11 May 2009 - Karaburun,
Turkey — The Turkish government has set
its own catch limit for the endangered Mediterranean
bluefin tuna - in total disregard
for internationally agreed quotas and scientific
advice.
The existing management
plan for bluefin tuna is bad enough. By
pressuring politicians to ignore the warnings
of scientists, the Mediterranean tuna industry
has created a suicide pact, not a management
plan. Now Turkey, by objecting to even those
inadequate restrictions, is telling its
legal fleet to fish for everything it can
before it's all gone. And to add insult
to absurdity, there's still the illegal
catch to consider -- and Turkey just got
caught red-handed with an illegal landing
of between 5 and 10 tonnes of juvenile bluefin
tuna in the Turkish port of Karaburun. And
this year's bluefin tuna fishing season
is only just getting started!
Juvenile bluefin tuna
below the minimum landing size, stored on
the unauthorised fishing vessel Yasar Reis
II, Turkey.
Turkey currently operates
the largest Mediterranean fleet fishing
for bluefin tuna, an economically and ecologically
valuable species facing imminent collapse
as direct result of overfishing. Northern
bluefin tuna have long been an important
part of the Mediterranean economy and way
of life. In ancient Rome, tuna fishing and
salting were two of the empire’s most stable
industries. Today, virtually all bluefin
tuna from the Mediterranean is exported
to Japan creating vast profits over the
last decade, which have fuelled an industry
with no concern for the future of a species
that has been reduced to critical levels,
threatening its own future and those of
hundreds of fishermen.
An international disgrace
Management of bluefin
tuna is entrusted to the International Commission
for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT),
an intergovernmental organisation in which
the European Union is an active and influential
member. In September 2008, an independent
performance review of ICCAT noted that the
management of the bluefin tuna fishery in
the Mediterranean was “widely seen as an
international disgrace.” The Turkish government
objected to the bluefin tuna quota that
was agreed upon at the ICCAT meeting last
November.
The last goodbye
Alongside ICCAT quotas,
a minimum legal landing size is set at 30
kg to allow for at least one reproduction
cycle before any catch. But catches below
this limit have recently been reported by
both Turkish and Italian media. Ignoring
international quota limits means that Turkey
will bring an end to the bluefin tuna business
even faster through the commercial extinction
of the species.
Since 2006, scientists
have been sounding the alarm on the dire
state of the bluefin tuna stock. They have
advised not to fish above a maximum of 15,000
tonnes, and to protect the species’ spawning
grounds during the crucial months of May
and June. But the spawning grounds are ravaged
by industrial fleets every year and the
actual haul has been estimated at a shocking
61,100 tonnes in 2007, twice the legal catch
for that year, and more than four times
the scientifically recommended level. This
year, a so called ‘recovery plan’ for bluefin
tuna will legally allow fishing that is
47 percent above the maximum sustainable
limit.
No fish, no future
Turkey, and all other
fishing nations including European countries,
should close the bluefin fishery immediately
until management is in strict compliance
with the scientific advice, fishing has
decreased to sustainable levels and marine
reserves are established to protect the
bluefin breeding grounds.
Since 2006, we have
documented at sea, and compiled numerous
cases of illegal fishing in the Mediterranean,
including fishing during closed seasons,
catches of undersized tuna, illegal reflagging
of fishing vessels, illegal use of spotter
planes, unlicensed fishing vessels and tuna
farms, unregulated transhipments, illegal
landings and false declarations, substantial
unreported over-catches and further increase
of fishing fleet capacity. Since the fishing
industry is now completely out of control
and leading the bluefin tuna to near-extinction.
We're advocating the
creation of a network of no-take marine
reserves, protecting 40 percent of the world’s
oceans, as the long term solution to the
overfishing of tuna and other species, and
the recovery of our overexploited blue planet.
+ More
Justice for the Tokyo
Two - justice for whales, coming our way?
15 May 2009 - Tokyo,
Japan — Justice is starting to go the Tokyo
Two way: A court in Aomori, Japan, has delivered
a series of setbacks to the prosecution
in the trial of Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki
(the activists known as the Tokyo Two) -
and the Japanese government's attempts to
cover up an embezzlement scandal within
the whaling industry.
First, the court has
ruled that evidence of the embezzlement
scandal cannot be excluded. Second, the
issue of whether or not Junichi and Toru's
actions are protected under the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights can
and will be discussed during the trial.
Third, the court has requested that the
prosecutor come forward with witness testimonies
that may prove crucial to the case - and
to further disclose evidence of the whale
meat scandal.
The prosecutor had previously
been attempting to portray the actions of
Junichi and Toru as being a simple case
of theft, and to block any discussion of
the embezzlement. The court has rightly
refused to accept this, ruling that this
evidence cannot be excluded - evidence which
details the exposure by Junichi and Toru
of a major corruption scandal within the
Japanese government-sponsored Southern Ocean
whaling programme.
Toru Suzuki. Photo:
Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert
Junichi and Toru risk
up to ten years in jail if convicted of
theft. They removed a box of embezzled whale
meat from a mail depot last year, and presented
it to the Tokyo Public Prosecutor, who immediately
opened up an investigation into corruption
in the government-subsidised whaling programme.
The investigation was later discontinued
- on the same day that Junichi and Toru
were arrested, and the Greenpeace Japan
office raided.
The court has urged
the prosecutor to disclose evidence that
he’s been holding back. This includes statements
made to police by the “owner” of the intercepted
box of whale meat; by several individuals
who purportedly entrusted their whale meat
to him, and by an employee of whaling fleet
operator Kyodo Senpaku, who made the arrangements
to transport the crewmembers' “personal
luggage” from the ship to their homes. If
that sounds murky, it’s probably because
it is.
"In this trial,
we want to establish that what Junichi and
Toru did was to corroborate information
provided by whistleblowers regarding embezzlement
within the Kyodo Senpaku whaling fleet,"
said the Tokyo Two's defence lawyer, Yuichi
Kaido.
"With the prosecutor's
opinion being rejected by the court, we
have gained a foothold in this case and
the opportunity to prove that there was
indeed embezzlement of whale meat by employees."
In fact, it seems that
prosecutor's attempts to keep the whale
meat scandal and several witnesses out of
the courtroom, and thus the public eye,
has only resulted in making the judges more
curious. Maybe it's because the prosecutor
knows that the whaling industry really has
something to hide?
"The government
was hoping to bury this scandal by putting
the messengers on trial," said Jun
Hoshikawa, Greenpeace Japan Executive Director.
"However, as more evidence of embezzlement
comes to light, at the end of the day it
will be whaling that is on trial."
