Guest guest Posted April 2, 2002 Report Share Posted April 2, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** TechCentral http://star-techcentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: Marine Science Conference in Kuala Lumpur May 12 -16 This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/4/2/features/hrocean & sec=fe\ atures ________________________ Tuesday, April 2, 2002 No boundaries to responsibilities Marine scientists and policy makers from Asia Pacific countries will gather in Kuala Lumpur next month to discuss issues relating to the marine realm of this mega diversity region of the world. Leading up to the conference, HILARY CHIEW will examine every fortnight issues related to marine science and sustainable development of our marine resources. She begins with a look at how the interconnectedness of the seas in this region calls for a collective responsibility for them. AN INDONESIAN fisherman is killed and his shipmates are detained and charged for encroachment and illegally fishing in Malaysian waters. Then a Malaysian fisherman is fatally shot by an Indonesian naval patrol craft – for encroachment. These incidents happened in February last year but they could happen again at any time, as any patrol boat captain, Malaysian or Indonesian, will tell you. You wouldn’t think people would get killed over fish, but they do. In fact, fishermen all over the world are fighting over fish: the Canadians and the Americans narrowly avoided a major diplomatic incident when Canadian trawlers faced off against American patrol boats last year. The Europeans, who recently agreed to cut back drastically on fishing their own waters because fish stocks are dangerously low, have been accused of over-exploiting the fisheries of developing nations like Mauritania and Senegal. I’ve fished my waters clean, so I have no choice but to fish in your waters. That’s the reason behind all these incidents. “As fish stocks dwindle in places where unsustainable fishing occurred, fishery activities will move to new areas and continue the exploitative practice,” warns Dr Chua Tia Eng, the programme director of the Regional Programme on Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia. Cases of foreign vessel encroachment in Malaysian waters more than doubled from 412 in 2000 to 873 last year, according to Fisheries Department statistics. And violations are not confined to the narrow Straits of Malacca where the watery border between Indonesia and Malaysia is inconspicuous and, perhaps, easily confused. The department’s annual report shows that Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, even China and Taiwan, are joining the fray. “Towards the north-east you have Japan and the two Koreas squabbling, and you have China and the Philippines quarrelling over the East China Sea,” adds Chua. There are further indications of declining fish numbers: in 1994, the Food and Agriculture Organisation put East Asia’s capture fisheries (as opposed to farm fisheries) production at 45 million tonnes (41% of world production). Recent estimates place production at 36 million tonnes (38.5% of world production). This despite better fishing gear and greatly expanded fleets. Over-fishing has obviously sent wild stocks tumbling. Besieged from land, too “We have to change our mindset when we talk about management of the sea,” says Chua. “We have to look at the interface between coast and sea. Bear in mind that no ecosystem exists by itself – there is an inter-connectivity between one and the other no matter how invisible the linkage may be. “The sea is constantly fed by river basins from mainlands that flow out of the coast. So whatever pollution or disturbances happen on shore eventually affect the sea. And, as water is fluid, some of the problems will get carried to bigger water bodies,” reminds Chua. For instance, harmful algae blooms can spread through water currents and infect coastal zones in neighbouring sea areas. Degradation of water bodies manifests as coastal erosion; loss of spawning and feeding grounds in mangrove forests, coral reefs and seagrass beds; and outbreaks of destructive algae blooms, sometimes known as red tide due to the colour of the algae that tints the water. The algae produce potent toxins that can contaminate seafood and find their way up through the food chain. There had been numerous reports of red tide-related poisoning in this region. A variety of gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms have been documented: paralytic, diarrhoeic and amnesic shellfish poisoning, and neurotoxic poisoning. For example, in the Philippines, the reported cases of over 2,000 paralytic shellfish poisoning since 1983 have led to 115 deaths and economic losses of about 10 million pesos (RM767,000) for each event. What’s frightening is that the destructive organism occurs more and more in Asian waters nowadays because increasing amounts of pollution are entering the seas – sewage and other organic pollution represent a feast to the algae. “An estimated 80 billion tonnes of sewage are generated annually in the East Asian region. More than 50% of manufacturing industries in the region are located along riverbanks or along the coasts. They are found mainly in the Manila Bay area, the inner Gulf of Thailand, along the Straits of Malacca, along the west coasts of Sabah and Sarawak, and the north coast of Java island. “Along the South China Sea, industries release a minimum amount of about 430,000 tonnes of waste into the sea, 50% of which is conveyed by major river systems,” adds Chua. The urgent need to stop harmful discharges into the sea is further compounded by population growth in this region. Currently, 77% of East Asians live within 100km of the coast. Coastal development has developed into major cities now counted among the most populated in the world. Six of the 20 most populous cities in the world are in East Asia and it is estimated that within the next 50 years more cities in the region will join this number. And more people means more garbage and sewage. We are all connected It is not that these problems are ignored by regional governments. It is just that national policies and international laws for the management of the coastal and marine environment are not being implemented – it is called general institutional failures. As most countries in East Asia are in various stages of development, governments tend to be preoccupied with economic progress. They tend to ignore the link between environmental degradation and socio-economic problems. At a senior experts discussion on coastal and marine policy organised by the Regional Programme on Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (known as Pemsea) last July, national policy makers and scientists recognised the general inability of countries in the region to arrest the deterioration of the coastal and marine environment despite on-going efforts at the national and regional levels. The meeting acknowledged that despite millions of dollars spent identifying problems, many remain unresolved, including sewage problems of 18th century proportions, uncontrolled garbage disposal, and contaminated water supplies. The Manila-based organisation wants to convince countries that, as seas know no boundaries, we all have to take some responsibility in safeguarding the source of so many resources, including protein. Pemsea calls for new socio-economic and ecological strategies through partnerships at local, national, sub-regional and regional levels. Pemsea defines East Asia Seas as those bordered by China, North and South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It further divides the area into five semi-enclosed seas that are also large marine ecosystems of great ecological and economic importance: the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea, the Sulu-Celebes Sea and the Indonesian Sea. (See map above.) The Indonesian Sea is particularly important as it supports fisheries of both bottom-living fish (demersal) and fish that live in the upper layers of the sea (pelagic); it also shares highly migratory fish resources with nearby countries like Malaysia and the Philippines. Experts have also discovered that major ocean currents which originate from the north and south Pacific travel to the eastern side of the Asian continent. They help generate up-welling zones that contribute to high productivity. The currents also help spread widely the larvae of coastal and marine organisms. These major warm water currents may also promote the luxuriant growth of corals in the seas of East Asia. “For years we have been leaving environmental issues of national concern to the responsibility of the sovereign nation, and those of transnational issues to international bodies such as the United Nations. With the advent of globalisation and regional economic realignment, this two-tiered approach is no longer effective. An integrated, multi-tiered, multi-sectoral (that is, government agency) approach at the regional, national and local levels is necessary to resolve the environmental problems that face the East Asian Seas region,” says Pemsea’s Chua. What we can do At the national level, Malaysia’s policy makers will be urged to take a multi-sectoral approach in dealing with issues of marine resources management. In the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), the government noted that the governance of maritime affairs has to be reviewed if the problem of multiple conflicting uses is to be addressed and if we are to lessen marine pollution and enhance marine and coastal biological diversity. Nizam Basiron, who heads a government maritime think-tank called the Centre for Coastal and Marine Environment at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia, agrees that an extensive review is much needed. “There are so many issues to deal with that we need a review. We can’t address issues on a piecemeal basis anymore. It has to be multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary like those embodied in the holistic marine policy of countries like Australia, Canada, the Philippines and China. The way in which the problem of blast fishing is dealt with is a prime example of an isolated approach. The offence is simply treated as a criminal issue with no thought given to making offenders aware of why they shouldn’t use such a destructive technique or to finding alternatives for offenders who are often the poorest in a village. Then there is the lack of trained personnel for enforcement efforts. Add to that a lack of accessible data and you have government agencies working in a knowledge-poor environment, one in which the research community does not have any links to a policy drafting agency like the Maritime Institute. “We need a centralised database that enables us to access the varied research works by our local universities. Scientific data are vital tools in helping us to decide on and recommend types of resource management and pollution mitigation strategies to our policy makers. “Equally important is the training of civil servants who are supposed to carry out these strategies. They need to understand and be trained to carry out their duties, be it enforcement or administration. They must have a sense of ownership of the problem,” says Nizam. Another area that requires attention, he adds, is the protection of marine and coastal biodiversity through involving stakeholders, i.e. local fishermen. Local fishermen are as guilty as their foreign counterparts in stripping the sea unsustainably of its resources. Violation of licensing conditions among local fishing vessels is rampant. Incidents of fishermen casting their nets in in-shore waters designated as spawning, not fishing, grounds range in the hundreds every year. A total of 837 cases were reported last year. A tell-tale sign that not enough is being done to educate fisher folk is that despite the fact that the first three offences are liable only for fines, most fishermen end up arrested and in court because they repeat their offences up to the fourth time. Maybe when fishermen realise the part they play in the bigger picture, they will go to sea with the realisation that they must not take more than they should and that they should respect the sovereign rights of their neighbours. Then perhaps we can stop losing lives over fish. <font color= " #0AC0F5 " >RELATED STORIES</font><BR><A HREF= " http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/4/2/features/ecobaron\ & sec=features " >Preserving land for posterity</A> <!-- Page: 4 --> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2001 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 2, 2002 Report Share Posted April 2, 2002 ***************************Advertisement*************************** TechCentral http://star-techcentral.com ***************************************************************** This message was forwarded to you by yitzeling. Comment from sender: marine scientists and policy makers from Asia Pacific to gather for a conference in Kuala Lumpur This article is from thestar.com.my URL: http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/4/2/features/hrocean & sec=fe\ atures ________________________ Tuesday, April 2, 2002 No boundaries to responsibilities Marine scientists and policy makers from Asia Pacific countries will gather in Kuala Lumpur next month to discuss issues relating to the marine realm of this mega diversity region of the world. Leading up to the conference, HILARY CHIEW will examine every fortnight issues related to marine science and sustainable development of our marine resources. She begins with a look at how the interconnectedness of the seas in this region calls for a collective responsibility for them. AN INDONESIAN fisherman is killed and his shipmates are detained and charged for encroachment and illegally fishing in Malaysian waters. Then a Malaysian fisherman is fatally shot by an Indonesian naval patrol craft – for encroachment. These incidents happened in February last year but they could happen again at any time, as any patrol boat captain, Malaysian or Indonesian, will tell you. You wouldn’t think people would get killed over fish, but they do. In fact, fishermen all over the world are fighting over fish: the Canadians and the Americans narrowly avoided a major diplomatic incident when Canadian trawlers faced off against American patrol boats last year. The Europeans, who recently agreed to cut back drastically on fishing their own waters because fish stocks are dangerously low, have been accused of over-exploiting the fisheries of developing nations like Mauritania and Senegal. I’ve fished my waters clean, so I have no choice but to fish in your waters. That’s the reason behind all these incidents. “As fish stocks dwindle in places where unsustainable fishing occurred, fishery activities will move to new areas and continue the exploitative practice,” warns Dr Chua Tia Eng, the programme director of the Regional Programme on Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia. Cases of foreign vessel encroachment in Malaysian waters more than doubled from 412 in 2000 to 873 last year, according to Fisheries Department statistics. And violations are not confined to the narrow Straits of Malacca where the watery border between Indonesia and Malaysia is inconspicuous and, perhaps, easily confused. The department’s annual report shows that Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, the Philippines, even China and Taiwan, are joining the fray. “Towards the north-east you have Japan and the two Koreas squabbling, and you have China and the Philippines quarrelling over the East China Sea,” adds Chua. There are further indications of declining fish numbers: in 1994, the Food and Agriculture Organisation put East Asia’s capture fisheries (as opposed to farm fisheries) production at 45 million tonnes (41% of world production). Recent estimates place production at 36 million tonnes (38.5% of world production). This despite better fishing gear and greatly expanded fleets. Over-fishing has obviously sent wild stocks tumbling. Besieged from land, too “We have to change our mindset when we talk about management of the sea,” says Chua. “We have to look at the interface between coast and sea. Bear in mind that no ecosystem exists by itself – there is an inter-connectivity between one and the other no matter how invisible the linkage may be. “The sea is constantly fed by river basins from mainlands that flow out of the coast. So whatever pollution or disturbances happen on shore eventually affect the sea. And, as water is fluid, some of the problems will get carried to bigger water bodies,” reminds Chua. For instance, harmful algae blooms can spread through water currents and infect coastal zones in neighbouring sea areas. Degradation of water bodies manifests as coastal erosion; loss of spawning and feeding grounds in mangrove forests, coral reefs and seagrass beds; and outbreaks of destructive algae blooms, sometimes known as red tide due to the colour of the algae that tints the water. The algae produce potent toxins that can contaminate seafood and find their way up through the food chain. There had been numerous reports of red tide-related poisoning in this region. A variety of gastrointestinal and neurological symptoms have been documented: paralytic, diarrhoeic and amnesic shellfish poisoning, and neurotoxic poisoning. For example, in the Philippines, the reported cases of over 2,000 paralytic shellfish poisoning since 1983 have led to 115 deaths and economic losses of about 10 million pesos (RM767,000) for each event. What’s frightening is that the destructive organism occurs more and more in Asian waters nowadays because increasing amounts of pollution are entering the seas – sewage and other organic pollution represent a feast to the algae. “An estimated 80 billion tonnes of sewage are generated annually in the East Asian region. More than 50% of manufacturing industries in the region are located along riverbanks or along the coasts. They are found mainly in the Manila Bay area, the inner Gulf of Thailand, along the Straits of Malacca, along the west coasts of Sabah and Sarawak, and the north coast of Java island. “Along the South China Sea, industries release a minimum amount of about 430,000 tonnes of waste into the sea, 50% of which is conveyed by major river systems,” adds Chua. The urgent need to stop harmful discharges into the sea is further compounded by population growth in this region. Currently, 77% of East Asians live within 100km of the coast. Coastal development has developed into major cities now counted among the most populated in the world. Six of the 20 most populous cities in the world are in East Asia and it is estimated that within the next 50 years more cities in the region will join this number. And more people means more garbage and sewage. We are all connected It is not that these problems are ignored by regional governments. It is just that national policies and international laws for the management of the coastal and marine environment are not being implemented – it is called general institutional failures. As most countries in East Asia are in various stages of development, governments tend to be preoccupied with economic progress. They tend to ignore the link between environmental degradation and socio-economic problems. At a senior experts discussion on coastal and marine policy organised by the Regional Programme on Partnerships in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (known as Pemsea) last July, national policy makers and scientists recognised the general inability of countries in the region to arrest the deterioration of the coastal and marine environment despite on-going efforts at the national and regional levels. The meeting acknowledged that despite millions of dollars spent identifying problems, many remain unresolved, including sewage problems of 18th century proportions, uncontrolled garbage disposal, and contaminated water supplies. The Manila-based organisation wants to convince countries that, as seas know no boundaries, we all have to take some responsibility in safeguarding the source of so many resources, including protein. Pemsea calls for new socio-economic and ecological strategies through partnerships at local, national, sub-regional and regional levels. Pemsea defines East Asia Seas as those bordered by China, North and South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. It further divides the area into five semi-enclosed seas that are also large marine ecosystems of great ecological and economic importance: the East China Sea, the Yellow Sea, the South China Sea, the Sulu-Celebes Sea and the Indonesian Sea. (See map above.) The Indonesian Sea is particularly important as it supports fisheries of both bottom-living fish (demersal) and fish that live in the upper layers of the sea (pelagic); it also shares highly migratory fish resources with nearby countries like Malaysia and the Philippines. Experts have also discovered that major ocean currents which originate from the north and south Pacific travel to the eastern side of the Asian continent. They help generate up-welling zones that contribute to high productivity. The currents also help spread widely the larvae of coastal and marine organisms. These major warm water currents may also promote the luxuriant growth of corals in the seas of East Asia. “For years we have been leaving environmental issues of national concern to the responsibility of the sovereign nation, and those of transnational issues to international bodies such as the United Nations. With the advent of globalisation and regional economic realignment, this two-tiered approach is no longer effective. An integrated, multi-tiered, multi-sectoral (that is, government agency) approach at the regional, national and local levels is necessary to resolve the environmental problems that face the East Asian Seas region,” says Pemsea’s Chua. What we can do At the national level, Malaysia’s policy makers will be urged to take a multi-sectoral approach in dealing with issues of marine resources management. In the Eighth Malaysia Plan (2001-2005), the government noted that the governance of maritime affairs has to be reviewed if the problem of multiple conflicting uses is to be addressed and if we are to lessen marine pollution and enhance marine and coastal biological diversity. Nizam Basiron, who heads a government maritime think-tank called the Centre for Coastal and Marine Environment at the Maritime Institute of Malaysia, agrees that an extensive review is much needed. “There are so many issues to deal with that we need a review. We can’t address issues on a piecemeal basis anymore. It has to be multi-sectoral and multi-disciplinary like those embodied in the holistic marine policy of countries like Australia, Canada, the Philippines and China. The way in which the problem of blast fishing is dealt with is a prime example of an isolated approach. The offence is simply treated as a criminal issue with no thought given to making offenders aware of why they shouldn’t use such a destructive technique or to finding alternatives for offenders who are often the poorest in a village. Then there is the lack of trained personnel for enforcement efforts. Add to that a lack of accessible data and you have government agencies working in a knowledge-poor environment, one in which the research community does not have any links to a policy drafting agency like the Maritime Institute. “We need a centralised database that enables us to access the varied research works by our local universities. Scientific data are vital tools in helping us to decide on and recommend types of resource management and pollution mitigation strategies to our policy makers. “Equally important is the training of civil servants who are supposed to carry out these strategies. They need to understand and be trained to carry out their duties, be it enforcement or administration. They must have a sense of ownership of the problem,” says Nizam. Another area that requires attention, he adds, is the protection of marine and coastal biodiversity through involving stakeholders, i.e. local fishermen. Local fishermen are as guilty as their foreign counterparts in stripping the sea unsustainably of its resources. Violation of licensing conditions among local fishing vessels is rampant. Incidents of fishermen casting their nets in in-shore waters designated as spawning, not fishing, grounds range in the hundreds every year. A total of 837 cases were reported last year. A tell-tale sign that not enough is being done to educate fisher folk is that despite the fact that the first three offences are liable only for fines, most fishermen end up arrested and in court because they repeat their offences up to the fourth time. Maybe when fishermen realise the part they play in the bigger picture, they will go to sea with the realisation that they must not take more than they should and that they should respect the sovereign rights of their neighbours. Then perhaps we can stop losing lives over fish. <font color= " #0AC0F5 " >RELATED STORIES</font><BR><A HREF= " http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2002/4/2/features/apr2horo\ & sec=features " >Ballast this water</A> <!-- Page: 4 --> ________________________ Your one-stop information portal: The Star Online http://thestar.com.my http://biz.thestar.com.my http://classifieds.thestar.com.my http://cards.thestar.com.my http://search.thestar.com.my http://star-motoring.com http://star-space.com http://star-jobs.com http://star-ecentral.com http://star-techcentral.com 1995-2001 Star Publications (Malaysia) Bhd. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Star Publications is prohibited. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 2, 2002 Report Share Posted April 2, 2002 I think where ever we live it is time to educate and introduce new jobs and trades to people living close to the sea.Every country has it`s own cottage industries ( way of making sweets.handicrafts etc} For an example Sri lankans have Negombo Alwa a special sweet made from the women inthe Fishing area of Negombo .they make that from rice flour and honey which is a by product from coconut industry. they have lo`t s of other sweets which are very tasty but these people don`t have the capacity to market them . They make these sweets and carry them in small parcels and truy to sell them at church feasts. Fisherman`s son doesn`t have to be a fisherman and these young people should be given every chance to do something new. There are some people who use coconut fibers and mats to control erosion and export them .Few people are getting rich.poor will remain poor. Kala > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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