WASHINGTON, DC, USA, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2013–The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), has made a formal request on behalf of the Caribbean Community to the United States-CARICOM Council on Trade and Investment, to reject the petition of WildEarth Guardians, an environmental NGO based in Denver, Colarado, USA, calling on US authorities to list the Queen Conch (Strombus gigas) as a “threatened” or “endangered” species under the USA Endangered Species Act (ESA).

Speaking at a meeting of the Council held in Washington, D.C., on Friday, November 15, CRFM Executive Director, Milton Haughton said: “We oppose the petition to list the Queen Conch as an endangered or threatened species on the ground that the petitioner’s information is unreliable and obsolete.”

The Queen Conch is a high-value species, in high demand on the international market. Haughton noted that such a listing could restrict or prohibit Caribbean imports of Queen Conch to the US.

At the meeting of the US-CARICOM Council on Trade and Investment, senior officials discussed, among other things, the removal of barriers to bilateral trade as important work to be done under the recently inaugurated US-CARICOM Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).

“If Queen Conch is listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA, conch exports from the CARICOM States to the United States market would be prohibited,” Haughton noted. “This would result in significant social and economic hardship for thousands of Caribbean fishermen, fish processors/exporters and their families, and fishing communities, and undermine peace and stability in coastal communities that rely on the Queen Conch resource, because it will effectively deprive them of their source of income and livelihoods.”

Most of the information presented in the WildEarth Guardians petition in respect of CRFM States is outdated and simply incorrect, the CRFM Executive Director added.

WildEarth Guardians recently threatened suit against US authorities, after it claimed a number of deadlines for action on the petition were missed. The NGO filed the petition in March 2012, and the 12-month finding was due in March of 2013. A decision on the petition is still pending.

The CRFM Secretariat has consulted with its Member States, and in October 2012, it submitted a response to the US Department of Commerce, rebutting the WildEarth Guardians Petition and asking the US Government to reject the petition.

Meanwhile, WildEarth has filed a legal challenge against the US National Marine Fisheries Service, over the delayed petition decision.

The Queen Conch petition states that the species is declining and threatened with extinction due to habitat degradation, specifically, water pollution and destruction of sea grass nursery habitat; overutilization resulting from commercial harvest, inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms, and other natural and manmade factors such as biological vulnerability, human population growth, and other synergistic effects.

Haughton told the US-CARICOM Council on Trade and Investment, though, that the CRFM states disagree with the claim that Queen Conch is being harvested at unsustainable levels, resulting in population declines, stock collapses, as well as recruitment and reproductive failure.

Haughton acknowledged that, “Concerns about the health and long-term survival of Queen Conch and accompanying evidence of population declines in some countries led to the inclusion of Queen Conch on Appendix II of the Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1992.”

He explained that the Appendix II listing is used for species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction, but may become so unless international trade in the species is regulated, to avoid utilization incompatible with the survival of the species.

“Since 1992, CITES has been monitoring and regulating international trade and by extension, management, protection and conservation of Queen Conch to ensure sustainable trade and sustainable use more generally,” Haughton said.

According to the CRFM, “the petitioner made no effort to obtain current, readily available information regarding the conservation status and management systems for the Queen Conch fisheries in the 17 CARICOM / CRFM Member States before submitting its petition.”

Haughton said that the listing would be “unreasonable, disproportionate, unfair, inequitable, and inappropriate” in addressing the issues in question. It is an unnecessary and unreasonable barrier to trade in the species, he stated.

The petition should be rejected, as the available evidence does not support the claim that the Queen Conch is a threatened or endangered species, in the context of the Endangered Species Act, Haughton told the US-CARICOM Council on Trade and Investment.

ABOUT THE CRFM

The Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) was officially inaugurated on March 27, 2003, in Belize City, Belize, where it is headquartered, following the signing of the “Agreement Establishing the CRFM” on February 4, 2002. It is an inter-governmental organization with its mission being “to promote and facilitate the responsible utilization of the region’s fisheries and other aquatic resources for the economic and social benefits of the current and future population of the region.”

The CRFM consists of three bodies: the Ministerial Council, the Caribbean Fisheries Forum and the CRFM Secretariat. Its members are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

Related story:

‘Catastrophe’ If $3.3m In Conch Exports Banned

By NATARIO Mckenzie Tribune Business Reporter From Tribune242

PLACING the Queen Conch on the ‘endangered species list’ could be “catastrophic” for the Bahamas and other Caribbean countries, the Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources said yesterday, adding that conch harvesting for local consumption was pumping $6 million annually into this nation’s fisheries sector.

In his address at the opening ceremony for the 6th meeting of the ACP Fish II Programme steering committee, Mr Gray called on CARICOM to help ensure the Queen conch (Strobus gigas) is never added to this list.

Last year, Wild Earth Guardians, a non-profit environmental activist organisation, filed a petition in the US to list the queen conch under the Endangered Species Act. Such a move would eliminate all conch trade between the Caribbean and the US, which currently imports more than 70 per cent of the remaining regional conch harvest – including some 600,000 pounds, worth roughly $3.3 million a year, from the Bahamas.

“In the Bahamas, the food component of the conch accounts for about 500,000-plus pounds of production in that area alone, which amounts to about $6 million in value to the fisheries sector of our economy,” Mr Gray said.

“CITES has allowed us to export only 570,000 pounds, and we guard that figure very jealously because we believe that to export any more than they have permitted us to do could endanger the continued export of conch, and so we continue to hold fast to the export figures that is allowed by CITES.

“Some organisations in the US want to add the Queen conch to the list of endangered species. If that were to happen, it could be catastrophic to the Bahamas and the fishers of the country, and I believe it would be just as catastrophic to some of the other countries in the region but more so the Bahamas because we do not have too many industries.”

Other countries that still export conch are Belize, Honduras and the Turks & Caicos Islands. Mr Gray said eliminating conch exports would have a significant impact on the Bahamian fisheries sector.

“We have asked, directly and indirectly, and I will repeat the call, for CARICOM to help us in preventing such a move to be successful,” the Minister said.

“Help us to ensure that the Queen conch is never added to the endangered species list.

“We will do nothing, and have done nothing, to endanger the species, and there is no need to put it on an endangered species list. The Bahamas has taken every possible step to ensure that we study the Queen conch, we get the empirical evidence and data required to know what the facts are and will continue to do so.”

Mr Gray added that illegal and unregulated fishing in the Bahamas was also a major concern. “We know the Bahamas is not the only country that has fishermen from all over coming to poach,” he said.

“We must join our collective resources to ensure that we prevent as much as is humanly possible, and eliminate wherever possible, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in our waters.

“The Bahamas has made several bold steps to ensure the prevention of such activities. The law is being changed to represent that concern. What used to be a fine of $50,000 could easily be a fine of $500,000. What used to be confiscation could also include imprisonment.”

The ACP Fish II programme is a four-and-a-half year programme financed by the European Development Fund on behalf of ACP  (African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of states) countries.

The programme’s aim is to improve fisheries management in ACP countries so as to ensure that fisheries resources under their jurisdiction are exploited in a sustainable manner.

For more on this story go to:

http://www.tribune242.com/news/2013/oct/25/catastrophe-if-33m-conch-exports-banned/

See also:

PETITION TO LIST THE

Queen Conch (Strombus gigas)

UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT

Queen conch (Strombus gigas). National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Petition Submitted to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, Acting through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service

Petitioner: WildEarth Guardians

1536 Wynkoop Street, Suite 301

Denver, Colorado 80202

303.573.4898

February 27, 2012

Petition prepared by Jessica Townsend

INTRODUCTION

WildEarth Guardians requests that the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS),1 an agency within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to list the queen conch (Strombus gigas) as “threatened” or “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) (16 U.S.C. §§ 1531-1544). Petitioner also requests NMFS designate critical habitat for the species in U.S. waters.

The queen conch is a large gastropod mollusk characterized by its spiral-shaped shell and distinctive pink aperture. The conch’s habitat and behavioral characteristics make it particularly vulnerable to exploitation because it is slow moving, easily identifiable, and often gathers in large aggregations in shallow water. Loss of the species could negatively affect seagrass communities and other ecologically valuable species.

The queen conch is threatened by four factors identified in the ESA. First, the species’ habitat is affected by a range of threats, including water pollution, degradation of seagrass beds, and destruction of essential nursery habitat. The second and most severe threat is overutilization of conch for commercial purposes, primarily the harvest of conch meat for growing local and international markets. Third, existing regulatory mechanisms are inadequate to manage the unsustainable harvest or to eliminate the widespread practice of illegal fishing. Fourth, conch are particularly biologically vulnerable to human exploitation and the resulting low adult densities limits population recovery. Human population growth will only exacerbate current threats to the species.

Listing the queen conch under the ESA would provide needed protection for this species by limiting or restricting U.S. take and import of the species. In addition, ESA listing would provide vital protection for critical habitat important for queen conch recovery.

PETITIONER

WildEarth Guardians is a nonprofit environmental advocacy organization that works to protect wildlife, wild places and wild waters. The organization has more than 14,000 members and supporters and maintains offices in New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. WildEarth Guardians has an active endangered species program that works to protect imperiled species and their habitat throughout the United States and beyond.

CONCLUSION AND REQUESTED DESIGNATION

The queen conch (Strombus gigas) merits listing as an “endangered” or “threatened” species under the ESA. The species is depleted or in decline throughout its range and continues to face overwhelming threats from overfishing and illegal harvest, as well as water pollution and degradation of shallow-water nursery grounds. Queen conch are especially vulnerable to overfishing and recovery of the species will be significantly hampered by the already low adult densities in many areas. Current regulatory regimes, both national and international, have been proven inadequate by the continuing unsustainable harvest and high levels of illegal fishing in direct contravention of legal agreements.

Listing the queen conch under the ESA would provide essential protection for this species by eliminating the U.S. import market, which currently drives a substantial majority of conch exports. In addition, ESA listing would allow for designation of critical habitat to protect vital nursery grounds and existing spawning stock.

WildEarth Guardians hereby petitions the National Marine Fisheries Service within the U.S. Department of Commerce to list the queen conch (Strombus gigas) as an “endangered”

or “threatened” species pursuant to the ESA. This listing action is warranted, given that queen conch are threatened by four of the five listing factors: present and threatened destruction, modification and curtailment of habitat and range; overutilization; the inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; and other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.

Since threats to seagrass beds, as well as vital nearshore nursery grounds, are a significant cause of imperilment for the queen conch, WildEarth Guardians also requests that critical habitat be designated for this species in its U.S. range concurrent with final ESA listing.

EDITOR: The Petition has 21 pages. To view all of it it can be downloaded at:

http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/pdfs/petitions/queenconch_petition2012.pdf