Early Monday morning I arrived at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission meeting not as a human but as "SheSeeMe" the bigeye tuna. I passed out leaflets that laid out clear solutions to the increasing problem of overfishing in the Pacific and made it clear to the Commission that the world was watching. Within a matter of minutes nearly every one of the 360 or so delegates was holding one of these little pieces of wisdom. Even the Governor of Guam took one and patted me on the fin, thanking me. Being a fish out of water actually turned out to be fun and with my task complete I transformed back into human form and returned to the meeting to observe the proceedings along with the rest of the Greenpeace delegation.

The opening kicked off with a warm welcome from the Governor of Guam who noted the importance of fisheries to Guam and and to Pacific identities. He also reminded everyone in the room that "the world was watching". The Chairman of the Commission then gave a speech where he challenged the countries represented here to take the action and responsibility required to protect and maintain the tuna stocks. His compelling words left a lump in my throat as we moved into the official proceedings. I glanced around the room and felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of people here from across the world. There are Pacific nations and also nations that have or want to have fishing fleets here.

There was a review of the science pointing out that fishing effort has been increasing and some stocks are experiencing overfishing but most concerning was that conservation measures already implemented have not been effective.

I have been shocked by Japan’s blatant disregard of scientific data and refusal to take action in order to protect the fisheries. I don't know what Japan wants to put in their sushi in the near future but the chance of it being tuna isn't looking good if they continue to behave in this way.

On the bright side Papua New Guinea (PNG) has been consistently urging the Commission to implement strong conservation measures on the high seas and in Pacific EEZs. Yesterday Lagi and Seni gave the head of the PNG delegation the "Tuna Defender Award" in order to congratulate them on their efforts. Today PNG continued to take a stand for tuna when they asked "why do some Commission members argue against the science and continue to ignore the precautionary approach?” and then subsequently proposed that a region of the high seas be closed to tuna fishing and said "It's time to move forward!". I want to cheer and whistle for PNG every time they make a comment at this meeting!

The proposal for the closure of some of the high seas areas in this region is something Greenpeace is promoting so we were all elated when the Cook Islands chimed in with their full support of the proposal and suggested one of the other areas also be closed. The energy level in the room rose considerably at this point and Lagi lifted an award from his desk into the air while letting out a delicate "Whoooo!". I noticed several suits woke up from their 40 winks and scrabble laptop games at this point, surprised that something exciting had just happened!

So, we continue to watch and wait and each day I make my fishy appearance as "SheSeeMe" the big eye tuna and hand out newsletters that we write with our take on the proceedings. I get some nasty remarks made at me but in general SheSeeMe is well liked and our newsletter is gladly received by the delegates.

Sari, Lagi, Jason, Phil and Seni rarely get the chance to have a break because they are always busy lobbying countries and arranging side meetings with delegates from nations such as Korea and Taiwan who are key players to get on side in order to make these fisheries sustainable. I am in awe of their ability to keep up with everything since I am usually lost in all the technical jargon and complicated policies. I have to keep writing notes to Seni next to me asking her "what does that mean?" or "what the hell are they talking about now?" Several other issues are being discussed and we hope to see some good agreements being made later today and towards the end of the meeting. I'll be sure to let you know what the outcomes are.

From your elusive bigeye on Guam

Not too long ago I remember reading that fish stocks in the Pacific were relatively healthy and that it was the only region in the world where tuna was not being overfished. But a lot has changed in just a few years and scientists are now saying that Pacific tuna stocks are severely threatened from overfishing and that the situation is critical. The Pacific countries are now faced with a very difficult challenge and the fate of many economies is at stake.

I am in Guam right now at the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) meeting where more than 20 nations will be negotiating agreements on the region's fisheries, which mainly consist of 4 tuna species (yellow fin, big-eye, skip jack and albacore). The greatest concern is over the decline in yellow fin and big eye stocks which are the tunas that are sold to the sushi and sashimi markets.

I am your trusty blogger for the meeting and will be letting you know exactly what happens here in Guam. You regularly get to see the heroic actions on the water but so rarely hear about the heroes who work long hours lobbying countries at important meetings like this. Of course the adrenalin levels aren’t quite the same but that doesn’t mean what goes on here isn’t exciting.

Pacific Island countries depend on tuna resources for income and food and this region has the most productive tuna fishery in the world providing over half of the total global tuna supply. Decisions made here will affect the lives of millions and determine the fate of a massive ecosystem. I don’t think you can get much more exciting than that!

We’re calling upon the WCPFC to get serious about protecting the Pacific’s valuable fish stocks by cutting fishing effort in the region by 50%, banning all trans shipments at sea (this is when fish is off-loaded onto another boat, which allows vessels to avoid reporting their total catch by not needing to come into port) and establishing a no-take marine reserve for species managed by the WCPFC. Indications suggest that some of the industrial fishing nations will block efforts to conserve the tuna and already it seems that some of them are making threats to cut the funding of the Commission if expensive measures are put into place to regulate the fisheries. If only they were as keen on cutting fishing effort as they are to cut the funding of the Commission, which only has 8 staff and costs, les than 0.12% of the annual value of the fishery.

The meeting officially starts tomorrow and I will be making a radical physical transformation that I will tell you about later. I'll be posting an update on Tuesday. In the meantime – if you’re particularly into this issue click here for some links that may interest you. Plundering the Pacific is a very interesting summary of findings from Greenpeace joint enforcement exercises with FSM and Kiribati in 2006 that you might also be keen enough to look at.

Seems like it went pretty well with 20,000 bloggers all posting green things! I was particularly interested in the blogs coming out of Africa and the favorites picked here and of course - my friend Brian was blogging his heart out too - this time for Britney Spears no less!

But I was very disappointed to see that only 2 people blogged about the Great Whale Trail! WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE!??? Grumble... it's the best thing EVER! Thanks to this one Dutch blogger and one Chinese (?? or is it Japanese??) blogger for saving me from a complete tantrum that I would have had - had nobody blogged about the GWT!

I have been working on a very exciting project for Greenpeace for the past 6 months.

Unlike the thousands of humpback whales in the North Atlantic - many of which migrate past Bermuda where I live - the humpbacks from the South Pacific now risk being harpooned by the Japanese whaling fleet this year in the Southern Ocean. The small populations of humpbacks that breed in the waters surrounding several South Pacific islands are also a lot less lucky than their Atlantic relatives since they have hardly recovered at all from commercial whaling.

Greenpeace is now satellite tracking humpback whales from small endangered populations in the South Pacific to their feeding grounds in the Southern Ocean in order to prove that the whaling fleet is a serious threat to these whales. These populations are treasured by Pacific islanders and provide a great source of income for the Pacific whale watching industry. In Tonga for example one humpback whale is estimated to provide over $1 million dollars to the economy through whale watching.

The Great Whale Trail was created by a team of Greenpeace folks and whale scientists that I have coordinated since the beginning and I am so proud this week to see it being beamed around the world! Non lethal research including satellite tagging provides scientists with everything they need to know about the whales - proving that whales don't need to die for research!

You can now follow the Great Whale Trail along with me and find out how you can help make the oceans a safer place for whales and other marine life!

- Sing up to receive regular updates
- Check out the interactive Google map showing the whales' migrations
- Name a whale!
- Support an end to whaling and a global network of marine reserves!

You can watch the first episode of Great Whale Trail TV
- and meet some of the team that I have been working with all this time. They are totally cool!

I hope you will join me on the Great Whale Trail!

Thanks!
Lisa

Longer version here

If you like this be sure to digg it!

My mate Dave is over in Anchorage blogging at the IWC - check out his blog

Join the Big Blue March!

Here's a post I wrote for Greenpeace - but wanted to copy it here since I was the person working on this and am VERY proud of it too!

Earlier this year an issue was raised over on the GreenpeaceOcean Defenders Blog concerning the sale of Shark Fin Soup on Amazon.com. Greenpeace has since contacted Amazon and requested that they remove all products containing shark fins from their website.

It is with great pleasure that we can now tell you that Amazon has taken all of these products off their website! This is a great response from Amazon and we'd like to commend them on taking such a bold step.

The shark finning industry kills up to 73 million sharks per year and continues to threaten the survival of these cartilagenous critters. Additionally It has recently become evident that the disappearance of sharks has detrimental effects to broader marine ecosystems. We hope that other companies will follow Amazon's lead and stop selling Shark Fin Soup.

Below is the initial response from Amazon.

From: "Amazon.com Customer Service"

Thank you for writing to Amazon.com with your comments.

We have great respect for your concerns. One of our goals as an online retailer, however, is to offer our customers the ability to purchase a wide variety of products on our site. It is unfortunate but inevitable that some of our customers may find a few of these items objectionable.

Please note that the items in our Gourmet store are offered by third-party merchants--they are not sold directly by Amazon.com. Hence, I confirm that this item is not sold by Amazon.com directly.

We always value customer feedback, and I have passed along your desire that we exclude items of this sort from our site. Once our appropriate department investigates on this matter, necessary changes will be bought into effect. . Once this update has been made we would notify it on the website. Please note that these changes would take sometime to be implemented and we would greatly appreciate your patience in this regard.

After further communication with Amazon including more e.mails, phone calls and snail mail we finally recieved the following e.mail confirming that shark fin soup was no longer available on their website:

From: "Amazon.com Customer Service"

Greetings from Amazon.com.

I am writing in regards to your letter dated January 17, 2007.

I am pleased to let you know that I was unable to locate any gourmet food relating to the sale of shark fin soup on our web site. As far as I can tell, we no longer carry that item to be sold at Amazon.com.

I hope this information has been helpful.

Read other Making Waves blog posts about shark finning here and here.

I've just spent the last two days at Westminster but strangely it feels like I have been there for weeks. On Tuesday I got up at 5:30am and headed out from Canary Wharf (where the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise is based) into the heart of London. I joined a bunch of Greenpeace volunteers from local groups across the city and we waited to hand out leaflets to MPs coming in and out of Parliament.

The MPs started to arrive, and quite a few stopped to talk when I asked how they felt about Trident replacement. There was a mix of opinions; some were entirely in support of our campaign against new nuclear weapons, others were ambivalent and some were sadly very supportive of having weapons that can wipe out millions of men, women and children. Nevertheless, whatever their opinions, most of them took leaflets as they went on their way and, at the end of the day, we had given out over 3,000 leaflets to people coming in and out of parliament buildings.

On my way to the tube station I left the remainder of my leaflets in a café that MPs regularly visit and then I headed back to the Arctic Sunrise, docked on the Thames, for a much needed rest. As I was leaving, I looked up at the climbers on the crane and felt pretty lucky to be able to leave, have something to eat and go to the toilet!

Yesterday it was another early rise, and back to Westminster. To my surprise, Vivienne Westwood was also handing out leaflets with us. She stood in the middle of the pavement asking passers "Do you care about being blown up" while wearing a "Tony loves WMD" T-shirt.

Later we were joined by Bianca Jagger (Mick Jagger's first wife) and Annie Lennox. Things really started buzzing; media crews showed up and began interviewing people and I saw Ben Bradshaw and Betty Boothroyd.

In the early afternoon, I walked towards Downing Street, waving at the two climbers still on the crane as I passed. There were still a lot of police milling around but none of them seemed bothered by our continued occupation of a barge right outside Parliament! At Downing Street, there was more leafletting to MPs - and more interesting conversations with police officers. One told me that he wanted Trident to be replaced "so that if we ever got nuked by another country at least we would have the ability to retaliate". My mouth fell open in shock that someone could be so blatantly in support of genocide. He kept denying he supported mass murder but that's essentially what being in support of nuclear weapons means. Most people I met who supported the replacement of Trident seemed to think of it entirely in terms of our own safety rather than the annihilation of others. What they fail to realise is that by having nuclear weapons we can't possibly hope to make the world a safer place.

Later in the afternoon I joined other activists and cycled over Westminster Bridge from the London Eye, on bikes carrying "Tony Loves WMD" and "Trident: we don't buy it!" posters. We pedalled slowly into Parliament Square, making noise and taking up the whole road so that all the traffic backed up behind us.

In Parliament Square, we were blocked by a large number of police who told us we would be arrested if we tried to cycle any further. After dispersing for a while we came back in smaller groups and I made it around the square several times on my bike before I got pulled over by the police again. I decided to join the gathering in the middle of the square, where they announced the results for the Trident vote.

I was expecting Tony to win enough votes for his love affair with nukes but I was pleased that so many MPs voted against it in the end. I'd like to think I had something to do with that and I'm going to keep on trying to convince people to support nuclear disarmament even though I am an oceans campaigner, because people wont care about the oceans anymore if we ever end up in a nuclear war!

More pictures HERE

The Ministry of Defence in the UK has seized the Arctic Sunrise and all the crew have been arrested. Find out more here: