Asian nations want to sink South Korea whale hunt plan

Elida Moreno PlanetArk 6 Jul 12;

South Korea's proposal to resume whaling for scientific research has angered other Asian countries and conservationists who said the practice would skirt a global ban on whale hunting.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she would fight the proposal, which was made on Wednesday at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Panama City, while the United States said it planned to take the matter up with the South Korean government.

Critics said the move to pursue whaling in domestic waters was modeled on Japan's introduction of scientific whaling after the IWC imposed a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling.

Japan says it has a right to monitor the whales' impact on its fishing industry. South Korea says whaling is a long-standing cultural tradition.

Anti-whaling activists regularly harass Japanese vessels engaging in their annual whale hunt in the Southern Ocean off Australia and Antarctica, with the two sides sometimes clashing violently. At least one activist boat has sunk in recent years.

In Seoul, a government official said South Korea abided by international regulations and it would be up to the IWC to assess its proposal.

"We've submitted a proposal to the IWC's Scientific Committee to resume scientific whaling in our waters and will await the committee's assessment," said an official at the Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry.

"If it says it is not adequate in their assessment of the legitimacy of scientific research, we'll make further preparations."

South Korea said its fishermen were complaining that growing whale populations were depleting fishing stocks, an assertion the World Wildlife Fund said had no scientific basis.

Environmental activists dismissed the term scientific whaling as a thinly veiled ruse to conduct commercial whaling.

"It's an absolute shock this happened at this meeting and it's an absolute disgrace because to say that hunting whales is happening in the name of science is just wrong," James Lorenz from Greenpeace told Australian television. "Essentially, it's commercial whaling in another form."

The minke whales that South Korea proposes hunting are considered endangered, the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement.

Former Australian Environment Minister Ian Campbell, now on the board of the anti-whaling activist group Sea Shepherd, said the organization would "have to get organized to go out to the oceans and save the whales off South Korea."

AUSTRALIA TO PROTEST

Australia has long opposed Japanese whaling and Gillard said it would lodge a diplomatic protest against South Korea's move.

"We will make our voices heard today," she told reporters. "Our ambassador will speak to counterparts in South Korea at the highest levels of the South Korea government and indicate Australia's opposition to this decision."

Australia has filed a complaint against Japan at the International Court of Justice in The Hague to stop scientific whaling. A decision is expected in 2013 or later.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the announcement was a setback to global conservation efforts as whales in its waters were already targeted by Japan.

"The portrayal of this initiative as a 'scientific' program will have no more credibility than the so-called scientific program conducted by Japan, which has long been recognized as commercial whaling in drag," he said in a statement.

In Washington, the State Department repeated that the United States remained committed to the moratorium on commercial whaling.

"We're concerned about South Korea's announcement," State Department spokeswoman Patrick Ventrell said. "We plan to discuss this with the South Korean government."

Panama's delegate to the IWC conference, Tomas Guardia, denounced the South Korean proposal "because it goes against the ban ... we don't support whale hunting under any circumstances".

Twitter was awash with condemnations.

"I don't care what justification you give," wrote a user identifying herself as Savannah, from Australia. "It's crap. Stop killing whales."

Many Koreans view whale meat as a delicacy. Murals some 5,000 years old depicting whaling have been excavated around Ulsan, center of the whaling industry on the southeastern coast since the late 19th century.

Officials say that before South Korea joined the moratorium in 1986, its average annual catch was 600 whales, most of which were consumed. Whaling is now subject to prosecution and punishable by a jail or fines, but meat is available from mostly minke that get caught in fishing nets "by accident" or wash ashore.

(Additional reporting by; Jack Kim and Laeticia Ock in Seoul, James Grubel and Maggie Lu YueYang in Canberra and Andrew Quinn in Washington. Writing by Ron Popeski; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Peter Cooney)

South Korean whale hunt plan attacked
Proposal to kill creatures for scientific research met with anger from Australia, New Zealand and campaign groups
Justin McCurry guardian.co.uk 5 Jul 12

moratorium that South Korea aims to exploit. Photograph: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty

Australia and other countries have condemned a South Korean plan to begin killing whales in its coastal waters in the name of scientific research.

The proposal, announced at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission [IWC] in Panama, would allow South Korea to use a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling to hunt the mammals under the guise for of scientific research.

Japan uses the same clause to kill hundreds of whales in the Antarctic every year, although for the past two years its fleet has returned with a fraction of its planned catch following confrontations with the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd.

The South Korean delegation did not say how many whales it would kill, but insisted it did not need foreign approval. It added that minke whale numbers in its coastal waters had recovered since the moratorium went into effect.

Citing a tradition of whale meat consumption in South Korea, the country's head envoy to the IWC, Kang Joon-Suk, said: "Legal whaling has been strictly banned and subject to strong punishments, though the 26 years have been painful and frustrating for the people who have been traditionally taking whales for food."

Kang said South Korean whalers would operate in coastal waters, unlike Japan, which has angered Australia, New Zealand and other countries by sending a fleet to the Southern Ocean every winter.

The Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, said she would fight condemned the new proposal, whilst"We will make our voices heard today," she told reporters. "Our ambassador will speak to counterparts in South Korea at the highest levels of the South Korea government and indicate Australia's opposition to this decision." Australia's former environment minister, Ian Campbell, told Australian television from aboard a Sea Shepherd vessel that the group would "have to get organised to go out to the oceans and save the whales off South Korea". New Zealand's envoy, Gerard van Bohemen, condemned the proposal and urged South Korea to consider non-lethal research methods. He said the plan was "unnecessary and borders on the reckless. New Zealand is strongly opposed to Korea's proposal"."

An official in Seoul said South Korea had every right to monitor the impact whales were having on the country's fishing industry. "We've submitted a proposal to the IWC's scientific committee to resume scientific whaling in our waters and will await the committee's assessment," the official told Reuters. "If it says it is not adequate in their assessment of the legitimacy of scientific research, we'll make further preparations."

The World Wildlife Fund said there was no evidence for claims by South Korean fishermen that whales were depleting coastal fish stocks, adding that minke whales are considered endangered.

James Lorenz, a Greenpeace spokesman, told Australian televisionsaid: "It's an absolute shock this happened at this meeting and it's an absolute disgrace because to say that hunting whales is happening in the name of science is just wrong.Essentially, it's commercial whaling in another form."Most international criticism has been directed at Japan's insistence on hunting whales and selling their meat on the open market, but many Koreans also consider whale meat a delicacy.

Before the 1986 ban, South Korea said it caught about 600 whales a year and that most of the meat was consumed. It currently sells whale meat from animals accidentally caught in fishing nets.

In Japan, however, the appetite for whale meat is in decline, according to a recent report.

Read more!

International Whaling Commission calls for net bans to prevent extinctions

WWF 6 Jul 12;

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has taken up the cause of some of the world’s most critically endangered marine mammals by calling on governments to keep fishing nets out of their waters to prevent entanglement deaths.

Mexico’s vaquita porpoise and the Maui’s dolphin of New Zealand were a focus of discussions today between countries gathered in Panama City for the commission’s annual meeting. Governments urged Mexico and New Zealand to take all possible measures immediately to save the animals from extinction.

“It’s time for diplomatic niceties and step-wise strategies to take a back seat to immediate, concrete action with no compromise,” said Michael Stachowitsch, delegate of Austria to the IWC.

There are believed to be fewer than 200 vaquitas left, and only 55 remaining Maui’s dolphins over a year old. Both animals are severely threatened by accidental bycatch in gillnet fisheries. A total ban on the use of gillnets in the entire ranges of both populations is needed to secure their survival, according to the IWC Scientific Committee’s report.

Scientists say that unless immediate action is taken the vaquita population could soon be extinct. The only known loss of a mammal species from human causes was the Chinese baiji, or Yangtze river dolphin, which was declared functionally extinct by the IWC in 2006. Governments cautioned that this worst case scenario is near for vaquita.

“Mexico has the power to save this unique species by banning all gillnets in vaquita habitat,” said Aimee Leslie, WWF’s marine turtle and cetacean manager.

A similar ban on gillnets and trawl nets is urgently needed throughout the whole habitat of Maui’s dolphin, which is found only in the shallow waters surrounding the North Island of New Zealand. Protection measures announced by the government last week are not enough to save the animals from extinction.

“Advances in technology mean that fishermen and Maui’s dolphins can safely share New Zealand’s waters. We urge the government to deploy alternative fishing gear that is dolphin-friendly and keep all gillnets and trawl nets out of Maui’s habitat,” Leslie said.

Incidental capture in fishing operations is the biggest threat to cetacean species today. It is estimated that more than 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die each year from entanglement in many types of fishing gear, which is an average of one cetacean killed by bycatch every two minutes.

Despite their small numbers, hope remains for vaquitas and Maui’s dolphins. If bycatch is eliminated, scientists believe populations can recover. WWF is supporting the development of alternative fishing gear that is safer for cetaceans and marine turtles.

Read more!

El Nino may strike in third quarter: forecaster

Rene Pastor PlanetArk 6 Jul 12;

The feared El Nino weather phenomenon could strike as early as the third quarter of 2012, raising prospects of wreaking weather havoc from North and South America to Asia, the U.S. Climate Prediction Center (CPC) said on Thursday.

"Overall, the forecaster consensus reflects increased chances for El Nino beginning in July-September 2012," the agency said in a monthly update.

The monthly report is the strongest prediction yet about when the El Nino weather phenomenon could emerge this year. Last month, it issued an El Nino watch, warning the phenomenon could materialize in the second half of the year, but said conditions were still neutral between June and August.

El Nino is a warming of sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific that occurs every four to 12 years, affecting crops from Asia to the Americas and reducing the chances of storms forming in the Atlantic basin during the hurricane season that runs to November 30.

The oil industry in the Gulf of Mexico, which produces over 20 percent of domestic output, has been on hurricane watch since the Atlantic storm season started last month. Strong winds can topple oil rigs and cut production.

"The oceanic heat content anomalies (average temperatures in the upper 300 meters of the ocean) increased during June as above-average sub-surface temperatures became more entrenched in the equatorial Pacific," the CPC said.

Apart from the energy sector, global food production could also suffer massive disruptions from the warming caused by El Nino.

Three years ago, it slowed development of India's vital monsoon rains, sparking a rally in sugar prices to 30-year highs as the No. 2 producer in the world produced a poor cane crop.

Unwanted rains also damage crops in agricultural powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina, while the normally dry areas of Chile, the world's No. 1 copper producer, could see rampant floods.

Brazil is the world's biggest producer of sugar, coffee and soybeans. Argentina is a major soybean exporter.

Further ahead to the end of the year, the pattern could trigger severe winter storms during the northern hemisphere's winter, particularly in California and other Western U.S. states.

El Nino, which means 'little boy' in Spanish, was first noticed by anchovy fishermen in Latin America in the 19th century.

(Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Read more!

Natural climate change shut down Pacific reefs: study

AFP Yahoo News 6 Jul 12;

A period of intense, natural changes in climate caused coral reefs in the eastern Pacific to shut down thousands of years ago, and human-induced pollution could worsen the trend in the future, scientists said Thursday.

The study in the US journal Science points to sea temperature fluctuations -- brought on by the same phenomenon that causes El Nino and La Nina events every several years -- as the main cause for the coral die-off near the Panama coast.

The reef shutdown began 4,000 years ago and lasted about 2,500 years, said the research led by the Florida Institute of Technology and including experts from China and France.

"We were shocked to find that 2,500 years of reef growth were missing from the frameworks," said lead author Lauren Toth of FIT. "That gap represents the collapse of reef ecosystems for 40 percent of their total history."

Researchers did their analysis by driving 17-foot-long (five-meter-long) hollow pipes into dead frameworks of the coral reefs along Panama's Pacific coast.

They pulled out cross-sections of the reefs, and using radiocarbon dating and mass spectrometry techniques they were able to see what they described as a period of "hiatus" in their growth.

An examination of reef records in Australia and Japan showed similar gaps in growth, which Toth and co-authors believe is due primarily to historical changes in a phenomenon known as El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO).

"For Pacific reefs to have collapsed for such a long time and over such a large geographic scale, they must have experienced a major climatic disturbance. That disturbance was an intensified ENSO regime," Toth said.

Very strong El Nino events, bringing higher sea temperatures across the east-central equatorial Pacific, would likely have caused the initial collapse of the Panama corals due to bleaching-related die-off.

This ENSO activity began some 4,200 years ago and peaked about 3,000 years ago. Frequent abnormalities in water temperature would have made it impossible for the coral populations to recover, the study said.

The past may offer a hint of what is to come in the future, with eastern Pacific coral reefs again on the verge of collapse, but this time the situation is made worse by human-induced climate change.

"Climate change could again destroy coral-reef ecosystems, but this time the root cause would be the human assault on the environment and the collapse could be longer-lasting," said co-author Richard Aronson of FIT.

"Local issues like pollution and overfishing are major destructive forces and they need to be stopped, but they are trumped by climate change, which right now is the greatest threat to coral reefs."

However, researchers are hopeful that the world will take measures to curb pollution, allowing the reefs -- which have already proven their resilience -- to recover once more.

Read more!

Best of our wild blogs: 5 Jul 12

BESG starting a mirror site
from Bird Ecology Study Group

Proboscism
from The annotated budak

Softie Changi
from Psychedelic Nature

Stunning sea fan garden at Changi
from wild shores of singapore

Predawn surprises at Changi shore
from wonderful creation

Read more!

Online digital archive of plants, animals open

Straits Times 5 Jul 12;

Prof Peter Ng and Dr Yaacob Ibrahim at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research, which has launched a book that shows the biodiversity found in Singapore's rainforests and efforts to conserve them. -- ST PHOTO: LAU FOOK KONG

AN ONLINE digital archive of 700 species of plants and animals found here is now open to the public.

But the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research (RMBR) at the National University of Singapore, which set this up, has given itself another goal - to grow the archive so that it captures the tens of thousands of species - extinct or not - that have been sighted in Singapore since the early 1900s.

The Digital Nature Archive of Singapore (DNA) was launched by Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts Yaacob Ibrahim yesterday. He also launched a book on rainforests in Singapore.

The listings in the archive are sorted by classification and habitat, and include known information such as general biology, range, historical sightings and where they can be found. For example, the fever nut plant, a medicinal plant with spiny fruit, can be found only on Lazarus island, Pulau Semakau and in Punggol.

Users can also do searches by location, for example, Admiralty Park. They will learn that birds like the black-naped oriole and zebra dove can be sighted there.

The archive contains videos of species sightings, recordings of vocal calls and a trove of academic theses as well.

All these were painstakingly put together in more than a year from thousands of contributions from researchers, photographers, nature enthusiasts and the RMBR's habitat surveys.

To grow the archive, the RMBR will need users to contribute content, as well as more funds. It has received funds from HSBC bank's 'Care-for-Nature' programme.

Professor Peter Ng, the museum's director, said: 'Officially, there are 30,000 to 50,000 species here. We believe that's an underestimate. By exactly how much, we don't really know. But by many more times, for sure.'

- DAVID EE

Read more!

PUB uses 'fish alert' to monitor clean water

Straits Times 5 Jul 12;

SINGAPORE is now home to some award-winning, water quality-monitoring fish.

National water agency PUB's automated fish activity monitoring system has won an Honour Award in the applied research category at the biennial Asia Pacific Regional Project Innovations Awards, organised by the International Water Association.

The top prize in the category went to Australia for a new water purification and sludge recycling method.

The honour for Singapore was announced on Tuesday during the Singapore International Water Week, which ends today.

The PUB project began research in 2006 and uses freshwater tiger barbs to detect contaminants in the water supply. The fish's physiology is similar to that of human beings.

Starting last year, 42 units with one tank each have been deployed around the country. They are located where water is treated and distributed, such as waterworks and service reservoirs, which store treated water.

Water samples are diverted to the standalone tanks, which contain 20 fish each. The system monitors the fish using cameras and detects their movement. If half of the fish die, an alert is triggered and a water sample is automatically collected for testing.

A PUB spokesman said the technology reduces the manpower needed to monitor multiple locations at the same time. PUB has used the fish before but its staff had to manually inspect the tanks.

'The signals from the systems are all sent to one control centre, so you need only four to five people there to monitor many installations around the island,' she said.

Each unit costs up to US$80,000 (S$101,300) and the technology was jointly developed by PUB and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research's Institute for Infocomm Research.

The fish also detects unknown contaminants, making them better than other detection methods.

In addition to this, the PUB has carried out about 350 research projects with the local water community.

FENG ZENGKUN

Read more!

Why chilli crab is good, but shark's fin bad

How to save our reefs, according to Conservation International advisor and underwater photographer Mark Erdmann
Edric Sng Today Online 5 Jul 12;

SINGAPORE - When Dr Mark V Erdmann, senior advisor for Conservation International-Indonesia's marine programme, talks about saving the seas, you know it comes from the heart.

The underwater photographer and taxonomist is soaked in brine, having logged nearly 10,000 scuba dives and published 101 articles on all things aquatic. His latest work, co-authored with Dr Gerald Allen, is a masterpiece in the classic sense of the word: Reef Fishes Of The East Indies is a three-volume book set describing each of the 2,631 currently known reef fish species from the region and featuring more than 3,600 photographs, of which about 40 per cent have never before been seen in print.

Dr Erdmann was due in town last week, but a last-minute change of schedule meant he talked to TODAY's digital media and science editor Edric Sng via email, rather than over an environmentally-sustainable plate of chilli crab.

Of the thousands of photos in Reef Fishes Of The East Indies, which is your favourite?

Gerry (Dr Allen) and I were striving to photograph every known reef fish species from this region, and that includes a number that are either extremely shy or cryptic, or those that dwell in depths beyond normal scuba diving range.

One that holds special significance to me is the tilefish that is named after me, Hoplolatilus erdmanni. I found this fish while we were conducting a biodiversity survey of Triton Bay in West Papua in the 40m to 70m depth range.

When I saw the tiger stripes on this fish in the near-twilight conditions, I knew immediately it was something new, and did my best to capture it. Unfortunately it is a wily fish and my initial attempt failed. After a long decompression, I got back to the boat and told Gerry about it.

He was dubious about the stripes and reckoned I had imagined them. He remained sceptical, and sent me down to try to find it again. On my second attempt, I managed to catch a specimen, and while I was doing an hour-long decompression, the fish started to die and its stripes began to fade! I was terrified that by the time I got back to the ship to show Gerry, it would have lost its stripes and he'd just shrug his shoulders at me!

So I did everything I could to pass water over the gills and keep the fish alive. Fortunately, it survived and so I was able to show Gerry the live colouration, and he immediately agreed it was a new species. Later, he named the fish after me!



Which was the hardest fish to shoot?

Gerry took the vast majority of the shots in the book, and we will both tell you that the most difficult reef fish subject is the male "flasher" wrasse. These animals are only 5cm to 6cm long, and at most times they have quite drab colouration.

But just as the sun starts to set, they begin a display for the harems of females that follow them around. They rise up in the water column, erect all of their fins, turn on their neon bright colours and frantically swim around, "flashing" the females. Catching them in focus - all fins up and colours pulsing - is the ultimate challenge for an underwater photographer.



Why should the health of a coral reef in, say, Raja Ampat matter to the city dwellers in Singapore?

In the same way that the world is now increasingly "connected" via the Internet and social media, there are many other examples of increased connectivity on our planet today, such that the fate of the reefs in Raja Ampat most definitely has an impact on Singaporeans. Allow me to give a few examples.

Raja Ampat has become a top dive destination for many Singaporeans, so there is of course that direct link with those that enjoy the spectacular beauty of Raja Ampat.

Then there is the relatively cliched, but nonetheless important, connection that Raja Ampat - as the global epicentre of marine biodiversity - is in essence a globally outstanding "library" of tremendous biodiversity that has untold possibilities for uses to humankind, including medicines and industrial applications.

Beyond this, there are other links though as well. Singaporeans certainly love eating seafood, and this seafood comes from throughout the region, including Raja Ampat. If the reefs and the fish stocks around the region are not properly safeguarded and managed for sustainability, delicacies like grouper, lobster and even chili crab will eventually be nothing more than restaurant legend.

Moreover, the reefs in Raja Ampat and Indonesia are exceedingly important for the food security of the local communities; if this food security of millions of Indonesians and coastal southeast Asians is lost, the long-term threat to ASEAN stability is a serious consideration.



Where have you seen the worst damage to the reefs?

Unfortunately, I've seen horrible damage to reefs throughout South-east Asia - Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, and all the way to Africa and the Caribbean. Within the vaunted "Coral Triangle" of South-east Asia, the worst damage is typically due to destructive fishing practices such as blast fishing, which reduces thriving reefs to lifeless rubble piles in a matter of seconds.

Large-scale net fishing can frequently be nearly as damaging. And increasingly, we are seeing massive reef degradation around the region due to smothering of the corals by sediment, sometimes due to active reclamation of coral reefs - such as the ridiculous reclamation going on in Manado, Indonesia, where the economy is based on marine tourism but the government is approving more reclamation on top of stunning reefs in order to build more malls!

Then there's coastal strip mining or bad development practices, like building roads with no coastal vegetation buffer.



Is there hope for the reefs of South-East Asia? What steps can be taken?

Without question I remain very hopeful, in large part because I've been fortunate to see a wide range of success stories throughout the region, especially those where local communities, dive operators, and increasingly governments are working together to sustainably manage their reefs.

I am a huge believer in the importance of creating marine protected areas (MPAs), in which the various marine uses are carefully managed and 20 to 30 per cent of the areas are set aside as "no-fishing zones" in order to allow the replenishment of fish stocks.

Strict enforcement against destructive fishing practices is also highly important - the reefs of South-east Asia are actually incredibly resilient - we just need to give them a chance by removing the most serious stressors like blast-fishing and they recover very well!



What can individuals do to help?

Obviously, individuals can consider donating to their favorite organisations who are working in the realm of marine conservation and management.

For those that are interested in marine tourism - snorkelling, diving, kayaking - choosing a destination where the local government and communities are actively managing their reefs is a big contribution to those local economies.

We also can all make more sustainable choices in our own lifestyles, from focusing on using mass transit like MRT to choosing only sustainable seafood when eating at local restaurants. Chili crab, for instance, is a generally excellent choice - these mangrove crabs grow fast and reproduce in the millions. Sharks are at the other end of the spectrum: They grow extremely slowly, mature late in life, and generally only give birth to a few pups at a time, meaning their populations simply cannot withstand intensive harvesting.



How would you describe what you do: A hobby, a passion, a job, a duty?

For marine conservation, I would probably classify it as "all of the above". While I get paid as a marine conservationist, it is far more than just a job for me - it is an all-consuming passion. I feel a strong sense of duty: Our oceans are in trouble, and I want to do everything I can to ensure that my children can see the same amazing sights and enjoy experiences I have had underwater for the past 30 years.

The fish photography and taxonomy are a relatively small part of my overall job responsibilities, but it qualifies now as my most consuming hobby and without question I'm happiest now when exploring South-east Asian reefs for new fish species.

Read more!

50 endangered sea turtles found slaughtered in southern Vietnam

Thanhniennews.com 4 Jul 12;

The carcasses of 50 sea turtles found slaughtered at the house of a man in the southern province of Dong Nai

Police in the southern province of Dong Nai Tuesday found 50 slaughtered sea turtles at the home of a local man, Tuoi Tre newspaper reported Wednesday.

Nguyen Ngoc Dong Anh, 28, told police that he had been buying sea turtles from a person in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang since last October.

He then hired people to slaughter and process them before selling them both locally and to China, Tuoi Tre reported.

Police confiscated all the turtles and sent them to be identified, it said, adding that they measured between 43 centimeters 78 centimeters long.

People suspected of being involved were also summoned for questioning.

Five of the world’s seven species of sea turtles found in Vietnam are the loggerhead (Caretta caretta), the green turtle (Chelonia mydas), the leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), the hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the olive ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea).

According to the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the loggerhead and green turtles are “endangered,” while the hawksbill and leatherback turtles are considered to be “critically endangered.”

It listed the olive ridley as “vulnerable.”

Read more!

Seabirds Study Shows Plastic Pollution Reaching Surprising Levels Off Coast of Pacific Northwest

ScienceDaily 4 Jul 12;

Plastic pollution off the northwest coast of North America is reaching the level of the notoriously polluted North Sea, according to a new study led by a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

The study, published online in the journal Marine Pollution Bulletin, examined stomach contents of beached northern fulmars on the coasts of British Columbia, Canada, and the states of Washington and Oregon, U.S.A.

"Like the canary in the coal mine, northern fulmars are sentinels of plastic pollution in our oceans," says Stephanie Avery-Gomm, the study's lead author and a graduate student in UBC's Department of Zoology. "Their stomach content provides a 'snapshot' sample of plastic pollution from a large area of the northern Pacific Ocean."

Northern fulmars forage exclusively at sea and retain ingested plastics for a long period of time, making them ideal indicators for marine littering. Analysis of beached fulmars has been used to monitor plastic pollution in the North Sea since the 1980s. The latest findings, when compared to previous similar studies, indicate a substantial increase in plastic pollution over the past four decades.

The research group performed necropsies on 67 beached northern fulmars and found that 92.5 per cent had plastics -- such as twine, Styrofoam and candy wrappers -- in their stomach. An average of 36.8 pieces per bird were found. The average total weight of plastic was 0.385 grams per bird. One bird was found with 454 pieces of plastic in its stomach.

"The average adult northern fulmar weighs five pounds, or 2.25 kilograms," says Avery-Gomm. "While 0.385 grams in a bird may seem inconsequential to us, it's the equivalent of about five per cent of their body mass. It would be like a human carrying 50 grams of plastic in our stomach -- about the weight of 10 quarters."

"Despite the close proximity of the 'Great Pacific Garbage Patch,' an area of concentrated plastic pollution in the middle of the North Pacific gyre, plastic pollution has not been considered an issue of concern off our coast," says Avery-Gomm, "But we've found similar amounts and incident rates of plastic in beached northern fulmars here as those in the North Sea. This indicates it is an issue which warrants further study."

The researchers propose annual monitoring of trends in plastic pollution and the effectiveness of marine waste reduction strategies.

"Beached bird surveys are providing important clues about causes and patterns of sea bird mortality from oil spill impacts, fisheries by-catch and now plastic ingestion," says co-author Karen Barry with Bird Studies Canada, a not-for profit organization that helped facilitate the study.

Journal Reference:

Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Patrick D. O’Hara, Lydia Kleine, Victoria Bowes, Laurie K. Wilson, Karen L. Barry. Northern fulmars as biological monitors of trends of plastic pollution in the eastern North Pacific. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2012; DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.04.017

Read more!

Plastic bag use in Wales plummets due to 5p charge, figures show

Welsh supermarkets report reductions of up to 96% in the use of single-use bags since the charge was introduced last year
Adam Vaughan guardian.co.uk 4 Jul 12;

Supermarkets in Wales have reported reductions of up to 96% in the use of single-use plastic bags following the introduction of a 5p charge last October.

The charge, which was introduced to cut waste, has also seen a big rise in the number of people using their own bags in shops and a surge in support for the scheme. The scheme covers all single-use bags, including paper ones.

Bag use at 13 retailers including M&S, McDonalds and Sainsburys saw reductions of 70-96% for food retail, and 68-75% for fashion, figures compiled by the British Retail Consortium show.

The number of Welsh people always taking their own bags to the supermarket rose from 42% before the charge to 64% after, according to a survey of 1,000 people by the Welsh government. The survey also showed support for the charge had risen since its introduction, with the number "strongly supporting" it rising from 35% before to 49% after.

Environmental charity Keep Wales Tidy, which is primarily funded by the Welsh government, has already received £105,000 in donations from the scheme since its launch. The RSPB is another of the charities to have received donations from the charge.

John Griffiths, the Welsh assembly's environment minister, said:

"I am delighted that research and retail figures support what shoppers and retailers have been telling us for some time. The Welsh public have adjusted brilliantly to the Welsh bag charge and the majority now regularly take their own bags with them when they go shopping."

Ireland introduced a plastic bag tax in 2002, Northern Ireland is set to bring in a 5p charge in 2013 and last month Scotland opened a consultation on a proposed minimum charge of 5p which, if adopted, would leave England as the only country in the UK without one.

Last week, new figures showed Welsh households recycle almost half their waste - putting the country well ahead of England, where the average recycling rate is around 40%.

Read more!

South Korea unveils 'scientific' whaling proposal

Richard Black BBC News 4 Jul 12;

Minke whale poking its head out of the water (file photo) Some minke whale stocks around South Korea are already severely depleted

South Korea is proposing to hunt whales under regulations permitting scientific research whaling, echoing the programmes of its neighbour, Japan.

Hunting would take place near the Korean coast on minke whales. How many would be caught is unclear.

The South Korean delegation to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) said the research was needed "for the proper assessment of whale stocks".

Many governments at the IWC meeting condemned the Korean announcement.

There are several different stocks, or groups, of minke whales in the region, and one of the them, the so-called J-stock, is severely depleted.

Given that fact, "we believe that scientific whaling on this stock borders on the reckless," New Zealand's delegation head, Gerard van Bohemen said.

But Joon-Suk Kang, the head of the South Korean delegation, said the programme was necessary to answer questions about minke whale stocks that non-lethal research had been unable to solve.

He said the proposal was not finalised, and that whaling would not begin until plans had been discussed by an international group of expert scientists convened by the IWC.

The Koreans' eventual stated aim is to prepare the ground for a resumption of "coastal whaling" - a rather vague concept that Japan is also pursuing, and that would see whale hunting return as a normal activity.
'Breach of faith'

The region around the port of Ulsan, in the south-east of South Korea, has a whale-eating tradition that appears to date back thousands of years, judging by prehistoric cave art.

Fishermen in the region already catch whales in fishing nets. Officially, this happens accidentally, but local environment groups say the minkes are deliberately caught, and that the meat is easily bought in markets and restaurants.

Dr Kang said that fishermen in the area are now complaining that a growing whale population is eating more and more fish.

Any government is entitled under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to embark unilaterally on a scientific hunting programme, although Japan is the only one that currently does so.

Anti-whaling governments and conservation groups argue that Japan's programmes in the North Pacific and Antarctic are an abuse of process, as the regulation was originally designed to allow for the taking of a few whales here and there, and not hundreds per year.

They argue that the real purpose is to provide a supply of whalemeat, albeit to a dwindling customer base.

"Scientific whaling is an obsolete and sad consequence of a document drafted 60 years ago," said Monaco's IWC commissioner, Frederic Briand.

"There's no reason to do it, given the enormous body of scientific literature [on cetaceans] obtained via non-lethal means."

South Korea was one of the first countries to take the scientific whaling route after the global moratorium on commercial hunting came into place in 1986, but the programme was in operation for just a single season.

Then, the country came under intense diplomatic pressure to stop, and Dr Kang admitted to BBC News that his government is now likely to feel a similarly huge pressure not to start.

However, Korea, Japan, Iceland and Norway all complain regularly that anti-whaling governments have no intention of ever agreeing to a resumption of hunting anywhere, however healthy the stocks, and that this amounts to a breach of promises made when the moratorium came into existence.
Troubled waters

Earlier, Japan lodged a proposal to allow coastal whaling by four villages around the coast - among them Ayukawa, which was devastated by the 2011 tsunami.

It has tabled similar bids for many years, and they have always been defeated by anti-whaling governments, who view the move as a way of breaking the whaling moratorium.

Here, Australia's Donna Petrochenko was one of many taking the same line, telling the meeting: "This is commercial whaling, clear and simple."

Japan put its proposal to one side and it will be discussed again later in the meeting, although it is doubtful whether it will go to a vote, given that Japan clearly does not have the three-quarters share of the vote it would need to win.

Read more!