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How the demise of the shark has led to our oceans becoming packed with sardines
The world’s oceans are increasingly over-crowded with sardines, researchers say. In the last 100 years, the number of small fish - such as pilchards, herrings, anchovies, sprats and sardines - has more than doubled, according to a study by University of British Columbia researchers.
The rise is caused by a major decline in big ‘predator fish’ such as sharks, tuna and cod due to overfishing. Without the natural hunters to keep numbers under control, the population of smaller, plankton-feeding fish has boomed.
Predatory fish such as cod, tuna, and groupers have declined by two-thirds over the past 100 years, while small forage fish such as sardine, anchovy and capelin have more than doubled over the same period, according to
Led by Prof. Villy Christensen of UBC’s Fisheries Centre, a team of scientists used more than 200 marine ecosystem models from around the world and extracted more than 68,000 estimates of fish biomass from 1880 to 2007. They presented the findings at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC.
Their finding of the simultaneous decline of predatory fish and increase of forage fish provides the strongest evidence to date that humans are indeed “fishing down the food web” and impacting ecosystems globally. The UBC team also found that of the decline in predatory fish population, 54 per cent took place in the last 40 years alone.
However, small 'forage fish', such as anchovy, sardine and capelin, which traditionally are hunted by the predators, have more than doubled over the same period. The scientists who made the discovery say the growing number of small 'forage fish' could have serious consequences further down the food chain - and may increase the risk of algae blooms, where populations of simple algae get out of control and choke the oceans.
There are growing concerns among scientists about the impacts of overfishing. While there are signs that some fish - such as North Atlantic cod - are recovering from years of industrial fishing, some species - such as the giant bluefin tuna prized by Japanese chefs and served in fashionable London restaurants - are now just few years away from extinction.
The new study, carried out by a team of international scientists, is the first world-wide analysis of the impact of commercial fishing since Victorian times. The study confirmed that overfishing has badly hit numbers of larger, predatory fish such as North Atlantic cod, salmon, swordfish, tuna and sharks.
Lead researcher Dr Villy Christensen, of the University of British Columbia, said: 'Overfishing has absolutely had a "when cats are away, the mice will play" effect on our oceans. 'By removing the large, predatory species from the ocean, small forage fish have been left to thrive.'
Most of the smaller species caught by fishermen are turned into meal and oil to use in fish and animal food. Around 80 per cent of forage fish are fed to animals. Only a small fraction is sold in fish markets.
“Currently, forage fish are turned into fishmeal and fish oil and used as feeds for the aquaculture industry, which is in turn becoming increasingly reliant on this feed source,” said Christensen. “If the fishing-down-the-food-web trend continues, our oceans may one day become a ‘farm’ to produce feeds for the aquaculture industry. Goodbye, wild ocean!”
Halting the Loss of Marine Biodiversity
The EU has committed itself to halt the loss of biodiversity by 2010, but it has clearly failed to do so. The Council has recently endorsed a new and ambitious target to halt biodiversity loss and restore, where possible, lost or damaged ecosystems by 2020. Reaching this goal will not be easy, and it will require addressing the problems at the root of the decline in marine biodiversity.
It is therefore a timely coincidence that the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is currently undergoing a reform process. This reform will be key in determining whether European fisheries will contribute to achieving the 2020 biodiversity target, or whether they will continue driving biodiversity loss, as they have done thus far.
The CFP has utterly failed in delivering sustainable European fisheries. 88% of assessed European fish stocks are overfished, and 30% are outside safe biological limits. According to research conducted at the University of Kiel, if fishing was stopped altogether in 2010, more than a fifth of European fish stocks would still not be replenished by 2015.
Against this background, it becomes clear that the reform of the CFP must deliver radical change. In this respect, there are three issues to be highlighted among the key priorities in the reform process.
Environment at the heart of fisheries policy
Healthy seas are a prerequisite for abundant fish stocks and thriving fishing communities. Simply put, there are fish without fisheries, but no fisheries without fish. The CFP must do away with political short-sightedness, which sacrifices the biological basis of fishing activities in order to satisfy short term economic interests or social objectives. Taking action to restore marine ecosystems may create social and economic costs in the short term; however, inaction will put the sustainability of the resource and therefore the future of the fishing sector at risk.
Governance
Most of the CFP’s problems stem from governance failures. The CFP has long suffered from political haggling, with measures of great intricacy being dealt with at the highest political level. As a result, national ministers have traditionally entangled themselves in debates about issues such as the size of nets and annual quotas.
Now, following the Lisbon Treaty, the political process also includes the European Parliament in most decisions related to fisheries management. More politicians are, in short, debating issues that do not require political leadership, which in turn leads to protracted political discussions when it is urgent decisions that are needed to rectify technical problems.
The future CFP must give the Council and the Parliament the task to decide on the overarching principles and long-term objectives of the policy whilst the detailed implementation should be left to the Commission or decentralised management bodies.
Rewarding responsible fishing
At present, the CFP allocates access to fish stocks based on the principle of ‘relative stability’, meaning that access to stocks is allocated based on individual countries’ historical catches. This model needs to be replaced with one that gives preferential access to fishing resources to those operators who better contribute to the environmental and social objectives of the CFP.
Sustainability criteria should also be applied when tackling the deep-rooted problem of fleet overcapacity: the most destructive vessels should be removed from the fleet first. Because overcapacity is one of the main drivers of overfishing, it is key that compulsory fleet reduction targets with associated timelines be put in place.
There are of course multiple issues that have to be addressed in the context of the CFP reform. However, it is only through putting the environment at the heart of fisheries policy that our fish stocks can be revived, that the economic plight of coastal communities can be reversed and that the abundant biodiversity of our seas can be secured.
Protected Habitat Designated For Endangered Beluga whales
Over 3,000 square miles of Alaska marine area will be protected as critical habitat for a population of endangered beluga whales, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service announced recently.
The critical habitat being designated to help the belugas encompasses most of the northern third of Cook Inlet, a glacier-fed saltwater channel that runs from the Anchorage area to the Gulf of Alaska. Also designated as critical habitat is Kachemak Bay, off the fishing town of Homer, and most of the inlet's southwestern coastline, NOAA's Fisheries Service announced.
Those areas are heavily used by the small white whales for congregating and summer feeding, NOAA Fisheries said.
Cook Inlet belugas are famous for swimming in large groups along the coastline of Anchorage and other urbanized areas.
Scientists estimate the inlet population numbered up to 1,300 in the 1980s before numbers crashed in the 1990s due to over-hunting by the area's Alaska Natives, who are allowed under federal law to hunt marine mammals for traditional uses.
Even though hunting nearly ended over the past decade, NOAA analysis found the population continued to falter. Cook Inlet belugas were listed as endangered in 2008. Currently, only 350 Cook Inlet belugas remain, and reproduction has been poor, according to NOAA analysis.
Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat must be designated and protected for any listed species, unless that habitat cannot be identified.
Scientists are still investigating the reasons for the whales' failure to recover population strength. Possible causes include underwater noise from commercial shipping or offshore oil and gas operations, pollutants swept into the inlet by urban runoff or depletion of the region's salmon, which is an important food source for belugas.
Environmentalists were pleased with the habitat designation. "It's an excellent designation. It's good news for the belugas," said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Critical habitat designation will likely mean additional protections to curb water and air pollution, helping local fishermen, tour operators and others, Noblin said. "If we protect Cook Inlet for belugas, we're also protecting it for the people who live around Cook Inlet."
But business groups were unhappy with the designation and the development restrictions that may result from it. The designation of critical habitat, and the endangered listing that underlies it, could constrict oil and gas drilling, commercial fishing, shipping, urban construction and several major projects such as a planned bridge from Anchorage across Knik Inlet, they argue.
"This listing will have no positive effect on the belugas and it'll only have a negative impact on economic activities that have been going on since statehood," said Jason Brune, executive director of the Resource Development Council for Alaska.
Legal Instruments reducing risks from offshore exploration activities and protecting the Mediterranean coasts’ degradation enter into force today
Athens, 24th March 2011 – Two of the most innovative legal instruments for environmental protection in the Mediterranean, the Offshore and the Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Protocols of the Barcelona Convention(1) will enter into force today.
Maria Luisa Silva Mejias, UNEP/MAP /Barcelona Convention Executive Secretary and Coordinator said: “The entry into force of these two Protocols provides the Mediterranean region with unique and powerful legal instruments to prevent and respond to environmental threats linked to offshore platforms and coastal degradation.
These developments will allow Mediterranean countries to activate a regional response mechanism in case an accident similar to the one in the Gulf of Mexico would happen, and will also allow for better preparedness and protection of our coasts against climate variability”.
The Offshore Protocol(2) aims at establishing an effective management system to protect the Mediterranean Sea from pollution resulting from exploration and exploitation of the continental shelf, the seabed and its subsoil, and organise a mutual assistance in cases of emergency. The Protocol establishes a system of authorization, monitoring and strict liability in case of damage, with a view to limit impact on natural resources, biodiversity and population.
The ICZM Protocol(3), is a key tool for sustainable coastal development, as it provides an effective way of ensuring that human actions are undertaken with a concern for balancing economic, social and environmental goals and priorities in a long-term perspective. It also contains useful and innovative tools to help states in addressing threats to coastal areas such as the 100 meters no-building line, strategic environmental impact assessments, carrying-capacity assessments and participatory planning approaches.
The Mediterranean Action Plan is UNEP’s flagship Regional Seas Programme. In spite of the difficulties and differences prevailing in the Mediterranean, for more than 35 years all the countries in the region have continuously cooperated in the framework of the Mediterranean Action Plan/Barcelona Convention for the sustainable development of the Mediterranean Sea and Coastal Region.
“The need and commitment to continue and deepen this cooperation for the benefit of our common environment and our population was never as important as it is today. I am confident that many other countries will soon follow in joining regional action against coastal degradation and offshore pollution threats”, said Maria Luisa Silva.
“The Parties to the Barcelona Convention have entrusted the Secretariat with harnessing action to advance implementation of the Convention. We will continue striving to ensure that appropriate legal instruments are not only in place but are also implemented. With most of the legal instruments now in force, we will renew our efforts to support Mediterranean countries in complying with their commitments under the Barcelona Convention and its seven Protocols”.
Notes to Editors:
(1) The Barcelona Convention is the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean, done at Barcelona on 16 February 1976, and amended on 10 June 1995 to address sustainable development challenges. All the 21 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea and the EU are Parties to the Convention. The Barcelona Convention and its Protocols are the legal basis of the Mediterranean Action Plan (UNEP/MAP), the first Regional Seas Programme developed in the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme.
(2) The Offshore Protocol has been ratified by Albania, Cyprus, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Tunisia.
(3) The ICZM Protocol has been ratified by Albania, the EU, France, Slovenia, Spain and Syria.
For more information: www.unepmap.org
The growth of the commercial fishing industry during the last several decades has been driven by relentless expansion into new fishing grounds. Fisheries now cover a majority of the world's ocean, and there are very few areas remaining into which the fishing industry can expand farther.
Writing in the online open-access journal PLoS One, Wilf Swartz of the University of British Columbia and colleagues found that fisheries expanded at a rate of 386,000 square miles (one million square kilometers) per year from the 1950s to the end of the 1970s before more than tripling their rate of expansion in the 1980s and early 1990s. Between 1950 and 2005, the spatial expansion of fisheries started from the coastal waters off the North Atlantic and Northwest Pacific, reached into the high seas and southward into the Southern Hemisphere at a rate of almost one degree of latitude per year. It was accompanied by a nearly five-fold increase in catch, from 19 million metric tons in 1950, to a peak of 90 million metric tons in the late 1980s and dropping to 87 million metric tons in 2005.
“The decline of spatial expansion since the mid-1990s is not a reflection of successful conservation efforts but rather an indication that we've simply run out of room to expand fisheries,” said Swartz in a press release to announce the study.
The authors conclude that only unproductive waters of high seas and relatively inaccessible waters in the Arctic and Antarctic remain as commercial fishing's final frontiers. They say that the rapidly diminishing number of available fishing grounds indicates a global limit to growth and highlights the urgent need for a transition to sustainable fishing.
Source: Swartz, W. et al. 2010. The spatial expansion and ecological footprint of fisheries (1950 to present). PLoS One 5(12): e15143. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0015143 .
Contact: Daniel Pauly, University of British Columbia. E-mail: d.pauly@fisheries.ubc.ca
The Balearic Government has made public its support for the creation of a Balearic sanctuary for Blue fin tuna, a species close to collapse due to overfishing. It has also recognized the importance of traditional artisanal fishing in the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
European Parliament Supports Strengthening the EU Finning Ban
16.12.10: The European Parliament today endorsed a resolution on shark finning that calls on the Commission to deliver a proposal to prohibit the removal of shark fins on-board vessels.
Four Members of the European Parliament (MEPs): Jean-Paul Besset, Chris Davies, Sirpa Pietikäinen, and Daciana Octavia Sârbu, from the ALDE, EPP-DE, Greens-EFA and S&D groups launched Written Declaration 71/2010 on shark finning on 20 September. By 16 December, over 400 of the 736 MEPs had added their names, achieving a majority. The Written Declaration is now adopted by the Plenary of the European Parliament. Endorsed as a Resolution of the Parliament, it will be forwarded to the European Commission, who last month launched a public consultation on options for amending the regulation, including a ban on at-sea fin removal.
“The removal of fins on board vessels and discarding the carcass is a wasteful and unacceptable way to fish. Europe is home to some of the world’s largest fishing fleets and poor European shark policies with lack of enforcement pose threats to sharks not only in European waters but in other parts of the world. The shark finning ban needs to be enforced effectively and we welcome this support from MEPs from across all European member states and political groups”, stated Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP, Finland, from the Group of the European People's Party (Christian Democrats).
“I would like to thank EU citizens for encouraging us to take action. It sends a powerful message to EU decision makers that these valuable yet vulnerable species must be protected”, added Jean-Paul Besset MEP, France, from the group of the Greens/European Free Alliance.
“The current exploitation of the world’s oceans is unsustainable and we need to act now to preserve marine biodiversity. Sharks are crucial to the natural balance of marine ecosystem, and this Resolution is a positive step towards their much needed protection”, explained Daciana Sarbu MEP, Romania from the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats.
“The EU Commission now needs to propose legislation as soon as possible in 2011 with the one truly reliable option for preventing finning - a complete prohibition of the removal of shark fins at sea”, stated Chris Davies MEP, UK, from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group.
Sharks’ tendency to grow slowly, mature late and/or produce a small number of young makes them exceptionally vulnerable to overfishing. Roughly one-third of European species are considered threatened.
The Shark Alliance is a coalition of more than 100 conservation, scientific and recreational organisations dedicated to restoring and conserving shark populations by improving shark conservation policies. The Shark Alliance was pleased to support MEPs in this initiative.
For more information, media interviews or B roll, please contact:
Sophie Hulme, Tel: +44 (0) 7973 712 869 Email: sophie@communicationsinc.co.uk
European fisheries ministers have agreed minor cuts to quotas for some vulnerable deep-sea fish and more stringent measures to protect rare sharks
The ministers' decision this month affected just 80 million euros ($104 million) worth of fish, but was seen as an important test case in a series of bruising encounters with European Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki who has pledged to put the long-term health of fisheries ahead of short-term profits.
The European Union is trying to nurse its fish stocks back to health after decades of over-exploitation. Deep-sea fish are particularly vulnerable as they reproduce so slowly. Ministers agreed to continue a ban on fishing for orange roughy, a vulnerable species that can live for more than 100 years.
The ministers agreed to curb important deep-sea fisheries on the eastern continental slopes of the Atlantic in 2011-12: by up to 7.5 percent annually for black scabbardfish and 13 percent for roundnose grenadiers. Quotas for forkbeards and blue ling were unchanged.
Fishing nations led by France, Spain and Portugal rejected advice that bluefin tuna catches should be halved to give the species a fair chance of survival. In the event, quotas were cut by a mere 4 percent. However, catch quotas for deep-sea sharks were set at zero, with zero tolerance from 2012 for the sale of sharks netted as bycatch while trawling for other species.
Conservationists, including WWF and the Pew group, said many sharks would still be scooped up accidentally, then dumped overboard, particularly by French and Spanish boats trawling the deep seabed northwest of Scotland and Ireland.
The Atlantic's main scientific authority, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), says all northeast Atlantic deep-sea species are fished beyond safe biological limits. Fishermen land about 40,000 tonnes a year of about 70 species of deep-sea fish from the northeast Atlantic, representing about 1.2 percent of total EU fishing.
Global Monitoring Urged For Oceans By 2015
Oceans United, an alliance of ocean scientists, will urge governments meeting in Beijing on November 3-5 to invest billions of dollars by 2015 in a new system to monitor the seas and give alerts of everything from tsunamis to acidification linked to climate change.
They say the new system to monitor the health of the planet would have huge economic benefits, helping to understand the impact of over-fishing or shifts in monsoons that can bring extreme weather such as the 2010 floods in Pakistan.
"Most ocean experts believe the future ocean will be saltier, hotter, more acidic and less diverse," said Jesse Ausubel, a founder of the Partnership for Observation of the Global Oceans (POGO), which leads the alliance and represents 38 major oceanographic institutions from 21 nations.
POGO said global ocean monitoring would cost $10 billion to $15 billion to set up, with $5 billion in annual operating costs. Currently, one estimate is that between $1 and $3 billion are spent on monitoring the seas, said Tony Knap, director of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and a leader of POGO. Knap said new cash sounded a lot at a time of austerity cuts by many governments, but could help avert bigger losses.
Off Japan, officials estimate an existing $100 million system of subsea cables to monitor earthquakes and tsunamis, linked to an early warning system, will avert 7,500-10,000 of a projected 25,000 fatalities in the event of a huge subsea earthquake. "It sounds a lot to install $100 million of cables but in terms of prevention of loss of life it begins to look trivial," Knap said.
New cash would help expand many existing projects, such as satellite monitoring of ocean temperatures, tags on dolphins, salmon or whales, or tsunami warning systems off some nations.
Among worrying signs, surface waters in the oceans have become 30 percent more acidic since 1800, a shift widely blamed on increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from burning of fossil fuels which could make it harder for animals such as lobsters, crabs, shellfish, corals or plankton to build protective shells, and would have knock-on effects on other marine life.
Marine Ecosystems At Risk says Global U.N. Environment Report
Marine ecosystems around the world are at risk of substantial deterioration in coming decades as oceans face growing threats from pollution, over-fishing and climate change, a report unveiled for a U.N. meeting in Nagoya, Japan showed on Tuesday.
"Multi-million dollar services, including fisheries, climate-control and ones underpinning industries such as tourism are at risk if impacts on the marine environment continue unchecked and unabated," Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), said in a statement.
The global U.N. Environment Programme report, based on 18 regions, predicted that productivity would fall in nearly all areas by 2050, with fisheries becoming dominated by smaller species toward the bottom of the food chain. Surface sea temperatures could rise by 2100, if steps are not taken to address climate change, affecting coral reefs and other marine organisms, the report said, and a continued increase in nitrogen levels could trigger algal blooms and lead to the poisoning of fish and other marine life.
Regional reports outlined steps that could be taken for policymakers, with the study for the North West Pacific covering China, Japan, South Korea and Russia calling for more management of ships' ballast water and regulation of fish stocks.
Strasbourg 20.09.10: Members of the European Parliament today launched an initiative to press for strengthening the EU ban on shark ‘finning’ – the wasteful practice of slicing off a shark’s fins and discarding the carcass at sea.
The current EU finning ban is among the weakest in the world with loopholes that seriously hamper enforcement. Although the EU finning regulation prohibits the removal of sharks fins at sea, a derogation allows EU Member States to provide fishermen with special permits to ‘process’ sharks, and thereby remove fins, on-board vessels.
The simplest, most effective way to implement a finning ban is to require that sharks are landed whole with their fins naturally attached.
Four MEPs from the ALDE, EPP-DE, Greens-EFA and S&D groups of the European Parliament- Chris Davies from the UK, Sirpa Pietikäinen from Finland, Daciana Octavia Sârbu from Romania, and Jean-Paul Besset from France - today launched a “Written Declaration” inviting all MEPs to join in calling on the Commission to deliver a proposal to completely prohibit the removal of shark fins on-board vessels and provide much needed protection for these vulnerable species.
“For too many European fisheries, the EU ban on finning is the only measure in place that helps curb excessive killing of sharks. The ban must be strengthened to ensure that this incredibly wasteful practice is prevented” explained Chris Davies MEP.
“France has long supported strong bans on shark finning, in European waters as well as in our overseas territories,” said Jean-Paul Besset MEP “French fishermen are already leaving the fins attached to sharks caught in oceans all over the world, demonstrating that this strategy is entirely feasible. We cannot wait any longer to enforce robust protection for these important predators, which are so key to the balance of life in the sea.”
“All EU Member States have a responsibility to ensure that EU policies are sound and set a good example for other countries,” added Sirpa Pietikäinen MEP “It is inexcusable that the current EU finning regulation is one of the weakest in the world. It is high time that the EU heeded the overwhelming scientific consensus that sharks should be landed with fins naturally attached.”
“Despite the adoption of a Community Plan of Action for Sharks, and a request from the Council for prompt implementation, the Commission’s progress in fulfilling pledges to strengthen the shark finning ban has been slow,” said Daciana Octavia Sârbu MEP. “We are hopeful that the written declaration will help to raise the priority of this important endeavor and that the Commission will heed our call to send us a proposal for completely ending at-sea shark fin removal by the second anniversary of the EU Shark Plan in February 2011.”
The Shark Alliance warmly welcomes the initiative and is committed to supporting Members of the European Parliament in their campaign to close the loopholes and prevent shark finning.
For more information, media interviews or B roll, please contact:
Sophie Hulme, Tel: +44 (0) 7973 712 869 Email: sophie@communicationsinc.co.uk
Decades of overfishing have deprived the food industry of billions of dollars in revenue and the world of fish that could have helped feed undernourished countries.
The Canadian, U.S. and British researchers behind the studies also said that overfishing is often the result of government subsidies that would have been better spent conserving fish stocks. Fisheries contribute $225 billion to $240 billion to the world economy annually, but if fishing practices were more sustainable, that amount would be up to $36 billion higher, according to the four papers published in the Journal of Bioeconomics.
The researchers said the data demonstrate that the reasons for protecting world's ocean fish stocks from unsustainable fishing are more than just biological. "Maintaining healthy fisheries makes good economic sense, while overfishing is clearly bad business," said Rashid Sumaila, an economist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who led the research.
The researchers estimated that from 1950 to 2004, 36 to 53 percent of the fish stocks in more than half the exclusive economic zones in the world's oceans were overfished, with up to 10 million tonnes of fish catch now lost. They said many governments underestimate the financial impact of overfishing, such as the affect on related industries, and, as a result, they have less incentive to protect fish stocks.
It is the poor in developing nations who are hurt the most by overfishing because they cannot replace through imports the nutrition and revenue that is lost, the researchers said. Fish that would have been available had it not been for past overfishing could have helped feed nearly 20 million undernourished people a year in poorer counties, the researchers estimated.
The researchers used international data on ocean fish stocks in their studies, and did not include data from aquaculture and fresh water fisheries, although they said they hope to include that information in future studies. Governments around the world provide up to $27 billion in subsidies annually to the fishing industry, but about 60 percent of that goes to supporting unsustainable fishing practices, the studies said. "Taxpayer money is directly contributing to the decline of worldwide fish stocks," Sumaila said.
The researchers said counties are also missing economic opportunities by not promoting alternative uses of fisheries, such as whale watching and other marine recreational activities.
28,500 people call on EU Fisheries Commissioner to put environment first
BRUSSELS (September 13, 2010) – Today OCEAN2012, the pan-European campaign to stop overfishing in Europe, handed over 28,500 signatures to European Fisheries and Maritime Affairs Commissioner, Maria Damanaki, calling on her to prioritise the health of the marine environment in the reform of the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP).
 “From all over Europe people are urging Commissioner Damanaki to conserve valuable marine habitats and ensure the economic vitality of vulnerable coastal communities,” said Uta Bellion, director of the Pew Environment Group’s European Marine Programme and OCEAN2012 coordinator. “Putting the environment first means following scientific advice and imposing strict criteria on those seeking access to fisheries resources.”
OCEAN2012 is proposing that access to fishery resources be based on a set of transparent criteria for sustainable fishing, which must include:
- More selective fishing methods, gears and practices that reduce unintentional catches of non-target species and lessen the impact on the marine environment;
- Vessels and fishing methods that consume less energy per tonne of fish caught;
- Working conditions that comply with relevant international standards, particularly the 2007 International Labour Organization Work in Fishing Convention; and
- A good record of compliance with the rules of the CFP.
“The marine environment is a common good. It is in the public interest that activities which impact the state of marine fish stocks, and the larger ecosystem, are carefully managed,” said Bellion. “Under the reformed CFP, those who fish in the most sustainable way should be given priority access to fishing grounds.”
Second Kids United Beach Cleanup - bagged 7 kgs! Our European Fish Week dive in L’Escala
 
We discovered a new wreck whilst Eco Diving...
 
I also found the remains of an ancient anchor...
Whales still on the menu...
A worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling remains in place after talks to replace it with a controlled cull of some species collapsed at the IWC's annual meeting in the Moroccan port city of Agadir. The moratorium has been in place for 24 years but Japan, Norway and Iceland have kept up whaling and some indigenous communities can also hunt for small numbers of whales.
Commercial whaling was prohibited under a 1986 moratorium but Japan culls whales for what it says is scientific research, while Norway and Iceland carry out full commercial whaling. Much of the whale meat ends up in restaurants and on dinner tables.
The three nations have been pushing for a formal end to the moratorium, saying stocks of some species have recovered. Their catches have strained diplomatic ties with many of their usual allies. Countries including the United States, members of the European Union, Australia and New Zealand oppose the hunts. -- Australia filed a complaint against Japan at the world court in The Hague in May to stop Southern Ocean scientific whaling. In the filing, Australia said Japan was violating the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling by killing whales for research purposes.
Blue whales, the biggest creature ever to live on Earth, are at less than 1 percent of their original abundance despite 40 years of complete protection. Some populations of whales are recovering but some are not. Whaling nations say that stocks of the small minke whale, the main species caught, are big enough to withstand their hunts. The West Pacific grey whale population is the most endangered in the world. It hovers on the edge of extinction with just over 100 remaining.
According to the WWF, 31,984 whales have been killed by whaling between 1986 and 200. Humpback whales currently number around 20,000. Blue whales number up to 12,000. Before the era of industrial whaling, it was 200,000-300,000. Fin whales are the second largest animal in the world after the blue whale, the fastest swimming of all the large whales. Their numbers are 85,000; pre-whaling - 400,000. Minke whales - There is no estimate of total global population size, but estimates from parts of the range in the Northern Hemisphere (totaling in excess of 100,000) show that it is well above the thresholds for a threatened category.
JAPANESE whalers caught about 500 whales in the Antarctic this season, little more than half the target of 900 after clashes with environmentalists. It says this is part of research which is needed to understand the life cycles of whales.
NORWAY has set a quota of 1,286 minke whales for the current summer season, the highest since Oslo resumed commercial hunts in 1993. But whalers only caught 484 whales in 2009, well below a quota of 885. Environmentalists say that demand has shriveled. ICELAND resumed commercial hunts in 2006 after a 20-year break. It set a quota of 100 minke whales and 150 fin whales for 2009.
Gulf of Mexico oil spill
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against BP seeking to halt controlled burnings of spilled oil on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico because they say endangered sea turtles are being burned alive in the process. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill is "a catastrophe that could have been avoided," oil industry officials conceded last week. Speaking at a news conference on June 23, Nobuo Tanaka, director general of the International Energy Agency, said the accident was the result of "an accumulation of human errors." A relief well that might divert the gushing Gulf of Mexico oil leak is still weeks from completion, a top U.S. official said on Wednesday, as the season's first Atlantic hurricane disrupted cleanup efforts.
Transforming European Fisheries
Years of intensive fishing in European waters have led to dramatic declines in once abundant fish populations. Eighty percent of assessed EU fish stocks are overfished and more than 30 per cent are outside safe biological limits.
The 2012 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is an opportunity to stop overfishing, end destructive fishing practices and deliver fair and equitable use of abundant fish stocks. OCEAN2012 is an alliance of organisations dedicated to transforming European fisheries policy and to facilitating greater participation in the reform by broadening stakeholder involvement.
European Fish Week 2010
European Fish Week 2010 will take place from June 5th to 13th. It is a unique opportunity for everybody across Europe to play their part in making this a truly fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.
OCEAN2012 member groups and friends will be organising events and activities throughout Europe, such as film screenings, panel discussions, food tastings, beachside activities and much much more. Together, we will be calling on the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, to make environmental sustainability a prerequisite for a reformed Common Fisheries Policy.
LA CORUNA DECLARATION: PLACING SUSTAINABLE ARTISANAL COASTAL FISHERIES AT THE HEART OF THE CFP REFORM
Artisanal coastal fishing activities, account for around 80% of the fleet (by vessel numbers), catch around 30% of the fish by value, and provide 65% of direct employment in European Union fisheries. Artisanal coastal fishing fleets that fish in a non-intensive manner, using a range of seasonally diverse fishing methods on a range of species, have a relatively low impact on the ecosystem.
Such fisheries also generate considerable ancillary jobs; they provide the social, economic and cultural fabric that sustains many coastal communities, where they make an important contribution to food security and political, social and economic stability. Artisanal coastal fishing, if treated fairly, managed responsibly, with well defined rights, has the potential to deliver healthy fisheries over the long-term and sustainable livelihoods.
Artisanal coastal fishing fleets are highly dependent on the grounds they exploit and operate in some of the most sensitive and biologically rich marine ecosystems. As a result they have developed a broad range of responsible management measures. If given support and provided with equal opportunities by the European Union, by national administrations and by an appropriate legal framework, building on such measures could assure sustainable fisheries as well as the conservation of valuable marine ecosystems across Europe.
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs), as promoters of marine resources conservation, social justice and economic equity, have an important role to play in raising public awareness about the future of fish stocks and sustainable development. They seek to democratise the policy-making and decision-making processes, make institutional processes more transparent and decision-makers more accountable.
Artisanal coastal fishing interests and NGOs both tend to be under-represented in decision-making fora, where they are given less participation rights, support and consideration than other interests.
Our organisations of artisanal coastal fishers and NGOs share a common interest in placing European fisheries on a sustainable footing by supporting the reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in ways which ensure the recovery of fish stocks and marine habitats where necessary, the promotion of sustainable fisheries, a just allocation of fishing access based on social and environmental criteria, and an equitable distribution of the benefits derived from these activities.
We therefore have agreed to work together on the CFP reform to achieve these objectives, and we call on the EU Commissioner for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs, the EU Fisheries Ministers and the Members of the European Parliament to ensure that:
- A functional marine environment and a steady return to healthy fish stocks are achieved as a precondition for sustainable fisheries. To this end the potential of sustainable artisanal coastal fisheries for stopping overfishing, ending destructive fishing practices, and delivering fair and equitable use of healthy fish stocks is fully recognised and placed at the heart of the CFP reform.
- The CFP reform process is just, transparent and democratic by ensuring the widest participation of men and women from artisanal coastal fisheries and NGOs at all stages.
- Priority access to fish resources is provided to those who fish in the most environmentally and socially sustainable way. Long term management plans are established which apply the appropriate measures through genuine bottom-up participative co-management processes that give due weight to sustainable development.
- Fishing policies, quotas and other management systems, and fishing methods do not cause discards of biologically, nutritionally or economically important fish and other aquatic species.
- Clear conditions and protocols are established and applied to avoid conflicts between different fleets targeting shared stocks or common fishing grounds.
- Decision-making promotes good fishing practices, valorises local fisheries’ ecological and oceanographic knowledge, and promotes collaboration between fishers and scientists.
- Appropriate aid is provided through the European Fisheries Fund and other support measures for training schemes as well as for the development of effective co-management that promotes the participation of fishers, both men and women, in decision-making processes, thereby assuring their engagement in these processes.
Endangered Sharks Exploited for Liver Extract
Endangered deepwater sharks, like the gulper shark, are being systematically targeted due to the rich store of squalene in their livers. This substance is being used to make an adjuvant, a compound that boosts the body's immune response, in millions of doses of the pandemic H1N1/09 swine flu vaccine.
The World Health Organization recommends adjuvant-based vaccines, because they allow drug makers to create doses that use less of the active component, increasing available supplies. Although vaccines containing squalene have not yet been approved for use in the U.S., they are being distributed elsewhere in 26 countries so far, including Europe and Canada.
A major swine-flu vaccine producer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), announced in October that it had orders for 440 million doses of vaccine containing adjuvant derived from shark-liver squalene.
Mary O'Malley, co-founder of the volunteer-run advocacy group Shark Safe Network, estimates that GSK's 440 million doses would require at least 9,700 pounds (4,400 kilograms) of shark oil, based on the stated squalene content of 10.69 milligrams in a dose. This estimate, however, assumes zero waste and no refining of the squalene once it's been extracted from the sharks.
Campaign against Shark Finning launched by China’s basket ball hero
Shanghai, Friday 18th December: NBA basketball star and China’s most popular figure, Yao Ming, today launched a new stage in a hard-hitting campaign to save the world’s rapidly dwindling shark population, featuring a new public service announcement (PSA) and major billboard campaign with international conservation group WildAid. Yao timed the launch to take place the day before the first game of the Shanghai Sharks basketball team, which he recently assumed control over.
The PSA shows Yao in a restaurant with a giant aquarium being offered shark fin soup. Yao looks into the aquarium and sees real footage of a live tawny nurse shark dumped on an Indonesian reef with its fins removed to supply the soup trade. Yao and his fellow diners promptly push away the soup.
“This footage is definitive proof that sharks are being finned alive for soup,” said Steve Trent, Director of WildAid. “The spiraling demand for fin to be consumed for soup, mostly in China, is having a devastating impact on shark populations across the world. Key to halting the conservation crisis now facing sharks is to kill off the demand for shark fin, and this is why the action being taken by Yao Ming, who has led a host of others to join him, is so important. The message that he will no longer eat shark fin has great impact in China.”
Fins from up to 70 million sharks a year are used for shark fin soup, often with the bodies of the animals dumped overboard dead or alive. Shark poaching is rife in marine protected areas, such as the Galapagos Islands and Cocos Island. In a recent study, the world’s top shark scientists (IUCN Shark Specialist Group) reported that of 64 species of open ocean sharks and rays 32% are ‘threatened with extinction’, primarily due to overfishing. In addition, 24% were ‘near threatened’, while another 25% could not be assessed due to lack of data. Sharks are highly vulnerable to overfishing due to their late maturity and slow reproduction. Globally, shark catches are unregulated or unsustainable. The shark fin trade is unregulated worldwide.
In China, there is growing opposition to shark finning. Yao Ming, a long-term supporter of the campaign, is joined by Chinese sporting and movie icons, as well as leading businessmen. Li Ning, who lit the Olympic torch and Liu Huan, who sang in the Beijing Olympics Opening ceremony, along with a number of gold medal Olympians, including Americans Tara Kirk and Amanda Beard, have pledged not to eat shark fin soup and have recorded public service announcements which have reached hundreds of millions of Chinese. The campaign has been featured on China’s CCTV networks featuring 20 Olympic gold medalists. Last month, 100 Chinese business leaders also joined the pledge, and the Chinese equivalent of eBay, Alibaba, stopped allowing sales of shark fin through their site.
The new Yao Ming message and billboards were supported by a grant from Sharksavers and are set for broadcast in China and around the world.
“We must urgently introduce controls and better management of sharks globally, banning trade except where it is can be proven to come from a properly-managed, sustainable fishery that prohibits the wasteful and barbaric practice of shark finning,” said Trent. “Sharks have been around for nearly 400 million years, but at the current rate of overfishing they could be wiped out in a single human generation.”
This clever little octopus has learned to compensate for the lack of an external shell: http://news. bbc.co.uk/ 1/hi/sci/ tech/8408233. stm
Kenna Eco Diving has joined forces with the SILMAR Project as local coordinators surveying coastal habitats. The SILMAR Project is one of several marine conservation activities carried out by Fundaciomar, a marine research and conservation organisation based in Begur.
Shark Alliance denounces illegal take of endangered, gentle giants
Barcelona: 16.12.09: The Shark Alliance is condemning the continued illegal take of basking sharks in Spain, evidenced this week by the display of a juvenile of the species at a supermarket fish counter in Santander. The harmless, plankton-feeding basking shark, the world’s second largest fish, is classified by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic. It has been illegal for EU vessels to fish, retain or land basking sharks since 2006, yet authorities in Spain, the EU’s top shark fishing nation, are failing to enforce the regulation.
“The number of shark species protected in the EU is growing with good reason. Recovery of threatened shark species depends on tough enforcement of these rules as well as prevention of future violations through education,” said Àlex Bartolí, Shark Alliance Policy Coordinator for Spain. “In particular, all incentive to kill basking sharks, including profit or publicity, must be removed. It is high time that Spain, a global force in fishing for sharks, took conservation of these valuable yet vulnerable animals seriously.”
In February 2009, the European Commission released its Shark Plan of Action which includes commitments to educate fishermen and the public about shark conservation measures. In May 2009, two seven meter-long basking sharks were taken illegally from the waters off Valencia by one Spanish fishing vessel within the span of 24 hours.
Mr. Bartolí is the author of the 2009 Submon publication, SPAIN: A driving force in shark fishing around the world, which details poor enforcement and lack of awareness of shark protections in his country.
Brussels 15.12.09 The Shark Alliance applauds the EU Council of Fisheries Ministers’ decision to end all fishing for porbeagle sharks and reduce by 90% fishing quotas for spurdog, in line with scientific advice and proposals from the European
Commission.
“These dramatic reductions in spurdog and porbeagle quotas amount to a solid performance on the first big test of the new EU Plan of Action for Sharks,” said Sonja Fordham, EU shark policy director for the Pew Environment Group and the Shark Alliance. “Ministers have acted in line with the Plan’s pledge to follow scientific advice and a precautionary approach when setting fishing limits for inherently vulnerable sharks. Ending fisheries for critically endangered porbeagle and spurdog will allow European populations to recover while enhancing the EU’s ability to promote conservation of the species on a global scale,” Fordham said.
Most sharks and rays can be easily overfished because they grow slowly, mature late and produce few young. Porbeagle and spurdog sharks are included on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered in the Northeast Atlantic. The EU has proposed that porbeagle and spurdog sharks be listed under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) at the Conference of the Parties in March 2010.
Attempts to save the bluefin tuna from extinction suffered a serious set-back recently when the European Union dropped its demand for commercial fishing of the species to be banned. A rearguard action by Mediterranean fishing nations, including Spain, Italy and France, blocked moves to get the European Union to support a worldwide ban. Lobbying by Japan, whose sushi trade is heavily dependent on Europe’s bluefin exports, is thought to have played a vital role in the conservationists’ defeat.
The International Council for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna was established in 1969 after concerns that the species was being fished unsustainably when the fish came to spawn in the Mediterranean. Between 2001 and the present, the average size of bluefin tuna has shrunk by half. In October the organisation’s scientists found that the stock was below 15 per cent of its pre-exploitation levels, qualifying it for a ban on trade via the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
The European Union has given out tens of millions of euros to subsidise the Mediterranean tuna fishing fleets despite warnings from scientists that overfishing is pushing the species close to extinction.Between 2000 and 2008 a total of €34.5 million (£31.4 million) was given by the EU to support the fishing fleets. Over the eight-year period, €23 million was given to fund the construction of new boats, including ultra-modern purse seiners that are able to land 100 tonnes in one haul. A further €10.5 million was given to modernise existing vessels, increasing their ability to track down and catch the tuna. Only €1 million was used to decommission vessels, but mainly for small-scale, local boats.
This shows clearly the hypocrisy of the EU, which insists on the need to conserve fish stocks while simultaneously encouraging the rapid expansion of a fleet that was already too large.
The EU has now committed to reducing overcapacity, but we’re going to have to pay again for that. We’ve paid once to make these ships that have been used to make a few people rich. They’ve destroyed the bluefin – a common stock – and now they are going to ask for more money.
THE INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF THE SHARK 2009 has ended
Threatened Sharks Listed under UN Migratory Species Convention Countries agree mako, spiny dogfish and porbeagle sharks need international attention
The Shark Alliance is heralding today’s ground-breaking agreement by more than 80 governments to list mako, spiny dogfish and porbeagle sharks under the Convention on Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS). The action is aimed at sparking the international collaboration needed to conserve populations of these wide-ranging, globally threatened sharks.
Proposals to list all the world’s populations of spiny dogfish and porbeagle sharks were developed by Belgium and advanced by the European Union (EU); Croatia proposed listing of both species of mako sharks. New Zealand, Chile and Argentina initially opposed the shark proposals. After much discussion of available information, Parties agreed to list all populations of makos and porbeagles, but only Northern hemisphere populations of spiny dogfish. Most species listed under CMS, such as bats, flamingos and dolphins, as well as basking, great white and whale sharks, are not commercially important like the shark species listed today.
Listing commercially valuable makos, spiny dogfish and porbeagles under the Convention on Migratory Species marks an important step toward expanding the tools we use to ensure shark fishing is sustainable,” said Sonja Fordham, Policy Director for the Shark Alliance. “Most sharks grow slowly, give birth to live young after lengthy pregnancies, and play important roles in marine ecosystems. It is high time they were viewed not only as commodities but also as wildlife -- deserving of attention through wildlife treaties.”
The shark species at issue are exposed to intense fishing pressure as they migrate across national boundaries and yet are not subject to international catch limits. Shortfin mako, spiny dogfish and porbeagles are among the sharks most highly prized in Europe for their meat; their fins are exported to Asia for shark fin soup. Some populations have been seriously overfished, particularly in the North Atlantic. The EU loosely regulates fishing for spiny dogfish and porbeagle and is considering dramatic quota cuts; there are no EU limits on mako shark catch.
The shark listings come under CMS Appendix II based on “unfavorable” conservation status and potential to benefit from international cooperation. Appendix II listings can elevate management priority and promote collaborative conservation initiatives throughout species’ ranges.
“We urge all countries to fulfill the intent of the listings by prioritizing the management of these imperiled shark species and actively pursuing bilateral and regional conservation agreements that include science-based limits on fishing,” added Fordham.
Many CMS conference participants will stay on in Rome for a weekend meeting to develop a landmark CMS global conservation instrument for migratory sharks. Press Release Rome 5.12.08
Octopuses Had Antarctic Ancestor - Marine Census
OSLO - Many octopuses evolved from a common ancestor that lived off Antarctica more than 30 million years ago, according to a "Census of Marine Life" that is seeking to map the oceans from microbes to whales.
Researchers in 82 nations, whose 10-year study aims to help protect life in the seas, found a mysterious meeting place for white sharks in the eastern Pacific Ocean and algae thriving at -25 degrees Celsius (-13 Fahrenheit) in the Arctic. We are approaching a picture of the oceans ... from microbes to whales," said Ron O'Dor, co-senior scientist of the census of the 2007-08 findings by up to 2,000 scientists.
The $650 million census is on track for completion in 2010, assessing about 230,000 known marine species, a statement said. It has identified 5,300 likely new species, of everything from fish or corals. So far, 110 have been confirmed as new. Among the findings, genetic evidence showed that the tentacles of the octopus family pointed to an Antarctic ancestor for many deep sea species. A modern octopus called adelieledone in Antarctica seemed the closest relative of the original. Octopuses apparently spread around the world after Antarctica became covered with a continent-wide ice sheet more than 30 million years ago, a shift that helped create oxygen-rich ocean currents flowing north, a report said. "Isolated in new habitat conditions, many different species evolved; some octopuses, for example, losing their defensive ink sacs -- pointless at perpetually dark depths," the census said.
The MarBEF book which illustrates just a few of the highlights over the last five years of MarBEF is now available as a pdf on our website http://www.marbef.org/documents/glossybook/MarBEFbooklet.pdf.
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