Bottom Trawling In Europe

For the past few decades, mankind has probably brought about more damage to Mother Nature compared to benefits. The negative impacts of our actions/practices are even affecting the biodiversity at sea as proven by several re-known marine biologists and wildlife organizations.

One of such destructive practices is bottom trawling. Bottom trawling is a method of commercial fishing that is primarily practiced in Europe since the 18th Century, where a huge net is dragged along the seabed behind fishing boats to catch a larger number of fishes. Initially, commercial fishing boats had to avoid trawling at areas that contain coral reefs and rocky terrains unless they wanted to risk damaging the nets. However, after fitting the enormous nets with huge rubber tires or rollers, they could trawl through rough surfaces easily and catch a larger variety of fishes in any particular area. Bottom trawling has since destroyed countless reefs and other marine habitats in Europe, affecting its fellow inhabitants too. In Norwegian waters, for instance, an estimated one third to one half of the deepwater reefs have been destroyed or damaged as a result of bottom trawling. Furthermore, the damages inflicted on these reefs are often difficult to heal. Trawling an area once is enough to render it lifeless for a few decades. Thus, it is all the more necessary for us to advocate organizations that oppose bottom trawling. (E.g. Greenpeace, Oceana)

In addition to this, bottom trawling is also seen as a threat to marine diversity because it has led to the current problem of over-fishing in Europe. Population of fishes such as Orange roughy, blue ing, black scabbards and parrot fish, are decreasing at a fast rate since the population of the fishes are unable to recover as quickly as they are trawled, given that their habitats are destroyed. Moreover, with the trawlers capable of reaching the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, bottom trawling could very well be the main reason that prevents biologists from discovering new species of marine life (approximately 500,000 to 5, 000,000) in the sea, by firstly killing the unknown species beforehand.

Despite this, international organizations have not remained oblivious to the plight of the marine life. The United Nations and the European Union, for example, have since implemented tough measures to stop bottom trawling near coral reefs and regulate trawling activities to prevent the situation from worsening.


Websites to go:
http://new.patagoniatimes.cl/index.php/20081114686/News/Business-News/SOUTHERN-FISHERMEN-URGE-DEEP-SEA-TRAWLING-MORATORIUM.html
http://www.grantontrawlers.com/Trawling%20from%20Granton.htm
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309083400
http://archives.starbulletin.com/2008/02/25/news/story01.html
http://oceana.org/europe/what-we-do/stop-destructive-trawling/

Yangtze River 'giant toilet bowl' of Asia

With a record-high dumped wastes of 30.5 billion tons, the Yangtze River in China can be considered as a ‘giant toilet bowl’ of Asia as waste production and illegal dumping in the area continue to worsen.

Xinhua news agency reported the recent case of industrial, farming and human waste production in China has doubled compared a couple of decades ago with a 3.1 percent increase or 900 million tons of added trash being thrown in the river.

Experts are predicting the situation of Yangtze getting polluted will be more alarming in the coming days with the presence of Three Gorges dam trapping a bulk sewage that makes the river unsafe and may cause all possible threats to human health, particularly those living near the vicinity.

Even the Asian Development Bank was anxious about the fate of the Yangtze River and pointed fingers at the industrialization and urbanization activities as culprits to its pollution. It said the river has reached its alarming levels calling the proper authorities to do something about it.

Based on the study of the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission, 2006 posted a seemingly high sewage dumping after its alert waste levels were raised by less than five percent.

Earlier this month, a Swiss-China report said the enormous pollution brought about by too much dumping in the Yangtze can be resolved if the Chinese government will be aggressive enough to take initiatives in restoring the river.

Fishing activities and survival of the unique species living in bodies of water were greatly affected by the waste dumping in Yangtze. In time, it is feared that the other sea creatures like the white-fin dolphin and sturgeon will totally be extinct.

Done By Gabriel Wan 09s27

Hainan Island, China, Shifts to Green Path

China may be debating how fast to march toward more market reforms, but the island province of Hainan has already decided that a slowdown in development is much more welcome than full-speed ecological decline.

At the National People's Congress (NPC) sessions that just finished, 14 delegates from Hainan put forward a motion to turn their lush tropical home into an ecological province.

Special Economic Zone (SEZ)

The move comes a little more than a decade after Hainan, which is off the Leizhou Peninsula in the South China Sea, was declared a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). Under the proposal, the island's transformation into an ecological haven will take place within 10 years.

Hainan officials say it signals a major policy shift from a focus on real estate and finance to the environment. They say they have now realised that the real wealth of Hainan lies in its natural beauty—which, unfortunately, has been ravaged by development in the past several years.

Since we have abundant natural resources, we'll stimulate our local economy by developing environmentally-sound agriculture and fisheries, says Yu Xun, a deputy governor of the province. Paying attention to nature should also ensure that we become a beautiful place that tourists will want to visit.

This switch toward ecological preservation is a reversal of our (previous) efforts, after noticing problems in our local economy from the early 1990s, he adds.

When Hainan became an SEZ in the late 1980s, real estate developers made a beeline for it, The sector spun out of control from island authorities in just a few years, and soon, buildings were being built haphazardly on once virgin land.

Effects of Land Reclamation

Meanwhile, land reclamation to farm fish and crabs was doing serious damage to the island's famous red forest cover. Once hugging Hainan's entire coastline, the red forest helped maintain the ecological balance between land and sea, protecting the shore from erosion. Today, however, the leaves of the trees there have turned yellow. In some areas, the red forest has died out.

Excessive coral gathering by fisherfolk since the 1960s has also destroyed more than 80 percent of the region's fragile reefs. To date, more than 20,000 hectares of the island's 400 varieties of coral have disappeared.

Apart from acting as underwater barriers that weaken the massive breakers as they crash up the beach, coral reefs provide homes to fish and shrimps, and act as a filter to clean the water. They are a vital part of the shallow water ecology off the coast.

Conservation Efforts

Hainan officials say the plan they submitted to the NPC aims to coordinate economic development with environmental protection. They say the speed with which the Chinese parliament approved their motion—in a record 10 days—indicates recognition of the urgency of their petition.

So far we've finished drafting the 'Programme of Building Hainan Into an Ecological Province with Sustainable Development', says Yu Xun. We'll submit it to the Provincial People's Congress for examination after the National People's Congress.

The programme's short-term targets include the expansion of Hainan's forest cover from the present 51 to 55 percent— the biggest in China—as well as curbing desertification.

It also aims to ensure that all industrial pollutants are within state limits, eradicate 'white pollution' or trash consisting of plastic bags, mineral water bottles and polystyrene trays, and ban the use of fluorine as refrigerant.

The programme is a crystallisation of what we call our cross- century 'green project,' which aims to curb the deterioration of the environment, says Yu.

Since last year, logging in Hainan's natural forests has been banned.

At Haikou, the provincial capital, city authorities say they will pour some 75 million yuan (9 million dollars) into the clean-up of the severely polluted Meishe River. But Hainan officials themselves admit that balancing tourism development with ecological preservation will not be easy. Hainan has become particularly attractive to domestic tourists in the last few years. Despite the current economic crunch, the island played host to some 8.4 million visitors last year, up 8.2 percent from the 1997 figure.

Recovering Its Lost Beauty

Observers say the hordes of careless pleasure seekers have distributed to the decline of Hainan's ecology. With officials counting on attracting even more tourists once Hainan recovers its lost beauty, there is a need to come up with a plan that will be both tourist- and environment-friendly.

Done By Gabriel Wan 09s27

Protection of the Diversity of Marine Life

Improving the Sense to Protect Marine Life Diversity and Controlling Resource Utilization Intensity
Due to the present common shortage of knowledge about biological diversity, scientific, technological and institutional capacities should be made use of to provide a basic understanding. Besides, some mass media can be employed to publicize it or include some relevant issues into education program. All people including women and children, especially leaders at all levels, should realize that the ocean is a huge resource cornucopia. Although all countries
around the world are competing to develop marine resources, they will be exhausted some day.

Establishing and Perfecting Policies, Regulations and National Strategies about the Protection of Marine and Coastal Life Chinese government has always been putting much importance on protecting marine life diversity. It is the first one to approve Convention of Biological Diversity. In addition, as one of signatory nations to United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, China resolutely performs its rights and obligations to develop, utilize and maintain the marine life in its ocean areas and the open seas. Chinese government has also established some regulations and action plans for the protection of marine life diversity.

The Construction of Scientific Investigation Method and Ecological Environment Monitoring System
Currently, China National Bureau of Oceanography has established a national ocean environment monitoring system composed of satellites, planes, boats, buoys and onshore, gaining an array of valuable materials and accomplishments of marine and coastal life diversity. In addition, it has issued over a hundred communiqués, yearbooks and reports on marine environmental quality. In order to monitor the typical marine ecosystem, local ocean administrations at different levels have established many marine environment monitoring stations together with others or just by themselves to conduct their monitoring duties on regional marine environment.

The Construction and Management of Marine Natural Reserve Areas
China has established a quite perfect marine natural reserve areas system. Currently, there are over 60 areas of this kind constructed and managed by China National Bureau of Oceanography or other relevant departments, in which 18 arenational ones. These reserve areas cover all the main marine species in China, hence protecting many rare ones.

Conducting Integrated Management of Ocean and Land and Improving Marine Environment from the Source
We cannot only dwell on the ocean when we talk about how to protect the diversity of marine life, but find out the source to prevent land-sourced pollutants from pouring into the ocean. In addition, the principle of “the person who makes the construction is expected to treat and compensate for it” should be taken into consideration in all ocean-employed projects to reduce their influences on the environment to the smallest degree.

Establishing International Coordination System to Maintain Ecological Balance Together
A lot of biological resources are owned by the whole world, so it isn’t a nation’s business to protect these resources. A nation’s biological resources may be affected by the exploitation activities conducted by another nation. Therefore, all nations are expected to have more exchanges about their activities in their ocean areas that may have some negative influences on other nations’ biological diversity and to sign some bilateral, regional and multi-lateral agreements accordingly.