Leonard and I had to catch an early flight out of Doha today and missed the last day of CITES, which perhaps was a good thing – the disappointment of the porbeagle success being overturned is great for all of us: The porbeagle previous success was reopened in a motion by Singapore and was voted…
Category Archives: CITES
CITES ends today but not before plenary and the potential of the porbeagle being overturned. My colleagues from the Shark Research Institute had this to say about CITES:
The party is not over until the fat lady sings!(or something like that!?) The victory of the porbeagle shark is not cast in cement until plenary tomorrow and the last vote. This was a huge shocker when we thought it was done and sealed, but not so, tomorrow the Japanese are likely to request another…
I arranged a screening of my award winning film, Sharks in Deep Trouble, at CITES and was honoured to have the renowned Dr Sylvia Earle, who is the Honorary president of the Shark Research Institute, attend the screening. She was very impressed by the film and later during a camera interview I asked her what…
Lesley Rochat LIVE FROM CITES: Vote for spiny dogfish proposal to be listed on Appendix II: For=60 Against=67 Abstentions=11 PROPOSAL REJECTED! It could have been worse if the porbeagle shark didn’t make it… I’m going to go with Len, Marie, Ed and Jupp, all from the Shark Research Institute, and other marine NPOs for a few…
Lesley Rochat LIVE FROM CITES: Vote results for porbeable shark to be listed on Appendix II secret ballot so we won’t know what the different countries voted: For=86 Against=46 Abstentions=8 THE PROPOSAL IS ACCEPTED!!! Many didn’t think we would be successful after the defeat of the hammerhead and the oceanic whitetip, myself included, but we are…
The hammerhead proposal has been rejected and so has the oceanic whitetip. The secret vote results for the hammerhead are: for:75, against:45, abstentions:14 (missed by 5 votes) and the oceanic whitetip are for:75, against:51, abstentions:16. This defeat is a massive blow for shark conservation as we had hoped that by listing them onto CITES Appendix…
Some good things have come out of CITES despite all the disappointments, like the elies today, and the little frogs the other, and then making new friends who support what you do. This cartoon was done for me by Shujaat Ali, a gifted political cartoonist for Aljazeera Network who came to the screening of Sharks…
Whether the elephant victory at CITES today means anything for the sharks tomorrow is yet to be seen but if the interview I had with Chief Counselor of Fisheries Agency of Japan is anything to go by then I would say not. When asking him if they would be taking a more positive position with…
22 March 2010, Doha, Qatar: The vexing dilemma of our times, human needs versus that of nature ruled the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) today when a battle ensued between Parties for and against the downlisting of the African elephant as proposed by Tanzania and Zambia. Both…