Failure at ICCAT

After meeting for ten days in Recife, Brazil ICCAT has once again failed to end fishing for Atlantic bluefin tuna, setting the catch limit at 13,500.

Only a zero catch limit could have maximised the chances that Atlantic bluefin tuna could recover to the point where the fishery could exist in the future.

Comms INC produced this poster for display at Recife airport in Brazil

Green groups present at the negotiations are blaming this failure on Europe, accusing them of representing the Spanish fishing fleet.

Although ICCAT, who also manages sharks, took a small step towards their protection with a ban on the retention and landing of big eye threshers, it failed to take this opportunity to protect other oceanic sharks.

To read what The Times has to say about this, please visit this link.

The fate of Atlantic Bluefin and threatened shark species including spurdog and porbeagle now rests with the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) when it meets in March in Doha, Qatar.

Watch this space....

Copenhagen will fail to deliver Climate Change treaty

After months of crossed fingers and desperate pleas it looks like hopes are fading for a successful outcome at Copenhagen.

The US has finally admitted that a legally binding treaty is no longer a possibility and that a political agreement is the most that can be expected.

With the political arena proving unable or unwilling to act, the pressure is mounting on the NGO community to enable action at a grass roots level.

What remains to be seen is whether enough can be achieved in time.

To read what the Guardian has to say about this, please visit this link.