Whaling starts again in earnest

The Japanese have been routinely slammed in the western press for increasing their planned hunts for whales this year and to include humpback whales for the first time in decades. Under the pretense of scientific research they are planning to kill more than 1000 whales.

"The fleet intends to kill more than 1,000 whales while in the Southern Ocean, including 50 endangered fin whales, 50 threatened humpback whales and 935 minke whales. " Source : Greenpeace

The slaughter of endangered fin and humpback whales is inexcusable. These species are IUCN listed, respectively as

1. Endangered ("A taxon is Endangered when it is considered to be facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild" source: iucn.com) and
2. Vunerable ("A taxon is Vulnerable when it is considered to be facing a high risk of extinction in the wild")

However in my opinion.

• It would be better in many ways if we did not interfere with the natural world at all, however excluding human extinction this is not realistic or achievable and thus I have no real problem in sustainable fishing of a species, the current levels of hunting minke whales is sustainable
• From a conservation perspective, the West's argument about species killing needs to be consistent, not just focused on high profile intelligent or cuddly animals
• all species in the world have a right to live whether they are minke whales, napoleon wrasse, corals or ameoba
• Inconsistent treatment confuses the conservation and species protection message, we should be focused on ensuring ecological balance, let the natural balance of life work its wonder.

Arguments?

Fish dumping will ruin industry (sic)

Interesting report on the BBC, sent to me by a good friend, this also made the BBC World Service and BBC News 24. The story is that Europeanfishermen are complaining that because they have already exceeded their fishing quota for various whitefish (cod, haddock and whiting) they have to through away significant quantities of valuable by-catch from allowed prawn trawling.

The report(s) can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7103363.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7102241.stm

The destruction and wastage is terrible and very very sad of course, but my believe is that the fishing industry is wholly responsible.

Here is my suggestions.

1. European wide fishing quotas must remain and need to be strictly enforced based on scientific evidence.
2. Fazing out of trawling within areas of high biodiversity, and introduction of penalities for their use.
3. Investment into sustainable shrimp fishing and shrimp farming.
4. Consumer education and labelling into the shrimp industry and the source for shrimps on supermarket shelfs.

The above should also be introduced into the Asia Pacific region as an urgent matter

Fishing ban called for Bluefin tuna

WWF is calling for a three year closure of the fisheries industry in European waters. The timing of this proclaimation is aligned with the meeting of International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) — meeting from 9 to 18 November in Antalya, Turkey.

This is a follow up to an earlier blog on Bluefin Tuna, click here

Miracle if anything positive comes out of this ICCAT meeting, as there is a history of indecision.

This latest story can be found here:
http://www.panda.org/index.cfm?uNewsID=116941

South East Asia's Oceans running out of fish

A new report from Australia's Lowy Institute spells out what we have all know for a long time, overfishing in South East Asia is depleting SE Asia's fish stocks and coral reefs. Source:Environmental News Network http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/24297

Few quick points

1. Fisheries in the region have expanded dramatically in the past few decades
2. Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines are now inthe top 12 fish producing countries in the world.
3. In the Gulf of Thailand, the density of fish had declined by 86 percent from 1961 to 1991, while between 1966 and 1994 the catch per hour in the Gulf by trawlers fell more than sevenfold.
4. In the Gulf of Tonkin, where Vietnam shares resources with China, the record was even worse with fish catch per hour in 1997 only a quarter of that in 1985.
5. In the Philippines, most marine fisheries were overexploited by the 1980s, with catch rates as low as 10 percent of rates when these areas were lightly fished.
6. As the fourth largest country in world fish production, Indonesia is a fisheries giant. Yet ... Indonesian marine fisheries resources are close to fully exploited and a significant number in all areas are over-exploited.

Recommendations in the report include

1. Help Southeast Asian countries build their capacity for fisheries management.
2. The principle of stakeholder inclusion in its fisheries interventions by stressing the importance of including views from fishers’ representatives, environmental organisations, community and women’s interests, consumers and the private sector representing the retail, food service and fish processing sectors.
3. Substantial increase in the amount of marine conservation research.
4. Regional bodies such as APFIC, ASEAN and SEAFDEC need to create a regional process to assess fisheries resources and to provide advice to fisheries managers in a form suitable for local use.
5. Consumer information, correct labelling of country and source of origin, in an effort to increase awareness of and pressure for sustainable fish products as well as combat illegal fishing.

Full report can be found on the Lowy Institute website as follows:
http://www.lowyinstitute.org/PublicationGet.asp?i=714