International & Trade

Japan will go ahead with its whaling program in the Antarctic later this year under heightened security to fend off activists who have vowed to disrupt the annual hunt, the country’s fisheries minister said.

Japan’s whale hunts have become increasingly tense in recent years because of clashes with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The most recent expedition was cut short after several high-seas confrontations, and it was unclear whether the hunt would be held at all this year.

But fisheries minister Michihiko Kano said Tuesday that measures would be taken to ensure the whalers’ safety, and that the hunt would go ahead. It is expected to begin in December.

Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan conducts whale hunts in the Antarctic and the northwestern Pacific under an exception that allows limited kills for research purposes.

Japan’s government claims the research is needed to provide data on whale populations so that the international ban on commercial whaling can be re-examined — and, Japan hopes, lifted — based on scientific studies.

Read the complete article from The Boston Globe

 

 

 

 

As more North American states ban shark fins, Shirley Zhao explores what such a move might mean for the Hong Kong market.

At the industry’s heart in Sheung Wan, shark fin is easy to get your hands on. But in other parts of the world, there are moves afoot to outlaw this controversial trade. Earlier this month, the Californian Legislature passed a bill to ban the trade and possession of shark fins, joining Hawaii, Oregon and Washington as the fourth American state to enact such a law. Around the same time, the Toronto City Council also voted to support a similar ban. Both California and Toronto have large Asian populations. And now, local environmental groups are urging Hong Kong, the world’s largest importer of shark fins and believed to handle at least half the global trade, to follow this trend.

The major justification behind the ban is the horrific, wasteful and often illegal methods utilised in shark finning. The shark finning practice involves the fins, the most profitable part of a shark, being cut off while at sea, with the remainder of the shark thrown back into the water, making it almost impossible for it to survive. According to international environmental group Oceana, in 2008, nearly 10,000 tons of shark fins were imported in Hong Kong, with up to 73 million sharks killed each year to satisfy the international demand for this high-priced delicacy.
 
“Banning the trade of shark fins in Hong Kong is the most effective way to protect sharks,” says Silvy Pun Yuen-yiu, marketing officer of WWF Hong Kong, referring to the city’s magnitude in the global market of shark fins. “A small step we take will mean a lot to the whole world.” Pun says it takes one to two years for sharks to reproduce and around 10 years for babies to mature, which cannot compare to the rate of them being killed. “Sharks play an important role in the oceans. If they disappeared, the ecosystem of the oceans would be greatly affected or even collapse.”

Read the complete story from Time Out Hong Kong

 

 

 

 

KEY PLAYERS in the country’s bustling tuna industry repeated their call for key policy reforms at the recently concluded 13th National Tuna Congress held in General Santos City.

Some 400 delegates representing a cross-section of the tuna industry passed eight resolutions urging the government to act on pressing issues to further enhance the competitiveness of the country’s fisheries sector.

According to Jake Lu, incoming president of Socsksargen Federation of Fishing & Allied Industries, Inc. (SFFAII), among the notable resolutions of the Tuna Congress is the need to create the Department of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DFAR) to look after the country’s rich marine produce.

He said that the DFAR will be a significant development for the fisheries sector, in protecting Philippine waters and marine resources, and will boost the government’s food security program.

The resolution noted that most neighboring countries in Southeast Asia have a government line agency to oversee its fisheries sector.

Read the complete story from Business World

 

 

 

 

 

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The 33rd annual meeting of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) ended today with countries failing to agree on significant, additional measures to safeguard vulnerable deep-sea marine ecosystems. While NAFO has made progress since 2006 in closing certain seamounts and areas of corals and sponges to fishing—including deciding at this year's meeting to extend those closures until 2014—it has not yet fully implemented a comprehensive assessment of fragile high-seas ecosystems. This was a requirement of the United Nations (U.N.) sustainable fisheries resolutions adopted in 2006 and 2009.

"While we recognize many of the steps NAFO has taken, the fact is that the deep sea doesn't have time for bureaucratic bickering. We are pleased that NAFO agreed to gather more comprehensive information on the types of species and ecosystems that may be vulnerable to damage by bottom fisheries," said Susanna Fuller, marine conservation coordinator for the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax. "But specific measures taken at this meeting – such as reducing the amounts of sponges caught in a trawl that triggers a vessel to move away from an area from 800kg to 600kg and 400kg in new fishing areas  – are not scientifically based and still far too high."

Read the complete story from The Sacramento Bee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oceana published a report on the true amount of subsidies provided to the fishing sector by the European Union (EU) and its Member States.

The international marine conservation organization reveals that EU fisheries subsidies are more than three times greater than the number generally provided by the Commission, which only takes into account payments from the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), and not those given to the sector by individual Member States.

In 2009, subsidies to the fishing sector totalled € 3.3 billion, and in 13 Member States, the amount they were given in subsidies was higher than the total value of their fish landings. Finland and Germany’s fishing sector for example, received respectively three and 1.5 times more in subsidies than the value of their landed catch.

Read the complete story from CTA.

 

 

 

 

 

In the fourth decade of the nation's epic and largely successful effort to reverse centuries of overfishing, 2010 commercial fishing landings and revenues in U.S. ports increased, but the nation continues to import the vast majority of its seafood.

Although New Bedford's landings were almost six times more valuable than Gloucester's, the volume landed — 133 million pounds — was not twice as large as Gloucester's 88 million pounds.

A report due in November on the economics of U.S. fisheries will contain the first hard numbers on the number of boats and fishermen working.

Overall, America's dwindling fleets landed 8.2 billion pounds of seafood, an increase of 200 million, and were paid $4.5 billion, an increase of $600 million.

"These increases in fish landings and value are good news for our nation's fishermen and for fishing communities, where jobs depend on health fish stocks," NMFS administrator Eric Schwaab said in a prepared statement.

Read the complete story by Richard Gaines in the Gloucester Times

 

 

 

 

Against the backdrop of the EU review of its fishing policy, non-governmental organization Oceana has called for an end to fishing subsidies.

The non-profit association calculates Portugal is one of the top-ten recipients receiving over €130 million in 2009 while advancing €3.3 billion as the level of total subsidies handed out by the EU. Oceana’s Europe campaigner Maria Jose Cornax said “subsidies to expand fleet size should stop (…) financing a dangerous and unequal race for the last few fish” before calling for more sea areas to be protected and greater commitment to research. Stating that EU subsidies are doubled where not tripled by what member states dish-out individually, Cornax added “in 13 member states, the subsidies received are actually higher than the total value of the fish landed.” The EU is currently reviewing its common fishing policy with a new proposal due to be published in November. TPN/Lusa

Read the article from The Portugal News

 

 

 

 

 

The fisheries sector in Spain received the most fishing subsidies in the European Union (EU) as it received EUR 733.9 million in 2009, Oceana reports.

Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world’s oceans, revealed that the European Union’s (EU’s) fishing industry received subsidies for EUR 3,300 million, representing 50 per cent of the value of all the captures unloaded in Europe.

The NGO warns that the actual figures of the subsidies delivered by the EU and the member states to the fishing industry are more than three times greater than the amount typically quoted in public figures because the latter only include the European Fishery Fund (EFF) but not the individual contribution from each country.

Spain, France, Denmark, the United Kingdom and Italy received the most fishing subsidies.

Read the complete story from Fish Information & Services

 

 

 

 

 

WASHINGTON — Illegal fishing undermines efforts to stop overfishing and shrinks the profits of legal commercial fishermen, the oceans chiefs of the United States and the European Union declared on Wednesday, as they pledged to cooperate to nab fish pirates.

Although it's a global problem, the U.S. and the European Union declared they have a big responsibility for solving it because they catch and import so much seafood. The EU is the world's top seafood importer, followed by Japan and the U.S.

Illegal fishing is one of the most serious threats to American fishing jobs and the health of the world's oceans, said Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA says the illegal operations allow pirates to cut corners and lower their costs, and so they have an unfair competitive advantage. In the world's poorest countries, the large pirate vessels take fish that's needed by subsistence fishermen, Lubchenco said at a news conference here.

Read the complete story from The Miami Herald

 

 

 

 

 

The United States and the European Union announced a bilateral agreement on Wednesday on combating illegal fishing, saying that the practice deprives legitimate fishermen and coastal communities of billions of dollars of revenue each year.

Jane Lubchenco, the administrator of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, and Maria Damanaki, the European Union’s commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, announced the deal in Washington. The pact calls for cooperation on adopting effective management measures in regional and international organizations to combat illegal fishing and promoting tools that prevent illegal fishing operators from benefiting economically from their activities. The United States and the European Union will also share information on illegal fisheries and “promote the sustainable use of fisheries resources while preserving marine biodiversity,’’ the two sides said.

Policymakers argue that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing — known as “I.U.U.” fishing or pirate fishing — makes a mockery of national and international laws meant to ensure fish stocks are managed in a sustainable manner.

‘‘Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing is one of the most serious threats to American fishing jobs and fishing communities, as well as to the health of the world’s oceans,’’ Dr. Lubchenco said in a statement. ‘‘International cooperation across oceans will help us maintain a level playing field for our fishermen by strengthening enforcement and preventing illegal fishing.’’

Read the complete story from The New York Times Blog