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*******
Note to list members: These reports from the U.S. Congressional
Research Service, are generally posted once a week and are made
available by way of friendly staff in congress.
This posting consists of new material from these summaries, obtained
by extracting only the material in {curly brackets}. In some cases,
when new material is inserted into an existing paragraph, the new
material may not make much sense by itself. Hint: if the lines in a
paragraph are very uneven, it is probably because the new material
was added to an existing paragraph, and the old stuff was cut out.
*******
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SECTION: MARINE FISHERIES
SECTION: SALMON ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST
WA Management. In mid-April 2000, the WA Dept. of Ecology filed a
complaint in Cowlitz County Superior Court to halt a 50-lot housing
development, as a new tactic to protect salmon habitat by forcing developers
to apply for state water-rights permits for groundwater.[Assoc Press]
CA Chinook Lawsuit. On Apr. 14, 2000, a coalition of environmental and
fishing groups filed suit in CA Superior Court, seeking to force the CA
Water Resources Control Board to implement protective measures to protected
threatened chinook salmon though reconsideration of a March 15, 2000,
allocation of water rights along the San Joaquin River.[Environment News
Service]
SECTION: AQUACULTURE AND AQUARIA
SECTION: FRESHWATER FISHERIES
Whirling Disease. On Apr. 18, 2000, officials of the UT Division of
Wildlife Resources announced that whirling disease had been detected using
DNA tests at the Midway fish hatchery. This is the first occurrence of
whirling disease at a state-operated hatchery in UT. Because of this
discovery, more that 300,000 catchable rainbow trout will be lost to the
regular stocking program for streams and rivers, with the fish planted
instead in lakes and reservoirs. The director of the UT hatchery system
reported that whirling disease had spread in 10 months to where he thought
it would take 10 years to reach.[Assoc Press]
SECTION: MARINE MAMMALS
Manatee Lawsuit. On Apr. 18, 2000, a coalition of 18 environmental and
animal protection groups asked a federal judge, hearing their lawsuit (Save
the Manatee Club v. Ballard) seeking to force federal agencies to give more
attention to saving FL manatees, to issue a preliminary injunction banning
the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing permits for any new boat slips and
marinas in coastal waters of 16 FL counties and parts of 3 other counties
until the lawsuit is decided. This action was taken after the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service approved and the Corps of Engineers issued a permit for 180
new boat slips in a critical manatee area. According to preliminary FL
data, about 100 manatees have died in the first 3 months of 2000.[Assoc
Press, Save the Manatee Club press release]
Makah Whaling. On Apr. 17, 2000, the Makah Whaling Commission issued a
permit to one family to hunt a gray whale. No whale was killed, but the
Coast Guard arrested a protester and seized his boat, after they allegedly
entered the 500-yard exclusion zone around the Makah canoe. A total of 5
families have been preparing to hunt gray whales this spring.
On Apr.
20, 2000, an inflatable Coast Guard vessel collided with a personal
watercraft operating inside the Marine Exclusion Zone and harassing Makah
whalers, injuring the watercraft operator. The Makah whalers had thrown a
harpoon at a gray whale, but the harpoon did not stick. A second personal
watercraft was confiscated, and its operator arrested.[Assoc Press,
personal communication, Reuters, Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
On Apr. 15,
2000, delegates to the CITES Conference of Parties rejected 4 proposals to
resume limited trading in certain whale products. A Norwegian proposal to
remove Northeast Atlantic and North Atlantic Central stocks of minke whales
from CITES Appendix I was defeated by a secret ballot vote of 52-57, with 9
abstentions and 2 spoiled ballots. Norwegian delegates to CITES indicated
that Norway may consider ignoring the CITES trade ban. A Japanese proposal
to downlist Eastern North Pacific gray whales was defeated by a secret
ballot of 40-63, with 6 abstentions. The Japanese proposal to downlist
Southern Hemisphere minke whales was defeated by a secret ballot of 46-69,
with 4 abstentions and 4 spoiled ballots. A Japanese proposal to downlist
Okhotsk Sea/West Pacific minke whales was defeated by a secret ballot of 49-
67, with 3 abstentions and 2 spoiled ballots.
On Apr. 20, 2000, at the
CITES Conference of Parties, Norway offered an amended proposal, limited to
whales taken in waters under national jurisdiction and monitored by a DNA-
based identification system. This proposal failed to gain the required two-
thirds majority, with 53 voting favorable and 52 against.[personal
Welfare press release]
Coral Protection. On Apr. 18, 2000, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. went scuba
diving at Vieques, Puerto Rico. On Apr. 17, 2000, he had announced that the
Natural Resources Defense Council would be filing a lawsuit against the Navy
to stop military exercises and protect coral reefs.[Assoc Press]
Iceland ITQ Case. In mid-April 2000, Iceland's Supreme Court announced it
verdict, having voted 4-3 to overturn a lower court judgment and found 3
fishermen who fished without quota shares, guilty of fishing illegally. The
ruling made clear that fish stocks are the property of the Icelandic nation
as a whole, and that allocated fishing quotas do not constitute
ownership.[personal communication]
Pelagic Longlining. On Apr. 10, 2000, NMFS announced that implementation
of a vessel monitoring system (VMS) required for Atlantic pelagic longline
fishermen was being delayed from June 1, 2000, until September 1, 2000.[personal
communication]
On Apr. 17-18, 2000, scientists and environmentalists held a
lobster health symposium in Stamford, CT, to review progress and develop an
action plan for identifying the cause of Long Island Sound lobster
mortalities.[Assoc Press]
On Apr. 18, 2000, delegates to the Conference of
Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) rejected proposals to impose restrictions on
trade in great white shark, basking shark, and whale shark products.
On Apr. 20, 2000, at the CITES Conference of Parties, the United Kingdom
presented a revised proposal on basking sharks, but it failed to gain the
required two-thirds majority with a vote of 67 for and 42 against, with 8
abstentions.[Reuters, personal communication, Center for Marine
release]
A second lancha was pursued into the Mexican EEZ, where the
seized lancha, catch, and fishing gear were transferred by the Coast Guard
to Mexican enforcement officials for prosecution.[personal communication]
Between Apr. 14 and Apr. 17, a total of 68 sea turtles, the majority being
loggerhead, washed up dead on NC Outer Banks beaches. The cause of this
mortality event is unknown. On Apr. 20, 2000, at the Conference of Parties
to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife
Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Nairobi, Kenya, delegates declined to adopt a
Cuban proposal to allow sale of stockpiled hawksbill turtle shell to Japan.
The secret ballot on this proposal failed to gain the required two-thirds
majority, with 67 in support and 41 against.[Assoc Press, MSNBC,
International Fund for Animal Welfare press release]
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