OCEAN NEWS



November 27, 2013
COURT SETS AUGUST 2014 DEADLINE TO PROTECT WHALES AND DOLPHINS FROM NAVY SONAR IN PACIFIC NORTHWEST


Significant flaws found in previous plan put thousands of marine mammals at risk


SAN FRANCISCO - November 27 - The National Marine Fisheries Service has eight months to issue a new plan to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises ranging from Northern California to Canada.

The ruling by Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California sets a deadline of August 1, 2014 for the agency to ensure that the Navy’s training activities comply with the Endangered Species Act. Today’s decision stems from a September 2013 Court ruling finding the Fisheries Service at fault for green lighting Navy training based on incomplete and outdated science.

“This ruling will require the National Marine Fisheries Service to issue a responsible new plan based on the most up-to-date sound science for ocean noise,” said Representative Mike Thompson (Cali.-5). “It is the right decision. The Navy should train in a way that respects local communities, natural resources and our environment.”

“These training exercises harm Southern Resident killer whales, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises—through the use of high-intensity mid-frequency sonar,” said Steve Mashuda, an Earthjustice attorney representing a coalition of Northern California tribes and environmental groups. “The Fisheries Service must now employ the best science and require the Navy to protect whales and dolphins in its ongoing training exercises.”

The Navy uses a vast area of the West Coast, stretching from Northern California to the Canadian border, for training. Not one square inch of this area -- the size of Montana -- has been set aside for marine mammals or is off-limits to high-intensity sonar. Activities include anti-submarine warfare exercises involving tracking aircraft and sonar; surface-to-air gunnery and missile exercises; air-to-surface bombing exercises; and extensive testing for several new weapons systems.

Hawk Rosales, executive director of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council said, “Marine mammals will now stand a better chance of being protected from the Navy’s war testing and training off our coastline.”

“It is outrageous that the agency tasked with protecting marine mammals allowed the Navy to harm them. NMFS shouldn’t rubber-stamp the Navy’s permits to test and train in biologically significant habitat. More must be asked of the Navy to take commonsense steps to prevent harm and injury to these animals,” said Zak Smith, staff attorney for NRDC.

“If the Navy’s at sea with its blasting sonar and bombs, then it needs to take extra steps to protect the endangered orcas and other marine mammals that swim in those seas,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Coming up with a new plan that will protect whales and dolphins from hearing loss, injuries and death by sonar is an urgent priority.”

Kyle Loring, staff attorney for Friends of the San Juans said, “The use of deafening noises just does not belong in sensitive areas or marine sanctuaries where whales and dolphins use their acute hearing to feed, navigate, and raise their young.”

Marcie Keever, Oceans & Vessels program director at Friends of the Earth, added, “It is critical that NMFS establish no sonar zones offshore of major coastal estuaries where the 81 remaining endangered Southern Resident orcas seek to find salmon if they are ever to recover.”

Background

Studies from 2010 and 2011 show that whales and other marine mammals are far more sensitive to sonar and other noise than previously thought. In permitting the Navy’s activities, the Fisheries Service ignored this new information. In January 2012, conservation and tribal groups sued the agency for stronger protections and won.

In September 2013, the Court found that the agency violated its legal duty to use this “best available data” when evaluating impacts to endangered whales and other marine life. It also required the agency to consider the long-term effects of the Navy’s activities. Today’s decision sets a deadline for the Fisheries Service to apply the new science and to evaluate the full extent of the harm.

The Navy’s mid-frequency sonar has been implicated in mass strandings of marine mammals in, among other places, the Bahamas, Greece, the Canary Islands, and Spain. In 2004, during war games near Hawai’i, the Navy’s sonar was implicated in a mass stranding of up to 200 melon-headed whales in Hanalei Bay. In 2003, the USS Shoup, operating in Washington’s Haro Strait, exposed a group of endangered Southern Resident killer whales to mid-frequency sonar, causing the animals to stop feeding and attempt to flee the sound. Even when sonar use does not result in these or other kinds of physical injury, it can disrupt feeding, migration, and breeding or drive whales from areas vital to their survival.

Earthjustice represented the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Friends of the San Juans and has partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council in the lawsuit that led to today’s ruling.

Friends of the Earth is the U.S. voice of the world's largest grassroots environmental network, with member groups in 77 countries. Since 1969, Friends of the Earth has fought to create a more healthy, just world.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 27, 2013
3:36 PM
CONTACT: Friends of the Earth
Steve Mashuda, Earthjustice, (206) 343-7340, ext. 1027
Jessica Lass, NRDC, (415) 875-6143, jlass@nrdc.org
Miyoko Sakashita, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 632-5308
Hawk Rosales, InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, (707) 489-3640
Marcie Keever, Friends of the Earth, (510) 900-3144, mkeever@foe.org
Kyle Loring, Friends of the San Juans, (360) 378-2319


Thank you to Trap!t





TAKE ACTION: 
PROTECT THE OCEAN'S DEPTHS 
FROM DEEP SEA TRAWLING







'NOT HERE, NOT ANYWHERE':


The Global Outrage Over Monster FishingTrawlers 
Capable of sucking up 
7,000 tons of fish in 1,800-foot long nets. 
Giant ships kill off small fishermen.



Greenpeace activists protest the FV Margiris as it attempts to leave port from Holland in 2012. (Photo: Olaf Kraak/Getty Images)

October 6, 2013
Jon Bowermaster
 Greenpeace's Outrage Against Monster Fishing Trawlers Like The FV Margiris


‘Monster’ as an adjective is almost always linked to all things American, suggesting big, giant, super-sized. Think trucks, burgers, box stores and even energy drinks.

But out there on the world’s ocean, floats a fleet of so-called "Monster Trawlers," which have absolutely no affiliation with the U.S. of A. In fact, most are registered in the distinctly petite nation of Holland.

These giant boats are responsible for leaving behind a wake of dead fisheries from Europe to Africa and across the South Pacific, raising concerns among marine conservationists, charter boat operators, and recreational fishermen around the world. They're so gross that even the head of the EU Fisheries Commission calls the fleet—organized under the banner of Pelagic Freezer Trawler Association—“obese.”

Netherlands-based Farah Obaidullah has worked as a Greenpeace campaigner for eight years, focusing on the plight of small fishermen around the globe. She recently oversaw an action in Valparaiso, Chile, where fishermen and activists protested the broaching of nearby waters by the biggest of the so-called monster trawlers from Europe—ships that are literally sucking fish from the Pacific Ocean using sophisticated sonar and 1,800-foot-long nets.

“It saddens me that we have reached a point where average small-scale fisherman can no longer make a decent living,” says Obaidullah.


Not So Super Trawler Banned in Australia After Public Protest

“What I am witnessing is growing global opposition to the way decision-makers assist the worst offenders on our waters by subsidizing damaging activities, offering access to the most remote parts of our oceans and not having sufficient regulations in place,” she says. “The victims are those who depend on healthy oceans for food and income, including you and me. The oceans belong to all of us.”

Greenpeace admits the Chilean protest got a little out of hand though, and disassociated itself when local fishermen started a fuel-fire on the water near the giant ship’s hull.

A week after the Chilean protests, fishermen in the West African nation of Mauritania called for the mega trawlers to be banned from nearby Atlantic Ocean fisheries. They cited the example of the Annelies Ilena, which had been fishing Mauritanian waters a few weeks ago and caught 7,000 tons of fish in a single day—enough to feed 291,000 Africans for an entire year.

The biggest of the boats, the one protested in Chile, is the FV Margiris, capable of storing 6,000 tons of fish at one time. It has been circling the globe, fishing and freezing its catch as it goes along and increasingly dragging sizable protests in its wake. Serviced by smaller boats that carry its catches to the nearest ports, the big ship very rarely needs to anchor or dock.

Initially registered in Australia and named after local hero Abel Tasman, the ship was chased from the country in 2012 by protestors and then by the legislature, which passed laws forbidding all monster ships from Australian waters. The country specifically told the newly-named Margiris not to come back. The ship was next sighted off the coast of New Zealand, before pulling into a small port in Chile in September.


Ocean Killer: This 'Super Trawler' Is a 465-Foot Floating Factory Farm

Among the multitude of problems with the big boats is that they deplete not just local fisheries but fishing grounds for hundreds of miles. They put millions of small fishermen’s livelihoods at risk. They leave behind literally tons of dead or dying fish scooped up as bycatch. They lay waste to endangered animals, including turtles, sea rays, manta rays and sharks.

By constantly staying away from ports, the big ships pay virtually no taxes on either their operation or on what they catch.

Greenpeace is leading the charge to get the monster ships off the high seas. “Not here, not anywhere” is becoming a global cry.

“While Australia's ban is a victory for our oceans, the problem doesn't end there,” says Obaidullah. “Fish stocks around the world are in serious trouble because there are simply too many boats chasing too few fish and not enough regulations to control them, particularly in international waters. Governments can and must change this by reducing their bloated fleets, starting with the monster boats.”



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GIANT STEP FOR 
OCEAN CONSERVATION


THE WORLD CETACEAN ALLIANCE 
IS THE FIRST CO-ORDINATED BID 
TO SAFEGUARD WHALES AND DOLPHINS.



Image courtesy Olaf Janssen

October 9 2013 at 09:41am 
By Neo Maditla and Chelsea Geach

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPERS
The World Cetacean Alliance is the first co-ordinated bid to safeguard whales and dolphins. 

Cape Town - Organisations from around the world, including Cape Town-based Coastal and Marine Eco-Tourism Corporation (Comet), have come together to form the World Cetacean Alliance in a bid to protect whales and dolphins.

The alliance is starting with two urgent missions: saving the world’s last 55 Maui dolphins and removing killer whales from captivity in water park shows.

Honorary president Jean-Michel Cousteau said: “Without collaboration we will achieve nothing more than a drop in the ocean.”

Cousteau has campaigned for ocean conservation for decades.

“The World Cetacean Alliance is a unique opportunity to combine our collective energy, knowledge and expertise in order to protect whales, dolphins and their habitats.”

The alliance includes charities, whale and dolphin-watching businesses and individual advocates from 11 countries.

Comet director Bruce See said that conservation efforts had always been disjointed and unco-ordinated across the globe – until now.

“The World Cetacean Alliance is our best chance in years to change all that,” he said.

Along the South African coast, the biggest threat to whales and dolphins are tour boat operators who do not play by the rules.

“There are more illegal boat-based whale watching operators than legal ones,” See said. “On some areas of the coastline where tourism is more competitive, these animals are harassed repeatedly.”

Whales are also threatened by pollution, entanglement in discarded fishing nets, and noise pollution from the heavy shipping lanes.

“The seismic activities of oil companies doing offshore oil exploration is also known to have an effect, possibly leading to mass strandings along our beaches,” See said.

Without a dedicated marine control coastguard or effective land-based monitoring, it is difficult to keep tabs on damaging activities, according to See. “It has become open season again for exploitation of the rich resources along the coastline.”

The way forward for Comet and the World Cetacean Alliance was to provide education for coastal communities, who were hit hard by depleted oceans.

“Already many of the local coastal fishing communities are destitute because the fish have run out.Unless something is done, it is only going to get worse,” See said.

“Comet is working to provide education and training to some of these rural coastal communities.”

See hopes to have community education centres in action in the Northern and Western Cape by the middle of next year – just in time for whale season. - Cape Argus



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UPDATED : October 9. 2013
Greenpeace UK  #FreeTheArctic30

PLEASE SEND AN URGENT EMAIL 
TO THE RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR IN LONDON 
AND DEMAND THE RUSSIAN AUTHORITIES 
RELEASE OUR CREW IMMEDIATELY



Hi there, 

Right now, 28 Greenpeace activists, a photographer and a videographer 
are being held in a Russian jail. 

Their crime? Fighting to protect the Arctic from an oil spill. 

The ship had been part of a peaceful protest against energy giant Gazprom which is 
poised to drill for the first oil to come out of the icy waters of the Arctic. 
The Arctic Sunrise was circling Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya platform inside international waters and outside the jurisdiction of Russian authorities, making the boarding of the ship unlawful.

The crew were held under armed guard for 5 days whilst the ship was towed to shore. 
Once there, the 30 people on board were remanded in custody for up to 2 months by a court in Murmansk. 

The authorities say they need time to investigate them for possible charges of piracy. 
This is ridiculous and has no merit in Russian or International law. 
Even President Putin says that our team our not pirates. 

These peaceful activists are taking incredible risks and you can stand up for 
them. Please email the Russian Ambassador in London and demand their immediate 
release.



Thank you for your help. I'll keep you updated as soon as I hear more.

Ian
Greenpeace
Greenpeace UK (webteam) webteam.uk@greenpeace.org




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UPDATE: FRIDAY~OCT.4.2013
NEW ACTION, 
PLEASE SIGN AND SHARE.
TELL RUSSIA TO RELEASE 
GREENPEACE ACTIVISTS!







Greenpeace International
#FreeTheArctic30


TAKE ACTION!!! :



By Agence France-Presse
Monday, September 30, 2013 8:45 EDT
Greenpeace International
Photo:
A member of the Aurora Greenpeace team waves 
a "Save the Arctic" flag, 
on April 13, 2013 at the North Pole


Russian court detains eight more Greenpeace activists over Arctic drilling protest
A Russian court on Sunday ordered the detention for two months of eight more crew members of a Greenpeace ship who protested against Arctic oil drilling as part of a probe into alleged piracy.

The Lenin district court in the northern city of Murmansk on Thursday had already ordered the detention of 22 other Greenpeace activists for two months, pending the investigation into suspected piracy after a protest at a Gazprom oil rig on September 18.

With the court’s decision on Sunday, all 30 members of the Arctic Sunrise icebreaker crew will remain in custody until November 24.

Among their total are six British citizens, four Russians and nationals from 16 other countries including Argentina, Italy, France and Australia.

Reacting to the news of the detentions, Kumi Naidoo, executive director of Greenpeace International, said in a statement that the court’s decision was a “blatant attempt to intimidate anyone preventing an oil rush in the Arctic”.

Diplomats from several countries attended the hearings.

Russian investigators have accused the activists of piracy after two tried to scale state energy giant Gazprom’s Prirazlomnaya oil platform in the Barents Sea.

The group has denied committing piracy and accuses Russia of illegally boarding its ship in international waters.

President Vladimir Putin has said that the activists “are of course not pirates” but stressed they had broken international law by getting dangerously close to the oil rig.


Charges of piracy carry a maximum prison term of 15 years but the Investigative Committee said the charge against the group could be reduced in the course of the probe.

‘I am not a pirate’

Those detained include Dmitri Litvinov, a Greenpeace spokesman and a Swedish-American dual citizen of Russian origin, Sini Saarela, a Finnish activist who tried to scale the platform, and Frank Hewetson of Britain.

According to a Greenpeace statement, Saarela said at the beginning of his hearing on Sunday: “I am an honest person and I always answer for my actions. I’m not a pirate.”

Also among those detained was the vessel’s captain, Peter Willcox, who was also the skipper of Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior ship, which French secret services bombed and sank in New Zealand in 1985.

Another is photographer Denis Sinyakov, a former staff photographer at AFP and Reuters who was working for Greenpeace as a freelancer.

The Dutch government called on Moscow to release the activists immediately and said it was considering legal action.

The arrests also sparked outrage from Russian and international rights activists, with Reporters Without Borders saying investigators were “criminalising both journalists and environmental activists”.

Fourteen of those detained are being held in a pre-trial detention centre in Murmansk, while others have been transferred to the nearby city of Apatity.

In an apparent violation of a law stipulating that foreign suspects should be held separately from Russian nationals, a British activist is being held with two Russians suspected of robbery, said Irina Paikacheva, the head of a state-connected regional prisoner rights watchdog.

“That is a violation,” she told AFP.

Other activists are likely to get cellmates from ex-Soviet countries because keeping suspects by themselves would also contravene the law.

Paikacheva noted that according to Russian law, the Greenpeace crew cannot be held together because they have all been detained on the same charges.

One of those detained suffers from asthma, she added.

Overall, they are being held in “satisfactory conditions”, Paikacheva said. “The food is decent. The cells are rather spacious.”

The detention centres where suspects are held before trial in Russia are called Investigative Isolators and do not differ much from common Russian jails notorious for their filthy conditions and prisoner abuse.


EMERGENCY 
GLOBAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY 
TO #FreeTheArctic30
SATURDAY~OCTOBER 5.2013


FIND YOUR LOCATION HERE:


Two weeks ago, 28 Greenpeace International activists and two freelance photojournalists were detained under armed guard by the Russian authorities after a peaceful protest against Arctic oil drilling. Piracy charges are being brought which carry a maximum 15 year prison sentence.

This Saturday, thousands of people across the world will join a global day of solidarity for the Arctic 30. Our brave friends took a stand to protect the Arctic and our climate. Now they need you to take a stand for them and for our planet.
Please find details of your local event below and come down if you can. This list will be updated live as plans are finalised so please check back!

EUROPE

Norway: Oslo, Stortinget (Parliament Building), 18:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/668088046543789/?ref=22

Sweden: Stockholm, Medborgarplatsen, 12:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/329595533851470/

Denmark: Copenhagen, Østre Anlæg Park- to Russian Embassy, 15:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/169110543291831/

Finland: Helsinki, Kiasma Art Museum- to Russian Embassy, 13:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/188438181340465/?ref_dashboard_filter=calendar

United Kingdom: London, Bristol, Eastbourne, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Southampton, York. All details here: http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/blog/climate/global-day-solidarity-arctic-30-saturday-5th-october-20131001

Netherlands: Amsterdam, Russian Embassy- to Peace Palace, 14:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/240526862763646/declines/?notif_t=like


Czech Republic: Prague, Rašínovo nábřeží- House boat on River Vltava, 11:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/644174455614145/

Bulgaria: Sofia, Monument to the Soviet Army, 16:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/663788493631543/

Slovakia: Bratislava, Russian Embassy, 15:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/567677489960808/

Slovenia: Ljubljana,  11:00
Austria: Vienna, Christian-Broda-Platz- to Russian Embassy, 11:30 https://www.facebook.com/events/630822640271769/?ref_dashboard_filter=calendar

Israel: Tel Aviv, Russian Embassy, 10:00
Turkey: Istanbul, Taksim Square Tram Station, 18:00

AMERICAS

Canada: Montreal, UQAM Pavillion Presidente Kennedy , 19:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/197237837122792/

Toronto, 19:00, https://www.facebook.com/events/238096993010494/
           
Mexico: Mexico City, Russian Embassy, 10:00

Argentina: Buenos Aires, Teatro de Flores, 12:00

Chile: Santiago, Plaza Italia, 10:30

Brazil: Sao Paulo, 11:00

Colombia: Bogotá, Parque Santander, carrera 7ma con calle 16, 14:00
              Cali,  Boulevard del Rio, 15:30
              Medellin, Metro Universidad, 12:00
              Cartagena, Torre del Reloj, 16:00

ASIA PACIFIC

New Zealand: Wellington, Russian Embassy, 12:00 https://www.facebook.com/events/375221535943314/

Hong Kong: Victoria Harbor, 11:00

South Korea:  Seoul, Gwanghwamun Gate, 14:00

Indonesia: Jakarta, TBC
                Bali, TBC

Philippines: Manila TBC

Thailand: Bangkok TBC

AFRICA

South Africa: Johannesburg, Constitution Hill, 10:00

Durban, Moses Mabhida Stadium, 10:00

Cape Town, Nobel Square, V&A waterfront, 10:00
                 


Senegal TBC







SEND A LETTER TO THE RUSSIAN EMBASSY TO FREE OUR ACTIVISTS AND STOP BRUTAL REPRESSION OF PEACEFUL PROTEST



#FreeTheArctic30
SEND YOUR MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TO THE ARCTIC 30







DOWNLOAD AND SHARE: SHOW YOUR SUPPORT TO  #FreeTheArctic30






DOWNLOAD AND SHARE: SHOW YOUR SUPPORT TO  #FreeTheArctic30








DOWNLOAD AND SHARE: SHOW YOUR SUPPORT TO  #FreeTheArctic30








DOWNLOAD AND SHARE: SHOW YOUR SUPPORT TO  #FreeTheArctic30











SAVE THE ARCTIC - FREE OUR ACTIVISTS

On September 18, a small group of Greenpeace International activists approached the Gazprom Prirazlomnaya oil platform, in the Pechora Sea off the Russian coast, to engage in a peaceful protest of Arctic oil drilling. Two activists were detained and held overnight on a Russian Coast Guard vessel.

The following day, September 19, the Russian Coast Guard illegally boarded the Greenpeace International ship Arctic Sunrise while in international waters. All 30 members of the crew were held under armed guard for 5 days as the ship was towed to the port of Murmansk. Upon arrival, the activists were taken from the ship and held by authorities on land.

On September 26, the 30 activists appeared at a preliminary court hearing in Murmansk, where most activists were remanded in custody for two months, facing investigation for possible piracy. We are demanding the immediate release of all activists, our ship, and an end to offshore oil drilling in the Arctic for good.





























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COURT HANDS VICTORY TO ENVIRONMENTALISTS 
IN BATTLE OVER NAVY TRAINING EXERCISES







Navy exercises may be harming humpback whales and other species off the California Coast. Photo: NOAA

Adelyn Baxter  Sep 27, 2013 at 11:27 AM

Environmental groups are celebrating a victory this week after a federal court ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMSF) had failed to properly evaluate the effects of US Navy warfare training exercises on marine mammals along the Pacific Northwest coastline. The court decision stated that the NMSF should have adequately assessed the immediate and longterm dangers of sonar testing and other Navy practices have on protected and endangered species like whales and porpoises in the region before authorizing Navy training activities in the expansive Northwest Training Range Complex, which stretches from the Canadian boarder to Northern California, beginning in 2010.

“This is a victory for dozens of protected species of marine mammals, including critically endangered Southern Resident orcas, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises,” said Steve Mashuda, an Earthjustice attorney representing a coalition of conservation and Northern California Indian Tribes, in a statement.
A coalition of groups, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Friends of the San Juans filed a lawsuit asking the court to review NMFS’s decision to allow sonar testing and other disruptive practices by the Navy. The court’s ruling mandates that NMFS must reassess the Navy’s permits using updated scientific research to ensure the increased protection of these species.

According to environmentalists, Navy training exercises harm marine mammals by “disrupt[ing] their migration, nursing, breeding, or feeding, primarily as a result of harassment through exposure to the use of sonar.” Several cases of large-scale strandings of whales in coastal areas have been linked to Naval exercises. Research that emerged in 2010 and 201 — but that the NMSF failed to sufficiently consult — provide further evidence of these negative affects.

“[The] ruling gives whales and other marine mammals a fighting chance against the Navy,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a statement. “This ruling means that the Navy must take greater precautions to protect marine life.”






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COURT FINDS FEDS VIOLATED ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT



MARINE MAMMALS ALONG THE WEST COAST CONTINUE TO BE EXPOSED TO HARMFUL SONAR BLASTS

Eureka, Calif. (September 26, 2013) — A federal court has ruled that the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) failed to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. 

In an opinion released late Wednesday, Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, U.S. District Court for the District of Northern California, found that NMFS’s approval of the Navy’s training activities in its Northwest Training Range Complex failed to use the best available science to assess the extent and duration of impacts to whales and other marine mammals. The decision requires the federal agency to reassess its permits to ensure that the Navy’s training activities comply with protective measures in the Endangered Species Act.

“The Navy’s Northwest Training Range is the size of the state of California, yet not one square inch was off-limits to the most harmful aspects of naval testing and training activities,” said Zak Smith, staff attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council.  “NMFS relied on faulty science when approving the Navy’s permits and thousands of marine mammals suffered the consequences.”

The Navy uses a vast area of the West Coast, stretching from Northern California to the Canadian border, for training. Activities include anti-submarine warfare exercises involving tracking aircraft and sonar; surface-to-air gunnery and missile exercises; air-to-surface bombing exercises; and extensive testing for several new weapons systems.

In 2010 and 2012, NMFS authorized the Navy to harm or “take” marine mammals and other sealife through 2015.  The permits allow the Navy to conduct increased training exercises that can harm marine mammals and disrupt their migration, nursing, breeding, or feeding, primarily as a result of harassment through exposure to the use of sonar.

New science from 2010 and 2011 shows that whales and other marine mammals are far more sensitive to sonar and other noise than previously thought.  In permitting the Navy’s activities, NMFS ignored this new information.  The Court found that the agency violated its legal duty to use this “best available data” when evaluating impacts to endangered whales and other marine life.

The Court also rejected the agency’s decision to limit its review to only a five-year period when the Navy has been clear that its training activities will continue indefinitely.   The Court held that NMFS’s limited review “ignores the realities of the Navy’s acknowledged long-term, ongoing activities in the [Northwest Training Range],” because “a series of short-term analyses can mask the long-term impact of an agency action. … [T]he segmented analysis is inadequate to address long-term effects of the Navy’s acknowledged continuing activities in the area.”

“This is a victory for dozens of protected species of marine mammals, including critically endangered Southern Resident orcas, blue whales, humpback whales, dolphins, and porpoises,” said Steve Mashuda, an Earthjustice attorney representing a coalition of conservation and Northern California Indian Tribes.  “NMFS must now employ the best science and require the Navy to take reasonable and effective actions to avoid and minimize harm from its training activities.”

“This is an important win for the environment and for the tribes’ traditional, cultural, and subsistence ways in their ancestral coastal territories,” said Hawk Rosales, executive director of the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council.  “Marine mammals now stand a better chance of being protected from the Navy’s war testing and training off our coastline.”

According to the ruling, NMFS must now reassess the permits using the latest science, which could trigger a requirement that the Navy do more to protect whales and dolphins in its ongoing training exercises.

“Today’s ruling gives whales and other marine mammals a fighting chance against the Navy,” said Miyoko Sakashita, oceans director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “This ruling means that the Navy must take greater precautions to protect marine life.”

The Navy’s mid-frequency sonar has been implicated in mass strandings of marine mammals in, among other places, the Bahamas, Greece, the Canary Islands, and Spain.  In 2004, during war games near Hawai’i, the Navy’s sonar was implicated in a mass stranding of up to 200 melon-headed whales in Hanalei Bay.  In 2003, the USS Shoup, operating  in Washington’s Haro Strait, exposed a group of endangered Southern Resident killer whales to mid-frequency sonar, causing the animals to stop feeding and attempt to flee the sound.  Even when sonar use does not result in these or other kinds of physical injury, it can disrupt feeding, migration, and breeding or drive whales from areas vital to their survival.

“In 2003, NMFS learned firsthand the harmful impacts of Navy sonar in Washington waters when active sonar blasts distressed members of J pod, one of our resident pods of endangered orcas,” said Kyle Loring, Staff Attorney for Friends of the San Juans.  “The use of deafening noises just does not belong in sensitive areas or marine sanctuaries where whales and dolphins use their acute hearing to feed, navigate, and raise their young.”

Marcie Keever, Oceans & Vessels Program Director at Friends of the Earth, added, “Recent research confirms that the 82 remaining endangered Southern Resident orcas use coastal waters within the Navy’s training range to find salmon during the critical fall and winter months.  NMFS must do more to assure that the Navy is not pushing these critically endangered orcas and other endangered marine mammals even closer to extinction.”

Earthjustice represents the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Friends of the San Juans and has partnered with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the lawsuit.


The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 1.4 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Livingston, Montana, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.

Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment.

The InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council is comprised of ten federally recognized Northern California Indian Tribes with ancient and enduring subsistence and cultural ties to the Sinkyone Coast, an area that will be affected by the Navy’s expanded training activities.

Friends of the San Juans pursues its mission to protect the land, water, sea, and livability of the San Juan Islands through science, education, stewardship, and advocacy.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 625,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

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ROSS SEA PROPOSED SANCTUARY SLASHED


BY ANDREA VANCE
Last updated 19:55 06/09/2013

The Government has bowed to international pressure and slashed the size of a proposed marine sanctuary in Antarctica’s Ross Sea.

A joint New Zealand-United States plan for the reserve was today scaled back from 2.3 million to 1.34 million square kilometres. 

The original bid included a 1.6sq km no-take zone which would only allow fishing for scientific research. That is now 1.25sq km.

Restrictions already exist in the pristine environment, but officials in Wellington and Washington were fighting to establish the world’s biggest marine protection area (MPA) to protect the waters and overfishing of toothfish.

Fishing nations, including Norway, China, Japan, Chile and South Korea, were opposed to the size of the reserve and Russia scuttled the bid at a special meeting in Germany in July.

Conservationists this week warned the NZ-US proposal would be diluted to try to win support at fresh talks by the 25-nation Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) in Tasmania next month.

They feared important toothfish breeding grounds in the north of the sea would be removed from the MPA, along with an area around the Scott Seamounts. The seamount is an important habitat for organisms that could not survive elsewhere – but is also highly productive for the fishing industry.

The revised proposal was quietly posted on the Foreign Affairs Ministry website today afternoon.

The spawning zone is cut back – but restrictions will now apply year-round, instead of seasonally. Another protection zone, in north-east, has also been scrapped. And protected waters around the Scott Seamount are reduced.

MFAT says the changes have been made on the advice of CCAMLR’s Scientific Committee.

"The Scientific Committee was not convinced that there was adequate evidence to justify large areas of the north being closed to protect spawning toothfish," the website explains.

The revised proposal would still protect a full range of habitats, ecosystems and areas of particular ecological significance, it said.

There is no detail on how long the MPA would be in effect. Some countries want a sunset clause which would see the restrictions expire after 10-30 years and be reviewed.

There is also no word on whether the reductions are enough to secure the support of opponents.

Foreign Minister Murray McCully was unavailable for comment.

Lobby groups earlier today urged the Government not to cave in on the protection plan.

Last Ocean Trust co-founder Peter Young said the original proposal was robust. The Ross Sea is home to many species found nowhere else on the planet and is critical for scientific research, particularly into global climate change, he said.

"'New Zealand and the United States need to back the huge weight of scientific evidence they themselves prepared and presented to CCAMLR."

Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition executive director Jim Barnes believed it would be a ''huge strategic mistake" to wind back the proposal without first securing support.

Steve Campbell of the Antarctic Ocean Alliance, an umbrella of 30 conservation organisations, echoed these concerns.

"[We] would be deeply concerned that the US and New Zealand could be giving away too much, leaving us with a protected area that reduces protection for the Ross Sea."

The toothfish catch is worth about $20 million a year to New Zealand. The international fishery now takes about 3000 tonnes of the fish - also known as Chilean sea bass - from the Ross Sea.

Antarctic waters make up about 10 per cent of the world's seas and are home to almost 10,000 species, including penguins, whales and seals.

Geoff Keey, spokesman for the Antarctic Ocean Alliance, believes it was a "tactical mistake" to reduce the proposal with talking to other CCAMLR countries.

"Cutting the amount of protected areas from 2.3 million sq km to 1.35 million sq km is a reduction of more than 40% and many important elements of the package are yet to be discussed, such as whether the MPA is permanent," he said.

"On the plus side, the US and NZ have not reduced the scale on the slope and shelf which is a critical area. It is pretty clear that further negotiations are unlikely to strengthen the proposal so it's a big step down in terms of Southern Ocean protection."


- © Fairfax NZ News








































OCEAN ISSUES


QUIT EATING FISHES !



The ocean — at the heart of the Earth System, essential for human survival
It is very hard to overstate the importance of the global ocean, which encompasses every sea and ocean on our planet. A critical player in the Earth System, the ocean is central to climate regulation, the hydrological and carbon cycles and nutrient flows, balances levels of atmospheric gases, and is a source of raw materials vital for medical and other uses.

The ocean provides the oxygen in every second breath we take, has absorbed approximately 30% of the CO2 and 80% of the additional heat we have generated in the past 200 years, and is the primary source of animal protein for over 2.6 billion people.

If the Earth is thought of as a human body, the ocean is — among other things - the driver of its circulatory and respiratory systems. If it became unable to perform the host of essential functions we all count on, the planet would become uninhabitable. 

As we grow ever more aware of the full extent of the impacts that human activities are having on the planet, some scientists are stressing the need to respect certain ‘planetary boundaries’ if we are to preserve the favourable conditions which have allowed human civilization to flourish, i.e. continue to enjoy ‘a safe operating space for humanity’. The ocean is a fundamental element in this analysis, and a healthy ocean is necessary to prevent us crossing tipping points into undesirable, potentially uninhabitable, and uncontrollable conditions. 

The ocean must therefore be considered from a long-term, holistic perspective that respects its position within the entire Earth System, and its resources carefully managed and used in order to prevent further widespread damage to marine ecosystems and the vital functions they fulfill. Unfortunately, this is a realization that is only just beginning to take root, following many decades of relentless exploitation, and shortsighted and disjointed policies, which have left the ocean in a critical state of health. 

The State of the Ocean: multiple threats, major challenges
The ocean is being pushed beyond the limits that the marine environment can sustain. Human activities — from overfishing to the increased use of plastics to the burning of fossil fuels — are subjecting it to a multitude of interconnected threats that are unprecedented in human history. The ocean has born the brunt of careless and unsustainable human exploitation for too long, and experts increasingly warn that unless action is taken urgently to address the most pressing threats and build the resilience of key marine ecosystems and species we risk catastrophic (and potentially abrupt and unpredictable) changes — such as mass coral bleaching, collapse of major fish stocks and devastating shifts in weather patterns — that will prevent the ocean from providing its life giving services to humanity and fulfilling its functions within the Earth System. Major threats include: 

Ocean warming: increased temperatures in the ocean, caused by rising global temperatures as a result of climate change, have been detected at depths of more than 3,000m. There is strong evidence that warming ocean temperatures are responsible for increasing the intensity of tropical cyclones, as well as disrupting global fisheries by causing valuable fish stocks to migrate towards cooler waters nearer the poles. Warmer waters are also a major threat to coral reefs, making them both more vulnerable to bleaching and other damage, and more susceptible to the effects of acidification. Some researchers have indicated that at 1.7°C above pre-industrial temperatures, all warm-water coral reefs will be bleached, and by 2.5°C they will be extinct. 

Ocean acidification: the ocean has acted as a giant buffer, helping to cushion the effects of climate change caused by our growing CO2 emissions by absorbing around 30% of carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. But at a huge - and not yet fully understood - cost to fundamental ocean chemistry and ecosystems. In the past 200 years, as a direct result of increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere — the ocean has experienced a 30% decrease in its mean pH levels. At current rates, pH will drop by up to 200% more by 2100, a rate of change ten times faster than anything else suffered by the ocean for 55 million years, and which will reduce the ocean’s capacity to absorb carbon in the future, and threaten the food security of communities reliant on vulnerable species of shellfish. The threat of ocean acidification is considered to be one of the nine so-called Planetary Boundaries which humanity must avoid exceeding, but which is currently not being addressed as global action to cut CO2 emissions flounders. 

Unsustainable use of marine resources: FAO estimates that 85% of fish stocks are fully exploited, over exploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion—the highest proportion ever recorded. Additional climate-related fishing losses are being concentrated in tropical least-developed countries, many of them in Africa and South-East Asia, further effecting fishing communities. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is responsible for the loss of between 11 million and 26 million tonnes of unaccounted for fish, out of a total world capture of approximately 80 million tonnes. Destructive fishing practices — including dragging nets the size of football fields across the sea bed — are causing tremendous damage to breeding, nursery and fishing habitats for marine life. Once abundant iconic marine species are disappearing from the ocean. Sharks are in particular trouble: studies estimate that up to 73 million sharks are killed every year to supply the fin trade, and they are often the victims of bycatch. Annual population declines as high as 70 to 80 percent have been reported for some species. 

Hypoxia/Anoxia: agricultural run-offs mean that levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in the oceans have trebled since pre-industrial times, leading to massive increases in the numbers and expanse of deoxygenated coastal ‘dead zones’. There are well over 500 such zones, and this number is increasing fast, spurred on further by rising sea temperatures. 

Sea-level rise threatens the very existence of some SIDS (small island developing states) and coastal cities, and could cause vast areas of land currently used for food production to become inundated. The pace of global mean sea level rise is accelerating: levels rose by approximately 1.8mm per year over the last 50 years, but doubled to 3.1mm per year in the 1990s, and were 2.5mm per year in the period 2003—2007. Estimates vary, but there is a growing consensus that mean levels could rise by over 2 metres before 2100 if further temperature increases stimulate the complex feedback loops which govern the patterns of polar ice melt. Summer sea ice in the Arctic has been decreasing by 7.4% per decade since 1978.

Marine pollution is now a major problem in over half the total expanse of the global ocean, and is weakening the resilience of species and habitats to other threats, such as acidification, and reducing their capacity to cope with climate change. Plastic is becoming even more of a problem, as are chemical pollutants such as the flame-retardant chemicals and synthetic musks found in detergents which recent studies have traced in the polar seas. These chemicals can be absorbed by tiny plastic particles in the ocean and ingested by marine creatures such as bottom-feeding fish. Plastic particles can also transport algae from one location to another, increasing the occurrence of toxic algal blooms, which are also caused by nutrient-rich agricultural run-off. 

Multiple Stressors: over 40% of marine ecosystems are already simultaneously facing several of the major pressures outlined above, creating a perfect storm of interconnected ‘multiple stressors’ which is placing the very chemical and thermodynamic foundations of the ocean in jeopardy, and increasing the risk of catastrophic outcomes — such as a mass extinction of vulnerable marine species. There are complex feedback loops at play in the ocean, and there is an urgent need to fill remaining knowledge gaps concerning how the different threats interrelate in different ecosystems. It is already evident that the co-existence of more than one threat can create impacts that are greater than the sum of their parts; this is known as a ‘synergistic response’. For example, the bleaching of coral reefs has been shown to occur more frequently in response to a combination of stressors acting simultaneously — and often synergistically. The combination of global stressors, such as increasing temperature and acidification, interacting with local stressors, such as pollution and deoxygenation, presents a particular danger to coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems.

The cumulative effect of overlapping threats is a key reason why their impacts are being observed at a faster rate than previously predicted. It is therefore paramount that they be addressed together and across all scales from local to global, instead of on an issue-specific basis as is the norm today.

Climate change: Rising emissions from fossil fuels is the direct cause of the global stressors impacting on the ocean — acidification, warming and sea-level rise, the effects of which are already exacerbating and accelerating the impacts of other threats such as pollution and overfishing.

The Value of the Ocean: what do we stand to lose?
As the life giving pump of the Earth System, and home to hundreds of thousands of species, the ocean itself is so vital to our lives and futures that it is impossible to assign a value to it. However, many of the services it provides do have a tangible — and in many cases massive — economic value, and, with every year that passes without strong action to reverse the tide of exploitation, the cost of preserving and rehabilitating a healthy ocean is rising. Ocean economics is a subject currently gaining increasing — and long overdue - attention.

The UN has calculated that over three billion people depend on marine and coastal biodiversity for their livelihoods, and estimates the market value of marine and coastal resources and industries at $3 trillion per year, or about 5% of global GDP.
The most widely recognised economic contribution of the ocean is fisheries. The global value of fish catches at landing is approximately $100 billion, and the wider economic activities related to fishing reach a value of about $240 billion. Marine fisheries directly or indirectly employ over 200 million people worldwide, and many coastal communities depend almost entirely on fishing for both their livelihoods and as their main source of protein, as well as it being the foundation of their cultural heritage and identity. 

Poorly managed fisheries cause economic losses in the tens of billions of dollars every year. Subsidies for fishing are contributing to the rapid depletion of many fish species and are hindering efforts to save and restore global fisheries and related jobs, causing ocean fisheries to generate US$ 50 billion less per year than they could. In addition, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing is responsible for the loss of $10 billion to $23 billion a year — the value of the 11 million to 26 million tonnes of fish that are unaccounted for, out of a total world capture of approximately 80 million tonnes.
Environmental degradation and mismanagement have other, less visible and still under-appreciated, economic consequences. For example, the destruction of habitats which protect the coastline, such as coral reefs and mangrove forests, causes enormous losses. Coral reefs alone have been estimated to provide goods and services worth up to $375 billion per annum; with the economic value of coastal protection from a coral reef calculated at $25,000 per hectare per annum. Reef-based tourism now brings in tens of billions of dollars every year.

Another emerging concept within ocean economics is that of ‘Blue Carbon’ — i.e. the value of the carbon stored in marine ecosystems such as mangroves, salt marshes and sea groves. Some experts believe that total carbon deposits per square kilometer in these ecosystems could be up to five times those stored in terrestrial forests. Today, these ‘Blue Carbon’ ecosystems are being degraded and destroyed at a rapid pace resulting in globally significant CO2 emissions. The UN estimates that between 1980 and 2005, 35,000 square kilometers of mangroves were destroyed globally — an area the size of Belgium. The management of these ecosystems, through conservation, restoration and sustainable use has the potential to be a major tool in reducing carbon emissions, but the value of this ‘Blue Carbon’ is not being awarded sufficient attention, and remains wholly unrecognised by many governments and sectors. The valuation of ‘Blue Carbon’ activities and ecosystems could be pursued by the UNFCCC and incorporated into other carbon financing mechanisms, as terrestrial forests already are.

2012 study coordinated by the Stockholm Environment Institute called ‘Valuing the Ocean’ has provided the first estimates of the ocean values we stand to lose if we do not address climate change. It calculates the cost of lost ocean value (in terms of impacts to services such as fisheries, storm protection and tourism) under different CO2 emissions scenarios. By 2100, the estimated annual cost of ‘business as usual’ policies, projected to lead to an average temperature rise of 4°C, is estimated to be US$1.98 trillion. By contrast, rapid emission reductions, whereby temperature increase is limited to 2.2°C, would ‘save’ almost $1.4 trillion a year. While these figures are preliminary — and tell just part of the story — by pricing the difference between “our hopes and our fears” this analysis hopes to encourage policy-makers to pay greater attention to the value of ocean services, and recognize that the cost of inaction increases greatly with time.


http://www.oceansinc.org/p/ocean-issues.html

Photo + (c) National Geographic









NEW ZEALAND WORKING ON NEW 
ROSS SEA PLAN



Last updated 16:50 05/09/2013

New Zealand is likely to shift its position on protection for the Ross Sea in Antarctica, Prime Minister John Key has confirmed.
Fairfax NZ revealed yesterday that a joint NZ-United States proposal for a marine sanctuary is set to be scaled back after pressure from fishing nations.

Key said today officials are working on a new plan, ahead of talks in Tasmania next month.

An earlier bid, for 2.3 million square kilometre reserve, was scuttled by Russia during talks in Germany in July.

"This is the second attempt to get change, and if we are going to get change we are probably going to make some alterations," he said today.

Restrictions already exist in the pristine environment, but officials in Wellington and Washington have proposed the worlds' biggest marine protection area (MPA) to protect pristine waters and overfishing of toothfish.

New Zealand has some fishing rights in the sea - the US has none. Other seafaring nations - including Norway, Chile, Korea, China and Japan - oppose the plan.

Environmentalists fear large areas of the proposed reserve will be carved out to win their support. And insiders are speculating that as much as 40 per cent of the sanctuary, including important spawning grounds in the north, will be cut.

Key said negotiators have "been up against resistance" from several countries.

"New Zealand's view is that we can both maintain the stocks and the way that we sustainably fish for toothfish there. But also, on the other side of the coin, make sure that the pristine environment is maintained there in Antarctica."

The joint NZ-US plan proposed a 2.27 million sqkm reserve, with a a 1.6 million sqkm designated "no-take" zone. It needs the agreement of the 25-nation Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR).

The toothfish catch is worth about $20 million a year to New Zealand. The international fishery now takes about 3000 tonnes of the fish - also known as Chilean sea bass - from the Ross Sea.

Antarctic waters make up about 10 per cent of the world's seas and are home to almost 10,000 species, including penguins, whales and seals.

- © Fairfax NZ News
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/9130802/NZ-working-on-new-Ross-Sea-plan
Photo credit: Ross Sea | Oceanwide Expeditions
www~dot~oceanwide-expeditions~dot~com


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