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Marine life hunting and trafficking/poaching (Sea shows like Sea World (A…

- - - - The Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA)
        
        This act was passed in 1976, and is the primary law governing marine fisheries management in the US federal waters. The key objectives of this act were to: Prevent overfishing, rebuild overfished stocks, increase long-tern economic and social benefits, and to ensure a safe and sustainable supply of seafood
      - The endangered species act (ESA)
        
        passed in 1973, this act protects endangered species, threatened species, and critical habitats
      - Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA)
        
        Passed in 1972, was the response to increasing concerns among scientists and the public that significant declines in some species of marine mammals were caused by human activities. The MMPA established a national policy to prevent marine mammal species and population stocks from declining beyond the point where they ceased to be significant functioning elements of the ecosystems of which they are a part
        
        The was the first legislation to mandate and ecosystem-based approach to marine resource management. There are three entities that share responsibility for implementing the MMPA. NOAA Fisheries, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Marine Mammal Commission.
      - National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
        
        Enacted in 1969, this act requires federal agencies to integrate environmental values into their decision-making processes by considering the environmental impacts of their major proposed actions. The range of actions covered by NEPA is broad and includes: Making decisions on permit applications, adopting federal land management actions, and constructing highways and other publicly-owned facilities.
    - - Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
        
        CITES is an international treaty regulating trade in threatened ad endangered wildlife and plants. The US is a signatory as well as 170 other countries. CITES establsihes three levels of protection, which are summarized by three appendices.
        
        Appendix one lists species that are the most endangered, they are threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits international trade in specimens of these species except when the purpose of the import is not commercial. Appendix 2 lists species that are not necessarily now threatened with extinction but may become so unless trade is closely controlled. However, permits may be obtained. Appendix three is a list of species included at the request of a party the already regulates trade in the species and that needs the cooperation of other countries to prevent unsustainable or illegal exploitation
    - - The purpose to the ESA is to protect and recover imperiled species and the ecosystems upon which they depend.
      - Under the ESA species can be ranked as either endangered or threatened.
        
        Endangered means a species is in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range
        
        Threatened means a species is likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future
      - It is because of President Nixon that this law was passed
    - - The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora treaty is the only treaty to ensure that international trade in plants and animals does not threaten their survival in the wild. A state or country that has agreed to implement the Convention is called a party to CITES. Currently there are 181 parties. Each party is required to annually submit reports on how they are implementing the convention, including information on any legislative and regulatory changes, as well as law enforcement, permitting, communications and administrative matters.
    - - Marine Protection, Research, and sanctuaries Act 1972 (aka MPRSA, or "Ocean Dumping Act) This act allows the EPA to regulate the dumping activities of industrial and municipal wastes into the oceans or other territorial waters of the united states. The regulations enacted by the MPRSA are directed to prevent or strictly limit the dumping into ocean waters of any material the would adversely affect human health, welfare, or amenities, or the marine environment, ecosystems, or economic penalties.
  - - - It is not illegal to capture dolphins in the US however, there have not been any captures in the US in the past twenty years because of two reasons
        
        An unprecedented amount of stranding has supplies the captivity industry with all of the needed dolphins, for now. Because of this the US industry has agreed to voluntarily halt captures.
        
        The word is out about how the dolphins are treated and the tremendous violence they face when caught. The captivity industry has grown cautious about drawing negative attention and protests by planning to catch wild dolphins
      - The MMPA passed in 1972, but this act does not protect dolphins. It only stipulates that the capture of them and other marine mammals is acceptable as long as the individual applies for and receives a permit from NMFS
      - Permits to 'take' or capture dolphins may be granted by the NMFS for: Scientific research, public display, accidental capture by fishermen, and conservation.
      - The MMPA has three requirements that a facility must meet before a capture permit is granted. These requirements are in place to ensure that dolphins are not captured by individuals and maintained as part of a private collection.
        
        The facility must offer an education or conservation program based on recognized standards of the public display community, including the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and the Alliance or Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums
        
        The facility must be open to the public on a regular basis
        
        An individual or facility can only keep a marine animal on public display (includes interactive programs such as swimming with dolphins) if they are licensed under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)
      - The AWA, enacted in 1979, sets the standards for the care of captive marine mammals. While NMFS is responsible for administering the MMPA, once a dolphin is captured, their jurisdiction ends. After a dolphin is captured, the USDA APHIS (United States Department of Agriculture's, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) has the authority to enforce the AWA.
      - The AWA establishes the criteria for keeping marine mammals in captivity and specifies guidelines for the following; Space requirements, Quality of water and sanitation, transportation and handling, food quality and diet, and veterinary care.
      - in 1994 the USDA took over responsibility for setting standards and enforcing regulations for captive marine mammal facilities, between 1994 and 1998, dolphin programs operated without regulation from US government. On October 5 1998, the USDA was forced to create guidelines for these attractions due to the rapid growth of the industry. These rules were suspended on Apr. 1 1999, sue to overwhelming pressure from the captive dolphin industry. consequently, the USDA only issues permits to operate facilities that offer SWTD programs but does not regulate them
    - - The fifth fatal shark attack in less than a year in the coastal waters on Australia has put everyone on edge. Authorities have tried to catch and kill the individual before it attacks again, however, they aren't stopping there. Some are suggesting that lawmakers life protections on great whites and allow people to fish and kill them again, after a 14-year moratorium.
    - - Shark products can legally be sold anywhere in the world. A few countries have banned the import, possession and trade of shark fin, including Saipan, Guam, Hawaii, and Washington
      - Three species (whale, basking, white) are restricted in international trade by CITES signed by 175 nations. They are on appendix 2, meaning trade of these three sharks is still legal with the appropriate permits. It is left to the participating countries to impose penalties on the individuals caught illegaling smuggling products
      - Legal protection does not imply these animals are truly protected, In South America, the Natal Sharks Board who operate the shark nets are permitted to catch and kill white sharks (which they have made a protected species and illegal to hunt)
      - There are currently no binding international treaties or legislation that prohibit or even regulate shark finning, let alone address the management of shark populations globally
      - The first multi-lateral organization to address the issue of shark finning was the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). in 1999, an international plan of actual for sharks was created that recommended they be landed with their fins intact
    - - In Sabah Malaysia it is not illegal for slaughtering sharks or rays because sharks are not a protected species and rays can be consumed locally
      - In sabah there is no law against catching or consuming these marine species
      - The manta ray has been banned and even listed as protected by CITES, however they can be consumed domestically Making it illegal only if they are exported
      - The Malaysian government is said to be working with neighboring countries to protect marine animals that are facing population decline
    - - The Manta Ray trade in their gills is only worth 5-10 million a year, and is devastating their populations which, in places where it is developed, supports a tourist trade well worth over 100 million a year.
      - In Sri Lanka and Indonesia, populations ahave plummeted by 56% to 86%
      - Rays are killed for their gill-rakers, the frill plates that filter their food from the ocean. Fisherman receive as little as $40 for one ray, but by the time the dried gills reach the market in china, the price may have risen by as much as 50 times. However, even that inflated price is far below the value of a live manta ray, which is estimated to be $1 million over its lifetime
      - The gills are believed to clean impurities, however, there is no evidence that the gills were ever a traditional Chinese medicine
      - At least 3,500 rays kills are recorded each year, but the real total is likely to be near 5,000. The key problem is that rays reproduce very slowly. It takes 8-10 years for a female to become sexually mature and then only one pup is born every 2-5 years.
- - - - hunting season begins on September 1st
      - It is typical for around 150 of the best looking dolphins that are captured to be sold to marine parks in Japan, China, and other countries, while hundreds of others are killed and sold for their meat each season.
    - - According to a study, three Taiji citizens indicated they had stopped eating dolphin meat a year ago and still had mercury levels of 7.2 to 7.9
      - In some cases the levels of mercury are 1,600 times the allowed quantities in meat for human consumption. The consumption of mercury inquantities that exist in whale and dolphin meat can impair immune response and cause neurological damage leading to loss of coordination, vision, hearing, and can produce mental retardation, especially in the young
    - - Dolphin and small whale are at the top of the food chain in the ocean, concentrating pollutants in their meat. As such, they are heavily contaminated by mercury
      - Mercury is the second most toxic poison in the world, second only to plutonium. Mercury attacks the brain and the nervous system, causing damage to eyesight, hearing and memory and thought processes which could potentially lead to dementia. It further attacks fetuses in pregnant women, causing life-long brain damage. In other words - mercury can kill
      - In Minimata, Japan, poisonous mercury dumped from a factory into Minimata Bay caused severe poisoning of tens of thousands of people in the 1950's and 60's and resulted in a whole generation of compromised children. Japanese scientists have told Ric O'Barry that the levels of mercury in dolphin meat are higher than the levels they have seen in the fish of Minimata Bay.
      - Other dangerous pollutants like PCB's and cadmium can be found in dolphin and small whale meat
      - in 2006 - 07, levels of mercury in dolphin meat was 4-13.5 times higher than the maximum level set by the Japanese Health Ministry.
      - Studies of people who eat dolphin meat on a regular basis, such as in the town of Taiji, Wakayama prefecture, show dangerously high levels of mercury when tested. A study showed that average mercury levels were 11.00 PPM in men and 6.63 PPM in women. compared with an average of 2,47 PPM in men and and 1.64 PPM for women.
      - In a 2015, an article written by Rob Giljooly in The Japan Times appeared to confirm that dolphins caught in the cove are dangerous if consumed. A rare admission from fisheries cooperative official Yoshifumi Kai, acknowledged that tests on locals have yielded high mercury levels.
      - The dolphins caught in Taiji showed high traces of mercury, PCB's and Radiation levels
    - - Dolphin meat is often mislabeled as whale meat in violation of Japanese food safety laws.
      - A test done shows that the dolphins caught in Taiji can have levels of mercury as high as 18 times the maximum levels permitted. and the fish can range between .02 and ,49 ppm of mercury, acceptable levels. Bottom line is that it is safe for taiji residents to eat the fish but no the cetaceans.
      - As news of contamination levels in dolphins became more widely known in Japan the Taiji fishing cooperative sought ways to promote the sale of their product. In an effort to expand the demand, th Taiji fishing cooperative donated dolphin meat to local schools.
      - Japan city council men Junichiro Yamashita learned of the high ;eve;s in the meat and did samples on it. The result led him to call dolphin meat served in local schools "toxic waste" because of the high mercury levels. He was successful in ending the practice of giving meat from locally caught dolphins to schoolchildren.
      - Dr. Jane Hightower, warns "some chemicals act synergistically. Together, combinations such as mercury and lead, cadmium or aluminum can also cause more rick than mercury alone. "
      - The Japan Fisheries Agency Food Sanitation Committee has advised pregnant women not to eat bottlenose dolphin meat more than once every two months
      - Persistent organic pollutants could be a direct like to Japans declining birth rates. the number of people under the age of fifteen dropped to a post-war low of 18.28 million in 2001, a decrease of 190,000 over one year
      - The highest level of mercury ever detected was 204 PPM
        in the liver meat of a whale, exceeding the "safe" level by 400 times.
    - - The meat O'Barry tested was found to contain 1.4 parts per million of mercury. The Japanese government's advisory level for the element is 0.4ppm
      - From 2002 to 2006, Tetsuya Endo,bought more than 50 samples of dolphin meat at Taiji markets. Tests conducted on the meat found the average levels of mercury and methyl mercury in pilot whale meat were 9.6 ppm and 5.9 ppm. Government limit for methyl mercury is 0.3
      - Dolphin and Whale meat contain high levels of the element because mercury is emitted into the atmosphere by coal-burning power plants and other industrial facilities, That mercury is then carried on into the ocean, where it is absorbed by organisms, over time, makes it up the food chain.
    - - There are over 40 marine parks in China
      - China's parks have not taken the time to perfect the art of breeding, so when one of their "precious" animals die they buy a new one from the wild, keeping in business the brutal annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan
    - - The earliest recorded coastal whale hunts in Japan can be traced back to the early 1600's.
    - - After legal action from the Advocacy group Australia for Dolphins and significant public pressure, the World Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums changed its policy and began to oppose capture of cetaceans. To maintain membership in WAZA, all member aquariums had to agree not to bu dolphins from Taiji or any other drive hunt
    - - Various species of dolphins have been hunted and killed in order to lower competition with fisherman, be used as crab bait, and be sold as food in restaurants and supermarkets. or due to excessive pollution, the construction of dams and accidental catches in fishing nets
      - Sometimes dolphins pose a threat to the fisheries that rely on selling fish for profit. In these cases dolphins may end up consuming large quantities of fishing which can lower the fisherman's capture rate and sometimes dolphins end up interfering with nets and other equipment
      - dolphins can occasionally be used as bait. For crabs.
      - Dolphins are killed for meat/eating... has even been found in cans of tuna
      - The construction of dams, waterways, harbors, fences, and other forms have led to the death of many dolphins both during the construction phase when loud, powerful equipment is being use and moved around, and after it is completed because of alterations of the waterways that are by placement of these massive objects
    - - fishermen were killing for meat or to sell to aquariums
      - in 2016 they were allotted a kill quota of 1820 dolphins of various species
    - - Dolphins in peru are being killed to be used as Shark bait... while hunting dolphins is technically illegal in peru they consider it to be an "open Secret"
    - - In the early 2000's international dolphin traffickers - capitalizing on low incomes in the Solomon Islands and seeing an opportunity to exploit the dolphin hunting taking place there, began paying sizable amounts to some locals to capture live bottle nose dolphins.
  - - - Honk Kong is the main port of entry for about half of all globally traded dried shark fins.
      - The Chinese government has now banned shark fin soup at state banquets and Air China forbids transport of shark fins on it airplanes.
    - - It was billed as the largest poaching bust in history. An Ecuadorean navy patrol vessel, guided by advanced radar and a small plane, bore down on a ship the length of a football field making a beeline across the Galapagos Marine Reserve - probably the most fiercely protected waters in the world. Filling the freighter's freezers were 150 tonnes of dead sharks, most of them endangered and illegal to sell
      - Shark fins have long been a delicacy in China communities worldwide, the main ingredient in an expensive soup served at banquets and fancy restaurants. at peak, dried fins have sold for more per kilogram than heroin. That price, coupled with high demand from a booming Chinese economy, has created a brutally efficient industry capable of strip-mining sharks from the sea
      - Which will disappear first - sharks or the shark-fin trade?
      - at least half a dozen shark species are critically endangered around the world, and many more in specific regions. Globally, a quarter of shark and ray species are considered threatened.
      - Many protections have been implemented by countries in the Americas with Pacific coastline to try and slow the decline. All have banned "shark finning" - the practice of chopping fins off live sharks and throwing bodies back to drown.
      - While "finning" is illegal, for example, the fins themselves are still legal across most of the world, as long as the entire bod is brought to land with fins attached. The fins, can then be removed at prot and as long as they did not come from an internationally regulated endangered species, can be exported.
      - Of all Central American countries on the Pacific, only Ecuador has banned shark fishing outright. Allowing only "by-catch", sharks accidentally caught on a long line targeting other species. But Ecuador has not put a cap o how much by-catch can be kept, so fishermen land as many sharks as they want and in practice, little has changed
      - A vast majority of shark fishing happens in international waters, where endangered status does not protect a shark.
      - A ship is subject to the nation of the flag it flies. Often, fishing companies will choose to flag their vessel in a country far from the waters where they fish, ensuring little to no oversight of their operation. That flag turns a vessel into sovereign territory in international waters, so authorities from any other nation that board the vessel are effectively invading another country.
      - One artful dodger of the industry is a Central American fleet owned by the Wang Group, a network shell companies operated by three Taiwanese brothers in Costa Rica. Despite its eco-friendly reputation, Costa Rica has long been considered the capital of the regional shark trade, and exports up to half a million fins each year
      - When Arauz and other environmentalists pressed the government to tighten the screws - inspiring more laws that effectively banned the Wang Group's international vessels, which lang up to 60,000 sharks a year - the fleet simply stopped bringing its catch to Costa Rica. They now go to El Salvador and Guatemala.
      - A female who owned her own commercial shark fishing operation was convicted of felony shark finning in 2017. She was sentences to serve six months house arrest.
      - Local fleets are forced to throw back a big chunk of a catch because some sharks are illegal to export and therefore worthless. The throwbacks include hammerheads and other protected sharks - even if the shark is already dead.
      - Without sharks, the marine food chain would suffer a "behavioral trophic cascade."For example, he says, in Australia, the presence of tiger sharks near shore keeps manatees from basking in the shallow water and overeating sea grass. Sea grass is an important nursery for a wide array of marine life, and its overconsumption could threaten species whose reproductive cycles depend on it.
    - - A marine sanctuary where absolutely no fishing is allowed, has the greatest abundance of sharks known in the world. It is this that has made these water a target of fishermen.
      - With more than a quarter of sharks and related species considered to be threatened with extinction.
    - - As many as 600 whale sharks a year are killed to supply one factory alone in China,
      - Whale shark hunting as well as the sale and export of products are banned in China which has signed CITES
    - - Kesennuma, a fishing town in Japan does a lucrative business in the staples of Japanese cuisine: Tuna, flounder, octopud, crab, bonito, pacific saury, seaweed and squid.
      - The port, 400km north of Tokyo, accounts for 90% of Japan's shark fin trade.
      - In 2009, Kesennuma landed almost 14,000 tonnes of shark, worth just over 4.2 billion.
    - - Sharks are caught for their meat, liver oil, cartilage and especially their fins. Shark finning has been banned by many countries but researchers have found no drop in the numbers of dead sharks, many of which are dumped at sea after their fins have been hacked off.
    - - Shelley Clarke states that the trade in shark fins may be down, the trade in shark meat turns out, is going strong.
      - After the Discovery Channel's hugely popular TV show "shark week" mako and blacktip became hot menu items in the US. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture organization, imports of shark meat around the world increased by 42 percent from 2000 to 2011
      - Clarkes theory is the ban on inning could be driving new markets for shark meat.
      - Jonathan Gonzalez, a Santa Barbara sustainability activist who lobbied for the California-wide 2012 ban on selling shark fins, the bill "did not save a single shark from our local gillnet fleet. State-by-state bans are a feel good step"
      - Gonzalez says that virtually every shark landed in an American port today is sold for its meat, not its fins.
  - - - Japan makes no secret of the fact that the meat resulting from its so-called scientific whaling program ends up on the plate.
      - Consumption of whale meat stands at 4,000-5,000 tons annually which is not a lot considered the Japanese nation consumes around 600 million tons of total seafood every year.
  - - - They can only give birth to a single pup every two to three years
      - Manta fisheries are known to exist along the West Coast of Mexico and the East Coast of Africa as well as in Sri Lanka, Japan and the Philippines.
      - They are used as food and medicinal aid for humans and as bait for shark and other fish.
    - - The two species of manta ray are currently threatened, listed as "vulnerable" in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
      - The fishing is done with harpoons and to lesser extent with nets. They are easily captured because they swim at such slow speeds and prefer to feed near the surface of the water.
    - - The community of Lamakera has converted to diesel engines and transformed into a full-scale commercial fishery, landing over 1,000 mantas in a single season
    - - In February 2014 Indonesia announced the creation of the world's largest manta sanctuary. It encompasses a massive 6 million square kilometers of ocean, affording for Oceanic and Reef Manta Rays.
      - global manta ecotourism brings in about $140 million in annual revenues
    - - The demand for the gills of manta rays has risen dramatically within the last 10 years for the use in traditional chinese medicine, Even though historically they were not used for this purpose
      - Specifically the market was for gill rakers, the thin filaments that manta rays use to filter food from the water, which are being sold for up to $500 per kilo.
      - Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) practitioners are market the gill rakers as an ingredient for soup that they claim boosts the immune system by reducing toxins and enhancing blood circulation. Other supposed medical benefits include curing cancer, chickenpox, throat and skin ailments, male kidney issues and, commonly seen, fertility issues.
      - None of these medical claims are supported by science nor are the supported by traditional medicine texts. In fact, many TCH doctors are not even aware of this remedy, indicating that it is not included in current TCM curricula
      - Researchers estimate the market for gill rakers to be at least 61,000 kilos a year, with an estimated value of $11.3 million. As much as 99% of the market for these rakers was in Guangzhou, the capital city of China's Guangdong Province.
      - Researchers have found that some of the gill raker trade is conducted by the same networks responsible for the devastating trade in shark fins, which have turned to rays for additional profits as worldwide shark populations decline.
    - - A save the mantas campaign appears to be nudging China toward a ban on the grill trade.
      - Toxicology tests be WildAid have also revealed that many of the gills sold at the Qingping market contain dangerous levels of heavy metals and carcinogens, including arsenic,cadmium, and lead, toxic substances that accumulate as the mantas filter plankton through their gills.
    - - Lamakera is the world's top manta ray hunting location
      - Lamakera emplys over 2,000 individuals for small-scale fishing industry
      - Manta ray gills are considered to gave high importance in the traditional Chinese medicine markets
  - - - Sea turtles are a fundamental link in marine ecosystems. They help maintain the health of sea grass beds and coral reefs that benefit commercially valuable species such as shrimp, lobster and tuna. Sea turtles are the live representatives of a group of reptiles that have existed on earth and traveled our seas for the last 100 million years. Turtles have major significance and tourism value
      - Sea turtles continue to be harvested unsustainable both for human consumption and trade for their parts. Turtle meat and eggs are a source of food and income for many people around the world. Some kill turtles for medicinal and religious ceremonies. Tens of thousands of sea turtles are lost this way every year, devastating population of already endangered greens and hawksbills.
      - Killing of turtles for both domestic and international markets continues as well. While international trade in all sea turtle species and parts is prohibited under CITES, illegal trafficking persists
    - - The illegal hunting of Madagascar's sea turtles is reaching a crisis level as a reslt of organized trafficking networks.
    - - The US has most species of sea turtle under protection of the endangered species act. Making it illegal to import, sell, or transport turtles or their products.
      - Costa Rica has a Protection, Conservation and Recovery Law on sea turtle populations. It remarks that any consumption or trafficking on sea turtles and any product derived from them is illegal, which might be punished by sentence. There are also specific regulations for beaches with arribadas (large-scale nesting of some species of turtle), where it is legal to extract the eggs
      - Panama has the Interamerican Convention for seat turtle protection and conservation; in which the country commits to guarantee protection and conservation of these species through sustainable management measurements, creating data on the population status on different species as well as protection of their feeding, reproductive and nesting grounds. This law forbids consumption and trafficking on seat turtle products and sub-products
    - - Police seized 19,00 sea turtle eggs off the coast of Malaysia in the early hours of July 16, worth about $7,400
    - - Turtle eggs are poached for consumption.
      - Often hunters will comb the beaches for nesting females. They wait till she lays her eggs and kill her, taking both the eggs and meat.
      - In some countries the eggs are prized as an aphrodisiac. Others customarily consume sea turtle meat in observance of religious holidays. For example, Mexico, thousands of inland residents journey to Pacific coastal communities during the week preceeding Easter in search of sea turtles and other seafood. Within this small amount of tme as many as 5,000 turtles are consumed in this region alone.