I love to travel, mainly to Africa where I was born, I enjoy reading and playing bridge. I go for rambles in the countryside. I collect stamps and go to T'ai Chi classes. I love my two cats and my garden birds. I adore the African wildlife and try to help Conservation groups.
DNA traces origin of domestic cat .
Domestic cats around the world can trace their origins back to the Middle East's Fertile Crescent, according to a genetic study in Science journal. They may have been domesticated by early farming communities, experts say.
But the study suggests the progenitors of today's cats split from their wild counterparts more than 100,000 years ago - much earlier than once thought.
At least five female ancestors from the region gave rise to all the domestic cats alive today, scientists believe.
The earliest archaeological evidence of cat domestication dates back 9,500 years, when cats were thought to have lived alongside humans in settlement sites in Cyprus.
However, the new results show the house cat lineage is far older. Ancestors of domestic cats are now thought to have broken away from their wild relatives and started living with humans as early as 130,000 years ago.
The researchers focused on DNA in the mitochondria, the power plants of cells which supply energy and have their own genetic material. Comparison of the genetic sequences enabled researchers to determine the relationships between different cat lineages.
The scientists found the cats fell into distinctive genetic "clades", or groups.
The results show that, apart from accidental cross-breeding, European wildcats are not part of the domestic moggy's family tree. Neither are the Central Asian wildcat, the Southern African wildcat, or the Chinese desert cat.
But domestic cats formed a clade with some wildcats from the Middle East, suggesting that today's moggy stems from the wild felines of this region.
Experts believe cats originally sought out human company, attracted by rodents infesting the first agricultural settlements.
The early farmers of the fertile crescent - present-day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Israel - would have found the animals extremely useful for protecting their grain stores - an association that continues to this day.
"The felidae family is well known as a successful predator - very deadly, very ferocious, very threatening to all species including humankind," said co-author Stephen O'Brien, of the US National Cancer Institute. "But this little guy actually chose not to be that," he said, "he actually chose to be a little bit friendly and also was a very good mouser."
The study included researchers from the UK, the US, Germany, Israel, Spain and France.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
US keeps eagle eye on national bird
By Laura Smith-Spark - BBC News, Washington.
The bald eagle's population plummeted in the middle of the last century. Only decades after hovering on the brink of extinction, the bald eagle - the US national symbol - is expected to be taken off the endangered and threatened species list. From just 417 pairs in 1963, its population has climbed to an estimated 9,789 pairs in 2006 across the US, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
The decision on whether to change the bald eagle's status will be announced by the US Fish and Wildlife Service on Thursday, just ahead of a court-ordered deadline. But while its recovery is widely welcomed as good news by Americans, controversy continues to surround its future legal protections.
At stake may be whether the bald eagle - whose outspread wings can be seen on US coins, dollar bills and official seals - or its human rivals win out in the fight for prized habitat on lake and river shores.
The growth in the bald eagle population in recent years is "a great conservation success story", says Mike Dalton, director of conservation policy for the Audubon Society, a wildlife group.
BALD EAGLE
Wingspan of up to 8ft (2.4m)
Eats mainly fish
Lays one to three eggs a year
Made US symbol in 1782
Estimated 9,789 pairs in 2006
"People's attitudes have changed. The bald eagle has inspired a lot of people to take an interest in conservation," he says. "The bald eagle's story itself is an encouraging one because it shows that dedicated effort and focused attention to a species can save it from the brink of extinction."
But that the bird was ever in such danger, despite having been the national symbol since 1782, demonstrates a need for legal protections of some kind, conservationists say. As many as 500,000 are thought to have inhabited the US when European settlers first arrived.
But until the Bald Eagle Protection Act was passed in 1940, it was shot, poisoned and hunted across the country by landowners who believed it a threat to fish and crops, causing a drastic fall in its numbers.
In the 1950s and 1960s, widespread use of the pesticide DDT caused its population to drop still further, because it weakened the bird's eggshells so much that chicks could not be hatched out.
In 1967, with fewer than 500 pairs remaining, the bald eagle was put on the endangered species list. This meant people were banned from harming it, and that its habitat was protected. The use of DDT was banned soon after.
As a result, by 1999 numbers had soared to levels where former President Bill Clinton announced it was time to consider taking it off the threatened species list.
What has angered many property owners affected by measures protecting bald eagle habitats is that it has taken eight years for the government to reach that point.
Among those landowners is Edmund Contoski, whose lawsuit - backed by the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) - resulted in a court setting the 29 June deadline for the government to decide on the bird's status.
He wants to build five lakeside cabins on seven acres he owns in Minnesota - but has been prevented from doing so for several years because a bald eagle nest is in the area.
The PLF says the bird's removal from Endangered Species Act protection is vital because property owners are being "abused" by over-restrictive legislation that impedes their right to manage their property as they see fit.
This can have serious economic consequences, PLF staff attorney Damien Schiff points out.
Mr Contoski's land with the cabins would be worth more than $400,000 (£200,000), Mr Schiff says. Without them it is worth "almost nothing".
Mr Schiff predicts that even if the bird is taken off the endangered and threatened species list, the controversy is far from over.
The PLF fears that recent modifications to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act - which will cover the bald eagle once it is de-listed - mean it will impose almost as many restrictions on the use of land as the rules currently in place.
The debate is likely to hinge on what can be defined as "disturbing" bald eagles under the act.
Nicholas Throckmorton, spokesman for the US Fish and Wildlife Service, says the body has issued guidelines to help people avoid falling foul of the law.
"If I slam my car door and make the eagle fly off for five minutes, did I disturb it? Yes. Did I harm it in any way? No. The guidelines are to make it clear when a 'disturbance' has been caused," he explains.
Al Cecere, president and founder of the Tennessee-based American Eagle Foundation, a conservation charity, says he is optimistic a compromise can be found with landowners.
"We've learned a lot since the 40s and 50s," he says.
"We've learned we must protect ecosystems - and if we can protect those ecosystems with co-operative land agreements with owners, I think we will continue to achieve a slow but significant recovery in eagle nests in our country."
But Mr Cecere recognises that part of the problem is that bald eagles are in competition with people for highly sought-after tracts of land.
"We humans tend to recreate and live on many of the same lands that eagles prefer to nest on, mainly around large lakes and streams. And they require much more privacy to feel comfortable nesting and raising a family."
And he warns that much of the hard work is still to come, as government and volunteer conservation groups monitor eagle nests to ensure the change in status does not affect their numbers.
"We would still urge people to continue their vigilance. There is still a lot of work to be done to complete the recovery of the eagle," he says.
"It's going to require millions of dollars to support state, federal and private efforts to monitor eagle nests and protect habitat - and it's going to be up to the American people to be more involved."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Galapagos put on UN danger list.
Many of the species on the islands are found nowhere else on Earth. The Galapagos Islands, the first place on the planet officially designated as a World Heritage site, has been declared "in danger" by the UN. Experts said the 19 islands and surrounding ocean were under threat from "invasive species", increased tourism and growing immigration.
Isolated some 1,000km (620 miles) off of Ecuador's coast, the islands contain much unique plant and animal life. They were protected by Unesco 1978, with the boundaries extended in 2001.
The UN Environment, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), which administers the list of World Heritage sites, added the Galapagos Islands to a comparatively small list of sites facing clear dangers.
In a statement, the organisation said increased international interest in the islands - which are Ecuador's most popular tourist attraction - was effectively contributing to their gradual decline.
"The number of days spent by passengers of cruise ships has increased by 150% over the past 15 years," the organisation said in a statement.
"This increase has fuelled a growth in immigration and the ensuing inter-island traffic has led to the introduction of more invasive species."
Earlier this year Ecuador's President Rafael Correa said the Galapagos were at risk and in need of urgent action to protect their unique ecology. He said he was considering a range of measures designed to protect the islands' environment.
The wide variety of unusual flora and fauna on the islands, much of it found nowhere else on the planet, inspired naturalist Charles Darwin and helped contribute to his theory of evolution.
Unesco also placed Niokolo-Koba National Park in Senegal on the endangered list because of the threat of poaching and a proposed dam on the Gambia river.
The committee is considering 45 applications to join the World Heritage list from 39 countries. It currently contains 830 sites.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Distemper kills Danish seal pups.
It is not yet clear which strain of the virus is killing seals. An outbreak of distemper has killed at least 41 seal pups, whose carcasses have washed up on a Danish island. The Danish Forest and Nature Agency is investigating the scale of the outbreak among harbour seals off Anholt island, between Denmark and Sweden.
There are fears that thousands of seals could die if the virus spreads.
A distemper outbreak in 2002 killed about 30% of seals off Denmark, but the virus killed nearly 60% of seals in the area in 1988, the agency says. The virus causes laboured breathing, fever and neurological problems. It does not affect humans.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
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Baby boom for endangered tigers
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The endangered Siberian tiger has been given a boost, with the birth in captivity of 84 cubs since March this year, Chinese state media report. An official from China's feline breeding centre told Xinhua news agency the cubs were all well. Thirteen tigers are due to give birth by October. The Siberian tiger, the largest species of the feline, is one of the world's 10 most endangered species. Only 400 live in the wild, of which most are in the Russian Far East. The Hengdaohezi Feline Breeding Centre, located in the suburbs of the north-eastern city of Harbin, in the northern Heilongjiang province, was set up in 1986 with just eight tigers. It now contains 750. It plans to release 620 of them into the wild, the agency says. Scientists are trying to set up a gene bank to ensure the genetic diversity of the species. BBC NEWS REPORT. |
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Staff ecstatic as chick hatches.
EJ sitting on the nest at the Loch Garten reserve.
The first of three eggs fathered by an osprey that destroyed a rival's clutch has hatched.
The twists and turns in the feathered soap opera involving three adult birds of prey at Loch Garten in the Highlands has captivated the public and RSPB.
Osprey Henry arrived from wintering in West Africa to find his long-time mate EJ had laid eggs with rival male VS.
Henry kicked the eggs from the nest, before fathering a fresh clutch which EJ has been incubating.
The first of the three eggs hatched early on Thursday morning, with the other two chicks expected to hatch over the next few days.
Loch Garten osprey centre manager, Richard Thaxton, told BBC Scotland's news website that all three chicks would have a good chance of surviving provided there was plenty of food available.
He added: "This is fantastic news. We're just delighted that it looks like being a happy end to the season, and that visitors will actually be able to see osprey chicks here at the centre.
"EJ laid four eggs near the end of April, but Henry, her regular mate, got rid of those when he arrived back from West Africa.
"Thankfully, Henry's really good at catching fish and both birds are in their prime, so she did re-lay in mid May.
"What's happened this year is really unusual, so we're privileged to have played host to such a wonderful story."
Osprey from West Africa have been flying to Loch Garten for 50 years.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Call to tame China's tiger farms
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, The Hague.
China has about 5,000 tigers in captivity. The global body regulating wildlife trade has called on China to reduce the scale of its tiger farming industry.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting passed a resolution endorsing captive stocks only where they aid conservation.
China has about 5,000 tigers held in captive enclosures - more animals than remain in the wild. The government is considering whether to re-open the domestic market in tiger products for traditional medicine. There has been pressure from tiger farmers who say they are making a loss because of the 14-year ban on domestic and international trade.
Wild tigers are about to go down the toilet, and we don't seem to be doing anything about it -John Sellar, CITES' enforcement chief
Chinese delegate Wang Weisheng, from the wildlife management division of the government's forestry administration, said the trade would not be re-opened unless it could be shown to have a conservation benefit.
"I wish to assure [CITES] parties that we will not change domestic policy unless it can be demonstrated to have a positive effect on the conservation of wild tigers," he said.
CITES regulates international trade, and has no formal sanction on domestic markets. But a resolution passed five years ago encourages countries to close domestic trade in all big cat species.
The motion passed here calls on countries with commercial captive breeding programmes to keep them to a scale "supportive only of conserving wildlife".
To India and some of the other range states, along with conservation groups, this implies that the farms ought to close entirely.
"This is a real victory, a very clear signal from the international community that it is opposed to the farming of tigers," said Debbie Banks, senior tiger campaigner with the Environmental Investigation Agency. "To reopen the trade would simply lead to an increase in demand for tiger parts and the 'laundering' of skins and parts from poached wild tigers."
US delegate Todd Willens noted that the farms had little direct conservation value. "They're captive populations, we don't know their genetic history, they're not part of a species survival programme," he said.
China will host a meeting next month aimed at plotting a way forward. Scientists, economists, policymakers and NGOs from China and the international community would be invited, said Mr Wang. "I don't know what the outcome of this scientific evaluation will be," he said, "but experts have advised that if China were to supply tiger bone from captive tigers, the number of people wanting to buy from the underground market [in wild tiger products] would reduce.
"Also, sales of tiger bone would become a way to raise funds for international tiger conservation."
This theory, if endorsed at government level, could mean the farms retaining a large number of animals, perhaps even increasing their current stocks.
Steven Broad, executive director of the wildlife trade monitoring organisation Traffic, was cautious. "If we employ three economists to advise on this kind of issue, they will come up with three different answers," he commented. "So any outcome [from the Chinese meeting] will be uncertain, there will be no clear answer, that's guaranteed."
While the farming issue has come as close as possible to being resolved here, the situation for wild tigers remains parlous. Numbers are now about 5% of their historical level. "There are tigers getting killed out there today," noted CITES' enforcement chief, John Sellar.
"Wild tigers are about to go down the toilet, and we don't seem to be doing anything about it. The international community has been pouring money into this, and we have failed."
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
bbc news report.
'Last chance' for elephant deal.
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, The Hague
African nations are engaged in last-ditch negotiations on elephants and ivory as the end of a major wildlife trade meeting nears. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting closes on Friday and a compromise deal appears elusive.
Some African countries want to expand the ivory trade, others to shut it down for several years. But some observers believe enforcement is the big missing issue. The flurry of new proposals greeting delegates at the beginning of Tuesday, the conference's seventh working day, spoke of last-minute bids to find common ground.
Delegates from elephant range states had been meeting daily, but two conflicting views still prevailed. "It's a difficult issue, and that's why there are two fundamentally different approaches," commented Michael Wamithi, international advisor for Africa to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).
CITES has twice allowed southern African countries to sell limited quantities of ivory from stockpiles to Japan, as exceptions to the 1989 global trade moratorium.
CITES EXPLAINED
Threatened organisms listed on three appendices depending on level of risk
Appendix 1 - all international trade banned
Appendix 2 - international trade monitored and regulated
Appendix 3 - trade bans by individual governments, others asked to assist
"Uplisting" - moving organism to a more protective appendix, "downlisting" - the reverse
Conferences of the Parties (COPs) held every three years
CITES administered by UN Environment Programme (Unep)
At the beginning of this two-week meeting, Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe had asked for annual export quotas of ivory from stockpiles. "The Namibian elephant population has more than doubled in the last decade," said Namibia's environment and tourism minister Willem Konjore, "and illegal killing has been so low as to be insignificant".
The "willingness of the rural community to co-exist and share resources with elephants" would be maintained, he suggested, if elephant products brought a supply of money back to the communities.
Kenya and Mali, meanwhile, had submitted a proposal requesting a 20-year moratorium on any further sales. Tuesday brought two new proposals on the issue from the Kenyan camp, another two from southern Africa and one from the EU.
Collectively the documents speak of a further one-off ivory sale rather than annual quotas, liberalisation of other commercial and non-commercial uses of elephant products, and a moratorium of six, nine or 12 years rather than 20 on further sales.
After a brief debate and a recognition that these proposals cut across each other, delegates disappeared into side-rooms for what one participant suggested might be an all-night sitting.
Missing the point?
Illegal ivory markets pose a major problem.
A further Kenyan document sought to plug what some saw as the big hole in all these discussions - the high levels of poaching and low levels of enforcement in many African countries.
Tom Milliken, director of the southern and eastern Africa office of the wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic, presented the latest results from the Elephant Trade Information System (Etis) which collates data on illegal ivory seizures. "We are now seeing a sharp upturn in seizures," he told delegates. "The fact it's occurring now is a matter for concern because it occurs after the adoption of the African Action Plan at the last CITES meeting (in 2004), which was designed to close down the world's illegal ivory markets."
With the exception of Ethiopia, he said, few African countries had shown much improvement since then in their control of illegal markets. Cameroon and the Democratic Republic of Congo he described as countries of particular concern.
Of importing countries, Mr Milliken named China as a nation which has "demonstrated progressive improvement", but which faces major challenges.
Several delegates commented that unless these illegal markets can be controlled and shut down, there is little point in spending endless hours finessing the regulations surrounding legal sales.
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Sawfish protection acquires teeth
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, The Hague.
CITES delegates agree to give sawfish greater protection. Nations have agreed to ban international trade in one of the world's most remarkable fish. At the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting, delegates approved a bid to end the sawfish trade.
The spectacular rostra, or snouts, can fetch prices of more than $1,000 (£500), and all species of the fish are critically endangered. Australia secured a small exemption allowing live exports for aquaria. There was little opposition to the proposal to list the sawfish family (Pristidae) on CITES Appendix 1, though some delegations said little could be achieved without strong local fisheries controls.
Dorothy Nyingi from the National Museums of Kenya told delegates about a recent research project which had collected data on sawfish from all available sources, including fishermen and wildlife experts, along the Kenyan coast.
Sawfish have disappeared from waters stretching from the east coast of the US to southeast Asia -Carroll Muffett, Greenpeace."All sources reported a decrease in sawfish over a 14-year period," she said. "Only the meat is consumed locally; and artisanal fishermen can retire after catching one sawfish due to the high value of a single rostrum, up to $1,450."
The rostra are traded internationally for curios, and fins for use in shark fin soup. Rostra and fins are also used in traditional medicine, and individual teeth make spurs for cock-fighting in Latin America. Globally, all seven species are thought to be at less than 10% of their historical levels.
There was widespread agreement on the need to protect the sawfish, and Australia had clearly been working hard behind the scenes to secure support for its amendment which puts one of the species on CITES Appendix 2.
CITES EXPLAINED
Threatened organisms listed on three appendices depending on level of risk
Appendix 1 - all international trade banned
Appendix 2 - international trade monitored and regulated
Appendix 3 - trade bans by individual governments, others asked to assist
"Uplisting" - moving organism to a more protective appendix, "downlisting" - the reverse
Conferences of the Parties (COPs) held every three years
CITES administered by UN Environment Programme (Unep)
The only permitted trade will involve live fish, collected in sustainable numbers, for export to aquaria.
"It's universally recognised that the threat to sawfish comes from the trade in fins and rostra," said Australia's delegate Kerry Smith. "Northern Australia has robust populations of Pristis microdon occurring in large and remote areas which have not been subject to destructive harvesting."
The argument is that exhibiting sawfish in aquaria is a valuable way to educate people about the marine environment, though some environmental groups said there was also a commercial motive behind Australia's bid.
"Australia is putting the very survival of these magnificent animals at risk to protect an industry worth less than £100,000," said Carroll Muffett of Greenpeace. Greenpeace believes that even a limited legal trade will make it easier for illegally caught sawfish to enter the market.
There was general satisfaction that the family had been protected, though WWF's Sue Lieberman expressed frustration that delegates had on Friday rejected proposals to protect two other sharks, the porbeagle and spiny dogfish.
"This is a positive action today, but it's a pity that CITES parties are only able to throw a lifeline to sharks species when they're on the brink of extinction."
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Otter numbers 'continue to grow'.
Roads are now the biggest human threat to otters. The otter population in England and Wales is "healthy and continues to expand", a report has concluded. An 11-year study by the Environment Agency suggested that declining levels of certain chemicals had allowed the mammals to recover.
Widespread use of agricultural pesticides such as dieldrin, which was banned in 1989, had been blamed for the animals' decline between 1950s and 80s. The agency was confident that otter numbers would continue to increase. The agency's science department collated data from a series of studies that looked at post-mortem examinations on otters between 1992 and 2003.
While other factors - such as habitat loss and changes to land management - compounded matters, the study suggested a strong correlation between organochlorine chemicals, such as the insecticide dieldrin, and the decline in otter numbers.
Graham Scholey, a conservation team leader for the agency, said dieldrin was widely used in post-war agriculture.
BRITAIN'S OTTERS
Only one species found in UK, the European otter (Lutra lutra)
Diet of mainly fish, but also birds and small mammals
Breeds every two years; cubs stay with mother for a year
Average lifespan of four years, but can reach 12 years
Territory ranges between 1km and 40km
"It was used as a seed dressing and also in sheep-dip preparations," he explained, "so it was used in both lowland crop farming and upland agriculture." He added that once the pesticide had worked its way into watercourses, the chemical contaminated fish stocks, which in turn were eaten by the otters.
As dieldrin was a persistent organic pollutant that could remain in the environment for several decades, it had a "devastating impact" on top predators in the food chain.
A significant fall in otter numbers coincided with the introduction of dieldrin and other chemicals in the 1950s.
"One of the main factors of dieldrin poisoning was impaired reproductive abilities. That was probably one of the main reasons why otter numbers declined quite quickly," Mr Scholey suggested.
The chemical was progressively withdrawn from use from 1962 and eventually banned in 1989.
"The good news is that levels of dieldrin have fallen sufficiently to allow a recover of otters."
Conservationists hope the population, estimated to be in the thousands, is healthy enough to allow the creatures to recolonize former habitats outside the strongholds of south-west England and Wales.
However, Mr Scholey said the agency was not going to become complacent. "The condition of the animals, at the moment, means that there are no major problems affecting the health of our otters relating to chemicals in the environment. "But there is a whole new suite of chemicals being introduced all the time, so we need to keep an eye on that."
"We are reasonable comfortable with the chemical that we have looked at, but we now need to make sure that we are not missing a ticking timebomb in terms of the others."
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Owner's appeal over cat's 26 toes.
Des the cat can be temperamental according to his owner.They say cats have nine lives - so meet Des, who has 26 toes. While most pet cats have 18 - five on their front paws and four on their rear - the 10-year-old boasts seven on his front and six on his back paws.
The extra digits have left owner Alison Thomas, of Felindre, near Swansea, pondering whether it is a UK record. One expert said cats with extra toes were common in the area around the old county of Cardiganshire and were sometimes known as "Cardi-cats".
A cat with too many toes is called a Polydactyl.
There are unconfirmed reports in north America of cats with up to 28 toes - but Mrs Thomas cannot find records closer to home. Mother-of-three Mrs Thomas said: "He came to us when he was about six months old - he just turned up on the doorstep and it was even more noticeable then because his paws were so big. "The first thing people say when they see him even now is 'look at his paws'. "He is a bit temperamental - if you know him you are okay but Des can be quite quick with his paws and leave a nasty scratch because he has so many claws. His rear paws have six toes -his front paws have seven.
"He did have a problem with his paws a while back - nothing to do with the number of the toes - and the vet said he could amputate the extra ones. "But they don't cause him any problems - he does not scratch the furniture - the children know and they say 'don't go near Des's claws'."
Mrs Thomas said she had read it was common for a Polydactyl to have 24 toes - but 26 was 'very rare'.
Sally Hyman, from the Llys Nini Animal Centre in Penllergaer, Swansea, said she had seen lots of cats with six toes, but never one with seven. "It's quite common to have six toes in Cardiganshire, and therefore we call them 'Cardi-cats' sometimes," Ms Hyman explained. "Its because it's a genetic defect, the gene pool is actually concentrated in south west Wales, and so it's more likely to get a cat with that genetic defect, breeding with another cat with that genetic defect in Cardigan, than anywhere, else in Britain."
Mrs Thomas said she was "amazed", as Des had been born in Newcastle Emlyn in west Wales. "He obviously is a Cardi-cat," she said.
The world record might belong to a cat called Mickey Mouse who was owned by Renee Delgade of Westlake Village, California, in 1974. It had 32 toes, but there are doubts about the record as Mickey may have had "double paw" condition and may not have been a pure Polydactyl.
There is speculation the real record holder for a Polydactyl is Bobbi, owned by Kathy Williams of Stone Creek in British Columbia. The Canadian press reported in 2002 it had 28 toes.
"We would be interested to find out what the record is the UK," added Mrs Thomas.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Scientists urge North Sea cod ban.
A total ban on North Sea cod fishing has been called for by a group of marine scientists, ahead of EU talks. The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) also recommends major cuts in the catches of fish including haddock and plaice. A spokesman said stocks were "suffering from reduced reproduction".
Scotland's Fisheries Minister Richard Lochhead said he would "pursue energetically" Scottish interests in EU talks on the issue.
The ICES report comes before annual fisheries talks between European ministers in Brussels. As well as recommending a complete moratorium on cod, ICES is calling for cuts in North Sea catches of herring, haddock, whiting, plaice and sole.
The cod quota for 2007 was set at 20,000 tonnes. The group wants the plaice quota to be 26,000 tonnes for 2008, compared with 50,261 tonnes in 2007. It recommends a reduction in the level for whiting from 23,800 tonnes down to just 5,000 tonnes.
The report concludes that stocks of some fish, including haddock, are healthy. But ICES chairman Martin Pastoors said other catches were reporting lower levels of reproduction. He added: "This is seen in several areas and will have to be reflected in the fisheries management."
Mr Lochhead said his SNP party would seek "radical changes" to the common fisheries policy, which he said was "failing to deliver either prosperity for our communities or the sustainable stocks on which those communities depend".
BBC NEWS REPORT.
Japanese whale request rejected
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website, The Hague.
Japan's long-term strategy to see a re-introduction of commercial whale hunting has suffered another rebuff. Its motion asking the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to review whale stocks was defeated.
Approval for the motion, discussed at the CITES summit in The Hague, could have led to a resumption in a legal trade in whalemeat.
A similar proposal on fin whales by Iceland was also defeated.
The CITES conference follows hard on the heels of the International Whaling Commission annual meeting, which saw Japan suffer reverses on a number of issues. "It's a one-two punch for the whales," said Patrick Ramage, global whale programme manager with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw). "In the space of a week, the two leading institutions charged with protecting wildlife have rejected efforts by Japan to weaken protection for our planet's great whales."
Historically, CITES has followed IWC advice on whale stocks. Because the IWC maintains a global moratorium on commercial hunting, international trade in whalemeat is banned. However, with the IWC mired in deadlock and with no sign of the 21-year moratorium being lifted, Japan has viewed CITES as another route to opening the whale trade.
A CITES assessment that some stocks were robust enough to withstand a degree of international trade would signal they were also robust enough to sustain some commercial hunting.
A number of governments and NGOs supported Japan's bid to have CITES re-evaluate whale stocks, with Eugene Lapointe of the World Conservation Trust (IWMC) commenting: "CITES has its own rules, its own criteria, and it's just normal that the listing of species is re-assessed."
The majority of delegates disagreed, and the resolution was defeated. Japan had offered to fund the re-assessment exercise.
The introduction of the commercial whaling moratorium in 1986 was supposed to be accompanied by an IWC global review of whale stocks. The fact that it is a long way from completion is a major factor behind Japan's frustration.
But Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, who attended the recent IWC scientific committee meeting, defended the long timescale. "I can assure delegates that the scientific review is indeed comprehensive," he said. "But it's not a simple matter to assess species which spend so much time in the water, sometimes far offshore; and where individuals are often virtually indistinguishable from each other. "With these factors in mind, it is unreasonable and unfair to suggest that CITES could produce something more thorough than the IWC scientific advice."
The meeting passed an amendment saying that CITES should not re-assess whale stocks while the commercial moratorium remained in place.
Richard.Black-INTERNET@bbc.co.uk
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