After we look back on the first 9 months of 2008, we can see that only exporters of processed chicken and seafood products have directly benefited so far from the Japan-Thailand free trade agreement, say experts. Co-operative programs involving various sectors in the two countries have yet to start, said speakers at a Foreign Ministry conference on the first anniversary of the Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA).

Thai meat and seafood exports to Japan rose 36% year-on-year to 30 billion baht in the first nine months of 2008. Processed chicken and fish exporters have eagerly sought to take advantage of the trade pact. Seventy-nine percent of processed shrimp exporters and 80% of black tiger prawn exporters have applied for benefits, Khun Rangsit Phusiripinyo, an official with the Agricultural Fiscal Policy Office, said.

Today the Bangkok Post reports that shrimpers have suggested the industry cut production by between 10% and 20% next year to match expected slow demand from major buyers overseas.

Somsak Paneetatyasai, the president of the Thai Shrimp Association, said the poor economy would force importers to keep lower stocks. The result could be lower prices for Thai shrimp, especially if the local industry still sticks with its target to produce 500,000 tonnes of shrimp next year. Next year's production should be slashed by 20% at maximum and export volume should not exceed 350,000 tonnes, or 50,000 tonnes lower than this year's estimate, he said.

The cuts are to prevent further falls in shrimp prices, which have dropped steadily this year. The price is 115 baht per kilogramme (50 shrimp), down 15% from the same period last year. "If the market improves, farmers will be able to build up supplies quickly as the harvesting period of shrimp is only four months," he said.

A Cornell study reports that as a result of this warming, which has caused Arctic freshwater ice to melt and flow southward, the ranges of some cold-water, northern marine species have been moving down the North American coast -- a counterintuitive finding.

The paleo-climate record shows very rapid periods of cooling in the past, when temperatures have dropped by as much as 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius) in a matter of years to decades, but "the rate of warming we are seeing [now] is unprecedented in human history," said Cornell oceanographer Charles Greene, the lead author of the study, published in the November issue of the journal Ecology (Vol. 89, No. 11).

During the past 50 years, melting Arctic ice sheets and glaciers have periodically released cold, low-salt water from the Arctic Ocean into the Arctic Ocean. This has led to dramatic ecosystem shifts as far south as North Carolina and extensive geographic range shifts of many plant and animal species, he said. One microscopic algal species from the Pacific Ocean, not seen in the North Atlantic for over 800,000 years, has reinvaded the North Atlantic from the Arctic Ocean during the past decade.