State of the Med: the UNEP 2009 report

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) and its Regional Activity Centres have released the first State of the Environment and Development report covering the Mediterranean region, which tackles key environmental issues, including climate change. The “State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean 2009″ was released during the 16th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, which took place from 3-5 November 2009, in Marrakech, Morocco.

The report is a pilot exercise, based on available sources of information and covers the 21 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It finds that climate change is already occurring in the region and forecasts that it will lead to, inter alia, a decline in rainfall, increased periods of droughts and rises in sea-level. The report also identifies the most vulnerable Mediterranean zones and states that climate change will also affect agriculture and fishing, the attractiveness of tourism, coastal zones and infrastructure, and public health.

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The Report

EU funded tens of millions to fish for depleted tuna

The European Union has given out €34.5 million, between 2000 and 2008, to subsidise the Mediterranean tuna fishing fleets despite warnings from scientists that overfishing is pushing the species close to extinction.

Joe Borg, the European Fishery Commissioner, revealed that €23 million was given to fund the construction of new boats, including ultra-modern purse seiners that are able to land 100 tonnes in one haul. A further €10.5 million was given to modernise existing vessels, increasing their ability to track down and catch the tuna. Only €1 million was used to decommission vessels, but mainly for small-scale, local boats.

Spain received more than half of the subsidy, with French and Italian fleets the next biggest beneficiaries. Cyprus, Malta and Greece were also given money.

Scientists from ICCAT (International Council for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna) believe that the bluefin tuna stock was below 15 per cent of its pre-exploitation levels.

Read full article on the Times

A new FAO treaty to crack down on illegal fishing

Rome, Nov 23 2009 - A new FAO treaty to fight illegal fishing - finalised by 91 countries - is now open for signature by member states. The agreement will legally enter into force after 25 countries have ratified it.

Officially known as the Agreement of Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing, the treaty specifies minimum standards for inspection.

Under the terms of the text, foreign vessels will have to request permission in advance to dock at specially designated ports and will have to provide information on their catch. Signatories will also commit to regularly inspect fishing vessels in their ports according to a set of international standards. Port States will be obliged to prohibit entry to illegal fishing vessels.

So far the situation is not good: a research by the Pew Environment Group shows that while some vessels known to engage in IUU fishing are penalised by port authorities, many are entirely unaffected or simply manage to escape penalties by moving out of the convention area where they were listed.

Environmental groups estimate that one-fifth of all fish landed are caught illegally.

EdeS (photo: FAO/G.Bizzarri)

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• Pew Environment Group: Port State Performance
  
• FAO press release: New treaty will leave ‘fish pirates’ without safe haven
  

Illegal driftnetting still a plague in the Mediterranean Sea

OCEANA recently presented a comprehensive and convincing proof on the continued use of illegal driftnets in the Mediterranean and demanded their complete elimination.

Oceana documented 92 Italian vessels in 2008 with driftnets on board, of which 80% had already been identified in previous years.

The European Court of Justice is expected to sentence Italy for the continued use of this illegal fishing gear.

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Download the Oceana report on swordfish and driftnets in the Mediterranean (13.1 Mb)

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Action brought on 10 June 2008 — Commission of the European Communities vs Italian Republic

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Photo credit: Oceana / Juan Cuetos

Continued illegal driftnetting off Morocco

A large fleet of illegal driftnets deploying nets up to 14 km in length continues to operate business as usual in Morocco, targeting swordfish for the European market.

According to WWF, this illegal fishing is likely to have caused the accidental deaths of as many as 20,000 dolphins and more than 100,000 sharks in the past five years alone.

Fisheries experts from WWF recently visited Morocco where they were told by driftnet fishermen that no changes in the fishing activity of this illegal fleet had occurred in the past few years – despite international prohibitions.

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For more information:
www.panda.org

Also see:
Bearzi G. 2009. When swordfish conservation biologists eat swordfish. Conservation Biology 23(1):1-2. (84 Kb)

The End of the Line

A feature documentary film revealing the impact of overfishing on our oceans. The film shows firsthand the effects of our global love affair with fish as food.

It examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

Filmed across the world – from the Straits of Gibraltar to the coasts of Senegal and Alaska to the Tokyo fish market – featuring top scientists, indigenous fishermen and fisheries enforcement officials, The End of the Line is a wake-up call to the world.

In the film's web site http://endoftheline.com/ you can preview excellent video shots, waiting for the film to be released.

The web site also allows you to claim your bit of ocean - it's a nice idea and a smart way of making the point.

GB

EU halts bluefin tuna fishery in the Mediterranean

The European Commission closed the industrial tuna fishing season early (June 16th as opposed to end of month), provoking a wave of protest from Europe's leading fishing nations. With quotas nearly full, and substantial illegal fishing reported again this year, the EU executive said that fishing in the Mediterranean and eastern Atlantic needed to be halted early to protect the species.

The move targets fishing by purse seiners, which account for 70% of all bluefin tuna hauls. Spanish ships are allowed to fish until June 23rd.

The commission said an early closure was all the more necessary this year because the purse seiner fleet had grown substantially since 2007 despite tougher international quotas and EU funds available for reducing fleets. "The commission is determined to use all necessary means to prevent a recurrence of the substantial overfishing seen in 2007" it said.

Illegal fishing for bluefin tuna is still rampant in the Med. Last week WWF and Greenpeace caught Italian planes spotting tuna schools from the air in the central Mediterranean. Spotter planes are illegal in the area, as they give too strong an advantage to a massive hi-tech fleet that is already far larger than the capacity recommended by scientists for the survival of the species and the fishery.

Since the Mediterranean tuna fishing season opened at the beginning of May, WWF calculated that over 10,000 breeding bluefin tunas were caught every day by the industrial fishing fleet.

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For more information:
- EU tightens controls over BFT fisheries
- WWF report on BFT overfishing in the Med

Where have all the sharks gone?

Several species of sharks in the Med have almost disappeared, their numbers 97% below what they were 200 years ago.

This is the scary figure that emerges from a new research (Loss of large predatory sharks in the Mediterranean), founded in part by the Lenfest Ocean Program, just published on Conservation Biology.

Fishing (both direct and by catch), coastal degradation and lack of management, coupled with the life history of sharks (who grow slowly, mature late and produce few young) caused this massive loss.

Blue, thresher, mako, porbeagle and hammerhead sharks have almost totally vanished in catch records from all sorts of different sources (tuna traps records, coast guard, fishing market, recreational fishing tournaments data) over the years, the authors found.

The consequences on the ecosystem of losing these key players is still poorly understood, as populations of other fish and invertebrates shift in unpredictable ways. But the extent of this collapse "may hold serious implications for the entire marine ecosystem, greatly affecting food webs throughout this region,” said the lead author of the study, Francesco Ferretti, a doctoral student in marine biology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

Better management of shark fisheries is clearly needed to reverse this trend.

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For more information:
- The press release
- The Lenfest Report "Shark Declines in the Mediterranean sea: a summary of a new scientific analysis"
- Ferretti et al. 2008. Loss of large predatory sharks from the Mediterranean Sea. Conservation Biology.

Tuna conservationists attacked by Turkish fishermen

Three Turkish tuna fishing vessels surrounded the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise while the crew of one of the vessels attacked the ship in the Cypriot Channel.

Earlier, Greenpeace flew its helicopter to document the activities of tuna fishing vessels. One of the three, the Cinar Ibrahim, collided with the Arctic Sunrise. The tuna ship’s crew then started hurling lead fishing weights at the Greenpeace ship. Gunfire was also heard. No one was injured but the Greenpeace helicopter was damaged and is now inoperable.

The Arctic Sunrise was sailing between Turkey and Cyprus to draw attention to tuna illegal overfishing.

Photo: © Greenpeace / Gavin Parsons

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For more information:
Greenpeace press release
Video of the incident
Artic Sunrise in Italian waters

MPAs export fish

MPAs export adult fish, egg and larvae to adjacent areas, as results of BIOMEX project (Assessment of BIOMass EXport from Marine Protected Areas and its impact on Fisheries in the western Mediterranean Sea) prove.

Depending on the MPA, the effect is on some species or groups of species. Fish biomass export varies greatly in space and intensity according to fish species, and is restricted to a small distance from MPA border, but it is likely to have positive effects on adjacent fisheries.

Photo: © Photo Pablo Sanchez / Biomex

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For more information:
- MedPan, the Network of Managers of Marine Protected Areas of the Mediterranean
- Full Programme report and Biomex website

Fishing out the pirates of the Mediterranean

Greenpeace campaign "Defending Our Mediterranean" had barely begun when activists confronted Italian fishing “pirates” in the Ionian Sea and confiscated almost two kilometres of illegal driftnet containing dead undersized bluefin tuna and a small sea turtle that was later released alive.

The Greenpeace crew came across the Italian fishing vessel Diomede II, fishing with 8-10 km of driftnet in international waters approximately 50 kilometres off the coast of Sicily, Italy.

Diomede II - which is licensed only to fish with longline or anchored nets within 15 kilometres from the coast - was met at her home port by officials, alerted by the NGO, that confiscated its illegal driftnets.
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For more information read the whole story on the Greenpeace web site

EU tightens control on bluefin tuna fisheries

The European Commission launched a major control campaign aimed at preventing a repeat of last year's overfishing of Mediterranean bluefin tuna by a number of EU Member States.

The plan will bring together the resources of the seven main Member States involved in the fishery – Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain – and will cover all stages in the market chain, including controls at sea, onshore, and at fattening farms.

The control campaign marks an unprecedented effort, in terms of both the scale of operations, and the technical means deployed. The Community Fisheries Control Agency will coordinate joint inspection and control activities involving 13 large patrol vessels, 36 coastal patrol vessels and 16 aircraft. There will be 14 campaigns at sea involving in all 30 inspectors, representing overall 160 patrol days. 25 joint inspections involving 50 inspectors are planned in the ports concerned. Commission inspectors will also be involved in 32 inspection visits both at sea and in ports.

As illustrated by a report published by the WWF, the whole fishery is plagued by overfishing by a fleet that keeps growing in size and efficiency - thanks also to 16 million Euro of EU fundings, as Oceana recently underlined.

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For more information:
European Commission press release
EU funding for tuna overexploitation
Crazy race for last Mediterranean tuna

EU funding for tuna overexploitation

Oceana – the international ocean conservation organisation – reports that millions of Euros have been allocated for the overexploitation of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, calls for the immediate closure of the Balearic fishing grounds, and criticises the contradictory measures adopted by implicated states.

According to Oceana, overcapacity in Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery denounced by a WWF report (see 12 March post), has been financed by the EU with more than 16 million Euros. The EU purse seine fleets involved in this fishery are from Spain, France and Italy.

Oceana also stressed that management measures and actions by the governments participating in this kind of fishery do not correspond to the reality of the fleet and the state of bluefin tuna stocks.

Once again, scientific recommendations are being ignored. Excessive quotas are established, the fleets continue to fish in spawning grounds, undersized tunas are being caught, illegal vessels catch and land bluefin tuna in unauthorised ports, the fleets continue to ignore the assigned quotas and do not declare the catches.

Silvia Bonizzoni

(Photo by Oceana)

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For more information:
Oceana press release
Oceana website
WWF report
Mediterranean Conservation News - 12 March post

Trawling near the coasts of Greece

Bottom trawling, a fishing method that drags a large net across the sea floor, is a known threat to the marine environment.

Due to the disruptive nature of this method, the European Regulation currently in force across the Mediterranean forbids trawling closer than 1.5 nautical miles from the seashore.

The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research has also demonstrated that trawling is the least selective of all fishing gears, with an annual bycatch rate up to 44%. The Greek Ministry for Rural Development and Food, in its National Operational Plan for Fisheries 2007-2013, acknowledges that “most benthopelagic species are in a state of relative overfishing or overfishing”.

Despite the European regulation and scientific evidence the Greek Ministry for Rural Development and Food, itself, has recently decided to allow the use of trawling nets at a distance of only 1 nautical mile from the coast.

A coalition of Greek conservation organizations, including Archelon, Mediterranean SOS Network, MOM, Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Greenpeace and WWF Greece, is calling for the immediate reversal of this decision, to prevent the destruction of coastal ecosystems and ensure sustainability of fishing in the long term.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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For more information:
www.panda.org

Rocky deserts at sea: causes and solutions

Many vegetated systems in temperate regions throughout the world may face dramatic ecosystems shifts to unvegetated states. So, flourishing kelp forests may become desolated bare rocky substrates void of the rich floras and faunas usually associated to forests.

In the Mediterranean there are no kelp forests, but rocky bottoms can be covered by macroalgae (e.g. Cystoseira spp) that host juvenile and adult stages of many invertebrate and fish species. The persistence of these macroalgal beds, that greatly contribute to maintain coastal biodiversity and productivity, is the result of a delicate equilibrium among environmental conditions, interactions among species and human disturbance.

In recent years it has been demonstrated that in Mediterranean rocky reefs where fishing is particularly intense fish predators may decrease in abundance and size. Their decreased predation impact on preys, including sea urchins (the most important grazers in such systems), may reflect in a dramatic increase of prey abundance.

The ultimate consequence of the fishing impact may thus be an increased grazing impact of sea urchins that causes the transition from macroalgal beds to the so-called ‘barrens’, that is bare rocks partially covered by encrusting coralline algae. They are a sort of rocky deserts.

How to cope with this? Management of complex natural systems is not easy because many processes may interact. Formation of barrens, for instance, can be also a consequence of other processes like water warming or sedimentation. However, fishing restrictions and fish predator recovery may be useful to reverse this phenomenon.

From this perspective, there is increasing evidence that the creation of effective Marine Protected Areas (and not paper parks) can allow fish predators to recover along with their potential in controlling sea urchin populations and their effects on macroalgae.

At the MPA of Torre Guaceto (SE Italy), in the same rocky reefs where in the past (before the establishment of the MPA) there were barrens, there are at present (after about 7-8 years of effective protection) more fish predators, less sea urchins and lower barren covers than outside the MPA, which is the proof that properly managed MPAs can allow the entire ecosystems to recover.

Paolo Guidetti

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For more information:
Guidetti P. 2006. Marine reserves reestablish lost predatory interactions and cause community changes in rocky reefs. Ecological Applications 16(3):963–976.

How climate influences the deep sea

Picture the Grand Canyon in Arizona - then place it under the sea: the Mediterranean seafloor is criss-crossed with deep submarine canyons that in sheer size put their land counterpart to shame. Rivers of dense waters flow through these canyons, their capacity varying depending on climate-induced phonomena.

During such an event, the amount of water transported in 4 months from the Gulf of Lion to the deep Western Mediterranean via the Cap de Creus canyon equalled 2 years of input from all rivers draining in the Mediterranean.

How these dense shelf water cascading in the Gulf de Lion affect the population of the deep sea shrimp Aristeus antennatus, the most valuable deep-sea living resource in the Mediterranean Sea, was recently discovered by Spanish researchers. Initially, the strong currents (up to 80 cm/sec) displace shrimp populations from the normal fishing grounds, producing a temporary fishing collapse. However, the food provided by the currents soon leads to a large increase in recruitment - which results in plentiful landings of large shrimps 3-5 years after major cascading events.

These new findings resolve the paradox of a long-overexploited fishery that has not collapsed after 70 years of intense deep-sea trawling. But climate change is expected to cause a decrease of winter deep water formation in the Gulf de Lion, which in turn could decrease the frequency and intensity of dense shelf water cascading events. Without this regenerative mechanism, fishery pressure could quickly deplete the stock of Aristeus antennatus and other valuable deep-sea living resources in the area.

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For more information:
Company et al (2008) Climate influence on deep sea populations. PLoS ONE 3(1): e1431.
Eureka alert press release (Jan 15th 2008)

French driftnets killed by the European Court of Justice

Oceana, an international organization that works to protect and recover the oceans in the world, has announced that the European Court of Justice has refused to grant France exemption from the prohibition of the use of driftnets in the Mediterranean.

Driftnets used to catch bluefin tuna and swordfish were outlawed in the European Union from 2002 because they constitute a threat to the conservation of cetaceans, sea turtles and sharks. However, years after the ban entered into force, France and Italy have continued using driftnets. While operations in Italy have been downright illegal, the French fleet had taken advantage of legal loopholes to continue carrying out its activities, with full support from its government. French driftnets have caused significant mortality to striped dolphins in the waters of the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean cetaceans.

The European Court of Justice ruled that the French driftnet fleet should not have a temporary exemption from the ban as requested by its government. As such, France cannot offer the driftnet fleet its protection in 2008. Any fishing vessel using this gear to catch bluefin tuna must be sanctioned by French authorities.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara

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For more information:
Oceana's press release, 17 March 2008

Crazy race for the last Mediterranean tuna

A new WWF report, 126 pages long, provides the first real estimate of the actual catch capability of the Mediterranean purse seine fleet targeting bluefin tuna.

The results are discouraging: few tuna stocks left are driven by unregulated and unsustainable fisheries to a tragic end point.

Without considering the potential catch from other fleets, such as pelagic trawlers, longliners etc., the Mediterranean purse seine fleet has a calculated yearly catch potential of 54,783 metric tonnes. This amount is twice the fishing capacity of current quotas and more than 3.5 times the catch levels recommended by scientists to avoid stock collapse.

How could we ever get to this point? Systematic upward adjustment of quotas, under-reporting of catches, uncontrolled increase in fishing capacity, illegal fishing, ever-increasing market demand ever-expanding fleet size and efficiency... these are some ingredients of the foolish management that brought the tuna stocks to nearly collapse.

Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean, has a clear view of the situation: “The fishery is unsustainable in every way – economically, socially, and ecologically. The time to act is now – while there are still bluefin tuna to save in the Mediterranean”.

Silvia Bonizzoni

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For more information
http://www.panda.org
To download the report
http://assets.panda.org

Mediterranean shark fisheries

Few elasmobranchs are subject to directed fisheries in the Mediterranean, but the region has the highest percentage of threatened sharks and rays in the world (42%).
Bycatch is the main cause of decline. Catsharks, dogfish and skates have a greater commercial value; other species may be discarded. In Italy elasmobranchs represent less than the 2% of reported total catches.

Bottom trawl fisheries catch various elasmobranchs such as catsharks and skates. Trammel nets may also catch larger species, including even basking and white sharks. Many shark species are taken as bycatch of Mediterranean deep-water fisheries. Migratory oceanic sharks constitute a large component of the bycatch in tuna and swordfish fisheries using longlines, driftnets and purse seines. Large driftnet fisheries are prohibited by the EU but the gear is still used by both EU and non EU boats.

Finning is not known to be practiced in the Mediterranean basin, but recently the Italian Coast Guard stopped a Spanish fishing boat finning in international waters just off the Calabrian coast (13 nautical miles out of Italy).

Eleonora de Sabata

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For more information:
Hareide et al. 2007. European Shark Fisheries: a preliminary investigation into fisheries, conversion factors, trade products, markets and management measures European Elasmobranch Association

Using satellite images to protect the Ocean

Not everyone knows that satellite images can be used to support marine conservation.

The concept is simple. Satellites have global reach and can repeatedly capture images of any area, they can reveal the land/seascape disruption and habitat degradation caused by anthropogenic activities. They can be used to monitor industrial sites, logging operations, environmentally sensitive areas, urban sprawl, shipping traffic, fisheries, and resource-management practices, no matter where in the world they occur.

Also, they can be used to monitor fishing activities. Daniel Pauly, a world-renowned fisheries scientist, is the pioneer of this innovative idea. Pauly was inspired by a satellite image of a fleet of trawlers at work in the ocean. Looking at the image, he realized that trawlers could be seen so clearly that it would in theory be possible to monitor fishing from satellites and assess their impact. With historical and global archives, it is also possible to compare images to show changes over time. This kind of data could lead to restrictions on industrial fishing methods.

In addition to being a source of scientific data to document environmental change, satellite images may also represent a powerful communication tool. Using satellite photographs, we can document and communicate the impact of anthropogenic activities and promote a sustainable use of resources.

Silvia Bonizzoni

(The satellite photo shows mud trails made by shrimp trawlers off the mouth of the Yangtze River www.digitalglobe.com)
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For more information:
www.theglobeandmail.com
www.eurekalert.org
www.iht.com