Washington,
US— Critically endangered hawksbill turtles
are no longer being sold as tourist souvenirs
in the Dominican Republic after a powerful
government campaign cracked down on shops
illegally trading such items. More than
99 percent of these souvenirs have been
withdrawn or confiscated the wildlife trade
monitoring network TRAFFIC reports.
A 2006 survey carried
out by TRAFFIC found more than 23,000 items
made from hawksbill turtles for sale. A
February revisit of the same locations revealed
a dramatic reduction with only 135 shell
items.
The success has been
achieved thanks to a widespread government-led
action launched in November 2008. The Dominican
Republic has encouraged the trade of alternative
products such as cow horn or bone to present
an alternative to shops trading with these
turtles.
“We warmly congratulate
the Government of the Dominican Republic
on their decisive action that has virtually
eliminated the blatant illegal souvenir
trade in hawksbill turtle shells,” said
Adrian Reuter, TRAFFIC’s Representative
in Mexico.
“This sets an important
conservation example for the region, showing
that there are solutions that benefit wildlife
and people, especially local communities
that rely on tourism.”
Hawksbills are one of
three marine turtle species that nest on
beaches in the Dominican Republic. Over
the last century, millions have been killed
for the tortoiseshell markets of Europe,
the United States and Asia. Today they are
preyed upon by poachers mainly for their
shells, which are made into souvenirs and
sold to tourists, millions of whom visit
the country, mostly from North America and
Europe.
Hawksbills are classified
by IUCN as Critically Endangered and facing
an extremely high risk of global extinction.
They are listed in Appendix I of CITES (the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) along with
other marine turtles, which prohibits their
international trade.
“With marine turtles
around the world being threatened with extinction,
we need to maximize every effort to save
these species, not least because they are
worth infinitely more alive as tourist attractions
than dead,” said Carlos Drews, WWF’s regional
co-ordinator for marine turtle conservation
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“The good news from
the Dominican Republic is that it demonstrates
to fellow nations that a real difference
can be made to reduce illegal trade.”
+ More
Indian Ocean tuna commission
a failure – again
03 Apr 2009 - Bali,
Indonesia: The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission
– in the spotlight as some coastal fishers
whose stocks it has failed to protect turn
to piracy instead - is continuing in its
unbroken record of failure to regulate one
of the world's largest tuna fisheries.
The commission, which
has just concluded its 13th meeting in Bali,
failed to set catch limits for any of the
fisheries it is supposed to be regulating,
failed to agree any new measures to restrain
rampant over-fishing, failed to set effective
rules on shark finning and put off a much
needed decision to reform itself.
IOTC scientists, grappling
with dangerously inadequate information
on all stocks, had warned that yellowfin
tuna was “probably” overfished..
"Most of the world's
large tuna fisheries are poorly managed
by bodies that commission scientific assessments
and then set catch quotas that ignore them,
but the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission is
the most dysfunctional of all," said
WWF International Marine Director Miguel
Jorge.
“Another stumbling block
in the negotiations has been EU intransigence
on large Spanish and French fleets maintaining
their swordfish catch levels at dangerously
high levels.
“At the same time the
commission has just been wringing its hands
on the piracy issue, with a resolution failing
to note that the pirates now attacking merchant
shipping are from coastal communities that
got into the aggressive habit of trying
to defend their fishing livelihoods from
illegal fishing by foreign fishing boats.”
The meeting also failed
to make adequate progress on proposals to
ban shark-finning by requiring sharks to
be landed whole – with fins naturally attached
- rather than with the existing limited
restriction of having a whole shark to fins
ratio of just five percent, making it hard
to identify how many sharks of which potentially
endangered species are being taken in what
may be one of the most wasteful and unsustainable
fisheries.
Other controversial
measures were a failure to extend the high
seas large scale drift net ban to coastal
waters, deferring consideration of vital
Catch Documentation Scheme improvements
and failure to adopt a realistic observer
program.
“Many member States
appear to be operating on a hear no evil,
see no evil, speak no evil basis which supports
continuing rampant non-compliance with even
a lax management regime,” said Jorge.
“No-one knows what is
really going on, few seem to care, States
report their catches late or not at all
and the scientists that are supposed to
be the cornerstone of the system are doing
the best they can with the scraps of data
they are given.”
While some regional
fisheries management organizations are functioning
better than others, WWF is taking its dissatisfaction
with the workings of some of the flagship
commissions such as the IOTC to the marketplace
and work with the seafood industry to demand
better management by RFMOs and sustainable
tuna fishing
No bluefin tuna on Monaco
shelves or menus
All restaurants, retailers
and chefs in the Principality of Monaco
have removed endangered Atlantic bluefin
tuna from their shelves and menus until
stocks of the fish have recovered and the
fishery and trade are managed in a sustainable
way.
A special lunch debate
to celebrate the initiative was joined by
His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of
Monaco today.
WWF congratulates Monaco
– a Mediterranean state with a strong tradition
of fishing and eating bluefin tuna – for
being the first territory in the world known
to achieve this bluefin-free status.
“The unanimous move
of Monaco restaurants and shops to remove
bluefin tuna from their shelves and menus
in light of the worrying deterioration of
this emblematic species will draw attention
to the crisis in this fishery,” said Philippe
Mondielli, Scientific Director of the Prince
Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
“WWF applauds Monaco
for becoming the first country in the world
to be entirely free of endangered Mediterranean
bluefin tuna,” said Dr Sergi Tudela, Head
of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean.
“WWF encourages other
countries and territories to follow Monaco’s
example until the species can be considered
a sustainable seafood product.”
There is growing support
for a listing of Atlantic bluefin tuna under
Appendix I of the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES).
Atlantic bluefin tuna
is mostly caught in the Mediterranean Sea
which constitutes the main spawning ground
for the species.
A global trade ban tied
explicitly to the survival of the species
would turn around the management failure
and disrespect for scientific advice so
rampant in the Mediterranean bluefin tuna
fishery.
CITES next meets in
Doha in early 2010.
The Prince Albert II
of Monaco Foundation is supporting WWF’s
bluefin tuna work in the Mediterranean through
conservation activities including a pioneering
tuna tagging project, ‘On the Med tuna trail’.
Data provided by the
tags are improving scientific understanding
of this migratory species and will thus
contribute to better management decisions.
