Feature story - 15 June, 2006
You probably thought whaling and driftnetting were things of the past. "Save the Whales", "Save the tuna" ... it's just so 80s right? But it seems that the world is going backwards - we are once again awaiting the fate of the whales from the IWC. Meanwhile two of our ships are in the Mediterranean dodging the driftnets and tuna-fattening cages to document the fate of another iconic species: tuna.
The Rainbow Warrior and the Esperanza unite to "Defend our Mediterranean".
Our ships Rainbow Warrior and Esperanza are both in the
Mediterraneanto unite our efforts to highight the threats to tuna
and other iconicspecies such as swordfish. Tuna is of course far
more likely to be onyour dinner plate than whale, but it may not be
on your plate at allfor long. Our new report reveals the backwards
attitudes in theMediterranean is threatening the very survival of
not only tuna butalso species of dolphin and whale.
Some of the things we've found:
- overfishing of species such as the bluefin tuna is rampant,
leading to a decline of 80 percent in stocks
- banned fishing practices like driftnetting are still being
carriedout on a massive scale, not only wiping out commercial fish
stocks butat the same time killing species like dolphins and
whales
- pollution from tourism, overdevelopment and commercial trade
are major threats to the Mediterranean
What is the solution (apart from turning back time)?
Well once again it's marine reserves. We urgently need to
establish anetwork of marine reserves across the Mediterranean Sea
to safeguardits productivity, its marine life and its ecosystems -
now and in thefuture.
Read the report!
Download the full report "Marine reserves for the Mediterranean sea"
More about the Med
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Defending our Mediterranean campaign