Greenpeace says John West tuna fish deal with WWF is just green spin

Campaigners say John West owner MW Brand has backtracked on promise to stop using controversial FAD fishing devices

Sarah Butler

The Guardian, Friday 31 October 2014 18.08 GMT

Greenpeace has attacked a tie-up between conservation group WWF and the owner of the John West tuna brand as “green spin”.

Greenpeace said John West’s owner, MW Brand, had backtracked on a public commitment to eliminate the use of controversial fishing methods.

Under a deal with WWF, MW Brand has pledged to source all its products from fisheries and farms certified by the Marine Stewardship Council or the Aquaculture Stewardship Council. It will also push for the elimination of illegal, unregulated or unreported fishing. WWF will assess the group’s supply chain to see how it can be made more sustainable over the next six months. But the deal does not set a time by when MW Brand will ensure its fish is sourced sustainably.

Previously, MW Brand promised Greenpeace that by the end of next year it would stop using a controversial fishing method that can kill sharks, rays and turtles. The purse seine method employs large nets which scoop up all kinds of ocean creatures attracted by floating rafts known as fish aggregation devices (FADs).

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Living legend Paul McCartney writes to Putin about Arctic 30

November 2013: Former Beatle Paul McCartney has written to President Vladimir Putin in a bid to try and help get the Greenpeace protesters, the Arctic 30, home with their families in time for Christmas.

The 30 (28 Greenpeace activists and two journalists) from 18 countries were arrested by Russia in September after taking part in a peaceful protest at Gazprom's oil rig to call attention to the threat of oil drilling and climate change, and have remained in jail in Russia ever since.

Paul says the president has not yet replied but the Russian Ambassador kindly responded saying that their situation ‘is not properly represented in the world media’. 

Dear Vladimir,

I hope this letter finds you well. It is now more than ten years since I played in Red Square, but I still often think about Russia and the Russian people.

Continued

Illegal fishing inside Chagos Marine Reserve

Greenpeace finds illegal fishing vessels & urges UK to enforce Chagos marine reserve

October 2012. Greenpeace found two illegal Sri Lankan fishing boats inside the Chagos Marine Reserve and has called on the UK government to enforce protection of this Indian Ocean reserve from pirate fishing.

Rainbow Warrior

The Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior is currently transiting from Mauritius to the Maldives as part of its Indian Ocean expedition and found in total three fishing boats deep within the Chagos Marine Protected Area, established by the UK government in 2010.

Dozens of sharks & tuna
Onboard one vessel, identified as IMUL-A-0352KLT, Greenpeace found dozens of sharks, including thresher sharks, a protected species in this region. This boat is not on the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) list of registered vessels and is illegal. A second boat, identified as IMUL-A-12939MTR, was not on the IOTC list either and is illegal. Greenpeace also boarded that vessel, mainly finding skipjack tuna.

Gillnets and longlines
These fishing boats use indiscriminate gillnets and longlines to catch sharks, tuna and other marine life.

"We are demanding the UK government inspect these vessels and actively protect the marine reserve from illegal fishing. Without enforcement this protected area is not worth the paper it is written on," said Greenpeace UK oceans campaigner Simon Clydesdale on board the Rainbow Warrior.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/chagos-fishing.html

Greenpeace intercepts super trawler Margiris in southern Australia

September 2012. Greenpeace activists on an inflatable boat intercepted the world's second largest factory fishing trawler, the FV Margiris, and blocked the monster ship's attempt to sneak into Port Lincoln in South Australia.

One activist boarded the vessel and blocked the entrance to the Margiris to stop the harbour pilot from bringing the vessel into port. Greenpeace is calling on the Australian government to refuse to grant a fishing license to the FV Margiris and introduce a policy to ban all super trawlers from Australian waters.

Vacuum up entire schools of fish
"These ships literally vacuum up entire schools of fish. You could fly a jumbo Jet through the opening of its net with room to spare," said Greenpeace Australia Pacific oceans campaigner Nathaniel Pelle from the deck of the Margiris." Wherever these super trawlers go, they leave devastated fisheries in their wake. If we want healthy oceans and ample seafood for the future, we need fewer massive boats and more fish."

"The Margiris has contributed to the overfishing of European waters, the collapse of fisheries in the South Pacific, and the devastation of fishing communities in West Africa. Greenpeace is working with diverse groups of Australians to prevent the same thing happening in Australia."

The Gillard government has the power to stop the Margiris' plunder before it begins. Tens of thousands of Australians have already told the government to stop the super trawler, and public outrage from a broad range of communities - from environmental groups to recreational fishermen - continues to grow driven by the government's failure to act.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/margiris-trawler.html#cr

Canadian whale activist Paul Watson on the run, vows to continue work

The Canadian founder of environmental group Sea Shepherd says he plans to continue disrupting Japan’s whaling fleets despite being on the run from authorities in at least three countries.

Paul Watson was arrested in Germany in May on a Costa Rican extradition request. He skipped bail earlier this month after learning that Japan, too, was seeking his extradition from Germany.

The 61-year-old has issued a statement saying he’s now in “a safe place far away from the scheming nations who have turned a blind eye to the exploitation of our oceans.”

Mr. Watson says he expects Japanese whalers to “continue to exploit all avenues” to find a way to stop him. He vows to set sail in December for the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica to intercept Japanese whaling ships.

He parted ways with Greenpeace in 1977 to set up Sea Shepherd. The group has waged aggressive campaigns to protect marine animals, prompting Japan to labels its members terrorists and to seek Mr. Watson’s arrest for allegedly masterminding violent protests.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/canadian-whale-activist-paul-watson-on-the-run-vows-to-continue-work/article4453396/?cmpid=rss1

Rescuing our oceans in the International Year of Biodiversity

2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. It is also the year when international agreements and meetings have failed many of our most iconic species – like Atlantic bluefin tuna and polar bears - whilst admitting they have monumentally failed to halt the loss in overall biodiversity, and that even high-profile conservation for tigers has not worked.


Behind the headlines and charismatic species of course, is a much bigger problem, thousands of less photogenic or less media-friendly species are being lost around the world, pushed to the brink of extinction by human activity.

We are bad enough at failing to notice or take action on land, but when we get to the world's oceans, we're even worse. What goes on out at sea is out of sight and out of mind. Direct threats like fishing and dredging, and less direct threats like climate change and pollution all exact a deadly toll on the world's marine life. From the smallest corals to the biggest whales, they are feeling the impact. The statistics are shocking:

90% of big fish (sharks, tuna, cod, salmon, etc) have gone from our oceans since the middle of last century. Most species of albatross and turtles are endangered.Some whale species still have not recovered from commercial whaling last century, others are still being hunted today, and yet others are at risk of extinction from ship strikes, entanglement in fishing gear, or pollution and habitat destruction.Entire ecosystems have been changed, with bottom trawling having ripped up oyster beds, and trashed coral covered seamounts.

In some fishing nets 80% or more of what is caught and killed are non-target species. This means the deaths of millions of sharks and hundreds of thousands of whales, dolphins and porpoises every year.And in our determined race to keep our fish counters full we are reaching ever further afield, ever deeper down, and exploiting previously unpalatable species.

Our oceans can't take it. That's why Greenpeace is campaigning against the destructive activities going on in our seas, as well as promoting a sensible solution: Marine Reserves.

Marine Reserves are protected areas at sea, off limits to all destructive activity, including fishing. They are the chance for our oceans to get some respite, and for species to thrive and replenish. They work. It’s a simple concept – but protected areas yield more species, bigger numbers of each species, and bigger animals. They also make sense – the current situation is basically a right to free plunder anywhere on our high seas (outside national waters) – that results in a competing race for resources, with some short term profit for a few people, and long term losses for our seas.

Seas which are vital to the health of our entire planet. As well as being the source of a key form of protein – particularly important for those in the global south, our seas help to sustain life and play a crucial role in buffering some of the worst effects of Climate Change (impacts which are themselves affecting marine life too).

That's why Greenpeace has relaunched its Roadmap To Recovery for the oceans. We've updated our 2006 report to include an Emergency Rescue Plan, and suggest areas on our high seas that we should protect, and why.

Marine Reserves are vital, but they need to be big, covering somewhere around 40% of our oceans, and they need to be fully protected. And they need to be established quicker. Since we launched the initial report in 2006 we have seen some great advances in the creation of large Marine Reserves in national waters, like Kiribati, Hawaii and the Chagos Archipelago. But we need to do much more, and protect our high seas too.

That’s why we’ll be in Japan and at the CBD meeting to call for the real protection of our oceans, via networks of High Seas Marine Reserves. Maybe, just maybe, the international year of biodiversity can end on some good news.

If we want healthy seas, a healthy planet, thriving populations of species we care about, and for future generations to be able to eat responsibly-sourced fish – we need to act now.

Take action: sign our marine reserves petition.
Willie Mackenzie - oceans campaigner at Greenpeace UK http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/news/Blogs/makingwaves/rescuing-our-oceans-in-the-international-year/blog/26666