PENGUIN WAS ON THE WAY HOME
THE EMPEROR PENGUIN Happy Feet carried the best wishes of thousands of people from around the world when he slid back into the Southern Ocean on September 4.
He had spent the last two months being treated and cared for at Wellington Zoo after being found exhausted and hungry on Peka Peka Beach on the Kapiti Coast, north of Wellington.
Happy Feet travelled from Wellington on the research ship Tangaroa in a travel crate designed to keep him cold and comfortable during the voyage. He was released 49 miles north of Campbell Island at a depth of 285m down a specially built "hydro-slide" off the stern ramp of the Tangaroa by Wellington Zoo's manager of veterinary science, Dr Lisa Argilla and NIWA staff. Other options to release him, including using an inflatable boat, could not be used because of rough seas. Dr Argilla said the release went without a hitch. "Happy Feet needed some gentle encouragement to leave the safety of his crate, but once he hit the water he spared no time in diving off."
The penguin had been fitted with a Sirtrack satellite tracker and a microchip so anyone could follow his progress, but contact was lost a few days later.
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The best guess is that Happy Feet was dropped away from his own species and so did not have the protection and street smarts to avoid becoming a happy meal!
Commission's tuna plans meet opposition
REPRESENTATIVES FROM AUSTRALIA and New Zealand at the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna have urged action to save the critically endangered fish, or the decision may be wrested away from it. The commission's member nations met in late August to devise a management plan for the fishery, whose stocks have plunged 95 percent since industrial fishing began in the 1940s.
Southern bluefin tuna
"Even in the absence of fishing, the stock would not recover to our agreed interim rebuilding target of 20 percent by 2020," said the head of the Australian delegation, Phillip Glyde. "In Australia's view, if we do not reach agreement on procedures for setting global catch levels for 2012 and beyond, we can expect a concerted effort to take decisions about sustainable catch and commercial trade on southern bluefin tuna away from the commission," Glyde said.
Ongoing positive indicators might justify Australia's tuna fishing industry requesting an immediate 25 percent hike in the quota, but environmentalists said South Australia's southern bluefin tuna were juveniles and would not spawn for years. Alexia Wellbelove from the Humane Society International said a zero total allowable catch was the only possible option, and Greenpeace said it feared the meeting's outcome would be dire. "We expect the commission is likely to increase the quota against all the scientific evidence," said spokesman Nathaniel Pelle.
Japan said it was also suspicious. "We are feeling uneasy about the ESC's (scientific committee's) optimistic outcome," said Kenji Kagawa, the head of the Japanese delegation to the commission. "I am starting to wonder whether there might be some serious problems with the current model for projections." Details are expected to be disclosed at the annual meeting of the commission in October.
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November/December 2011 Professional Skipper 43
