter colours. Adult carapaces can grow up to 230 mm in length and can often exceed 8 kg in underfished areas.

Distribution
Jasus edwardsii is found around most of the coast of New Zealand, including the three main islands, the Three Kings Islands, the Chatham Islands, the Snares Islands, the Bounty Islands, the Antipodes Islands and the Auckland Islands. This last locality is the southernmost place where spiny lobsters occur in the world. In Australia, J. edwardsii is found around the southern coast, from central New South Wales to southern Western Australia, including Tasmania.

Life cycle
Adults are sexually mature at between 7 and 11 years, mating occurs during late summer and autumn. Eggs develop on females, which carry between 100,000 and 500,000 eggs which are fertilised and held below the tail on hairs on the female's abdomen. The eggs develop here for 3 to 5 months. Eggs then metamorphose into naupliosoma larva which leave the female and are free swimming plankton which migrate towards the surface where they moult into a phyllosoma larva.

The rock lobster has among the longest larval development known for any marine creature. The phyllosoma (Greek for "leaf-like") larvae spend between 9 months to 2 years in oceanic waters before metamorphosing to the post larval stage, known as the puerulus, which then swims towards the coast to settle.

Size
Maximum total body length is 58 cm (males), and 43 cm (females); maximum carapace lengths 23.5 cm (males), 18 cm (females); minimum legal carapace lengths vary depending on location. In some areas, Jasus edwardsii are frequently harvested weighing over 4.5kg.

As food

Jasus edwardsii is prized by consumers in Oceania, China and South-East Asia for its sweet, succulent flesh. Like true lobster, it can be served boiled, steamed, grilled or raw. A$250 million worth are harvested every year in Australia alone.

Aquaculture
The potential for Jasus edwardsii to become an aquaculture species in New Zealand is high. Although not commercially farmed yet, this species of lobster has a wild seed stock available and already some commercial companies are harvesting and on growing this seed stock. The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) has reared individuals from egg to adult, showing that it is possible to grow this species in captivity, although it takes between 200 and 400 days to reach maturity.

This species is also a potential aquaculture species in Australia. There is already a well established export of wild rock lobster from Australia, especially Southern Australia which currently lands just over 3000 tonnes a year. An aquaculture of this species would serve to bulk up the wild catch and add value with high quality grown lobsters.

South Australia currently does have limited aquaculture of Jasus edwardsii, keeping legal sized individuals from the fishery in cages in Kangaroo Island to make them available in the off season, ensuring a year-round supply to market, although no aquaculture from juveniles or eggs is done yet.

Food
NIWA used primarily brine shrimp to feed the juvenile lobsters, but little is known about a preferred food source. Chopped up mussel flesh has been used previously in Japan. Both these techniques carry some potential disadvantages – brine shrimp can introduce disease, and mussels deteriorate once introduced to the water, giving bacteria an environment to grow on. A study has shown that mussels provide the best food along with a carbohydrate source in the form of agar, allowing faster grow rates in the lobster.

Techniques
The most promising technique for aquaculture in New Zealand is sea cages. These have been successfully used internationally to grow similar species. In Vietnam sea cages are used to grow large amounts of Panulirus ornatus (ornate spiny lobster) in excess of 1,500 t valued at US$90 million. This species is also commercially cultured in Indonesia and the Philippines.

There are three main types of sea cage – floating, wooden fixed, and submerged.
 * Floating cages as the name suggests are floating, nets are supported by floating buoys which are connected using a frame. They are often far above the seabed in waters 10 - 20 m deep in calm bays. This type of cage is used in Nga Trang Bay in Vietnam. Wooden fixed cages are near the bottom, or on the bottom of the sea and each net is attached to salt resistant wooden stakes driven into the ground in squares with nets between them. These may be on the seabed with sand covering the bottom of the cage. These cages are used in Van Phong Bay in Vietnam.
 * Submerged cages are sealed cubic cages with feeding holes in one end that are attached to the seabed. Similar to crab and crayfish pots used to catch adults. These cages are used in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam. Often the materials used to make these cages are sourced locally, in the form of nets from fishing, wood and other framing materials and floats.
 * There has been experimental work done in New Zealand with suspended cages which resulted in good grow rates and survivability as long as suitable sites are picked.

Sites
The sites for lobster farms should be in shallow water (not exceeding 20 m) and sheltered from currents and swell as well as potential strong winds. Often behind islands and in sheltered bays are the best sites as the sea cages are easily damaged by swell and high winds. Also the type of sea cage affects the site, floating and submerged cages can be in deeper water, and wooden fixed cages have to be in water only a few metres deep.

Seed stock
Due to the time it takes larva to develop (up to two years) the most cost-effective method of lobster aquaculture is to harvest wild pueruli. This has been done in Vietnam and has been done previously in New Zealand. This would allow a faster grow time to adults as the caught juvenile will have already had months of growth before being put in cages for aquaculture. There is a good source of pueruli in New Zealand (in places like Gisborne) and research into effective catching of pueruli is currently being done. Research suggests a 'bottle brush' collector as the most effective way, a mesh material attached to a PVC core resembling a bottle brush.

The maximum sustainable yield of this seed stock is unknown and research will have to be carried out to determine this before an industry can be founded.

Market
This species provides New Zealand with a high price point aquaculture species in an industry dominated by low price species. New Zealand baited pot wild lobsters earn approximately $180 million per annum which is limited by the Quota Management System to a total allowable commercial catch (TACC) of 2,981 metric tonnes.

title: Jasus edwardsii


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Abrar-ul-Haq

Abrar-ul-Haq is a Pakistani singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and a politician.

His debut 1995 album Billo De Ghar sold over 40.3million albums worldwide, which made him a household name and granted him the title of "King of Pakistani pop".

Abrar-ul-Haq is the founder and chairman of Sahara for Life Trust, a private organization that has been providing health services to the people of Narowal and surrounding areas since 1998. He was Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's candidate for the seat of National Assembly from constituency NA-78 (Narowal-II) in the 2018 Pakistani general election. On 15 November 2019, he was appointed Chairman of the Pakistan Red Crescent Society (PRCS).

Early life and education
Abrar-ul-Haq was born in Faisalabad, Punjab to a civil servant father, and is the youngest among eight siblings. He belongs to Punjabi Jat family of the Kahlon clan and his elder brother Maj (r) Israr-ul-Haq Kahlon is an active politician in Narowal.

He was initially educated at the Junior Model School, Gujrat later graduating from the Sir Syed College, Rawalpindi before getting his Master's degree in social sciences from the Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

Academic career
Abrar-ul-Haq served as a teacher in Aitchison College, Lahore for a brief period of time but quit the faculty when he opted for a music career.

Music career
His first album as singer was Billo De Ghar, which was released in 1995.

Controversies
Abrar-ul-Haq's songs have been a subject of controversy in Pakistan. After the release of the hit song Billo De Ghar in 1995, Urdu newspapers began quoting Islamic scholars of Lahore who were of the opinion that the song was describing a man falling in love with a prostitute and wanting to marry her. Upon the formation of Nawaz Sharif's PML-N majority government after the 1997 election, the song was banned from state-owned TV and radio channels.

In the early 2000s, his song Nach Punjaban was met with opposition from those who thought the casual use of the word Punjaban was a demeaning way to address Punjabi women, eventually resulting in Abrar-ul-Haq re-recording a version of the song using the word Majajan instead.

In 2007, the Supreme Court of Pakistan summoned the singer for an explanation of the song Parveen from the album Nara Sada Ishq Aye, alleging that it used the name Parveen in a derogatory manner that would hurt the sentiments of society.

In 2019, his song Chamkeeli was the subject of a claim in a civil court in Lahore, with the courts requesting that the song be banned and removed from YouTube, alleging that it was humiliating and insulting to both men and women.

Sahara for Life Trust
Abrar-ul-Haq is the Founder and Chairman of Sahara for Life Trust (SLT), a post he has held since its inception in 1998. SLT is a private organization promoting health and education in remote areas. SAHARA stands for: "Services Aimed at Health and Awakening in Remote Areas". SLT is recognized and registered as a leading charitable organization in Pakistan, the U.K, and the U.S. It is also certified by the Pakistan Center for Philanthropy (PCP) and the U.N. (under the charter of DESA). SLT has been involved in numerous relief and rehabilitation efforts over the years. In 2003, SLT established its first large-scale general hospital in Narowal, Pakistan. The Sughra Shafi Medical Hospital Complex is a PMDC-certified general hospital that provides a wide range of healthcare services to the people of Narowal and its surrounding areas. The location of this hospital also reduced the travel time for patients in critical condition who were unable to travel to major cities in a timely manner, thus saving lives.

Youth Parliament of Pakistan
In 2006, he founded the Youth Parliament of Pakistan (YPP), a non-profit, non-political, and non-religious program.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (2011-2023)
In December 2011 Abrar-ul-Haq joined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

In 2012, he was appointed as President of the Youth Wing of PTI. In 2013, he was appointed as PTI's Secretary of Foreign Affairs.

He ran for a seat on the National Assembly as PTI's Candidate for Constituency NA-117 (Narowal-III) in the 2013 Pakistani general elections receiving 51,359 votes and won to PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal.

He was again nominated as PTI's Candidate for National Assembly Constituency NA-78 (Narowal-II) for the 2018 Pakistani general elections but received 88,250 votes and lost to PML-N's Ahsan Iqbal.

On 15 November 2019, he was appointed Pakistan Red Crescent Society's 16th chairman and assumed office on 27 December 2019.

In 2023, he left the PTI and quit politics following the controversy surrounding the May 9 riots.

Honours and recognition

 * Tamgha-e-Imtiaz (Medal of Excellence) received from the President of Pakistan on 23 March 2005, for public service / music / philanthropy.
 * Sitara-e-Eisaar received from the President of Pakistan on 30 June 2006, for outstanding humanitarian relief work during the 8 October 2005 devastating earthquake in Pakistan.
 * Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) – Appointed Humanitarian Ambassador of the OIC on 11 January 2011.

title: Abrar-ul-Haq


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Municipal Affairs Bureau

The Municipal Affairs Bureau (Instituto para os Assuntos Municipais) of Macau is an administrative body without political powers responsible for providing certain civic services for the special administrative region and is the successor to the Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais) which was abolished in 2019. The latter was formed to handle the functions of the former municipalities of Macau and their councils and assemblies that were abolished on 1 January 2002, slightly more than two years after Macau became a special administrative region (SAR) of the People's Republic of China. The body is under the Secretariat for Administration and Justice of the Macau government.

History
Following the transfer of sovereignty over Macau from Portugal to China in 1999, the Portuguese administrative divisions of municipalities (concelhos) and parishes (freguesias) in Macau were kept provisionally in place: the provisional municipal council of Macau, the provisional municipal council of Ilhas, and the provisional municipal assemblies of each municipality.

On 31 December 2001, all the provisional organs were dissolved and the new Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau (Instituto para os Assuntos Cívicos e Municipais [IACM], 民政總署) took on the roles of the provisional municipal councils, starting from 1 January 2002, under the Secretariat for Administration and Justice of the Macau government.

The IACM was given a logo based on the Chinese Han character, for "civilian".

In 2018, the Macau legislative assembly passed Law No. 9/2018 which abolished the IACM and created the Municipal Affairs Bureau in its place. All the functions of the former were transferred to the new bureau and a new 25-member municipal affairs advisory council was established. This came into effect on 1 January 2019.

title: Municipal Affairs Bureau


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User talk:Ryoaska

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title: User talk:Ryoaska


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Madunda

Madunda is a small settlement in the Ludewa District, Njombe region, Tanzania. It is surrounded by the Livingstone Mountains, from which Lake Malawi can be seen.

The Madunda Secondary School, a boarding school based on parents' initiative, is based there. It is located close to the Catholic church. The school and the region have been supported by the Afrikahilfe Schondorf organisation, which has supplied goods for the school and a dispensary which is run by the local church.

title: Madunda


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M-class submarine

Two classes and a one-ship class of submarine are known as the M class

 * Soviet M-class submarine, a class of 148 Soviet Navy submarines built between 1933 and 1947
 * British M-class submarine, a class of 3 Royal Navy submarine monitors built in 1917 and 1918
 * USS M-1 (SS-47), a one-off United States submarine launched in 1915

title: M-class submarine


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A View from the Bridge

A View from the Bridge is a play by American playwright Arthur Miller. It was first staged on September 29, 1955, as a one-act verse drama with A Memory of Two Mondays at the Coronet Theatre on Broadway. The run was unsuccessful, and Miller subsequently revised and extended the play to contain two acts; this version is the one with which audiences are most familiar. The two-act version premiered in the New Watergate theatre club in London's West End under the direction of Peter Brook on October 11, 1956.

The play is set in 1950s America, in an Italian-American neighborhood near the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. It employs a chorus and narrator in the character of Alfieri. Eddie, the tragic protagonist, has an improper love for, and almost an obsession with, Catherine, his wife Beatrice's orphaned niece, so he does not approve of her courtship of Beatrice's cousin Rodolpho. Miller's interest in writing about the world of the New York docks originated with an unproduced screenplay that he developed with Elia Kazan in the early 1950s (titled The Hook) that addressed corruption on the Brooklyn docks. Kazan later directed On the Waterfront, which dealt with the same subject.

Synopsis
The action is narrated by Alfieri, who was raised in 1900s Italy but is now working as an American lawyer, thereby representing the "Bridge" between the two cultures.

Act 1
In the opening speech, Alfieri describes the violent history of the small Brooklyn community of Red Hook and tells us that the second-generation Sicilians are now more civilized, more American, and are prepared to "settle for half" and let the law handle their disputes. But there are exceptions, and he then begins to narrate the story of Eddie Carbone, an Italian American longshoreman who lives with his wife Beatrice and her orphaned niece Catherine.

Eddie is a good man who, although ostensibly protective and fatherly towards Catherine, harbors a growing passion for her as she approaches her 18th birthday. We learn that he has not had sex with his wife for nearly three months. Catherine is studying to become a stenographer and Eddie objects to her taking a job she has been offered until she finishes her coursework, expressing a dislike for the way she dresses and the interest she is beginning to show in men. Beatrice is more supportive of Catherine's ventures and persuades Eddie to let her take the job.

Eddie returns home one afternoon with the news that Beatrice's two cousins, brothers Marco and Rodolpho, have safely arrived in New York as illegal immigrants. He has agreed to house them saying that he is honored to be able to help family. Marco is quiet and thoughtful, possessing remarkable strength, whereas Rodolpho is more unconventional, with plans to make a career singing in America. Marco has a family starving in Italy and plans to return after working illegally for several years, whereas Rodolpho intends to stay. Although Eddie, Beatrice, and Catherine are at first excellent hosts, cracks appear when Rodolpho and Catherine begin dating.

Eddie convinces himself that Rodolpho is homosexual and is only expressing interest in Catherine so he can marry her and gain status as a legal citizen. He confronts Catherine with his beliefs and she turns to Beatrice for advice. Beatrice, starting to realize Eddie's true feelings, tells her that she should marry Rodolpho and move out. In the meantime, Eddie turns to Alfieri, hoping for help from the law. However, Alfieri tells him that the only recourse he has is to report Rodolpho and Marco as undocumented. Seeing no solution to his problem, Eddie becomes increasingly desperate and takes his anger out on Rodolpho and, in teaching him to box, "accidentally" injures him. Marco reacts by quietly threatening Eddie, showing his strength by holding a heavy chair above Eddie's head with one hand and "smiling with triumph".

Act 2
A few months have passed and Eddie reaches a breaking point when he discovers that Catherine and Rodolpho have slept together and are intent on marrying. Drunk, he kisses Catherine and then attempts to prove that Rodolpho is gay by suddenly and passionately kissing him. After a violent confrontation, Eddie orders Rodolpho to leave the apartment.

Eddie visits Alfieri and insists that the kiss has proved Rodolpho is gay and that he is only marrying Catherine for citizenship, but once again Alfieri says the law cannot help. Out of desperation, Eddie phones immigration services but in the meantime, Beatrice has arranged for Marco and Rodolpho to move in with two other undocumented immigrants in the flat above. Eddie learns that Catherine and Rodolpho have arranged to marry within a week and about the two new immigrants that have moved into the building and, with both anger and fright, frantically urges Catherine and Beatrice to move them out. When immigration officials arrive and arrest Marco, Rodolpho, and the two other immigrants, Eddie pretends that the arrest comes as a complete surprise to him, but Beatrice and Marco see through this. Marco spits in Eddie's face in front of everyone and accuses Eddie of killing his starving children. Eddie tries to convince the neighborhood of his innocence but they turn away from him.

Alfieri visits Marco and Rodolpho in custody, obtaining their release on bail until their hearing comes up. Alfieri explains that Rodolpho will be able to stay once he has married Catherine but warns Marco that he will have to return to Italy. Vengeful, Marco confronts Eddie publicly on his release, and Eddie turns on him with a knife, demanding that he take back his accusations and restore his honor. In the ensuing scuffle, Eddie is stabbed with his own knife and dies, as his stunned family and neighbors stand around.

When he witnesses Eddie's death, Alfieri trembles because he realizes that, even though it was wrong, something "perversely pure" calls to him and he is filled with admiration. But, he tells the audience, settling for half-measures is better, it must be, and so he mourns Eddie with a sense of alarm at his own feelings.

Characters and cast
Notable casts

Characters
 * Eddie Carbone - A Longshoreman who is married to Beatrice while pining for his niece Catherine.
 * Beatrice - The warm and caring wife of Eddie Carbone and aunt of Catherine.
 * Catherine - Catherine is a beautiful, smart, young Italian girl who is very popular among the boys in the community.
 * Alfieri - An Italian-American lawyer. Alfieri is the narrator of the story.
 * Marco - Marco is a hard-working Italian cousin to Beatrice. He is a powerful, sympathetic leader.
 * Rodolpho - Beatrice's young, blonde cousin from Italy. Rodolpho prefers singing jazz to working on the ships. He cooks, sews, and loves to dance.
 * Louis - A Longshoreman and friend of Eddie's. Louis hangs out with Mike outside Eddie's home.
 * Mike - A Longshoreman and friend of Eddie's. Mike is often seen with Louis outside the Carbone home.
 * Tony - A friend of the Carbones. He assists Marco and Rodolpho off the ship and brings them safely to Beatrice's home.
 * Two Immigration Officers - Two officers from the Immigration Bureau who come to look for Marco and Rodolpho at Eddie's request.

Premieres
The one-act, verse version of A View from the Bridge opened on Broadway on September 29, 1955, at the Coronet Theatre (now the Eugene O'Neill Theatre); Marilyn Monroe was in the audience. It ran for 149 performances. This production was directed by Martin Ritt and the cast included Van Heflin as Eddie and Eileen Heckart as Beatrice.

Its two-act version premiered in London's West End under the direction of Peter Brook. It opened at the New Watergate theatre club (currently Harold Pinter Theatre) on October 11, 1956, and the cast included Richard Harris as Louis and Anthony Quayle as Eddie, with lighting design by Lee Watson.

Revivals in New York
Dustin Hoffman acted as assistant director and stage manager for a successful 1965 production of the play Off-Broadway at the Sheridan Square Playhouse in New York City. The play's director, Ulu Grosbard, suggested to Arthur Miller that Hoffman would one day make a great Willy Loman (a role that Hoffman would later play to great acclaim). Miller was unimpressed and later wrote "My estimate of Grosbard all but collapsed as, observing Dustin Hoffman's awkwardness and his big nose that never seemed to get unstuffy, I wondered how the poor fellow imagined himself a candidate for any kind of acting career."

Another production in New York opened on February 3, 1983, at the Ambassador Theatre, with Tony Lo Bianco as Eddie and directed by Arvin Brown. It ran for 149 performances.

An award-winning production in New York opened on December 14, 1997, at the Criterion Center Stage Right and subsequently transferred to the Neil Simon Theatre. It ran for 239 performances. It was directed by Michael Mayer and the cast included Anthony LaPaglia, Allison Janney, and Brittany Murphy. The production won the Tony Award for: Best Revival of a Play; Best Leading Actor in a Play (LaPaglia); it also won Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Revival, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play (Janney), and Outstanding Direction of a Play.

A revival at the Cort Theatre on Broadway in 2009 starred Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Hecht. The limited, 14-week engagement, directed by Gregory Mosher, began with previews on December 28, 2009, and officially opened on January 24, 2010. It ran until April 4, 2010. Johansson won a Tony Award for her performance.

From October 2015 through February 2016, a production of the play that originated at the Young Vic Theatre in London in 2014 ran on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre featuring its original London cast. It won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play; the director, Ivo van Hove won the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play.

Revivals in London
The National Theatre of Great Britain staged a production in 1987 at the Cottesloe Theatre. It was directed by Alan Ayckbourn and Michael Gambon gave an acclaimed performance as Eddie. Time Out called the production "near perfect" and the New Statesman called it "one of the finest events to be presented at the National Theatre since it moved to the South Bank."

Another West End production was staged at the Duke of York's Theatre, opening in previews on January 24, 2009, and officially on February 5. It ran until May 16, 2009. It was directed by Lindsay Posner, with Ken Stott as Eddie, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Beatrice, Hayley Atwell as Catherine and Harry Lloyd as Rodolpho.

, Belgian director Ivo van Hove and lead actors Mark Strong (as Eddie), Phoebe Fox (Catherine), and Nicola Walker (Beatrice) revived the play to huge success at the Young Vic. This revival won three Laurence Olivier Awards in April 2015, for Best Actor (Mark Strong), Best Revival, and Best Director (Ivo van Hove). The Young Vic production transferred to Broadway with its British cast intact.

In 2024, Lindsay Posner directed Dominic West as Eddie and Kate Fleetwood as Beatrice. Callum Scott Howells plays the role of Rodolpho. This production began at Theatre Royal Bath Ustinov Studio, before transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

Other revivals
In 1992, the Royal Exchange, Manchester staged a production directed by Greg Hersov with Jonathan Hackett, Michael Sheen and Kate Byers, the same year that the Royal Theatre Northampton produced an acclaimed production directed by Michael Napier-Brown, designed by Ray Lett and a cast featuring David Hargreaves (Eddie), Kathrine Schlesinger, Nicola Scott, Richard Harradine, Colin Atkins and Duncan Law.

After the Ivo van Hove 2015 production closed on Broadway, it was restaged by the Centre Theatre Group of Los Angeles with a new cast that included Frederick Weller (Eddie), Andrus Nichols (Beatrice), Catherine Combs (Catherine), Alex Esola (Marco), and David Register (Rodolpho); this cast then toured to the Kennedy Center in Washington. In 2017, van Hove directed the play at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Combs and Nichols reprised their roles, joined by Ian Bedford as Eddie. In 2023 the Chichester Festival Theatre staged a production with Jonathan Slinger as Eddie, Nancy Crane as Alfieri, Kirsty Bushell as Beatrice, Rachelle Diedericks as Catherine, and Luke Newberry as Rodolpho.

Film
Italian film director Luchino Visconti directed a stage version of the play in Italy in 1958. The plot of his film Rocco and His Brothers (Rocco e i suoi fratelli), made in 1960, has many affinities with A View from the Bridge.

A French-Italian film A View from the Bridge was released in February 1962. Directed by Sidney Lumet, the film starred Raf Vallone and Maureen Stapleton as Eddie and Beatrice, with Carol Lawrence as Catherine. The film was the first time that a kiss between men was shown on screen in America, albeit in this case it is intended as an accusation of being gay, rather than a romantic expression. In a major change to the plot of the play, Eddie commits suicide after being publicly beaten by Marco.

Television
On 4 April 1966, ITV aired A View from the Bridge as its ITV Play of the Week, of which no copies survive. Vallone also played Eddie in this version.

In 1986, the BBC aired a TV dramatisation of the play produced by Geoff Wilson.

Opera
Renzo Rossellini, the brother of film director Roberto Rossellini, was the first to adapt the play into an opera with his Uno sguardo dal ponte, which premiered at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in 1961.

In 1999, another operatic version, with music by William Bolcom and a libretto by Arthur Miller, premiered at Lyric Opera of Chicago starring Kim Josephson as Eddie Carbone. The work was performed subsequently at the Metropolitan Opera in 2002, again at the Washington National Opera in 2007, and by Vertical Player Repertory Opera in 2009, starring William Browning as Eddie. The opera was first performed in Europe at Theater Hagen in 2003 in German translation. The first English (original) language version produced in Europe opened at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma in Rome on January 18, 2011.

Radio
L.A. Theatre Works released a radio adaptation of the play in 1998 featuring Ed O'Neill.

BBC Radio 3 produced a radio adaptation starring Alfred Molina, which was first broadcast on October 18, 2015, and then again on May 14, 2017. For his work on the production, Molina was awarded the BBC Audio Drama Award for Best Actor.

title: A View from the Bridge