Sign a pledge and stand with Toru and Junichi and show the Japanese government that they cannot silence those who take a stand for the whales and justice will be served to those truly on trial.

The UN Human Rights Council ruled that in an attempt to expose a scandal in the public interest, the human rights of Junichi and Toru were breached by the Japanese justice system.  The laundry list of offenses by Japanese authorities is extensive….corrupt government practices, censoring public information, a failure to adhere to international law or uphold the freedom of speech and the right of individual protest, and of course an all time fav- the commercial killing of thousands of whales in a whale sanctuary.

The Working Group determined that 5 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were violated. They concluded that:

“The right of these two environmental activists not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty; their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to exercise legitimate activities, as well as their right to engage in peaceful activities without intimidation or harassment has not been respected by the Justice system.”

As such, the Working Group found that the government has contravened articles 18,19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also took the view that Sato and Suzuki had been denied the right to challenge their detention before an independent and impartial tribunal in fair proceedings, and requested that the remainder of the trial be conducted fairly.

The working group also recognized that the Tokyo 2 acted in the greater public interest, that they willingly cooperated with the police and Public prosecutor, and that the Government did not submit essential information regarding the investigation and evidence relating to the corruption allegations, all of which should have been noted.

A copy of the official UN document can be downloaded here and a copy of of our report entitle ‘Whaling on trial’ can be downloaded here.

Of Greenpeace Redlist species, Overwaitea removed orange roughy, shark, yellowfin tuna and swordfish, in addition to other species not found on our Redlist.

Safeway has removed arctic surf clams, Chilean sea bass, swordfish, sharks, orange roughy and skates and rays. Safeway now sells 6 of the 15 Redlist species which is a major improvement from 12 of 15 they were selling at the time of our last ranking.

I’m interested to know which ones Loblaw removed, as the release didn’t specify and I’m also interested to know from which stores they will be removed, as the release says in ’select stores,’ not all stores.

UPDATE!

In response to this announcement Greenpeace released a press release pasted below but since then we’ve learned the species that Loblaw removed including sharks, orange roughy, skates and Chilean sea bass (Patagonian toothfish) and that Loblaw is suggesting alternatives that are not part of a sustainable solution. These include:  tuna instead of shark, halibut instead of chilean sea bass and tilapia.  The issue with these alternatives is that their origin, fishing or farming method and other crucial information to know if they are indeed better alternatives is not provided, and tuna and halibut could very well be the ones that fall on our Redlist.

Greenpeace encouraged by Loblaw’s decision to protect some Redlist fish

4 February 2010 (Toronto) —Greenpeace sees today’s announcement by Loblaw that it will stop selling some “at risk” seafood species as another sign that the Canadian supermarket industry is following through on commitments to protect Redlist fish.

“We’re pleased by the Loblaw announcement that it is moving forward on its goal of ensuring it sells only seafood from sustainable sources by the end of 2013,” said Beth Hunter, Greenpeace Canada oceans campaign coordinator. “Retailers are doing more to protect sensitive and overfished species by removing them from sale. But much more work is needed.”

Loblaw announced today that it will stop selling in select stores across the country fish it has “identified as ‘at risk.” The announcement did not include details on the specific species the company will stop selling.

“More than 90 per cent of large predatory fish have already disappeared from our oceans, and it is high time that all Redlist species come off our shelves,” said Hunter.

Through its Out of Stock campaign Greenpeace has been pressuring Canada’s largest supermarkets to develop sustainable seafood procurement policies and stop selling Redlist species. These species are raised or fished in a destructive way or stocks are declining to dangerous levels. Sustainable procurement policies will help protect the oceans.

Last May, Greenpeace released its first supermarket ranking report. All eight supermarkets assessed failed the ranking. Following the release of the report, Greenpeace activists crossed Canada to confront supermarkets about their poor grades and to inform consumers about better seafood choices.

Since the supermarket actions, some ranked retailers have made important changes:

• Overwaitea Food Group released a strong seafood policy in June, removed a group of Redlist species from sale, and introduced innovative labeling of fresh and frozen seafood;
• Safeway Canada removed six species and began informing customers through pamphlets distributed in stores of its new commitment to improving seafood sustainability;
• Other retailers in Canada, including some not ranked last spring, have been finalizing Redlist removals and preparing draft policies to be released in coming months.

“Canada’s retailers are starting to turn words into action by removing Redlist species from sale, but it can’t stop here,” said Sarah King, Greenpeace Canada oceans campaigner. “Supermarket shelves are still stocked with unsustainable seafood, and it’s our oceans that are paying the price.”

Greenpeace will release its next supermarket seafood ranking this spring and hopes the momentum of recent Redlist removals will continue and inspire currently passive retailers to take action.

– 30 –

Editors:

The Out of Stock, Out of Excuses 2009 ranking, with information on the rankings and Redlist as well as Out of Stock: Supermarkets and the future of seafood, issued in 2008, are at http://www.greenpeace.org/canada/en/documents-and-links/publications/out-of-stock-v2

The Redlist species are: farmed Atlantic salmon, Arctic surf clams, Atlantic cod, Atlantic haddock, Atlantic halibut, Atlantic sea scallops, Greenland halibut, New Zealand hoki, orange roughy, Patagonian toothfish (Chilean sea bass), sharks, skates and rays, tropical shrimp and prawns, and three species of tuna. More information on the Redlist species is in the report.

For more information, please contact:

Jessica Wilson, Greenpeace Canada Media and PR Officer, (778) 228-5404

Sarah King, Greenpeace Canada Oceans Campaigner (778) 227-6458

Beth Hunter, Greenpeace Canada Oceans Campaign Coordinator (514) 569-8391

I mean can you get much lower than collapsed? Is a judicial inquiry not indicative of some, um, “issues” with the management of this fishery? What about the coastal First Nations and bears and other wildlife that depend on them and are coming up empty handed/pawed/beaked? Does this sound like a fishery worthy of a seal of approval? Call me crazy but NO WAY!

If this news is any hint of the outcome of another fishery shockingly up for certification, the longline swordfish fishery, then things can I guess get lower. Oh MSC, other than confusing eco-conscious consumers and placing further demand on ailing fish stocks, what have you done for the oceans lately?

Pauly used disgraced financier Madoff’s pyramid schemes to illustrate our current mismanagement of human interaction with marine life. Sustainability should mean that we are fishing only limited quantities of fish equivalent to the interest on our global marine capital. Instead, we are robbing the banks by taking massive amounts of fish using industrial bottom trawlers and other factory vessels. Not only are we overfishing vulnerable species like orange roughy (a deep sea fish which can live 100 years) and bluefin tuna. We are also farming carnivores instead of directly eating the feed fish like anchovies further down on the food chain.

If we don’t want our complex ecosystem pyramids to collapse like so many Madoff schemes, we need to take strong action – within and beyond the halls of seafood summits.

Beth Hunter, Oceans campaign coordinator – writing from Paris

Key Tokyo Two defence witnesses to put whaling on trial

Aomori, Japan, January 15, 2010 – The prospect of putting the Japanese
whaling programme on trial and defending the principle of peaceful
civil disobedience moved a step closer today. Following repeated
denials of key defence evidence, the legal team for the Tokyo Two were
today surprised and pleased to win the inclusion of all key witnesses.

Included in the defence witness list are three crewmembers from the
whaling fleet and one of the whistleblowers who asked Greenpeace to
investigate corruption within the whaling programme after witnessing
embezzlement first hand on the whaling ships.

The final witness will be the University of Gent’s Prof. Dirk
Voorhoof, an expert on freedom of expression and the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

While the court did reject key expert evidence from Prof. Donald
Rothwell, which discusses the legality of the Japanese whaling
programme, its acceptance of these witnesses is an important win for
the Tokyo Two defence team.

“The fact that Prof. Voorhoof, a foreign academic, has been accepted
is very significant,” said lead defence counsel Yuichi Kaido. “One
full day of evidence has been allocated for him to present the
international human rights law argument, and how Sato and Suzuki are
protected by the ICCPR.”

“It has taken a long time, but the court appears to finally understand
the significance of this case,” concluded Kaido.

Greenpeace is calling for a fair trial for the Tokyo Two, for the
investigation into the whale meat embezzlement scandal to be reopened,
and for an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Greenpeace is an independent, global campaigning organisation that
acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the
environment, and to promote peace.

UN 2010

Calling all global fisheries agencies, I’ve got the perfect new year’s resolution: stop the plunder of the oceans! 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. The UN is calling it “a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives.” The UN invites the world “to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.” I invite the world and our fisheries managers to start with safeguarding the biodiversity of our oceans through protecting one of our most majestic marine species- the Atlantic bluefin tuna.

For those that have been following the bluefin saga, the ‘will they or won’t they’ list it on CITES guessing game, the glimmers of hope and clouds of doubt, things are beginning to get interesting. The UK has become useless, other countries including Canada are carefully weighing the pros and cons of supporting Monaco’s proposal or taking a more status quo stance with a pretty bow that makes it look presentable. The EU has pushed off making a decision to support or not support (aka contribute to bluefin’s extinction), and France is flip-flopping on their position toying with the emotions of concerned bluefin stewards around the world. By early next week, Sarkozy may solve the mystery…..but will one of the world’s major bluefin harvesting countries have the courage to see the longterm gain through short term pain? Here’s to hoping Sarkozy and his peers vowed to lay off the sashimi in 2010.

Every year while Canadians are starting to flex their snow-shovelling muscles and wind down for the holidays, an eclectic mix of representatives from countries gathers somewhere in the South Pacific sun to talk tuna. The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) is charged with setting quotas and otherwise regulating catches of tuna that swim through the high seas in a vast stretch of ocean around Australia and northeast of it.

Greenpeace has been working to turn four high seas enclaves in the Pacific into marine reserves and has conducted four ship expeditions documenting some of the rampant illegal fishing taking place there. Banning fishing in these ‘donut holes’ would help stop the pirates who use these pockets between the national waters of the Pacific islands when they’re in danger of being caught without having paid access fees. For many Pacific island countries, these fees are a major source of income - though they represent a fraction of the value of the catches taken by foreign fleets.

Last year, the WCPFC agreed to close two of the four high seas pockets to purse seine fishing. At the meeting which wrapped up Friday, hopes were high that the remaining two pockets would be closed also, but Japan, Korea and Taiwan blocked any agreement on the issue. And while Canada – a member of the WCPFC although there are currently no Canadian fleets operating in the region - didn’t oppose the creation of these no-fishing zones, it didn’t support it either. Kudos go to Australia and France for supporting the Pacific Island nations in their work to protect these high seas enclaves.

Warnings by the Commission’s own scientists that catches of bigeye tuna should be cut by up to 50% to ensure its survival were ignored, and a measly 10% reduction was agreed to. Will we never learn?

Given the sorry state of most Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) – who in fact Regularly Fail to Manage our Oceans, hope for saving the tuna lies in other measures, such as listing tunas on the CITES list of species banned from international trade, brokering agreements between Pacific Island countries to refuse access to foreign fleets, and inciting supermarkets and restaurants to shun pirate booty.

Greenpeace activists paint "Tuna Plunder and Fuel Plunder" on the hull of Panamian-flagged MV Fong Seong 888. Fishing companies from Korea, Japan and Taiwan often fish under the flags of other nations to increase the number of vessels they can 'legally' have in the ocean.

Last month ICCAT failed to close the fishery or take truly strong action to protect the species from commercial extinction. But, there is little wonder the Mediterranean countries blocked proper protection for the bluefin when they’re being subsidized to catch every last one.  Our oceans campaigner based in the UK writes more about the role the EU is playing in fueling the overexploitation of the Northern bluefin….he calls it Subsidizing extinction…

Meanwhile, in Rome an FAO expert panel on commercially traded marine species is meeting to consider whether it will recommend that bluefin be listed under CITES, and thus trade restrictions be put in place.

Bluefin is one of various species under consideration for trade restrictions, reminding us that the bluefin has become what the atlantic cod once was, the poster child for the plight of our global fish stocks and the overfishing, mismanagment, greed and political inaction that plagues them.

The panel is very influencial and the outcomes from this meeting will shape what happens at the CITES meeting in March. Many of the countries that will attend the CITES meeting look to the panel for guidance and positions on such matters.

Because major fishing interests are usually hesitant to list commercially valuable marine fish species under endangreed species laws or conventions that would hinder the catch and flow of these products between key markets, CITES, which usually assesses all species proposed for listing, has made an agreement with the FAO that all assessments of marine species will be conducted by them. Let’s hope the FAO panel are as convinced as the rest of us that trade of bluefin MUST be banned.