International & Trade

Madrid, Spain – 10/08/2010 – Fisheries scientists meeting this week in Madrid failed to recommend solid, scientifically-based catch limits to countries fishing for Atlantic bluefin tuna, one of the world’s most valuable and severely threatened marine species.   The scientists sit on the Standing Committee on Research and Statistics (SCRS) of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT).

The meeting comes just a month before ICCAT’s member countries, including the United States, Japan and the European Union, will meet in Paris to allocate this year’s recommended catch limits for Atlantic bluefin tuna.  These fish are hunted commercially to supply the lucrative sushi trade, with a single bluefin sometimes selling for more than USD $100,000. Decades of legal and illegal overfishing, irresponsible management, inconsistent monitoring and reporting[i], and a disregard for science have led to an estimated decline in bluefin tuna populations of up to 85 percent since 1970[ii].

“Bluefin tuna fishing nations are providing scientists with out-of-date, incomplete and often unreliable information,” said Remi Parmentier, a Pew Environment Group observer at the meeting.  “Because of these glaring gaps in data, scientists are essentially being asked to gaze into a crystal ball and pick a number for bluefin tuna catch limits.  It allows fishing countries to assign bluefin tuna catch limits based on unfounded optimism instead of objective science. No species should have to rely on a crystal ball for its survival.”

Read the complete story from PEW.

 

 

 

 

 

Chile established an enormous marine reserve near Easter Island on Wednesday that will be off-limits to fishing and other extractive activities, providing a haven for vulnerable species such as sharks and lobsters.

The new Sala y Gomez Marine Park will cover nearly 58,000 square miles around the uninhabited island of the same name, which is in the Pacific Ocean.

Scientists and conservationists began lobbying for such a reserve after an expedition to the island in March found abundant marine life there. The neighboring waters around Easter Island, by contrast, are not protected from fishing and have been depleted.

Read the complete story from the Washington Post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

A team of US scientists and environmentalists have met with Cuban officials to discuss a proposed alliance, including Mexico, to protect the Gulf of Mexico’s declining shark population.

The meetings were a product of both improved US-Cuba relations and concern that only a joint effort by the three nations that share the gulf can protect sharks, whose numbers are said to be down as much as 50% for some species.

Shark populations have fallen worldwide, primarily due to overfishing to satisfy China's demand for shark fin soup, which is rising as China becomes more prosperous, scientists say.

Read the complete story from World Fishing and Aquaculture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Despite unmatched natural assets, America's heavily-regulated fisheries continued to underperform in global competition, with landings down a bit more in 2009, according to the annual report of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Covering 2009, the findings reflect a two decade trend in which conservation has trumped productivity.

Landings in edible and commercial fish were down 6 percent to 7.9 billion pounds, and the value of the landings fell by 11 percent to $3.9 billion — adding up $2.2 billion to a federal season of trade deficit of more than $280 billion.

Read the complete story from the Gloucester Daily Times.

 

 

 

 

 

TAIJI, Japan — Fishermen here, whose annual dolphin slaughter was depicted in the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,’’ say they will resume the hunt this week because the 400-year-old tradition is the foundation of their industry.

“We have no intention to stop hunting dolphins,’’ said Miyato Sugimori, administrative chief of the Taiji Town Fisheries Association. “Our young fishermen can’t continue to live in this town without the hunt.’’

Of Japan’s annual quota of 20,000 dolphins, about 1,500 are killed or sold to aquariums by fishermen in the town in Wakayama prefecture, south of Osaka. Taiji’s “oikomi,’’ a method of hunting in which dolphins are herded into a bay for slaughter, drew worldwide criticism after the documentary was released.

“It’s a horrific way to kill them,’’ said Sakae Hemmi, a spokeswoman for Elsa Nature Conservancy, a Japanese environmental protection group. “Even if they let them go, the structure of the dolphins’ group is disrupted.’’

Read the complete story from The Boston Globe.

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you keep an eye on EU issues – you may have noticed that everyone from the Guardian, to Libération, to members of Parliament and the EU Fisheries Commissioner herself, is talking about the new war that’s reached European waters: The Mackerel War.

Iceland and the Faroe Islands unilaterally raised their combined mackerel quota from 27,000 to 215,000 tons – and Norway and the EU are not happy about it, arguing that such an enormous jump makes a mockery out of sustainable fisheries.

Last week Norway’s answer has been to prohibit landings of mackerel by Faroese or Icelandic vessels in its ports and the Norwegian minister is now calling upon the European Commission and Member States to do the same. In addition, the European Association of Fish Producers has demanded that the Commission suspend the current bilateral fisheries agreement between the EU and the Faroe Islands, develop and execute immediate EU trade sanctions against Faroe Islands and Iceland, and place their mackerel fishing vessels on the IUU black list.

Read the complete story from Oceana.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The recent boarding of a scallop vessel off Nantucket may be the first shot fired across the bow of the federal government in a dispute over a Maine tribe's right to fish in federal waters.

Late in the day on Aug. 25 the Coast Guard, as part of an investigation with the Massachusetts Environmental Police, stopped a Maine scalloper off Nantucket on its return from a fishing trip. The vessel had been working out of Nantucket Harbor for an undisclosed amount of time.

According to Coast Guard Petty Officer Connie Terrell, the captain did not have the federal fisheries permit needed to catch scallops in federal waters. Instead, he handed officers paperwork from the Passamaquoddy tribe in Maine that he believed authorized him to fish in federal waters. Terrell said there were no scallops onboard when the vessel was stopped.

Read the complete story from the Cape Cod Times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Richard Gaines

GLOUCESTER – Aug 19, 2010 – The scandal-ridden federal fisheries law enforcement unit is sending a delegation to the third Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop — a five-day conference beginning Sept. 6 in Maputo, Mozambique, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has told the Times.

But in the aftermath of a damning report on the inappropriate use of a multi-million dollar fund built with penalties paid by fishermen and related businesses, NOAA has cut back on the size and budget for the traveling delegation.

Led by Dale J. Jones, who was then director of law enforcement, NOAA sent 15 of its employees, part of a U.S. delegation of 22, to the 2008 workshop in Trondheim, Norway.

Only seven agents and litigators are traveling to Mozambique, according to a roster released to the Times.

NOAA said it is budgeting $42,000 from its own appropriated funds, not the entangled Asset Forfeiture Fund, for the Africa trip, less than half the cost of sending the larger delegation to the second Global Fisheries Enforcement Training Workshop, also a five-day event, held in Norway.

"NOAA is participating," spokeswoman Monica Allen said in a statement, "to strengthen our international efforts to protect U.S. fishers from the harmful effects of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing."

 

Read the story in the Gloucester Times

Click here to access the Oceana Ranger Expedition 2010 video.

London, England – July 30, 2010 – The oceans have become so depleted by over-fishing, pollution and climate change that they can only be saved by a large global network of reserves, according to a growing consensus among marine scientists.

Campaigners say that sea life — particularly at the top of the food chain — is suffering to such an extent that there will eventually be no fish left if action drastic action is not taken to protect the oceans.

More than 70 percent of the world is covered by oceans. There are currently more than 4,000 marine protected areas covering just over 1 percent of the oceans, but the vast majority of reserves have only limited protection.

According to Professor Callum Roberts, of the University of York, one of the leading campaigners and author of The Unnatural History of the Sea, only about 0.1 percent of the sea is completely protected from all exploitation. This should be between 25 and 45 percent to give marine species the best chance of recovery, he said.

Read the complete story from CNN.