Center for Oceanic Awareness, Research, and Education

A summer of change . . .
Saturday, 26 July 2008

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Contents:
  - World Ocean Day
  - Aquanfest
  - Sharkfishing tournaments
  - MLPA
  - new US sharkfin regulations
  - Gyre in NYT
  - EU ban on seal products
  - LA plastic bag ban
  - Shark Week
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Hello, fellow ocean lovers!

We decided to combine our June and July newsletters this
summer, and apologize to those of you who missed hearing
from us.

June was a busy month for us, both on and off the water.
Just one short week after our return from the Galápagos, 
World Ocean Day was upon us.

The Friday evening Happy Hour and film event at the
Wipeout Bar & Grill was a good time, and saw a healthy
turnout.  We're especially proud, however, of the Beach
Cleanup that we organized with OceanHealth.org and
Surfrider.  Approximately 80 people showed up to
celebrate World Ocean Day (WOD) with us by lending a
hand to clean the beach.  COARE also celebrated WOD by 
beginning production of a new documentary about beach 
cleanups, capturing footage of the process and
interviewing a number of the participants.  Our thanks
go out to everyone who showed up to help, and to Rental
Express Video, who helped provide some of the camera
and sound gear we used.

 ---

The following week, we participated in the Aquanfest and
People Paddle Festival in Foster City.  This was new
event meant to bring watersports enthusiasts (especially 
kayakers) together with conservation organizations and 
watersports industry providers.  In addition to being 
able to test out a variety of kayaks and paddleboards, 
festival-goers also had the opportunity to participate 
in a number of sponsored races, where proceeds were 
donated to their favorite charities.

The Aquanfest also presented a short list of films,
among which "A Sheltered Sea" was featured.  (We
introduced this film in our last newsletter).  The film
ran three times, and at each screening, it drew the
largest audience of any of the films shown.  Janet
Garvin from the Baum Foundation (producers of the film)
introduced the film, and COARE's Executive Director,
Christopher Chin, held a Q&A session after each
screening and described the MLPA process in further
detail to interested viewers.

As a reminder, you can find the trailer to the film
here:   http://coare.org/videos/sheltered/

(For the full film, click on "high speed" or "low speed"
depending on your internet connection.)

 ---

The summer months put more people on and in the water,
and unfortunately, this is also the season for
sharkfishing tournaments.  Large tournaments like the
ones that took place in Montauk (Long Island) in June,
and the one in Martha's Vinyard last week, each draw
thousands of spectators and hundreds of participating
boats.  While each boat only enters one or two sharks
to be weighed each day of the tournament, they catch
many more, fatally wounding many of those they release,
not to mention the ones that are kept on board and then
discarded dead once a larger victim is captured.

In response to the inhumanity of the tournament, and
because of concerns of elevated mercury levels found in
top predators, The Harry Chapin Food Bank, Long Island's
largest such entity, issued a statement that it would
not accept any donations of tournament shark meat.

 ---

You might recall that the The Shark Conservation Act of
2008 was introduced to Congress back in April by 
Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam), Chairwoman of
the Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans of
the House Committee on Natural Resources.  The
Congressional Committee approved the new bill on 11 June, 
thus closing loopholes which allowed vessels to engage
in shark finning operations.

In similar timing, the US National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) announced, on 19 June, new federal
regulations for the US Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico
fisheries.  These new regulations dramatically reduce
the quotas for several shark species, and also require
that sharks be landed with their fins attached.  These
new regulations went into effect yesterday! (24 July)

 ---

Most of you have already heard about the North Pacific
Gyre, and as you know, we're trying to raise awareness
of oceanbound trash in general.  This enormous "garbage
patch" recently received more attention after an article
about ocean debris was published in the New York Times
Magazine:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22Plastics-t.html

 ---

The South Coast portion of the Marine Life Protection
Act is underway.  Nominations to the Regional
Stakeholder Group (RSG) were closed on 18 July, and
we're happy to see a number of our colleagues among
those being considered.  We'll announce the final RSG 
list once it's finalized.

The South Coast includes Point Conception south to the 
California/Mexico border, and the RSG is expected to
deliberate from October 2008 through November 2009.

Back to the North Central Coast (NCC), The Fish and Game
Commission has adopted the BRTF's IPA as its "proposed
project" for CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) 
evaluation and instructed DFG to use the RSG proposals
1-3, 2XA and 4 as the alternatives for evaluation
purposes.  This means that although the IPA has wide
support, the other proposals are still looming in the
background.  We may call upon you for assistance in
letting the decisionmakers know that science-based 
conservation minded proposals are our preference.

 ---

The European Parliament has adopted a proposal designed
to halt the annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of
seals in Canada and Russia.  The Declaration calls for a
ban on the import or sale of any products from hooded or 
harp seals.

The European ban would join the likes of Belgium, Italy,
Luxembourg, Croatia, and the US, effectively shrinking 
the seal product market.  Seals are not killed for meat,
rather they are slaughtered primarily for their pelts.

It is estimated that the EU ban will halve the number
of consumers for seal-based fashion products.

 ---

A good number of ocean lovers find the proliferation of 
of plastic products to verge on evil.  For some of us,
the plastic bag is our nemesis.  This past Tuesday (23
July), the Los Angeles City Council made a bold
statement by voting to ban plastic carryout bags in the
city's supermarkets and stores by July 2010.  Hoping to
encourage state lawmakers to institute a user fee for 
plastic bag use, the proposed ban specifies that it
would not take effect if the state of California decides
to impose a 25-cent fee on shoppers who request plastic
bags.

 ---

"Shark Week" - one of the most watched and talked about 
series on television - begins tomorrow, 27 July, and 
continues through 02 August.  Past seasons have been
filled with sensationalized and fear inspiring segments,
but this year's programming promises to be a bit more
realistic.  In fact, this year's Shark Week 2008 is
intended to deliver more of a conservation message.

Shark Week definitely gets people thinking about and
talking about sharks, and we encourage you to engage
those conversations, and help set the facts straight.

Remember, you can always send people to our Shark Myths
page at: 
    http://coare.org/know/sharkmyths.php


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Wishing you healthy oceans,
 - Your friends at COARE

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