On Monday, June 6th, the new report Striplining the Pacific: The Case for A United Nations Moratorium on High Seas Industrial Longline Fishing will be released at the United Nations Law of the Sea meeting June 6-10th. The new book length report echoes the sentiment of Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin’s call on May 1st to end the “pillage” and “rape” of the ocean at an international fisheries conference this week.
Hear STRP’s Robert Ovetz NPR provides a critical report on the new circle hooks that are being used to justify removing protections for sea turtles from dangerous longline fishing.
Come and join Turtle Island Restoration Network in a series of film screening during Earth Week 2005. Below is a listing of the events: Friday, April 22nd at 7:30 PM-…
At least 250 sea turtle fans gathered at Galveston’s first Sea Turtle Saturday, April 9, and spoke up for a marine reserve in state waters at the Padre Island National Seashore, support for the sea turtle program at the NOAA facility in Galveston and against longline fishing which is killing millions of sea birds, marine mammals, fish and leatherback sea turtles in the world’s oceans.
Galveston celebrates sea turtles! The Mayor of Galveston and the City Council have proclaimed Saturday, April 9, as Sea Turtle Saturday when an educational day is set at Texas A&M…
(Forest Knolls, CA)—The United Nations Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Synthesis
Report released today calls capture fisheries “unsustainable” and calls for the expansion in Marine Protected Areas with flexible no-take zones that contribute to the economy. These conclusions echo the efforts of 3 nations, more than 800 scientists from 83 countries and 230 non-governmental organizations from 54 countries calling on the UN to implement a moratorium on industrial longline fishing in the Pacific and implement a network of high seas MPAs to protect both fish stocks and species endangered by longlines.
(Forest Knolls, CA)—Three countries successfully raised the industrial longline fishing problem as a key concern for the June meeting of the United Nation Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Costa Rica, Croatia and Sweden joined more than 800 scientists from 83 countries and 230 environmental organizations from 54 countries at a recent planning meeting of UNCLOS in calling for the UN to prevent the extinction of two sea turtle and one albatross seabird species. Proposed solutions include a moratorium on longlining and a network of high seas Marine Protected Areas in the Pacific, which will also benefit poor coastal fishing communities.
Forest Knolls, CA – On the eve of a key United Nations meeting relating to the oceans, a growing number of international scientists and non-governmental organizations are actively lobbying their country delegates to address the problem of industrial longline fishing in the Pacific. The scientists and NGOs are also joined in their efforts by members of the New Zealand, Irish and EU parliaments. The lobbying effort echoes the call of more than 800 international scientists and 230 NGOs who are also asking for a moratorium on industrial longline fishing in order to protect endangered leatherback sea turtles, albatross, sharks and other species caught and killed as bycatch by industrial longliners.
An Investigation of the Economic, Cultural and Social Costs of Industrial Longline Fishing in the Pacific
(Forest Knolls, CA)-—A new report, “The Bottom Line: Saving Sea Turtles is Good for the Economy,” published by the Sea Turtle Restoration Project has found that industrial longline fishing in the Pacific not only causes extensive damage to the marine ecosystem but has pervasive negative cultural, economic and social consequences for coastal fishing and fish consuming communities. Implementing a moratorium on industrial longlining and creating a network of Marine Protected Areas on the high seas of the Pacific would be a boon to local coastal economies.
Forest Knolls, California—New proposed guidelines issued last December by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to address the plight of critically endangered Pacific leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles is set for a vote March 7-11. Specifically, the guidelines recommend that fisheries posing the greatest threats should be subjected to “temporary and spatially-limited controls.” The recommendation to limit fishing in certain areas is welcomed by environmentalists who urge the UN to specifically identify and take action on some of the hot spots of turtle-fishing interaction.
