Animals

An array of contradictory propositions is on the table of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Agadir.

The propositions are presumably to help the IWC to abscond the stagnation and the status quo that certain involved parties—NGO’s and member states—have criticized. “The implosion” of the commission is waved year after year as a scarecrow. What if it was the opposite! Outside the convention, Japan could no longer put forward article 8 authorizing hunting for scientific ends and would be clearly the only pirate in the Antarctic or other sanctuaries where their fleet dares to hunt whales.

The 62nd plenary session of the International Whaling Commission will be held in Agadir from June 21st to 25th. The fate of a surrealistic and double-dealing compromise will be decided there, that would confirm for 10 years Japanese, Norwegian and Icelandic whaling, from the Arctic to Antarctica. This document, a hybrid product of dialogue between a few IWC member states, includes target-species such as Fin whales, Minke whales, Humpback whales, Southern Right Whales, Bryde whales, Sei whales and Sperm whales. Of course, the return of hunting will be stamped and certified by the presence of observers aboard the whaling fleets. They will not work for charity. Their official salary is billed to the IWC and contributions made by European member states will grow from 800.000 to 1.500.000 euros per year altogether. Efforts will be made and financed too so as that whales be not exposed during capture and killing to unneeded pain. All is done to ensure the well-being of the whales while they are speared.

Only in French.

To cope with the inertia of the prefect of police of Paris and the mayors of Paris and the Parisian suburbs, Robin des Bois (Robin Hood) informs the urban fishermen that the barbells, roaches, eels, breams, rudds, brills, chubs and the gudgeons who were the subject of a sampling and PCB analysis contain elevated concentrations of these cancerous micro pollutants and endocrinal disrupters.

This information is available on the site pollutions.eaufrance.fr (French only) and merit an attentive reading to which the experts at Robin des Bois are dedicated. The results of this active sampling campaign by the Minister for Ecology confirm the worries of Robin des Bois. In effect, for some years, and notably in its fourth edition of “The Atlas of Inland Sites Polluted by PCB,” published in February 2010, the NGO speaks of the “Parisian miracle,” thanks to which the fish, by swimming in the PCB, could be exempt from its effects.

Only in French.

Only in French.

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.

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.

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.

Only 86 species of fish appear among some 34,000 species listed in Appendices 1 and 2 of CITES. After the bluefin tuna debacle last week, predictions were pessimistic about the fate of the 4 proposals to list sharks in Appendix 2. The porbeagle shark is the only to achieve this protection, which it made by only one vote. CITES doesn’t really have its sea legs. When it comes to addressing international trade in marine species, it delays taking responsibility, and using its toolbox to clean up the market. Japan is opposed to all of the proposals for listing sharks, even reconsidering the principle of control of international trade: “Appendix 2 stimulates the black market and creates a demand for a rare species.”