Opinion: Julian Assange wins, but threat to press remains

The ruling to block the extradition of the WikiLeaks founder to the United States is good news for Julian Assange. However, it does not go far enough in terms of protecting press freedom, DW's Matthias von Hein writes.

    

Supporters of Assange celebrate the court's ruling not to allow his extradition to the US

Following a trial that was extremely unfair in many respects, District Judge Vanessa Baraitser has ruled against allowing Britain to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States. Many observers had assumed that Britain's judiciary would sacrifice its independence, the rights of Assange and press freedom on behalf of the country's "special relationship" with the United States. After all, the courts had hampered Assange's defense at every turn. It is a cause for celebration that this British court did not give in — but it is not a cause for relief. 

Baraitser did not go to bat for investigative journalism. She merely accepted the argument that Assange would likely face harsh conditions in detention in the United States and could go on to commit suicide under those circumstances. 

DW's Matthias von Hein

The judge expressly contradicted the defense, who argued that Assange was being persecuted because of his journalistic activities, that his exposing of US war crimes and other wrongdoings was in the public interest, and that the trial was politically motivated. In short, Baraitser agreed on almost all points with the arguments put forward by the US government. As a result, both Julian Assange and press freedom remain at risk.

Assange's 'psychological torture'

In December US President Donald Trump pardoned four Blackwater private security contractors who had been convicted of war crimes for a massacre in Baghdad that left 14 unarmed civilians dead. The calls to respect much-vaunted American values and to pardon Assange for his role in exposing war crimes went unheeded. 

The persecution of Assange has undermined the claims that Britain, the United States and the EU are the guardians of humanitarian values. This became abundantly clear in November, when a BBC correspondent confronted Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev with critical questions about restrictions on press freedoms. Aliyev fired back, saying the UK had no right to lecture other countries about human rights and press freedom given the way it had treated Assange. 

So where do things go from here? The US government has already announced that it intends to appeal the ruling. It could be years before the case makes its way through the courts. Assange should not have to spend this time locked up in the high-security Belmarsh prison in London, which has been dubbed Britain's Guantanamo. After visiting the prison in 2019, UN Special Rapporteur for Torture Nils Melzer said Assange "showed all the symptoms typical for prolonged exposure to psychological torture." Assange has spent 19 months in the prison, over half of that time in solitary confinement there, though he has not been convicted of any crime.

The first step should be to finally release Assange into house arrest to await the conclusion of the appeals process. It is hard to understand why an investigative journalist should be detained under harsher conditions than a mass murderer. The Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, for example, was permitted to await his extradition proceedings in house arrest in a mansion in a private estate close to London. 

And we must remember to keep up public pressure on the authorities after this latest decision. We owe it to Julian Assange and to press freedom.

WTF

WikiLeaks founder Assange denied bail despite US extradition block

Issued on: 06/01/2021 - 

Mexico said it was ready to offer political asylum to Assange 

Pedro PARDO AFP

London (AFP)

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will have to remain in custody in Britain, pending a US appeal of the decision to block his extradition to face charges for leaking secret documents, a judge in London ruled Wednesday.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser told Westminster Magistrates Court there were "substantial grounds for believing that if Mr Assange is released today he will fail to surrender" for the appeal hearings.

"Mr Assange still has an incentive to abscond from these as yet unresolved proceedings," she said.

"As a matter of fairness the United States must be able to challenge my decision. If Mr Assange absconds during this process then they will have lost the opportunity to do so."

The US had earlier urged Baraitser not to release the 49-year-old, while it prepares to challenge Baraitser's decision on mental health grounds to block his extradition to face charges for publishing secret documents.

Lawyer Clair Dobbin, representing the government in Washington, told the court there were "no conditions that could guarantee his surrender" if he were freed from custody.

"The history of his attempts to evade extradition to the United States demonstrated that he is capable of going to any length to avoid that possibility," she added.

Assange was in court to hear the application and ruling, two days after an unexpected decision Monday to block his removal to the United States on the grounds he was a suicide risk.

Dobbin said the court "should be under no doubt about his resources to abscond", pointing to his previous flouting of bail conditions, and an offer of political asylum, notably from Mexico.

But Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said he should be freed, after spending 15 months in custody awaiting the extradition proceedings.

"We say after all this time, after the long proceedings over a year... the court has given a decision and the decision has been that he should be discharged," he added.

- Diplomatic refuge -

Assange is wanted to face 18 charges relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Washington claims he helped intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal the 2010 documents before exposing confidential sources around the world.

He faces a possible 175-year sentence if convicted but Assange and his lawyers have long argued the case against him is politically motivated.

He has been held at the high-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London.

A previous request for bail in March on the grounds he was vulnerable to Covid-19 while behind bars was rejected because the judge assessed he was likely to abscond.

Assange sought sanctuary in Ecuador's embassy in 2012, after Sweden issued an arrest warrant in connection with sexual assault allegations.

He spent seven years at the South American country's London mission until the government in Quito revoked his citizenship.

British police dragged him out and arrested him in 2019.

He was then sentenced to 50 weeks in jail for breaching his bail terms in connection with the Swedish case, which was later dropped due to lack of evidence.

The UN called the sentence "disproportionate".

- 'Criminalising' journalism -

Assange's long-running legal woes have become a cause celebre for media freedom, even though the judge hearing the case said he did have a case to answer.

Baraitser on Monday said he would have been "well aware" of the effects of his leaking of secret documents, and his actions went "well beyond" the role of a journalist.

But she said extradition would be "oppressive" as his mental health would probably deteriorate in the US penal system, "causing him to commit suicide".

She rejected US experts' testimony that Assange would be protected from self-harm, noting that others such as disgraced US financier Jeffrey Epstein had managed to kill themselves in custody despite supervision.

UN rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer applauded the decision to block his extradition, and said he should be freed and compensated for his ordeal, which amounted to arbitrary detention.

The United States has called the ruling "extremely disappointing" and has faced calls from WikiLeaks, as well as rights and media freedom groups to drop the appeal.

© 2021 AFP

London court denies bail to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

Issued on: 06/01/2021 -

Police speak to a supporter of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange outside Westminster Magistrates court in London as he appears for a bail hearing on January 6, 2021.

 © Justin Tallis, AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will have to remain in custody, pending a US appeal that blocked his extradition to face charges for leaking secret documents, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser ordered Assange to remain in prison while the courts consider an appeal by U.S. authorities against a decision not to extradite him.

On Monday, the judge rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.


She denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49-year-old Australian was likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions.

The judge said Wednesday that Assange “has an incentive to abscond” and there is a good chance he would fail to return to court if freed.

Assange has been detained at London’s high-security Belmarsh Prison since April 2019, when he was arrested for skipping bail during a separate legal battle seven years earlier.

District Judge Vanessa Baraitser was presiding over a bail hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, two days after she rejected an American request to send Assange to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks’ publication of secret military documents a decade ago.

The judge denied extradition on health grounds, saying the 49-year-old Australian is likely to kill himself if held under harsh U.S. prison conditions. The judge ruled "the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America.”

John Pilger

@johnpilger

Judge Baraitser has refused to grant Julian #Assange bail - even though she acknowledges his extreme suffering in prison. Such is the Queen of Cruelty. But there is an informed hint from Washington that Biden may not pursue an appeal to the UK High Court, where Julian will win.

4:58 AM · Jan 6, 2021

Lawyers for the U.S. government say they will appeal the decision, and the U.S. Department of Justice says it will continue to seek Assange’s extradition.

Clair Dobbin, a British lawyer acting for the U.S., said Assange had shown he would go “to almost any length” to avoid extradition, and it was likely he would flee if granted bail.

She noted that Assange had spent seven years inside Ecuadorian Embassy in London after seeking refuge there from a Swedish extradition request in 2012.

Dobbin said Assange had the “resources, abilities and sheer wherewithal” to evade justice once again, and noted that Mexico has said it will offer him asylum.

But Assange's lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said the judge's decision to refuse extradition “massively reduces” any motivation to abscond.

"Mr. Assange has every reason to stay in this jurisdiction where he has the protection of the rule of law and this court’s decision," he said.

Fitzgerald also said Assange would be safer at home with his partner Stella Moris and two young sons — fathered while he was in the embassy — than in prison, where there is “a very grave crisis of Covid.”

>> Assange's extradition trial a test for press freedom, rights groups say

U.S. prosecutors have indicted Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of leaked military and diplomatic documents. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison.

U.S. prosecutors say Assange unlawfully helped U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning steal classified diplomatic cables and military files that were later published by WikiLeaks.

Lawyers for Assange argue that he was acting as a journalist and is entitled to First Amendment protections of freedom of speech for publishing documents that exposed U.S. military wrongdoing in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The judge rejected that argument in her extradition ruling, saying Assange’s actions, if proven, would amount to offenses “that would not be protected by his right to freedom of speech.” She also said the U.S. judicial system would give him a fair trial.

Assange’s legal troubles began in 2010, when he was arrested in London at the request of Sweden, which wanted to question him about allegations of rape and sexual assault made by two women. In 2012, Assange jumped bail and sought refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, where he was beyond the reach of U.K. and Swedish authorities — but also effectively was a prisoner in the tiny diplomatic mission.

The relationship between Assange and his hosts eventually soured, and he was evicted from the embassy in April 2019. British police immediately arrested him for breaching bail in 2012.

Sweden dropped the sex crimes investigations in November 2019 because so much time had elapsed, but Assange has remained in prison throughout his extradition hearing.

(AP)

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange denied bail in UK after avoiding extradition

CGTN   

Europe 20:26, 06-Jan-2021

Julian Assange was told he would not be extradited to the U.S. on Monday. /Jack Taylor/Getty

 

Julian Assange has been refused bail by a London court on Wednesday, two days after successfully avoiding extradition to the U.S. to face charges of breaking a spying law and conspiring to obtain secret documents by hacking government computers.

Lawyers had previously sought bail for the WikiLeaks co-founder, but did so with more confidence after Monday's ruling by judge Vanessa Baraitser that procedures in U.S. prisons might not prevent him from potentially taking his own life.

Assange has been held at the maximum-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London for the past 18 months after being evicted from the Ecuadorian embassy, where he sought asylum for seven years.

On Monday, Baraitser supported arguments by lawyers for the U.S. that Assange should be extradited for publishing vast quantities of military and diplomatic secrets. But she also heard extensive evidence that after years of what Assange's partner Stella Moris described as political persecution, the activist was now a "depressed and sometimes despairing man."

Twice mentioning the suicide of billionaire Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself on remand in New York two years ago, Baraitser ruled against extradition. The U.S. penal system, she said, was apparently incapable of preventing him from committing suicide.

Flushed with the success of keeping Assange inside UK borders, lawyers sought to make him free to reside in Britain with his partner and two children.

They say conditions at Belmarsh, where he has been held on remand for the past 20 months, are inhuman. His supporters claim the overwhelming majority of inmates on his wing have been infected with COVID-19.

Assange's partner Stella Moris has spoken about how depressed he is. /Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty

Assange's partner Stella Moris has spoken about how depressed he is. /Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty

However, Baraitser will have been acutely aware that after previously being bailed by a British court Assange spent seven years in the Ecuadorian Embassy to escape charges of sex crimes in Sweden – charges which he fully denied and which were eventually dropped.

Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had hailed the British court's Monday ruling as a "triumph of justice," adding that his country would offer Assange political asylum if the UK freed him. Such support might have hindered Assange's case.

However, it remains to be seen if the incoming White House administration under Joe Biden continues to seek Assange's extradition.

Assange was sought for trial by U.S. prosecutor Zachary Terwilliger, but the Donald Trump appointee has recently announced he is stepping down as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia – and publicly expressed doubt as to whether the case will continue. 

"It will be very interesting to see what happens with this case," he said. "There'll be some decisions to be made. Some of this does come down to resources and where you're going to focus your energies."

UK judge rejects U.S. extradition request for 

A British judge ruled on Monday Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, should not be extradited to the U.S. to face charges of breaking a spying law and conspiring to obtain secret U.S. documents by hacking government computers.

Judge Vanessa Baraitser said she had refused his extradition to the U.S. because of fears he could commit suicide.

"Faced with conditions of near total isolation... I am satisfied that the procedures [outlined by U.S. authorities] will not prevent Mr Assange from finding a way to commit suicide," she said.

"For this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge," she added.

The U.S. said it would continue to seek the extradition of Assange and the country's prosecutors are set to appeal Monday's decision to London's High Court.

U.S. authorities accuse Australia-born Assange, 49, of 18 counts relating to Wikileaks' release of vast troves of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables, which they said had put lives in danger. He faces up to 175 years in a high-security jail if convicted.

Defense witnesses called during the hearing said Assange's history of depression meant he would be at risk of suicide if sent to the U.S. and locked up in a maximum-security prison. He has also complained of hearing imaginary voices and music during his detention.

In addition, it was noted he has a respiratory condition that makes him more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Assange and his legal team have long argued the protracted case was politically motivated.

The American non-profit Freedom of the Press Foundation said the case against Assange was "the most dangerous threat to U.S. press freedom in decades."

 

WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson, left, and Assange's fiancee Stella Moris, right, arrive for the hearing at the Old Bailey. /Tolga Akmen/AFP

 

"The extradition request was not decided on press freedom grounds; rather the judge essentially ruled the U.S. prison system was too repressive to extradite."

In court, Assange wiped his forehead as the decision was announced, while his fiancee Stella Moris, with whom he has two children fathered while seeking political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, burst into tears and was embraced by WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Kristinn Hrafnsson.

Outside the Old Bailey court in London, supporters, who had gathered since early morning, erupted in cheers and shouted "Free Assange."

It follows more than a decade of legal controversies but the ruling is still subject to appeal. Assange was remanded in custody with a bail hearing to be heard on Wednesday.

 

What is WikiLeaks?

The controversy surrounding Assange is now in its second decade. Some regard the Australian national, 49, as a fearless campaigner for press freedom in reporting information about government and authorities, while others believe he was reckless with classified information and has endangered sources.

The figurehead of the whistleblowing website has spent most of the past decade in custody or holed up in Ecuador's London embassy, as he has tried to avoid extradition – first to Sweden to answer allegations of rape, which he consistently denied, and then to the U.S. over the leaks of classified information related to the Afghan and Iraq wars.

Assange launched WikiLeaks in 2006 along with a group of activists and IT experts.

"We are creating a new standard for a free press," Assange told AFP in an interview in August 2010.

The website first made waves in 2007 when it released manuals for U.S. prison guards at Guantanamo Bay. In 2010 it worked with The New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, Le Monde and El Pais to publish more than 10 million classified diplomatic cables to the dismay of politicians, governments and corporations worldwide.

They included a leaked video showing a U.S. military Apache helicopter targeting some buildings before firing on and killing two journalists and several Iraqi civilians on a Baghdad street in 2007.

WikiLeaks also caused a storm in July 2016 by releasing emails showing U.S. Democratic Party officials favoring Hillary Clinton over left-winger Bernie Sanders in the presidential primary elections, forcing high-ranking party members to resign.

Over time, it has increasingly set its sights on the U.S., fueling suspicion of collaboration with Russia – claims Assange has denied.

Assange was initially supported by human rights groups and newspapers that once worked with him to edit and publish the U.S. war logs.

However, when WikiLeaks dumped unredacted documents online, including the names of informants, Assange fell out spectacularly with former media partners.

U.S. lawyers conceded that while they were "aware" of sources who disappeared after WikiLeaks published their names, they "can't prove that their disappearance was the result of being outed by WikiLeaks."

Assange's legal battles

Assange's legal saga began in 2010, soon after publishing those videos and further classified documents about U.S. military campaigns, with rape allegations in Sweden, which he consistently denied.

In Britain when Sweden sought his extradition in 2012, Assange managed to evade arrest by seeking political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London. He lived in a small apartment at the embassy for seven years, exercising on a treadmill and making up for a lack of natural light by sitting beside a sun lamp. 

 

Assange's supporters celebrate the verdict. /Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP

 

When a new government came to power in Quito, however, Assange was turned over to British police in April 2019.

Though Sweden had dropped the rape investigation, citing a lack of evidence in May 2017, Assange was arrested in April 2019 for breaching bail and sent to the high-security Belmarsh prison in south London. Although he had served his time for that offence, he remained behind bars awaiting the outcome of the U.S. extradition request.

Assange's supporters, including the fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and actor Pamela Anderson, have raised concerns about the effect a decade's incarceration has had on him.

Nils Melzer, the United Nations' rapporteur on torture, said Assange's "prolonged solitary confinement in a high-security prison is neither necessary nor proportionate and clearly lacks any legal basis."

UN rights experts do not speak for the United Nations but report their findings to it.

Source(s): Reuters ,AFP

Mexico offers political asylum to Julian Assange

CGTN

Protesters hold a sign to support WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in front of the British Embassy in EU in Brussels, Belgium, December 7, 2020. /AFP

Mexico said Monday that it was ready to offer political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, after a British judge blocked his extradition to the United States to face espionage charges.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador welcomed the British court's rejection of the U.S. request to extradite the 49-year-old Australian, calling it a "triumph of justice."

"I'm going to ask the foreign minister to carry out the relevant procedures to request that the UK government releases Mr. Assange and that Mexico offers him political asylum," said Lopez Obrador, adding that Assange deserves a chance.

Lopez Obrador said Mexico would ensure "that whoever receives asylum does not intervene or interfere in the political affairs of any country."

Whether Assange joins the list would depend on political pressures and the stances of the various actors and countries with an interest in his fate, Adolfo Laborde, a Mexican academic and foreign relations expert said.

The U.S. said it would continue to seek the extradition of Assange and the country's prosecutors are set to appeal Monday's decision to London's High Court.

U.S. authorities are accusing the Australian of 18 counts relating to Wikileaks' release of vast troves of confidential U.S. military records and diplomatic cables, which they said had put lives in danger. If convicted in the U.S., he faces up to 175 years in a high-security jail.

However, defense witnesses called during the hearing said Assange's history of depression meant he would be at risk of suicide if sent to the U.S. and locked up in a maximum-security prison. Assange has also complained of hearing imaginary voices and music during his detention.

In addition, it was noted he has a respiratory condition that makes him more vulnerable to COVID-19. Assange and his legal team have long argued the protracted case was politically motivated.

Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the U.S., said the asylum offer risked causing tensions with the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Joe Biden.

He said Lopez Obrador appeared to be ignoring or overlooking WikiLeaks' publication of 20,000 hacked emails from the U.S. election campaign team of Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.

The Mexican president "is turning the issue into another potential area of friction with the next U.S. administration," Sarukhan said.

Activists held a protest in front of the British embassy in Mexico City after the court decision, demanding Assange be released.

Novel film that that evaporates sweat six times faster and holds 15 times more moisture

Promising applications include underarm pads, insoles and shoe linings; Moisture harvested could power small wearable electronics

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Research News

 

IMAGE: AN NUS RESEARCH TEAM LED BY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR TAN SWEE CHING (SEATED, LEFT) AND PROFESSOR DING JUN (SEATED RIGHT) HAS DEVELOPED A NOVEL FILM THAT IS EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE IN EVAPORATING... view more 

CREDIT: NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has created a novel film that is very effective in evaporating sweat from our skin to keep us cool and comfortable when we exercise, and the moisture harvested from human sweat can be used to power wearable electronic devices such as watches, fitness trackers, and more.

Sweating is a natural process for our body to reduce thermal stress. "Sweat is mostly composed of water. When water is evaporated from the skin surface, it lowers the skin temperature and we feel cooler. In our new invention, we created a novel film that is extremely effective in evaporating sweat from our skin and then absorbing the moisture from sweat. We also take this one step further - by converting the moisture from sweat into energy that could be used to power small wearable devices," explained research team leader Assistant Professor Tan Swee Ching, who is from the NUS Department of Material Science and Engineering.

The main components of the novel thin film are two hygroscopic chemicals - cobalt chloride and ethanolamine. Besides being extremely moisture-absorbent, this film can rapidly release water when exposed to sunlight, and it can be 'regenerated' and reused for more than 100 times.

To make full use of the absorbed sweat, the NUS team has also designed a wearable energy harvesting device comprising eight electrochemical cells (ECs), using the novel film as the electrolyte. Each EC can generate about 0.57 volts of electricity upon absorbing moisture. The overall energy harvested by the device is sufficient to power a light-emitting diode. This proof-of-concept demonstration illustrates the potential of battery-less wearables powered using human sweat.

This technological breakthrough was reported in the September print issue of the scientific journal Nano Energy.

Absorbing moisture for personal comfort

Conventional hygroscopic materials such as zeolites and silica gels have low water uptake and bulk solid structures, making them unsuitable for absorbing moisture from sweat evaporation. In comparison, the new moisture-absorbing film developed by NUS researchers takes in 15 times more moisture and do this 6 times faster than conventional materials.

In addition, this innovative film shows a colour change upon absorbing moisture, from blue to purple, and finally pink. This feature can be used an indicator of the degree of moisture absorption.

The NUS team packaged the film into breathable and waterproof polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes, which are flexible and commonly used in clothing, and successfully demonstrated the application of the moisture-absorption film for underarm pad, shoe lining and shoe insole.

Asst Prof Tan said, "Underarm sweating is embarrassing and frustrating, and this condition contributes to the growth of bacteria and leads to unpleasant body odour. Accumulation of perspiration in the shoes could give rise to health problems such as blisters, calluses, and fungal infections. Using the underarm pad, shoe lining and shoe insole embedded with the moisture-absorbing film, the moisture from sweat evaporation is rapidly taken in, preventing an accumulation of sweat and provides a dry and cool microclimate for personal comfort."

"The prototype for the shoe insole was created using 3D printing. The material used is a mixture of soft polymer and hard polymer, thus providing sufficient support and shock absorption," explained research team co-leader Professor Ding Jun, who is also from the NUS Department of Material Science and Engineering.

The NUS team now hopes to work with companies to incorporate the novel moisture-absorption film into consumer products.

CAPTION

A team of researchers from the National University of Singapore invented a novel thin film that evaporates sweat six times faster and holds 15 times more moisture than conventional materials. In this prototype, the insole coated with the novel thin film turns from blue to pink as it absorbs moisture. The insole can be easily 'regenerated' by putting it under the sun, and be reused for more than 100 times.

CREDIT

National University of Singapore

 The densely populated Gaza Strip has long lacked sufficient drinking water, but a new project helps ease the shortage with a solar-powered process to extract potable water straight from the air. Unusually, the project operating in the Islamist-run Palestinian enclave, which has been blockaded by Israel since 2007, is the brainchild of a Russian-Israeli billionaire, Michael Mirilashvili.

Warming driving Eastern Mediterranean species collapse: study

Issued on: 06/01/2021 -

The waters off the coast of Israel are among the hottest in the Mediterranean and they have already warmed 3C within four decades 

MENAHEM KAHANA AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Populations of marine molluscs have collapsed in recent decades in parts of the eastern Mediterranean as warming waters have made conditions unsuitable for native species, new research showed Wednesday.

The waters off the coast of Israel -- among the hottest in the Mediterranean -- have already warmed three degrees Celsius within four decades, with water temperatures regularly topping 30C (86 Fahrenheit) in summer.

An international team of researchers, writing in the journal Proceedings of Royal Society B, investigated the effect these warmer waters was having on local populations of marine mollusks, as well as the arrival of invasive species from the Red Sea via the Suez Canal.

Paolo Albano, from the University of Vienna's Department of Paleontology, initially set out to contrast populations of local and non-native species along the Israeli shelf in the eastern Mediterranean.

But he quickly realised the extent to which local mollusc populations had declined.

"My expectation was to find a Mediterranean ecosystem with these 'newcomers'," he told AFP.

"However, after the first dive, I immediately realised that the problem was another one: the lack of the native Mediterranean species, even the most common ones that you would find everywhere in the Mediterranean."

- Local 'eradication of species' -

Albano and his colleagues compared mollusc populations identified from more than 100 seabed samples with historical records, finding that only 12 percent of the mollusks historically present in shallow sediment were still there.

On rocky reefs, that figure stood at just five percent.

The team also estimated that 60 percent of the remaining mollusc populations studied do not reach reproductive size, rendering the region a "demographic sink" for some species.

Albano said that while other factors could be playing a role in these population collapses, not least the impact of non-native species and pollution, the overall trend was likely caused by warming seas.

"Tolerance to temperature is what really matters here and most of the native Mediterranean species are in the easternmost Mediterranean Sea at the limits of their tolerance to temperature," he said.

In contrast to local molluscs, populations of tropical species entering the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal were thriving.

This species turnover is causing the onset of a "novel ecosystem", the authors said, and the massive loss of native species is likely too significant to rectify.

Albano said the Eastern Mediterranean was "paradigmatic of what is happening in marine ecosystems due to global warming: species respond to warming by shifting their ranges and in some areas this means local eradication of species."

© 2021 AFP