Jan 6th 2010,

The crash collision of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society’s 18 tonne, 2 million dollar Catamaran the Ady Gil with the ICR’s (Institute of Cetacean Research) Whaling Vessel 491 tonne, Shonen Maru 2 may well mark a new chapter in the battle for the whales and the even larger war of illegal unsustainable fishing vs the growing movement of civilians willing to take the war for the ocean into their own hands.

Both parties have accused each other of deliberately causing the collision. Video from the Sea Shepard shows the Shonen Maru 2 veering sharply towards the Ady Gil before attempting to steer away just moments before impact, while video from the Shonen Maru 2 shows the Ady Gil deliberately propelling itself forwards to intersect the incoming vessel. This is no accident but a game of naval ‘chicken’ that will escalate the controversial subject of whaling in the Southern Ocean vs the apparent vigilantism of the Sea Shepard Conservation Society.

Despite the international moratorium on whaling by the IWC (International Whaling Commission) since 1986, the ICR (funded by the Japanese Government and Kyodo Senpaku, a for-profit whale fishery) continues a yearly harvest of some 900+ Minke whales during the winter season. ICR claims lethal sampling of the whales is absolutely necessary for gathering scientific data and that it receives its special permit from the Japanese government to do so. The Japanese claims the death of the whales are done as ‘humanely’ as possible with exploding harpoons to ensure instantaneous death and that none of the sampled whales will go to waste, as they are processed onboard the whaling fleet’s factory ship. The estimated Japanese market for processed whale products exceeds over $60 million per annum and since the moratorium, the Japanese and other whaling countries believe some whale stocks have recovered enough to warrant a sustainable harvest. The case for the science is tainted by the fact that ICR receives its funding from a corporation that economically benefits from the harvest and the reduction of red tape on the subject of whaling.

The incident highlights the lethargic nature of governments to resolve the issue of whaling through civil action. In particular the current Australian government, who made an election promise in 2007, to  resolve the issue of prohibiting whaling in the boundaries of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary under the Australian EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone).

Until governments stand firm on a clear ground regarding the nature, the need and taking the responsibilities for the action and regulation of whaling activities. It is clear that the economic livelihoods of the ICR staff and those who gains from the harvest of whales will run contrary to environmental activists and citizens who see no need to wait on politicians or listen to the pundits call for ‘civility’ to reduce the tally of dead whales.

But the real issue at stake is the rapidly depleting fish stocks worldwide and the rampant and illegal fishing of sharks. This elephant, or in this case, the whale in room really needs to be resolved because whales generate so much public interest and crossing the threshold of this legal battle of what to do with the whales can really bring the fight and focus for sustainable fishing to a whole new level.

While the world watches and waits for their leaders deal their way towards a working agreement on the future of the environment. Denmark has the opportunity to present the history and development of its own achievements in the fields of clean tech and environmental stewardship.

Denmark has always came across to me as a modern civilized society who by and large, has a profound respect of nature and understand the complexities of our relationship towards it. According to polls, Danes live in one of the top ten happiest places in the world. This is the same place that has one of the best cycling infrastructure, social service and of course, cleanest air.

So how does Denmark govern its Marine environmental protection? An online search reveals the existence of The Helsinski Commission. Which governs the national geographical boundaries of the Baltic Sea region.  A most impressive organization.

Take note of some of its highlighted achievements over 30 years.

• Lower discharges of organic pollutants and nutrients from point-sources.
• A 20-25% overall reduction in the emissions of oxygen-consuming substances (BOD) from the 132 originally identified hot spots since the early 1990s, with about 50 hot spots deleted from the list.
• Fewer beaches closed for bathing, thanks to improvements in the treatment of industrial and municipal wastewater.
• Significant reductions in atmospheric nitrogen deposition.
• Dramatic reductions in emissions of organo-halogen compounds such as toxic dioxins and furans.
• National regulations banning hazardous substances like PCB and DDT.
• Stricter controls on industry (permits are now compulsory for industrial emissions).
• Improved joint monitoring of the state of the marine environment.
• The recovery of seal and white-tailed eagle populations.
• Better special legislation to prevent the pollution of the Baltic Sea by shipping, developed together with the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
• Measures to eliminate all illegal discharges by ships into the Baltic Sea.
• A major international plan to combat marine pollution, with active co-operation involving all the Contracting Parties through HELCOM.

Where will China’s  marine environment be in 30 years? With its current the scale of pollution so much higher and its socio/political will much to be accounted for. Will Chinese citizens take up the mantle beyond a NIMBY protest of incinerators? Now that President Obama has signaled his intention to visit the Copenhagen when the summit’s end draws near, will the Chinese not pledge more than ‘a notable margin’?

The Leoclub The Hague together with kids from Blaise Pascal College and Stichting Mooi collected rubbish on the beach of The Hague. Reason to collect litter is to protect our ocean wildlife that they won’t get enstrangled or die because they mistook a piece of plastic for food.

Part of the project was also to get funding for our freetrees project and Yangtze River project.
Thanks so much for your participation and donations.

We were very pleased to hear from Eelco from Stichting de Noordzee that we can use the old lifevessel from MAERSK for our Yangtze River trip in 2009. After our trip Stichting De Noordzee will use the vessel for research on the Northsea.

This is the first step to make that trip a reality!

AIESEC SISU will start on the 26^th of September to organize the Yangtze River Coordinators and 10 schools in 28 cities along the Yangtze River to join the program.

Further we found a Chinese hosting company willing to look after our hosting necessities. This is great news, because we will launch our outreach campaign after the October holidays.

We are starting to make progress how we can get sustainable fish into Shanghai. Chef Xavier from New Heights and Chef Brendan from Sasha’s have been great supporters of the project and great help with the taste testing. Charity dinners will start in October 2009. Lakeside Ville will be the first to start this series of events in Shanghai. Marinedream tried the recipes last weekend and it was yummie!

The Marine Steward Council starts to set firm ground in China as well as they are giving courses about MSC certification in Qindao. First steps to get sustainable fish into China

The Beach Clean Up in The Netherlands, scheduled on 20th September 2009, will take place on the beach of Wassenaar and, if enough people sign up, also on the beaches of Katwijk and Scheveningen. The LEO-club from Den Haagis helping with the preparations. We’re hoping that around 100 students from Rotterdam will be helping us at 20th September.

On June 8th, the Rotterdam World Ocean Day took place at the Blijdorp Zoo. This event was organised by Vincent Kneefel and hosted by the Delft University of Technology and the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Experts from all over the world discussed overfishing, illegal fishing and bycatch, Marine Protected Areas and other important issues. After a day with speakers like Fabien Cousteau, Dos Winkel, David Doubilet and of course Julie Adams, the message was clear: it’s time to take action now!

The Aqualife Award Day this Friday gave me the opportunity to go diving on Tioman island last weekend. The island is situated just of the coast of Malaysia and a 3 hours drive from Singapore. There is plenty of wildlife in the water and locals understand that having these reefs can provide them a good income through tourism. Downside is that with so many unexperienced divers and snorkelers in the water that the corals can get damaged too.
You can be a good eco tourist by doing the following:
1. Don’t stand on corals
2. Don’t touch corals
3. Dont bring corals home
4. Don’t wear sunscreen in the water
5. Don’t wear insect repellant in the water
6. as a diver, practice your buoyancy in open water not in a coral garden

I didn’t take only pictures of the resident turtles but I came across this large fishing net that covered the corals. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my gloves and equipment to remove the net but I notified the diveshop in PayaBeach and asked if they like to organize dive cleanups.
Remember third week of September worldwide people are taking action to clean up the beach. You can join. Just check www.oceanconservancy.org

Fourhundred people arrived on May 16th at Nanzhui Beach. Amazing to see so many people at one spot working together to make a change. The volunteers from SISU and Tongji and Danghua university cleaned up approximately 2 kilometers of beach in 1.5 hours.

In July we will publish the report of items we have found on pollution.marinedream.org. Again we found many shoes ..

Shauna will keep you updated on sustainable/unsustainable fish farming practices in this blog and which fish are environmentally ok to eat in Shanghai. The teammembers have called 30 restaurants so far to check what is on the menu, 90 more to go and they went to a fish market to record what types of fish there are sold. This weekend they will go to another fishmarket to do more research.

We will have another meeting with the Fisheries University and talking to potential fish suppliers now. Also ICS meeting tomorrow if we can do the promotion of sustainable fish through their “Who is the Chef” program.

Aqualife Xplore project .. we will check the beach cleanup place this Friday and hopefully we can swing by the Port of Shanghai as well. 250 people already signed up to join. 100 more to go

Freetrees website is up and running - final testing tomorrow and final check of the database. On Monday we will email schools in Shanghai to join!

On track .. but still waiting for DVD from Martin Strel which is send from Slovenia last week .. for our charity event on the 17th.

14 of the 18 schools in Singapore started the Aqualife program - they have another 11 days to finish and then we announce the winners!