Man washes up in Marshall Islands 'after 16 months adrift'

Google – AFP, 31 January 2014

A castaway who identified himself as Jose Ivan is helped off a patrol boat by a

 hospital nurse in Majuro after a 22-hour boat ride from Ebon Atoll on February 3, 

2014 (AFP, Hilary Hosia)

Majuro (Marshall Islands) — An emaciated man whose boat washed up on a remote Pacific atoll this week claims he survived 16 months adrift on the Pacific, floating more than 12,500 kilometres (8,000 miles) from Mexico, a researcher said Friday.

The man, with long hair and beard, was discovered Thursday when his 24-foot fibreglass boat with propellerless engines floated onto the reef at Ebon Atoll and he was spotted by two locals.

"His condition isn't good, but he's getting better," Ola Fjeldstad, a Norwegian anthropology student doing research on Ebon, the southern most outpost of the Marshalls, told AFP by telephone.

Fjeldstad said the man, dressed only in a pair of ragged underpants, claims he left Mexico for El Salvador in September 2012 with a companion who died at sea several months ago.

Details of his survival are sketchy, Fjeldstad added, as the man only speaks Spanish, but he said his name was Jose Ivan.

"The boat is really scratched up and looks like it has been in the water for a long time," said the researcher from Ebon.

Ivan indicated to Fjeldstad that he survived by eating turtles, birds and fish and drinking turtle blood when there was no rain.

No fishing gear was on the boat and Ivan suggested he caught turtles and birds with his bare hands. There was a turtle on the boat when it landed at Ebon.

Stories of survival in the vast Pacific are not uncommon.

In 2006, three Mexicans made international headlines when they were discovered drifting, also in a small fibreglass boat near the Marshall Islands, in the middle of the ocean in their stricken boat, nine months after setting out on a shark-fishing expedition.

They survived on a diet of rainwater, raw fish and seabirds, with their hope kept alive by reading the bible.

And in 1992, two fishermen from Kiribati were at sea for 177 days before coming ashore in Samoa.

Heading home after epic voyage (AFP)

According to Fjeldstad, the Marshall Islanders who found Ivan took him to the main island on the atoll, which is so remote there is only one phone line at the local council house and no Internet, to meet Mayor Ione de Brum, who put in a call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Majuro.

Officials at the Foreign Ministry said Friday they were waiting to get more details and for the man to be brought to Majuro.

The government airline's only plane that can land at Ebon is currently down for maintenance and is not expected to return to service until Tuesday at the earliest, with officials considering sending a boat to pick up the castaway.

"He's staying at the local council house and a family is feeding him," said Fjeldstad, who added that the man had a basic health check and was found to have low blood pressure.

But he did not appear to have any life-threatening illness and was able to walk with the aid of men on the island.

"We've been giving him a lot of water, and he's gaining strength," said the Norwegian.

The Marshall Islands, in the northern Pacific, are home to barely 60,000 people spread over 24 atolls, with most of them standing at an average of just two metres above sea level.

Boats in the Marshall Islands, where José Ivan finally landed after

16 months adrift in the Pacific. Photograph: Alamy

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A castaway who identified himself as Jose Ivan is helped off a

patrol boat by a hospital nurse in Majuro after a 22-hour boat

ride from Ebon Atoll on February 3, 2014 (AFP, Giff Johnson)

Australia Approves Plan to Dump Dredge Spoil in Barrier Reef

Jakarta Globe – AFP, January 31, 2014

Mounds of coal can be seen along the coastline of Queensland at the port of
Hay Point, located around 450 km (279 miles) southeast of the city of Townsville
August 5, 2009. (Reuters Photo)

Sydney. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on Friday approved the dumping of up to three million cubic meters of dredge waste in park waters in a move blasted by environmentalists.

The decision follows the government giving the green light to a major coal port expansion for India’s Adani Group on the reef coast in December, under some of the strictest-ever environmental conditions.

It will see Adani dredge three million cubic meters of material from the seabed to allow freighters to dock at the port in Abbot Point, lifting the facility’s capacity by 70 percent to make it one of the world’s largest coal ports.

Conservationists warned it could hasten the demise of the World Heritage-listed reef, which is already considered to be in “poor” health, with dredging smothering corals and seagrasses and exposing them to poisons and elevated levels of nutrients.

The reef is already facing pressures from climate change, land-based pollution and crown-of-thorns starfish outbreaks.

“This is a sad day for the reef and anyone who cares about its future,” said WWF Great Barrier Reef campaigner Richard Leck.

“The World Heritage Committee will take a dim view of this decision, which is in direct contravention of one of its recommendations.”

The reef is facing a World Heritage downgrade from Unesco this year due to concerns about rampant coastal development proposed in the region, particularly port, gas and coal operations. Unesco are due to meet in June, when they are expected to discuss the issue.

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) chairman Russell Reichelt said he recognized there was intense community concern and debate about the application by North Queensland Bulk Ports Corporation to dispose of dredge spoil in the park.

But he said allowing the project to proceed would help contain development to existing ports, and the reef itself and seagrass meadows would still be protected.

“This approval is in line with the agency’s view that port development along the Great Barrier Reef coastline should be limited to existing ports,” he said.

“It’s important to note the sea floor of the approved disposal area consists of sand, silt and clay and does not contain coral reefs or seagrass beds.”

The GBRMPA, whose board is currently under investigation for its links to the mining industry, added that the strict environmental conditions imposed on the project by the federal government would help protect the reef.

The conditions require that sediment entering the marine park be reduced by 150 percent over the long term – a “net benefit” to water quality – and that $81 million be contributed to reef conservation programs and specific measures observed to protect marine flora and fauna.

WWF Australia has said the material dredged during the port expansion would be enough to fill 150,000 dump trucks that “lined up bumper-to-bumper would stretch from Brisbane to Melbourne,” a distance of more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles).

Agence France-Presse

The reef: the spoil will be dumped about 24km from Abbot Point, the gateway

to the world heritage-listed reef. Photograph: Grant V Faint/Getty Images

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Australia Claims ‘Substantial’ Progress on Reef Protection - New

A handout picture made available by Greenpeace on Feb. 1, 2014 shows a

 sign protesting the proposed coal port at Abbot Point at the Great Barrier Reef,

 north of Bowen, Queensland, Australia. (EPA Photo/Greenpeace Australia and

New Zealand)

Booming German offshore wind power industry puts pressure on marine life

Deutsche Welle, 24 January 2014

Offshore wind energy is continuing to grow off the German coast as the country remains dedicated to its energy transformation. But conservationists are concerned about the effects the industry is having on animals.

Families walk their dogs along the sandy beach, the waves lapping to their side, oblivious to the fact that less than 100 kilometers (62 miles) off the coast wind turbines turn creating energy for electricity in tens of thousands of German homes.

Such renewable energy is a key element in Germany's transition away from coal and nuclear energy, but now some are questioning the environmental impact of offshore wind farms particularly on animals – in both the sea and air.

"There are indications from research that fish larvae can be damaged by intense sounds,” said Fabian Ritter, leader of the marine protection campaign at Whale and Dolphin Conservation in Berlin.

"Seals are very sensitive to sounds and can be easily disturbed," he told DW. "There's disturbance and the risk of collision for birds, and bats, and other animals."

Increase of biodiversity

Offshore wind farm Alpha Ventus is

 situated in the North Sea, north of

 the island of Borkum

A recent report released by Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, known as the BSH, on the wind farm Alpha Ventus has sought to soothe conservationists' fears. According to the report, the effects on fish, birds and marine mammals are minimal.

Conducted over five years, the study looked at the ecological effects of the 12 turbines at Alpha Ventus, a test site run jointly by energy firms EWE, E-ON and Vattenfall, 60 kilometers off the German coast in the North Sea. It revealed an increase in the biodiversity at the bases of the turbines.

"Life on the ground had very much intensified because small life-forms such as mussels, starfish and sea anemones, were able to find a new surface on which to grow and multiply, much stronger than on the sand that was already there," said Monika Breuch-Moritz, president of the BSH.

"That is actually just a normal result, you see similar things on every shipwreck," she told DW.

Hearing loss for animals

Although there are still concerns about birds getting stuck and killed while flying across the path of the massive wind turbine blades, one of the biggest concerns for conservationists relates to harbor porpoises, mammals which depend on their sense of hearing to hunt and navigate. According to the report, the animals were at times driven up to 20 kilometers from the sound of construction.

Harbor porpoise numbers are decreasing
in the Baltic, but that's also due to fishing

"If sounds become too intense, there's going to be severe damage to the harbour porpoise,” said Ritter. “If they become deaf, that's a death sentence for them."

Companies are required to limit noise to 160 decibels – the same level of noise as a jet plane taking off – at a distance of 750 meters away from construction sites. The German environment ministry also implemented new requirements in December as part of a noise prevention concept. Guidelines require measures such as bubble curtains, where air bubbles are released from the seabed to create a sound-insulating barrier.

While Breuch-Moritz said the move was important, she added that the study had found porpoises returning to the site following the end of construction.

"As soon as the pile-driving is over, the porpoises come back," said Breuch-Moritz. "The operation of a wind farm, not the construction, doesn't disturb the porpoises."

Cumulative effects

Still, conservationists say the report does not take into account the cumulative effects of the many wind farms being built off Germany's north coast and say the noise prevention concept, which is only in effect for the North Sea, should be extended to also cover the Baltic Sea.

According to the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation, which works closely with the German environment ministry, offshore wind turbines generated 520 Megawatts (MW) of electricity in September 2013. The government plans to increase that figure to 25,000 MW by 2030.

"We're not talking about one site, but hundreds over decades," says Fabian Ritter. "You could say you are changing an ecosystem, sound-wise."

Even so, Andreas Wagner, manager of the German Offshore Wind Energy Foundation's Berlin office, which worked with the energy firms to build the Alpha Ventus wind farm, said there was a lot of effort being taken by industry to reduce the potential ecological impacts.

Construction processes for offshore
 wind farms create a lot of noise,
conservationists say

"We have more than half a dozen commercial offshore wind farms under construction right now, but they are not all being built at the same time and not installing the foundations at the same time, so there are not many cumulative effects in reality," he said.

Many conservationists say they do not want to see less development in the sector of offshore wind energy, but greater consideration of the potential effects of offshore wind farms.

"We think it's the future of the energy development in Germany and maybe in Europe and worldwide," says Fabian Ritter, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation organization. "But you have to look at what you can do to minise harm to the marine environment."

Royal Dutch Shell halts Alaska exploration as profits fall

BBC News, 30 January 2014

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Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell is stepping up asset disposals as part of a strategy that will see the company "changing emphasis" in 2014.

The changes will involve Shell stopping its exploration programme in Alaska.

On Thursday, Shell posted 'clean' profits - which strip out the impact of oil price movements - of $2.9bn (£1.7bn) for the last quarter of 2013, down from $5.6bn on the period in 2012.

It comes a week after Shell issued a "significant" profits warning.

New chief executive Ben van Beurden, a month into the job, said on Thursday that "the landscape the company had expected has changed".

On 17 January, Shell, the world's third-largest publicly-quoted oil company, surprised investors with a warning about profits for the quarter to the end of December, blaming high exploration costs, pressures across the oil industry and disruption in Nigeria.

Thursday's quarterly profits were broadly in line with expectations following the profits warning, and took full-year 'clean' profits to $19.5bn, against $25.3bn in 2012.

Mr van Beurden took over as chief executive on 1 January, replacing Peter Voser.

The new boss said in a statement on Thursday: "Our overall strategy remains robust, but 2014 will be a year where we are changing emphasis, to improve our returns and cash flow performance."

Capital spending will fall to $37bn this year from $46bn in 2013, Shell said, adding that, for the time being, it was also scrapping a controversial exploration programme in Alaska.

'Hard choices'

Last week, a US court ruled that a full assessment of the environmental risk associated with the Alaska exploration had not been carried out by the US government.

Shell had spent around $4.5bn exploring for oil off the coast of Alaska since 2005, but has faced strong environmental opposition.

"We are making hard choices in our world-wide portfolio to improve Shell's capital efficiency", Mr van Beurden said.

The Anglo-Dutch company said it would increase the pace of asset sales, targeting disposals of $15bn this year.

Mr van Beurden said: "The landscape the company had expected has changed. Factors such as the worsening security situation in Nigeria in 2013, and delays to non-operated projects in several other countries, have altered the outlook.

"Oil prices remain high globally, but North America natural gas prices and associated crude markers remain low."

Related Article:

Shell's profit warning linked to cost of drilling in Arctic waters

Tony Abbott: Broadcaster ABC on 'everyone's side but Australia'

BBC News, 29 January 2014

Tony Abbott said the ABC should not "leap to be critical" of Australia

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Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has criticised national broadcaster ABC for "taking everyone's side but Australia's".

Mr Abbott said the publicly-funded broadcaster should show "some basic affection for the home team".

The ABC has been at the forefront of reports on abuse claims from asylum seekers and reports that Australia had spied on Indonesia.

The ABC had no immediate comment on Mr Abbott's statements.

However, the opposition said that the government should welcome media scrutiny.

'Benefit of doubt'

Mr Abbott made the comments during an interview with radio station 2GB.

He said he was "worried and concerned" by the ABC's role in reporting spying claims in documents leaked by former CIA contractor Edward Snowden.

The documents appeared to show that Australian spy agencies named the Indonesian president and other senior ministers as targets for telephone monitoring.

The reports led to a diplomatic row, with Indonesia suspending military co-operation with Australia.

Mr Abbott also criticised the ABC's coverage of allegations that Australian navy personnel had mistreated asylum seekers.

Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said it was right that the
ABC scrutinised government

Footage obtained by the ABC showed asylum-seekers being treated for burns that they said had been caused when they were forced to hold on to a hot boat engine.

Indonesian police said some asylum-seekers had burn marks on their hands, but they did not know who had inflicted them.

The claims were strongly rejected by both the Australian military and government, which has offered to co-operate with an Indonesian investigation.

"If there's credible evidence, the ABC, like all other news organisations is entitled to report it," Mr Abbott said.

"[But] you can't leap to be critical of your own country," he said, adding that the ABC should be prepared to give the Australian navy "the benefit of the doubt".

'Welcome scrutiny'

Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said every government had "been subject to the close scrutiny of the ABC, and we should all welcome that".

"From emergency broadcasts in times of trouble to coverage of the events that shape our nation, the ABC is there, free for all Australians," she said.

The number of asylum boats travelling to Australia from Indonesia rose
in 2012 and the beginning of 2013

"[Mr Abbott] should stop complaining about media coverage and start behaving like a prime minister," she added.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said: "We need strong voices in parliament to stand up for the public's right to an independent national broadcaster".

Critics have accused the government of secrecy over asylum policy.

The government has refused to comment on reports that the navy are towing asylum boats back to Indonesia. It has however recently issued an apology to Indonesia for "inadvertently" violating its waters on multiple occasions.

The government has also limited information on asylum arrivals and vessel-related incidents to a weekly e-mail, citing operational needs.

The ABC charter describes the corporation as "the provider of an independent national broadcasting service".

In December, ABC managing director Mark Scott defended the ABC's coverage of the spying allegations.

"We are an independent media organisation and of course sometimes we will publish stories that politicians won't be happy about," he said. "That's the role we have to play."

Related Article:

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  Government

Let us speak of government. We're not speaking of your government, but of any government - the way it works, how it survives, how it has survived, the way it campaigns, and how it elects leaders. It's going to change.

Years ago, I told you, "When everybody can talk to everybody, there can be no secrets." Up to this point on this planet, government has counted on one thing - that the people can't easily talk to each other on a global scale. They have to get their information through government or official channels. Even mass media isn't always free enough, for it reports that which the government reports. Even a free society tends to bias itself according to the bias of the times. However, when you can have Human Beings talking to each other all at once, all over the planet without government control, it all changes, for there is open revelation of truth.. 

IOM releases Mediterranean boat migrant count

Deutsche Welle, 28 January 2014

Some 45,000 boat migrants, including thousands of children, made dangerous crossings of the Mediterranean to land in Italy and Malta in 2013, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Most were fleeing wars or abuses, said the intergovernmental organization on Tuesday. It listed 11,300 migrants fleeing Syria, 9,800 from Eritrea and 3,200 from Somalia. Among them were 8,300 minors; two-thirds of these were unaccompanied.

The IOM said its 2013 total was a sharp jump from the 13,000 recorded in 2012, but down on the 63,000 recorded in 2011 during armed sectarian conflict in Libya.

The IOM said the "real" tragedies had involved those migrants who had disappeared untraced at sea during capsizes of flimsy, overcrowded boats, which border authorities claim are often operated by smugglers.

Relatives left not knowing fate

These migrants vanished and "simply remain unknown," said Jose Angel Oropeza, IOM's leading coordinator for the Mediterranean based in Rome.

"Numerous relatives of the victims are still waiting to know," Oropeza said, referring to the loss of at least 400 lives in October in shipwrecks off Italy's island of Lampedusa - located near Libya and Tunisia - and off Malta.

Losses over the past 20 years among refugees headed for Italy totaled more than 20,000, the IOM said, including 2,300 in 2011 – the year of the Libya crisis.

The IOM, which works closely with the UN and whose membership includes 155 nations, said landings were continuing off Italy even during Europe's winter months. Last Friday, 204 migrants had been rescued by the Italian navy in the Straits of Sicily.

"We need to find ways to make migration safe and to give these people real choices," Oropeza said.

Protest with sewn lips

On Sunday, 13 Moroccan migrants held at a reception center in Rome for more than two months, protested by sewing their lips together.

"They've been left in complete uncertainty, no one has explained anything to them," said Gabriella Guido, spokeswoman for the migrant advocacy group LasciateCIEntrare.

Campaigners say most migrants want to go to other European countries but can find themselves stuck in limbo in Italy.

Political wrangle

Last month, the coalition government of Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta pledged to improve conditions at overloaded reception centers and revised legislation.

Right-wing groups, including the anti-immigrant Northern League accuse officials of being overgenerous in comparison to Italians struggling amid economic recession.

Two weeks ago, Italian naval vessels and a passing cargo ship rescued more than 500 migrants in three operations off Italy's southern coast.

Last year, the European Commission recommended reinforcing air and sea patrols to detect and intercept migrant boats in line with a plan by EU border patrol agency Frontex.

ipj/hc (Reuters, AFP, AP)

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Canada and Norway appeal WTO ruling backing EU seal ban

Google – AFP, 27 January 2014

Seal hunters drag a dead seal onto their boat after killing it in the Gulf of Saint

Lawrence on March 31, 2008 near Charlottetown (Getty/AFP/File, Joe Raedle)

Geneva — Norway and Canada have appealed a ruling by the WTO that backs a European Union ban on the import and sale of seal products, the Geneva-based body announced Monday.

In a statement, the World Trade Organization said Oslo and Ottawa filed their appeals on Friday. In general, WTO appeal rulings are issued within three months.

In November, the WTO disputes settlement body ruled that while there was merit in Norway and Canada's complaints over the 2010 EU ban, that was outweighed by the goal of addressing moral concerns about seal welfare.

Brussels argues that the EU public overwhelmingly favours the ban, and that scientific evidence back claims that slaughter methods, such as using a club with a metal spike on it to stun seals before killing them, are cruel.

Norway and Canada have deployed counter-arguments from scientists, insisting that their seal-hunting methods are humane and no worse than those used in commercial deer-hunting, widespread in the EU.

They both kill tens of thousands of seals per year, and say hunting is an age-old method allowing Atlantic fishing communities to earn an income, as well as to manage fish stocks and thereby the environment.

They also say the ban is trade discrimination because seal products from EU members Sweden and Finland enjoy unimpeded market access within the 28-nation bloc. The EU rejects that argument.

Inuit hunter Pitseolak Alainga (L) explains how the Inuit traditionally hunt seal

 to Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty outside the Nunavut Legislature in

Iqaluit, Canada, February 6, 2010 (AFP/File, Geoff Robins)

Canada's indigenous Inuits, who have traditionally hunted seal for centuries, are exempt from the ban but say it has ruined the market for their seal products too.

In addition, the ban's adversaries warn that the moral grounds defence justifying it could be applied to a host of other products, thus upsetting trade flows.

The WTO polices global trade accords in an effort to offer its 159 member economies a level playing field.

Disputes at the WTO are often extremely technical and can last for several years amid appeals and assessments of compliance with its rulings.

The WTO's disputes settlement body, made up of independent trade and legal experts, has the power to authorise retaliatory trade measures against a country found at fault and which fails to fall into line.

Whale shark factory found in China: conservationists

Google – AFP, 27 January 2014

This undated photo released on January 27, 2014 by conservation group 

WildLifeRisk shows whale shark fins being dried and stacked for export in

Pu Qi in China's Zhejiang province (WildLifeRisk/AFP)

Hong Kong — A factory which processes around 600 whale sharks annually has been found in southern China, a conservation group said Monday, calling it the world's biggest  slaughterhouse for the endangered species.

Hong Kong-based conservation group WildLifeRisk said it discovered the factory in the town of Pu Qi in Zhejiang province after a four-year investigation.

It said the sharks are slaughtered and processed mostly to produce shark oil for health supplements.

Undercover video footage produced by the group showed workers cutting up the large dotted back fins of whale sharks and other shark species.

"How these harmless creatures, these gentle giants of the deep, can be slaughtered on such an industrial scale is beyond belief," said a WildLifeRisk statement sent to AFP.

"It?s even more incredible that this carnage is all for the sake of non-essential lifestyle props such as lipsticks, face creams, health supplements and shark fin soup."

The slaughterhouse also handles other species of sharks including blue sharks and basking sharks and produces 200 tonnes of shark oil annually from the three species, its owner -- identified only as Li -- said in the video.

This undated photo released on January 27 by conservation group WildLifeRisk

 shows whale shark fins being processed at a factory in Pu Qi in China's Zhejiang

province (WildLifeRisk/AFP)

Li also said he needed to "smuggle" whale shark skin out.

In another segment of the video, a man identified as Li's brother said the whale shark skins are exported to European countries such as Italy and France, where they are used by Chinese restaurants.

Whale sharks measure as much as 12 metres (39 feet) but are harmless to humans and feed on tiny marine animals.

They are on the "Red List" of endangered species drawn up by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

They are also listed on Appendix II of the UN's Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meaning countries must show that any exports were derived from a sustainably managed population.

Exports and imports should also be monitored.

Related Article:

World's largest shark slaughterhouse exposed in Zhejiang

N. Zealand diver fights off shark with knife, stitches wounds

Google – AFP, 28 January 2014

A New Zealand doctor fought off an attacking shark with a knife before heading

 ashore to stitch his own wounds and on to the nearest pub for a beer (AFP,

Christophe Simon)

Wellington — A New Zealand doctor fought off an attacking shark with a knife before heading ashore to stitch his own wounds and on to the nearest pub for a beer, reports said Tuesday.

James Grant was spearfishing near Colac Bay on the southern coast of New Zealand on Saturday when he felt the shark wrap its jaws around his leg.

"(I thought) bugger, now I have to try and get this thing off my leg," he told Radio New Zealand.

Grant, 24, said he didn't get a good look at the shark but the nature of several wounds suggested it was a sevengill shark and about 20 centimetres (7.8 inches) across at the jaw. 
Full-grown sevengills can measure up to 3.0 metres (10 feet) in length.

"I sort of just fought the shark off. The shark got a few stabs. The knife wasn't long enough though," he later told Fairfax Media.

After getting rid of the shark, Grant swam ashore and stitched his cuts using a first aid kit he kept in his vehicle for when his pig-hunting dogs were injured.

He and his friends then abandoned their fishing expedition and went to a nearby tavern where he was given a beer for himself and a bandage for the wound to stop blood dripping on the floor.

"It would have been great if I had killed it because there was a fishing competition on at the Colac Bay Tavern," Grant said.

UN court draws Peru-Chile sea border to end fisheries dispute

Deutsche Welle, 27 January 2014

The UN's highest court has created a new maritime boundary between Peru and Chile, ending a long-running dispute over fish-rich sea. Peru was handed a chunk of Pacific Ocean but Chile kept valuable coastal fishing areas.

The ruling by the Hague-based International Court of Justice draws a line over which country owns some 38,000 square kilometers (14,670 square miles) of ocean in a zone extending to the boundaries of each country's territorial waters.

The UN court's verdict, read out by its president, Peter Tomka, is considered a compromise between the positions of both countries on how the border should be delineated. The zone includes one of the world's richest fishing areas, with an annual catch estimated by the Peruvian government to be worth $200 million (146 million euros).

Tomka confirmed Chile's sovereignty over waters up to 80 nautical miles (92 land miles, 148 kilometers) from the coast, but the verdict significantly enlarges Peru's sovereignty over waters previously held by Chile - a large chunk of ocean beyond that point.

The Peruvian government had brought the case before the court. In Lima, Peruvian supporters watched the final ruling being read out on a television screen in the yard of the Government Palace [seen above].

Nelson Manrique, a Peruvian historian and columnist, told the AP news agency the decision was an "intelligent verdict" that was "not going to please anyone but it's also not going to bring anyone to fits."

Verdict implications

Chile had feared that some 2,000 of its fisherman could lose their jobs if the verdict had gone Peru's way. The bulk of the catch in the formerly disputed zone is an anchovy species that is mostly converted into fish meal, which is used in animal feed and fertilizers.

Peru and Chile are the world's top two exporters of fish meal.

jr/ipj (AP, AFP, Reuters)