Fish dumping 'will ruin industry'

Phil Walsh's crew exceeded their cod quota by June

The UK fishing industry is warning it faces ruin unless EU quota rules which see millions of freshly-caught fish end up back in the sea, dead, are changed.

It says fishing crews often continue catching large amounts of fish, such as cod, by accident after exceeding quotas and have no option but to dump them.

The practice leaves crews struggling to make a living, while damaging hopes for sustainability, say environmentalists.

EU commissioner Joe Borg acknowledges the problem but sees no clear solution.

Thousands of tonnes dumped

Quotas strictly limit the amount of fish that each vessel can bring back to port. But there is no such limit on the amount of fish they actually catch.

Often, boats fishing in the "mixed fishery" of the North Sea catch a species or size of fish which is not what they were targeting.

Trawler skipper Phil Walsh told BBC News the quota for cod and other white fish he and other inshore fishermen were allocated by Brussels this year was tiny.

Life behind the net

By June he had landed all of the cod he was allowed. So, since then, he has been fishing for prawns and dumping prime whiting, haddock and cod, which would fetch as much as £13.50/kg on a supermarket shelf.

"I can't describe the feeling really," he told BBC News.

"It's your livelihood and you spend your life trying to catch it and then you have to throw it back over the side. It's an impossible situation and, unless it is sorted out soon, we will all be finished."

source: news.bbc.co.uk

£3m up for grabs for green business start ups

The Carbon Connections programme, which provides advice and support for green businesses and academics looking to work together, revealed today that it has extended its coverage to include every university in the country and has £3m to invest before the end of the year in innovative carbon reduction projects.

A spokeswoman for the scheme, which is run out of the University of East Anglia, said it was looking for companies with plans for green technologies, processes or services that require R&D support and could benefit from working with a university research department to develop the idea.

She added that Carbon Connections could put firms in contact with the appropriate academics and universities and once the partnerships were formed they could then apply for funding of up to £200,000 per applicant. The initiative still has £3m to invest this year, she said, and firms have until 14th of December to apply for the funding.

Programme director Dr Chris Harrison said that the expansion of the scheme to cover all UK universities should make it accessible to a wider range of businesses. "It is evident that the higher education sector has a great deal of know-how, research output and intellectual property that can be applied to the issues of CO2 emissions and climate change," he added. "We look forward to receiving proposals and to supporting our second stage of projects."

Proof of global warming

A World Dying, but Can We Unite to Save It?

Pollution in the seas is now speeding global warming, says a devastating new climate report.

Humanity is rapidly turning the seas acid through the same pollution that causes global warming, the world’s governments and top scientists agreed yesterday. The process — thought to be the most profound change in the chemistry of the oceans for 20 million years — is expected both to disrupt the entire web of life of the oceans and to make climate change worse.

The warning is just one of a whole series of alarming conclusions in a new report published by the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which last month shared the Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore.

Drawn up by more than 2,500 of the world’s top scientists and their governments, and agreed last week by representatives of all its national governments, the report also predicts that nearly a third of the world’s species could be driven to extinction as the world warms up, and that harvests will be cut dramatically across the world.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who attended the launch of the report in this ancient Spanish city, told The Independent on Sunday that he found the “quickening pace” of global warming “very frightening”.

And, with unusual outspokenness for a UN leader, he said he “looked forward” to both the United States and China — the world’s two biggest polluters — “playing a more constructive role” in vital new negotiations on tackling climate change that open in Indonesia next month.

source: commondreams.org

17 Most Bizarre Statues in The World

1.In front of the Ernst & Young building (Los Angeles)

2.Optimus Prime (Southern China)

3.The "Magic tap" (found in "Aqualand" of Cadiz, Spain), which appears to float in the sky with an endless supply of water. Actually, there is a pipe hidden in the stream of water that holds the whole structure.

4.A Mona Lisa made of computer chips (ASUS headquarters)

5.(Prague)

6.Baseball Man

7.(Oslo, Norway)

8.Santa Fe, New Mexico

9.(Potsdam, Germany)

10."Iron Lady", in front of the building Regentes (Netherlands)

11.(Salt Lake City)

12.(Singapore)

13.Keukenhof (Lisse, Holland)

14.In front of the Bukcheon Museum (Seoul, Korea)

15.A contemporary representation of Charles La Trobe in central Melbourne (This temporary installation was removed at the end of June 2006 and has been acquired by La Trobe University).

16.London Ink

17.A life-like statue of a man swimming through the grass on the South Bank of the River Thames is unveiled.