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overfishing
'Openly Declaring Their Illegal Whaling Activities,' Japan Abandons Global Effort to Protect Whale Population
"As a country surrounded by oceans where people's lives have been heavily reliant on marine resources, it is essential for Japan to work towards healthy oceans. Japan's government has so far failed to resolve these problems."
Dec 25, 2018
After denying for several days reports that they were planning to leave the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Japanese officials said Wednesday that the country would withdraw from the 89-member panel in order to defy its ban on commercial whaling.
The move will eliminate the country's long-held "pretense" of hunting whales only for research purposes, said the conservation group Sea Shepherd, as Japan officially declares itself a "pirate whaling nation."
"This means that Japan is now openly declaring their illegal whaling activities," Paul Watson, founder of the group, told the New York Times.
"It's clear that the government is trying to sneak in this announcement at the end of year away from the spotlight of international media, but the world sees this for what it is. The declaration today is out of step with the international community." --Sam Annesley, Greenpeace Japan
Since the IWC introduced its ban on commercial whaling in 1986, Japan has used regular so-called "research whaling" trips off the coasts of Antarctica as a loophole to continue its whale-hunting. The country has killed an average of 333 minke whales on its expeditions, including more than 120 pregnant female whales last year.
Instead of traveling to the Southern Ocean every year, Japanese whalers will now resume hunting in Japan's territories and exclusive economic zone beginning in July 2019, selling whale meat on the open market.
Greenpeace Japan noted that the country's timing of the announcement would not stop green groups from condemning its plan to openly slaughter whales for profit.
"It's clear that the government is trying to sneak in this announcement at the end of year away from the spotlight of international media, but the world sees this for what it is," said Sam Annesley, the group's executive director. "The declaration today is out of step with the international community, let alone the protection needed to safeguard the future of our oceans and these majestic creatures."
Following Iceland and Norway, which have also defied the IWC's ban on commercial whaling, Japan's withdrawal from the international body will mark the end of its participation in the global effort to save the world's whales from human activity.
"The Commission is the pre-eminent global body responsible for the conservation and management of whales and leads international efforts to tackle the growing range of threats to whales globally, including by-catch, ship strikes, entanglement, noise, and whaling," said Australia's environment minister, Melissa Price, in a statement. "Their decision to withdraw is regrettable and Australia urges Japan to return to the Convention and Commission as a matter of priority."
As Common Dreams reported last week, Japan first denied rumors of its plans to leave the IWC. Chief cabinet secretary Yoshihide Suga admitted in a statement that the government is putting its own " life and culture of using whales" ahead of conservation efforts.
"In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but also for a variety of other purposes," Suga said.
In fact, demand for whale meat in Japan has plummeted in recent years, with the industry depending on government subsidies to survive.
Commercial whaling represents the exact opposite direction Japan should be headed in regarding marine activity, Greenpeace Japan said.
"The world's oceans face multiple threats such as acidification and plastic pollution, in addition to overfishing," Annesley said. "As a country surrounded by oceans where people's lives have been heavily reliant on marine resources, it is essential for Japan to work towards healthy oceans. Japan's government has so far failed to resolve these problems.
"As the chair of the G20 in 2019, the Japanese government needs to recommit to the IWC and prioritize new measures for marine conservation," he concluded.
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Oceans in Peril as World Oceans Day Marked
Pollution, climate change, overfishing plague oceans
Jun 08, 2012
As World Oceans Day is marked today, the planet's oceans in are peril from overfishing, pollution and climate change.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon noted the challenges facing oceans today, stating, "We must do more for our world's oceans, which are threatened by pollution, depleted fishery resources, the impacts of climate change and the deterioration of the marine environment."
Ban saw the upcoming UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Brazil, known as Rio +20, as a hopeful opportunity to global commitment to action. "Rio+20 must mobilize the United Nations, governments and other partners to improve the management and conservation of oceans through initiatives to curb overfishing, improve protection of the marine environment and reduce ocean pollution and the impact of climate change."
But not everyone is optimistic. World Wide Fund for Nature stated that "very few paragraphs [of the negotiating text for Rio +20] include time framed commitments, and little action oriented text."
Beyond individual action, Sarah Chasis writes on NRDC, "Demanding that our leaders create reliable solutions is an important step toward a sustainable ocean future. We need to go beyond good intentions this year and place the focus on action."
But action to heal the oceans is urgent for humankind. "The ocean is literally our lifeline," adds Fabien Cousteau, grandson of ocean explorer Jacques-Yves Cousteau. "Without it we will perish."
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Richard Page writing on the Greenpeace blog:
Defending our oceans every day
Today is World Oceans Day, the day we celebrate all that the oceans give us. They provide humankind with food, jobs and the oxygen we breathe. If we are to survive on this planet, we need living oceans. However, decades of destructive fishing, pollution and energy exploration are pushing our oceans to the brink, while climate change is forever altering our oceans.
But there is hope. We can restore our oceans to health if we end overfishing and create a global network of marine reserves: wildlife sanctuaries at sea that are off-limits to fishing and other harmful practices. [...]
For us at Greenpeace, every day is World Oceans Day and you can help.
- Demand that your supermarket and tuna brand source sustainable tuna. Look for tuna cans with "Pole and Line" or "Hand-Caught."
- Ask your politicians and business leaders to support the creation of marine reserves. your voice here to tell governments gathering in Rio later this month to support marine reserves!
- Use less wasteful plastic. 80% of plastic pollution in our oceans comes from land-based sources
- Tell energy companies and governments to stop dangerous energy, especially in our fragile polar oceans.
- Learn about where your fish is from- is it from far away? How many of this fish is left? Knowing what you're eating an making the right decisions is important.
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Plastic in 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch' Has Increased 100-Fold
Plastic garbage in the ocean has increased 100-fold in the past 40 years and could have ecosystem-wide impacts, according to a study released Tuesday.
Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography looked at the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre (NPSG), known as the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' and found an "alarming amount" of plastic trash, much in small bits.
The plastic trash was leading to an increase in "sea skaters," a marine insect, eggs because the insects were using the increased plastic floating matter as to lay their eggs on. This increase may have widespread impacts across the marine food web.
"This paper shows a dramatic increase in plastic over a relatively short time period and the effect it's having on a common North Pacific Gyre invertebrate," said Scripps graduate student Miriam Goldstein, lead author of the study and chief scientist of SEAPLEX, a UC Ship Funds-supported voyage. "We're seeing changes in this marine insect that can be directly attributed to the plastic."
"Plastic only became widespread in late '40s and early '50s, but now everyone uses it and over a 40-year range we've seen a dramatic increase in ocean plastic," added Goldstein. "Historically we have not been very good at stopping plastic from getting into the ocean so hopefully in the future we can do better."
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TED Talk from 2010:
Jeremy Jackson: How we wrecked the ocean
In this bracing talk, coral reef ecologist Jeremy Jackson lays out the shocking state of the ocean today: overfished, overheated, polluted, with indicators that things will get much worse.
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Sarah Chasis writing on NRDC's Switchboard blog
Making it Count: National Oceans Month and Rio+20
Rio+20 happens to fall during the same month as World Oceans Day (June 8) and ocean protection will be at the top of the agenda for the summit, as one of seven priority areas. With the destruction of our oceans ever escalating, we'll need more than good intentions. Now is the time to make our actions count and to hold nations accountable for the outcomes of these negotiations. [...]
The ocean world is dynamic, and it doesn't obey national boundaries or political lines. That's why international collaboration is key to a healthy ocean future.
The international community has a collective responsibility to work together on the issues that affect the world's oceans, coastal economies, and people everywhere. We're counting on them to safeguard the coral reefs teeming with life, the deep sea mounts with undiscovered creatures, the billions of people who depend on the economic resources provided by the sea, and all of us who have the oceans to thank for the water we drink and the air we breathe.
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Sea Shepherd Activists Free Hundreds of Threatened Bluefin Tuna off Libya
Steve Irwin crew throws rotten butter during confrontation with Italian and Libyan fishermen over endangered bluefin catch
Jun 18, 2010
Green activists using helicopters, divers and rotten butter yesterday confronted Libyan and Italian fishermen to release hundreds of threatened bluefin tuna which they strongly suspect were illegally caught off the Libyan coast.
In the first such action in North African waters, the international crew of the California-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society released around 800 tuna from a cage being towed behind the Italian trawler Cesare Rustico.
Bluefin tuna stocks, one of the most valuable but endangered fish in the Mediterranean, have been decimated by ruthless overfishing in the last 20 years. They are now unlikely to survive more than a few more years. Catches are limited to two weeks of the year, and governments have given shipowners strict quotas. However, with little policing, the industry has been easily able to flaunt the law.
In a statement from the boat, Captain Paul Watson said: "Sea Shepherd's helicopter reconnaissance flight this morning found two fishing vessels. One was engaged in transferring bluefin tuna into one of the two nets being towed by the other vessel.
"The captain of the Cesare Rustico said when questioned that the tuna were caught on the morning of the 14th by the Libyan vessel Tagreft. When we replied that the number of tuna in the cage exceeded the quota for the Tagreft, the captain said the cage also included tuna from seven other Libyan seiners. According to the captain, all the catches were caught on the 14th, the last legal day.
"The problem with this explanation was that we had observed ... weather conditions for those two days made fishing virtually impossible.
"The extremely difficult conditions, coupled with the position of the cages only 40 miles off the Libyan coast when they should have been moving 25 miles a day, suggested to us that the fish were freshly caught within the last three days at the most."
The Sea Shepherd, which annually confronts Japanese whalers in the Antarctic waters, was then asked to examine the fish for juveniles. "We were refused. I then put the bow of Steve Irwin onto the cage so we could look into the cage from the bow to examine it further.
"Suddenly, the Maltese vessel Rosaria Tuna rammed the Steve Irwin on the aft port side and slid alongside the port rail, as a fisherman tried to violently gaff Sea Shepherd crewmembers with a long, sharp-hooked pole."
In the ensuing fracas, the Steve Irwin crew crew retaliated throwing rotten butter at the fishermen, and then sent divers into one of the cages to identify the size, age, and quantity of the bluefin tuna caught.
"Once it was clearly established that the cage was overstocked and that a high percentage were juveniles, Sea Shepherd divers freed the 700-800 tuna," said Watson.
"It is our position that the bluefin tuna we freed from that cage held a large number of juveniles and that the fish were caught after the official closure of the season. It is also our position that the fish that we freed exceeded the quota," said Watson.
"They shot out of that net like racehorses," said Canadian cameraman Simon Ager.
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