Palau News: Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior III in Palau; Stop Catching Tomorrow's Fish Today
Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior III in Palau
WRITTEN BY JOSE RODRIGUEZ T. SENASE
THURSDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2015 16:03
Captain of vessel was also aboard Rainbow Warrior I when it was bombed and sunk by the French in 1985.
The Rainbow Warrior III, which is considered to be the best ship in the current Greenpeace fleet, is in Palau to help the monitor’s the country’s waters. The Rainbow Warrior III entered into Palau’s waters two days ago. It will be here until Monday, September 28, 2015.
The vessel embarked from German South African two months ago, sailed on to Australia, New Zealand, before arriving in Palau. Yesterday, members of the media and some government personnel were given a tour of the ship, which is currently docked at the Malakal Port.
Expedition leader Karli Thomas said that while on the way to Palau, a helicopter on-board the vessel conducted aerial surveillance of Palau’s waters and maritime borders. Though, according to her, in recent days their aerial surveillance efforts have been hampered by bad weather conditions.
“In our visits to Palau before, we were able to track foreign fishing vessels conducting illegal fishing activities within Palau’s waters. So far in this trip, we had not detected any illegal activity at sea. But the surveillance effort will be continued using our helicopter,” she said.
Thomas also praised Palau as a global leader in conservation. According to Thomas, it will be the third time that a Greenpeace vessel came to Palau. The Greenpeace vessel “Esperanza” came to Palau in 2011 and 2014. Greenpeace personnel, together with Palauan law enforcement officials, busted foreign fishing vessels engaged in illegal fishing activities in Palau’s waters, including a Taiwanese fishing boat, during those visits.
Rainbow Warrior III was custom built for environmental activist group Greenpeace International. Construction of the ship was completed in October 2011. A $32-M contract to build the ship was awarded to Fassmer Shipyard, Germany, in July 2009. Funds for Rainbow Warrior III's construction were sourced from about three million sponsors. The 57.92m-long ship uses wind energy instead of fossil fuels and incorporates green marine technology. Greenpeace uses Rainbow Warrior III in its environmental awareness campaigns. The ship provides a functional platform for campaigns at sea and in harbors. It can be deployed on campaign operations worldwide in all climatic zones and used for conducting research activities.
The ship has the capacity
The ship was built to meet strict environmental demands and as a result the heat generated from the engine is recycled to heat the cabins and the used water is treated and purified by a biological system.to carry and launch inflatable boats in tough weather conditions. It also has a helicopter landing facility. The oceanic vessel is equipped with the latest in electronic navigation, sailing and communications equipment. The vessel is also equipped with a helipad and a helicopter hangar. The vessel carries more than 30 people, including 15 crew. The crew is of mixed ancestry and includes people from Fiji, Argentina, Spain, Romania, Vanuatu, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.
Captain was also on Rainbow Warrior I
The vessel is captained by Peter Willcox, who was also captain of the Rainbow Warrior I that was bombed and sunk by French intelligence agents more than 30 years ago at Auckland, New Zealand. At that time, the vessel was on its way to protest a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa Atoll. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship.
Willcox is a native of Vermont, United States (US). He was also on the MV Arctic Sunrise when that boat was arrested by the Russian military in 2013. In 2014, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guardian for his environmental activism. The event, which occurred in 1985, led to an international outcry and led to the resignation of the then French Minister of Defense, Charles Hernu.
About Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental organization that defends the natural world and promotes peace by investigating, exposing and confronting environmental abuse, and championing solutions.
Greenpeace has offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating boy in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
http://islandtimes.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1955%3Agreenpeaces-rainbow-warrior-iii-in-palau&catid=8%3Alatest-news&Itemid=1
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How to Stop Catching Tomorrow’s Fish: A Tale from Palau
By Steven Victor | Opinion | September 23, 2015
I have eaten fish all my life. Like so many in my island nation of Palau, eating fish defines me as a Palauan.
Here, you grow up with an almost intuitive understanding of the value of fish. A Palauan man’s duty is to fish to feed his family and to provide the fish for cultural obligations, including: giving fish to his daughter’s husband and his family, providing for first child birth ceremony, and funerals.
These are events that bring families together to exchange food and money. Palauans never used to have bank accounts; savings were invested within families and in-laws through exchanges of food and fish is a huge part of that equation - a man gives fish and in exchange he gets money, which is then given to his wife’s brothers and cousins who give fish to her. And the cycle continues. Fish is an investment.
But despite the cultural importance of fish for Palauans, fish are still in decline and we know it. For many years we have watched our catch get smaller and smaller, including fish that are too small to have had any chance to reproduce. Like farmers who eat their own seeds, we are eating away our future. We are eating tomorrow’s fish.
How can we turn this cycle around? A tale of two small fishing villages in Palau is giving me hope - a tale based on science and community action. But we have to scale up this approach quickly, before it’s too late.
A Tale of Two Fishing Villages
For generations, fishermen from Kayangel and Ngarchelong fished for food and worked together for common good of their communities.
Though the villages are separated by vast fishing grounds, starting in the 1980s fisherman began following the advent of commercial fishing in my nation to see the impact of irresponsible fishing in other fishing grounds throughout Palau. They resisted live grouper traders from Hong Kong offering to move into their fishing grounds. But some of these fishermen eventually started to fish commercially in the 1990s as Palau began to develop from a subsistence-based economy to a cash-based one.
And a few years later, fishermen from Kayangel and Ngarchelong noticed a decline in the size of fish they were catching and recognized that they were now catching smaller and fewer fish.
Fishermen measuring fish in Kayangel. Photo © Dr. Jeremy Prince
Fishermen measuring fish in Kayangel. Photo © Dr. Jeremy Prince
Concerned, they took action to reverse the decline. Traditional chiefs imposed a ban on fishing in eight channels where fish aggregate to spawn. And they established two of the largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the main Palau archipelago, which closed off areas to fishing. Soon, these MPAs were showing more fish, spurring excitement in the fishermen that their fish stocks would return to normal levels.
Instead, the fishermen continued to see declines in their catch. The MPAs were not enough to address continued fishing pressure. But these communities didn’t give up hope. Instead, they wanted data - data that was lacking on the status of their fisheries, but that could confirm what their eyes told them.
When the fishermen began working with scientists from The Nature Conservancy to collect that data, they began to understand exactly why the size of fish was critical for the health of their fish population.
We trained fishermen to measure the size of the fish and to examine the reproductive organs to determine if they are male or female and if they are mature or not. This was a very simple technique that the fishermen easily understood because it built upon their existing knowledge of these species. For example, they could identify female fish based on their experience of seeing fish eggs when they clean their catch - experienced fishermen knew that the presence of eggs usually relate to moon phase. These measurements determined the size at maturity for their fish - the size at which a fish is big enough to reproduce.
Eventually, what the data showed shocked the fishermen: more than 60 percent of fish they are catching have not had any chance to reproduce.
From Data to Management
So how did fishermen from Kayangel and Ngarchelong get from data to action?
The data were a huge wake-up call. The fishermen realized that better gear and increased market demand had led to a decimation of their fishing grounds. As Baudista Sato, fisherman from Ngarchelong said: “kid a kekedel ra bodo ngemoes,” meaning “we have been catching young fish.”
Fishermen being trained to examine fish gonads to determine if mature or not. Photo © Andrew Smith
Fishermen being trained to examine fish gonads to determine if mature or not. Photo © Andrew Smith
But with the help of Conservancy scientists, the fishermen were able to use the data to go a step further anddetermine a management scheme. They worked with their state legislature to pass a fisheries management framework law in July 2015 that has put a 3 year moratorium on five species of grouper (Plectropomus aerolatus, Plectropomus leopardus, Pleactropomus leavis, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, and Epinephelus polyphekaidon). The law also mandates promulgation of additional fish regulations on size and other management approaches.
The fishermen then formed a fishery cooperative as a non-profit organization with the aim of increasing their participation in management and ensuring improved benefits from the fishery to their community. They recognized that it was hard to make change happen working as individuals. But a cooperative approach will allow them to leverage change and improve benefits to them and save their fish for tomorrow.
And it’s not just about fish - it’s about saving their way of life and culture.
The cooperative currently has 41 members from the two fishing villages. Katsushi Skang, the co-op president, says: “Together we can chart a course that helps our fishermen thrive today and our culture thrive for generations to come.”
Can This Tale of Two Communities Inspire More Success?
Using the size of a fish to estimate its reproductive potential is still a developing science, but even so it was powerful enough evidence to motivate fishermen to take action based on what they know.
There is an ongoing effort by the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) working group to provide a broader process on how small-scale fisheries can be assessed using fewer data sets that involved fishermen to set their own goals and targets for managing their fishery. This approach would be revolutionary, allowing accurate assessments of small-scale fisheries and speeding up the advance of fishermen-led reform that will could help more fishing communities restore their resources.
Even though it has been tried in just two villages, the approach that the Conservancy provided lays the foundation for fishermen and communities to make changes in how fishing today can ensure fish for tomorrow, in Palau and elsewhere.
The basic principles:
--Empowering fishermen to understand their fishery
--Exploring other management approach beyond MPAs
--Improving enforcement and compliance
--Offer alternative livelihood opportunities
--Ensuring that improved fishery benefits fishermen
Different communities will respond differently to change, however, these basic principles can ensure that we identify the agent of change within the community. The Conservancy’s work in Palau is about empowering the fishermen with the tools and knowledge they need to stop catching tomorrow’s fish, and to eventually restore thriving fisheries.
Empowering communities is the way to scale up fisheries reform and have a large impact across many fishing communities, not only in Palau but in other places where fishermen are facing decimation of their fish.
- See more at: http://blog.nature.org/conservancy/2015/09/23/how-to-stop-catching-tomorrows-fish-tale-palau-fishing-fisheries-science/#sthash.A5CZ6AwJ.dpuf
WRITTEN BY JOSE RODRIGUEZ T. SENASE
THURSDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2015 16:03
Captain of vessel was also aboard Rainbow Warrior I when it was bombed and sunk by the French in 1985.
The Rainbow Warrior III, which is considered to be the best ship in the current Greenpeace fleet, is in Palau to help the monitor’s the country’s waters. The Rainbow Warrior III entered into Palau’s waters two days ago. It will be here until Monday, September 28, 2015.
The vessel embarked from German South African two months ago, sailed on to Australia, New Zealand, before arriving in Palau. Yesterday, members of the media and some government personnel were given a tour of the ship, which is currently docked at the Malakal Port.
Expedition leader Karli Thomas said that while on the way to Palau, a helicopter on-board the vessel conducted aerial surveillance of Palau’s waters and maritime borders. Though, according to her, in recent days their aerial surveillance efforts have been hampered by bad weather conditions.
“In our visits to Palau before, we were able to track foreign fishing vessels conducting illegal fishing activities within Palau’s waters. So far in this trip, we had not detected any illegal activity at sea. But the surveillance effort will be continued using our helicopter,” she said.
Thomas also praised Palau as a global leader in conservation. According to Thomas, it will be the third time that a Greenpeace vessel came to Palau. The Greenpeace vessel “Esperanza” came to Palau in 2011 and 2014. Greenpeace personnel, together with Palauan law enforcement officials, busted foreign fishing vessels engaged in illegal fishing activities in Palau’s waters, including a Taiwanese fishing boat, during those visits.
Rainbow Warrior III was custom built for environmental activist group Greenpeace International. Construction of the ship was completed in October 2011. A $32-M contract to build the ship was awarded to Fassmer Shipyard, Germany, in July 2009. Funds for Rainbow Warrior III's construction were sourced from about three million sponsors. The 57.92m-long ship uses wind energy instead of fossil fuels and incorporates green marine technology. Greenpeace uses Rainbow Warrior III in its environmental awareness campaigns. The ship provides a functional platform for campaigns at sea and in harbors. It can be deployed on campaign operations worldwide in all climatic zones and used for conducting research activities.
The ship has the capacity
The ship was built to meet strict environmental demands and as a result the heat generated from the engine is recycled to heat the cabins and the used water is treated and purified by a biological system.to carry and launch inflatable boats in tough weather conditions. It also has a helicopter landing facility. The oceanic vessel is equipped with the latest in electronic navigation, sailing and communications equipment. The vessel is also equipped with a helipad and a helicopter hangar. The vessel carries more than 30 people, including 15 crew. The crew is of mixed ancestry and includes people from Fiji, Argentina, Spain, Romania, Vanuatu, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries.
Captain was also on Rainbow Warrior I
The vessel is captained by Peter Willcox, who was also captain of the Rainbow Warrior I that was bombed and sunk by French intelligence agents more than 30 years ago at Auckland, New Zealand. At that time, the vessel was on its way to protest a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa Atoll. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship.
Willcox is a native of Vermont, United States (US). He was also on the MV Arctic Sunrise when that boat was arrested by the Russian military in 2013. In 2014, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Guardian for his environmental activism. The event, which occurred in 1985, led to an international outcry and led to the resignation of the then French Minister of Defense, Charles Hernu.
About Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental organization that defends the natural world and promotes peace by investigating, exposing and confronting environmental abuse, and championing solutions.
Greenpeace has offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating boy in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
http://islandtimes.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1955%3Agreenpeaces-rainbow-warrior-iii-in-palau&catid=8%3Alatest-news&Itemid=1
-------------------------------------------------------------
How to Stop Catching Tomorrow’s Fish: A Tale from Palau
By Steven Victor | Opinion | September 23, 2015
I have eaten fish all my life. Like so many in my island nation of Palau, eating fish defines me as a Palauan.
Here, you grow up with an almost intuitive understanding of the value of fish. A Palauan man’s duty is to fish to feed his family and to provide the fish for cultural obligations, including: giving fish to his daughter’s husband and his family, providing for first child birth ceremony, and funerals.
These are events that bring families together to exchange food and money. Palauans never used to have bank accounts; savings were invested within families and in-laws through exchanges of food and fish is a huge part of that equation - a man gives fish and in exchange he gets money, which is then given to his wife’s brothers and cousins who give fish to her. And the cycle continues. Fish is an investment.
But despite the cultural importance of fish for Palauans, fish are still in decline and we know it. For many years we have watched our catch get smaller and smaller, including fish that are too small to have had any chance to reproduce. Like farmers who eat their own seeds, we are eating away our future. We are eating tomorrow’s fish.
How can we turn this cycle around? A tale of two small fishing villages in Palau is giving me hope - a tale based on science and community action. But we have to scale up this approach quickly, before it’s too late.
A Tale of Two Fishing Villages
For generations, fishermen from Kayangel and Ngarchelong fished for food and worked together for common good of their communities.
Though the villages are separated by vast fishing grounds, starting in the 1980s fisherman began following the advent of commercial fishing in my nation to see the impact of irresponsible fishing in other fishing grounds throughout Palau. They resisted live grouper traders from Hong Kong offering to move into their fishing grounds. But some of these fishermen eventually started to fish commercially in the 1990s as Palau began to develop from a subsistence-based economy to a cash-based one.
And a few years later, fishermen from Kayangel and Ngarchelong noticed a decline in the size of fish they were catching and recognized that they were now catching smaller and fewer fish.
Fishermen measuring fish in Kayangel. Photo © Dr. Jeremy Prince
Fishermen measuring fish in Kayangel. Photo © Dr. Jeremy Prince
Concerned, they took action to reverse the decline. Traditional chiefs imposed a ban on fishing in eight channels where fish aggregate to spawn. And they established two of the largest Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the main Palau archipelago, which closed off areas to fishing. Soon, these MPAs were showing more fish, spurring excitement in the fishermen that their fish stocks would return to normal levels.
Instead, the fishermen continued to see declines in their catch. The MPAs were not enough to address continued fishing pressure. But these communities didn’t give up hope. Instead, they wanted data - data that was lacking on the status of their fisheries, but that could confirm what their eyes told them.
When the fishermen began working with scientists from The Nature Conservancy to collect that data, they began to understand exactly why the size of fish was critical for the health of their fish population.
We trained fishermen to measure the size of the fish and to examine the reproductive organs to determine if they are male or female and if they are mature or not. This was a very simple technique that the fishermen easily understood because it built upon their existing knowledge of these species. For example, they could identify female fish based on their experience of seeing fish eggs when they clean their catch - experienced fishermen knew that the presence of eggs usually relate to moon phase. These measurements determined the size at maturity for their fish - the size at which a fish is big enough to reproduce.
Eventually, what the data showed shocked the fishermen: more than 60 percent of fish they are catching have not had any chance to reproduce.
From Data to Management
So how did fishermen from Kayangel and Ngarchelong get from data to action?
The data were a huge wake-up call. The fishermen realized that better gear and increased market demand had led to a decimation of their fishing grounds. As Baudista Sato, fisherman from Ngarchelong said: “kid a kekedel ra bodo ngemoes,” meaning “we have been catching young fish.”
Fishermen being trained to examine fish gonads to determine if mature or not. Photo © Andrew Smith
Fishermen being trained to examine fish gonads to determine if mature or not. Photo © Andrew Smith
But with the help of Conservancy scientists, the fishermen were able to use the data to go a step further anddetermine a management scheme. They worked with their state legislature to pass a fisheries management framework law in July 2015 that has put a 3 year moratorium on five species of grouper (Plectropomus aerolatus, Plectropomus leopardus, Pleactropomus leavis, Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, and Epinephelus polyphekaidon). The law also mandates promulgation of additional fish regulations on size and other management approaches.
The fishermen then formed a fishery cooperative as a non-profit organization with the aim of increasing their participation in management and ensuring improved benefits from the fishery to their community. They recognized that it was hard to make change happen working as individuals. But a cooperative approach will allow them to leverage change and improve benefits to them and save their fish for tomorrow.
And it’s not just about fish - it’s about saving their way of life and culture.
The cooperative currently has 41 members from the two fishing villages. Katsushi Skang, the co-op president, says: “Together we can chart a course that helps our fishermen thrive today and our culture thrive for generations to come.”
Can This Tale of Two Communities Inspire More Success?
Using the size of a fish to estimate its reproductive potential is still a developing science, but even so it was powerful enough evidence to motivate fishermen to take action based on what they know.
There is an ongoing effort by the Science for Nature and People (SNAP) working group to provide a broader process on how small-scale fisheries can be assessed using fewer data sets that involved fishermen to set their own goals and targets for managing their fishery. This approach would be revolutionary, allowing accurate assessments of small-scale fisheries and speeding up the advance of fishermen-led reform that will could help more fishing communities restore their resources.
Even though it has been tried in just two villages, the approach that the Conservancy provided lays the foundation for fishermen and communities to make changes in how fishing today can ensure fish for tomorrow, in Palau and elsewhere.
The basic principles:
--Empowering fishermen to understand their fishery
--Exploring other management approach beyond MPAs
--Improving enforcement and compliance
--Offer alternative livelihood opportunities
--Ensuring that improved fishery benefits fishermen
Different communities will respond differently to change, however, these basic principles can ensure that we identify the agent of change within the community. The Conservancy’s work in Palau is about empowering the fishermen with the tools and knowledge they need to stop catching tomorrow’s fish, and to eventually restore thriving fisheries.
Empowering communities is the way to scale up fisheries reform and have a large impact across many fishing communities, not only in Palau but in other places where fishermen are facing decimation of their fish.
- See more at: http://blog.nature.org/conservancy/2015/09/23/how-to-stop-catching-tomorrows-fish-tale-palau-fishing-fisheries-science/#sthash.A5CZ6AwJ.dpuf