Commonwealth study urges governments to act to stave off disaster.

The world faces a “global crisis” in marine fisheries as a result of overfishing.  In a study on the State of Marine Fisheries, a group of 24 scientists and academics, state that plummeting fish stocks are leading to wide-ranging and damaging consequences for marine habitats and vulnerable communities.

They want more support for the Marine Protected Areas, and the in-shore areas.  The study forms part of the Commonwealth Fisheries Programme – a two year programme focussed on improving the livelihoods of coastal communities in developing countries.

As the result of a Center for Biological Diversity settlement with the US Fish and Wildlife Service in June of 2009,  a federal rule was finalised to protect the Galapagos Petrel and Heinroth’s Shearwater as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.  As part of the settlement, the Service also published listing determinations for 12 birds from Peru, Bolivia, Europe, and the islands of French Polynesia.

The Service originally received petitions to list more than 70 species of the planet’s most imperiled birds – which live throughout the world, including Brazil, Spain, India, Eastern Europe, and the Marquesas Islands – in 1980 and 1991.  In violilation of the Endangered Species Act, the agency spent the better part of two decades refusing to finalise listings for many of these species despite the fact that all had been found to warrant protection.

Endangered Species Act listing provides substantial benefits to foreign species.  It authorizes the president to provide financial assistance for the development and management of programs in foreign countries and the lets the Fish and Wildlife Service encourage conservation programs and provide personnel and training.  Beyond these basic protections, the Act also implements the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) of Wild Flora and Fauna.

Background on the birds

The Galapagos petrel is a bird native to the epic Galapagos Islands.  Introduced predators pose the greatest threat to this dark-rumped bird.

The Heinroth’s shearwater is an elusive bired thought to breed in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands; this bird is similarly threatened  by the introduction of predatory species, and is also harmed by the destruction of habitat through deforestation as well as some commercial long-line fishing operations.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has also proposed listing as endangered the ash-breasted tit-tyrant and royal cinclodes (native to Peru and Bolivia); the Junin grebe, Junin rail, Peruvian plantcutter, and white-browed tit-spinetail (native to Peru); and the Cantabrain capercaillie (of Spain), Eiao Polynesian warbler and the Marquesan imperial pigeon (from French Polynesia), the greater adjutant (found in Cambodia and India), Jerdon’s courser (from India), and the slender-billed curlew (from Europe and Africa).

New York, September 29, 2009.

The two largest marine protected areas in the world are now linked in partnership to enhance the management and conservation of almost 300,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean.  Encompassing 25 percent of all marine protected areas on earth, the two sites – one in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and one near the Equator in Kiribati (say Kee-ree-bass) – enjoy a “sister site” relationship based on an agreement signed recently in New York.  Managers of both sites met in November of 09 in French Polynesia to formalise the agreement.

The marine conservation partnership links the Papahanaumokuakea (say Papa-han-ow-mo-ku-ah-kea) Marine National Monument, located in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, and the Phoenix Islands Protected Area in the Republic of Kiribati.

When it was established in 2006, Papahanaumokuakea was the largest marine protected area in the world, covering natural, cultural and historic resources within an area of 140,000 square miles.  The monuments extensive coral reefs are inhabited by more than 7,000 marine species, one-quarter of them found only in the Hawaiian Archipelago.

In 2008, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area was founded to protect the Kiribati archipelago’s terrestrial and marine resources.  It is now the largest marine protected area in the world covering 158,000 square miles of ocean and islands.  The coral reefs and bird populations of these islands of Kiribati are unique and virtually untouched by humans.  The protected area also includes underwater seamounts and other deep sea habitats.  The Phoenix Islands Protected Area itself is a unique partnership between the government of Kiribati that owns the Phoenix Islands, nongovernmental conservation organisations and regional governments.

Boths sites were nominated  this year by their year by their respective governments as World Heritage Sites, a designation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

Washington, DC, September 21, 2009 –/world-wire/(ENS)

For all the historical and cultural studies devoted to the Mediterranean, the offshore waters of the Mediterranean Sea remain relatively uncharted for the world’s marine mammal researchers.  But new data gathered during a recent study gives researchers hope of better understanding the area and its marine populations.

The study, entitled “Biological and Behavioral Studies of Marine Mammals in western Mediterranean Sea,” or MED 09, focused on marine mammal behavioral patterns and habits.  This multinational effort was supported by the U.S. Navy and the Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP), and included participation from organisations in Italy, Spain, France and the United States.

September 24, 2009 (ENS) – Lake Nakuru National Park in central Kenya, internationally known for its concentration of bright pink flamingos, has been designated as an international bird sanctuary.

It becomes the first national park in Africa to be recognised as an Important Bird Area under the international IBA program established by the UK-based gobal organisation BirdLife International and its worldwide network of partners.