[IMC-Boston-Dispatch] Fwd: World Bank Contributing to Extinctions and Overfishing

[News at JamaicaPlainGazette.com]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Robert Ovetz" <GMT.513804.810214 at prnews2.com>
> Date: September 13, 2005 6:24:40 AM EDT
> To: news at jamaicaplaingazette.com
> Subject: World Bank Contributing to Extinctions and Overfishing
> Reply-To: robert at seaturtles.org
>
>
> World Bank Contributing to Extinctions and Overfishing
> New Report Documents Damage to the Pacific Ocean from Investments  
> in Destructive Longline Fishing
>
>
> September 13, 2005
>
> Contact:
>
> Robert Ovetz, PhD, Save the Leatherback Campaign Coordinator, Sea  
> Turtle Restoration Project, 415-488-0370 x106, robert at seaturtles.org
>
>
> Forest Knolls, California—Only weeks after the World Bank announced  
> a new project to promote sustainable fishing, a new report  
> documents how controversial bank investments in longline fishing in  
> the Pacific are contributing to overfishing for tuna and an  
> extinction crisis for sea turtles and seabirds. As the World Bank  
> prepares for its annual meeting on September 24-25th, new questions  
> arise as to the destructive impact of investments by the World Bank  
> and other multilateral development banks on the ocean and fisheries  
> resources.
>
> The report, Bankrupting the Pacific: How Multilateral Development  
> Banks are Contributing to Overfishing and Helping Push Sea Turtles  
> and Seabirds to the Brink of Extinction in the Pacific, released by  
> the Sea Turtle Restoration Project today, shows how the  
> International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank  
> Group, and Asian Development Bank poured millions of dollars into  
> destructive longline fishing in the Pacific. These investments were  
> made in critical nesting and migratory habitats of critically  
> endangered sea turtles and seabirds without any assessment of the  
> impact on biodiversity of the regions where the projects took place  
> and in direct violation of their own environmental and fisheries  
> policies.
>
> "Asian Development Bank and World Bank Group investments in  
> longline fishing have helped drive the 100 million year old  
> leatherback sea turtle to the brink of extinction in the Pacific,"  
> warns Robert Ovetz, PhD, Save the Leatherback Campaign Coordinator  
> with the US-based NGO the Sea Turtle Restoration Project and lead  
> author of the report.
>
> The female nesting population of the 100 million year old Pacific  
> leatherback sea turtle has collapsed by 95 percent since 1980. The  
> leatherback is listed as critically endangered by the World  
> Conservation Union and scientists warn that it could extinct in the  
> next 5-30 years unless immediate action to remove threats to its  
> survival such as longline fishing. The Pacific loggerhead sea  
> turtle and the black-footed albatross are also caught primarily by  
> longlines and considered on the precipice of extinction. Longline  
> fishing is the main threat to albatross seabirds, 19 of the 21 of  
> the species of which are considered threatened or endangered.
>
> "The banks do not even follow their own weak environmental  
> policies. Despite the fact that longlines catch or kill about 4.4  
> million non-target sharks, seabirds, sea turtles, billfish and  
> marine mammals each year in the Pacific alone, in each case, the  
> banks found that no environmental impact report was even required."  
> noted Ovetz.
>
> These investments have also triggered overfishing of the very  
> resource that was supposed to contribute to long-term development.  
> Recent reports in the scientific journals Nature and Ecology have  
> warned that tuna, billfish and shark populations have declined by  
> 87-99 percent in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific since  
> the 1950s.
>
> According to Ovetz, "the multi-lateral banks are directly to blame  
> for contributing to the crash in bigeye and albacore tuna in the  
> Pacific, a crucial source of revenue for impoverished coastal and  
> island nations."
>
> The report calls for the banks to cancel ongoing longline fishing  
> projects, implement a moratorium on all future longline projects,  
> and implement a set of reforms of their own practices to prevent  
> further damage to the ocean ecosystem.
>
> Resources:
>
> • For a copy of the report Bankrupting the Pacific <a href= "http:// 
> www.seaturtles.org/pdf/ACF1120.pdf">click here.</a>
>
> • For a review copy of the Sea Turtle Restoration Project's new  
> documentary film Last Journey for the Leatherback? contact Robert  
> Ovetz, PhD.
>
> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––
> The Sea Turtle Restoration Project is a California-based  
> international marine conservation organization that works to  
> protect sea turtles and other marine species in the United States  
> and in countries around the world. For more information about sea  
> turtles and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, please visit:  
> www.seaturtles.org and www.savetheleatherback.com
>
>