Fishing nations led by Iceland and Russia have blocked UN negotiators from imposing a full-fledged ban against destructive bottom trawling on the high seas.
After weeks of talks in New York, a UN committee that oversees high seas fisheries failed to gain unanimous support this week for ending unregulated bottom trawling.
Fishing boats that drag giant nets along the sea floor can be as destructive as they are effective, wiping out creatures and habitats while scooping up everything in their path, according to a National Academy of Sciences report in 2002.
Iceland and Russia, along with China and South Korea, resisted a proposed ban that had the backing of US President George W. Bush and US allies such as Britain, Norway, Australia and New Zealand.
"There were several countries that really didn't want any controls at all," US Assistant Secretary of State Claudia McMurray said in an interview on Friday. "Unfortunately, the resolution comes up short. We're very disappointed that this is the result we ended up with."
Any one country can hold up the committee's closed-door negotiations. Because of the impasse, the proposed ban probably will not be considered at a plenary meeting of the 192-nation UN assembly next month in New York.
A draft resolution privately adopted by the committee recommends that nations either ensure boats are not causing harm or "cease to authorize fishing vessels flying their flag to conduct bottom fisheries" on the high seas.
The draft resolution also asks fishery management organizations to help reduce damage from bottom trawling. Such organizations exist in the North Atlantic, the Southeast Atlantic, the Southern Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. The remaining 75 percent of the high seas has no regulations for bottom trawling.
More than 60 conservation groups that campaigned for more than two years for a ban on unregulated high seas bottom trawling are discouraged, but not giving up.
Joshua Reichert, director of the private Pew Charitable Trusts' environment division, which coordinated the groups' campaign, called the rejection of the ban "a stunning example of dysfunctional decision-making and the unwillingness of the world's nations to stand up and just say `no' to activity that is destroying the global marine environment."
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique