All the current news on fisheries seems to be bad. Africa is being particularly severely hit. Lake George on the Uganda-Democratic Republic of Congo boarder is in trouble because of dwindling fish stocks due to overexploitation. If fishing can raise funds then why doesn’t that money get used for proper management to sustain the fish?

What I find most immoral is the effect of commercial fishing fleets operating of the coasts of East and West Africa which is putting local fishermen out of business. Local authorities can’t do much, they don’t even have  sea worthy vessels to pursue the illegal fishing vessels. And where there are legal agreements the terms are tilted strongly in favor of the fishing company - usually they don’t even have limits on amount of fish that can be taken. The consequence has been the collapse of local fisheries and in desperation young men are fleeing west Africa in search of a new life and economic fortunes in Europe  - often making a dangerous sea voyage to get to Spain. Nobody wants these illegal immigrants, but how come nobody is putting 1 and 2 together? Arghhh it makes me so mad!

It gets worse! We never seem to have enough money to put good management systems in place do we? Yet oddly, we do have billions to resolve crises when they strike. According to this article International Donors have pledged the sum of $1.4 billion at a Conference in the Niger capital Niamey to help save the Niger River from drying up. Why is it drying up? Because of bad management …..wouln’t it have been cheaper to solve the problem before it became a crisis? Apparently the money will be used among other things to build dams, and plant trees (I bet I can guess which countries the contractors come from).

On the other extreme and bizarre, Japan, Norway and Iceland are trying to argue that the global decline of fish  is due to the growing number of whales!. At the latest International Whaling Commission meeting the Humane Society International, WWF and the Lenfest Ocean Program presented three new reports debunking the science behind the ‘whales-eat-fish’ claims emanating from whaling nations Japan, Norway and Iceland. The countries had hoped that the whales-eat-fish  argument has been used to bolster support for whaling, particularly from developing nations.

“It is not the whales, it is over-fishing and excess fishing capacity that are responsible for diminishing supplies of fish in developing countries,” said fisheries biologist Dr. Daniel Pauly, director of the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre.

Meanwhile in Canada imprisoned fish have had a taste of freedom, 30,000 farmed Atlantic salmon that had escaped from a fish farm near Campbell River. Some  have been caught by anglers in the area – poor things they must have thought they were free at last from that concentration camp!

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Shoes made from old vehicle tyres! they come in many styles and last forever.

Inventiveness starts at a very young age. This toy is just a jar lid connected to a stick and rolled along …

This metal work seems to specialise on giraffes. He may never have seen the animal in real life! I wonder who he sells to - but the herd has been growing every day!

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We have decided to revive the chance for you, our readers to participate in competitions to have fun and to learn, interact and win great prizes!

So, Here’s Competition no. 1. CONSERVATION CRAZY

 All you have to do is some research to find and then send us the craziest conservation idea that has ever been implemented. It has to be one that that actually worked. Just post your idea on this post and we announce a winner by the 15th of July!

Were will send a signed copy of Owen and Mzee to the person with the craziest find. Our definition of CRAZY IDEA is  that it is a mad, impractical, unusual, absurd, passionate and/or extreme idea.

Rules: Don’t repeat the same entry that someone else has proposed! Entries close on 14th July.
Go elephants

Go Elephants! has turned the streets, parks and public spaces of Norwich into a giant urban savannah. A herd of life-size baby elephants are currently on safari in locations across the city until 31 August before being sold at a special gala auction in September 2008.

There are fifty-three different elephants to look out for. Each one has been beautifully decorated by an artist or community group, creating an outdoor art gallery showcasing the rich artistic talent the region has to offer.

I think that this idea couldl be turned in to a conservation idea by auctioning off the herd and sending the money to conservation. It could be replicated in cities around the world - why not do it in your city?

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Top of my venting list today Namibia. According to a news article here  Namibia’s state-owned national game reserves plan to auction and export black rhinos and buffalo to South Africa and Botswana to raise funds for conservation and community development. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has authorized the auction of eight black rhinos and 40 buffalos on July 25 in a biennial sale of rare animals, Mark Jago, an official at the ministry, said in an interview from the Namibian capital of Windhoek today. And it’s totally legal - the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species allows Namibia to export the animals.

What do you think, will selling rhino’s will lead to their preservation ?

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According to Dee Boersma, a biology professor at Washington University in Seattle, penguins are the first victims of climate change. Their populations have already begun to crash over the past there decades in Argentina, and declined to 63,000 from 1.5 million a century ago in South Africa.

Why do I care? Because penguins are the stars of my all time favourite film “March of the Penguins” which in 2005 probably suffered from a colony-wide breeding failure due to climate change. I can’t bear the thought!

Dee describes penguins as the“canary in the coal mine,” and their declining numbers are evidence that people are altering the animals’ environment. She also suggests that fish species eaten by penguins are disappearing due to our seafood diet as well as global warming effects on ocean currents. Unstable ice in the Antarctic broke up earlier than normal in 2006, forcing two-month-old chicks that couldn’t survive the cold water to swim, Boersma said. Can you imagine that? Her study will be published in the July/August edition of the U.S. journal BioScience.

Unrelated to this, Seamus of Kilimanjaro Lions talked about a new software for identifying penguins in massive colonies. Great idea but what if there are no penguins to study in the future?

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We hope you are having wild and fun celebrations and we look forward to hearing what you did to celebrate the Birthday of USA! I’m going to miss the fireworks!

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After reading the magazine piece, this is what our Chairman, Richard Leakey had to say

“I am delighted that National Geographic has given such prominence to this species. The fate of the mountain gorilla ranks as one of the most important conservation challenges of the current time”.

I thought it was a comment that everyone would appereciate reading, especially the team on the ground in Congo, and everyone at Nat Geo.

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Samuel Maina who formerly was assistant editor of the East African Wildlife Society where he produced editorial material, newsletters and played a key role in SWARA. You may already know his name from The Water Hole. Sam will be helping us with publicity, media and communications. You’ll be hearing alot from him right there on Baraza!

Isaak Kahugu also joins us to manage our help desk. Isaak has considerable experience here in Kenya managing a help desk for a company called Mobile Planet. This year we’ve had our fair share of internet and website challenges - that will all change with Isaak at the desk!

Please join me in welcoming them to our family on WildlifeDirect!

Paula

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Gorilla Murders airs tonight on National Geographic channel at 10 pm.

Tell all your friends and family, work mates, random people,…put it on your facebook, Myspace … everywhere

And don’t forget to check in with Diddy and Innocent to get the latest on the ground through the gorilla blog

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We worked with Eric Kabera – the maker of the genocide film “100 days” and inventor of Hillywood - Rwanda’s version of Hollywood.

Caleb was the youngest - only 8!

Planning narratives and music

Going a bit crazy

Joe Summerhays taught the kids to use Istop motion to make the animation - which was quite laborious!

The partially finished product was absolutely amazing. The 2 day workshop attracted about 10 kids and 5 government ministers!

I hope that these pictures reveal the concentration, broken by some intense playfulness.

By the end of the 2 days the two American boys were pretty strongly bonded with their Rwandan counterparts.

Thanks to everyone, Craig, Bill, Joe, Eric Kabera, all the kids, Beth and Jennifer who sorted out no end of logistics, and Jocelyn, a Rwandan cinematographer who captured everything as it happened - I can’t wait to see the Making Gorillasodes”.

Look out for the Gorillasodes on You tube in a few weeks time, and at the Tribeca Film Festival next spring!

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