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Extinction threats grow as sea governance rules ignored
March 03, 2005Those who rule the ocean waves are being named and shamed today for their role in failing to prevent the near extinction of the albatross.
Populations of dolphins, sharks and turtles have also plummeted, partly because many of the 19 Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) governing the world's seas, are ignoring international laws requiring action to safeguard marine wildlife and tackle pirate fishing.
More than 300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses, and thousands of marine mammals and turtles are killed by legal and illegal longline fishing fleets every year, and many RFMOs are turning a blind eye.
Dr Cleo Small, International Marine Policy Officer for BirdLife International said: "These organisations are legally bound and morally obliged to ensure the fisheries they govern to reduce this wildlife toll."
In the first review of the environmental performance of these organisations, published today by BirdLife International, the organisations are measured against their duties, as required by international law.
The study, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations; Their Duties and Performance in Reducing Incidental Mortality of Albatrosses, shows that of the five RFMOs whose areas overlap most with albatross distribution, three are doing little or nothing to reduce the slaughter of seabirds, sharks and turtles in their fisheries, while many fish stocks have declined by more than 90 per cent.
Just one, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which governs the Southern Ocean, is taking the action to tackle bycatch, required by the 1994 Law of the Sea.
"But they are only as strong as the political will of the countries making them up," Dr Small said. "Maximising fish catches for export is still the top priority for many of those countries, leaving fish stocks and other marine species decimated with dire consequences for marine ecosystems and local fishing communities."
The BirdLife report will be presented to delegates at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation's five-day meeting in Rome starting today, and at meetings of individual RFMOs over the next 12 months.
Dr Small said: "CCAMLR has shown what can be achieved by RFMOs. If other fisheries' organisations did the same, threats to albatrosses and other marine life would be significantly reduced, pirate fishing eliminated and fish stocks sustainably managed. These organisations are the key to saving albatrosses and ensuring sound stewardship of the high seas for future generations."
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Dr Cleo Small, International Marine Policy Officer for BirdLife International said: "These organisations are legally bound and morally obliged to ensure the fisheries they govern to reduce this wildlife toll."
In the first review of the environmental performance of these organisations, published today by BirdLife International, the organisations are measured against their duties, as required by international law.
The study, Regional Fisheries Management Organisations; Their Duties and Performance in Reducing Incidental Mortality of Albatrosses, shows that of the five RFMOs whose areas overlap most with albatross distribution, three are doing little or nothing to reduce the slaughter of seabirds, sharks and turtles in their fisheries, while many fish stocks have declined by more than 90 per cent.
Just one, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), which governs the Southern Ocean, is taking the action to tackle bycatch, required by the 1994 Law of the Sea.
"But they are only as strong as the political will of the countries making them up," Dr Small said. "Maximising fish catches for export is still the top priority for many of those countries, leaving fish stocks and other marine species decimated with dire consequences for marine ecosystems and local fishing communities."
The BirdLife report will be presented to delegates at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation's five-day meeting in Rome starting today, and at meetings of individual RFMOs over the next 12 months.
Dr Small said: "CCAMLR has shown what can be achieved by RFMOs. If other fisheries' organisations did the same, threats to albatrosses and other marine life would be significantly reduced, pirate fishing eliminated and fish stocks sustainably managed. These organisations are the key to saving albatrosses and ensuring sound stewardship of the high seas for future generations."
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Extinction Current Events and Extinction News RSSGlobal warming link to amphibian declines in doubt
Evidence that global warming is causing the worldwide declines of amphibians may not be as conclusive as previously thought, according to biologists. The findings, which contradict two widely held views, could help reveal what is killing the frogs and toads and aid in their conservation.
Death by hyperdisease
It took less than a decade for native rats to become extinct on the Indian Ocean's previously uninhabited Christmas Island once Eurasian black rats jumped ship onto the island at the turn of the 20th century.
Effects of climate change vary greatly across plant families
Drawing on records dating back to the journals of Henry David Thoreau, scientists at Harvard University have found that different plant families near Walden Pond have borne the effects of climate change in strikingly different ways.
Current mass extinction spurs major study of which plants to save
The Earth is in the midst of the sixth mass extinction of both plants and animals, with nearly 50 percent of all species disappearing, scientists say.
Running on rocket fuel
In the world of "cut and thrust," humans try to bank money to obtain financial security, and often form cooperatives to reduce risks and increase gains.
New hope for the red squirrel
A number of red squirrels are immune to squirrelpox viral disease, which many believed would lead to the extinction of the species, scientists have discovered.
UGA study reveals ecosystem-level consequences of frog extinctions
Streams that once sang with the croaks, chirps and ribbits of dozens of frog species have gone silent. They're victims of a fungus that's decimating amphibian populations worldwide.
Global warming threatens Australia's iconic kangaroos
As concerns about the effects of global warming continue to mount, a new study published in the December issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology finds that an increase in average temperature of only two degrees Celsius could have a devastating effect on populations of Australia's iconic kangaroos.
Warming in Yosemite National Park sends small mammals packing to higher, cooler elevations
Global warming is causing major shifts in the range of small mammals in Yosemite National Park, one of the nation's treasures that was set aside as a public trust 144 years ago, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, biologists.
Smithsonian perspective: Biodiversity in a warmer world
Will climate change exceed life's ability to respond? Biodiversity in a Warmer World, published in the Oct. 10, 2008 issue of the journal, Science, illustrates that cross-disciplinary research fostered by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama clearly informs this urgent debate.
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