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WWF is urging the Federal Government to make 'the Serengeti of the Sea', Australia's Coral Sea, a safe haven for threatened sharks and hundreds of other marine species.

"Every day we wait for a decision to make this biodiversity hotspot a marine protected area we are losing our ability to protect extremely important species," said Dr Gilly Llewellyn, head of WWF-Australia's Oceans program. "For many shark species, their future is either an underwater safe haven or a grocery store."

The latest figures for Australian shark exports obtained by WWF and released today show that more than 500 tonnes of shark product was sent to mostly Asian markets over the past 13 months. These numbers do not include the amounts of sharks imported into Australia, discarded as by-catch or caught and consumed in domestic markets.

Overseas retailers and manufacturers snap up around 230 tonnes of shark fins, 23 tonnes of squalene, an ingredient often used for cosmetics, 46 tonnes of shark liver oil, 12 tonnes of shark cartilage powder, and thousands of kilograms of meat from sharks fished in Australian waters.

Using AQIS data from the past 13 months, the major export hubs for sharks appear to be Melbourne and Brisbane, with Cairns port sending 60 tonnes of shark fin to Asian markets.

Melbourne, the major export centre for shark products, sends 37 tonnes of shark fins bound for Philippines and 46 tonnes of shark liver oil mostly for Japanese markets. Twenty-three tonnes of squalene is sent from Melbourne.

In Brisbane, 85 tonnes of shark product, mostly shark fin and fillets are sent to Hong Kong and the Phillipines, and shark cartilage exported to the US.

"We risk going down in the history books as the generation that let sharks go extinct because of an insatiable market for shark products," Dr Llewellyn said. "Sharks play a crucial role in the balance and health of marine ecosystems and are especially vulnerable to overfishing, and yet currently there are few effective controls on fishing or trade. Sharks are slow-growing, long-lived, and produce few young."

Sharks caught in the Coral Sea, the Great Barrier Reef and major northern Australian fishing spots, may well end up as sharkfin soup, haemorrhoid cream, lacquer and glue, tourist curios, tanning lotion, horse supplements, preservative for boats, anti-aging cream, luxury sharkskin boots, shark heart sashimi, petfood and, even as an alternative cure for cancer.

"One of the most important decisions we can make on behalf of this critically important species is to fully protect pristine areas like the Coral Sea and pupping and nursery grounds in the Great Barrier Reef so that shark and other marine animal populations can recover," Dr Llewellyn said. "By exporting shark fin, without guaranteeing the future for at-risk species of sharks, Australia continues to be part of the problem and not part of the solution."

"The best time to protect what we can from exploitation is right now. The Coral Sea is a rare example of a marine environment that is thriving, one of the world's last great underwater wildernesses, it's our responsibility to protect it," Dr Llewellyn said.

For more information

Jacqueline McArthur, Cohort Communications
03 5489 3225, 0408 626 780

Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia Oceans Program Leader
02 8202 1227, 0406 380 801

Rachael Hoy, WWF-Australia Press Office
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Notes to editor

• Using 400 kg, an extremely conservative size for large sharks, and with a fin to body mass ratio of 5%, then 230 tonnes of shark fins would equal more than 10,000 adult sharks killed for export. This is an extremely conservative number. Figures more than likely would far exceed this.
• The total value of tourism out to the Coral Sea is approximately $11.2 million a year.
• The resident population of sharks at Osprey Reef, the main dive site in the Coral Sea, is 40 animals, making each shark worth over $250,000 per year. When you compare this figure to $62.50 - the asking price for shark catch by local fisheries, it is more than evident Australian reef sharks are more valuable alive than dead.
• The median number and biomass of sharks entering the shark fin trade each year have been estimated at 38 million individuals and 1.7 million mt, respectively1, according to the 2006 Global estimates of shark catches using trade records from commercial markets, Clarke et al. 2006. Global estimates of shark catches using trade records from commercial markets. Ecology Letters9: 1115-1126.
• Recently declared a 'predator diversity hotspot' for its abundant shark populations, the Coral Sea is recognised as one of Australia's last tropical marine wilderness regions.
• Stretching from the outer boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to the edge of Australia's territorial waters - in some places more than two hundred nautical miles off the Queensland coast - a protected Coral Sea would create the largest Marine Protected Area in the world.
• For more information: www.wwf.org.au/coralsea

Shark fin display
© Samuel Lees

Shark fin display
© Samuel Lees

Shark fin shop
© Samuel Lees

WWF-Australia is calling on the Queensland Government to block the establishment of targeted shark fisheries in its waters because so little is known about the sustainability of shark populations.

"The Queensland government should shelve its plans to issue shark fishing licenses when there is little science to demonstrate the impact on at-risk species," WWF-Australia's Marine program leader Dr Gilly Llewellyn said. "The absence of verified data on the species biology and the fishery is of major concern and the near-term focus needs to be on shark conservation and not shark exploitation."

"With an insatiable global market for shark products growing every month our waters may be last resort for many species of tropical shark, we just don't know what adding another targeted shark fishery would do to their ability to maintain their populations," she said.

Poor sustainability records and species collapses have happened in many shark fisheries around the world, including relatively well informed fisheries with specific management plans for sharks and rays, Dr Llewellyn said.

"Of the few Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea shark species for which population estimates are known, a number like the whitetip reef shark and grey reef shark have been shown to be declining. This decline underscores the need to put a halt to unsustainable shark fishing, as even small levels of mortality can risk their survival."

Another major concern is the lack of selectivity of fishing gears used in Queensland, demonstrated by the large number of by-product and by-catch species.

Preliminary scientific studies have raised alarm bells for conservation groups by showing that existing commercial catches already feature at-risk sharks like the scalloped hammerhead shark. This species of shark uses coastal sites to give birth, returning to open ocean habitats and to aggregations sites such as to the Coral Sea.

"We know that adult hammerhead sharks are at risk from being caught in off-shore tuna fisheries and that their fin is a sought after delicacy in Asian markets," Dr Llewellyn said.

"Allowing the fishing of the juveniles and adults is simply a recipe for extinction. We need protection for the maternity wards and nurseries for at risk species like hammerheads not the creation of a licence to fish sharks," she said.

"Sharks play a crucial role in the balance and health of marine ecosystems. They are slow-growing, long-lived, and produce few young. By keeping the ecosystem in balance, healthy numbers sharks and other top level predators may help tropical reef ecosystems be more resilient to impacts such as climate change".

"There are already many other ways sharks are being caught and killed in the region, including managed as well as illegal, unregulated and unreported fisheries in and outside Australian waters. We don't need to add to the pressure."

"One of the most important decisions we can make on behalf of this critically important species is to fully protect pristine areas like the Coral Sea, and prevent adding further pressures like new targeted shark fisheries," Dr Llewellyn said.

Notes to editors

• Recently declared a 'predator diversity hotspot' for its abundant shark populations, the Coral Sea is recognised as one of Australia's last tropical marine wilderness regions.
• Stretching from the outer boundary of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park to the edge of Australia's territorial waters - in some places more than two hundred nautical miles off the Queensland coast - a protected Coral Sea would create the largest Marine Protected Area in the world.
• WWF is calling on all Australians to persuade the Australian Government to declare the entire Coral Sea region a Marine Protected Area. This would create the world's largest Marine Park and protect the Coral Sea for future generations, before irreversible damage is done.
• For more information: www.wwf.org.au/coralsea

For more information

Dr Gilly Llewellyn, WWF-Australia Oceans Program Leader, glewellyn@wwf.org.au

Jacqueline McArthur, 0408626780, jmcarthur@cohorts.net.au

The Productivity Commission's proposal to scrap support for a Renewable Energy Target could cripple the government's ability to achieve pollution reduction goals, a new report has found.

Commissioned by WWF and produced by Climate Risk, the report finds as well as a Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, complimentary measures such as a RET are necessary to combat the threat of global warming.

"Industrial Constraints to Significant Emission Reductions by 2050" revealed such measures will be essential to avoid industrial constraints, such as major skills shortages, and ensure low emission industries are competitive and introduced on a broad scale.

"The Productivity Commission modelling is flawed," WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne said.
"It ignores real-world constraints such as industrial growth rates, skilled labour supply, plus production equipment and material shortages. To overcome these constraints, low emission industries need the maximum amount of time to develop.

"There must be support for a broad range of technologies now and an effective RET can do this.

"There are sufficient low emission energy sources and energy efficiency opportunities available to meet emission reduction of 60-80% by 2050, if development starts promptly and most importantly, concurrently.

"Delaying development of costly low emission industries could leave insufficient deployment time and render emission reduction targets unachievable. This is too big a risk to take."

Climate Risk director Dr Karl Mallon said: "The modelling shows without complimentary measures, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme risks failing to meet deeper emission targets.

"Supplementary analysis indicates the cost of complementary industry development will be about $1.6 billion per year at its peak. This is about 20% of the likely revenue raised by the scheme, allowing almost all industries to be competitive on their own by 2030.

"Investing more in industry development in the short term is an insurance policy for the likely event Australia will eventually need to achieve deeper reductions."

"The up-front costs far outweigh the environmental, social and economic costs of failing to meet reduction targets and keep rises in temperature under 2°C," Mr Bourne said.

For more information

Rachael Hoy, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Kellie Caught, WWF-Australia Climate Change Policy Manager,
07 3211 2684, 0406 383 277

Dr Karl Mallon, Climate Risk,
0412 257 521

Download report

A climate change report which reveals that the Productivity Commission's recent Emissions Trade Scheme (ETS) economic modelling is flawed.

The Commission's modelling ignores real-world industrial constraints to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. These include mass labour, production equipment and material shortages across Australia.

The report details how Australia is facing critical climate change skills shortages to deliver sufficient reduction cuts, and also pushes the need for complimentary ETS measures such as a Renewable Energy Target (RET).

Download (PDF 3.25 MB)

A research project aimed at understanding more about the rare and elusive snubfin dolphin could be on the verge of identifying a new species of dolphin living in waters just north of Broome, in north-west Australia.

The research is taking place in Roebuck Bay near Broome and has provided scientists with the opportunity to gather further data on the rare snubfin dolphin, Australia's only endemic dolphin and the first new dolphin species to be discovered globally in decades.

A significant number of dolphins have already been sighted and filmed in the survey location and the first genetic sampling of the north-west population has been undertaken.

The genetic sampling will determine whether the north-west Australian population may actually be a separate species from or subspecies of the snubfin dolphin found in Queensland.

Very little is known about the snubfin dolphin which was first discovered in 2005 near Townsville. Until recently it was thought to be an Irrawaddy dolphin, the critically endangered species found in the coastal rivers of south-east Asia, but recent studies confirmed that it is a distinct species unique to northern Australian waters.

"Because so little is known about this dolphin, we are extremely concerned that unsustainable fishing, boat strikes and marine debris could mean that only three years after it was discovered, it may already be facing the threat of extinction," said Dr Tammie Matson, WWF-Australia's Species Program Leader.

"Coastal and river dolphins are among the most threatened species on the planet. In Asia and around the world, several dolphin species are at risk of extinction. Australia has an obligation to ensure that the rare Australian snubfin dolphin doesn't succumb to the same fate," Dr Matson said.

WWF-Australia has listed the snubfin as one of its flagship species for priority conservation, and has partnered with ING DIRECT to help the vital project, first in the Northern Territory and now in Western Australia.

ING DIRECT customers are also supporting the research by switching from paper to online statements. For every customer that opts to receive online statements, ING DIRECT is donating $2 directly to the snubfin dolphin project.

Project organiser Christian Bohlke says the response has been overwhelming.

"More than 35,000 customers have already made the change," Bohlke said. "It is a double win for the environment with less paper used and valuable research financed.

"As a company that is synonymous with saving, it's exciting for us to contribute to efforts that will help save this species now and into the future," he added.

For further media enquiries please contact:

Paula Schibeci, WWF-Australia Press Office, 0406 381 137

David Breen, ING Direct, 0412 933 060

Images

Photos © Dr Guido J. Parra

WWF has urged parties and candidates contesting the upcoming Northern Territory election to commit to ending major land clearing and protect Living Rivers.

"Neither major party has yet committed to ending major land clearing, despite the Territory having arguably the weakest land clearing laws in Australia', said Stuart Blanch, WWF's Northern Landscapes Manager.

The leading conservation organisation today said stopping major land clearing was the cheapest, easiest and most effective way to quickly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

"The Federal Government's Green Paper for an Emissions Trading System said the states are responsible for regulating land clearing. It is up to the next Territory Government to rise to the challenge”, Dr Blanch said.

"The Top End's vast savannas should instead be managed as a giant carbon storehouse to help fight climate change, and not cleared. Small-scale clearing must also be tightly managed.”

WWF is calling on parties to commit to a new land clearing law – a Native Vegetation Act - to end major land clearing and protect wildlife and rivers, such as the Daly and Adelaide Rivers.

"Major land clearing has a devastating impact on the Territory's wildlife and threatens our unique lifestyle and our natural assets".

More than 70,000 hectares of native vegetation have been approved for clearing across the Territory since 2002 - that's 35,000 times the size of the MCG.

Scientists predict clearing then burning this native vegetation would kill most of the estimated 12 million animals living there, and cause about 10 million tonnes of greenhouse gas pollution.

"Tourists and fishermen aren't going to come to visit rivers like those in the Murray-Darling.

Per capita emissions are higher in the Top End than anywhere else in the country – 76.4 tonnes per person per year.

For more information contact:

Dr Stuart Blanch, Northern Landscapes Manager, WWF-Australia:
0427 957 868

Julian Murphy, WWF Press Officer:
0418 970 778

Take action

The Top End of the Northern Territory is one of Australia's most iconic and valuable landscapes. It's the home of big barramundi and crocodiles, vast uncleared grasslands and woodlands full of wildlife that has largely disappeared from southern Australia. It is a stronghold for Indigenous communities that maintain the world's oldest living culture, an important part of which is looking after Country. But major land clearing is threatening to destroy these precious assets and inflict irreparable damage on the Territory's unique wildlife and lifestyle.

• What you can do to help
• More about the iconic Top End

WWF welcomed today's announcement of the establishment of a National Low Emissions Technology Coal Council and a Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) task force.

WWF joined forces earlier this year with The Climate Institute, the Australian Coal Association and the CFMEU to advocate for a national carbon capture and storage strategy.

WWF CEO Greg Bourne said, "CCS could play a critical role, along with renewable energy and energy efficiency, in reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid dangerous climate change. But without a national strategy it could take 15-20 years to contribute to the climate change solution, which would be too late for the planet.

"If CCS works it could be applied not just to new and retrofitted coal power generation, but also gas power generation and production, and to other large CO2 sources such as the chemical, steel or cement industries," Mr Bourne said.

"CCS is complex and costly, it requires the alignment of capture technologies, identification of suitable storage sites, appropriate transport infrastructure and stringent health, safety and environmental protections.

"Unfortunately market forces and emissions trading alone will be insufficient to overcome barriers to deployment."

WWF says demonstration plants must be supported and built now and the Government must set a commercialisation target for 2020. The only way of ensuring this will happen is through Government coordination and policy.

WWF is also calling on Federal and State Governments to put a moratorium on new coal-fired power stations without CCS on commission.

"A new coal-fired power station without CCS would make it impossible for Australia to stabilise and reduce emission in the short-term. A moratorium would also encourage much needed industry investment into CCS."

"If we reach a three degree rise in temperature, 35 per cent of species will become extinct. WWF has a responsibility to try to prevent this from happening, which means supporting a range of solutions," concluded Mr Bourne.

For more information:

Rachael Hoy, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Kellie Caught, WWF-Australia Policy Manager - Climate Change,
07 3211 2684, 0406 383 277

A push to remove the scourge of exotic plants and animals from vulnerable Australian ecosystems must begin before warmer temperatures encourage the further spread of invasive species, a leading conservation organisation said today.

WWF-Australia today warned Australia’s multi-billion dollar feral animal and invasive weed problem was set to escalate dramatically in areas where warming temperatures favoured exotic plants and animals, such as in Australia’s alpine region.

"Warming temperatures mean feral animals will be able to reach higher altitudes in the alps, for example, which would threaten fragile alpine species already suffering from reduced snow cover," said WWF’s Invasive Species Policy Officer Julie Kirkwood.

"Exotic species that haven't been invasive in these areas before are likely to have a sudden competitive advantage in warmer temperatures," she said.

The Garnaut Climate Change Review Draft Report states that warmer temperatures will favour pest and weed species at the expense of our native plants and animals, and will ultimately add to the high cost of invasive species to the Australian economy that is already in excess of $4 billion.

The Garnaut report recognises that existing environmental stress factors such as invasive species need to be dealt with now to reduce the costs of climate change, and recommends the removal of introduced pest species as a key action to building this resilience.

Rodents, pigs, cane toads, dogs, cats and rapacious exotic plant species such as lantana and gamba grass have caused numerous extinctions in Australia over the last 200 years and continue to devastate Australia's ecosystems.

"The Australian Commonwealth must fully fund plans to address the threat of rodents on islands, for example, and ensure the national Weed Spread Prevention Plan is fully implemented," Ms Kirkwood said.

WWF is also calling on the Australian Government to close existing loopholes in quarantine laws that allow the importation of potentially devastating species, such as the savannah cat, which is a cross between a domestic cat and an African serval.

An existing loophole means if the animal can be demonstrated to be at least five generations removed from their wild constituent species, they are treated as domestic cats and can be lawfully imported under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act without a permit.

For more information:

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Julie Kirkwood, WWF-Australia Invasive Species Policy Officer,
0417 121 430

Australia's climate change credentials rank poorly against other developed countries with Australians still among the highest greenhouse gas polluters per capita on the planet.

The report released today by independent consultancy Ecofys, commissioned by leading environmental organisation WWF and international financial services leader, Allianz, contains climate change scorecards for the world's leading economies. The report ranks each country's performance on a range of emissions-related criteria such as energy efficiency, renewable energy, and the development of carbon markets.

"Australia's overall poor result is embarrassing, and highlights the Government has some tough decisions ahead of it if it wants to raise Australia's overall climate change performance," said WWFAustralia CEO Greg Bourne.

"It is crucial that Australia forges ahead with a comprehensive emissions trading scheme, which begins in 2010, includes petrol and refrains from giving away free permits.

"As a wealthy high emitting nation, Australia should be joining Europe and leading the charge on actions to reduce emissions not waiting to see what poorer countries do."

Terry Towell, Managing Director of Allianz Australia, said the insurance industry has already started adapting to the effects of climate change on extreme weather events.

"For insurers, the effects of climate change have been apparent for some time - 85% of the largest 40 natural catastrophes occurred between 1988 and 2006. Moreover, average insured losses have increased tenfold from an average of around $US3 billion per annum in the early 1970s to an average of around $US30 billion per annum since 2000.

"Allianz research estimates that global insured damage from such events will rise further to an average of $US41 billion per annum over the period 2010-19.

"There is an urgent need for a new global agreement to establish a framework of international emissions reductions post the current Kyoto targets if we are to stop these trends worsening."

The international community has 10 to 15 years in which global emissions have to peak and decline, and a binding global emissions reduction pact is urgently required to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012.

Download

Climate Scorecard: Australia

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF Press Office,
02 8202 1242, 0407 204 594

Nicholas Scofield, Allianz Australia,
02 9390 6596, 0416 088 414

Key elements of an effective emissions trading scheme

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1274, 0424 649 689

Paul Toni, Program Leader – Development and Sustainability,
0410 086 986 or

Nicole Ikenberg, Policy Manager – Climate Change,
0400 324 107

WWF today said the Federal Government's Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme was a big step forward in tackling dangerous climate change but warned against free carbon permits for existing coal power stations.

"Existing power stations have known for 20 years that carbon would be regulated. Every cent spent on providing assistance to existing power stations is money not spent on supporting clean energy research, households and trade exposed industries," said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

WWF also said the amount of assistance to aluminium, agriculture and other trade-exposed industries should be capped at a maximum of 30 per cent of auction revenue.

WWF said the deployment and commercialisation carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would provide indirect assistance to generators. However WWF supports structural adjustment assistance to strongly affected communities and workers.

WWF welcomed the inclusion of the transport sector in the Emissions Trading Scheme but warned against cutting the excise on petrol to protect motorists, saying such a cut should be a one-off event only.

"In today's world of high financial pressures and rising costs of living, a one-off excise cut might be justified but it is very important that price mechanisms are not interfered with further down the track because this will reduce the incentive to invest in clean transport alternatives," he said.

Mr Bourne also said an ETS charge on petrol should be included on fuel receipts so consumers can see the direct effects of a carbon charge and make appropriate decisions about how much fuel they are using.

"Our economy is strong so the responsible thing to do is act now while it is affordable. Any delay will result in irreversible damage to the environment and future economy."

A two to three degree rise in average temperatures could result in a 33 per cent loss in species, 95 per cent loss of most coral reefs, including the Great Barrier Reef, and up to an 80 per cent loss of the Kakadu wetlands. In addition, flows in the Murray-Darling could be cut by half, and alpine areas could lose up to a staggering 85 per cent of snow-cover.

"This is not a choice between rushing an emissions trading scheme or and not rushing - this is now a matter of catching up. The time for taking this slowly was 10 years ago," said WWF-Australia CEO Greg Bourne.

For more information

Charlie Stevens, WWF-Australia Press Office,
02 8202 1274, 0424 649 689

Paul Toni, Program Leader – Development and Sustainability,
0410 086 986