On Whales and their Usefulness – April 2010
On Whales and their Usefulness (pdf 20 pages 1Mo)
Introduction. Scientists have long thought that animal and vegetal life in the sea was exclusively dependent on solar energy and photosynthesis. After the discovery in 1977 of hydrothermal vents and cold seeps in the deep-sea, they thought that only these geological phenomenons could generate and assemble biological communities based on the association of bacteria transforming sulphur into organic matter and fauna evolving in an obscure yet colourful environment; but ten years later new discoveries have proved that whale carcasses and their skeletons in the aphotic zones of the ocean are also sources of life thanks to the symbiosis between bacteria and many extreme and hyper specialised animal species… Read more.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora about to be reborn as the WTO (World Trade Organization)
The 15th conference of the parties of CITES has just ended in Doha. The porbeagle shark was put back on the table following the intervention of Singapore, which believed that there had been technical problems with the first vote. The debates were evaded by a procedural trick and the proposal passed directly to vote. The proposal was rejected by three votes. Iceland, candidate to join the European Union, and Japan, which will host the Conference for Biodiversity next October, in showing the best intentions in the world, warmly hugged each other in the middle of the conference room to congratulate themselves on this failure of Europe and the protectors of sharks. Associations such as the Japan Fisheries Association quickly left to celebrate the result of intense lobbying. Installed to protect endangered species of wild fauna and flora from the excesses of international trade, CITES has progressively become a convention of the protection of trade. The delegate from Guinea summarized yesterday in plenary an analysis of a lot of the participants: “My comment is very bitter; I notice after having carefully listened to the debates that economic considerations dominate the environmental vision.” Decisions on marine species confirmed that the sea is considered by the international community as a reservoir for food, healing and decoration, but when it is time to protect it, it’s almost deserted, just like around Doha.
