Australia - WTF?

Patric is right.
If you are a Shark, take a left in Sydney and get the hell outta there!

Examples?
We've blogged at length about the appalling decision by the NSW minister for primary industries Katrina Hodgkinson to lift the fishing ban at the Grey Nurse aggregation sites Fish Rock and Green Island which are still enumerated in the Ministry's pamphlet but now acutely threatened.
The submission period (this one is excellent - read it!) has closed on August 26th - and what has happened since? So far, I hear, nada de nada de nada, meaning that the Ministry has given no feedback whatsoever and that the sites are still open for fishing.
Sadly, I'm not at all surprised.

Then, much like in SA, there's the shark nets and drumlines.
They are hopelessly antiquated and ecologically unsustainable (and here) and in other countries, they have been widely replaced by equally effective modern beach safety techniques. But when the public continues to advocate culling "rogue" Sharks after somebody gets attacked, rolling back those perceived protective measures may be politically impossible. Read this excellent feature from the Save our Seas Foundation on the problems of coexisting with Sharks and the various measures implemented - an here's a good one about Shark nets in Oz.
Incidentally, I was particularly appalled by this article. In it, one Terry Peake has the audacity to make the following statements.

“There’s a lot of ‘green money’ tied up in shark research.
Certain organisations are given money to protect something, so they do whatever it takes to say they’re protecting it, then at the end of tenure they present facts saying protection must continue so they receive more grants,”

As fishing stocks deplete, sharks are starting to adapt their food sources.
“Sharks need food with a high fat content and in the past humans wouldn’t provide that. However they’re getting desperate. Now we’re hearing stories about people completely disappearing, not just being bitten. It’s not a case of mistaken identity anymore, sharks are adapting out of necessity.”

Yes, this would be totally Vic Hyslop redux!
Shocking - but then again, maybe not so much. One could put it away as the ramblings of merely yet another unhinged Shark hating lunatic, were Terry not the Australian investigator of the GSAF, a bogus Shark Attack database closely affiliated with the equally bogus Shark Research Institute, the home base of other luminaries like Ritter, Collier and Amos - and I spare you the links to posts on this blog, the more as you can search for them yourself!
I say, quousque tandem - and Jupp, should you read this, get the hell outta there - ehrlich, in Freundschaft!

But I'm digressing as always.
Back to the Ozzie Shark fiasco and we find the Queensland East Coast Inshore Fin Fish Fishery ECIFFF that is taking 600 tons (or maybe more) of Sharks from the GBR Marine Park each year.
Yes read that again - from a Word Heritage Area!

I mean, seriously!
It has been known for years that any such fishery is completely unsustainable and that reef Sharks in the GBR are in big trouble - last confirmed by this open source paper as recently as last month.
And now, Fisheries Queensland has made a submission to have this abomination declared an approved Wildlife Trade Operation, this based on a rather problematic (!) report and this in diametrical contrast to the aspirations of the dive industry.
And the Federal Government is asking for comments.

Enter Madi Pip Stewart.
I must say, I am increasingly impressed by this very young underwater cinematographer, by her passion, by her product, by her outreach, by the quality of her statements. Anyway, you want to check out her blog where you will find a template for a comments letter and also, an assessment of Elasmobranchs caught in the GBR. Once again, very impressive indeed!
The consultation period closes on October 21 - and alas, I once again fear that the end result will not be in favor of Sharks, Pip passion or no Pip passion!

But the conservation fiasco not only limited to Australia's Sharks.
South Australia and NSW are bowing to the pressure by the anglers and other ocean recreationists and re-zoning their marine parks.

Furthermore, the Commonwealth is completely ignoring unanimous scientific advice, and that of the community, when defining its marine parks in the South West Bioregion that features an exceptionally high concentration of iconic marine species, many of which are endemic and can thus be found nowhere else on the planet. And worse than that, it is now actively muzzling and censoring dissenting researchers, Texas style.
Bravo to Corey for speaking up - and having talked to a few friends, it is exactly like he says!

So, WTF is going on?
Ever since the fratricide of Rudd and the subsequent botched elections, the Labour-led government there has been nothing but an appalling joke whereby anything and anybody, let alone useless baggage like ideals and principles are being sacrificed on the altar of self serving political survival - and yes I'm trying to be polite!
Gone are the days where Australia was a shining beacon of visionary conservation, gone the days where it could lecture the Pacific Island States who are now showing Big Brother the way forward.

Solutions?
Alas, short term, I am rather skeptical.
The political trend appears to be pointing towards a shift to the right where Big Mining and Big Oil are calling the shots - and obviously, those entities could not care less about Australia's ecosystem, marine and otherwise. But as long as there are young passionate people like Madi, there is hope, at least in the long term.

Fingers crossed!

Southern Bluefin - Critically Endangered?

Oh for crying out loud!!!
This has come as a complete surprise, at least to me!

Did you know?
Turns out that the Southern Bluefin of Tuna Cowboys fame is in even worse shape than his Northern relative! Which once again begs the question, what were those inept monkeys in Doha DOING - campaigning for the wrong species???
Those people should have known about the issue since at least 2005!

Quite frankly, I'm totally shocked.
Gotta do some digging and try and wrap my head around this utter and total conservation debacle.
More as a clearer picture emerges.

Doha - pathetic!

No, this is not yet another post slamming CITES!

From a message by a friend.

The environmental issues need to get into the realm of either the more ruthless, more effective or more monetarily concerned or a combination of all three.
From what I've read, it seems the pro-fishing folks obviously had a strategy and agenda for this meeting. It seems the anti folks just went with their own agendas and hoped to meld once they got there.
It's a full-time job for hardened old internationally experienced, economically savvy lobbyists, not concerned PR grads and volunteer sculptors.

Exactly!
I've been of two minds about this post as once again, it'll get me in trouble for taking on fellow conservationists. I had fervently hoped that somebody else would finally address this total failure of the Marine Conservation movement, or that one of the people involved would have had the courage and the humility to do a proper post mortem and show a modicum of accountability.

Alas, no such luck.
All I get to see are the continued ramblings of the pundits slamming the Japanese and depicting unhelpful doomsday scenarios - and lemme tell you: I am not impressed!
Ocean Death Panel? Sushi-Cide? Tunapocalypse? What's this, a high school poetry contest to complement the pathetic home movies?

It's Copenhagen all over again.
There, everybody and his dog flocked to Denmark, protested, pontificated and vociferated, only to achieve less than nothing - whilst incurring a stunning aggregate expenditure in the process and even more disturbingly, burdening the Planet with a stupendous incremental aggregate Carbon Footprint.

Here, it appears, a motley uncoordinated naïve and clueless group of amateurs paid themselves a trip to Doha in order to protest, pontificate and vociferate - and by those metrics alone, the output has been impressive indeed!
Not however the end result: Zilch, Zero, Nana de Nada!

I say, there has to be a moment of accountability after a failure of this dimension.
It's time for those righteous and self-congratulatory folks to stop whining, to climb off their high horses and to have a hard look into the mirror - and yes, if they dare doing so, what they will see is a bunch of total and utter losers!
Time for the Director of Conservation Strategies to acknowledge that the "strategy", if ever there was one, sucked; time for the Campaign Manager to realize that her "managerial skills" were pathetically inadequate and the campaign, a total fiasco; time for everybody who made the trip on other people's money to tell them how much the debacle cost and to explain why going to Doha was a good idea in the first place and why the public should continue to send money to finance those useless exercises; time for replacing the failed managers and for abandoning the failed strategies in favor of new, pragmatic approaches with a chance of success.
And please, learn something from the world of sports: there, the losers do not rant and ramble but instead, they learn from their mistakes and progress to win the next match!

Does the defeat make me angry?
No, it really does not. It just sadly reinforces my reservations against some of those NGOs who are so long on pontificating and so short on tangible results. And I certainly will never, ever bequeath, or otherwise deed or gift any cash, securities, real estate or other tangible personal property to them like a particularly brazen one solicits!

The fact is that to everybody with a brain, CITES was always gonna be a very long shot indeed.
Yes it was a great utopia and a bold move which would have provided for a relatively simple solution to overfishing, one of the most complex and intractable policy and conservation challenges. But fisheries are often the major source of income for maritime countries and big business on top of that, and trying to simply pull the rug from under those interests was inevitably going to generate some determined opposition.
In that regard, the whining by some quarters that business succeeded in trumping conservation looks at best naïve and at worst, just plainly stupid - certainly when compared to the Japanese delegation who understood and deftly exploited the unease of many of the delegates.

Solutions?

The good news is that the need for Marine Conservation has been clearly put on the table.
The good news is also that contrary to the usual stupid stereotypes, Fisheries officials very much understand the need to fish sustainably (read this, very interesting!).

Yes that very much comprises the much maligned Joe Borg (to include him, and some of the delegates in this list is just plain stupid - what possible benefit will conservation derive from antagonizing the very people who will make the decisions) who has done some real good things, and his successor Maria Damanaki! And yes, that includes the Japanese, too!
Very much like New Zealand and others, they rightly argue that the best way to manage stocks is to do so via treaties among the nations concerned - in the case of the Northern Bluefin, ICAAT and GFCM.

ICCAT has been widely criticized for failing to achieve its objectives, and rightly so.
But once again, the situation is far from being simple. If you take the time to read the executive summary (page 12) of its own external audit, much of the deficiencies is attributable to non-compliance by some of its members, including some astounding scams by the fisheries industry. In essence, it is the Europeans themselves, and not the much maligned Asian consumers that have created the problems.
When it comes to the fisheries for Bluefin (page 53ff), the problems are complex and manifold and primarily concern the fisheries in the Eastern Atlantic and especially, the Mediterranean.

But contrary to the doomsday scenarios, not everything appears lost.
Read page 69ff and you will find that a whole host of sensible recommendations has been put forward, a fact that was echoed in Doha.
Some forward-looking NGOs like the WWF have recognized this as an opportunity and added some recommendations of their own.

All now depends on the delegates.
ICAAT will meet this November and you can find the list of contracting countries here, and here, the members of GFCM - and yes, both lists feature Japan, like it or not!
It will be those people, and not some clamoring NGO that will seal the fate of the Atlantic Tuna - and the sooner we recognize that and play the role we can play, the sooner we will succeed in influencing them in favor of some tangible progress.

Japan-bashing and insulting the delegates is clearly not the way to go.
One must always keep in mind that since civil societies do not hold the institutional power to make any such decisions, their role can only be to try and influence the vote by convincing the parties that sustainable fishing is ultimately very much in their own interest. To be righteous and confrontational is a clear recipe for failure - as amply proven in Doha!

Luckily and contrary to CITES where many delegates were not fisheries experts, the delegates attending the ICCAT meeting will most likely know what they're talking about. But like in Doha, they will be civil servants acting on instructions from home, so trying to sway them during the meeting will be way too late.

The strategy?
Look no further that the successful campaign by Japan, Inc.
Whilst the Europeans were still bickering and the USA, still pondering its stance, Japanese lobbying started months ahead of the conference when various smaller countries were approached and ruthlessly and charmingly "convinced" that it would be in their best interest to vote in line with the Japanese. At the conference itself, veteran negotiators ensured that their allies would not stray and then orchestrated a veritable ambush where the pro-ban countries were dealt a defeat of truly epic proportions.

The lesson to be learned is that the pro faction needs to be better prepared, better coordinated and more ruthless - and possibly also more charming!
Europe needs to become tougher with members who stray, like Malta and Spain. Europe and the USA must start lobbying the other members well ahead of time and must be willing to apply the same kind of political pressure, including leveraging their development aid.
At the same time, negotiators should explore any avenues for reaching a preemptive agreement with the suspected nay-sayers like Japan - and that includes being open for compromises but at the same time, very much explaining that both Europe and the USA wield a mighty big stick inasmuch as they have the power to ultimately decide to implement unilateral restrictions if pushed too far, as has already been suggested.

When it comes to those NGOs, what can I say.
For once, try to be useful by helping when asked, by not voicing extreme and childish viewpoints and above all, by discreetly staying where you belong: in the background, acting as valued counselors and facilitators as opposed to vociferous self-promoting agitators!
I'm obviously critical of all that publicly funded convention tourism - but if you really deem it necessary to be represented: coordinate among you, formulate a common strategy and then send over a few seasoned, well prepared and above all, credible lobbyists.

I however see the real chance for the civil societies in quiet, polite and persistent lobbying "on the ground", flanked by developing, financing and implementing economical and social solutions for the fishermen, country-wide education campaigns and above all, money and hardware for effective enforcement and policing.

The good news is this: the arguments in favor of a drastic reduction in quotas or a moratorium altogether are compelling.
After all, at current rates, those countries are at risk of completely losing their fishing industries as the Tuna and other Fishes will eventually become commercially extinct. Most fisheries officials understand that - but whereas wealthier countries can afford to pay off the fishermen and to set in place an effective enforcement regimen, trying to implement the necessary measures in lesser developed countries is extremely difficult.

Other, more effective and pragmatic and at the same time, less vocal NGOs like SOSF, SF, the Pew or the incredibly impressive IUCN have recognized this and quietly pursue local and regional agendas yielding long-term sustainable results, some of which spectacular. No instant gratification here, no grandiose "statements": just a lot of persistent, difficult and tedious work which is conducted for the sake of the cause and not with personal aggrandizement in mind.
This, I believe, is the way to go - no need to re-invent the wheel.

But back to the principal topic of this post.
Guys, please, spare us the "statements" and the pouting!
Coming from you, the losers, they are frankly embarrassing.

The idea of jetting to Doha, making some noise and then coming back for a victory lap has sorely backfired. Veni vidi should be followed by vici - defui is just not good enough, sorry.
Show some humility. Be accountable.
Maybe, then, you will regain some credibility.

(down off soap box)

PS: Wolfgang has weighed in here - much too kind as usual, thank you!
PS2: another must-read by Mark Harding here!
PS3: SouthernFriedScience's take here.

Conservation Fail - three

The Porbeagle decision has been overturned.

This means that not a single one of the proposed Marine species has been granted protected status: not the Northern Bluefin, not the eight species of Sharks, not the 31 species of red and pink Coral.

More later.

Lynch Mob at the Gate!

For crying out loud!

Two weeks, ago, i blogged about a guy who wanted to start a new Shark viewing operation in Hawaii. It looked like a great undertaking and I wanted to congratulate him and wish him the best of luck for the future.
Yes as usual, some people were against it, but I thought that it wouldn't really be difficult to overcome their opposition. After all, Hawaii already had two highly popular and successful businesses operating in exactly the same way that were contributing to Tourism whilst furthering science and promoting Shark Conservation.
Piece of cake thinks me.

Boy was I wrong!
Not only was the newcomer forced to abandon his project: but in a sinister re-enactment of the 2002 Florida fiasco, the mob is now turning on the remaining operators in the attempt of having all commercial Shark tours banned statewide - this time apparently even regardless of whether the Sharks are being fed, or not!
Like in Florida, feeding Sharks with the intention of killing them would obviously remain perfectly legal. Fishermen 2, Shark Conservation 0!

I spare you the finger pointing and the advice.
Shark Diver over there has already said all there is to say and I invite you to go read those post, by starting with this one and then following the links. I certainly concur with their take on this total debacle, especially the part about the need for the affected operators to stop playing ostrich. They need to take control of developments via concerted, pro-active and public actions - and I'm not even sure that it's not already too late.

Just Great, isn't it.