International & Trade

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BRUSSELS—Iceland opened membership talks with the European Union on Tuesday, saying it wants to sit "at the family table" of Europe but stressed its fishing sector — the lifeblood of the Icelandic economy — must be off limits to the EU.

Ossur Skarphedinson, Iceland's foreign minister, proposed Iceland's fishing waters be named a "specific management area," letting only Iceland manage species there, unhindered by fishermen from other EU nations who have allegedly depleted fish stocks everywhere.

Saying the EU's common fisheries policy has failed to prevent "endemic overfishing" elsewhere, he said Iceland's fishing sector "must not be undermined" if and it joins the EU.

Read the full Associated Press story via The Boston Globe

 

 

 

The 2010 guide to International Agreements Concerning Living Marine Resources of Interest To NOAA Fisheries, compiled and edited by Keith Cialino, has been published by the National Marine Fisheries Service Office of International Affairs.

View the full document [PDF]

 

 

 

Arcadia has awarded $1 million to the international marine conservation organisation Oceana, which will fund the first year of its two-year Baltic Sea Enforcement Project. Oceana plans to seek other donors to meet the remaining project cost.

Oceana will work on two fronts in the Baltic Sea, with the aim of reducing and preventing illegal and non-sustainable fishing.

Its campaign by land will involve the research and documentation of all ports in the nine Baltic countries, with researchers specialising in fisheries issues hired locally and trained for this specific campaign. Their role will be to monitor the Baltic coasts to verify fleets and their catches, including bottom trawlers and driftnets. An investigation of the fishing companies operating in these fisheries will also be carried out, as well as a thorough study of the regulations in each area. This will enable Oceana to develop policy proposals.

Read the complete story from Arcadia.

 

 

 

 

 

The organization calls on the EU to manage its fleets’ shark fisheries with quotas, recovery plans, minimum landing sizes and a “fins attached” landing policy.

MADRID – July 22, 2010 – In a new report by Oceana, The Race for Threatened Sharks, the international marine conservation organization demonstrates how sharks are extremely vulnerable species that have been fished by European Union vessels at home and around the world without management for decades. Globally, 21% of shark populations are threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN Red List, and targeted and by-catch fisheries are the main threat to their survival.

Changes in shark fishery management in the European Union have been slow, with strong proposals often rejected or weakened. Oceana is urging the responsible fisheries management bodies and authorities to pick up the pace in establishing new regulations. Specifically, the marine conservation organization demands that all shark fisheries be regulated with “fins attached[1]” policies, catch quotas, minimum landing sizes, recovery plans or technical controls for fishing gear.

Read the complete story from Oceana.