El Nino Clobbers California's Sea Lions

Warmer surface waters in the eastern Pacific are keeping sea lion pups' food sources away. Rescuers are doing what they can, NPR says in this report.

Bluefin Defeat Sinks In

Everyone's had some time to digest the tragedy that befell the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna and its supporters late last week, when the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting rejected a ban on its sale.

So here are just a few of the most salient points I've come across.

The BBC highlights an unsurprising problem:

Sue Lieberman, director of international policy with the Pew Environment Group, suggested lobbying from the fishing industry was ultimately responsible for the defeat.

"This meeting presented a golden opportunity for governments to take a stand against overfishing, and too many governments failed to do so," she said.

"The market for this fish is just too lucrative, and the pressure from fishing interests too great, for enough governments to support a truly sustainable future for the fish."

The thing is, Ms. Lieberman's comments are misleading in at least one way that Carl Safina put his finger on:

Japan says a ban would devastate fishing economies. As if destroying the fish won’t.

Opponents of the ban -- and let's face it, it was not all about Japan and Canada, since it essentially went down by a vote of 68-20 and CITES requires two-thirds support for passage -- pulled out the battle cry of the obstreperous: There's already another agency responsible for this!

That would be the execrable International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT), which doesn't inspire a lot of faith based on past performance.

In a great post that touches on all the essentials of what stinks about the Atlantic Bluefin's plight, Richard Black at BBC's EarthWatch blog doesn't mince too many words:

So poorly has this body performed its task (it was declared a "disgrace" by an independent performance review two years ago) that conservationists have another way of interpreting its initials - the International Conspiracy to Catch All Tunas.

And it was in frustration with Iccat's annual habit of setting quotas higher than its scientists recommended (they have advised zero quotas for the last few years) that conservationists turned to a CITES ban as an alternative way of reducing the catch.

Black goes on to note that: a) the Europeans are being disingenuous in all this, since they should be able to mobilize the ICCAT if they so choose, no matter what they say; b) the economics do not necessarily favor "sustainable" fisheries for commercial outfits, since ships can go just about anywhere, early payoffs (think: high prices in the short term) can be wrung out and turned into easy money elsewhere, and subsidies for scrapping old fleets can ease any lingering scruples; and c) the "tragedy of the commons," which basically states that people are willing to crap all over something in their effort to exploit it to their own maximum benefit, is at play.

It's a devastating indictment, to be sure. Rarely are there such clear-cut cases of species needing protection. And seldom is the failure to act in the broader interest more conspicuous than in the case of the Atlantic Bluefin Tuna.

Goodbye, Atlantic Bluefin?

Ayayay. Now I get Jared Diamond's points about civilizational self-destruction.

Honey, I Dunked The Kids

I'm all for exposing young people to the wonders of the underwater world, but this is not exactly a healthy idea for a competition.

He became world's youngest scuba diver after he dived 40 feet underwater near Grande Island in Goa last month, breaking the earlier world record of Egypt's Natasha Turner.

Open Water, Too

Sounds like lots of blame to go around on this dive mishap, although I know I wouldn't want to be in the water with that crew looking out for me (or not, rather). On the bright side, the beleaguered diver's suing for $4 million for five hours' work -- probably nearly what his attorney's asking.

I had a slightly similar experience off the Kenyan coast once. All I could think of while I was kicking toward shore was "God, I hope to hell I see a whale shark."

Can't let that story go without thinking of this great indie film:

State Help On Ocean Acidity

This might be a promising path in the U.S., given the example of the influence that states like California are beginning to have on vehicle emissions standards and all. Says AP:

In the settlement agreement, the [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] said it would take public comment on the increasing acidity of oceans, on ways states can determine if their coastal waters are affected, and on how states can limit pollutants that cause the problem.

Such measures could include regional cap-and-trade systems to limit carbon-dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels or requiring industrial plants to reduce their emissions as a condition of any discharge permits granted under the Clean Water Act, Sakashita said.

CITES And False Prophets

The world awaits word from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) summit on a possible Atlantic Bluefin Tuna ban, among other things. Meanwhile, the sponsors of alternative aquaculture schemes promise the world. Says one Japanese entrepreneur:

"Our tuna won't affect the ecological system so that we can help stop draining marine resources," said Takahiro Hama, a director of the company based in the southern Japanese city of Amakusa.

"We have just begun full shipments to the United States," he said. "We hope to provide our sustainable tuna for Japanese sushi bars and restaurants which are concerned about protests from environmental activists."

Several quick thoughts.

The suggestion that because these fish are farm-raised they don't consume "marine resources" is a fraud. They'll need to eat marine life of some sort in order to grow into the massive swimming sushi platters that companies like Hama envisage. Unless they're being fed chickens.

Second, the cynicism embodied in that statement about the U.S. market is mind-boggling. It's indeed heartening -- though dubious, in my view -- to think that environmental activists have that much clout in any sustained way. But to think that a primary selling point to restaurants is that they can avoid those huge, roving bands of picketing activists!

It also punches a hole in the laissez-faire argument whose underlying assumption is that economic actors would never piss in their own well. Because if that were the case, restaurateurs would be interested in sustainable fishing because they're ruining the planet, not our of fear of the occasional letter from 3rd-graders complaining that they're asking their mommies and daddies to boycott the place.