Warm waters draw sharks off Israel's Mediterranean coast

France24 – AFP, 20 April 2021 

This picture taken on April 20, 2021 shows an aerial view of people using their
phones and cameras to film a shark swimming past in the shallow Mediterranean
Sea water off the Israeli coastal town of Hadera north of Tel Aviv JACK GUEZ AFP

Hadera (Israel) (AFP) -  Dozens of sharks gathered Tuesday in warm waters of the Mediterranean near an Israeli power plant, drawing sightseers in what has become an annual occurence. 

The sharks' fins sliced through the swallow waters just metres (yards) away from bathers eager to take photos of them near the city of Hadera. 

Sandbar and dusky sharks, which are known to frequent the waters, can grow up to three metres (10 feet) in length. 

The sharks gather each year near where the power plant's hot water outlet gushes into the Mediterranean Sea. 

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority warned both amateur and professional divers against swimming with the creatures. 

"The interaction with sharks is neither predictable or controllable, and in recent days there has also been a change in the sharks' behaviour," the authority wrote. 

The sharks are endangered and it is illegal to harm, feed or harass them, the authority added. 

Most of those in the waters off Hadera on Tuesday were dusky sharks, though some were the slightly smaller sandbar sharks, said Aviad Scheinin, an expert on apex predators at the University of Haifa. 

In the Mediterranean, the sandbars are endangered and there is not enough data on the dusky sharks to determine their status, he told AFP. 

The mostly female dusky sharks come in late November and leave in early May, Scheinin said. 

"We think it might be something to do with the reproductive cycle," he said. 

The mostly male sandbar sharks arrive in January, although this season researchers found one female among some 20 males, he said. 

"We're not sure why they are coming. It's an open question," he said of the sandbar sharks.

Lebanon president hedges over eventual peace with Israel in interview

MSN – AFP, 16 Aug 2020

Lebanon president hedges over eventual peace with Israel in interview

Lebanese President Michel Aoun, ally of Israel's arch-foe Hezbollah, seemed to leave the door open to eventual peace with the Jewish state, in an interview with French news channel BFMTV.

Michel Aoun wearing a suit and tie: Lebanese President Michel Aoun, pictured here in a file photo, seemed to leave the door open to eventual peace with the Jewish state, in an interview with French news channel BFMTV© - Lebanese President Michel Aoun, pictured here in a file photo, seemed to leave the door open to eventual peace with the Jewish state, in an interview with French news channel BFMTV

Lebanon has technically been at war with neighbouring Israel for decades, with tensions sporadically flaring in the border area in Lebanon's south, stronghold of the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah movement.

Asked in an interview on BFMTV on Saturday whether Lebanon would be prepared to make peace with Israel, Aoun responded: "That depends. We have problems with Israel, we have to resolve them first."

His statement came in the wake of an announcement Thursday that Israel would normalise relations with the United Arab Emirates, only the third Arab state to establish full diplomatic ties with Israel since its creation in 1948.

"It's an independent country," Aoun said of the UAE.

Aoun's Christian Free Patriotic Movement has for years been politically allied with Hezbollah, enabling them to dominate parliament and the government, which resigned on Monday amid outrage over negligence that led to the deadly explosion at Beirut's port that devastated the capital.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said on Friday of the Israel-UAE agreement that "it's a betrayal of Jerusalem and the Palestinian people. It's a knife in the back."

A key point of contention between Lebanon and Israel concerns oil and gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean, where both countries have sought bids for exploration in their exclusive economic zones.

The maritime border between the countries is disputed.

Aoun's interview was aired in the aftermath of the Beirut blast on August 4 that killed 177 people and wounded at least 6,500 more, with many blaming systemic corruption and negligence of the entrenched political class for the disaster.

Many Lebanese have demanded the ouster of the entire ruling class, dominated by ex-warlords from the country's 1975-1990 civil war, including of Aoun.

Asked by the BFMTV journalist if he had thought of stepping down, Aoun said, "it's impossible, there would be a vacuum".

Related Article:

Israel and UAE to normalise ties in 'historic' US-brokered deal

Israeli fish farmers give peckish pelicans free lunch

Yahoo – AFP, Jonah Mandel, December 8, 2019

Great white pelicans eat fish provided by Israeli farmers at a water reservoir in
the Emek Hefer valley north of Tel Aviv (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Beit Alfa (Israel) (AFP) - Migratory pelicans have long raided Israeli fish farms, which try to deter them with loudspeakers, laser beams and by firing blank rounds from rifles.

In their desperation, they have come up with another way: offering the birds a free lunch.

An estimated 50,000 pelicans stop off in Israel during their annual migration from the Balkans to Africa, where they enjoy a mild winter before returning to Europe.

They rest and feed in the Middle Eastern country for weeks, causing chaos for fish farmers, whose outdoor commercial pools and reservoirs provide rich pickings.

Before the pelicans reach Israel, "they have nowhere to stop and eat", said Eli Sharir, general manager of the Israel Fish Breeders Association.

The impact on the fish farms is enormous.

"We're talking millions of shekels a year," he said.

So six years ago Israeli fisherman came up with a solution -- providing alternative feed with unmarketable fish to try to keep pelicans away from the commercial pools.

An Israeli Nature and Parks Authority employee feeds fish to pelicans so they

don't raid commercial fish pools instead (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

One recent day on a reservoir in northern Israel, hundreds of great white pelicans swooped down to position themselves in the shallow waters, eyeing a truck backing up to the water's edge.

Then the truck dropped its cargo of thousands of small, live, flapping fish into the water, where they were almost instantly scooped up by the pelicans' nimble beaks.

Luxury stop-over

Pisciculture is limited in Israel, producing just 10 percent of the fish consumed domestically.

But it is vital for the small agricultural communities of Emek Hamaayanot, the lush area below the Gilboa mountain range in northeastern Israel often dubbed the "valley of the springs."

So to protect their livelihoods, the farmers in the Sharon region, north of Tel Aviv, and Hula valley, near Israel's eastern border with Lebanon, have joined forces with the Nature and Parks Authority to create the alternative feeding sites.

But not everyone believes it's a good idea. Critics say the birds may get used to making the luxurious stop-over in Israel -- and may even be enticed to stay the entire winter.

Great white pelicans at a reservoir in Mishmar HaSharon, north of the Israeli 

city of Tel Aviv (AFP Photo/JACK GUEZ)

So fish farmers still rely on a toolkit of other ways to scare off the birds -- without harming them, as pelicans are protected under international conventions.

Dor Maimon, who works for the area's farmers in protecting produce from wild animals, uses a remote-controlled, 1.5 metre (five foot) long motorboat to buzz groups of pelicans in a reservoir near Beit Alfa, sending the birds spiralling into the sky.

Nitzan Nadan, who manages the Gilboa Fish cooperative, said he spends around 600,000 shekels ($172,000) a year on measures including vehicle-mounted loudspeakers and firing blank rifle rounds.

At night, projectors and laser beams are used to keep the birds away.

"The pelicans have to eat and eat in our pools," he said. "They cause damage you can't even begin to estimate."

Ecological causes

In the past pelican sightings close to Israeli fish pools were rare, but more have come because of ecological problems elsewhere, say experts.

Thousands of migratory pelicans pass though Israel on their way from 

Europe to Africa and back (AFP Photo/JACK GUEZ)

Marshlands and lakes in nearby Turkey, Lebanon and Syria have dried out in recent decades, and even Israeli fishing pools have diminished in number for economic reasons, said Amit Dolev, chief ecologist of the northern district of Israel's Nature and Parks Authority.

"This means that the remaining (water bodies) are nearly the only spots available," he said.

What makes things worse for Israel is the fact that shooting the birds is accepted in neighbouring countries, causing the pelicans to avoid pit stops there.

"Israel is something of an island of nature preservation in the Middle East in many aspects, including this one," Dolev said.

To Dolev, broader global cooperation in monitoring the pelicans could help find a solution that would aid the struggling Israeli farmers.

"The issue is certainly global," he said, noting the pelicans' Balkan origins and African destination. "We're basically dealing with it on our own."

The fish farmers said they received no regular help from the state in footing the expenses of the alternative feedings and deterrents.

"We expect help from the world, from Europe, to finance the high costs," Sharir said.

Israel loosens restrictions on Gaza fishermen

France24 – AFP, 1 April 2019

Israel says it is loosening restrictions on fishermen off the blockaded Gaza Strip AFP/File

Israel loosened restrictions on fishermen off the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday by allowing them to travel up to 15 nautical miles into the Mediterranean, the largest distance in years.

The decision comes after Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, said it had been engaged in Egyptian-brokered talks with Israel on easing parts of the blockade in return for calm.

Israel has not commented on the negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid a severe escalation in the Gaza Strip ahead of April 9 Israeli elections.

"The fishing zone in the Gaza Strip has been expanded to a maximum of 15 nautical miles (28 kilometres)," said COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry unit that oversees such regulations.

It did not say in which areas the zone would extend to 15 nautical miles. Israel has in the past extended the distance in certain areas but not others.

The distance is the largest allowed in years by Israel, which has fought three wars with Palestinian militants in the enclave and has blockaded it for more than a decade, said Miriam Marmur, spokeswoman for Gisha, an NGO that monitors restrictions on Gaza.

She however noted that it remains short of the 20 nautical miles agreed to under the Oslo accords of the 1990s.

The distance has fluctuated in recent years from between three nautical miles up to 12 in certain areas.

In late February, Israel extended part of the zone to 12 nautical miles while other areas remained at six.

On Sunday, Israel reopened its goods and people crossings with the Gaza Strip after having kept them closed for nearly a week following a rare long-distance rocket strike from the Palestinian enclave. Restrictions had also been placed on the fishing zone after the rocket.

The rocket fire wounded seven Israelis and led to Israeli retaliatory strikes across the Gaza Strip, another serious flare-up between the two sides.

The reopening of the crossings came after tens of thousands of Palestinians protested along the Gaza border with Israel on Saturday, marking the one-year anniversary since demonstrations and clashes erupted there.

Four Palestinians were killed on Saturday during protests and clashes, but unrest was limited and fears of mass bloodshed were averted after Egyptian-led negotiations.

Dead Sea's revival with Red Sea canal edges closer to reality

Yahoo – AFP, Marie WOLFROM, March 18, 2018

Evaporation ponds at the southern part of the Dead Sea where both sodium
chloride and potassium salts are produced (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

Ghor al-Haditha (Jordan) (AFP) - Israel and Jordan have long pursued a common goal to stop the Dead Sea from shrinking while slaking their shared thirst for drinking water with a pipeline from the Red Sea some 200 kilometres away.

Geopolitical tensions have stalled efforts to break ground on the ambitious project for years, but the end of the latest diplomatic spat has backers hoping a final accord may now be in sight.

The degradation of the Dead Sea, on the border of Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian West Bank, began in the 1960s when water began to be heavily diverted from the Jordan River.

"Before 1967, the water was just a 10-minute walk from my house," said Musa Salim al-Athem, a farmer who grows tomatoes on the banks on the Jordan side.

"Now it takes an hour," he said, standing amid the resulting lunar landscape of spectacular salt sculptures, gaping sinkholes and craters.

"Only the sea can fill up the sea."

"Since 1950, the amount flowing in the Jordan has dropped from 1.2 billion cubic metres per year (42 billion cubic feet) to less than 200 million," said Frederic Maurel, an engineering expert at the French development agency AFD.

Heavy production of potash, used for making fertiliser, has also accelerated evaporation that has seen the sea's surface area shrink by a third since 1960.

Experts say water levels are falling one metre (three feet) a year, and warn it could dry out completely within 30 years.

Palestinian refugees at the al-Baqa'a refugee camp near Amman. Jordan is
determined to press ahead with the project to cope with the needs of a rising population
which has been swelled by about one million refugees fleeing war in Syria (AFP Photo/
Khalil MAZRAAWI)

'Economic treasure'

Already 100 years ago, Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, had envisaged filling the Dead Sea via a canal dug to the Mediterranean.

The sea's natural beauty and mineral-rich black mud have also provided a source of tourism revenue.

"The Dead Sea has historical, biblical, natural, touristic, medical and industrial values that make it an invaluable cultural, environmental and economic treasure," said Avner Adin, a specialist in water science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

After years of studies, the $1.1 billion Red Sea "Peace Conduit" deal was signed by Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian authorities in 2013.

The project, located entirely on Jordanian territory, includes a desalination plant near Aqaba.

After producing drinking water, the remaining highly saline liquid will be sent by pipeline to fill the Dead Sea, powering two hydroelectric plants along the way.

A subsequent 2015 deal would see Israel get 35 billion cubic metres of potable water from the desalination plant for its parched southern regions.

The mostly desert Jordan, for its part, would get up to 50 billion cubic metres of freshwater from the Sea of Galilee.

Israel also agreed to sell 32 billion cubic metres to the Palestinian authorities.

Jordan announced in November 2016 that it had chosen five international consortiums to build the first phase of the canal.

But talks on how to finance the deal, which calls for $400 million of public funding, and geopolitical flare-ups have kept the project from moving forward.

Experts say water levels are falling one metre a year, and warn it could dry out 

completely within thirty years (AFP Photo/MENAHEM KAHANA)

'Diplomatic hazards'

Some $120 million has already been pledged by donors including the US and Japan, while France's AFD agency has secured the backing of the EU and some member states for $140 million in preferential loans to Jordan.

Talks were frozen last year after an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy in Amman, prompting a diplomatic standoff that ended only in January.

"We have never been so close to starting the project," Maurel said. "It only needs a final push by the Jordanian and Israeli authorities."

A diplomatic source in Amman said the project remained essential for the region given the environmental and economic stakes, "but it's still at the mercy of diplomatic hazards."

For Adin at the Hebrew University, "It seems to be that the situation is improving. The main obstacle in my mind could be financial."

Officials in Jordan say they are determined to press ahead with or without Israel to cope with the needs of a rising population which has been swelled by about one million refugees fleeing the war in neighbouring Syria.

"We are proceeding with the project because desalination eventually is the future of Jordan when it comes to water," said Iyad Dahiyat, secretary general of the country's water authority.

"Water is part of the stability of the kingdom itself," he added. "It's a national security issue."

In the Red Sea, coral reefs can take the heat of climate change

Yahoo – AFP, Jonah Mandel, June 21, 2017

Global warming has in recent years caused colourful coral reefs to bleach and die
around the world -- but not in the Gulf of Eilat, or Aqaba, part of the northern Red Sea

In the azure waters of the Red Sea, Maoz Fine and his team dive to study what may be the planet's most unique coral: one that can survive global warming, at least for now.

The corals, striking in their red, orange and green colours, grow on tables some eight metres (26 feet) underwater, put there by the Israeli scientists to unlock their secrets to survival.

They are of the same species that grows elsewhere in the northern Red Sea and are resistant to high temperatures.

Fine's team dives in scuba gear to monitor the corals, taking notes on water-resistant pads.

"We're looking here at a population of corals on a reef that is very resilient to high temperature changes, and is most likely going to be the last to survive in a world undergoing very significant warming and acidification of sea water," Fine said at his nearby office ahead of the dive.

Global warming has in recent years caused colourful coral reefs to bleach and die around the world -- but not in the Gulf of Eilat, or Aqaba, part of the northern Red Sea.

That is what has prompted Fine's work, both in the Red Sea and on its shores.

At the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the southern Israeli resort city of Eilat, dozens of aquariums have been lined up in rows just off the Red Sea shore containing samples of local corals.

At Israel's Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences dozens of aquariums have 

been lined up in rows just off the Red Sea shore containing samples of local corals 

that are seemingly able to withstand warmer temperatures

A robot slowly dips its arms into each glass container, taking measurements and uploading them to a database.

"We exposed corals to high temperatures over long periods of time, beyond the current peak summer temperatures and even beyond the model-based temperatures we predict for the end of the century," said Fine, a marine biology professor from Bar Ilan University in central Israel.

He explained: "They didn't undergo bleaching."

Heat is on

According to Fine, the Gulf of Eilat corals fare well in heat thanks to their slow journey from the Indian Ocean through the Bab al-Mandab strait, between Djibouti and Yemen, where water temperatures are much higher.

"Over the past 6,000 years they underwent a form of selection through a very, very hot body of water, and only those that could pass through that hot water body reached here, the northern Red Sea and Gulf of Eilat," he said.

The world just marked its three hottest years in modern times, with scientists pointing to increases in heat-trapping emissions such as carbon dioxide as a driving factor.

Oceans also absorb about one-third of the carbon dioxide released by human activities, resulting in increasing acidification that is harmful to corals.

Often mistaken for a form of vegetation, corals "are in fact an animal that lives

 in symbiosis with an algae, a plant," said Jessica Bellworthy (R) a PhD student 

conducting research on the coral reefs of the Gulf of Eilat

Coral reefs, most famously Australia's Great Barrier Reef, are experiencing in recent years unabated mass bleaching and die-offs.

Often mistaken for a form of vegetation, corals "are in fact an animal that lives in symbiosis with an algae, a plant," said Jessica Bellworthy, a PhD student under Fine's supervision taking part in the Eilat research.

Corals and algae "provide services for each other," with the algae providing "up to 90 percent of the coral animal's food" through photosynthesis, said Bellworthy, originally from Britain.

"When ocean temperatures get too hot, this symbiosis, this relationship, breaks down," she said.

"The algae is lost from the coral and causes the coral to look white," effectively "starving" it.

'Reefs have no borders'

Losing coral reefs is not only bad news for tourists diving to see their beauty and marine life swimming among them.

Corals are important to "the whole balance of the eco-system," offering structure, food and protection to a variety of marine animals, Bellworthy said.

Their rich chemical interactions have provided components for medications, including those for cancer and HIV patients, Fine said.

Researchers from the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in the

southern Israeli resort city Eilat monitor coral growth in the Red Sea

But while the coral reefs off Eilat and Aqaba may be able to survive global warming for now, they also face other risks.

Fertilisers, pesticides and oil pollution "harm the corals and lower their resilience to high temperatures," Fine said, warning of plans to build fish pools that would stream nutrient waste into the Gulf of Eilat.

The Israeli researcher stressed the need to join forces with countries that share the Red Sea.

That would include not only Jordan and Egypt -- the only two Arab states to have peace agreements with Israel -- but also Saudi Arabia, with which Israel has no formal ties.

"To safeguard this small body of water, we naturally need the cooperation of our neighbours since the reefs have no borders," Fine said.

Israel divers find ancient marine cargo in Mediterranean

Yahoo – AFP, May 16, 2016

Artefacts from a merchant ship that sank off the ancient Mediterranean port of
Caesarea 1,600 years ago are presented to the press by Israel's Antiquities Authority
on May 16, 2016 (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

Caesarea (Israel) (AFP) - Israel's Antiquities Authority on Monday displayed cargo from a merchant ship that sank off the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea 1,600 years ago, including rare bronze statues and thousands of coins.

The find, happened upon by two divers a few weeks ago who then alerted the authority, consisted primarily of "metal slated for recycling" borne on the ship from Caesarea in the late Roman period, IAA experts said.

But a storm at the entrance to Caesarea harbour crashed the large ship into the seawall and rocks, the IAA said, spilling the cargo into the sea and preserving the "exciting finds".

Artefacts recovered off the ancient Mediterranean port of Caesarea in Israel 

includes thousands of coins in two lumps weighing around 20 kilogrammes bearing

the images of Constantine the Great and of Licinius (AFP Photo/Jack Guez)

"Metal statues are rare archaeological finds because they were always melted down and recycled in antiquity," Jacob Sharvit, director of the Marine Archaeology Unit of the IAA and his deputy Dror Planer said in a joint statement, noting such a trove hasn't been found in Israel for 30 years.

The artefacts include "a bronze lamp depicting the image of the sun god Sol, a figurine of the moon goddess Luna, a lamp in the image of the head of an African slave (and) fragments of three life-size bronze cast statues," the IAA said.

There were also "objects fashioned in the shape of animals such as a whale (and) a bronze faucet in the form of a wild boar with a swan on its head," the statement said, noting the sand protected the statues which were "in an amazing state of preservation."

Items, which the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) estimate to be around 1600 

years old, are displayed after it was recovered from a merchant ship in the 

ancient harbor of the Caesarea National Park May 16, 2016. Reuters/ Baz Ratner

The find includes thousands of coins in two lumps weighing around 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) bearing the images of Constantine the Great and of Licinius, an emperor who ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire and was a rival of Constantine.

Fragments of drinking jars were also found, as well as iron anchors, apparently cast from the ship in the vain hope of preventing it crashing in the storm.

The discovery comes a year after the exposure of a record trove of some 2,000 gold coins in the same area, with Sharvit crediting the abundance of divers with the growing number of finds.

According to Sharvit and Planer, the finds reflect the "economic and commercial stability in the wake of the stability of the Roman Empire," a period in which "Christianity was on its way to becoming the official religion of the Roman Empire."

Divers find record trove of gold coins in Mediterranean

Yahoo – AFP, 18 Feb 2015

A handout picture released by Israel's Antiquities Authority shows some of the gold

 coins recently found on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea (AFP Photo)

Jerusalem (AFP) - Scuba divers have discovered the largest trove of gold coins ever found off Israel's Mediterranean coast -- about 2,000 pieces dating back more than 1,000 years, the country's antiquities authority said Tuesday.

"The largest treasure of gold coins discovered in Israel was found in recent weeks on the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea," the authority said in a statement.

It was by pure chance that members of a diving club in the Roman-era port had come across the coins, which the authority said weighed nine kilograms (almost 20 pounds) but described as "priceless".

"At first they thought they had spotted a toy coin from a game and it was only after they understood the coin was the real thing that they collected several coins and quickly returned to the shore in order to inform the director of the dive club about their find," it said.

Experts from the authority called to the site uncovered "almost 2,000 gold coins in different denominations" circulated by the Fatimid Caliphate, which ruled much of the Middle East and North Africa from 909 to 1171.

Kobi Sharvit, director of the marine archaeology unit at the Israel Antiquities Authority, said excavations would be carried out in the hope of shedding more light on the origin of the treasure.

A handout picture released by Israel's Antiquities Authority shows

 a scuba diver holding in his hand some of the gold coins found on

the seabed in the ancient harbour in Caesarea (AFP Photo/

Kobi Sharvit)

"There is probably a shipwreck there of an official treasury boat which was on its way to the central government in Egypt with taxes that had been collected," said Sharvit.

"Perhaps the treasure of coins was meant to pay the salaries of the Fatimid military garrison which was stationed in Caesarea and protected the city.

"Another theory is that the treasure was money belonging to a large merchant ship that traded with the coastal cities and the port on the Mediterranean Sea and sank there," he said.

The Israeli Antiquities Authority declined to put a cash value on the coins, which it said had been exposed as a result of winter storms.

The find was "so valuable that its priceless," spokeswoman Yoli Schwartz told AFP, adding the haul was now the property of the state, and that there was no finder's fee.

Related Article:

Scuba divers discover hoard of ancient gold in Israel

Seminar on Israel water technology to be held in Taipei

Want China Times, 2014-11-12

A K. B. Recycling Industrials booth at a new energy and technology expo
in Air port city, Israel, Feb. 19. (File photo/Xinhua)

A seminar on Israel's water technology will be held in Taiwan later this month to promote exchanges in the area, the Israel Economic and Cultural Office in Taipei said in a recent statement.

The seminar, slated to take place Nov. 28 in Taipei, will bring together representatives of eight Israeli companies who will share their technologies and products with Taiwanese firms in an effort to seek potential cooperation, said the office, which is co-organizing the event with Taiwan's Water Resources Agency.

The agenda will include discussions on desalination, waste water management, quality management of drinking water and recycled water, the office said.

As the government is planning to begin collecting water pollution control fees starting December, how to effectively handle waste water has become an important issue.

Israel has developed advanced technologies to deal with its waste water, 97% of which is reused for irrigation. It has also been exporting its water technologies, including desalination, waste water recycling and drip irrigation, to other countries, the office said.

Business meetings will also be arranged for Israeli and Taiwanese companies to explore cooperation opportunities, it added.

Related Article:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

…  4 - Energy (again)

The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!

Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much.

Water

We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet. 

There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four. ….”

Despite truce, Gaza fishermen under fire at sea

Yahoo – AFP, Adel Zaanoun and Yahya Hassouna, 25 Sep 2014

The Gaza Strip has long been known for its plentiful seafood and fish although

 the stocks have been depleted by pollution, frequent wars and the blockade (AFP

Photo/Mohammed Abed)

Gaza City (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) - Every time Gaza fisherman Rami goes to sea, the same thing happens: five nautical miles offshore, shots ring out and a voice over an Israeli loudspeaker demands he turn back.

Officially, Gaza's fishing fleet has the right to trawl the waters up to six nautical miles off the shore under the terms of Israel's eight-year blockade.

Although that outer limit has frequently been reduced, or even cancelled outright over the years, it was formally reinstated by virtue of an August 26 truce agreement which ended a deadly 50-day war between Israel and Hamas militants.

Palestinian fish traders sit around a 

sculpture of a boat propeller as they wait

 for fishermen to come back with their 

catch on August 18, 2014 at the harbour

in Gaza City (AFP Photo/Roberto Schmidt)

But nearly a month after the ceasefire took effect, even those six nautical miles -- which the fishermen say is not nearly enough -- are unattainable.

One afternoon, Rami Bakr and his 10-man crew put to sea for a 10-hour fishing expedition. With them was an AFP team.

Very quickly, warning shots skimmed the boat as an Israeli navy vessel approached. On board were around a dozen soldiers armed with machine guns, shouting through a loudspeaker for them to stop.

"These are the worst conditions we've ever known," said the 41-year-old fisherman, who has spent more than three decades of his life fishing the waters off Gaza.

"During the war, the Israelis bombed fishing huts on the beach and now they are preventing fishermen from earning their crust at sea," he said.

The Gaza Strip has long been known for its plentiful seafood and fish although the stocks have been depleted by pollution, frequent wars and the blockade.

Today, the coastal enclave counts some 4,000 fishermen, more than half of whom live below the poverty line, said Nizar Ayash, head of the Gaza fishermen's syndicate.

During the recent seven-week war, 80 of Gaza's fleet of around 1,500 fishing boats and dozens of fishing huts were destroyed in the Israeli bombardment, which also reduced nets and fishing equipment to ashes, he said.

'Too risky'

For Ayash, the problems experienced by Rami are widespread.

"Since the ceasefire, many Israeli attacks have been reported," he said, referring to repeated shooting at fishing vessels.

Israeli forces say the warning shots are necessary because Palestinian boats flout the six-mile limit.

With their tackle destroyed and the price of oil soaring, Gaza's fishermen are almost working at a loss.

Today, a single fishing expedition can cost up to about $500 (roughly 400 euros), said another fisherman called Mehdi Bakr, who lost his hand when an Israeli navy vessel fired at his boat in 1997.

Gaza counts some 4,000 fishermen, more than half of whom live

below the poverty line (AFP Photo/Mohammed Abed)

For every night on the water, they need 270 litres (59 gallons) of diesel and 250 litres of petrol, he explained.

And all this for a very small catch.

"September and October is sardine season and they are only found between six to nine nautical miles from the shore, so with a six-mile limit, we're bringing home hardly anything," explained Taha Bakr, a 24-year-old member of Rami's crew.

Because fishing is a trade passed on from father to son, and because he can no longer provide for his family and the job is so dangerous, the young man with green eyes and a neatly-trimmed beard has signed up to journalism school.

"It's so that I don't have to fish again, that job is just too risky," he told AFP.

Maria Jose Torres, deputy head of office in the Palestinian branch of the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA), said that the 1993 Oslo Accords established a fishing zone of up to 20 nautical miles.

"It is essential to increase the fishing zone beyond six nautical miles to allow the fishermen to earn their living," she said, indicating that the vast majority today are unable to support themselves.

"Some 84 percent of them are only able to survive thanks to help from the UN," she said.

Rami said he keeps putting out to sea so that he can feed his children.

"It has been a long time since we last heard the singing and laughter of fishermen at sea who returned with their nets full," he said.

But Mehdi fears for the future of this millennia-old profession in Gaza.

"We, the young generation, are not happy with this. If it carries on like this, there won't be any more fishing in Gaza at all," he said.

Related Articles:

Israel must ease new Gaza restrictions: rights groups (24 March 2013)

Gaza fishermen: 'They will fire bullets and shoot water at me' - video (24 July 2011)