Belize Bans Bottom Trawling in Exclusive Economic Zone

PRETOMA is celebrating this Christmas with a special edition of the organization’s first Cocos Island Turtles and Sharks Calendar.

For 5,000 colones ($10 dollars) you can give a different kind of gift this season – one that embodies the spirit of the Island.

Calendars are available at our office in Tibás, located 200 meters South and 100 meters West of the main cemetery entrance.  Your purchase will allow you to experience the Island’s wonders every day while helping to preserve its marine life.

For more information, please call 2241-5227;  membresias@pretoma.org

San José, 18 November – Costa Rican biologist and PRETOMA president Randall Arauz received the 2010 Gothenburg Award for sustainable development, recognized as the most prestigious environmental award in Europe, for his fight against shark finning.

The Award is given to individuals or organizations that develop national or international environmental projects.  Each year the selection committee chooses the winners based on a predetermined sustainability theme.  For the 11th edition of the Award, the theme was ecosystem and marine species conservation.

The fight against shark finning in Costa Rica and the implementation of international campaigns were two factors that influenced the panel’s decision to award the prize to Arauz and his work with his organization PRETOMA.  Randall Arauz is the first Costa Rican and second Latin American to achieve this honor in the city on Gothenburg, Sweden.  The achievement is tantamount to the Goldman Environmental Prize, considered to be the Noble Prize for the environment, which he received in April.

North American oceanographer Ken Sherman also received this year’s Award at a ceremony in Lindholmen Science Park in Gothenburg.  Along with the Award, both winners will split a 130 thousand dollar cash prize.

Past Gothenburg Award recipients include Al Gore, ex vice president of the United States, and the ex mayor of Bogotá, Colombia, Enrique Peñalosa.

The Gothenburg Award for sustainable development began in 2000.  It is financed by a coalition of important Gothenburg companies.

A short five minute movie about Arauz’s fight against shark finning will air on Monday, November 22 in the United States.  Please see the announcement below for more details:

Mill Valley Film Group teams up with Robert Redford to highlight environmental heroes – Global Focus VII – The New Environmentalists Premieres on KQED, Monday, November 22 at 7:30pm
rebroadcast Friday, November 26 at 7:30pm

Narrated by Robert Redford, Global Focus VII –The New Environmentalists is an Emmy Award winning series, featuring portraits of six passionate and dedicated activists. These are true environmental heroes who have placed themselves squarely in harm’s way to battle intimidating adversaries, while others are creating partnerships with unlikely allies. The New Environmentalists share a common goal, safeguarding the Earth’s natural resources from exploitation and pollution, while fighting for environmental justice in their communities. These stories feature:

Randall Arauz | Costa Rica – led the campaign to halt the environmentally catastrophic practice of shark finning in Costa Rica. Arauz’s awareness campaign and political actions have spawned a powerful movement to stop the massive slaughter.

Lynn Henning | USA – A courageous family farmer, who boldly exposed the polluting practices of livestock factory farms, gaining the attention of the federal EPA.

Humberto Ríos Labrada | Cuba – this visionary agronomist promoted sustainable agriculture by working with farmers to increase crop diversity, encouraging Cuba’s shift from agricultural chemical dependence.

Tuy Sereivathana | Cambodia – Tuy Sereivathana worked to mitigate human elephant conflict in Cambodia by introducing innovative low-cost solutions.

Małgorzata Górska | Poland – led the fight to protect Poland’s Rospuda Valley, one of Europe’s last true wilderness areas.

Thuli Makama | Swaziland – Thuli Makama, Swaziland’s only public interest environmental attorney, won a landmark case to include environmental NGO representation in conservation decisions.

Global Focus VII’ illustrates how ordinary people are affecting extraordinary change. The New Environmentalists employ a formidable array of weapons to wage their battles. Picket signs, guitars, legal briefs, chemistry labs, the press, and sheer determination are among their many resources.

Contact: Will Parrinello – 415-225-3910, willmvfg@gmail.com
John Antonelli – 415-225-3909, mvfg@aol.com

Volunteers race to extract water from their well before it's filled in

On August 30 Sylvester Feichtinger, owner of Agropecuaria Caletas S.A., the farming company that is demolishing the wetland beside the Caletas-Arío National Wildlife Refuge, had his employees destroy the well that Pretoma sea turtle volunteers dug in 2002 to supply fresh water to the project’s beachside camp.  According to Agropecuaria Caletas S.A. the well was destroyed because it was located on the company’s property.  Moments before the well was filled with sand, volunteers were able to extract a small quantity of water to be used in the camp’s day to day operations.

“This latest agressive action is another example of how Sylvester Feichtinger is bent on impeding Pretoma’s volunteers from protecting the area’s nesting sea turtle population and from monitoring the damage his company is causing to the wetland”, said Pretoma’s Miguel Gomez, ”but this shameful impediment to the volunteer’s basic right to fresh water will not stop Pretoma from pursuing its mission of protecting Playa Caletas.”  At this moment the project’s volunteers are already looking for a suitable area to dig a replacement well and continue with their work to protect the wetland and sea turtles.

Farming company workers fill in the well

If you haven’t already, please take a moment to send the petition to the Environmental Ministry and to Sylvester’s Hotel Casa Caletas calling for the immediate stoppage of the wetland’s destruction.  Invite your friends to join the Facebook group dedicated to this campaign.

Watch the video.

Monday, 16 of August, 2010

QUITO, AFP

Accoring to the Ecuadorian press, the captain and crew of the Costa Rican fishing boat Rosa 1 were arrested last week for illegal fishing activities in the Galapagos Island Marine Reserve, Ecuador.  Ecuadorian officials announced that the boat was carrying no less than 75 “finned” sharks.  Costa Rican fishing law states that all sharks must be landed with their fins naturally attached to their bodies.  Since the boat is Costa Rican, it’s logical to assume that it will eventually land its cargo in Puntarenas.  Costa Rica’s Fisheries Institute, Incopesca, asures that it inspects 100% of fisheries landings as a way to prevent shark finning from happening in this country.  But how effective is Incopesca’s system of inspection?

Other related cases:
In 2008, sacks of shark fins were found aboard the Kendy and the Franju III after they were spoted illegally fishing in the Cocos Island National Park’s Marine Protected Area.  When the two boats arrived in Puntarenas the fins were no longer onboard.  As the law only stipulates that fins be attached to the shark’s body when they are landed, and it does not prohibit the transportation of fins separated from bodies, no legal action was taken.
Indonesian/Costa Rican citizens Dian (23) and Fajar (36), international fishing vessel slaves that were freed by Costa Rican authorities at the Imperio Pesquero del Pacífico dock, explained to the Tico Times newspaper on June 4, 2010 that fishing crews rutinly fin sharks as the product represents and pay bonus for the crew.  The fishermen even showed a personal video to the press of crewmembers finning the animals.

  
Shark finning happens day in and day out in Costa Rica.  Quite simply, Incopesca lacks the initiative to enforce the law.  In fact, fisheries inspectors do not even have the authority to implement fishing regulations as they must first ask permission from the private dock owners before performing their inspections.

Click here to real article

Environment Commission DOES NOT vote on bill 17.383 to demote Las Baulas National Park.  Now, the decision lies with our new President, Laura Chinchilla.  Read more in the Leatherback Newsletter.

RANDALL ARAUZ
Goldman Environmental Prize, 2010
Recipient.  Central And South America

Speech pronounced during the Award Ceremony, at the San Francisco Opera House, April 19, 2010.

Randall Arauz receiving his award at the 2010 Goldman Prize ceremony / Credit: Goldman Environmental Prize

“When I started Pretoma over 14 years ago, I had no idea WE were going to go so far!  And I say “we”, because over the years a team of dedicated conservationists has performed the most diverse of tasks to fulfill our mission, which is to protect, and restore, endangered marine wildlife.

Sadly, shark finning is far from over.  Global shark population declines are estimated at 90%, mostly due to shark finning.  Governments are drafting “Shark Action Plans” in an effort to reverse the negative trend on shark populations.  But NOTHING has been done YET, to actually curtail shark mortality.

More than 100 foreign longline shark finning vessels still operate illegally in private docks of Costa Rica.  Recently, investigative journalists have exposed drug trafficking and indentured servitude alongside shark finning at these private docks, whose operators take advantage of lax customs enforcement.

So what’s next?

As with many pressing environmental problems, we have the scientific knowledge to solve them.  We must act now!

To restore shark populations, it’s going to take the protection of critical shark habitats through the creation of Marine Protected Areas, and it’s going to take strong fisheries regulations.

At PRETOMA we support small scale sustainable fishermen.  We won’t stand for huge industrial foreign fleets wiping out the world’s shark populations!

This is where everyone can help us make a difference.  I urge you to call on your representatives to make educated decisions, and support all measures possible to protect sharks.  Tell your friends about the problem, especially if you know politically influential people.  Sharks need all the help they can get, from all sectors of society.

I would like to thank the Goldman Foundation for this award.  It is the fruit of many years of hard work by many people.  I hope this award serves as an inspiration to other small NGOs working with few resources.  It is sometimes overwhelming to battle major economic interests on shoestring budgets, and disappointment may come easily, but we must hang in there!

I would like to thank my parents and siblings, my lovely wife Isabel and two kids, Daniel and Grisel, as well as Pretoma’s supporters and partners – Todd Steiner, Ricardo Soto, Georgina Domberger, Mario Boza, and 1999 Goldman Prize winner Jorge Varela.

Muchas gracias a todos.  Now, its time to get back to saving sharks!  I hope you decide to join us!”

—-Watch the Goldman Foundation’s Video detailing Randall Arauz and Pretoma’s work

Article only available in Spanish

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News
 
Millions of marine turtles have been killed over the past two decades through entrapment in fishing gear, according to a global survey (click here to read full study).
 
Described as the first global synthesis of existing data, the study found especially high rates of “bycatch” in the Mediterranean and eastern Pacific. Six of the seven sea turtle types are on the Red List of Threatened Species.

Writing in the journal Conservation Letters, researchers advocate much greater use of gear safe for turtles. These include circular hooks rather than the conventional J-shaped hooks on long fishing lines, and hatches that allow the reptiles to escape from trawls.

“We conservatively estimate that the true total is probably... in the millions of turtles taken as bycatch in the past two decades” Dr Bryan Wallace

Turtles must come to the surface to breathe. When they are caught in a net or on a fishing hook, they cannot surface, and drown. Lead researcher Bryan Wallace said the state of the world’s turtles was an indicator of the wider health of the oceans. “Sea turtles are sentinel species of how oceans are functioning,” he said. “The impacts that human activities have on them give us an idea as to how those same activities are affecting the oceans on which billions of people around the world depend for their own well-being.”

Dr Wallace works in the global marine division of Conservation International and at Duke University in the US.

The raw material from the study came from records of bycatch – incidental catches in fishing gear – from different regions of the world. Over the period 1990-2008, records showed that more than 85,000 turtles were snared. However, those records covered a tiny proportion of the world’s total fishing fleets. “Because the reports we reviewed typically covered less than 1% of all fleets, with little or no information from small-scale fisheries around the world, we conservatively estimate that the true total is probably not in tens of thousands, but in the millions of turtles taken as bycatch in the past two decades,” said Dr Wallace.

Three types of fishing gear are identified in the survey – long-lines, gillnets and trawls.

Modern long-line boats trail strings of hooks that can be 40km long, usually in search of high-value species such as tuna and marlin. Gillnets are usually stationary, and use mesh of a set size in an attempt to target certain species of fish.

The researchers suggest that several areas of the world account for particularly high levels of bycatch – the Mediterranean Sea and the eastern Pacific Ocean for all types of gear, together with trawling operations off the west coast of Africa.

Modifying fishing gear can have a dramatic impact on the size of bycatch. Shrimp trawls fitted with turtle excluder devices (TEDs) catch markedly fewer of the reptiles. A grid prevents anything large from entering the back portion of the net, and a hole above the grid allows accidentally snared animals such as turtles to escape. A number of countries now require that shrimp boats must use nets fitted with TEDs.

The circular long-line hooks also reduce bycatch of birds such as albatrosses. However, some fleets have resisted adopting selective gear because fishermen believe it will reduce their catch. In many parts of the developing world, the gear is not available.
 
Marine turtles face other significant threats. Debris in the oceans, such as plastic bags, can also cause drowning, while development in coastal regions can affect nesting and reproduction. Some turtles are still targeted for meat, and their shells used for tourist souvenirs.

Numbers of adult leatherbacks – the largest species, growing to more than 2m long and capable of journeys that span entire oceans – are thought to have declined by more than 75% between 1982 and 1996.

Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk