Newsday.com: US-Japan discussed 'action' against anti-whalers
TOKYO - (AP) — Japanese and American officials discussed taking action to weaken a prominent anti-whaling group, with Tokyo insisting that Sea Shepherd's confrontations on the high seas actually hurt efforts to reduce whaling, U.S. diplomatic cables show.
The U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission, Monica Medina, discussed revoking the U.S.-based conservation group's tax exempt status during a meeting with senior officials from the Fisheries Agency of Japan in November 2009, according to the documents released by WikiLeaks on Monday.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's yearly protest campaigns — which chase Japan's whaling fleet in boats trying to disrupt the hunt by fouling fishing lines and throwing rancid butter at whalers — have drawn high-profile donors and volunteers, and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars." In Japan, the harrassment is seen by some as foreign interferance in national affairs, making politicians wary of getting involved.
Action against Sea Shepherd would be a "major element" in achieving success at international negotiations on the number of whales killed each year, the cables cite the director general of Japan's fisheries agency, Katsuhiro Machida, as saying.
Referring to Sea Shepherd, Medina said "she believes the USG (U.S. government) can demonstrate the group does not deserve tax exempt status based on their aggressive and harmful actions," according the cables.
Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd, said Japan has previously pressured foreign governments to take action against the group, such as revoking the registration of its ships. He said the organization had last been audited about two years ago, which is before the exchanges detailed in the cables.
"We have had our tax status since 1981, and we have done nothing different since then to cause the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) to change that," he told The Associated Press by telephone from his ship.
The diplomatic cables, posted on WikiLeaks' secret-sharing website early Monday but dated Jan. 1, show Japanese officials repeatedly told U.S. counterparts the group's actions were making whaling a political issue and hurting any chance of a compromise on the numbers of whales killed each year.
Sea Shepherd vessels are currently chasing Japan's whaling fleet in the Antarctic Ocean in the hopes of interrupting its hunt, which kills up to 1,000 whales annually and typically lasts from December to February.
Japan hunts whales under the research exemption to a 1986 worldwide ban on commercial hunts. Critics say there is no reason to kill the animals, and the research program amounts to commercial whaling in disguise because surplus meat from the hunt is sold domestically.
Protest ships harass the whaling fleet, and clashes between the sides often take place. On Saturday, Watson said that whalers had shot water cannons at anti-whaling activists nearby.
Last January, a Sea Shepherd boat was sunk after its bow was sheared off in a collision with a whaling vessel and a New Zealand protestor was later arrested after he boarded a Japanese whaling ship. He was taken to Tokyo and later deported.
The cables are dated before an International Whaling Commission meeting last year that was seen as a major chance to end a decades long stalemate. They show the U.S. worked with Japan in late 2009 to reach a deal on the issue, calling it an "irritant" in international relations.
The meeting ended without a major agreement.
"Action on the SSCS (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) would be a major element for Japan in the success of the overall negotiations," a Japanese official said, according to one cable.
Watson said Monday that his group was against anything less than a complete stop to Japan's whaling program in Antarctica. The activists hope to block whaling activities for the Japanese fleet so it incurs deep financial losses.
"I don't think a solution is going to come through politics, it's going to come through economics," Watson told The Associated Press by telephone from his ship while pursuing the Japanese fleet.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Blood-sucking fish feed on whales
BBC Earth News: Blood-sucking fish feed on whales
Scientists studying whales in Canada have challenged previous theories that lampreys attach to whales purely to "hitch a ride".
Photographs show bloody lesions after lampreys detached from whale hosts, indicating feeding.
Sea lampreys are parasitic fish that feed on others' blood, attaching to the skin with a suction-cup like mouth. They are sometimes called 'lamprey eels' because adults are similarly long and lack scales. Sea lampreys secrete an anticoagulant from their mouths to stop prey's blood from clotting
Sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) are known to feed on a wide variety of fish using a funnel-like mouth filled with teeth and a razor-like tongue.
In the past lamprey teeth-marks have been identified on whale and porpoise bodies. Sea lampreys have also been photographed attached to Pacific humpback and North Atlantic right whales.
Based on these rare glimpses, certain scientists theorised that sea lampreys feed on cetaceans, but it was not possible from this evidence to say conclusively that they were drawing blood.
Others in the scientific community argued that P. marinus could merely be using cetaceans for transport, biting into their flesh in order to travel long distances.
However, during studies in the St Lawrence estuary, where the Great Lakes enter the Atlantic Ocean in eastern Canada, researchers resolved the debate.
The long-term study of minke whales in the area provided the first ongoing observations of sea lamprey and whale interaction.
Their findings were published in the Journal of Fish Biology.
"We and others had long had reason to believe that the lampreys were feeding," said Owen Nichols, Director of the Marine Fisheries Initiative at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts, US.
"The high frequency of minke whale observations coupled with their behaviour in the estuary, frequent surfacings with much of their bodies visible, made these observations possible."
Ursula Tscherter was responsible for the fieldwork during which the research team photographed whales before, during and after lamprey attachment.
"Little is known about lamprey fish on cetaceans especially on minke whales," said Ms Tscherter.
"To document the presence of lamprey fish on individually identified minke whales, which use the St Lawrence estuary as a summer feeding ground, helps to put the topic into a broader context."
The images of bloody lesions on the whales provided the first evidence that the parasites fed on cetacean blood.
"To our knowledge these are the first in-situ observations of such behaviour during which one can convincingly state that lampreys attached to whales are rasping through the skin and feeding rather than just 'hanging on for the ride'," explained Mr Nichols.
Sometimes dubbed the "vampire fish", P. marinus was accidentally introduced to North America's Great Lakes in the 1800s.
Like salmon, sea lampreys are "anadromous", meaning they are born in fresh water, migrate to the sea for their adult life and eventually return to freshwater to spawn and die.
Efforts are now being made to better understand the species in order to control the invasive population that threatens native fish species.
Scientists studying whales in Canada have challenged previous theories that lampreys attach to whales purely to "hitch a ride".
Photographs show bloody lesions after lampreys detached from whale hosts, indicating feeding.
Sea lampreys are parasitic fish that feed on others' blood, attaching to the skin with a suction-cup like mouth. They are sometimes called 'lamprey eels' because adults are similarly long and lack scales. Sea lampreys secrete an anticoagulant from their mouths to stop prey's blood from clotting
Sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) are known to feed on a wide variety of fish using a funnel-like mouth filled with teeth and a razor-like tongue.
In the past lamprey teeth-marks have been identified on whale and porpoise bodies. Sea lampreys have also been photographed attached to Pacific humpback and North Atlantic right whales.
Based on these rare glimpses, certain scientists theorised that sea lampreys feed on cetaceans, but it was not possible from this evidence to say conclusively that they were drawing blood.
Others in the scientific community argued that P. marinus could merely be using cetaceans for transport, biting into their flesh in order to travel long distances.
However, during studies in the St Lawrence estuary, where the Great Lakes enter the Atlantic Ocean in eastern Canada, researchers resolved the debate.
The long-term study of minke whales in the area provided the first ongoing observations of sea lamprey and whale interaction.
Their findings were published in the Journal of Fish Biology.
"We and others had long had reason to believe that the lampreys were feeding," said Owen Nichols, Director of the Marine Fisheries Initiative at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts, US.
"The high frequency of minke whale observations coupled with their behaviour in the estuary, frequent surfacings with much of their bodies visible, made these observations possible."
Ursula Tscherter was responsible for the fieldwork during which the research team photographed whales before, during and after lamprey attachment.
"Little is known about lamprey fish on cetaceans especially on minke whales," said Ms Tscherter.
"To document the presence of lamprey fish on individually identified minke whales, which use the St Lawrence estuary as a summer feeding ground, helps to put the topic into a broader context."
The images of bloody lesions on the whales provided the first evidence that the parasites fed on cetacean blood.
"To our knowledge these are the first in-situ observations of such behaviour during which one can convincingly state that lampreys attached to whales are rasping through the skin and feeding rather than just 'hanging on for the ride'," explained Mr Nichols.
Sometimes dubbed the "vampire fish", P. marinus was accidentally introduced to North America's Great Lakes in the 1800s.
Like salmon, sea lampreys are "anadromous", meaning they are born in fresh water, migrate to the sea for their adult life and eventually return to freshwater to spawn and die.
Efforts are now being made to better understand the species in order to control the invasive population that threatens native fish species.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Mining the depths more than pie in the sky
The Chatham Rise is an area of ocean floor to the east of New Zealand, forming part of the Zealandia continent. It stretches for some 1000 kilometres from near the South Island in the west, to the Chatham Islands in the east. It is New Zealand's most productive and important fishing ground.
Relative to the rest of the Pacific Ocean waters around New Zealand, the Chatham Rise is relatively shallow, no more than 1000 metres deep at any point. This shallowness is made more remarkable by the depth of the ocean immediately to the north and south. To the northeast, the Hikurangi Trench, an extension of the much deeper Kermadec Trench, drops to below 3000 metres close to the New Zealand coast, and further from the coast the Rise borders on the Hikurangi Plateau. To the south, similar depths are achieved in the Bounty Trough. Past the eastern end of the rise, the sea floor drops away to the abyssal plain.
Stuff.co.nz Business Day: Mining the depths more than pie in the sky
Mining rock phosphate in the Chatham Rise area presents obvious benefits, but the hurdles are huge, reports James Weir.
Extracting rock phosphate from under 400 metres of water on the Chathams Rise has obvious benefits in that the mineral is a key part of fertiliser for New Zealand farms, but the challenge from a mining point of view is a "steep one", says an analyst's report.
If all goes to plan, Widespread Energy, one of the companies looking at rock phosphate, believes it could start underwater mining as early as 2013, although it faces big hurdles in raising cash overseas and getting government approval to mine.
McDouall Stuart's head of research, John Kidd, says rock phosphate is not "pie in the sky", but a real and valuable resource that could offset phosphate shipments from Morocco.
"Despite the obvious benefits, the challenge would be a steep one," he said, considering that seabed mining presents higher risks than onshore mining, especially considering the mid-water depth of 400 metres. However, seabed mining technology is well established and the challenges of applying it to the Chatham Rise "appear manageable".
However, the project is expected to face opposition from environmental groups.
Also, there is the challenge of mining phosphate at a depth that has never been achieved anywhere else. Still, three different overseas dredging companies believe it can be done and they have mined alluvial diamonds at up to 170 metres, says Widespread managing director Chris Castle.
He estimates that if the project went ahead, it could produce cashflows of between $40 million and $100m a year.
New Zealand Alternative Market minnows Widespread Energy, which holds 90 per cent of the project, and Widespread Portfolios, with 10 per cent, are attempting to raise money to develop a project to mine rock phosphate. They have failed to get much interest from local investors or the two big fertiliser companies in New Zealand, Ravensdown and Ballance.
So Mr Castle, who is essentially a one-man band, is turning to Canada to raise money for the next step: listing Widespread Energy overseas and raising cash.
He has raised about $1.4m from existing shareholders and a couple of overseas investors, including Jim Askew, who will front the capital-raising effort in Canada, probably aiming for about C$20m (NZ$26m).
Mr Askew is chairman of OceanaGold, which mines gold in the South Island.
"We found it impossible to get [New Zealand] investor interest in our shares," Mr Castle says.
Widespread thinks it could start the underwater project with as little as $15m in capital expenditure, using contract dredging. The capital raising includes some "rainy-day money", but that would be for only about half the project, with the balance held by Widespread shareholders.
Ad Feedback Others are looking at phosphate mining on the Chatham Rise, such as Seafloor Resources, run by Adrian Fleming. Also holding a licence is mining heavy hitter Geoff Loudon, of L&M Petroleum and Lihir Gold.
Mr Loudon, who is based in Queenstown, is believed to have talked to European dredging companies, but he has not yet pushed the button.
Mr Loudon is also chairman of undersea exploration company Nautilus Minerals, which is looking for massive sulphides at a much greater depth, about 2000 metres, around the Pacific "Ring of Fire", with samples taken near Papua New Guinea. The sulphides are rich in iron, lead, zinc, and copper, with some gold and silver.
Mr Castle believes Widespread has "the best bit" of the Chathams Rise, in an area of about 300 square kilometres. If the project succeeds, the area between the South Island and the Chatham Islands would be the first place in the world where rock phosphate is mined in such deep water.
Widespread is talking to three dredging companies to get competing bids to contract mine the resource.
Although the numbers have yet to be "proved up", one dredging company believes it could mine for between US$90 and US$120 a tonne. Another says it would not cost much more than what it does to freight phosphate from Morocco to New Zealand – about US$70 a tonne.
The world price for phosphate is US$140 a tonne in Morocco, but with freight added, the cost here is US$210 a tonne.
"That's why I'm persevering with this. You could make NZ$40m a year before tax. That's not bad for a project owned by two companies with a market value of NZ$7m," Mr Castle says.
But the world price of phosphate has been through a "boom and bust" cycle in recent years.
In 2006, Morocco, which controls about 40 per cent of the world-traded market, pushed prices up, from US$40 a tonne to US$500 a tonne in 2007.
After the global financial crisis, prices plunged back to under US$100 a tonne, before rebounding to US$140 a tonne.
Mr Castle believes world prices would have to fall to US$30 a tonne, which is less than the US$50-a-tonne cost of mining in Morocco, to make underwater mining uncompetitive. In a couple of months, after pre-feasibility studies have been finished, Widespread intends to choose a dredging company.
It would take another year to finish the mine design, which the company is expecting to be in about March 2012. "By March [2011], we hope to have pre-feasibility studies from three companies and will get an expert to asses if they are realistic," he said.
By March 2012, Widespread will apply for the mining licence, but it was unclear how long that process could take. Mining could start as soon as 2013.
However, Mr Castle fully expects opposition from people who think "mining is evil, especially under the sea".
There are sponges and starfish on the seafloor where the company wants to mine, but no orange roughy fish, which are found at 800 metres to 1200 metres.
Mr Castle says the mining process would not disturb the seabed, but would just extract the rocks of phosphate and leave the sand behind or the sand would be pumped up to a ship before it was returned it to the sea floor. The idea is to minimise the plume of sand underwater.
It is unclear how far the plume would travel and what impact it might have on sea life.
"This will inevitably attract some opposition from environmental groups, and we want there to be complete knowledge about what is there, so we can manage our mining process," he said.
"If there are rare species, we won't go near them."
The area that Widespread is looking at is less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the Chatham Rise area.
Even then, the company is aiming for the limited "rich patches", rather than strip mining the whole area.
Early this year, Widespread gained a prospecting permit for an area about 600km east of Christchurch, where it says there are "significant" shallow seabed deposits of rock phosphate and other potentially valuable minerals. Past studies suggested there were reserves of about 30 million tonnes in a layer of muddy sand and silt less than a metre deep.
The resource could produce enough phosphate for New Zealand for at least 30 years.
Rock phosphate is a key part of superphosphate, which is used to lift the productivity of soil.
Fertiliser companies, mainly Ravensdown and Ballance, import about one million tonnes a year of rock phosphate, mostly from Morocco, to make fertilisers.
Mr Castle said he had invited Ravensdown and Ballance to invest in the project "and we are still talking".
Relative to the rest of the Pacific Ocean waters around New Zealand, the Chatham Rise is relatively shallow, no more than 1000 metres deep at any point. This shallowness is made more remarkable by the depth of the ocean immediately to the north and south. To the northeast, the Hikurangi Trench, an extension of the much deeper Kermadec Trench, drops to below 3000 metres close to the New Zealand coast, and further from the coast the Rise borders on the Hikurangi Plateau. To the south, similar depths are achieved in the Bounty Trough. Past the eastern end of the rise, the sea floor drops away to the abyssal plain.
Stuff.co.nz Business Day: Mining the depths more than pie in the sky
Mining rock phosphate in the Chatham Rise area presents obvious benefits, but the hurdles are huge, reports James Weir.
Extracting rock phosphate from under 400 metres of water on the Chathams Rise has obvious benefits in that the mineral is a key part of fertiliser for New Zealand farms, but the challenge from a mining point of view is a "steep one", says an analyst's report.
If all goes to plan, Widespread Energy, one of the companies looking at rock phosphate, believes it could start underwater mining as early as 2013, although it faces big hurdles in raising cash overseas and getting government approval to mine.
McDouall Stuart's head of research, John Kidd, says rock phosphate is not "pie in the sky", but a real and valuable resource that could offset phosphate shipments from Morocco.
"Despite the obvious benefits, the challenge would be a steep one," he said, considering that seabed mining presents higher risks than onshore mining, especially considering the mid-water depth of 400 metres. However, seabed mining technology is well established and the challenges of applying it to the Chatham Rise "appear manageable".
However, the project is expected to face opposition from environmental groups.
Also, there is the challenge of mining phosphate at a depth that has never been achieved anywhere else. Still, three different overseas dredging companies believe it can be done and they have mined alluvial diamonds at up to 170 metres, says Widespread managing director Chris Castle.
He estimates that if the project went ahead, it could produce cashflows of between $40 million and $100m a year.
New Zealand Alternative Market minnows Widespread Energy, which holds 90 per cent of the project, and Widespread Portfolios, with 10 per cent, are attempting to raise money to develop a project to mine rock phosphate. They have failed to get much interest from local investors or the two big fertiliser companies in New Zealand, Ravensdown and Ballance.
So Mr Castle, who is essentially a one-man band, is turning to Canada to raise money for the next step: listing Widespread Energy overseas and raising cash.
He has raised about $1.4m from existing shareholders and a couple of overseas investors, including Jim Askew, who will front the capital-raising effort in Canada, probably aiming for about C$20m (NZ$26m).
Mr Askew is chairman of OceanaGold, which mines gold in the South Island.
"We found it impossible to get [New Zealand] investor interest in our shares," Mr Castle says.
Widespread thinks it could start the underwater project with as little as $15m in capital expenditure, using contract dredging. The capital raising includes some "rainy-day money", but that would be for only about half the project, with the balance held by Widespread shareholders.
Ad Feedback Others are looking at phosphate mining on the Chatham Rise, such as Seafloor Resources, run by Adrian Fleming. Also holding a licence is mining heavy hitter Geoff Loudon, of L&M Petroleum and Lihir Gold.
Mr Loudon, who is based in Queenstown, is believed to have talked to European dredging companies, but he has not yet pushed the button.
Mr Loudon is also chairman of undersea exploration company Nautilus Minerals, which is looking for massive sulphides at a much greater depth, about 2000 metres, around the Pacific "Ring of Fire", with samples taken near Papua New Guinea. The sulphides are rich in iron, lead, zinc, and copper, with some gold and silver.
Mr Castle believes Widespread has "the best bit" of the Chathams Rise, in an area of about 300 square kilometres. If the project succeeds, the area between the South Island and the Chatham Islands would be the first place in the world where rock phosphate is mined in such deep water.
Widespread is talking to three dredging companies to get competing bids to contract mine the resource.
Although the numbers have yet to be "proved up", one dredging company believes it could mine for between US$90 and US$120 a tonne. Another says it would not cost much more than what it does to freight phosphate from Morocco to New Zealand – about US$70 a tonne.
The world price for phosphate is US$140 a tonne in Morocco, but with freight added, the cost here is US$210 a tonne.
"That's why I'm persevering with this. You could make NZ$40m a year before tax. That's not bad for a project owned by two companies with a market value of NZ$7m," Mr Castle says.
But the world price of phosphate has been through a "boom and bust" cycle in recent years.
In 2006, Morocco, which controls about 40 per cent of the world-traded market, pushed prices up, from US$40 a tonne to US$500 a tonne in 2007.
After the global financial crisis, prices plunged back to under US$100 a tonne, before rebounding to US$140 a tonne.
Mr Castle believes world prices would have to fall to US$30 a tonne, which is less than the US$50-a-tonne cost of mining in Morocco, to make underwater mining uncompetitive. In a couple of months, after pre-feasibility studies have been finished, Widespread intends to choose a dredging company.
It would take another year to finish the mine design, which the company is expecting to be in about March 2012. "By March [2011], we hope to have pre-feasibility studies from three companies and will get an expert to asses if they are realistic," he said.
By March 2012, Widespread will apply for the mining licence, but it was unclear how long that process could take. Mining could start as soon as 2013.
However, Mr Castle fully expects opposition from people who think "mining is evil, especially under the sea".
There are sponges and starfish on the seafloor where the company wants to mine, but no orange roughy fish, which are found at 800 metres to 1200 metres.
Mr Castle says the mining process would not disturb the seabed, but would just extract the rocks of phosphate and leave the sand behind or the sand would be pumped up to a ship before it was returned it to the sea floor. The idea is to minimise the plume of sand underwater.
It is unclear how far the plume would travel and what impact it might have on sea life.
"This will inevitably attract some opposition from environmental groups, and we want there to be complete knowledge about what is there, so we can manage our mining process," he said.
"If there are rare species, we won't go near them."
The area that Widespread is looking at is less than one-tenth of 1 per cent of the Chatham Rise area.
Even then, the company is aiming for the limited "rich patches", rather than strip mining the whole area.
Early this year, Widespread gained a prospecting permit for an area about 600km east of Christchurch, where it says there are "significant" shallow seabed deposits of rock phosphate and other potentially valuable minerals. Past studies suggested there were reserves of about 30 million tonnes in a layer of muddy sand and silt less than a metre deep.
The resource could produce enough phosphate for New Zealand for at least 30 years.
Rock phosphate is a key part of superphosphate, which is used to lift the productivity of soil.
Fertiliser companies, mainly Ravensdown and Ballance, import about one million tonnes a year of rock phosphate, mostly from Morocco, to make fertilisers.
Mr Castle said he had invited Ravensdown and Ballance to invest in the project "and we are still talking".
Divers call for Cirkewwa marine sanctuary
Malta Independent Online: Divers call for Cirkewwa marine sanctuary
by Elaine Attard
The Maltese diving community has begun circulating a petition and is organising an awareness-raising campaign urging the authorities to declare Cirkewwa a marine sanctuary.
Experienced diver Antonio Anastasi, who is leading the initiative, told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the area inevitably attracts both divers and fishermen because of two important wrecks − the P29 patrol boat and the Rozi tugboat, which attract large numbers of fish to lay their eggs there.
Although Cirkewwa automatically became a protected area when Malta joined the EU, divers still have to resort to calling the Police Force’s Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) unit to deal with infringements on an almost daily basis.
“Unfortunately, illegal fishing activities take place even during the night. Illicit fishing includes activities like spear fishing, as well as the laying of trammel nets (pariti) among others,” said Mr Anastasi.
“And the law does not protect this area as a no take zone. The law states that only spear fishing and the laying of trammel nets in the demarcated area of wrecks is prohibited, leaving huge gaps for other infringements such as the taking of sea urchins, octopus or lobster with one’s bare hands, or divers lifting souvenirs from the seabed,” he continued.
Other illegalities include dynamite fishing and the use of fishing gear including bottom lines, gill nets, entangling and encircling nets, demersal pots and traps.
Apart from destroying the habitats on which fish stocks depend, these activities can cause serious or even fatal accidents to divers in the area.
The diving community is calling on the government to declare Cirkewwa a marine protected area, with all types of fishing from boats banned, angling allowed only to the south of the dive site and stricter and constant law enforcement through a greater ALE presence.
It suggests that signs are erected informing people about infringements and related fines to deter illegalities, and that the area is declared a “no take zone” for both live and dead marine creatures, including shells.
The divers have been advised that there is a general consensus among the authorities that the area should be declared protected, but the process for doing this may take up to two years, so in the meantime they came up with the idea of making Cirkewwa a Voluntary Marine Reserve. This is an important first step in seeking this positive change. Almost all Maltese diving organisations agree with the concept and have the support of a number of international organisations as well.
Divers have agreed to abide by a code of conduct, and to educate visitors on the importance of protecting the area. “It is a gentleman’s agreement, so hopefully the stakeholders and people operating in the area will not take anything from the water and so allow it to repopulate into a healthy reserve,” Mr Anastasi explained.
The code of conduct will directly benefit local business owners, the owners of dive centres, divers themselves and even fishermen in the long run. There are hundreds of MPAs all over the world that reflect these environmental and economic advantages. The diving community hopes to bring fishermen and business organisations operating in the area on board too.
Alicia Said, a geography masters student studying the area, notes that the Cirkewwa area is popular with both divers and fishermen, bringing about intense bipolar divergences between the two groups.
“This scenario highlights the need for rational management which falls under the category of multiple use Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Such areas have a tendency to focus on the biological realm and place little weight on social and economic factors. This biologically-oriented MPA designation process has been perceived as a segregating tool for anthropogenic activities resulting in a successful paper park. It is crucial to focus on people’s values and uses within the marine environment and their perception of the existing threats while seeking operational planning schemes that take into account the motives, behaviour and values of the various stakeholders and move towards a paradigm of ‘managing people’ instead of ‘managing resources’,” Ms Said explained.
“In 2008, a notice to mariners was issued by Transport Malta (at the time the MMA), the main aim of which was to provide safety to divers by restricting a number of fishing and boating practices. However, prohibited fishing practices are still taking place to this day, as a result of inadequate awareness and enforcement deficiencies,” she said.
“Institutional complexity, coupled with a sectoral-based approach, has acted as an impediment to providing the right circumstances for the area to be conserved in a pragmatic manner, with the result that divers have decided to follow a bottom-up approach by joining forces and taking steps to conserve the area,” she continued.
The lobby group, led by Mr Anastasi who has been fighting for the area to be declared a marine sanctuary for 25 years, set up a Facebook group ‘Declare Cirkewwa a Marine Sanctuary NOW’ nearly two years ago. It now has 1,041 members.
In addition, a petition that currently has 651 signatures has been set up online and is aiming for a total number of 30,000 signatures.
While certain divers have a sense of stewardship and a conservation ethic towards the area, others see it as indispensable for the industry of dive-tourism and ultimately contributing to the local economy.
Some 65,000 tourists visited Malta on diving holidays in 2009, according to Malta Tourism Authority statistics, accounting for three per cent of the total number of inbound arrivals who, in turn, leave some 12 per cent of the total tourism revenue for Malta.
by Elaine Attard
The Maltese diving community has begun circulating a petition and is organising an awareness-raising campaign urging the authorities to declare Cirkewwa a marine sanctuary.
Experienced diver Antonio Anastasi, who is leading the initiative, told The Malta Independent on Sunday that the area inevitably attracts both divers and fishermen because of two important wrecks − the P29 patrol boat and the Rozi tugboat, which attract large numbers of fish to lay their eggs there.
Although Cirkewwa automatically became a protected area when Malta joined the EU, divers still have to resort to calling the Police Force’s Administrative Law Enforcement (ALE) unit to deal with infringements on an almost daily basis.
“Unfortunately, illegal fishing activities take place even during the night. Illicit fishing includes activities like spear fishing, as well as the laying of trammel nets (pariti) among others,” said Mr Anastasi.
“And the law does not protect this area as a no take zone. The law states that only spear fishing and the laying of trammel nets in the demarcated area of wrecks is prohibited, leaving huge gaps for other infringements such as the taking of sea urchins, octopus or lobster with one’s bare hands, or divers lifting souvenirs from the seabed,” he continued.
Other illegalities include dynamite fishing and the use of fishing gear including bottom lines, gill nets, entangling and encircling nets, demersal pots and traps.
Apart from destroying the habitats on which fish stocks depend, these activities can cause serious or even fatal accidents to divers in the area.
The diving community is calling on the government to declare Cirkewwa a marine protected area, with all types of fishing from boats banned, angling allowed only to the south of the dive site and stricter and constant law enforcement through a greater ALE presence.
It suggests that signs are erected informing people about infringements and related fines to deter illegalities, and that the area is declared a “no take zone” for both live and dead marine creatures, including shells.
The divers have been advised that there is a general consensus among the authorities that the area should be declared protected, but the process for doing this may take up to two years, so in the meantime they came up with the idea of making Cirkewwa a Voluntary Marine Reserve. This is an important first step in seeking this positive change. Almost all Maltese diving organisations agree with the concept and have the support of a number of international organisations as well.
Divers have agreed to abide by a code of conduct, and to educate visitors on the importance of protecting the area. “It is a gentleman’s agreement, so hopefully the stakeholders and people operating in the area will not take anything from the water and so allow it to repopulate into a healthy reserve,” Mr Anastasi explained.
The code of conduct will directly benefit local business owners, the owners of dive centres, divers themselves and even fishermen in the long run. There are hundreds of MPAs all over the world that reflect these environmental and economic advantages. The diving community hopes to bring fishermen and business organisations operating in the area on board too.
Alicia Said, a geography masters student studying the area, notes that the Cirkewwa area is popular with both divers and fishermen, bringing about intense bipolar divergences between the two groups.
“This scenario highlights the need for rational management which falls under the category of multiple use Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). Such areas have a tendency to focus on the biological realm and place little weight on social and economic factors. This biologically-oriented MPA designation process has been perceived as a segregating tool for anthropogenic activities resulting in a successful paper park. It is crucial to focus on people’s values and uses within the marine environment and their perception of the existing threats while seeking operational planning schemes that take into account the motives, behaviour and values of the various stakeholders and move towards a paradigm of ‘managing people’ instead of ‘managing resources’,” Ms Said explained.
“In 2008, a notice to mariners was issued by Transport Malta (at the time the MMA), the main aim of which was to provide safety to divers by restricting a number of fishing and boating practices. However, prohibited fishing practices are still taking place to this day, as a result of inadequate awareness and enforcement deficiencies,” she said.
“Institutional complexity, coupled with a sectoral-based approach, has acted as an impediment to providing the right circumstances for the area to be conserved in a pragmatic manner, with the result that divers have decided to follow a bottom-up approach by joining forces and taking steps to conserve the area,” she continued.
The lobby group, led by Mr Anastasi who has been fighting for the area to be declared a marine sanctuary for 25 years, set up a Facebook group ‘Declare Cirkewwa a Marine Sanctuary NOW’ nearly two years ago. It now has 1,041 members.
In addition, a petition that currently has 651 signatures has been set up online and is aiming for a total number of 30,000 signatures.
While certain divers have a sense of stewardship and a conservation ethic towards the area, others see it as indispensable for the industry of dive-tourism and ultimately contributing to the local economy.
Some 65,000 tourists visited Malta on diving holidays in 2009, according to Malta Tourism Authority statistics, accounting for three per cent of the total number of inbound arrivals who, in turn, leave some 12 per cent of the total tourism revenue for Malta.
Scents Latest Weapons In Fight Against Sea Lamprey
NPR: Scents Latest Weapons In Fight Against Sea Lamprey
HURON BEACH, Mich. January 2, 2011, 03:31 pm ET
In the never-ending battle to prevent blood-sucking sea lamprey from wiping out some of the most popular fish species in the Great Lakes, biologists are developing new weapons that exploit three certainties in the eel-like parasites' lives: birth, sex and death.
Researchers are beginning the third and final year of testing lab-refined mating pheromones — scents emitted by male lampreys to attract females. They're also working on a mixture with the stench of rotting lamprey flesh, which live ones detest, and another that smells of baby lampreys, which adults love. If proven effective, the chemicals will be deployed across the region to steer the aquatic vermin to where they can be trapped or killed.
Early results appear promising. Yet no one expects the lures and repellents to finally rid the lakes of the despised invader and enable fisheries managers in the U.S. and Canada to end a battle that has cost more than $400 million over five decades. Especially when a single spawning female lays up to 60,000 eggs.
"When you have a large, open ecosystem like the Great Lakes and highly distributed, abundant organisms like sea lamprey, eradication is usually not an option," said Michael Wagner, a Michigan State University behavioral ecologist and member of the research team. "There's no technique that we could think of achieving that right now."
Instead, the goal is to keep their numbers low enough to prevent significant harm to the $7 billion Great Lakes fishing industry. The lamprey population has dropped by about 90 percent since researchers perfected a biocide in the late 1950s that kills lamprey but not other species. Yet they remain a constant threat and have rebounded whenever control measures have been relaxed.
"You've always got to be on guard," said Nick Johnson, a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist at the Hammond Bay Biological Station on the northwestern shore of Lake Huron.
Adult sea lampreys, which reach lengths of 2 to 3 feet, resemble eels but behave more like leeches. With round, disk-like mouths and sharp teeth, they latch onto fish and suck out their blood and other bodily fluids, killing or severely weakening the hosts.
Although native to the Atlantic, they can live in fresh water and migrated to the Great Lakes through shipping canals. By the late 1940s, the prolific invaders had decimated trout, whitefish and other sport and commercial species across the lakes.
The development of a poison called TFM eventually brought lamprey numbers sharply lower. TFM is applied in rivers, where lampreys spawn. Crews treat about 175 streams across the region on a rotating basis, said Mike Fodale, a supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service station in Marquette. Other control methods include placing barriers in streams to keep the lampreys from spawning areas and sterilizing up to 30,000 males a year before releasing them back into the wild, where they mate but produce no offspring.
The efforts make a big difference. But the price tag is steep — about $21 million a year — and lampreys continue taking their toll. About 15 percent of lake trout sampled at a Lake Huron research lab in Alpena have lamprey wounds, said biologist Jim Johnson of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Lamprey predation has risen in Lake Michigan, Fodale said. That's where the pheromone applications come in. If biologists could guide spawning lampreys into streams baited with traps or treated with TFM, control programs would be more effective — and less of the expensive biocide might be needed.
To make the potions, scientists capture lampreys and keep them in tanks of water, where filters extract pheromones they have secreted. Other processes reduce the chemicals to potent concentrates.
Of those under development by the Hammond Bay Station team, the refined sex pheromone is furthest along. In tests, traps baited with the scents nabbed about 30 percent more lampreys than those without, said Johnson, the USGS ecologist. If the data is solid enough after more trials, scientists will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to certify the pheromone as the first ever to control populations of animals other than insects.
Work continues on other scents. Among them: a lure with the odor of larval lampreys, which could have the same effect as the sex pheromone, and the "necromone" that smells of death and could chase adults from untreated streams. The foul repellent could be particularly valuable because lampreys spawn in more than 430 Great Lakes streams and there isn't enough money or manpower to spread TFM in all of them.
Even if pheromones help reduce the lamprey population, the cost — and the fact that no end is in sight — should convey an urgent message as government agencies debate how to keep destructive Asian carp and other potential invaders out of the lakes, said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
"We need to move heaven and earth to prevent new species from reaching us in the first place," Gaden said. "Yet we're barely more protected than when the lamprey came in. You could argue that with increased globalization, the Great Lakes have never been more vulnerable."
HURON BEACH, Mich. January 2, 2011, 03:31 pm ET
In the never-ending battle to prevent blood-sucking sea lamprey from wiping out some of the most popular fish species in the Great Lakes, biologists are developing new weapons that exploit three certainties in the eel-like parasites' lives: birth, sex and death.
Researchers are beginning the third and final year of testing lab-refined mating pheromones — scents emitted by male lampreys to attract females. They're also working on a mixture with the stench of rotting lamprey flesh, which live ones detest, and another that smells of baby lampreys, which adults love. If proven effective, the chemicals will be deployed across the region to steer the aquatic vermin to where they can be trapped or killed.
Early results appear promising. Yet no one expects the lures and repellents to finally rid the lakes of the despised invader and enable fisheries managers in the U.S. and Canada to end a battle that has cost more than $400 million over five decades. Especially when a single spawning female lays up to 60,000 eggs.
"When you have a large, open ecosystem like the Great Lakes and highly distributed, abundant organisms like sea lamprey, eradication is usually not an option," said Michael Wagner, a Michigan State University behavioral ecologist and member of the research team. "There's no technique that we could think of achieving that right now."
Instead, the goal is to keep their numbers low enough to prevent significant harm to the $7 billion Great Lakes fishing industry. The lamprey population has dropped by about 90 percent since researchers perfected a biocide in the late 1950s that kills lamprey but not other species. Yet they remain a constant threat and have rebounded whenever control measures have been relaxed.
"You've always got to be on guard," said Nick Johnson, a U.S. Geological Survey ecologist at the Hammond Bay Biological Station on the northwestern shore of Lake Huron.
Adult sea lampreys, which reach lengths of 2 to 3 feet, resemble eels but behave more like leeches. With round, disk-like mouths and sharp teeth, they latch onto fish and suck out their blood and other bodily fluids, killing or severely weakening the hosts.
Although native to the Atlantic, they can live in fresh water and migrated to the Great Lakes through shipping canals. By the late 1940s, the prolific invaders had decimated trout, whitefish and other sport and commercial species across the lakes.
The development of a poison called TFM eventually brought lamprey numbers sharply lower. TFM is applied in rivers, where lampreys spawn. Crews treat about 175 streams across the region on a rotating basis, said Mike Fodale, a supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service station in Marquette. Other control methods include placing barriers in streams to keep the lampreys from spawning areas and sterilizing up to 30,000 males a year before releasing them back into the wild, where they mate but produce no offspring.
The efforts make a big difference. But the price tag is steep — about $21 million a year — and lampreys continue taking their toll. About 15 percent of lake trout sampled at a Lake Huron research lab in Alpena have lamprey wounds, said biologist Jim Johnson of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.
Lamprey predation has risen in Lake Michigan, Fodale said. That's where the pheromone applications come in. If biologists could guide spawning lampreys into streams baited with traps or treated with TFM, control programs would be more effective — and less of the expensive biocide might be needed.
To make the potions, scientists capture lampreys and keep them in tanks of water, where filters extract pheromones they have secreted. Other processes reduce the chemicals to potent concentrates.
Of those under development by the Hammond Bay Station team, the refined sex pheromone is furthest along. In tests, traps baited with the scents nabbed about 30 percent more lampreys than those without, said Johnson, the USGS ecologist. If the data is solid enough after more trials, scientists will ask the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to certify the pheromone as the first ever to control populations of animals other than insects.
Work continues on other scents. Among them: a lure with the odor of larval lampreys, which could have the same effect as the sex pheromone, and the "necromone" that smells of death and could chase adults from untreated streams. The foul repellent could be particularly valuable because lampreys spawn in more than 430 Great Lakes streams and there isn't enough money or manpower to spread TFM in all of them.
Even if pheromones help reduce the lamprey population, the cost — and the fact that no end is in sight — should convey an urgent message as government agencies debate how to keep destructive Asian carp and other potential invaders out of the lakes, said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission.
"We need to move heaven and earth to prevent new species from reaching us in the first place," Gaden said. "Yet we're barely more protected than when the lamprey came in. You could argue that with increased globalization, the Great Lakes have never been more vulnerable."
Reports Of Sea Lion Shootings On Rise In Calif.
CBS News: Reports Of Sea Lion Shootings On Rise In Calif.
(AP) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The weak and woozy California sea lion found on a San Francisco Bay-area beach in December with buckshot embedded in its skull has become an all-too-common sight for wildlife officials.
Wildlife officials have seen a slight rise in the shooting of ocean mammals in recent years, and investigators often struggle to find a culprit. There are few witnesses to such shootings, making it nearly impossible to bring a case.
"We always try to do an investigation, but unless there's an eyewitness to the shooting it's hard to make a case for our enforcement folks," said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tracks reports of the shootings.
The NOAA said there were 43 reported marine mammal shootings in 2009 in the waters off the California coast - nine more than in 2008 and 14 more than five years earlier. Of the reported shootings in 2009, all were sea lions. And officials say many more cases likely go unreported.
Wildlife officials say sea lion and human populations continue to increase, making interaction more common, especially among fishermen who compete for the same food and often view the creatures as a nuisance.
Though NOAA and the California Department of Fish and Game are responsible for investigating these cases, few cases result in prosecution. Recent public outcry over highly publicized cases like that of the wounded sea lion near San Francisco have brought more attention to these shootings.
Veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., are treating the wounded critter in the hope an aquarium or zoo will take it. The 7-foot-long male, dubbed Silent Knight by its rescuers, is now blind and cannot return to the wild.
When there is a witness, there usually is a case. A witness came forward after the 2009 shooting of a 650-pound sea lion nicknamed Sgt. Nevis was covered by local press and television.
Larry Legans of Sacramento was ordered to pay more than $51,000 in restitution for the cost of treating the critter, who recently underwent plastic surgery at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom to close bullet holes in its muzzle. Legas also spent a month in jail and got five years probation.
Lt. Rob Roberts, a warden with state Fish and Game Department, said the agency takes marine mammal shootings very seriously, and noted that reports have increased in kind with the growth of the sea lion population along the Northern California coast.
Roberts hopes successful prosecutions and intense media coverage of cases like Legans' will help.
"If the general public sees that there's recourse and accountability, that's a deterrent," Roberts said.
The Marine Mammal Center, where Silent Knight is being treated along with hundreds of ocean animals suffering a variety of ailments, has treated nine gunshot victims in 2010. The center treated 18 in 2009, down from a high of 72 sea lions in 1992, when the center started keeping statistics.
While the number of mammals treated for gunfire wounds has trended downward at the center over the decades, in recent years it has begun to creep back the other way, statistics show.
On Monday, more than 400 people came to see Silent Knight during the center's visiting hours, fascinated by the plight of the wounded pinniped, said Jeff Boehm, the center's executive director.
The center tries to help wardens in the investigations by determining the kind of weapon that were used and how long an animal has been wounded. For now, the center will work to try and get Silent Knight healthy, and ready to live in captivity.
"We've seen over 1,000 patients in 2010, and of that number only nine were shooting victims, a small fraction," said Boehm, whose center studies and treats animals that have been injured by fishing nets, disease or environmental hazards like pollution.
"But it's dramatic, because (shootings) are entirely unnecessary situations."
(AP) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The weak and woozy California sea lion found on a San Francisco Bay-area beach in December with buckshot embedded in its skull has become an all-too-common sight for wildlife officials.
Wildlife officials have seen a slight rise in the shooting of ocean mammals in recent years, and investigators often struggle to find a culprit. There are few witnesses to such shootings, making it nearly impossible to bring a case.
"We always try to do an investigation, but unless there's an eyewitness to the shooting it's hard to make a case for our enforcement folks," said Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tracks reports of the shootings.
The NOAA said there were 43 reported marine mammal shootings in 2009 in the waters off the California coast - nine more than in 2008 and 14 more than five years earlier. Of the reported shootings in 2009, all were sea lions. And officials say many more cases likely go unreported.
Wildlife officials say sea lion and human populations continue to increase, making interaction more common, especially among fishermen who compete for the same food and often view the creatures as a nuisance.
Though NOAA and the California Department of Fish and Game are responsible for investigating these cases, few cases result in prosecution. Recent public outcry over highly publicized cases like that of the wounded sea lion near San Francisco have brought more attention to these shootings.
Veterinarians at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito, Calif., are treating the wounded critter in the hope an aquarium or zoo will take it. The 7-foot-long male, dubbed Silent Knight by its rescuers, is now blind and cannot return to the wild.
When there is a witness, there usually is a case. A witness came forward after the 2009 shooting of a 650-pound sea lion nicknamed Sgt. Nevis was covered by local press and television.
Larry Legans of Sacramento was ordered to pay more than $51,000 in restitution for the cost of treating the critter, who recently underwent plastic surgery at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom to close bullet holes in its muzzle. Legas also spent a month in jail and got five years probation.
Lt. Rob Roberts, a warden with state Fish and Game Department, said the agency takes marine mammal shootings very seriously, and noted that reports have increased in kind with the growth of the sea lion population along the Northern California coast.
Roberts hopes successful prosecutions and intense media coverage of cases like Legans' will help.
"If the general public sees that there's recourse and accountability, that's a deterrent," Roberts said.
The Marine Mammal Center, where Silent Knight is being treated along with hundreds of ocean animals suffering a variety of ailments, has treated nine gunshot victims in 2010. The center treated 18 in 2009, down from a high of 72 sea lions in 1992, when the center started keeping statistics.
While the number of mammals treated for gunfire wounds has trended downward at the center over the decades, in recent years it has begun to creep back the other way, statistics show.
On Monday, more than 400 people came to see Silent Knight during the center's visiting hours, fascinated by the plight of the wounded pinniped, said Jeff Boehm, the center's executive director.
The center tries to help wardens in the investigations by determining the kind of weapon that were used and how long an animal has been wounded. For now, the center will work to try and get Silent Knight healthy, and ready to live in captivity.
"We've seen over 1,000 patients in 2010, and of that number only nine were shooting victims, a small fraction," said Boehm, whose center studies and treats animals that have been injured by fishing nets, disease or environmental hazards like pollution.
"But it's dramatic, because (shootings) are entirely unnecessary situations."
500 seamen stranded in icebound Russian ships
Yahoo News: 500 seamen stranded in icebound Russian ships
MOSCOW – A Russian icebreaker labored Monday through howling winds and heavy snow as it tried to reach icebound ships in the Sea of Okhotsk where more than 500 seamen are trapped.
Three of the vessels have been trapped since Friday in ice estimated to be two meters (6 1/2 feet) thick. The state news agency RIA Novosti said two more ships became stuck on Monday.
The Sea of Okhotsk is an arm of the northern Pacific to the west of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
A statement from the Transport Ministry said there was no immediate danger to the crew on the three ships stuck since last week, who have sufficient food and water. The Ministry said an icebreaker was expected to reach their vicinity early Tuesday.
RIA Novosti cited a local coast guard official as saying winds on the sea were up to 30 meters per second (more than 65 mph).
The three ships that have been trapped since Friday — a fishing vessel, a refrigerated freighter and a scientific research ship — are in a tight convoy. The two others are about 20 nautical miles (35 kilometers) away.
MOSCOW – A Russian icebreaker labored Monday through howling winds and heavy snow as it tried to reach icebound ships in the Sea of Okhotsk where more than 500 seamen are trapped.
Three of the vessels have been trapped since Friday in ice estimated to be two meters (6 1/2 feet) thick. The state news agency RIA Novosti said two more ships became stuck on Monday.
The Sea of Okhotsk is an arm of the northern Pacific to the west of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula.
A statement from the Transport Ministry said there was no immediate danger to the crew on the three ships stuck since last week, who have sufficient food and water. The Ministry said an icebreaker was expected to reach their vicinity early Tuesday.
RIA Novosti cited a local coast guard official as saying winds on the sea were up to 30 meters per second (more than 65 mph).
The three ships that have been trapped since Friday — a fishing vessel, a refrigerated freighter and a scientific research ship — are in a tight convoy. The two others are about 20 nautical miles (35 kilometers) away.
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