Posted by Willie — 24 May 2010 at 4:17pm
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There's a well-known model of how
dodgy big business deals with campaigns against them. To summarise, it goes a
bit like this:
Company X gets some bad press for
doing something wrong, especially bad press if it kills lots of charismatic
megafauna;
Company X initially retaliates
saying, 'It's all lies, honest';
Company X then admits it isn't all
lies, but comes up with some way of kicking the issue into the long grass,
usually some commission or foundation (ideally with a word like 'conservation'
or 'sustainable' in its title) or some interminable period of gathering
research, in the hope it all blows over and people forget what they were upset
about.
Imagine you are an Atlantic bluefin tuna. You've been out at sea most of the year in cooler waters, feeding away and generally getting on with being a big ol' fish at the top of your food chain. You have not a care in the world, save the occasional orca or shark scare.
Then spring is sprung, and the urge takes you. Forces you don't really understand compel you to head back to warmer waters, and a certain key place, sacred to you bluefin. The bluefin equivalent of a romantic dinner and some subdued lighting is a sheltered warm sea, and conditions have to be perfect, or it ain't happening. But even that's not enough. Because of the, er, messy, way most fish reproduce, they congregate together, and only release sperm and eggs when the time and the temperature is right: 23 degrees Celsius. It's the perfect temperature for a bluefin love-in.
Posted by Willie — 18 May 2010 at 3:41pm
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When good things go bad: a purse-seine in action
Greenpeace is not against purse-seining, which
may surprise some people. Sure it's a big industrial-looking fishing operation,
involving huge nets and catching lots of fish. But that's not always a bad
thing.
If we are to assume we're still going to
catch and eat fish, then purse-seining as a method is probably going to be
something that continues. Purse-seining
involves setting a large circular wall of net around fish, then 'pursing' the
bottom together to capture them. Where purse-seining is best used is with large
single-species schools of fish, that shoal tightly together. Examples like
herring or mackerel
spring to mind. These can be caught relatively 'cleanly' by
purse-seining.
Posted by jamie — 13 May 2010 at 3:43pm
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Ever wondered what this ocean acidification thing is? Wonder no longer, as this new animation from our international office explains everything you need to know in just over a minute.
The basic upshot is that climate change is not just making the oceans warmer, it's also making them more acidic. It's only by a relatively small amount so you won't lose your toes if you go paddling, but the effects on the ocean's chemistry is dramatic. Most widely reported is the threat this poses to coral reefs - as the water becomes more acidic, the polyps aren't able to create the calcium carbonate skeletons which form the reefs.
The consequences travel up the food chain - watch the video to find out more.
The great Douglas Adams once said: "I love
deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by." He was no
doubt talking about writing deadlines but another deadline is fast approaching,
one Adams would have been very interested in and one which is far more
significant than whether a manuscript gets delivered on time.
Back in 2002, parties of the Convention on Biological
Diversity (CBD) - or in other words, most nations on the planet - agreed on a
target to stem the loss of biodiversity by 2010, which by no coincidence is
also the International Year of Biodiversity. There are still more than six
months to go before that deadline officially expires but the results of the
global efforts already being called and it's not good news.
Posted by Willie — 4 May 2010 at 6:06pm
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The past few days have seen a couple of pretty important
meetings in Spain about the reform of the Common
Fisheries Policy (the CFP). You might not have seen much coverage, which isn't
that surprising when there's an election going on, nor when you appreciate that
very few people know what CFP stands for. Amongst fishy circles, the acronym
is often re-interpreted, but I'm too polite to say what the F would stand
for.
Posted by Willie — 18 March 2010 at 4:13pm
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The breaking news today is that governments
at the CITES
meeting at Doha
have voted AGAINST a trade ban on Atlantic bluefin.
Words cannot express how frustrating this is.
The science and scientific backing is incontrovertible. The public will and
pressure is immense. The species could be commercially extinct within just a
few years.
Posted by jossc — 8 March 2010 at 4:57pm
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Tension is rising as round two of the Tokyo Two trial starts today in Aomori, Japan, where Greenpeace activists Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki are on trial in Japan for their role in exposing major corruption in the government funded whaling industry. This week they get to give evidence for the first time, and the whistleblower who alerted them to the embezlement scandal will also take the stand. Watch the video above for an update on the story so far...
Posted by Willie — 16 December 2009 at 2:57pm
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You know, I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere someone decided to name a roller-coaster 'bluefin'. The ups, downs, twists, and turns are certainly hard to follow in this fish's political fortunes, and at the end it could end up making us all feel quite sick.
Post the farcical ICCAT meeting we have seen a follow-up meeting of ICCAT’s Pacific counterparts, whose jolly gathering in Tahiti showed a similar lack of ability and spine when it comes down to making useful or necessary decisions.
Posted by Willie — 4 December 2009 at 11:39am
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Bluefin tuna - sometimes you just can't believe how absurd the story gets.
News today from WWF and a Green MEP show that over an eight-year period the EU bluefin tuna fishing industry received subsidies totalling €34.5m. Yes folks, your tax helped fund the overfishing of a species now teetering on the very brink of extinction. A species that 21 out of 27 EU countries now think should be subject to an international trade ban.