Beschreibung: From 10 to 14 September 2003, the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiated over a further liberalization of world trade. A lot was at stake there for the environment. It is true that in the current round of negotiations the Doha Declaration has agreed certain points relating to the environment. But this should not conceal the fact that the WTO is still a long way from taking due account of ecological aspects in its policies. The present paper begins by analyzing the discussion on environmental issues within the WTO, which for more than ten years has been conducted mainly in its Committee on Trade and Environment. It is shown that many environmental effects of trade liberalization have not been discussed at all, that conflicts of interest among WTO member-states prevent any deep discussion, and that an ecological reform of the WTO has up to now stood no chance. This analysis then forms the background for a twofold strategy. First, arguments are presented as to why the WTO, given its environmental policy deficits, should afford sufficient scope to institutions actively concerned with environmental policy. The conflictual relationship between Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the WTO is examined at this point. A distinction is drawn between minor and potentially critical conflicts, and it is shown how a limitation of the competence of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, together with cooperative political-legal processes to resolve conflicts between affected institutions, might offer a solution and lead to greater institutional equity in the global political arena. Second, the paper discusses how ecological aspects might be integrated step by step into the WTO. After a detailed examination of the potential and limits of instruments like impact assessments, it makes a number of recommendations for their further development. Finally, it considers how impact assessments might be integrated into the WTO's institutional structures, so that ecological aspects can be systematically input into policy-making processes and better public participation in WTO policy be ensured. In this connection, the paper discusses both the integration of impact assessments into the WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism and the creation of a new Strategic Impact Assessment Body within the WTO.

Beschreibung: Commercially exploited stocks that have experienced declines in population abundance have responded by altering life history traits of growth and maturation. Cod is not only becoming mature at an earlier age but also, the majority of the stock comprises fishes with no previous spawning experience. Actual fisheries management does not take in account qualitative differences within the spawning stock. If the stock responds to continued exploitation by shifting maturity to an earlier stage, fish will spawn at smaller sizes. They will produce smaller eggs, and consequently small and less viable larvae, so that the contribution to the spawning stock biomass will be less than expected. There are many advantages for delaying maturation: Larger and heavier fish will be better conditioned for spawning, have higher fecundity and larger eggs that are more viable. Harvesting at delayed recruitment enables the stock to maintain a larger SSB with an expanded age structure while supporting a sustainable fishery.

Beschreibung: An annotated checklist of the sharks and rays of the South China Sea is described, together with some global statistics on the status and use of elasmobranchs. For each of the 156 recorded species, the checklist contains scientific names, synonyms, common names, global distribution, distribution in the area, status of threat, human uses, key references on taxonomy, identification, reproduction, population dynamics, and a list of people who have contributed information. The checklist is a direct printout from FishBase, a global database on finfish, developed at ICLARM in collaboration with FAO, the California Academy of Sciences, and many other partners, and supported by the European Commission (see www.fishbase.org). The goal of FishBase is to further the conservation and sustainable use of fish by bringing together the knowledge of taxonomists, fisheries experts, and conservationists, providing tools for analysing and updating this knowledge, and making it available to concerned people. How a closer link between FishBase, taxonomists and country experts can benefit the specialists, as well as elasmobranch conservation, is discussed

Beschreibung: 28th Annual Conference of IAMSLIC held 6-11 October, 2002 at Mazatlan, Sinaloa, Mexico

Beschreibung: Over the past decade large carbonate mound structures, situated in several provinces along the European continental margin have been discovered in 600 to 1200 m water depths. These structures appear as single, conical or ridge-like features, which are often colonised by a deep-water coral ecosystem. Cold-water corals Lophelia pertusa and Madrepora oculata dominate the coral community. Associated sessile and vagile fauna, like sponges, soft corals, bivalves, gastrodpods, crinoids, brachiopods, and fish make these bioherms as diverse as their tropical counterparts. The objective of this study is to reconstruct past environmental settings locked in the sediments of a carbonate mound in the northern Porcupine Seabight, west off Ireland. Detailed investigations were concentrated on seven 3.5 to 6 m long sediment cores, retrieved from Propeller Mound and its closer vicinity. This mound is a ~150 m high structure within the Hovland Mound province, a cluster of several sea-floor protruding carbonate mounds. A first detailed analysis on benthic foraminiferal assemblages in the vicinity of a carbonate mound was performed on two sediment cores, one located on top of the mound and a second one from an off-mound position further north as control site. The off-mound samples reveal two different assemblages: (1) an Interglacial group dominated by infaunal species reflecting present-day environmental and oceanographic conditions with high nutrient flux to the sea-floor and low sediment accumulation under a strong hydrodynamic regime, and (2) a Glacial group, dominated by cassidulinid species, which describe an influence of polar conditions with low nutrient supply and cold intermediate waters. A single species, Elphidium excavatum, dominates the lower core section and is described here as a species displaced from shallow shelf areas. This removal of sediments from the shelf is related to a first advance of the Irish Ice Sheet onto the Irish Mainland shelf, inducing high sedimentation rates of ~28 cm/kyr with a coeval sea-level drop of ~50 m during Late Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3. Due to an incomplete stratigraphic record in the on-mound core, the same species of the off-mound assemblages have been grouped in on-mound samples. The results indicate a dominance of the Interglacial group, whereas the Glacial group is less abundant throughout the entire core. This pattern indicates the lack of glacial time intervals in the on-mound core, which is coherent with stable oxygen isotope data and U/Th dates on coral fragments, presenting only interglacial/-stadial values and ages. A third assemblage is abundant in samples of the on-mound core showing elevated epibenthic species not occurring in offmound samples or only to a minor degree. This Mound group shows a great affinity to strong currents, high nutrient availability and is supposed to indicate Mediterranean Outflow Water in the northern Porcupine Seabight, as well as a higher coral cover on Propeller Mound in an earlier interglacial period. A Late Pleistocene decline in mound growth for Propeller Mound is suggested by a decrease of the Mound group towards the Holocene, which might face its complete burial in the future as this already happened to the buried mounds of the Magellan Mound province further north. Detailed information on off-mound sediment structures and contents from visual core description and the interpretation of Computer Tomographic images were used to evaluate sedimentary processes in glacial and interglacial periods. The sediments portray the depositional history of the past ~31 kyr BP, mainly controlled by sea-level fluctuations and the climate regime with the advance and retreat of the Irish Ice Sheet onto the Irish Mainland Shelf. A first advance of glaciers is indicated by a turbiditic release slightly older than 31 kyr BP, coherent with Heinrich event 3. During MIS 3 and MIS 2 shelf erosion prevailed with abundant gravity flows and turbidity currents. A change from glaciomarine to hemipelagic contourite sedimentation during the onset of the Holocene indicates the establishment of the strong, present-day hydrodynamic regime at intermediate depths. A general decrease in sediment accumulation with decreasing distance towards Propeller Mound was discovered throughout the entire core sections. This suggests that currents (turbidity currents, gravity flows, bottom currents) have had a strong impact on sediment accumulation at the mound base for the past ~31 kyr BP. Finally, the reconstructed environmental setting deduced from sedimentary and micropaleontological analyses portrays the boundary conditions of the habitable range for the cold-water coral Lophelia pertusa. The growth of this ecosystem occurs during interglacial and interstadial periods, whereas a glacial retreat of corals is documented in the absence of glacial sediments in the onmound core. These conclusions are summarised in a model – the Mound Factory – which efficiently accounts for the moundd development covering the period of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (past 3.1–2.5 Ma).