http://www.icsf.net/ International Collective in Support of Fishworkers 2008-08-28T17:52:18+00:52 http://www.voanews.com/english/Science/2008-08-26-voa44.cfm 'Dead zones' are multiplying along the world's coasts. There are now more than 400 areas where the bottom waters have too little oxygen to support life. Scientists say these polluted regions pose the single greatest threat to coastal ecosystems, as Cronique LaCapra reports. When nitrogen from agricultural fertilizers and from the burning of fossil fuels gets into coastal waters, it stimulates the growth of algae. When these plants die, they sink to the ocean floor, and are consumed by bacteria and other organisms. The process uses up oxygen, which is normally replenished by water circulating down from the surface. But marine scientist Robert Diaz says that doesn't happen if the surface and bottom waters can't mix. "It can be hotter water on top, cooler water on the bottom, or it can be fresher water on top, more salty water on the bottom." When coastal water becomes stratified in this way, respiration by bacteria and other bottom-dwelling organisms deplete the oxygen in the bottom layer of water, creating areas known as "dead zones." Dead zones can be one-time events, or they can recur from day to day or year to year, lasting for just a few hours, or for an entire season. In extreme cases, once oxygen depletion sets in, dead zones can persist for years. This loss of oxygen has major implications for marine life. Diaz – a professor at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science – says animals like fish, crabs and shrimp will try to escape oxygen-depleted bottom waters. Less mobile animals like clams and worms cannot escape, and must do whatever they can to survive. Animals that normally stay in the sediment will come out into the water looking for oxygen. They'll stop feeding. And if oxygen levels drop even lower, says Diaz, "they'll try and basically turn off all their little biochemical or physiological systems and just sort of hunker down and wait until better oxygen times come." And if those better times don't come? "Then what you what you see is mass mortality of all the organisms that are left behind." In some cases, the drop in oxygen can be so rapid and widespread that even fish can't get away. Off the northwestern coast of the United States, for example, a dead zone is killing fish and other marine life in an area of over 3,000 square kilometers. Other dead zones are even bigger. Diaz says that the world's largest is in the Baltic Sea. "At one time it was estimated at over 100,000 square kilometers, but it's reduced down now to somewhere between 70,000 and 80,000." There are other large dead zones, as well, including one in the Gulf of Mexico and another in the East China Sea. Globally, Diaz estimates that these oxygen-depleted areas add up to more than a quarter million square kilometers – an area about the size of Britain or Laos. Prior to the 1960s, scientists had identified fewer than 50 dead zones worldwide. Since then, that number has roughly doubled every decade. Diaz says that now, "we have well over 400 documented areas around the globe that have some form of low oxygen that is related to human activity." Diaz expects that even more nutrients will enter coastal waters over the next 50 years, continuing the trend of increasing dead zones around the world. He believes this trend will not end until we can control the amount of nutrients getting into our rivers, estuaries, and seas. But if we can reduce the amount of nutrient pollution, Diaz says, we can bring the dead zones back to life. He says the best example is the Black Sea. In the 1970s and 80s, fertilizer runoff from agriculture reduced oxygen levels in the Black Sea over an area of 40,000 square kilometers. "But with the collapse of the Soviet Union," explains Diaz, "subsidies were eliminated to a lot of the farmers in the area." The amount of nitrogen and phosphorus going into the Black Sea declined dramatically, with equally dramatic results. "Over a period of 3 years the Black Sea went from a 40,000 square kilometer dead zone, to zero." Up until now, the vast majority of coastal dead zones have been found in the northern hemisphere, where most of the world's population “ and aquatic research“ is concentrated. But Robert Diaz fears that tropical regions – whose coastal waters are naturally low in nutrients and oxygen – could be among the most sensitive to the effects of human development. Diaz says that in the tropics, it doesn't take much to upset the balance. "You just add a little bit of nutrients, and you can completely disrupt the way the system works, and create these dead zones." Diaz's analysis of global "dead zones" is published in the journal Science. http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=27846&Cr=climate%20change&Cr1= Important progress has been made during the latest round of United Nations-led climate change talks in Accra, Ghana, on key issues relating to a new international agreement to tackle global warming, the world body’s top official dealing with the issue said today. The Accra meeting was the latest in a series of UN-sponsored talks in the run-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009. The aim of the negotiations is to create a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, with first-round commitments ending in 2012, on greenhouse gas emissions reduction. “We’re still on track, the process has speeded up and governments are becoming very serious about negotiating a result in Copenhagen,” Yvo de Boer told reporters on the final day of the week-long session. Mr. de Boer, who is the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said the “absolute highlight” of the session had been the mandate given by governments to the Chair of the working group on long-term cooperative action to compile proposals made so far and to be made in the coming weeks. The achievement of the Accra meeting had therefore been in “providing the basis for real negotiations to begin in Poznan,” he said, referring to the Polish city that will host this year’s UN Climate Change Conference from 1 to 12 December. Highlighting the progress made during the past week, Mr. de Boer said there was an “encouraging and important” debate on the important topic of deforestation and forest conservation, which was crucial since deforestation accounts for about 20 per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions for which humans are responsible. “We cannot come to a meaningful solution on climate change without coming to grips with the question of deforestation,” he stated, adding that countries had made it clear in Accra that they want that issue to be part of a Copenhagen agreement. Discussions also focused on ways of improving the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), which allows industrialized countries to offset some of their own emissions by investing in cleaner energy projects in developing countries. Insufficient investment in Africa was cited as one of the CDM’s shortcomings. “There is a real risk of Africa becoming the forgotten continent in the context of the fight against climate change unless we manage to design a regime going into the future that takes into account in a much more comprehensive way what Africa’s specific needs are not only on adaptation, but also on fuelling clean economic growth,” said Mr. de Boer. The meeting also discussed “sectoral approaches” – through which countries can address emissions from a whole sector of their economy. Mr. de Boer said the debate made it clear that such approaches were not about imposing targets on developing countries, but rather about what governments may or may not choose to do on a voluntary basis at the national level. Some 1,600 participants, including government delegates from 160 countries and representatives from environmental organizations, business and industry and research institutions, attended the Accra meeting – the third major UN-led negotiating session this year and the last before the Poznan conference in December. http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/general/view/2008_08_27_Federal_aid_to_fisherman_to_be_given_out_this_week/srvc=home&position=recent Millions of dollars in federal aid is headed this week to the struggling fishermen of Boston in Massachusetts, US. Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday that $13.4 million will be distributed to about 500 fishermen and fishing businesses. The payments aim to help fishermen hurt by increasingly tough federal rules to protect vulnerable fish stocks. The regulations limit some fishermen to just 24 days of fishing each year. Qualified federal fishing permit holders will receive an average payment of $23,500 per boat. State permit holders will receive a subsidy of about $10,000 each. The State will also provide about $650,000 toward health insurance benefits for fishermen and their families. The Patrick administration has estimated a $22 million loss to the regional economy because of federal restrictions on catching cod, flounder and other commercially valuable groundfish. http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news.php?id=355807 About 70,000 fishermen in Malaysia will receive RM200 (US$ 59) a month in living allowance effective Sept 10, Agriculture and Agrobased Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said. He said the incentive, to cost the government RM14 mn (US$ 4.1) a year, would be given to cushion the effects of the oil price hike, especially for individual owners of registered fishing vessels and local workers employed on the ship. "We are aware of the problems faced by the fishermen such as diesel, encroachment by foreign fishing boats and on boat license, and will work hard to solve them," he said at the opening of the National Fishermen's Association annual general meeting here today. He said the fishermen would have to have the Fishermen's Card to be eligible for the allowance and that the card could be obtained by registering with the Fisheries Department. So far, 16,000 fishermen who have the card are eligible for the allowance because they have registered with the Fisheries Department, he added. The card was introduced on June 4 and the fishermen were earlier given until Sunday to register. However, since many fishermen were still without the card, Mustapa said registration for the card had been extended until October. http://www.newvision.co.ug/D/8/13/646956 Uganda will not have any Nile perch to export in the next two years if illegal fishing is not curbed immediately. Fisheries state minister Fred Mukisa yesterday said illicit fishing methods have left the Nile perch depleted. He was addressing the press at the Media Centre in Kampala. Mukisa regretted that Uganda, which has been earning more than $100m from fish exports, will this year get less revenue due to overfishing of immature fish. However, statistics from the fisheries department show that Uganda’s fish exports by June this year had fetched $62m from 11,000 tonnes. In 2005, Uganda’s fish exports fetched $150m. In 2006, they fetched $146m, while in 2007 they fetched $117m. In a recent study, the Jinja-based Fisheries Research Institute estimated the Nile perch stock in Lake Victoria at 221,175 tonnes, down from 650,000 between 1999 and 2000. Mukisa explained that whenever Nile perch stock reduces, other fish species like tilapia, nkejje and mukene (silver fish) resurface. He said there was a dramatic increase in tilapia and Nile perch stocks in areas where tough measures have been effected against illegal fishing. “If the fishing standards are practised on all our lakes, within six to nine months, our Nile perch and tilapia stocks would have multiplied to satisfactory levels,” Mukisa said. The two fish species dominate Uganda’s exports. The ministry is contemplating closing 18 fish landing sites if they do not adhere to the standards within the next two weeks. Masaka and Bugiri districts top the list, each with six notorious Beach Management Units. The landing sites in Masaka are Lambu, Kaziru, Namirembe, Karokoso, Ddimu and Kachanga, which Mukisa said had been notorious for illicit fishing for a long time. In Bugiri, there is Waka Waka, Migingo, Wayasi, Hama, Lolwe and Sigulu islands. Mayuge has Musoli, Nkobe and Kasali, while Busia district has Majanji landing site. In Wakiso, fishing communities at Nsazi Island and Kigungu Landing Site are also engaged in illicit fishing. http://news.sl/drwebsite/publish/article_20059575.shtml The Permanent Secretary in Sierra Leone's Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, Mr. Paul Sandy, on Tuesday 26 August 2008 expressed dissatisfaction over his ministry lagging behind in terms of basic facilities. This disclosure was made at the ongoing nine-day policy hearing workshop organized by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, which commenced on Wednesday 20 August 2008 at the Miatta Conference Hall, Youyi Building in Freetown. Mr. Paul Sandy noted that being the arm for the management of fisheries and other aquatic resources within the waters of Sierra Leone, his ministry has a mission to plan, develop and rationally manage and conserve all the living and non-living aquatic resources of the country. The Ministry, he said, also has the responsibility to make affordable fish protein for the satisfaction of the nation’s average citizenry and to ensure sustainable utilization of the fisheries. Mr. Sandy disclosed that the ministry is at present constrained to fulfill it responsibility as it lack vehicles for staff, it is understaffed and, among other things, it lacks a conducive office space. For his part, the Deputy Director of Budget, Mr. Tassima Jah appealed to the ministry to reduce its budget allocation for office and equipment expenditure for the FY 2009, and concentrate on field officers as the bulk of the ministry’s task is based in the rural areas. He therefore suggests that more staff and funds be placed on training and operations in a bid to ensure smooth revenue generation for the ministry. He pointed out that if the ministry’s dues are not offset, the European Union (EU) will intensify a ban on fisheries and marine resources to EU States http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=14361&formato=HTML Fisheries in Argentina has become a non-profitable business, according to several industry chambers mostly based in Mar del Plata, where 50% of the country’s fleet is docked and a significant percentage of total catches are landed. Loss of competitiveness, falling international prices, unfair high seas competition and soaring costs have had a dramatic impact on the industry’s operations. “The exhaustion of the four-year economic model for the fisheries industry is evident”, said Mariano Perez, president of Argentina’s Chamber of the Fish Industry, Caipa. “Since 2001 the price of fuel has jumped over 200%; salaries and labor costs 230% and vessel and engine spares, oil by-products and any input in Euros has sent shock waves through the industry”, he added. Perez claimed that the current economic policy “marginalizes” fisheries and the new provincial tax legislation ignores an agreement reached by the industry with government a few years ago. Caipa includes 20 of the main companies operating from Mar del Plata. “The re-launching of the fisheries industry in 2002 with the strong devaluation of the Argentine peso has been exhausted; today it’s not profitable to continue investing and future prospects are not clear much less predictable”, said Perez. Antonio Solimeno, who leads a consortia with four processing plants and 15 vessels, argues that “fisheries commodities prices have stabilized and some can even fall in the near future, so in this context profitability has virtually vanished”. Perez underlined that coordination between the private sector and government officials is essential to prevent the industry from falling back to the 2201 situation. “The tax reimbursement system could be a good mechanism but in the way it is actually implemented it’s innocuous for Mar del Plata industry”, insisted Perez. A more cautious comment from Oscar Fortunato, president of the Argentine Fisheries Companies Council, Cepa, stated that “even when there are many things to correct, I believe the government is beginning to understand the situation we are going through”. http://www.myjoyonline.com/news/200808/19843.asp The old shore road to Totope is now under the sea, and when developers began carving out another one, it was washed away so often they abandoned it. Now the road to this village is just a track across the sand. On this southern coast of Ghana, the Atlantic Ocean is rising. Every few years, residents of a string of villages leave their homes and build new ones farther back, abandoning them to the encroaching sand and water. "When I was young, you had to climb a coconut tree to see the sea," said Alex Horgah, a 57-year-old fisherman, sitting under a thatch shelter. The old men of the village say every year the shore advances a few yards. Totope has no place left to run: It is squeezed between the ocean and the Songho Lagoon, and the villagers say that in a few years they will have to leave. Coastal erosion in West Africa has many causes, from wind-driven wave energy pounding the shore to the construction of dams. The amount of beach disappearing every year varies along the coastline and from country to country. But if predictions of the impact of climate change run true, this could be a preview for many coastal areas. In Accra, Ghana's capital about 60 miles to the west, a weeklong 160-nation conference is meeting through Wednesday to work on a treaty to limit global warming and combat the consequences of climate change. Negotiators have a deadline of December 2009 to complete one of the most complex and difficult international agreements in history. They need to map out ways to drastically reduce emissions of carbon and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, and devise a flow of hundreds of billions of dollars every year to help poor countries cope with changing weather. Scientists say rising sea levels will be one of the most severe consequences of global warming, along with more drought and floods, the extinction of species of plants, animals and insects, and greater stress on water supplies for millions of people. The world's oceans have been rising an average of .12 inches a year since 1993, according to a 2007 report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, drawing on the work of some 2,000 scientists. The panel warned that unless global warming is reined in, millions of seaside dwellers will experience flooding, up to one-third of coastal wetlands will be lost, and increasingly ferocious storms will batter the shores. The disaster scenarios for the future are today's reality for the 1,000 people of Totope. Abandoned concrete buildings are half submerged under sand. Thatched huts have been repeatedly moved back. And about one mile offshore, an entire settlement lies deep under the water, submerged many years ago. Fishermen say they have to detour around the old underwater buildings which snag their nets. "Every year the sea comes closer. We keep moving the village and we are being pushed down to the lagoon," said 70-year-old Ebenezer Koranteng. He said he believes the village would become unlivable within five years. As if the encroaching sea was not bad enough, the village faces more misery: Fishing stocks have declined, and modern trawlers are scooping up most of what's left. The beach is littered in plastic garbage dumped into the ocean from Accra and other towns. The villagers have taken tons of the plastic to the lagoon and covered it with sand, creating a landfill to give them a few more yards of space — and a few more years to live on this spot. Horgah said the village wants to move. Land has been found on the other side of the lagoon, where they could farm and continue fishing the lagoon. But the property costs $45,000 and it would take that much again to rebuild the homes. Heather McGray, of the World Resources Institute, who visited Totope on Monday, said it would be the kind of village that would benefit from the fund that negotiators want to raise to help climate-stressed areas. "It's a problem of money," she said. With 1 percent of the funds that could be raised in the United States "we could move 10,000 villages like this one." http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=ahoc0SAciPMk&refer=japan Whale meat worth about $1.6 million sitting in warehouses waiting for import into Japan may be thrown away because the importer hasn't applied for a permit, Greenpeace International said. As much as 80 tonnes of meat from fin whales, an endangered species, and 5 tonnes of minke whale have been in storage for more than two months, Greenpeace said. Under Japanese law, perishable goods can be discarded if they are stored for more than three months without the right permits, the environmental group said. Australia, the U.S., New Zealand and other countries, along with environmental groups including Greenpeace, are trying to stop all slaughter of whales, setting themselves against Iceland and Norway, the exporters of the meat, and Japan, which has the world's biggest whaling program. "This pointless import only serves to increase criticism of Japan,'' Wakao Hanaoka, Greenpeace Japan's oceans campaigner, said in the statement. "The whale meat should be returned to its senders at their own expense.'' Tsuyoshi Iwata, an official of the Far Seas Fisheries division of Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, said the shipment won't be discarded because frozen whale meat can last for about 10 years. Greenpeace's claims are "nonsense'', Iwata said, adding that he didn't know the name of the importer. Greenpeace named the company last month as Tokyo-based Asia Trading Ltd., a company established two weeks before the meat was shipped. There's no listing in the phone directory or on the Internet for Asia Trading. The fin whale meat was caught in 2006 and put in deep freeze, Kyodo News cited Kristjan Loftsson, chief executive officer of Icelandic whaling company Hvalur, which exported the meat, as saying in June. The meat is in demand in Japan for its taste and texture, Kyodo cited Loftsson as saying. The meat is valued at about 175 million yen ($1.6 million), based on the market price of 2,060 yen per kilogram of regular grade red whale meat. Fin whales are listed as endangered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Japan, Norway and Iceland are the world's biggest whaling nations. While Norway and Iceland hunt commercially, Japan hunts under a license it issues for scientific research, allowed under the terms of the IWC's moratorium on commercial whaling as long as the meat is later consumed. The U.S., Australia and other countries say the research program is commercial whaling in disguise. Japan's whaling fleet killed 211 whales out of a quota of 260 in the most recent expedition, which ended last week, according to an official statement, adding to the 60 minke whales killed in the region on an expedition which ended in May. Japan killed 551 whales out of a planned catch of as many as 1,035 on its most recent expedition to Antarctica, which ended in April after being disrupted by activists from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace. http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=24616 The Sri Lanka Navy rescued five local fishermen in distress in the seas 164 nautical miles off Foul Point in Trincomalee on Tuesday, the Navy said. A Navy spokesman said that the fibre glass dinghy in which the fishermen had gone fishing had been damaged due to prevailing rough sea conditions. Two men had fallen overboard and two others had suffered severe injuries. A naval vessel was dispatched to rescue the fishermen in distress. Naval personnel rescued the two fishermen who had fallen overboard and took another two, with severe injuries, on board the naval vessel. The injured were provided with immediate medical treatment and the entire crew was transferred to the naval base hospital in Trincomalee for further medical treatment and care.