BRAVO

I've been meaning to rage about the results of the recent CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) meeting for a few days now.  CITES is an international conservation agreement between (as of 2009) 175 nations that meets once every three years to discuss various protections for flora and fauna.  

The results of the most recent meeting would probably be best conveyed by the participants writing "SCREW THE OCEAN" in a snowbank with urine.  Christie Wilcox at Observations of a Nerd writes about it in a much more dignified manner than I would, but here at the main points:

-Protection/regulations for eight species of shark did not pass.  The majority of sharks being commercially caught are being taken for their dorsal fins.

I'm pretty sure these look better on sharks.

-Trade ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna failed.  Bluefin (the shining stars of sushi and sashimi) are being eaten out of existence; this is only about Atlantic stocks, Pacific stocks are in a bad way as well.  You can largely thank Japan for this one; for having such a thing for tuna, you'd think it'd be concerned about their conservation.  APPARENTLY NOT

-Trade ban on polar bear products (they count as marine mammals, hush) failed.

-Trade ban on 31 species of coral failed.  The need for coral jewelry apparently trumps corals being integral to many marine ecosystems.

I've heard that tigers made out pretty well (given some people think parts of them are good for the old E.D.), but that's small consolation.  There are a good number of resources out there that discuss all this in more detail if you're interested, but the heart of the matter is that short-term gains from trade apparently trump conservation and sustainability for many members of CITES.  

One would hope that with everybody and their grandmother howling about "sustainability" and "green" everything people would've picked up on what happens when demand exceeds supply, but this seems to be one of those things that can be conveniently compartmentalized away when the situation (PROFIT) calls for it. 

Here are some groups responding to this:

The Pew Environment Group

Oceana

Ocean Conservancy

Scripps Institute of Oceanography

Overfishing.org

I could go into more detail (and probably will later) but it upsets me greatly that so many posts are about how this or that organism is endangered, nearly extinct (goodbye dear baiji; kind of surprising given people usually crap themselves over marine mammals.  Maybe just not weird-looking river dolphins?), has a threatened habitat, etc.

In closing, I strongly encourage all (any?) readers to do what you can in terms of supporting oceanic (and frankly all types of environmental) conservation.  If you read this thing regularly you've noticed that this blog is a way for me to share my lifelong love, fascination and enthusiasm for marine life; think of it as an exceptionally dorky love letter to the sea* that I insist on reading to everyone I meet.  It is my goal to infect others with this enthusiasm; this will become much more difficult the more damage these valuable ecosystems sustain.

*=though we're not married.  Yet.

A victory for lungfish, turtles and Queenslanders!

 Seen here is the largest specimen of Murray (Mary River) Cod.

Tibbetts, T.A. (2003, January 6). Pictures from the snowy mountains. 

Retrieved from http://www.uisgebeatha.org/snowymountainspictures_dec2002jan2003.html

Remember when I was hating on folks for the idea of damming the Mary River, home of Australian lungfish, the Mary River Turtle and Mary River cod?  Almost certainly not, but as a result of that entry I joined the SAVE THE MARY RIVER!!!! group, whose e-mails have kept me abreast of the situation. As of yesterday, I am pleased to announce that it looks like the Mary River is safe from damming!  Australian conservationists are a-twitter (probably literally); I need to check Australian news sources for more info.  Look at these guys:

DPI researcher with a lungfish caught in Splitters Creek. (ABC: Jodie van de Wetering)

van de Wetering, J. (2009, February 10). Learn about lungfish. 

Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2009/02/10/2487576.htm

 

Mary River Turtle, sporting awesome headgear.

Perhaps the second-largest specimen of Mary River cod?

Scott, B. (2007, July 20). A Snail's eye view. Retrieved from http://snailseyeview.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html 

Good job, everyone!

Not surprised.

Oceana's blog announced the winner of the 2009 Freaky Fish contest; unsurprisingly, the winner was the anglerfish.  I personally think that anglerfish should be retired from these kinds of contests or just get honorable mention because they're going to win every time by virtue of being, well, anglerfish.  More on freaky fish at a later date, though.

I found a review for Callum Roberts' The Unnatural History of the Sea over at Conservation Maven and recently acquired a copy from the library.  If I end up having anything worth saying after I read it, I'll post it.  

The thought that came to mind when I read the synopsis was a comment from I read in one of my social studies textbooks that said something to the effect that European explorers in the 15th century described the abundance of sea life at the Grand Banks as so great that you could scoop up cod in a basket.  For some reason, that image has captured my imagination, even more so given the dire state of the long-famed New England fisheries.

Photo by Dieter Craasmann, taken from Blue Ocean Notes

The Atlantic cod, long a backbone of the New England fishing industry.  Its tastiness has led to it becoming a case study in the wages of overfishing and an unsustainable industry.

Things in the pipeline: Freaky fish update, a special post by request about sirenians and possibly the letter "B" in my Alphabet of Fish.

L-l-l-lungfish

Some of y'all know that I am an enormous fan of primitive fish. They allow us a view of what the Age of Fishes was like to some extent, and everyone knows that the Devonian Period was by far the coolest part of the Paleozoic Era, which was filled with cool stuff. Anyway, I was playing around at Endangered Ugly Things yesterday and eventually came upon Ceratodus.com, an Australia-based breeder of Australian lungfish for the aquarist market. I don't want to post images from there without their permission, so just go look at their gallery - their lungfish are absolutely adorable, though all lungfish are terribly cute.
I first learned about lungfish as a child from a general "facts about animals" book my parents got me for Christmas one year. It had an illustration of a lungfish curled up in its muddy pocket and I was sold. Incidentally, this is the same book that taught me about jackdaws and Surinam toads.
Continuing with our story, it was through these links that I learned about Granddad, the oldest fish aquarium fish known, who also happens to be an Australian lungfish. Granddad has lived in Chicago since 1933, making him at least 80 years old. Next time I head over Chicago-way, I plan on paying my respects to this venerable fish.

I later ended up at Primitivefishes.com, which is pretty much a goldmine of these guys: bichirs, lungfish, coelacanths, gars (the first fish I ever caught), bowfins, bonytongues (arapaimas), knifefish, etc; awesome fish who I plan to talk about more in-depth later. This site in turn links to their forum, Aquatic Predators.com, which I intend to join and drool over - c'mon, they have a mormyrid forum! Everybody loves mormyrids!

Who can say no to a face like that?

I'm not the only lungfish lover out there, though: there's Lungfish.info and Anne Kemps Lungfish for all your lungfish info needs.
Nature also has an unfortunate editorial circa 2006 about the damming of the river that the Australian lungfish inhabits. Checking up on Wikipedia (always the scholarly source), it doesn't appear that the dam has been constructed yet (the projected timeframe was 2011) and there is substantial local opposition. Lungfish aren't the only species that would be affected by the dam: other non-human residents who'd be affected include the Mary River Cod and the Mary River Turtle, both endangered species.
More information can be found at Savethemaryriver.com, "...the official website of the SaveTheMaryRiver Coordinating Group - an organization dedicated to preventing the construction of a proposed dam on the Mary River at Traveston Crossing (Qld)."
NEWS FLASH: There was a substantial lungfish kill reported on June 25th below the North Pine Dam. More links to news articles may be found here.