Posted on 11 December
2010
Honolulu, Hawaii: The Commission
responsible for managing tuna resources
in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean
has yet again failed to take any effective
action to reduce the decline of valuable
big eye and yellowfin tuna.
The failure, just weeks
after the Atlantic tuna commission made
only cosmetic cuts to Mediterranean bluefin
tuna catch quotas, adding to increasing
scepticism that the global system of Regional
Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs)
can prevent the unsustainable plunder of
the world’s oceans.
The week long Western
Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC)
annual meeting in Hawaii saw strong interventions
from Japan and the EU on the urgent need
to freeze fishing capacity of purse seine
super fleets and fishing pressure on the
most stressed tuna stocks, moves that won
support from the US and some other powerful
fishing states.
But the WCPFC ultimately
stuck to the familiar course of throwing
overboard the scientific advice, rejecting
its own Scientific Committee’s recommendation
of an immediate 29 per cent reduction in
the big eye tuna catch.
“Once again we see the
WCPFC failing to hear their own scientific
advice and condemning the region’s most
stressed tuna stocks to another year of
overfishing,” said Peter Trott, Fisheries
Program Manager with WWF-Australia.
“I have never seen such
strong support from the big fishing nations
on the need to reduce pressure on big eye
and other stressed stocks but this was still
not enough to make any real progress on
halting the decline of these species.”
"absurd" conservation
measure for striped marlin
There were some positives
to emerge from the meeting, most significantly
agreement to develop a shark research plan
and introduce greater monitoring and reporting
of shark catches. A conservation measure
was also adopted for heavily fished Northern
Bluefin tuna.
And the Commission agreed
to finally go ahead with an independent
review of its own performance, a commitment
originally made years ago.
“This level of agreement
on shark catch has been one of only a few
progressive steps taken at this year’s meeting
and we hope it will help better inform,
and stop the decline of key shark species
within the region,” Mr Trott said.
But the credibility
of the WCPFC was further undermined with
an absurd conservation measure for overfished
striped marlin that according to the Commission’s
scientific advisor will allow the catch
to increase.
“This level of agreement
on shark catches has been one of only a
few progressive steps taken at this years
meeting and we hope it will help better
inform, and stop the decline of key shark
species within the region,” Mr Trott said.
“The WCPFC meeting in
Hawaii demonstrated that its most powerful
fishing members are ringing the alarm bells
of the regions tuna stocks, calling out
for urgent action on its most critical issues,”
Mr Trott said.
“Unfortunately the Commission
still lacks the teeth required to meet its
responsibilities in terms of conservation
and sustainability.”
WWF is advocating consideration
of new rights- basedmanagement frameworks,
cuts to fishing effort from the industrial
purse seine sector, care over initiatives
that could largely have the effect of displacing
rather than reducing fishing effort.
“Most importantly however,
the WCPFC should take heed of its contribution
to the failures of global fishing regulation
and be prepared to set the example in terms
of following the scientific advice,” Mr
Trott said.
+ More
Navigation threat barges
in on Danube
Posted on 09 December
2010
New plans to ease navigation bottlenecks
on the Danube could threaten some of the
river's most scenic and natural values,
said WWF after the release today of plans
of the European Commission to increase navigation
on the river as part of the EU Strategy
for the Danube Region.
The Danube River basin,
the most international river basin in the
world, comprises 19 countries and is currently
home to close to 100 million people. One
quarter of them depend on the river for
their drinking water.
WWF criticises the decision
to increase navigation on the Danube by
removing the so-called bottlenecks, obstacles
to navigation during low water level. This
usually involves deepening and widening
the fairway with the help of old-fashioned
and expensive infrastructures. Such interventions
would not only affect local ecosystems,
but the entire river morphology and dynamics
as well as the associated flora and fauna.
The number of existing
navigation projects show the alarmingly
broad definition being applied to the term
bottleneck - it includes the last free flowing
stretch of the Danube in Germany and the
entire Hungarian section of the river. Many
areas with outstanding natural values are
also being investigated for intrusive navigational
works. In the Lower Danube, islands like
Belene, Cama-Dinu and Turcescu are considered
bottlenecks at the same time as being part
of Nature Parks or designated EU Natura
2000 sites.
Although the river has
seen considerable improvements in its condition
over the last decade, this decision could
result in significant negative impacts on
its unique environment without bringing
the expected economic benefit to the region.
"Heavy investments
in diking and dredging the Danube have been
justified by various officials with reference
to the Rhine river. But the Rhineland has
very different conditions from the Danube
area, with an industrial base that has developed
over centuries and not just thanks to the
river. Expecting an economic miracle from
investments in Danube navigation is a myth,
and potentially a very costly mistake."
said Andreas Beckmann, Director of the WWF
Danube-Carpathian Programme.
The Danube as opposed
to the Rhine, does not harbour as many industrial
sites, and many of the large economic centres
on the Danube are not located on the river.
“Today is a sad day”,
said Petruta Moisi, a prominent Romanian
environmentalist who lives close to the
river in Galati. “It’s sad not because there
will be navigation along the Danube River
– the river has always been navigable –
but because of the narrow mindset of the
hydrologists and river engineers, who were
all trained over the past 50 years and this
is their final lifetime opportunity to get
things wrong”.
“It's the same pattern
of thinking that made it possible for the
former river wetlands and floodplains to
be destroyed for good starting back in the
early 1970s.”
“I feel sad because
I truly believed in all the decision makers'
capacity for understanding the issues here.
But who will pay the price now for doing
things in an unsustainable way? You do not
need to be smart to know that”, Moisi said.
The current focus of
the proposed strategy on expensive and out-dated
approaches to increase navigation risks
not only waste money but destroy valuable
biodiversity and associated ecosystem services,
from flood protection to water purification.
“Solutions for improving
inland navigation without changing drastically
the nature of the river are available and
are less costly in financial as well as
ecological terms. We need to invest in innovative
ship design that fit the existing depth
of the river, better information systems,
and nature friendly infrastructure.” added
Beckmann.
WWF is calling on Danube
countries and on Hungary as next leader
of the EU Council to seize the opportunity
of the Strategy to bring short and long
term benefits to its population by using
its enormous natural and cultural assets
in a sustainable way.
Other aspects of the
plan, which will continue the improvement
of water quality and offer special protection
to the sturgeon, were praised by WWF.
