Tag: fisheries

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Save Our Seals

Media Watch, The Molokai Dispatch, 11 November 2010

With a dwindling Hawaiian monk seal population, federal officials are proposing a new plan to improve the survival of the endangered species. However, some Molokai fishermen say they are worried the plan could come at their expense.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is preparing a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS) for an action plan that seeks to relocate monk seals to Molokai and other islands.

The NFMS is considering moving recently-weaned female pups from the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (NWHI) to the Main Hawaiian Islands (MHI) for three years. During this time, the seals would be released among wild pups and be monitored and studied before being returned to their respective islands. […]

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Paid not to fish

Media Watch, Christopher Pala, Honolulu Weekly, 13 October 2010

Some folks made a killing depleting the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument. Wait ‘til you see how much they’ll make not to fish there anymore.

The news came innocuously enough, in a press release earlier this year from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. As a result of former President George W. Bush’s designation of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands as a marine national monument in June 2006, Congress appropriated funds to compensate the owners of seven bottomfish licenses and 15 lobster licenses because they would no longer be able to fish there. The bottom-fishermen would share $2.2 million, the lobster fishermen $4.3 million. All licenses had been given out for free. […]

After two temporary closures by NOAA, the Honolulu federal court closed the fishery again in 2000 because of still-disputed evidence that the collapse of the lobster population had triggered mass starvation among monk seal pups, and that in turn caused a 5 percent yearly decline in the monk seal population. The fishery was never reopened, presumably because the lobster stocks never recovered, and the monk seal pups in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are still starving. […]

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Facing the Monachus Conspiracy

Media Watch, Thomas Schultze-Westrum, EcoCommunications, August 1, 2010

Seals and coastal fishermen face identical threats, more than just the rapid depletion of fish resources by exploitive trawlers…

“Indiscriminate seal killers” …  With this unjust accusation against the coastal fishermen – our allies from the beginning – the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Monk Seal (MOm) and their associates have demonstrated clearly their incompetence and regardless diffamation [sic], actually the total failure of their strategy. Because, at the time when MOm was founded, already there existed a full collaboration between the cooperative of the fishermen of Alonnisos and the conservation movement on behalf of the seals – see the “Declaration by the Fishermen of Alonnisos” of 1982 below. By this consensus the seals had become valued allies of the fishermen, in their function as guarantors of exclusive fishing rights in the coastal waters of the archipelago.

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Οι φώκες δεν είναι δέντρα…

Press Watch, TO BHMA Online (ΝΙΚΟΣ ΧΑΣΑΠΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ), July 25, 2010

Η παρ΄ ολίγον ενδοκυβερνητική «κρίση» όταν η κυρία Τίνα Μπιρμπίλη ζήτησε από την κυρία Κατερίνα Μπατζελή να απαγορευθεί η αλιεία στις περιοχές όπου υπάρχουν φώκες

Η μεσογειακή φώκια, το συμπαθές αυτό προστατευόμενο θαλάσσιο θηλαστικό, ήλθε ξαφνικά μεσούντος του θέρους να ταράξει τα ήδη ταραγμένα νερά στις ενδοκυβερνητικές διαμάχες. Δύο ωραίες κυρίες του Υπουργικού Συμβουλίου, στην προσπάθειά τους να κατοχυρώσουν τις όποιες αρμοδιότητες κι αν έχουν στο θαλάσσιο περιβάλλον, έπεσαν πάνω στη φώκια και έφθασαν μάλιστα στο σημείο να τη χαρακτηρίσουν ακόμη και… δέντρο. Η υπουργός Περιβάλλοντος, Ενέργειας και Κλιματικής Αλλαγής κυρία Τίνα Μπιρμπίλη και η υπουργός Αγροτικής Ανάπτυξης και Τροφίμων κυρία Κατερίνα Μπατζελή άρχισαν αιφνιδίως να αλληλογραφούν τι θα γίνει με τις φώκες και πώς αυτές θα περισωθούν. Ωσάν να έμειναν και πολλές στη Μεσόγειο. Ούτε καν 450, από τις οποίες οι 250 ζουν στα νερά της Ελλάδας και της Τουρκίας. […]

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An epidemic of killings

Editorial, The Monachus Guardian, June 2010

It is hard to imagine anyone not being moved by the tragic tale of ‘Markos’ – the young Mediterranean monk seal who was brought into intensive care, struggling for life, but horribly mutilated by the bullet that shattered his jaw and nasal cavity.

Possibly it was a blessing in disguise that, despite the valiant attempts to save him, he ultimately succumbed to his injuries, for it seemed doubtful that he would ever swim, dive, or grace the Aegean again.

The killing of monk seals in Greece, according to national NGO MOm, is reaching “epidemic proportions”.

The organisation has recorded 15 deaths since January, 5 of which yielded conclusive evidence of deliberate killing. Another killing by gunfire was reported in Turkey on the Bodrum peninsula on 21 April. With other killings just as likely to go undetected along remote coastlines, the final death toll is anybody’s guess.

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Young seal shot in Greece

Killings reaching ‘epidemic proportions’

A young Mediterranean monk seal remains in critical condition after being shot on the Aegean island of Evia, Greece.

The incident follows a spate of reported monk seal killings in Greece.

Greek monk seal protection NGO MOm dispatched a rescue team to the site after receiving an alert from the Port Police Authority on 27 April.

Estimated at 4 months of age, the male weaned pup was found stranded on the secluded beach of Madoudi in northern Evia. Initial examination on site revealed that it had suffered severe trauma, the bullet entering one side of the head and cutting through the animal’s nasal cavity, before exiting on the other.

Following emergency first aid, the pup was transferred to the Veterinary School of the University of Thessalonica, for further examination and treatment by Professor Natassa Komninou and MOm personnel.

X-rays confirmed that ‘Markos’ — as the pup was subsequently named by MOm — suffered a bullet wound to the head, resulting in the loss of his right eye and a serious fracture to his upper jaw.

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