Recent efforts to resolve an impasse at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) have come up very short.  The proposed compromise released recently by the IWC fails to respect both the 1994 declaration of the Southern Whale Sanctuary as well as their 28-year old moratorium on commercial whaling.

The Southern Ocean, the environmentally sensitive waters around Antarctica, must be respected as off-limits to any whaling today as well as 10 years from now.  It is extremely disappointing that this proposed compromise validates Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Many thousands of whales are no longer killed each year because of the moratorium, one of the major victories of the environmental movement and conservation-minded governments.  However commercial whaling continues by Japan, Iceland and Norway under the guise of science or in disregard for the moratorium, and will continue with the proposed compromise.

There are numerous threats to whales today, ranging from pollution, ship strikes, bycatch in fishing gear, underwater noise, to industrial fishing and climate change and these are greater than they have ever been in the past.  For two years the member countries of the IWC have been negotiating to find a way forward, to solve the whaling problem and address the many threats to whales across the world’s oceans.  The result of these negotiations released recently do not go anywhere near far enough to achieve those goals.

The European Commission failed to reach an unqualified decision on the proposal to prohibit international trade of Atlantic bluefin tuna at the upcoming meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Monaco proposed a CITES Appendix I listing for the Atlantic bluefin tuna because the species is in dire straits.  This is a direct result of poor fisheries management by the treaty organisation responsible for managing the bluefin fishery, the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), as well as overfishing and illegal fishing, particularly in the Mediterranean.

In 1992, the last time the bluefin was discussed at CITES, the proposal was withdrawn in favour of ICCAT taking action.  But pressure from the fishing industry undercut ICCAT’s ability to reduce the bluefin catch limit for more than a year.  Only a CITES Appendix I listing can save the fish – and the fishery.  In fact, ICCAT’s standing committee on research and statistics and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) acknowledge that the bluefin stocks have been depleted to the point where the species qualifies.

All fisheries must be managed with the best scientific advice.  Short-term economic and political concerns must not be allowed to trump science or the long-term survival of the fish.  The Atlantic bluefin tuna is a clear case study of overfishing that must be stopped and should not be repeated.  It is a clear case of needing the protections of CITES Appendix I – a suspension of international commercial trade.

Commonwealth study urges governments to act to stave off disaster.

The world faces a “global crisis” in marine fisheries as a result of overfishing.  In a study on the State of Marine Fisheries, a group of 24 scientists and academics, state that plummeting fish stocks are leading to wide-ranging and damaging consequences for marine habitats and vulnerable communities.

They want more support for the Marine Protected Areas, and the in-shore areas.  The study forms part of the Commonwealth Fisheries Programme – a two year programme focussed on improving the livelihoods of coastal communities in developing countries.

As the result of a Center for Biological Diversity settlement with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in June of 2009,  a federal rule was finalised to protect the Galapagos Petrel and Heinroth’s Shearwater as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  As part of the settlement, the Service also published listing determinations for 12 birds from Peru, Bolivia, Europe, and the islands of French Polynesia.

The Service originally received petitions to list more than 70 species of the planet’s most imperiled birds – which live throughout the world, including Brazil, Spain, India, Eastern Europe, and the Marquesas Islands – in 1980 and 1991.  In violilation of the Endangered Species Act, the agency spent the better part of two decades refusing to finalise listings for many of these species despite the fact that all had been found to warrant protection.

Endangered Species Act listing provides substantial benefits to foreign species.  It authorizes the president to provide financial assistance for the development and management of programs in foreign countries and the lets the Fish and Wildlife Service encourage conservation programs and provide personnel and training.  Beyond these basic protections, the Act also implements the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Flora and Fauna.

Background on the birds

The Galapagos petrel is a bird native to the epic Galapagos Islands.  Introduced predators pose the greatest threat to this dark-rumped bird.

The Heinroth’s shearwater is an elusive bired thought to breed in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands; this bird is similarly threatened  by the introduction of predatory species, and is also harmed by the destruction of habitat through deforestation as well as some commercial long-line fishing operations.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has also proposed listing as endangered the ash-breasted tit-tyrant and royal cinclodes (native to Peru and Bolivia); the Junin grebe, Junin rail, Peruvian plantcutter, and white-browed tit-spinetail (native to Peru); and the Cantabrain capercaillie (of Spain), Eiao Polynesian warbler and the Marquesan imperial pigeon (from French Polynesia), the greater adjutant (found in Cambodia and India), Jerdon’s courser (from India), and the slender-billed curlew (from Europe and Africa).