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Post by tekmac on Jun 27, 2005 10:03:54 GMT -5
LANZAROTE, Spain (26 June 2005) -- Members of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) have been meeting this week in Lanzarote, Spain, to consider fishery management and conservation measures, including a ban on shark finning.
According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Recent increases in shark catches, as well as an expansion of the geographic areas fished, have led to global concern about the status of some shark populations.
NOAA says international cooperation is critical, as many species of sharks are highly migratory, and regularly cross national boundaries throughout all oceans of the world.
For many years, NOAA has led domestic and international efforts to ban shark finning. In 1993, the government agency prohibited U.S. vessels from shark finning in waters of the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico.
The United States proclaimed shark finning to be a wasteful practice in the Shark Finning Prohibition Act adopted by Congress in 2000.
Shark finning is the practice of slicing the fin off the shark and discarding the carcass to save space on a fishing vessel.
In 2002, the finning prohibition was extended to apply to all U.S. jurisdictions, including U.S. vessels fishing in Pacific waters.
NOAA, which has workedwith the U.S. Department of State to encourage other countries to adopt similar conservation measures, says the IATTC has embraced the need to address this issue.
The organization has been working for more than a year to consider proposals to end shark finning in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Most IATTC signatory nations have already expressed their agreement with the spirit of the proposals. An international ban in the Pacific is now considered by many to be ripe for approval, given that an international shark finning ban for the Atlantic Ocean was adopted in November 2004.
In November, some 63 countries, including the United States, reached an agreement in New Orleans to ban shark finning in the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Mediterranean Sea. This binding agreement was formally adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), and is now being implemented by all member countries.
The ICCAT agreement is on the table for consideration at the June meeting of the organization.
The IATTC and ICCAT are both international commissions that are responsible for the conservation and management of migratory fish stocks, including sharks.
The United States is a member of both commissions.
The IATTC convention area is in the Eastern Pacific Ocean while the ICCAT convention area includes the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Gulf of Mexico. Source-CNS
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Post by tekmac on Jun 27, 2005 10:10:16 GMT -5
Hong Kong - After weeks of criticism from environmentalists around the world, Disney said Friday it will remove shark's fin soup from the menu at its new Hong Kong theme park.
The dish will no longer be offered at the Disneyland hotel when the 3 billion U.S. dollar theme park opens in September, Deutsche- Presse Agentur dpa was told by a Disney official.
Disney - makers of the movie Finding Nemo - caused an outcry internationally when it said last month it would sell the expensive dish, popular in China as a display of wealth, at its theme park.
The dish was aimed at the mainland Chinese expected to make up one third or more of the 5 million-plus visitors to the Hong Kong theme park.
Conservationists say eating the dish puts shark populations at risk and encourages finning - a practice whereby fins are sliced off and sharks left to bleed to death.
Disney repeatedly refused to take the dish off the menu, saying it took environmental stewardship very seriously but had to be "sensitive to the local culture".
However, it agreed to try to source sustainable shark's fin for its theme park and to hand out leaflets on the environmental impact of eating the dish.
Pressure from conservation groups continued, however, and a petition signed by 600 schoolchildren against the sale of shark's fin was handed to Disney officials earlier Friday.
Disney Hong Kong vice president for public affairs Irene Chan told dpa Friday the decision to withdraw shark's fin was taken after the company failed to find a suitable supplier.
"After careful consideration and a thorough review process, we were not able to identify an environmentally sustainable fishing source, leaving us no alternative except to remove shark's fin soup from our wedding banquet menu," she said.
"The banquet team will instead serve guests other menu alternatives in order to meet the objective of creating a celebration which reflects respect for Chinese customs."
Markus Shaw, chairman of the World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong which campaigned against the sale of shark's fin at the theme park applauded the decision.
"I have no doubt this will be a landmark decision. It shows leadership and it shows responsibility and I think it is a good example to the rest of the corporate community in Hong Kong," he said.
Tam Kei-man, campaigns manager for Greenpeace China, said: "We welcome this decision. We don't want to see sharks end up another species like the whale because of over-fishing.
"Disney has taken environmental sensitivities into account. It is a good move by Disney and hopefully not the last with regard to environmental issues in Hong Kong."
dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur
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Post by LSDeep on Jun 29, 2005 8:09:40 GMT -5
Eastern Cape newspapers (EP Herald and Daily Dispatch) carried the story this week of a South Korean fishing vessel arrested at sea after a dramatic sea chase involving one of Sea Fishery’s new patrol ships. It also appears the master of the arrested long-line shark fishing vessel, Hwan Lee-An, bit off more than he could chew when he tried to entice an official of the Marine & Coastal Management (MCM) to ‘look the other way’. The South Korean fishing vessel Dong Won 630 had on board an MCM observer from Port Elizabeth, Raymond Manning, and was fishing along the South African coast. At first everybody on board the vessel was very friendly towards the observer, until it became obvious he was videoing certain illegal activities on board the ships. These included the illegal dumping overboard of live sharks after their fins and tails had been removed (they die slowly this way – South African law requires the fishermen to retain the shark carcasses onboard along with their fins for comparison ashore). According to reports the official was initially offered an inducement to ‘look the other way’, which he declined. Things then got nasty, with threats made against his well-being; until he felt the need to summon help from the authorities ashore. As a result the sea fisheries patrol boat Ruth First put to sea and, after an overnight chase in a northeasterly direction, took the Dong Won into custody. Once in harbour the vessel was placed under detention and the master arrested. Appearing in a Port Elizabeth court a few days later, evidence was led that relations between the crew and Manning had been excellent during the first few days at sea, during which Manning observed the harvesting of shark fins and tails along with the dumping overboard of plastic and other non-biodegradable material. However, once the crew noticed that he was videoing the laying of long lines during the daytime – illegal because of the danger it poses for albatrosses and other sea birds becoming snared on the hooks when they dive for the bait - things turned nasty. Initially offered an inducement to ‘look the other way’ Manning was threatened when he made it clear he intended laying a charge once the vessel returned to port. Hwan Lee-An had been charged with three counts of breaking the conditions of his permit. These related to illegal de-finning of sharks and the dumping overboard of their carcasses; dumping non-biodegradable material overboard; and interfering with the duties of a MCM official. The permit issued to Dong Won 630 required the bodies of the sharks be retained until the vessel returned to port, where they could be compared with the fins already removed. Manning gave evidence that instead the shark carcasses were dumped overboard to make space for more fins. On this charge Hwan Lee-An was fined R1 million (or two years in jail) which was suspended for five years. On a second charge of dumping non-biodegradable material overboard Hwan was fined R150,000 or 18 months imprisonment, of which R100,000 or 12 months was suspended for five years. On the charge of interfering with the duties of the MCM observer on his ship, he was fined R50,000 or six months, which was also suspended. Considering the gravity of the charges, which included threats against an official going about his work, plus the cost of mounting a sea chase to apprehend a fleeing vessel, the South Korean can consider himself lucky in getting off so lightly. NB The full reports can be seen at www.epherald.co.za and www.dispatch.co.za, to whom this article is acknowledged © P&S 2003 - Tel: +27 31 466 1683 - Cell: +27 82 331 5775 - email: info@ports.co.za
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Post by tekmac on Jun 29, 2005 9:26:49 GMT -5
Intl Commission Bans Shark Finning In Eastern Pacific; Measures Will Help Relieve the Pressures on Vulnerable Populations of Sharks 6/27/2005 9:56:00 AM To: National Desk and Environment Reporter Contact: Tom McCann of the Ocean Conservancy, 202-351-0465, or Brad DeVries of the Defenders of Wildlife, 202-772-0237 WASHINGTON, June 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Late last week, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) adopted an international ban on shark finning in the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The lucrative market for "shark fin soup" is the driving force behind finning -- the practice of slicing off a shark's fin and dumping the rest of the body back into the ocean. The Shark Resolution, which also aims to improve information about sharks in IATTC fisheries, was co-sponsored by the United States, the European Union, Japan and Nicaragua and received vocal support from Costa Rica, Panama, Ecuador and Mexico. The 15 IATTC Parties adopted the final Resolution, pertaining primarily to Eastern Pacific tuna fisheries, by consensus. "We are elated that the IATTC has acted to ban the wasteful practice of shark finning, thereby taking a huge step towards safeguarding some of the ocean's more vulnerable animals," said Sonja Fordham, shark conservation specialist for The Ocean Conservancy who spoke on behalf of numerous conservation, scientific and fishing organizations during the IATTC debate. "We are grateful for continued U.S. leadership in international shark conservation initiatives and encouraged by the global momentum toward addressing the depletion of sharks." The world's first international prohibition on shark finning was adopted last fall by the sixty-three member countries of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), as part of a suite of shark measures. The new IATTC Shark Resolution is modeled after the ICCAT agreement; many of the participating countries are active in both Commissions. IATTC members and cooperating nations with domestic finning prohibitions include the United States, the European Union, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Canada. "The IATTC finning ban will do much to reduce the needless killing of massive amounts of blacktip, silky and blue sharks, to name a few, that are caught in the region's high seas tuna fisheries. Some tropical Pacific shark populations have already declined by nearly 90 percent since the 1950s, according to scientific reports," explained Kelly Malsch, International Associate for Defenders of Wildlife. "Because sharks serve as top predators, this IATTC action is essential to keeping the Pacific Ocean ecosystem in balance." Sharks are especially vulnerable to overfishing because they grow slowly and produce few young. The World Conservation (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group (SSG) estimates that finning causes the death of tens of millions of sharks worldwide each year. Presently, the IATTC is the only forum capable of providing international measures for sharks in the Eastern Pacific, where some of the world's largest tuna and billfish fisheries exist. The new Resolution mandates much-needed shark data collection and assessment programs while encouraging research into shark nursery areas and ways to avoid incidental catch ("bycatch") of sharks. "IATTC has taken a big step forward, but sharks remain in peril all over the world," added Charlotte Mogensen, European Fisheries Policy Officer for the World Wildlife Fund. "We urge other Regional Fishery Management Organizations and shark fishing nations to adopt not only finning bans, but requirements for shark data collection, bycatch reduction and precautionary limits. The success of the IATTC Resolution will hinge on effective monitoring, enforcement, follow-up management and consistent measures in adjacent seas." The IATTC Shark Resolution includes a call for countries to implement National Plans of Action for shark conservation in accordance with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization 1999 International Plan of Action for Sharks. Thus far, few countries have developed shark National Plans and there are still no international limits on shark catch. www.usnewswire.com/
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