Want to join in Mediterranean marine conservation activities as an Eco Dive Volunteer? CLICK HERE

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 shrivelled.

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

Please sign the petition calling on Commissioner Damanaki to put environmental sustainability at the heart of European fisheries policy: www.ocean2012.eu/petition  We are still collecting signatures!

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 5^th to 13^th. 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.

Signatures as of April 27^th

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 18^th 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.

Kenna Diving SL, Passatge Clavell 9, No 8, L’Escala 17130, Girona, Spain. Tel/Fax: 0034 972772746    letterbox@kennaecodiving.net