17 February 2007

Anything but Normal

By Shane, in Tokyo, after the "Normalisation" Meeting

Not only was the "normalisation meeting" pretty odd, the fallout afterwards has been anything but normal.

The two main newspapers in Nicaragua yesterday carried the scandal that the "representative" of Nicaragua at the meeting did not have government authorisation to attend. As El Nuevo Diario reports, Miguel Marenco was officially on leave from his job at the Fisheries and Agriculture Department, but instead appeared in Tokyo representing his country and arguing in favour of whaling.

The group Club de Jóvenes Ambientalistas (rough translation: Club of Environmentalist Young People) obtained the above photograph of Marenco from the meeting in Tokyo and revealed his presence to the government, sparking the scandal.

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15 February 2007

"Normalising" the IWC means Business as Usual

By Shane, relieved that the Normalisation meeting is over, in Tokyo

After three days of meetings in Tokyo, the pro-whaling members of the International Whaling Commission have concluded that the best plan to move forward is to keep hunting more whales.

The purpose of the meeting was to talk about how to ‘normalize’ the IWC. Before the meeting, we said that meant ‘commercial whaling’ in the eyes of this crowd, and it seems we were right.

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13 February 2007

The odd, yet strangely boring, Normalisation Meeting

By Shane, on Day 1 of the IWC "Normalisation Meeting" in Tokyo

So today was the first day of the Japanese Government hosted ‘Normalisation’ meeting, intended to find a pathway to resume commercial whaling.

As I said yesterday, it was definitely a gathering of the countries who support whaling. Of course, I should have known that when you have a meeting of people that all agree with each other it is going to get boring, but this was worse than I could have imagined!

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12 February 2007

At the whaler's club

By Shane, in Tokyo to attend the IWC's "Normalisation" meeting

Here I am in Japan to attend a meeting organised by the Japanese Government. Over recent years, they have increasingly talked about the need for 'normalisation' of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). This is basically code for a return to commercial whaling. So this meeting is really about commercialisation, not normalisation.

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"Normalisation" isn't good for whales

Posted by Dave, on the Esperanza

This week the Japanese government will host a meeting of predominately pro-whaling International Whaling Commission (IWC) members in Tokyo.

The stated purpose of this meeting - which isn't part of the official Commission agenda, is to "normalize" the IWC. Almost without exception, pro-conservation members of the IWC have agreed not to attend this meeting, because it is expected that the Japanese government will use the occasion to claim support for a resumption of commercial whaling. Not a welcome thought.

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9 February 2007

Whaling: The International Situation

Posted by Karli, on the Esperanza

Almost every single person on this ship comes from a country that says they are opposed to whaling. But saying you are opposed to whaling, and then doing something about it are two different things; there is a whole spectrum of action and inaction that lies between. So, while we are here amongst the icebergs of the Southern Ocean, preparing to take direct action to save whales from Japanese Government's whaling fleet's deadly harpoons... what is going on in the rest of the world?

From one International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting to the next, the Japanese government works away at recruiting new countries to vote pro-whaling... However, although the IWC started life as an organisation that represented fifteen whaling nations in the divvying up of the oceans' whales and tried to keep things from getting too far out of hand - the IWC has now changed. Over time, nations that wanted to see whales protected began joining, giving strength and a voice for the whales. Those years saw the introduction of the moratorium on commercial whaling and the establishment of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. But is that momentum now slipping away, and the majority eroding?

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19 January 2007

Free trade means empty oceans: Nairobi Part II

By Daniel, in Nairobi

Carrying the heavy Trading Away Our Oceans reports to Nairobi was well worth it. The launch at Nairobi’s oldest building (if you ignore the railway station) went well. Sometimes Defending our Oceans takes us to some unusual locations and ok, it did feel a bit funny to talk about justice and the need for fairer fisheries in a symbol of Kenya’s colonial past: the Norfolk Hotel. But our message was clearly received – and compared to where trade ministers will meet in Davos next week, I am sure even the Norfolk was modest.

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17 January 2007

Trading Away Our Oceans

By Daniel, in Nairobi

It’s been a couple of months, since we haunted the World Trade Organization building in Geneva with our news that trade liberalization in fisheries are bad news for people and the planet.

But this Friday, as global global civil society is heading to Nairobi for the
World Social Forum , the time has come for a
follow up. My luggage will be heavy for Nairobi. I will be carrying dozens of
copies of “Trading Away Our Oceans”. We will launch this new report at the
Norfolk Hotel in Nairobi Friday at 11am. The room we have booked is next to the
pool, the Hotel staff inform me. Hope there won’t be any sharks in it!

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23 November 2006

Look over there!

We're posting entries about the UN bottom trawl negotiations on our big brother blog, Making Waves...

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6 October 2006

At the UN: What's in the media and what's going on in the room are 2 very different things!

By Karen, at the UN General Assembly in New York

Hello from the UN in NY, where the negotiations over the annual UN Resolution on Sustainable Fisheries are now underway. Over the past two days, delegates have met to discuss what to do about the issue of high seas bottom trawling. The momentum is all there for something to happen, but it is what goes on behind closed doors in the basement of the UN that is going to decide what actually happens.

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27 September 2006

"I Am a WTO Bully"

By Daniel, at the World Trade Organization

The air quality in room F of the World Trade Organization building would not have passed any environmental tests. But despite this, over 60 trade bureaucrats as well as some real human beings came and participated in our session today inside the belly of the globalization beast.

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25 September 2006

Fish get stolen... and our oceans get traded away

By Daniel, soon to be at the WTO Public Forum in Switzerland

It’s time for some campaigning in suits again, as next week the World Trade Organization (WTO) is holding a “Public Forum”. The WTO is as powerful as it is secretive (see our campaign information here). But once a year, it pretends to be democratic and allows the great unwashed – like us - inside the WTO building next to Lake Geneva. Provided you wear a suit, that is.

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26 June 2006

St Kitts - "Come Back Soon"

Part 2 of Mike's memoirs from his time in StKitts' jail "Smack Down" and the country's Monty Python-style courtroom

Back to the stinky cell my heart sank, and fear and panic were setting in, was the sentence really going to be decided by the Chief of Police? If so, I and possibly my Latin compatriots were going to do some hard time. I've done this once before and to say I was scared would be an understatement.

Back to Smack Down, this time I was allowed to stay with the others in the Police recreation area, I tried to look invisible, and to look calm. Don't know if I managed either. All for one and one for all, we held each other together, shoring up our collective belief that the punishment would fit the crime. A fine and time served seemed infinitely reasonable to us for a peaceful protest. After all, as the man from Reuters reported me saying: "What could be more peaceful than 1,000 cardboard whale tails?"

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Take action: tell Denmark not to vote against whales

From Adele in the Greenpeace office in Stockholm

Denmark cast a deciding vote against the whales at this year's International Whaling Commission meeting. With a one vote majority the whalers passed a resolution promoting the absurd and scientifically discredited idea that whales are to blame for the worldwide decline in fish stocks, and a return to full scale commercial whaling.

Most people in Denmark are against commercial whaling. So why is their government voting in favour of it?

Help us bring the government of Denmark back on side, and in line with what its own citizens want. Send this message to the Prime Minister of Denmark and ask him to change Denmark's policy.

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Sleepless in Smackdown - Part 1

By Mike, Straight-talkin' Scotsman, Part 1 of his St Kitts memoirs written on his way home

Time stands still when you're in a four meter square punishment cell in Smack Down. I don't know when evening ended and night began or when night gave way to morning. But, it was morning I focussed on, with the sun would come a trip to the Magistrates Court. In my darkened cell the sun could come and go in secret. 9 am couldn't come soon enough, when the Judge would shine some light in the darkness of our uncertainty: the ten Greenpeace Ocean Defenders who'd been arrested the day before in a peaceful protest to defend the whales.

Busted for a peaceful protest on a public beach: for highlighting the failure of the week-long International Whaling Commission's annual meeting to stop the slaughter of thousands of whales a year. The action took place on the last day of the meeting, a day which would focus on administration and not whales (see below). For trying to plant cardboard whale tails, blackened fluke-shaped tombstones, marked R.I.P. (Rest in Peace) on the beach in front of the meeting. One for each whale killed in the name of science by the Fisheries Agency of Japan in the IWC designated Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary during the 2005/06 season, 853 minke whales and 10 Fin whales; one for each of the whales to be killed in the coming season.

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22 June 2006

"I and I" Smack Down

(The ten activists arrested at the International Whaling Commission in St. Kitts have now been freed by the authorities. Here's the story of the incarceration of one Mike Townsley)

By Mike, comms officer

"Also in mitigation your honour, when you are considering the sentence, look these are MOSTLY young people, young people just starting out in life," said the Greenpeace Lawyer in his Burberry Suit. "OBJECTION your honour, can the court please strike that from the record!" I shouted (under my breath) . What did he mean mostly, I guess, it was a caveat to cover the presence of the ever so slightly greying Scotsman at the front of the queue? I was the exception to the rule; the average age of my fellow defendants was about 24, reverse the numbers and you get my age.

I'd also been singled out as the 'ring leader'. In Greenpeace we don't have ring leaders, and while I know it sounds 'corny', it is 'one for all and all for one'.

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21 June 2006

IWC: A Star is Born

As the IWC proceedings wrap up, we take a look inside the meeting with a new star on Ocean Defenders TV: Mike Townsley! Like a true celebrity, he already managed to get arrested one day after the shoot:

http://oceans.greenpeace.org/en/ocean-defenders-tv

Many thanks to Mike and especially also to cameraman Hernan for putting this together on the ground.

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Maintain the rage

By Adele, at the Greenpeace office in Stockholm

Ok Ocean Defenders, I know you've been clamouring for stuff to do here. While we don't have a cyberaction just yet, I have tried to paste together names and addresses of (some of) the guys - and girls - in suits responsible for either supporting whaling or not doing enough to stop the slaughter.

I've gathered some useful links and information below. Make sure you're signed up as an Ocean Defender so you are the first to hear when we launch actions for you - or to get the news from the Southern Ocean as we go back to stop the manufacture of scientific sushi later this year....

Feel free to post more ideas or contact details you can google up in the comments - especially political contact details, could be handy for someone out there.

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20 June 2006

863 whales remembered in protest

by Andrew at the Greenpeace International office in Amsterdam

I've just had word from our people in St Kitts. Details are sketchy because most of our team there is now in police custody. Here is what I've heard:

Our ship the Arctic Sunrise was refused entry to St Kitts last week for, "national security reasons". This was probably at the request of the Japanese government, or maybe the St Kitts government acted on its own. Either way, they didn't want a Greenpeace ship anywhere near the IWC meeting. Especially not one whose crew has protected whales from Japanese government sponsored harpoons.

But today our ship came in anyway. Its cargo - 863 cardboard whale tails - one whale tail for every whale the Japanese "research" program killed in the Southern Ocean last season.

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The Last Word

From Mike, Press Guy and Straight-talkin' Scotsman at the IWC

[Adele] Mike's just sent through his wrap-up of IWC 58. He says:

"This year the world body responsible for protecting whales, the International Whaling Commission, was dominated by speculation about whether or not the whalers would take over and begin dismantling hard won whale protection measure like the global commercial moratorium and the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. It is safe to say that the take-over did not happen. The whalers lost four votes out of five. But nothing good happened either. No progress was made to stop the annual slaughter of thousands of whales."

[Adele] The thing I guess we are really disappointed...actually, make that disgusted, about is the lack of any progress coming from the "whale-friendly" governments. So despite the fact that the ban on commercial whaling is still in place, there's still going to be a couple of thousand whales killed in the name of "science". Here's Mike's take on that one:

"Not a single resolution or motion was tabled by the whale-friendly Governments condemning or calling for an end to the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s annual assault on the whales of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. No single resolution was entered condemning the addition of threatened fin whales and endangered humpback whales to the Fisheries Agency of Japan’s scientific menu.

“The Fisheries Agency of Japan and the whalers have won their first vote against the whales in over twenty years; it is now up to all of us, environment groups and whale friendly governments alike to make sure it is their last. Greenpeace will again return to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary this year to disrupt, delay and document the hunt, the question is what are the whale friendly Governments going to do?”

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19 June 2006

Another win: We keep our IWC membership

by Andrew at the Greenpeace International office in Amsterdam

In what amounted to a international diplomatic version of a group hug, pro and anti whaling nations found common ground near the end of this IWC meeting, by adopting a resolution endorsing the right to protest on the high seas while asking everyone to, "keep it safe out there".

Full text is here. And while it may not be very huggy at first glance, keep in mind this agenda item was expected to be about revoking Greenpeace's observer status at the IWC (which we've had for 30 years). Needless to say, we are happy to be able to continue our work inside the IWC - to support our work outside of it.

Really, "Agenda Item 3" does warm my heart. Even Japan signed on to the thing. The cynic in me says maybe they didn't want to risk their fragile majority on a side issue like Greenpeace's IWC membership. At the same time, I hope this resolution means we can look forward to the same respect for our safety in the future, that we have always given the whalers in the past.

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Antarctic fin whales do not eat fish

by Andrew at the Greenpeace International office in Amsterdam

Here's a slide from a Power Point presentation the Japanese government delegation gave to the IWC plenary. (They were kind enough to provide us with a copy.) It is a picture of an endangered fin whale, the world's second largest animal, dead on the deck of the whalers' factory ship.

The whalers did apparently check what was in the whale's stomach before boxing the marketable bits up for shipping. Unsurprisingly, the result was krill, not fish - because Antarctic fin whales don't eat fish. Neither do southern hemisphere minke (the other species hunted off the coast of Antarctica).

The Fisheries Agency of Japan claims that whales eat fish and are a threat to food security of coastal communities. Yet, as can be seen from their own presentation, ANTARCTIC FIN WHALES DO NOT EAT FISH. So could you stop hunting them now? Or at least stop blaming them for something that's not their fault.

If you want answers about why the world's fisheries are a wreck, look closer to home. Right now, the Greenpeace ship Esperanza is in the Mediterranean documenting the woeful state of its bluefin tuna fishery. The main market for that tuna is Japan, while the actual fishing (much of it illegal) and tuna ranching is done by a variety of European countries.

So there is plenty of blame to go around, but none of it belongs to the whales.

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Wake up and smell the coffee: the "St Kitts Declaration"

From Mike, Comms officer and straight-talking Scotsman in St Kitts for the IWC

Well it finally happened, the long awaited and much anticipated Fisheries Agency of Japan majority at the IWC came yesterday to support the so-called St Kitts declaration. A fragile majority of one, 33 to 32 with China abstaining. It caused quite a ruckus in the room with a number of diplomats resorting to very undiplomatic language. But not quite as undiplomatic as the language some of us were using under our breath.

But wait a minute, what does it actually mean, what will it actually deliver for the whalers - nothing in real time in the real world. They already lost the first four votes, ones that actually would have changed things now, they wanted to end any IWC work on dolphins and porpoises, they wanted secret ballots, they wanted an exemption from the commercial whaling ban to kill minke Whales and Brydes whales inside their territorial waters, not for science but for sale, and they wanted the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary harpooned: these were real things that would have made a real difference.

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Japan wins St Kitts declaration vote at IWC

From Adele, keeping you up to date from the Greenpeace office in Stockholm

Japan and the whaling lobby have finally gained a simple majority vote at the IWC. 33 countries voted in favour of a resolution called "The St Kitts declaration" claiming that the "IWC has failed to meet its obligations under the terms of the ICRW" and declaring its commitment to "normalizing the functions of the IWC based upon the terms of the, ICRW (see below for an explanation of what they're talking about!)

"Greenpeace is disgusted that any member of the IWC would seek to promote whaling based upon the false notion that whales consume so much fish that they are a threat to food security for coastal nations, that a resolution has passed by a simple majority makes a mockery of the Commission in giving a dangerous lie a thin veneer of respectability,?"said Mike Townsley, our press guy on the ground.

In reality this declaration will change little or nothing as previous votes have already been taken. The IWC has already rejected attempts by the whalers to end any consideration of protection for small cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises), rejected a call to bring in secret ballots, rejected a call for allowing Japan an exception to the commercial moratorium to hunt Minke and Brydes whales in its territorial waters and finally rejected a resolution calling for an end to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

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John B's IWC Update #2

by John B, at the IWC in St Kitts

Today at the IWC Japan made a proposal to abolish the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. It failed by 28 to 33 votes with 4 abstentions.

But they will never stop trying so we have to continue to protect the sanctuary and to defend the whales.

The sanctuary means a lot to me. I was involved in the campaign to have it adopted in 1994. I was expedition on board the Arctic Sunrise for the 1999/2000 campaign and I was project leader for the subsequent 2001/2002 and 2005/2006 expeditions. And now I will once again be part of the team for our next Southern Ocean voyage.

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18 June 2006

News roundup

by Andrew, from his apartment in Amsterdam

Quite a few news stories about the IWC meeting so far, especially in the Australian press. Here are excerpts from a few I've seen:

The Australian covers Japan's aggressive vote buying program in a story titled, "Bag of money lends weight to the whalers":

But it's New Zealand's Conservation Minister Chris Carter who has been firing some of the most pointed salvos at Japan. At the weekend, he warned Japan that its actions in the IWC -- like its push to have the IWC adopt voting in secret -- could work against its attempt to seek a seat on the UN Security Council.

And in an interview with The Australian, he went as far as anyone has here of accusing Japan of buying votes, noting that the West African country of Togo suddenly arrived in St Kitts and Nevis at the weekend with a brown bag full of thousands of US dollars.

The money was so Togo could pay its dues to the International Whaling Commission, the 70-country member body that governs the whale industry. At the IWC, if you're not financial you don't get to vote -- 66 countries are voting this year. And by a margin of just one or two votes, the anti-whaling forces are still in the majority.

The Togo delegation arrived a day after the meeting opened. Since it is allied with Japan and its efforts to restore its rights to resume commercial whaling, some are making it abundantly clear they reckon Japan stumped up the cash.

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16 June 2006

Unexpectedly: The whales are winning!

by Andrew, at the Greenpeace office in Amsterdam

Japan has lost the secret ballot vote !!!!

From what I have heard, here is the full listing for the vote for Secret Ballots (I'll get our team on the ground to check these when they can):

YES = 30:

Antigua & Barbuda, Benin, Cambodia, Cameroon, China, Cote d'Ivoire, Dominica,
Gabon, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea, Iceland, Japan, Kiribati, South Korea, Mali, Marshall
Islands, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, Nauru, Nicaragua, Norway, Palau,
Russian Federation, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines,
Suriname, Tuvalu

NO = 33:

Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Czech
Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Israel,
Italy, Luxembourg, Mexico, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Oman, Panama,
Portugal, San Marino, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, UK, USA.

Abstentions = 1:

Solomon Islands

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14 June 2006

Missing the Boat Part 2

By John B, Whales Campaign Project Leader, at the IWC in St Kitts

Well, here I am in St Kitts. I arrived late Saturday night after a 22 hour journey from Dublin. I had been planning things for the past month, but now all of my plans were up in the air. I was here, others from the Greenpeace team were here, but something was missing. Yes, there was no ship. The Arctic Sunrise had been banned from St Kitts.

Why? To be honest no reason has been given. The government simply told us in a two line letter that our request for entry had been denied.

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Missing the boat

by Buffy, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner, at the IWC meeting in St. Kitts

I knew I’d have a lot of firsts over the last few days – my first time in St Kitts; my first time working with this fantastic team of fellow greenpeacers, all of them from different countries, with something like 60-70 years of experience in the whales campaign between them (I just started at Greenpeace in the US a bit over a year ago); and, I thought, I’d also get to be working on a greenpeace ship for the first time. I was VERY excited about this.

I've never even SEEN a greenpeace ship in 3D – just pictures and videos – and, of course, heard the stories. I was crestfallen to find out that, for unknown and unspecified reasons, the government of St. Kitts had refused our application to come into port here. Even worse, not only were we not allowed to dock, the Arctic Sunrise wasn’t even allowed to enter St. Kitts waters. So much for transparency and freedom of speech … and so much for my much anticipated first stint as an onboard campaigner.

Of course, this won’t stop our work here. We’re here on the ground (versus the water!), and we’re not so easily discouraged or dissuaded. We know the truth – that you out there are counting on us to represent you, and let the folks here know that the global community is against whaling, as well as against these transparent efforts to stymie transparency!

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12 June 2006

First update from this year's IWC

by John F, Greenpeace delegation head, at the IWC meeting in St. Kitts

In 1977 I went to my first IWC meeting in the cold of a Tokyo December. Now, almost 30 years later, I'm waiting in a hot, sweaty St. Kitts for what may be my last. And the last for Greenpeace as well.

In between, I've seen the moratorium voted in, and partied all night after the creation of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. I watched conservation roll like a slow ocean wave through the IWC, moving it away from whale killing and toward conservation and now, unbelievably, I'm seeing that wave roll back.

This year, over 2000 whales, including endangered species, are scheduled to die in commercial hunts - either openly, in Norway, or under the guise of science in Iceland and Japan's 'research' hunts. But this is only the beginning; the Fisheries Agency of Japan wants full-scale commercial whaling and is determined to get it.

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17 April 2006

Douze point pour la Suède - Sweden's Minister announces their support for a UN moratorium on High Seas Bottom Trawling

by Saskia, Greenpeace EU Oceans Policy Advisor, who has been beavering away to get the EU to agree to a UN moratorium on high seas bottom trawling

So well done Sweden! Or in Eurovision language: 'Douze point pour la Suède'! The Swedish Environment Minister yesterday publicly declared her support for a global moratorium on high seas bottom trawling. Her statement is significant not only in the sense that it maintains Sweden's commonly progressive role on environmental issues, it also provides further momentum for those countries in the European Union (EU) that want to end the reckless deep sea destruction.

Believe it or not, the 25 EU Member States have been politically deadlocked over their position on a UN Resolution in favour of a moratorium for more than three years now. Why you may ask, given that the evidence of unsustainability and destruction is so evident? Well, because unlike the Eurovision song contest, political decisions in the EU are not always taken on the basis of whether they get the most votes (though some are of course). What's more, in case of the moratorium, it even seems irrelevant whether the votes are cast by you or directly by your ministers. It is called 'decision-making by consensus'. In other words, all 25 EU states have to agree before they can take action.

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4 April 2006

The summit for life on earth - protecting what?

by Karen, who was just at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitibam, Brazil

The CBD meeting is over. After two long weeks, we have finally left the gathering of nearly 5000 people at the Convention Centre in Brazil who were focussed on the plight of our planet's biodiversity. Our team is pretty exhausted, as, I am sure are many of the negotiators who were there, working through the night to negotiate the Decisions that would take the work of the Convention forward.

I have to admit that I am left pretty frustrated, wondering whether all that talking achieved much in the way of actually protecting biodiversity and our planet's future. It seemed as if the focus on protecting biodiversity, one of the central objectives of this Convention, was forgotten as countries focused instead on how to make sure that there were few new rules that they would have to adhere to - few new obligations that they would have to meet.

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28 March 2006

Developing countries are not able to protect their biodiversity

by Wael, at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitibam, Brazil

Ok! The first week of negotiations at the convention on biological diversity meeting is over, and now the real and exciting work is starting. Last week was full of speeches from the many countries and delegates, stating their opinions on the different issues at hand. This week all these opinions will be melted down into the documents that the countries present will have to agree on.

"Countries agreeing?" Sounds like a difficult task, right? Well, you bet your life it is. This week we will witness delegates fighting over text, trying to change sentences, phrases, words, letters - even the simple punctuation. It might sound a bit silly to change something as insignificant as that, but don't underestimate what a single stroke of a pen can do. One small change, such as deleting a phrase or adding a letter can save - or destroy - thousands of species in the real world.

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22 March 2006

Finding REMO - UN Fish Stocks Agreement Meeting

by Duncan, at the UN Fish Stocks Agreement review conference in New York

Our legal expert, Duncan Currie is currently attending the UN Fish Stocks Agreement review conference preparatory meeting in New York - here's his on-location update.

This week-long meeting was started in order to review the 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement - this is an international agreement aiming to ensure "long-term conservation and sustainable use of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks". This UN get-together is a preparation for the actual review conference that will take place in late May. Greenpeace is here to bear witness, and to work with other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and national delegations to try to fix some of the real problems that are out there in the deep sea.

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21 March 2006

If the Amazon is the Great Barrier Reef of the land

by Karen, at the Convention on Biological Diversity in Curitibam, Brazil

If mountain gorillas are the whales of the African rainforests, and wolves are the tunas of the American prairies... If the Amazon is the Great Barrier reef of the land, and the monarch butterfly the hairy lobsters of the deep-sea. If all the water of the oceans were emptied and we stopped distinguishing between land and sea, viewing our planet and the diversity of life upon it as integrated whole. Then would we be facing the greatest extinction of all time?

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18 February 2006

UN: The oceans are in trouble...now what?

Posted by Karen from the UN, New York

The UN meeting in New York finished at lunchtime today. This is unusual. Generally, when it comes to meetings like this, they finish at 1.30 in the morning after states have argued over every single phrase, word, comma and full stop. The strategies used by countries to block decisions being made or water-down text vary. There are some countries that want to achieve real change and protect the oceans, others that are focussed on making sure their free access to rich fishing waters are secured. Still others worry about guaranteeing the rights of their shipping industry or oil and gas industry. Some simply don’t think that there should be any global rules when it comes to managing the oceans. And since most decision-making at international oceans meetings requires every state to agree for something to go forward, progress is generally painfully slow and often results in ‘lowest common denominator’ decision-making (to get everyone to agree to something, the least objectionable text is accepted).

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Goodbye New York

Posted by Cristian from the UN, New York

Well, the AHOEWG meeting in New York is over! It was quite difficult getting here due to last week storm that brought a lot of snow, and caused two cancellations of my flight from Sao Paulo [I was two days under a state of maximum alert -so to speak- waiting for my flight!]. However, as the song says, after the storm the sun came. We saw clearly –unfortunately only when getting to and from the UN building- that the snow was melting, because it was shinning and warm during most of the week in NYC. Those of us working at the crypts of the building, could not enjoy this little summer, and had to be conformed appreciating some rays of sun through the curtains…

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17 February 2006

NZ meeting ends with no action on bottom trawling

Posted by Nick at the RFMO meeting in New Zealand

The RFMO meeting at Te Papa in Wellington, NZ has now drawn to a close and the outcome with regard to bottom trawling can certainly be summarised as weak. But we’re not done yet - the team in New York continues the battle at the United Nations level.

The meeting ended disappointingly with states failing to take any immediate action to protect life in the deep sea from the destruction caused by high seas bottom trawling.

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Merav's musings and "modalities"

Posted by Merav, at the UN Meeting in New York

This has been a fascinating meeting for me, being new to oceans issues but very familiar with UN meetings and processes in the area of international security and disarmament. In that forum, we do not get to sit in on “informal” meetings like this one, so usually we only get to hear prepared formal statements or watch the governments vote, and the “modalities” (in UN lingo) of NGO participation are very strict where they exist at all.

During this meeting, in contrast, the governments are actually discussing and debating the issues. They say things like “I’ve been reflecting on the debate as it’s been progressing this afternoon, and it’s daunting.” That’s a direct quote – I was so stunned I wrote it down word for word. We never get to hear comments like that, if they are ever made, in the area of security. Best and most amazing of all, not only do the governments reflect, comment, disagree, and debate (all in diplomatic terms of course), but we also get to reflect and comment as well (after all the governments of course). So it’s true that the issues are difficult and the disagreements are deep, but the delegates seem and sound like people, the issues feel very real, and the disagreements are on the table.

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16 February 2006

The terrible toll revealed

Posted by Nick at the RFMO meeting in New Zealand

Last year in the Tasman Sea the crew of the Rainbow Warrior photographed some shocking evidence of bottom trawling's toll on deep sea life. Ancient Gorgonian coral, endangered black coral and other strange bottom-dwelling creatures all hauled up and dumped over the side of NZ flagged vessels.

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The hard facts

Posted by Nick at the RFMO meeting in New Zealand

This morning we packed up our deep-sea sculpture and headed into Te Papa where Dr Alex Rogers from the British Antarctic Survey was about to do a presentation to the RFMO meeting at a side event organised by Greenpeace.

To the museum goers we no doubt presented a slightly odd spectacle as we filed through the museum with an assortment of giant corals and deep sea creatures tucked under our arms. After a brief encounter with museum security we made it up to the auditorium, coral intact.

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15 February 2006

Roses are red, oceans are blue

Posted by Karen at the UN, New York

When the first Greenpeace boat set out from Canada in 1971 to protest against nuclear testing in the North Pacific, it was flying the flag of the United Nations. We took non-violent direct action to sea, but it seems that a little bit of Valentines Day fun is not appreciated at the United Nations in New York. Just before the meeting started yesterday, I walked around the meeting room, placing red and pink Valentines Day cards on all the desks. The cards featured a deep-sea fish known as a blobfish -- look at the picture and you'll know why and if you want to learn more about this very strange deep-sea creature or some of the other creatures that inhabit the deep-sea click here. The cards simply said:
Roses are Red,
The Oceans are Blue,
Protect high seas biodiversity,
and the world will love you.

It seems that doing something like this is a definite no-no at the UN, and I was soundly told off for it.

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14 February 2006

Ganesha and Ghandi

Posted by Karen, at the UN Ad Hoc Open-ended Informal Working Group of the General Assembly to study issues relating to the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity beyond areas of national jurisdiction (Phew!) in New York (we'll just call it the UN from now on)

I heard today that, Ganesha, the Hindu god of innocence and purity is responsible for snow. Clearly New York needs some help. Around 24 inches of the stuff landed on New York between Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. All the airports were closed, roads were closed, trains stopped running and things in general ground to a standstill. So, our intrepid policy team, poised to change the world, remained poised in various airports and train stations. Merav was stuck in Europe. Cristian was stuck in Brazil, and it took me 6 hours to get here by train (a journey that usually takes half that). At times the train stopped for ages, at times, it even went backwards. It ran out of food, and some people had to stand in the aisle all the way. It reminded me a bit of the way our oceans are managed come to think of it: decision-makers seem to think that they will face a blizzard of biblical proportions if they actually make a decision to protect ocean life.

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13 February 2006

Defending our oceans ... in suits.

Posted by Karen, from the United Nations, New York

You don't have to wear an orange boiler suit to be an activist. While our ships are on the open ocean, Oceans Defenders in business suits are fanning out across the globe to defend the deep, knocking on closed doors in the corridors of power (or "stalking the corridors", as we more usually describe it). All too often, the Environment, Fisheries and Foreign Affairs Ministries that represent our governments focus on the short-term self-interest of their particular countries, and not the impacts that those decisions can have on our oceans and our planet. That’s where we step in. We show them what is actually going on at sea – sometimes beaming in our campaigners or the latest footage in from the ships so they can hear directly from them.

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