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New European fisheries agency to handle North Atlantic rules
Jeremy Slater and Adrian Hiel
Canadian Press
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union's newly established fisheries regulatory agency will also negotiate with foreign countries, but Canadian experts doubt it will have much impact on resolving disputes over fish stocks in the North Atlantic.
A monthly meeting of EU agriculture and fisheries ministers _ known as the Council of Ministers, voted unanimously in Brussels on Monday to establish the Community Fisheries Control Agency in Vigo, Spain.
The agency will be responsible for enforcing rules and regulations within the territorial waters of EU member states, negotiating with non-EU countries and handling international rules and quotas governing fishing in the North Atlantic.
"It sounds like from now on, instead of going to Brussels we may have to go to Spain when we have issues with a member country," said Sylvie Lapointe, international fisheries adviser for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
"It is not going to affect us a great deal.''
Senior officials in Brussels say one of the main reasons for setting up the agency is to strengthen the enforcement of international rules.
"The agency is a community operation that will work with national bodies,'' said Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg. "Effective control of the various players should lead to a level playing field even in third-country waters.''
"The agency will have international obligations and will act in this role on the request of the European Commission,'' said an EU diplomat who did not want to be named. "We hope relations with third countries will be carried out on the basis of goodwill, but we have the backing of international law.''
Outside government circles, there is skepticism that the new agency could do much in resolving complaints of European fleets illegally fishing off the North American coast.
"The Canadian experience is that if these guys do come over here and get caught for illegal use of the wrong mesh sizes, then all that happens is that they get sent home where they receive nothing more that a slap on the wrist," said Roy Gibbons, a specialist in fisheries management at the Marine Institute at Memorial University in St. John's, Nfld.
"I think it is great if the EU sets up something with all the people at the table, but my concern is that if there is no enforcement then it will not mean a thing,'' he said.
Gibbons said the European agency could be as powerless as another international body, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization based in Dartmouth, N.S.
"If you are going to enforce things such as mesh size and quotas, well then who sets the quotas? If you get caught doing something wrong, what is going to happen? Will this agency have any teeth?''
"Beware you do not set up another NAFO,'' said Gibbons, whose opinion is that "NAFO is a sham: if you do not like the quotas you can set your own. Denmark did exactly that last year.''
The 15-country NAFO, which sets catch limits for the international waters outside Canada's 200-mile economic zone, has long been criticized as toothless by Newfoundland politicians and leaders in Canada's fishing industry.
Gibbons agrees on the need for international co-operation because "migratory stocks do not recognize imaginary lines.'' But he has doubt about the European agency's inspection process and how neutral its inspectors will be in dealing with catches made by vessels outside EU waters.
So far, the EU has largely failed to discipline national fishing fleets that break agreed rules in the recent past, and there were plenty of violations. In 2002, the last year EU figures are available, there were 6,756 cases of serious infringement of current laws.
Jeremy Slater and Adrian Hiel
Canadian Press
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- The European Union's newly established fisheries regulatory agency will also negotiate with foreign countries, but Canadian experts doubt it will have much impact on resolving disputes over fish stocks in the North Atlantic.
A monthly meeting of EU agriculture and fisheries ministers _ known as the Council of Ministers, voted unanimously in Brussels on Monday to establish the Community Fisheries Control Agency in Vigo, Spain.
The agency will be responsible for enforcing rules and regulations within the territorial waters of EU member states, negotiating with non-EU countries and handling international rules and quotas governing fishing in the North Atlantic.
"It sounds like from now on, instead of going to Brussels we may have to go to Spain when we have issues with a member country," said Sylvie Lapointe, international fisheries adviser for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
"It is not going to affect us a great deal.''
Senior officials in Brussels say one of the main reasons for setting up the agency is to strengthen the enforcement of international rules.
"The agency is a community operation that will work with national bodies,'' said Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg. "Effective control of the various players should lead to a level playing field even in third-country waters.''
"The agency will have international obligations and will act in this role on the request of the European Commission,'' said an EU diplomat who did not want to be named. "We hope relations with third countries will be carried out on the basis of goodwill, but we have the backing of international law.''
Outside government circles, there is skepticism that the new agency could do much in resolving complaints of European fleets illegally fishing off the North American coast.
"The Canadian experience is that if these guys do come over here and get caught for illegal use of the wrong mesh sizes, then all that happens is that they get sent home where they receive nothing more that a slap on the wrist," said Roy Gibbons, a specialist in fisheries management at the Marine Institute at Memorial University in St. John's, Nfld.
"I think it is great if the EU sets up something with all the people at the table, but my concern is that if there is no enforcement then it will not mean a thing,'' he said.
Gibbons said the European agency could be as powerless as another international body, the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization based in Dartmouth, N.S.
"If you are going to enforce things such as mesh size and quotas, well then who sets the quotas? If you get caught doing something wrong, what is going to happen? Will this agency have any teeth?''
"Beware you do not set up another NAFO,'' said Gibbons, whose opinion is that "NAFO is a sham: if you do not like the quotas you can set your own. Denmark did exactly that last year.''
The 15-country NAFO, which sets catch limits for the international waters outside Canada's 200-mile economic zone, has long been criticized as toothless by Newfoundland politicians and leaders in Canada's fishing industry.
Gibbons agrees on the need for international co-operation because "migratory stocks do not recognize imaginary lines.'' But he has doubt about the European agency's inspection process and how neutral its inspectors will be in dealing with catches made by vessels outside EU waters.
So far, the EU has largely failed to discipline national fishing fleets that break agreed rules in the recent past, and there were plenty of violations. In 2002, the last year EU figures are available, there were 6,756 cases of serious infringement of current laws.
Protesters opposed to East Coast seal hunt met with locked doors and catcalls
Murray Brewster
Canadian Press
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
HALIFAX (CP) - An attempt to mobilize Canadians against the annual East Coast seal hunt was met with locked doors, catcalls and scattered indifference Tuesday in several cities across the country.
Representatives from an assortment of protest groups - about 400 people in all - assembled outside federal offices in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. They called for an end to what they say is the world's largest slaughter of marine mammals.
The hunt starts later this month in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In Halifax, about 30 people unfurled banners, chanted and waved signs outside the empty constituency office of federal Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan.
Letters of protest were slid under locked doors and a signed banner was left crumpled on the carpet after a security guard said the office was closed for March break.
In Toronto, about 150 placard-waving people turned out for a "family friendly" protest in the city's downtown shopping district.
A slightly smaller group on Parliament Hill was jeered by a young Inuit woman from Nunavik. She waded into the crowd to tell them the seal hunt is a way of life for her people.
"This is part of our culture," Jessie Mike told the protesters. "When we sell the skins, people get food to be able to survive. We're here to make you aware of our culture."
In Vancouver, about 50 protesters marched in a circle outside a Fisheries Department office during the lunch hour. Some chanted, "Shame on Canada" and "Stop the seal hunt."
Several people were moved to tears as they crowded around a small TV set showing pictures of seals being slaughtered.
"It's a brutal, cruel hunt," said Glynis Sherwood, a volunteer with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society from Friday Harbour, Wash.
Tuesday's protests were small and sedate when compared with the raucous heyday of the anti-sealing movement in the 1970s and early '80s.
In 1977, the movement reached its peak when sex symbol Brigitte Bardot commanded world attention by cuddling up to young seals on the barren ice floes.
A few years later, activists were arrested for spraying red dye on more than 200 seals.
By the mid-1980s, the sealskin market collapsed when the European Commission banned products derived from the young harp seals known as whitecoats.
Canada responded to the international pressure by banning the commercial hunt for whitecoats in 1987.
Despite so many setbacks, the industry roared back to life in the mid-1990s as demand grew for seal fur in Europe's fashion houses.
Bardot, now in her 70s and walking with a cane, says she is still opposed to the hunt.
Earlier this week, she told a Toronto newspaper that Prime Minister Paul Martin and his fisheries minister were "jerks" for allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed this season.
Instead of Bardot, the anti-sealing protesters are now relying on the faded star power of Richard Dean Anderson - the former star of the TV shows MacGyver and Stargate.
Earlier this month, he sailed into Canadian waters aboard the protest ship Farley Mowat, which later sprang a leak and limped into a Newfoundland port.
Those opposed to the commercial hunt, which has been around for more than 250 years, are in the process of rebuilding public support for their cause, a longtime environmentalist admitted Tuesday.
"We don't care if one person shows up or a thousand people show up, as long as we have participation," Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said during the protest in Halifax.
Protests were also held Tuesday outside several Canadian embassies.
In Mexico City, for example, about 30 people carried signs calling for a boycott of Canadian goods. Other placards featured photos of seals underneath the words, Please Don't Kill Me.
Barry Crozier, spokesman for the Nova Scotia Humane Society, said "the number doesn't indicate the interest or the sincerity of the people."
He said the point of the Halifax protest was "to indicate that a large percentage of Maritimers, who live by the sea, are against the seal hunt."
-
Some facts about the annual seal hunt near Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence:
When: Hunt starts as early as late March.
Where: At least 70 per cent of the hunting is done off the north coast of Newfoundland in an area known as the Front. A much smaller sealing industry operates in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Hunting limit 2003-2005: 975,000 harp seals. For hooded seals, it's 10,000 annually.
Harvest: 283,497 harp seals were harvested during the 2003 season and 365,971 seals were taken in 2004. That means hunters can take about 320,000 seals this season. Less than 400 hooded seals have been taken annually since 1999.
Population: Six million seals off the East Coast, including 5.4 million harp seals and 470,000 hooded seals. Latest survey conducted in 1999. There are other species, but none as numerous.
Rules: Young harp seals with white coats, which are usually under four weeks old, cannot be killed. Young hood seals, known as bluebacks, are also protected. Sealers must make sure seals are dead by pressing on an eye before moving on to next seal.
© The Canadian Press 2005
Murray Brewster
Canadian Press
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
HALIFAX (CP) - An attempt to mobilize Canadians against the annual East Coast seal hunt was met with locked doors, catcalls and scattered indifference Tuesday in several cities across the country.
Representatives from an assortment of protest groups - about 400 people in all - assembled outside federal offices in Halifax, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver. They called for an end to what they say is the world's largest slaughter of marine mammals.
The hunt starts later this month in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
In Halifax, about 30 people unfurled banners, chanted and waved signs outside the empty constituency office of federal Fisheries Minister Geoff Regan.
Letters of protest were slid under locked doors and a signed banner was left crumpled on the carpet after a security guard said the office was closed for March break.
In Toronto, about 150 placard-waving people turned out for a "family friendly" protest in the city's downtown shopping district.
A slightly smaller group on Parliament Hill was jeered by a young Inuit woman from Nunavik. She waded into the crowd to tell them the seal hunt is a way of life for her people.
"This is part of our culture," Jessie Mike told the protesters. "When we sell the skins, people get food to be able to survive. We're here to make you aware of our culture."
In Vancouver, about 50 protesters marched in a circle outside a Fisheries Department office during the lunch hour. Some chanted, "Shame on Canada" and "Stop the seal hunt."
Several people were moved to tears as they crowded around a small TV set showing pictures of seals being slaughtered.
"It's a brutal, cruel hunt," said Glynis Sherwood, a volunteer with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society from Friday Harbour, Wash.
Tuesday's protests were small and sedate when compared with the raucous heyday of the anti-sealing movement in the 1970s and early '80s.
In 1977, the movement reached its peak when sex symbol Brigitte Bardot commanded world attention by cuddling up to young seals on the barren ice floes.
A few years later, activists were arrested for spraying red dye on more than 200 seals.
By the mid-1980s, the sealskin market collapsed when the European Commission banned products derived from the young harp seals known as whitecoats.
Canada responded to the international pressure by banning the commercial hunt for whitecoats in 1987.
Despite so many setbacks, the industry roared back to life in the mid-1990s as demand grew for seal fur in Europe's fashion houses.
Bardot, now in her 70s and walking with a cane, says she is still opposed to the hunt.
Earlier this week, she told a Toronto newspaper that Prime Minister Paul Martin and his fisheries minister were "jerks" for allowing more than 300,000 seals to be killed this season.
Instead of Bardot, the anti-sealing protesters are now relying on the faded star power of Richard Dean Anderson - the former star of the TV shows MacGyver and Stargate.
Earlier this month, he sailed into Canadian waters aboard the protest ship Farley Mowat, which later sprang a leak and limped into a Newfoundland port.
Those opposed to the commercial hunt, which has been around for more than 250 years, are in the process of rebuilding public support for their cause, a longtime environmentalist admitted Tuesday.
"We don't care if one person shows up or a thousand people show up, as long as we have participation," Paul Watson, president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said during the protest in Halifax.
Protests were also held Tuesday outside several Canadian embassies.
In Mexico City, for example, about 30 people carried signs calling for a boycott of Canadian goods. Other placards featured photos of seals underneath the words, Please Don't Kill Me.
Barry Crozier, spokesman for the Nova Scotia Humane Society, said "the number doesn't indicate the interest or the sincerity of the people."
He said the point of the Halifax protest was "to indicate that a large percentage of Maritimers, who live by the sea, are against the seal hunt."
-
Some facts about the annual seal hunt near Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence:
When: Hunt starts as early as late March.
Where: At least 70 per cent of the hunting is done off the north coast of Newfoundland in an area known as the Front. A much smaller sealing industry operates in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Hunting limit 2003-2005: 975,000 harp seals. For hooded seals, it's 10,000 annually.
Harvest: 283,497 harp seals were harvested during the 2003 season and 365,971 seals were taken in 2004. That means hunters can take about 320,000 seals this season. Less than 400 hooded seals have been taken annually since 1999.
Population: Six million seals off the East Coast, including 5.4 million harp seals and 470,000 hooded seals. Latest survey conducted in 1999. There are other species, but none as numerous.
Rules: Young harp seals with white coats, which are usually under four weeks old, cannot be killed. Young hood seals, known as bluebacks, are also protected. Sealers must make sure seals are dead by pressing on an eye before moving on to next seal.
© The Canadian Press 2005
Maybe Ms. Bardot could reserve some of her invective for the governments around her own neck of the woods. But then, who wants to pose for the press hugging a cod?
I would have bought tickets to see the Inuit woman tell the protestors off.
Stupid pimitave people, they need to move to the cities.
(if Im still here)
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