Japan Blames Sea Shepherd, Weather For Falling Short Of Whaling Targets

While not everyone agrees with their tactics, the actions of Sea Shepherd this whaling season caused the Japanese fleet to fall well short of their killing quotas.
Japan’s Fisheries Agency blamed hunt disruptions from Sea Shepherd and inclement weather for resulting in only 679 minke being killed — well below a planned total haul of between 765 and 935 of the giant mammals. While that number killed is depressing, consider this: Japan caught just one fin whale compared with a target of 50. In total, 16 days of hunting were lost.
With the Japanese fleet now returning home, crew members are being questioned over clashes with Sea Shepherd. We’ve all seen the dramatic video footage of both ships colliding — and Paul Watson ended things early as a result of escalataing violence. The question remains: What will the Japanese fleet bring to the table next year? Will they have more high-tech audio weapons? A security detail? Will this year’s events cause Sea Shepherd to be taken out of the equation next year?
Stay tuned — Paul Watson and his crew have promised to be back — and with an even faster boat.

European vote to take sting out of falling bee numbers

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs ) voted on 20 November overwhelmingly in favour of providing ’recovery zones’ in European farmland to help rebuild the region’s declining bee population. The resolution, which was passed by 485 votes to 13, follows fears that European food production could be threatened if there were fewer bees to pollinate crops of fruit and vegetables. So far this year, German bee populations have dropped by a quarter and British beekeepers are expected to lose up to 10% of their colonies this winter.
The population has been endangered by long distance transportation of bees between countries as well as increased use of pesticides, which can weaken the insects’ immune systems. The development of genetically-modified crops and the spread of fungal infections and many viruses also contributed to the decline.
MEPs hope their directive – set up under the Common Agricultural Policy – will spur the EU executive to help to set up patches of farmland planted with pollen and nectar-rich plants to act as ’recovery zones’ for ailing insects. It would also fund research into the parasites and diseases which are harming bee populations, provide financial aid to apiaries with infected colonies, and combat ineffective pollination by banning pesticide treatment while crops are in flower.
Struan Stevenson, the Scottish Conservative MEP said: ”We must invest more into bee research to establish the exact causes of the shrinking bee population so that we can urgently put measures in place to combat the decline.”

Canada , Barbaric Acts of Cruelty

Copenhagen Conference: Rising sea levels set to have major impacts around the world.

Research presented today at the International Scientific Congress on Climate Change in Copenhagen shows that the upper range of sea level rise by 2100 could be in the range of about one meter, or possibly more. In the lower end of the spectrum it looks increasingly unlikely that sea level rise will be much less than 50 cm by 2100. This means that if emissions of greenhouse gases is not reduced quickly and substantially, even the best case scenario will hit low lying coastal areas housing one in ten humans on the planet hard.
Dr John Church of the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia and the lead speaker in the sea level session, told the conference, "The most recent satellite and ground based observations show that sea-level rise is continuing to rise at 3 mm/yr or more since 1993, a rate well above the 20th century average. The oceans are continuing to warm and expand, the melting of mountain glacier has increased and the ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica are also contributing to sea level rise."
New insights reported include the loss of ice from the Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets. "The ice loss in Greenland has accelerated over the last decade. The upper range of sea level rise by 2100 might be above 1m or more on a global average, with large regional differences depending where the source of ice loss occurs", says Konrad Steffen, Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado, Boulder and co-chair of the congress session on sea level rise.
The last assessment report from the IPCC from 2007 projected a sea level rise of 18 - 59 centimeter. However the report also clearly stated that not all factors contributing to sea level rise could be calculated at that time. The uncertainty was centered on the ice sheets, how they react to the effects of a warmer climate and how they interact with the oceans, explains Eric Rignot, Professor of Earth System Science at the University of California Irvine and Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Shark Fin Bust

Friday, June 26, 2009
Double Whammy in the Galapagos: Two Busts in Two Days on Two Islands
Shark Fin Bust in Santa Cruz
On the evening of June 25th, 2009, the Ecuadorian Environmental Police, acting on information provided by Sea Shepherd Galapagos, raided a fisherman’s house on Santa Cruz Island. The Environmental Police were supported by the Galapagos National Park Service and the K9 Police Unit.
Thanks to the excellent work of the dogs and their guides, the police quickly found 52 large shark fins inside the house. The dried and fresh fins weighed about 30 pounds. They were cut from Black Tip sharks and Galapagos sharks. Additionally, the police confiscated a substantial amount of illegal fishing gear (hooks, nets, and long lines) used in the illegal shark fishing industry.
Although Ecuadorian law permits sharks to be caught as by-catch near the Ecuadorian mainland, fishing for sharks is absolutely prohibited inside the Galapagos Marine Reserve.
The shark fins have an estimated street value of $10,000.
The suspect is under detention. Sea Shepherd will continue to assist in the case to secure a conviction and proper sentence.

Read more… http://www.seashepherd.org/news-and-media/sea-shepherd-news.html

Rhino, lion carcasses found in home in S.Africa's diplomatic quarter

Johannesburg - South African police have arrested a man after discovering the carcasses of lions and rhinoceroses strewn around a house in the capital, Pretoria, local media reported Wednesday. Police were tipped off by the Society for the Protection of Cruelty to Animals after an inspector stumbled across the bones at the residence in the upmarket Waterkloof suburb, the South African Press Association reported.

Many diplomatic residences and an air force base are located in Waterkloof.

Photos taken at the scene showed carcasses and skulls strewn around the ground.

The report quoted a police spokesman as saying the man was suspected of illegally
slaughtering animals at his home. The suspect was allegedly an Asian.

Rhinoceros poaching has spiralled in southern Africa in recent years, fuelled
by the booming trade in rhinoceros horn in Asian markets, where it used in traditional medicine.






http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/262481,rhino-lion-carcasses-found-in-home-in-safricas-diplomatic-quarter.html