MyFavouritePlaces.org

Planktos Science tossing plankton about (senselessly)

Climate, Energy

Our favourite ocean / world saving investment opportunity saviour has been born again! Planktos, which was discussed before, has rechristened itself as Planktos Science. Way better of course, as now it really relays the joke to us.. it's a joke right? Please?

Russ George, founder as well as president of Planktos Science (-International?) deemed me worthy of a spam mail. Thanks Russ! Unfortunately Russ seems to be as shoddy a writer as myself (as CEO of Planktos Science International he should get himself a copywriter), and therefore I won't bother you with the complete letter. Instead some excerpts to give an idea:

• 
  If you are a religious person you might liken what we need to do as seeking absolution for our sins of emission by our acts of contrition and ecorestoration, otherwise the path to perdition is that of dissolution of those sins into dying oceans.
• 
  So as our reef beauties cry out and dissolve like Dorothy's wicked witch in our acidifying oceans, the acidification will certainly continue for at least another century unabated even if we never emit another molecule of fossil CO2 into the air. At the same time as the oceans suffer this chemical shock treatment, like those we give our swimming pools, they will continue as well to lose their photosynthetic capacity to counter this onslaught.
• 
  So where is there a source of emission free terrawatts of curative power we can devote to saving the oceans and help restore the balance of Nature? It is of course ONLY available from photosynthesis and therein lies the course we must chart to restore our oceans as we must surely not simply imagine the damage we've prescribed can simply be ignored and start from the present mortally wounded state. No mere conservation ethic or effort will suffice, we are far to far over the tipping point for that to work.

Eat your heart out Charles Dickens!

(Jenna seems to have a nice time though.)

Mapping extinct marine animals

Weird and Funny

I'm putting together a Google Earth layer of marine animals gone extinct.

As of now I've set up the basic thing and added seven thirteen (yes I made an update) animals (Steller's Sea Cow, Great Auk, Caribbean Monk Seal, Japanese Sea Lion, Labrador Duck, Tasman Booby, Yangtze River Dolphin, Pallas's Cormorant, Guadalupe Storm-petrel, Small St Helena Petrel, Eelgrass limpet, New Zealand grayling, and the large St Helena Petrel). Feel free to have a look. Google Earth will automatically load the latest version if you go to Extinct_Marine_Animals.kmz.

Some of the ones still to add are the St. Helena Petrel (two species apparently), Pallas's Cormorant and the Guadalupe Storm-petrel. The layer includes all extinct species mentioned in the IUCN Red List. I'm sure there's more to find though. Some fish maybe?

So. I'm calling on you dear reader: Extinct animals please! Extinction between 1900 and now would be grand,.. for doability sake let's say from 1500 till today. The idea is not to get a huge list but rather to get a list of interesting animals; if we already have 21324234 species of seal the next one is not that interesting, but a Cladocera (water flea) gone the way of the dodo by human causes certainly is. Ideally we end up end with something people can toy around with & accidentally learn some interesting facts from.

(ps. I first filed this under "conservation" but removed that tag as apart from dusting the occasional stuffed specimen there isn't much to conserve here)

Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki

Law and Legislation

The second post today. Just want to point your attention to the plight of Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki. These two Japanese men are being held without charge by the Japanese government. The full story can be found elsewhere, but basically they made the mistake of exposing clear evidence of wide-scale corruption at the heart of the Japanese Southern Ocean "scientific whaling programme".

Instead of going for the real culprits the public prosecutor decided to publicly criminalize the messengers. A very unwelcome & nasty thing to do in a democracy.

EU to actively ban IUU vessels

Fisheries, Law and Legislation

An interesting article appeared on the overfishing.org news aggregator. It discusses how Tuesday European Union ministers agreed to tighten inspections on illegal fishing in EU waters and impose "stiff" fines on lawbreakers. Starting in 2010 EU vessels or any non-EU vessel (third countries) trying to land a catch at an EU port will be hit with a maximum fine of five times the market value of the catch. For a repeat offence, that fine is set at eight times the value. This is irrespective of where they carry out their fishing.

It's to be seen if this works as a deterrent. The fines are not that high while potential profits are sky-high. More effort put into regulating and inspections never hurts though. But I hope it won't become a "bluewash" excuse for not putting in place better management systems and quotas based on scientific recommendations.

The Reuters article can be found on theInternational Herald Tribune website.

Two simple graphs featuring blue marbles

Marine Reserves, Sustainability

Here are two graphs I put together in early 2007. Not much has changed.

Percentage of the world's oceans designated as a protected area of some sort. Included are Marine Protected Areas and Marine Reserves (see definition in graph).

Population growth and the number of square kilometres of ocean available to every individual on Earth.

Info from both graphs should be taken as an indicator (especially the first graph) and should, of course, be used in proper context... Posted per request by the lovely Dalia, hope they're useful :)

Yup, I officially lost all hope

Fisheries, Law and Legislation

Mediterranean Bluefin tuna will be extinct in a decade. It's undeniable. Populations still around will be hunted for as if made of solid gold with diamonds on top.

Today's reactions on the closure of the fisheries for the remainder of 2008 are the main reason for my negativity. This closure is nothing extraordinary, it's what happens every year after the previously agreed quotas have been filled. These quotas have been agreed on by the various governments involved after the fisheries scientists have given their direct-to-trash opinion (e.g. quotas need to be minimal in order to have any Bluefin tuna at all in a decade's time. A statement always overruled by political games).

So today the quotas were "declared" full, every country got its generous share and should be full of shame of themselves already for helping the Northern Bluefin tuna closer to extinction. The commission made a statement which comes down to boats from Greece, France, Italy, Cyprus and Malta being banned from fishing bluefin tuna from June 16 while purse seiners from Spain will not be able to cast their nets from June 23. They stated "The closure of the purse seine fishery is necessary to protect this fragile resource, and ensure the recovery of the stock". It might be worthwhile here to mention the countries involved hugely and intentionally overfished their quotas in 2007.

This is of course a glorious day for fishermen, it means that over the past months they managed to land about 550 tonnes a day. Good money. Governments should be happy as well; with the ever increasing fuel prices it's a good thing the planned catch is already in and fuel subsidies aren't needed. Saves money, huh?

But no. Contrary to all agreements, future state of my bloody planet and surely without caring about the ethics in this the French and Italian fisheries ministers went in full force, feet first.

Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia
"I don't agree with this decision because it is unjustified and because it fails to take full account of the economic and social impact it will have on a sector that is already in crisis". Pardon me? Unjustified? Has Mark Kurlansky's "Cod -The Fish that Changed the World" been translated to English? In that case I'll buy a copy for Mr. Zaia. It might be interesting for him to read the economic and social effects a fully depleted fish source has..

French Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier
"I deplore this decision, made without having taken account of technical factors and catch figures", and he asked for "the urgent organisation of a meeting of experts from the EU executive commission to provide useful data on bluefin tuna catches by purse seiners in the countries concerned". No account taken of technical factors like, just fantasizing, the actual state of the stocks? Kinda like the way the original quota was set? Basically he's looking for a loophole to fish as much as he wants completely in contrary to prior agreements. Right Mr. Barnier?

After these comments and actions I simply don't believe chance will come fast enough. Governments are working against it with impressive effort. Quotas for the next five years will be set way to high again. IUU fishing will keep taking it's chunk as well, and when all is over the Mediterranean fisheries ministers will just subsidize some more helicopters in order to find that highly priced last Mediterranean Bluefin Tuna.

Bastards.

lol oshunz conservashun~! I iz a mighty sea lion!

Guestposters, Weird and Funny

Lolzzz!

Eight days ago I posted an image of my cat Periko. This was picked up by Mr. Blogfish himself. He dared anyone to "beat this one". And so it began...

In this post I've collected the lol-oshunz-conservashun images created up to now. Some All are absolutely awesome, making me laugh out loud (and causing my cat to look at me like, well,. like in the image below). Don't forget to check out the websites these awesome lolzimage creatzorss opzirat from! (read the full article)

European Union buildings violently attacked by radical members of the environmental movement

Conservation, Fisheries, Oil and Gas, Sustainability

This would be the headline if Greenpeace, WWF or the Environmental Investigating Agency staged violent riots in Brussels. Truth is that these NGOs have not been doing so. Fishermen however have. And the media doesn't seem to be too snappy on getting that new image of the modern fisherman out, with for example Agency France Press using the extremely neutral "European fishermen protest in Brussels" to illustrate an article on rioting. Lately we've seen a growing tension among European fishermen. The aggressive protests of today (resulting in a fair bit of property damage) are just the latest examples of what seems to be a trend towards confrontational actions.

Fishermen protesting in Brussels. June 2007. Photos by AP, AFP, Reuters

The main argument of the fishermen is that current fuel prices are the basis of their problems. And there's no denial: if they want to keep running business as usual the price of fuel is a problem for many. However, I strongly believe that after opportunistically ignoring all economic and environmental alarms bells for decades this should not be a reason for our governments to simply give -as subsidy, tax incentives or whatever- them money incentives. Mainly because it will just fast-forward the problem. Fast-forwarding so the next generation of politicians can deal with an even bigger problem... The real problem is not today's high fuel prices. The main problem is an outdated industry model.

Overcapacity
Like every singly other fleet the European one has a grand overcapacity. With half the ships and fishermen we could catch a similar amount of fish and significantly lower the amount of fuel used. This is not something new at all. Fishermen have know this for years, and everyone who has build a ship in the past decade knew it would be launched in a difficult market. Member states knew this as well, yet still decided to subsidize this shipbuilding. Big shame to opportunistic populist politicians. The burden should be fully with the fishermen themselves though; in private enterprise you should be lucky to get some subsidy, not base your business upon it and ask for even more in poor times after you have profited in good times. And good times the fishing industry has had for decades; even today many fishermen have above average incomes.

Energy intensive fishing methods
North Sea bottom trawling anyone? Using four litres of a oil just to haul one kilo of fish aboard. Over the past years -and after mocking / blocking all attempts before- some fisherman are finally getting the message and have started looking for energy efficient fishing methods / gear. Electric pulse fishing is one of these new methods. North Sea bottom trawling is just one of the examples.

The price of fish
Like everything else fish is a commodity. Yet even though we have TACs and quotas the price of fish all along the supply chain is artificially low. E.g. it does not reflect the real costs. This is something not necessarily caused at the bottom of the supply chain (e.g. the fishermen) but it definitely fuels their problem. And here we arrive at the base of the problem. If fishermen don't even earn enough money to pay their fuel bills their product is obviously worth more than they now get for it at the auctions. Thus they should ask more for their fish from the market, not ask for subsidies paid by the European taxpayer. If no-one wants to give you more it is time to realise your business model is outdated.

While I do feel sorry for any individual who loses his job or part of his income I do welcome Europe's fishermen to the real world; one of true private enterprise. (they used to be proud of this, the only truly free man being a Fisherman..) For decades the industry has been profiting from the huge subsidies and advantages given by member states. In fact much of it still does. In return all they had to do was to provide us with that Fisherman's Friend image of the lonely fisherman out at night, battling the stormy sea. No one ever asked them to actually pay something for the right to gain profit from our common fish resources, to fish in what could in many ways be considered a highly unsustainable free for all, owned by all.

I have no problems with the practise of commercial fishing, mari-culture, seaweed harvesting and whatever else one can think of. In fact I'm eating a spicy stew -slightly overcooked- with Dutch mussels right now. I do however have big problems with the fishing industry in its current state; an industry formed on the basis of a big, bigger, best. An industry highly skilled in ignoring the problems it is facing right up to the moment it starts to affect profits.

Maybe this is the time to start working on some real changes for once? A proper restructuring of the fleets, science based TACs, sustainable stewardship, more control over illegal activities and, eventually, more realistic prices for fish.

i can save seas?

Conservation, Marine Reserves, Sustainability, Weird and Funny

This blog does not have millions of visitors. It could probably be hosted on an old Casio calculator with the calculator having enough computing power left to run a full scale global climate simulation. However. Frankly dear visitor, I don't care that much about the visitor numbers. Sure, it's grand to have your message read. Yet first of all though I'm writing my posts for the small incrowd of regulars who frequent this blog. That said, I do write to be read and every time someone learns something from one of my posts I get a little boost in happiness :)

Yesterdays post on the European Union fishing TACs and quotas turned out to be a fruitful one. Some hours after being published I received an email from Mark, a fisherman (smart guy with lots of education, and an interest in everything fishy) working on the Dutch fleet, and crew member of the first trawler I ever went on. Apparently he has been quietly following my blog for over a year now. Only yesterday he felt the urge to say hello. Why so? Because that EU fisheries documents was new to him. A simple list of who is allowed to catch what and where, that every fisherman knows, but not in its original context with bilateral treaties and all. Now if even people working within the industry, people who actually make an effort to learn, have difficulties getting the big picture it shows that we have a long way to go.

So, i can save seas?!. Yes you can. All what is needed is for you to actually want it and spend some serious time informing yourself. It ain't easy diving into it. While the basics are crystal clear a real understanding takes time and effort.

(the image is showing Periko-Karel, my very own feline)

European Union Fishing TAC and Quotas 2008

Fisheries, Law and Legislation

The best thing of the internet is that important information (legislation, LOLcats, news) is easily accessible directly from the source. It's a privilege. Yet we often forget to use that privilege and satisfy ourselves with second-hand sources; news articles and write-ups from others. It takes an 'aha!' moment to realise that again. I had such a moment this evening when my girlfriend Juliette (who, incidentally, wrote a very interesting dissertation on international law in the Arctic region, which I hope she will put it online) asked the simple question "which european countries have the biggest fishing quotas?". With much regret I had to admit to not knowing the answer right away.

I did, however, have a Firefox bookmark to the European Commission Fisheries page with the TAC (total allowable catches) for all stocks and the quotas (parts of the TAC) given to various member states, the community and third countries. Well wait, no. I did not. It seems the European Union, whom I cherish and love, decided upon overhauling some random parts of its website and thereby rendering the 50-odd bookmarks I carefully crafted useless. At least my tax money kept some starving web designer entertained :-)

Not all is bad though! Our lovely union did something decent as well. Even though their website and human rights activities are not top-notch their info certainly is. After some browsing I arrived at the document I was looking for.

• 
  Council Regulation (EC) No 40/2008 of 16 January 2008
  Fixing for 2008 the fishing opportunities and associated conditions for certain fish stocks and groups of fish stocks, applicable in Community waters and, for Community vessels, in waters where catch limitations are required

That is indeed a mouth full. A surprisingly readable document though, outlining the entire common fisheries policy for 2008. Over 200 pages of text, stats and tables, but in it more information than even a thousand news articles can give. As with all EUR-Lex documents the HTML versions have lost all formatting. The PDFs however are more than readable.

In its aim to create an open flow of information to as many people as possible the commission also commissioned a fancy flash viewer for this data. It's fancy in a useful and pleasant way. Now if only the EU's local webdesign guy can fix the EUR-Lex HTML view and teach the webbies to stop breaking links the world would be a better place.