Canada is complicit in these crimes on the high seas. We have not supported the ban on whaling, or on bottom trawlers.
And the two are tied together. Canada allows for hunting of the Mienke Whale which Japan and Iceland also hunt.
Iceland is resuming the whale hunt for Mienke Whales and for other Whales listed as endangered species. Canada's silence over this matter is excused by claiming our Whaling is a traditional practice of indigenous peoples in the Arctic. Their quotas for whales are more than even those caught by Iceland.
In the case of bottom trawlers the Harpocrites who usually mimic the Bush Regime are declaring their political sovereignty at the expense of the environment.White House Joins International Call for Ban on Deep Sea Trawling
But it is not only Harpers American allies that want this ban so do his conservative pals in the Howard Government in Australia. UN considers deep sea trawling ban
While European cod stocks are down; Scientists: EU Should Ban North Sea Cod Fishing Next Year , the EU is promoting the continued destruction of other deep sea species through the use of the former cod trawlers.
EU suggests quota cuts to save deep-sea fish
Brussels - Europe's fisheries chief flew in the face of scientific advice on Thursday and called for hefty quota cuts for exotic deep-sea species, some of which can live up to 150 years, instead of an outright ban on fishing. Bearing names like orange roughy, black scabbardfish, greater silver smelt and roundnose grenadier, Europe's deep-sea fish grow and reproduce far more slowly than fish in shallower waters and are far more vulnerable to overfishing.With the depletion of EU commercial stocks such as cod and hake in recent years, deep water fish have become an attractive catch as trawlers switch from traditional fishing grounds.
Quotas as an alternative to outright bans have been proven to be a joke as the recent expose of Japans overfishing it's quota of Tuna in the Pacific has shown. Quota's for fish are the equivalent of 'voluntary' emission standards in the auto industry.
LAST CHANCE FOR FISH
Illegal fishing takes toll in Pacific
'Let fishing nations pay $400M'
Even where foreign fishing fleets pay in return for access to a Pacific country's fishing grounds, the financial returns from these access fees and licenses are worth a pittance of the total value of fish caught, often a mere 5 per cent of the $2 billion that the fish is worth when it reaches the international market,” he said.
Goundar said Pacific island governments must not allow foreign industrial fishing nations like Japan to hoodwink them into plundering their oceans.
Greenpeace: New European fishing vessels should be banned from Pacific
Despite two key Pacific tuna stocks already being in serious trouble, the European Union (EU) has licensed 96 new boats to fish in the Western Pacific region.
The licensed vessels are flagged in France, the UK, Portugal and Spain, and include three of the largest and most modern tuna seiners in the world.
These Spanish giant vessels, known as super seiners, have the capacity to freeze 200 tonnes of tuna a day and can hold up to 2,200 tonnes at a time.
In a year, two of these vessels can take nearly double an entire year's haul for the whole of the Federated States of Micronesia's (FSM) tuna fishing fleet, according to Greenpeace.
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