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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThey are not going to stop until the last fish is dead
By Robyn Dixon
November 26, 2013, 11:32 a.m.
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- Nations whose fleets fish for bluefin tuna and sharks ended a meeting in South Africa without reaching agreement on action to protect critically endangered species, environmentalist groups said.
A proposal to ban fishing of the critically endangered porbeagle shark was blocked at the eight-day meeting in Cape Town of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), a body consisting of major Atlantic tuna and shark fishing nations, as well as other Atlantic coast nations, according to environmentalists who observed the meeting.
The porbeagle shark (scientific name: Lamna nasus), known for its low reproductive capacity, was listed in March by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which requires countries trading in the species to prove they are doing it sustainably after next September.
For the third time, the ICCAT nations also delayed the compulsory implementation of measures to track tuna catches electronically from ocean to port to market, a crucial measure designed to reduce rampant fraud in an industry where the amount of Atlantic bluefin tuna caught in the eastern Atlantic is 57% higher than the catch limit between 2001 and 2008, according to a 2013 study.
more
http://www.latimes.com/world/worldnow/la-fg-wn-africa-sharks-tuna-20131125,0,393301.story
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Or worse, dead and discarded as by-catch.
hatrack
(59,592 posts). . . . and then they'll demand economic assistance for destroying their own livelihoods.
See also: "Grand Banks cod, 1992".
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)hatrack
(59,592 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)They aren't kidding anyone with that acronym.
closeupready
(29,503 posts)IMO - sharks, for their fins; Siberian tigers, for their penises for use in aphrodisiacs; Rhinos, for their horns, also as aphrodisiacs.
factsarenotfair
(910 posts)China has sent an armada of sophisticated and highly subsidised fishing boats into the South Pacific, including waters north of New Zealand, in a bid to kill off domestic fleets and seize control of the longline tuna fishery, a key fishing industry conference has heard.
...High seas tuna access is controlled by the multinational Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission and Dunham says they will ultimately determine quotas by catch histories.
If the Chinese can show they have had more boats fishing for tuna, they will be entitled to the greatest number of quotas.
...
http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/7955188/China-seizing-control-of-Pacific-tuna
I don't think this will stop at the South Pacific.
jsr
(7,712 posts)Uncle Joe
(58,417 posts)Thanks for the thread, n2doc.