Posts Tagged ‘Pacific’
Saturday, May 1st, 2010
Peter Alford; 1/5/10
Anti-whaling activist and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society leader Paul Watson has challenged the Australian government to say whether it will comply with a Japanese warrant for his arrest. “If I go back and the Australians want to arrest me and put me into an extradition trial for the Japanese, then we’ll see what happens,” he said from New York. Mr Watson was unconcerned about a Japan Coast Guard request for him to be put on an Interpol wanted list: “Interpol does not act on politically motivated charges.” But he said Australian and New Zealand authorities also had responsibility to interview the skipper of the whaling patrol boat Shonan Maru 2 about a Southern Ocean collision in January that resulted in the destruction of Sea Shepherd’s power boat. Although Ady Gil was a New Zealand-registered vessel, Mr Watson claimed the Japanese had refused to make the skipper available to foreign investigators.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific, Trade
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Thursday, April 29th, 2010
Joe Kelly; 29/4/10
Australian diplomacy will be tested as the Rudd government scrambles to muster support for a fresh push to end so-called scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean. Environment Protection Minister Peter Garrett has rejected a compromise plan by the International Whaling Commission that would allow some whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. IWC chairman Cristian Maquieira last week announced the proposal for limited whaling in the sanctuary and off the coast of Japan in an attempt to reach a compromise on the whale conservation issue. But Mr Garrett said the proposal was unacceptable and would set back whale conservation by decades.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Saturday, April 24th, 2010
Peter Alford & Dennis Shanahan; 24/4/10
Japanese whaling would continue in Antarctic waters for the next decade – with impunity from Kevin Rudd’s threatened legal action – under a proposal by the International Whaling Commission chairman. The proposal allows Japan to replace its controversial “scientific whaling” program with IWC quotas for an annual Southern Ocean kill of 410 whales in each of the next five years and 205 whales annually from 2015-2020. If approved by 75 per cent of members at June’s IWC meeting, chairman Cristian Maquieira’s proposal would undercut the 24-year worldwide ban on commercial whaling but resolve a bitter deadlock over continued hunting by Japan, Norway and Iceland. The commission’s 88 member countries have 60 days to negotiate further compromise before the Morocco meeting.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Saturday, April 3rd, 2010
3/4/10
The prospect of a 15-year jail term facing anti-whaling activist Pete Bethune was unjust, Greens leader Bob Brown said yesterday. The New Zealander, in custody in Tokyo after illegally boarding a Japanese whaling vessel, the Shonan Maru No 2, was initially charged with trespass after his arrest last month. But the Japan Coast Guard has laid four more charges of assault, illegal possession of a knife, destruction of property and obstruction of business. Senator Brown said the Japanese whalers should be facing charges under Australian law for endangering lives. “It is absolutely unjust that Captain Pete Bethune is facing up to 15 years in prison in Japan,” he said. The Greens leader said the Australian Federal Police were investigating an official complaint by the Sea Shepherd group over the ramming and sinking of the Ady Gil.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japam, NZ, Pacific
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Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Leigh Dayton; 1/4/10
In one of the world’s greatest migratory feats, four little shorebirds flew non-stop from Victoria to Taiwan in just over six days, covering 7600km. En route, the ruddy turnstones, Arenaria interpres, cruised at an average speed of 50-55km/h. Those are two findings from the first monitored migration cycle of the stocky wader, which spends the Australian winter along the southeastern coast of Australia and in New Zealand. Birds then fly north for about six weeks of feeding and breeding in Siberia, via Taiwan, a one-way journey of 12,400km. After the breeding season, three of the four birds went home following the same Australasian “flyway”. But one went its own way, flying east to the Aleutian Islands, then south to the Gilberts and then home to Victoria via the northern NSW coast, a round trip of 27,000km.
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Tags: Asia, Australia, Environment, Pacific
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Thursday, April 1st, 2010
Brigid Glanville; 1/4/10
The Federal Government says it is very concerned by New Zealand’s compromise proposal with Japan to allow a set number of whales to be killed. New Zealand has agreed to a plan that would give whaling countries the right to kill 1,500 whales a year, and its whaling commissioner plans to put forward the proposal at international talks in June. But Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett says Australia will strongly argue its case for a blanket ban on hunting.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, NZ, Pacific
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Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Tom Arup; 25/3/10
A major environmental campaign to establish the world’s biggest marine national park across the ecologically important Coral Sea has been quashed by Environment Minister Peter Garrett. Mr Garrett yesterday announced that his department would assess the Coral Sea, home to thousands of turtles, whales and sharks, to establish a range of ”multi-use” and ”no-take” marine protection zones. But Mr Garrett ruled out the proposed single marine park saying ”the government is not intending to have one large no-take area across the whole of the Coral Sea Conservation Zone”. ”We believe that we want to meet the really important goals of conservation and protecting the environment of the Coral Sea whilst at the same time allowing for mixed uses,” Mr Garrett said.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Pacific
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Thursday, March 18th, 2010
Mark Metherell; 18/3/10
Rising alcohol abuse in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands, partly spurred by Australian beer, has prompted calls for alcohol companies to contribute more to counter the problem. A survey commissioned by the Australian National Council on Drugs found there has been a dramatic increase in alcohol-related violence and other drug problems in Pacific countries. The report, compiled by the Burnet Institute, names five countries – Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Fiji, the Marshall Islands and Vanuatu – where alcohol has been blamed for increases in domestic violence. Some countries, including Tonga and the Cook Islands, reported increases in illicit drug availability.
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Tags: Australia, Drugs, Pacific
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Saturday, March 13th, 2010
Peter Alford; 13/3/10
After years of fruitless efforts to penetrate the facade of Japan’s scientific whaling, Greenpeace in January 2008 stumbled across a rare opportunity: a whistleblower. An investigation by Greenpeace Japan’s Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki, based on the whistleblower’s tip-offs, produced sensational allegations of corruption, waste and official misbehaviour in the whaling program. Japanese taxpayers keep scientific whaling afloat: last year, Y=5.1 billion (about $60 million) of the Institute of Cetacean Research’s Y=13.9 trillion operating expenses were met by interest-free public loans, Y=538m came as direct subsidy and another Y=404m as public research fees. The rest came from selling the meat of the whales killed by the fleet, the proceeds of a publicly funded activity. The public was being cheated, Greenpeace argued. Sato and Suzuki, however, ended up in the dock.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Wednesday, March 10th, 2010
10/3/10
Conservationist warned today that Malaysians’ voracious appetite for turtle eggs could drive the marine creatures to extinction on its shores. Turtle eggs are sold openly in markets in parts of Malaysia. Turtles once arrived in their thousands to lay eggs on Malaysian beaches, but are now increasingly rare due to poaching and coastal development. Environmental group WWF released a report saying that hundreds of thousands of turtle eggs are eaten in Malaysia every year, despite campaigns to get them off the menu. “One of the contributing factors to the leatherback turtles’ disappearance from our shores is egg consumption. “We wouldn’t want the same thing to happen to our green and hawksbill turtles,” said WWF-Malaysia executive director Dionysius S.K. Sharma.
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Tags: Environment, Malaysia, Pacific
Posted in Asia, Environment | No Comments »
Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Dennis Shanahan & Peter Alford; 6/3/10
The federal government risks a major diplomatic dispute by taking Japan to the International Court of Justice over whaling, Japanese officials have warned. But Kevin Rudd, aware of mounting Japanese antagonism, repeated his threat yesterday. “If necessary, we’ll take it to the ICJ before the next whaling season commences,” the Prime Minister said in an interview with The Weekend Australian. “I don’t think I can be plainer than that.” The likelihood of an Australia-Japan showdown escalated as key International Whaling Commission nations failed yesterday to agree on a compromise that would have allowed hunting to continue in the Antarctic for 10 years. The Florida meeting underlined that Australia’s hardline position was becoming isolated, heading into the critical IWC annual meeting in June.
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Tags: Australia, Envionment, Japan, Pacific, Trade
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Friday, March 5th, 2010
5/3/10; (2 Items)
Australia and Japan struggled to strike a deal in a bitter dispute on whaling yesterday, but the US negotiator in intense talks said nations would keep seeking a compromise. Key players on whaling were wrapping up three days of talks at a Florida beach resort where they debated a compromise to let Japan, Norway and Iceland hunt the ocean giants openly despite a 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. In return, whaling nations would agree to sharply reduce their catch over a 10-year period and put their activities under the close supervision of the 88-nation International Whaling Commission (IWC). Asked if supporters and opponents of whaling could strike a deal, Monica Medina, the US commissioner to the IWC, said: “I think the jury is out.”
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
3/3/10
Japan will push for a resumption of commercial whaling, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Hirotaka Akamatsu said. “To gain the right to resume commercial whaling, what and how much can we give?” he told reporters in Tokyo today before the closed-door talks of an International Whaling Commission in Florida. “We will continue our patient negotiations.” In 1986, the IWC slapped a moratorium on commercial whaling, but Japan uses a loophole that allows lethal “scientific research” for its annual Antarctic hunts, while Norway and Iceland defy the ban entirely. The three nations have since killed more than 30,000 whales.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010
2/3/10
The tuna industry generates $4bn a year worldwide, but as a result the tuna is under threat from overfishing. Now leaders from eight Pacific island nations are planning to form a regional tuna cartel to increase their share of profits from the fish. Al Jazeera’s Laura Kyle went to Papua New Guinea, and found short term business gains are proving more attractive than long term sustainability.
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Tags: Fishing, Pacific, PNG, Trade
Posted in Asia, Environment, Pacific Region, PNG / West Papua | No Comments »
Friday, February 26th, 2010
Peter Alford; 26/2/10
The Japanese government has accepted in principle a plan for Antarctic whaling to continue at reduced levels under International Whaling Commission supervision. Japan’s Antarctic whaling operations could be legitimised by the IWC by late June, unless Australia can rally enough support from other members to block the controversial compromise plan. IWC chairman Cristian Maquieira’s proposal is a blow to Australian hopes of halting all southern whaling and, if approved by the commission’s annual meeting, would also upset Kevin Rudd’s threat to take Japan to the International Court of Justice. Japan Fisheries Agency counsellor Joji Morishita described the Maquieira plan as “a provisional ceasefire”, suspending more than 20 years of disputes between Japan and its anti-whaling opponents. “It would signify big progress as (disputing) parties would search for the midway point by conceding ground to each other,” he said.
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Tags: Australia, Japan, Pacific, Trade
Posted in Aid / Trade, Australia, Environment, Human Rights, Japan | No Comments »
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010
Peter Alford; 24/2/10
Commercial whaling would be reintroduced on a limited basis and Japan would be able to continue hunting in the Antarctic, under a proposal released today by International Whaling Commission chairman Cristian Maquieira. The Maquieira proposal cuts across Kevin Rudd’s demand for Japan to end its Southern Ocean scientific whaling program by November, before the scheduled start of the next summer hunt. Mr Rudd has threatened Japan with a lawsuit in the International Court of Justice if it does not accept his ultimatum. Greenpeace International today described the Maquieira plan as a “disaster” for whale conservation, “send(ing) shock waves through international ocean conservation efforts, making it vastly more difficult to protect other rapidly declining species such as tuna and sharks”. “The proposal rewards Japan for decades of reprehensible behaviour at the IWC and in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” said John Frizell, head of the Greenpeace whales campaign.
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Tags: Australia, Environment, Japan, Pacific
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