oceans
Last edited 1 January 1970 at 1:00am
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Posted by Willie — 20 February 2009 at 2:16pm
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Pirate vessel grave yard with wardens on board 60 miles off Guinea Conakry. © Pierre Gleizes/Greenpeace
When we mention pirates, the most common image that springs to mind is of something comical, stereotyped, and fanciful. 'Pirate' has become synonymous with kid's cartoons, swashbuckling movies, and far-too-many fancy dress outfits. Beyond the likes of Johnny Depp and Captain Pugwash we might just associate piracy with illegal DVDs.
But increasingly real-life modern day pirates are making the news too, with dramatic confrontations in the waters off Africa
Last edited 18 February 2009 at 5:13pm
The Icelandic government
today faced criticism from environmentalists after refusing to reverse a
last-day decision by the previous administration to recommence commercial
whaling.
On his last day in
office, former fisheries minister Einar Gudfinsson approved a quota of 100 minke
whales and 150 endangered fin whales, to be hunted each year for five
years.
The new minister,
Steingrmur Sigfusson, did not repeal the decision, but did say that whalers
should not automatically expect a quota after 2009.
Posted by Willie — 26 January 2009 at 1:11pm
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Red fish alert! Guppies hit the slopes to help promote 'End of The Line' © Greenpeace / Mackenzie.
Update: guppies go skiing - watch the video »
Park City during Sundance is crazy busy. The Main Street, hotels, and carparks are all chockablock, and everyone has a film to sell or see. So, clearly we needed something to attract a bit of attention and make obvious Greenpeace's support for the End Of The Line film. If you've read my previous posts, you'll be aware that part of the solution (after some complicated logistics) involved five Greenpeace US volunteers plus two red fish suits from Greenpeace Netherlands (thank you guys!).
Posted by Willie — 23 January 2009 at 4:41pm
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Orange roughy: live ones can make an unusual contribution to stemming climate change © Greenpeace / MacKenzie
Dramatic title perhaps, but maybe not quite so far-fetched. Here in sunny Sundance, one of the questions that has been coming up repeatedly at showings of the End Of The Line movie is, "What about climate change?", assuming rightly that a warming planet will have implications for our fish populations too. Well my practised response to this before I got here was simply that the effects of climate change make all of the issues of rapacious overfishing all the more important. They make the need for precaution when it comes to fishing, and the need for fully protected areas essential.
Posted by Willie — 19 January 2009 at 12:53pm
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Oi - Oishi, No! (to bluefin tuna on the menu, that is). Guppie spreads the word at Sundance © Greenpeace / MacKenzie
I'm writing this from Utah, a landlocked state in the US, which hosts the Sundance Film Festival each year. Sundance is known as the place for new independent films, and we're here to support a great new documentary movie called 'End of the Line', based on former Daily Telegraph environment correspondent Charles Clover's book about what overfishing is doing to our oceans.
Last edited 19 December 2008 at 3:46pm
Commenting on today's
announcement of the EU fishing quotas, which has flown in the face of science by
allowing an increase in the amount of North Sea
cod which can be caught, Greenpeace oceans campaigner Willie Mackenzie
said:
"Today's announcement is
disastrous for the fishing industry. The cod quota could lead to fishermen
fishing themselves out of a job, because these catch levels could see an end to
North Sea cod.
Posted by Willie — 19 December 2008 at 3:40pm
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In many ways the bluster from Europe's fisheries ministers the week before Christmas is as predictable as a pantomime script, if only it were meant to be funny! They all trumpet a 'fair deal' and talk about 'striking a balance', and most hilariously, 'respecting the science'. But in reality short-term political expediency continues to trump scientific reality. Today the EU announced its fishing quotas for 2009, as usual doing their best to ignore their own scientists' recommendations. Instead they agreed to increase quotas for endangered North Sea cod by 30 per cent, after the scientists had recommended that to be safe they shouldn't be catching any.
Posted by Willie — 9 December 2008 at 4:10pm
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While the IWC talks, the whalers are on their way back to the Southern Ocean © Greenpeace / Davison
This week, the International Whaling Commission is having an intersessional meeting in Cambridge to discuss its future. Whilst it's good news that these meetings are taking place (Greenpeace has been pushing for reform of the IWC into a body that works for the whales for many years), you have to ask yourself how much of this is just bluster.
At the same time as the international delegations are meeting, the Japanese whaling fleet is on its way to the Southern Ocean to kill whales for a bogus 'scientific' programme that is not endorsed by the IWC, and will take place in an area the IWC has designated a whale sanctuary. Despite measures to avoid confrontation at the last proper IWC meeting (which basically meant the pro-conservation countries not raising any issues that would be contentious with Japan and its allies), there has been no compromise from the whaling nations. Japan has not even officially reduced its own self-appointed quota.
Posted by jossc — 20 November 2008 at 6:09pm
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The whalers' factory ship Nisshin Maru leaving Innoshima on Monday
Japan's whaling fleet slunk out of port earlier this week under a cloud of financial crisis and scandal, with none of the elaborate parades and marching bands of previous years' departures. This time the Nisshin Maru left the port of Innoshima with no triumphant fanfare, after the cancellation of the usual traditional departure ceremony in its home port of Shimonoseki. Word has it that this time, only a small group of 30 or so saw the whalers off - along with a hardy bunch of activists who protested with banner saying "whaling on trial" and one highlighting the whaling operation’s multi-million dollar drain on Japan’s taxpayers.
The past few weeks have not been good ones for the whalers - first of all was the deflagging of the support ship Oriental Bluebird. Japanese newspapers reported that,
for the first time since the nation began 'scientific' whaling in the 1980s,
the self-appointed quota would be decreased. Then we heard of the announced closure of Yushin (Toyko's largest whale meat shop), and news that for the first time, the whaling ships wouldn't be 100 per cent crewed: many former crew members were reluctant to sail again, following the whale meat scandal uncovered by a Greenpeace undercover investigation.