Friday 4 October 2013

Dutch take legal action over Greenpeace ship in Russia

Dutch take legal action over Greenpeace ship in Russia

The group was arrested last month over a protest on an Arctic oil rig owned by Gazprom

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The Netherlands has launched legal action to free 30 Greenpeace activists charged in Russia with piracy.
The group was arrested last month over a protest on an Arctic oil rig owned by state-controlled firm Gazprom.
Foreign Minister Frans Timmermans said he was also acting to free the Dutch-flagged Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise.
Greenpeace calls the charges against the activists, who include two Dutch citizens, "irrational, absurd and an outrage".
Mr Timmermans said the Netherlands had applied to the UN's Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, which resolves maritime disputes between states.
He said his country, the first nation to take legal action in the case, viewed the ship's detention as unlawful.
Under the rules of the Hamburg-based Tribunal, the Netherlands may apply for the immediate release of the ship and those on board.
"I really want to consult with my Russian colleagues... to get these people freed as soon as possible," Mr Timmermans said, according to Associated Press.
"I don't understand why this could be thought to have anything to do with piracy; I don't see how you could think of any legal grounds for that."
'Group piracy' The BBC's Anne Holligan in The Hague says the dispute threatens to test the strong diplomatic ties between Russia and the Netherlands.
Citizens of 17 other countries, reported to include Britain, France, Canada and New Zealand, were also among those arrested and detained in the Russian city of Murmansk.
The group was seized during a skirmish with armed Russian security officers after several activists tried to board the Prirazlomnaya platform, Russia's first offshore oil rig in the Arctic.
They were later charged with "piracy of an organised group".
Greenpeace's international executive director, Kumi Naidoo, said earlier this week the charges were "extreme and disproportionate".
The Russian government has not commented on the Dutch legal action. President Vladimir Putin has said the environmental activists broke international law, although he has conceded they were not pirates.
Mikhail Fedotov, who heads the presidential council for human rights advisory body, said on Thursday he did not think there were "the slightest grounds" for a piracy charge.
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Wednesday 29 May 2013

GM salmon can breed with wild fish and pass on genes

GM salmon can breed with wild fish and pass on genesBy Rebecca MorelleScience reporter, BBC World ServiceTransgenic salmon next to a non-transgenic salmon of the same age This image of transgenic salmon next to an unmodified salmon of the same age shows how the GM fish grow far more quicklyRelated Stories The potential risks of genetically modified fish escaping into the wild have been highlighted in a new study.Scientists from Canada have found that transgenic Atlantic salmon can cross-breed with a closely related species - the brown trout.The fish, which have been engineered with extra genes to make them grow more quickly, pass on this trait to the hybrid offspring.The research is published the Proceedings of the Royal Society B..However, the biotech company AquaBounty, which created the salmon, said any risks were negligible as the fish they were producing were all female, sterile and would be kept in tanks on land.The transgenic salmon are currently being assessed by the US authorities, and could be the first GM animals to be approved for human consumption.Salmon-trout hybrids“Start QuoteThe GM hybrids also outgrew the GM salmon”Darek MoreauMemorial University of NewfoundlandIn the wild, Atlantic salmon very occasionally mate with the brown trout, successfully producing offspring.But the researchers found that in the laboratory, the genetically modified salmon could do the same. Of the 363 fish analysed at the start of the experiment, about 40% of the hybrids carried the modified genes.The researchers found that these young fish developed extremely quickly.Dr Darek Moreau, from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, said: "[Under hatchery conditions] the transgenic hybrids grew faster than the wild salmon, wild trout and wild-type hybrids. The GM hybrids also outgrew the GM salmon."Brown troutIn the wild, Atlantic salmon will sometimes mate with the brown troutWhen the fish were placed in a mocked-up stream inside the laboratory, the researchers found that the hybrids were out-competing both the genetically modified salmon and wild salmon, significantly stunting their growth."This was likely a result of competition for limited food resources," explained Dr Moreau.The researchers said this study highlighted the ecological consequences should genetically modified fish get into the wild.They acknowledged that the risks of such an escape and subsequent encounter with a brown trout were low, but said this information should still be taken into account by those who are regulating GM animals.Ron Stotish, CEO of AquaBounty Technologies Inc, said: "It is worth noting that in 1995, Peter Galbreath and Gary Thorgaard of Washington State University published research that the Atlantic salmon-brown trout hybrid is sterile. If this holds true, such a hybrid would pose little ecological threat as the fish would not reproduce."Moreover, AquaBounty has stipulated that we will market only sterile, all female AquAdvantage salmon - with specific tests being performed on every commercial batch of fish to assure our product meets our specifications."He added: "Overall, the study seems to present no new evidence for any added environmental risk associated with the AquAdvantage salmon."The US Food and Drug Administration is currently in the final stages of considering whether the transgenic salmon can go on sale.

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Monday 6 May 2013

Arctic Ocean 'acidifying rapidly'


Arctic Ocean 'acidifying rapidly'

By Roger Harrabin
Environment analyst, BBC News
Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Fjord with Kap Atholl in the background is shown in this picture taken during an Operation IceBridge survey flight in April 2013

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The Arctic seas are being made rapidly more acidic by carbon-dioxide emissions, according to a new report.
Scientists from Norway's Center for International Climate and Environmental Research monitored widespread changes in ocean chemistry in the region.
They say even if CO2 emissions stopped now, it would take tens of thousands of years for Arctic Ocean chemistry to revert to pre-industrial levels.
Many creatures, including commercially valuable fish, could be affected.
They forecast major changes in the marine ecosystem, but say there is huge uncertainty over what those changes will be.
It is well known that CO2 warms the planet, but less well-known that it also makes the alkaline seas more acidic when it is absorbed from the air.

The Arctic

arctic volcano
  • The Arctic region contains a vast ice-covered ocean roughly centred on the Earth's geographic North Pole
  • The Sun doesn't rise at all on the shortest day of the year within the Arctic Circle
  • Humans have inhabited the Arctic region for thousands of years, and the current population is four million
  • Geologists estimate the Arctic may hold up to 25% of the world's remaining oil and natural gas
Absorption is particularly fast in cold water so the Arctic is especially susceptible, and the recent decreases in summer sea ice have exposed more sea surface to atmospheric CO2.
The Arctic's vulnerability is exacerbated by increasing flows of freshwater from rivers and melting land ice, as freshwater is less effective at chemically neutralising the acidifying effects of CO2.
The researchers say the Nordic Seas are acidifying over a wide range of depths - most quickly in surface waters and more slowly in deep waters.
The report’s chairman, Richard Bellerby from the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, told BBC News that they had mapped a mosaic of different levels of pH across the region, with the scale of change largely determined by the local intake of freshwater.
“Large rivers flow into the Arctic, which has an enormous catchment for its size,” he said.
“There’s slow mixing so in effect we get a sort of freshwater lens on the top of the sea in some places, and freshwater lowers the concentration of ions that buffers pH change. The sea ice has been a lid on the Arctic, so the loss of ice is allowing fast uptake of CO2.”
This is being made worse, he said, by organic carbon running off the land – a secondary effect of regional warming.
“Continued rapid change is a certainty,” he said.
“We have already passed critical thresholds. Even if we stop emissions now, acidification will last tens of thousands of years. It is a very big experiment.”
The research team monitored decreases in seawater pH of about 0.02 per decade since the late 1960s in the Iceland and Barents seas.
Chemical effects related to acidification have also been encountered in surface waters of the Bering Strait and the Canada Basin of the central Arctic Ocean.
Scientists estimate that the average acidity of surface ocean waters worldwide is now about 30% higher than before the Industrial Revolution.
The researchers say there is likely to be major change to the Arctic marine ecosystem as a result. Some key prey species like sea butterflies may be harmed. Other species may thrive. Adult fish look likely to be fairly resilient but the development of fish eggs might be harmed. It is too soon to tell.

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Friday 3 May 2013

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Saturday 5 January 2013

Japan bluefin tuna fetches record $1.7m


Japan bluefin tuna fetches record $1.7m

Kiyoshi Kimura at his sushi chain, 5 JanuaryKiyoshi Kimura stumped up almost three times as much as he did last year

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A single bluefin tuna has sold in Japan for 155m yen ($1.7m; £1.05m), almost triple the record price set last year.
High bids traditionally mark the year's first auction at Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market.
Even the buyer, sushi chain owner Kiyoshi Kimura, who also paid out the record price last year, said the cost was "a bit high".
The sale came amid continued warnings from environmentalists that tuna stocks are dwindling and overfished.
'Encourage Japan'
This year's record-breaking fish was caught off north-eastern Japan and weighed in at 222kg (489lbs), some 47kg lighter than last year's prize-winner, which fetched 56m yen.
The prices do not necessarily reflect quality or size and are more linked to publicity and setting the tone for the business year.
The auction at the market - which trades millions of dollars of products daily and is a popular tourist destination - began at 05:00 local time.
Mr Kimura immediately carted his purchase off to a nearby branch of his Sushi Zanmai chain.
He said he wanted to "encourage Japan" with his bid.
The price works out at about $7,600 per kg ($3,500/lb).
Japan consumes more than half of the world's bluefin.
New figures to be released on Monday are expected to show a continued decline in Pacific bluefin stocks.
Amanda Nickson, of the Pew Environmental Group's global tuna conservation campaign, told Associated Press news agency: "Everything we're hearing is that there's no good news for the Pacific bluefin. We're seeing a very high value fish continue to be overfished."

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