UK Cod Collapse due to overfishing and politics

Dr Paul Connelly's criticism follows EU's recommendation that cod fishing halts in Irish Sea and off west Scotland



Paul Brown, Dublin guardian.co.uk, Friday 30 September 2011

Cod stocks in the Irish Sea and the west coast of Scotland have collapsed because of overfishing and politicians' refusal to fix low enough catch quotas, according to a leading fisheries scientist who advises the European commission on fish quotas.

Dr Paul Connolly's comments followed the European commission's decision on Wednesday to recommend for the first time that all fishing cod in the two sea areas is stopped. The commission has previously stopped short of pushing for such draconian measures in such a wide area of sea because of the political difficulty of placing a ban on fishing such a key species.

Connolly, who is the director of Fisheries Science Services at the Marine Institute in Galway, advises the commission on "total allowable catches" and in 2013 is due to take over as president of the International Council for the Exploration of the Seas (ICES), the oldest marine scientific body.

He said: "Continuous over-fishing has led to a collapse in cod in both these areas. The signs have been there for years and scientists have repeatedly warned quotas must be cut but fisheries ministers have time and time again ignored us. We do not know now whether the stocks will recover."

The continuing crisis in the Common Fisheries Policy, where 88% of European stocks are overexploited and 30% in danger of collapse, has led the commission to label its own policy a failure. It has not achieved any of its objectives: to protect stocks, provide a sustainable food source and help fishing communities to be profitable.

The proposed bans were the most drastic measures the commission demanded this week designed to reduce the continued overfishing in many waters controlled by the EU. In all quotas for 53 stocks were reduced.

Maria Damanaki, the commissioner for fisheries, warned that if the EU did not reform the policy and reduce overfishing, only 8% of the 136 fish stocks in EU waters would be at sustainable levels by 2022.

According to ICES two of the biggest fishing nations France and Spain repeatedly failed to provide data on fish landings. This effectively prevented a realistic assessment of how many fish were actually caught and what was the state of the stock.

"The governments concerned say because there is not sufficient scientific evidence available that the stock is going down, then a higher quota should be fixed. Hiding the information is a political ploy to try and get higher quotas," said Connolly.

Aware that this is a problem, the commission has reduced its recommended quotas for some of the major fisheries by up to 25%, to try and force governments to supply scientists with the data.

The commission's decision puts pressure on governments to accept reforms and bring an end to the system where fishing ministers compete to get the best deal for their home industries without considering long-term consequences. As a result, the average quota for catches is fixed 48% higher than scientists advise.

Mike Parks, from the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, based in north-west Scotland, said a "state of anarchy" still exists in parts of the fishing industry where everyone was out for what they could get from a diminishing stock.

Some pictures from The Lost World Premiere...

'Once in a lifetime - rare white whale calf spotted off Australia

An extremely rare white humpback whale calf has been spotted near Australia's Great Barrier Reef in an event witnesses described Thursday as a "once in a lifetime experience".

The white humpback whale calf breaching in Cid Harbour in the Whitsunday Islands

Believed to be just a few weeks old, the baby humpback was seen at Cid Harbour in the famous reef's Whitsunday Islands area by local man Wayne Fewings, who was with his family in a boat when he spotted a whale pod.

"We were just drifting when I noticed the smaller whale in the pod was white. I couldn't believe my eyes, and I just grabbed my camera," Fewings said.

"Then the white calf approached my boat, seeming to want to check us out. I was just so amazed at seeing this animal, it made me think how truly astounding the Great Barrier Reef is," he added of the sighting on Saturday.

"I feel very lucky to have witnessed this, it's a once in a lifetime experience."

Reef official Mark Read said white whales were highly unusual, with only 10-15 believed to exist among the 10,000-15,000 humpbacks living along Australia's east coast, and purely white ones – like the calf spotted on Saturday – rarer still.

Its parents could both have been dark humpbacks carrying the recessive white whale gene, but Read said one or either may also have been white themselves, raising speculation it was the offspring of famous white humpback Migaloo.

Migaloo – the name is an Aboriginal word meaning "whitefella" – is the world's best-known all-white humpback and has built up a loyal following in Australia since first being sighted in 1991.

Humpback whales are currently on their southern migration and Mr Read said the baby white would be feeding heavily from its mother as it laid down fat stores for the "cold Antarctic waters."

Its sex was unknown and Read said there were no plans to bestow the young mammal with a name of its own.

"We'd be pretty comfortable for him or her just to simply remain anonymous and just live out its life in relative peace and harmony," Read said.

Australia's east coast humpback population has been brought back from the brink of extinction following the halting of whaling in the early 1960s, he added, describing it as a "conservation success story."

Article first appeared on The Daily Telegraph's website on Thursday 29th September

The High Price of Gold

By Tom Phillips, The Guardian.

Elton Thompson was out drinking when he was bludgeoned to death by a miner called Frank. He was 14. Arturo Balcazar was a shopkeeper. He was gunned down on a riverboat as his wife looked on. Alan Welch was 54. He was clubbed to death with tree trunks and branches after being accused of theft.


Three men, three murders but apparently one common cause: the global economic crisis that has sent gold prices through the roof and aggravated an already cut-throat scramble for gold in the South American Amazon.

Across the Amazon all-time record gold prices, which are the result of investors seeking a safe haven from the US and European economic slump, are reportedly adding fuel to a chaotic jungle gold rush. This has brought violence, disease and conflict to the mineral-rich rainforests of Brazil, Guyana, Peru, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela.

"There is a direct correlation between the price of gold and what we have to deal with these days," David Ramnarine, a Guyanan police commander, told the Demerara Waves news website after a string of gold-related killings in his country, including those of Thompson, Balcazar and Welch.

Guyana's top police official, Henry Greene, also linked the ballooning price of gold to an upsurge in killings and lynchings in remote mining camps where prostitution, gun-slinging and drug abuse is also rife. "It is all related and has a lot to do with the price. A lot more people than normal are going to the interior as there is a lot of money in gold right now," he told the Caribbean Life website.

A front-page story in Guyana's Kaieteur News last month warned of chaos in the country's "deadly gold bush" – the same region where British explorer Walter Raleigh unsuccessfully sought a mythical city of gold in the late 16th century.

"A toxic mix of gold, greed and alcohol has resulted in a spate of brutal murders in the interior," the newspaper reported, cataloguing killings involving miners, jewellers and shopkeepers working at the gold mines.

Over the border in the Brazilian Amazon, indigenous communities are also increasingly alarmed at the presence of wildcat miners on their lands.

Nearly two decades after 2,000 Yanomami Indians lost their lives during the last big gold rush, indigenous leaders in Brazil's Roraima state fear history may be repeating itself.

More and more impoverished miners are pouring on to their lands in search of gold, leaving a trail of environmental and human destruction.

"I'm worried – my people are suffering," said Dário Vitório Kopenawa Yanomami, health co-ordinator for the tribe's Hutukara association, who believes there could now be as many as 2,000 illegal miners operating inside the Yanomami reserve.

"The miners are hiring planes to come into the reserve. Their entry is constant," he said. "It is dangerous to go where they are. They are all armed.

"If we go near them they will kill us. We are getting information that the invaders are getting close to our lands. The Yanomami are asking for support," he added.

In an interview last month, Dario's father, Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, the Yanomami's best-known leader, warned: "Every day an average of six unauthorised flights take off for the Yanomami reserve. Shops are selling lots of equipment for mining. Illegal runways have been reopened."

At 2,000, the number of illegal miners currently operating in the reserve would still be a fraction of the estimated 40,000 that brought death and destruction during the 1980s and 1990s.

But activists fear the price of gold, which has been as much as 40% higher than last year, is luring more adventurers, who are reactivating illegal airstrips on Yanomami land in order to ferry miners in and out of the region's goldmines.

Last month the Folha da Boa Vista newspaper, from Roraima's state capital, reported that on "Gold Street", a dusty city centre mining hub where much of the illegal gold is sold, prices have risen from 48 Brazilian reais (£16.80) a gram two years ago to as much as 96 reais now.

"The high price of gold is increasing the thirst for mineral reserves in our indigenous territories," said Janete Capiberibe, an Amazon MP who is petitioning police and indigenous officials in Brasilia on the Yanomami's behalf. She hopes to set up a public hearing to discuss the impact of the gold rush on them and other Amazon tribes.

Capiberibe warned that as well as violence and illness, contact between indigenous people and miners could lead to "alcoholism and prostitution – a change in behaviour that profoundly damages the indigenous culture".

In neighbouring countries the effects of the surge in gold prices are also being felt. Colombia's president Juan Manuel Santos has claimed that members of leftist guerrilla group Farc are turning their attentions to gold mining, as a result of a government offensive against its cocaine production operations. The rising price of gold means mining has become a lucrative and alternative source of revenue for the group.

Meanwhile, a recent study by academics from Duke University in North Carolina found that between 2003 and 2009 mining-related deforestation rose six-fold in Peru's Madre de Dios region. This area is home to perhaps the biggest single gold rush in South America.

The study, which linked the growing destruction to rising gold prices, said native forests and wetlands were being transformed into a "vast wasteland of ponds".

In mid-August, the price of gold approached a record high of $1,830 an ounce, amid speculation that it could reach $2,000 by the end of the year.

In Guyana the killing went on. Daniel Higgins, 48, and his 22-year-old son were reportedly shot and hacked to death before being buried in a mining pit by an excavator.

Their murders were recorded in the latest gory dispatch from the Kaieteur News: "The motive seems to be greed," the story suggested. "The high price of gold has made tempers short."

Rare Giant Armadillo Photographed

Source: BBC Nature

A rare giant armadillo has been caught on camera by researchers in the wetlands of central Brazil. Little is known about the mysterious mammals, which can reach 1.5m in length and weigh up to 50kg.

In the past, the species' nocturnal, solitary lifestyles have posed a considerable challenge for scientists wishing to study them.Conservationists now hope to learn more about the vulnerable animals using automatic camera traps.

At up to twice the size of more familiar species, giant armadillos (Priodontes maximus) are known to live in undisturbed forest near to water sources in South America. But the species have a patchy distribution and spend their days in underground burrows making confirmed sightings rare.

Researchers from the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) spent 10 weeks intensively searching for the elusive mammals in a region of the Pantanal, one of the world's largest wetlands spanning Brazil, Bolivia and Paraguay.Using cameras provided by Chester Zoo, the team were able to capture rare photographs of the animals.

"The cameras will offer critical pieces of information for the assessment of the status of giant armadillo populations in Brazil," said Dr Arnaud Desbiez, a conservation biologist from RZSS who runs the Giant Armadillo Project.

Cameras captured burrowing behaviour "They will help us to acquire a better understanding of the natural history of the species and perhaps understand the ecological reasons why giant armadillos are so rare."

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the mammals as Vulnerable, with threats from hunting and habitat destruction causing population declines.

The tourism issue on Roraima...

This short clip intends to show the volume of tourists that trek to Mount Roraima. At present the tourist number is manageable but in future could struggle if the sustainable infrastructure measures aren't implemented in the near future.

The video was taken in April 2011, when Ibex Earth led an expedition to Roraima in a bid to raise money to promote sustainable tourism in the region.

Arctic Ice hits second lowest level...

Arctic ice hits second-lowest level, US scientists say. The minimum level of cover is far below the average of 1979-2000 Continue reading the main story Sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2011 has passed its annual minimum, reaching the second-lowest level since satellite records began, US scientists say.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says the minimum, reached on 9 September, was 4.33 million sq km. That value is 36% lower than the average minimum for 1979-2000.

NSIDC said the figure was preliminary, and that "changing winds could still push the ice extent lower" before final numbers are published in early October. The preliminary value is 160,000 sq km - or 4% - above the record minimum seen in 2007.

"While the record low year of 2007 was marked by a combination of weather conditions that favoured ice loss - including clearer skies, favourable wind patterns and warm temperatures - this year has shown more typical weather patterns but continued warmth over the Arctic," they wrote.

"This supports the idea that the Arctic sea ice cover is continuing to thin."

NSIDC director Mark Serreze said: "Every summer that we see a very low ice extent in September sets us up for a similar situation the following year.

"The Arctic sea ice cover is so thin now compared to 30 years ago that it just can't take a hit any more. This overall pattern of thinning ice in the Arctic in recent decades is really starting to catch up with us."

In fact, an analysis released last week by researchers at the University of Bremen in Germany, who use a different satellite to assess ice cover, indicated that 2011's minimum was the lowest on record.

However, there is some controversy surrounding the result; the Bremen team's higher-resolution data can detect small patches of water where the NSIDC team would not, but the Bremen record goes back only to 2003.

These analyses are for the extent, or area, of Arctic ice, but recent estimates released by the University of Washington's Polar Science Center give an indication of the total amount of sea ice. Their data indicate that the ice volume is at an all-time low for the second year in a row.

Analyses of Arctic ice in recent years consistently indicate a change in the nature of the ice itself - from one solid mass that melts and freezes at its edges towards more dispersed, piecemeal ice cover, and from robust "multi-year" ice toward seasonal floes that melt more easily.

Kepler telescope finds planet orbiting two suns...

A planet orbiting two suns - the first confirmed alien world of its kind - has been found by Nasa's Kepler telescope, the US space agency announced.

Artists Impression

It may resemble the planet Tatooine from the film Star Wars, but scientists say Luke Skywalker, or anyone at all, is unlikely to be living there.

Named Kepler-16b, it is thought to be an uninhabitable cold gas giant, like Saturn.

The newly detected body lies some 200 light years from Earth.

Though there have been hints in the past that planets circling double stars might exist, scientists say this is the first confirmation.It means when the day ends on Kepler-16b, there is a double sunset, they say.

Kepler-16b's two suns are smaller than ours - at 69% and 20% of the mass of our sun - making the surface temperature an estimated -100 to -150F (-73 to -101C).

The planet orbits its two suns every 229 days at a distance of 65m miles (104m km) - about the same solar orbit as Venus. The Kepler telescope, launched in 2009, is designed to scour our section of the Milky Way galaxy for Earth-like planets.

"This is really a stunning measurement by Kepler," said Alan Boss of the Carnegie Institution for Science, a co-author of the study.

"The real exciting thing is there's a planet sitting out there orbiting around these two stars."

Kepler finds stars whose light is regularly dimmed, which means there is an orbited planet between the star and the telescope. Nasa's scientists saw additional dips in the light in both stars at alternating but regular times, confirming the dual orbit of the planet.

The finding was reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

Al Gore - 24 Hours of Reality...

Al Gore's latest initiative - what do people think? Will you be joining him for 24 hours of reality on September 14th?

Island species 'sliding towards extinction'

Large numbers of species on islands throughout the UK Overseas Territories are “sliding towards extinction”, campaigners have warned.

Conservationists say the number of “wonderful” and “fascinating” species disappearing from the islands is “truly frightening”.

They say that the species have evolved in “splendid isolation” on the 14 island groups that form the UK Overseas Territories and are “found nowhere else on the planet”.

Figures from the RSPB show that northern rockhoppers penguins are disappearing from Tristan da Cunha, and Gough Island, in the South Atlantic Ocean at the rate of 100 a day.

Meanwhile, more than 25,000 petrel chicks on Henderson Island, in the Pitcairn Islands, are eaten alive every year.

But local conservationist have already ensured the survival of the Bermuda petrel by successfully translocating 75 chicks onto Nonsuch Island.

In other cases the Cobb's wren has been helped by clearing introduced “predators” on more than 20 of the Falkland Islands.

Establishing the Centre Hills National Park on Montserrat has “given one of the largest frogs in the world, a lizard and an endemic orchid a future”.

The RSPB said that it was possible to address problems with more funds and support.

“There simply won't be a future for many of these species unless we act fast,” a spokesman said.

The charity is calling for donations to help its cause.

Video of the one tonne crocodile...

We've Tweeted and Facebooked this story but watching the video shows exactly how big a one tonne crocodile gets to be! This particular croc was captured in a remote village in the Philippines after it had been attacking humans and livestock. Not sure we would have got that close to it...

Special Guest - Liz Bonnin

Ibex Earth is delighted to announce that the BBC's Liz Bonnin will be attending the Premiere of 'The Lost World', which takes place at the Royal Geographical Society on Tuesday 13th September 2011. If you would like to attend the evening then tickets for the screening are available for a special discount price of just £6.00 from www.lostworldspecial.eventbrite.com - hurry its selling out fast!

Earth Periodical visit The Lost World Project

Might have put this up previously but we think that the lads over at Boto Media did such a good job with a short overview of The Lost World Project that we would put it up again for your viewing pleasure.

'Hidden' hawksbill turtles foun

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC Nature

The findings could help explain why the species has gone undetected in the region for so long

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Turtle tracking
• Turtles breathe in for buoyancy
• Global decline in mangrove forest

Scientists have found hawksbill turtles "hiding" in mangrove forests of the eastern Pacific.

The team, that has been tracking the turtles for three years, also found that the critically endangered animals nested in these estuaries.

The discovery of this previously unknown sea turtle habitat was published recently in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

It could explain why the species went undetected in the region for so long.

Mangrove forests, which are unique coastal tree and shrub habitats, are also under threat. They could represent an important breeding and nesting site for the species, which was thought to depend on coral reefs.

The researchers have been tracking the turtles for three years

Alexander Gaos, a conservation scientist with San Diego State University and the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative, led the research.

He and his colleagues tracked hawksbills in four countries - El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Ecuador - using satellite tracking tags glued to the turtles' backs.

These trackers revealed that adult hawksbill turtles in the eastern Pacific inhabited in-shore mangrove estuaries.

"For upwards of five decades sea turtle scientists thought hawksbills had [disappeared from] the eastern Pacific Ocean", Dr Gaos told BBC Nature.

"Despite hundreds of sea turtle projects and scientists focusing efforts in the region, no one had located hawksbills.

Our findings help explain this… it's hard to spot hawksbills in mangrove estuaries."

Dr Gaos said that the turtles might be spending their entire lives in these "cryptic habitats".

"Couple that with the fact that there are very few individuals left - hawksbills in the eastern Pacific are one of the world's most endangered sea turtle populations - and it's no wonder researchers didn't know about them!"

The scientists worked with local fishermen and even illegal egg collectors, in order to find hawksbill turtles to fit their tags to.

They hope their revelations about the species' habitat will inform conservation efforts.

Why the turtles were "seeking shelter" in mangroves was not clear.

The scientists think it might be a recent adaptation brought on by a lack of their more typical habitat of coral reefs in the region.

Dr Gaos said: " We now have a better idea of where to look for them, which may help us direct research and conservation of the species, upon which their survival may ultimately depend.

By Victoria Gill, BBC Nature

'Hidden' hawksbill turtles found

By Victoria GillScience reporter, BBC Nature

The findings could help explain why the species has gone undetected in the region for so long

Continue reading the main story

Related Stories

• Turtle tracking
• Turtles breathe in for buoyancy
• Global decline in mangrove forest

Scientists have found hawksbill turtles "hiding" in mangrove forests of the eastern Pacific.

The team, that has been tracking the turtles for three years, also found that the critically endangered animals nested in these estuaries.

The discovery of this previously unknown sea turtle habitat was published recently in the Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

It could explain why the species went undetected in the region for so long.

Mangrove forests, which are unique coastal tree and shrub habitats, are also under threat. They could represent an important breeding and nesting site for the species, which was thought to depend on coral reefs.

The researchers have been tracking the turtles for three years

Alexander Gaos, a conservation scientist with San Diego State University and the Eastern Pacific Hawksbill Initiative, led the research.

He and his colleagues tracked hawksbills in four countries - El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Ecuador - using satellite tracking tags glued to the turtles' backs.

These trackers revealed that adult hawksbill turtles in the eastern Pacific inhabited in-shore mangrove estuaries.

"For upwards of five decades sea turtle scientists thought hawksbills had [disappeared from] the eastern Pacific Ocean", Dr Gaos told BBC Nature.

"Despite hundreds of sea turtle projects and scientists focusing efforts in the region, no one had located hawksbills.

Our findings help explain this… it's hard to spot hawksbills in mangrove estuaries."

Dr Gaos said that the turtles might be spending their entire lives in these "cryptic habitats".

"Couple that with the fact that there are very few individuals left - hawksbills in the eastern Pacific are one of the world's most endangered sea turtle populations - and it's no wonder researchers didn't know about them!"

The scientists worked with local fishermen and even illegal egg collectors, in order to find hawksbill turtles to fit their tags to.

They hope their revelations about the species' habitat will inform conservation efforts.

Why the turtles were "seeking shelter" in mangroves was not clear.

The scientists think it might be a recent adaptation brought on by a lack of their more typical habitat of coral reefs in the region.

Dr Gaos said: " We now have a better idea of where to look for them, which may help us direct research and conservation of the species, upon which their survival may ultimately depend.

Celebrity Guest Announcement...

Ibex Earth is delighted to announce that the star of 'Alone Among Grizzlies' - Richard Terry - will be attending the Premiere of The Lost World at the Royal Geographical Society on Tuesday 13th September 2011. To book a VIP ticket to meet Richard please visit www.lostworldvip.eventbrite.com

The First Expedition - August/September 2010.