Sign against the exploitation of Sahrawi waters

The EU is paying Morocco to fish in occupied Western Sahara. You can help by signing this petition, whose text follows (bold type is mine):

Petition:

Stop EU fisheries in Western Sahara!

To the European Commissioner for Fisheries,

No state in the world has recognised the Moroccan annexation of Western Sahara. Still, the EU is paying millions of Euros annually to the Government of Morocco to allow EU vessels to fish in the waters of Western Sahara. The EU fisheries activities in Western Sahara must immediately come to an end.

Morocco continues to refuse to cooperate with the decolonization process in Western Sahara, thereby defying more than 100 UN resolutions that insist on the Saharawi people’s right to self-determination. Simultaneously, Moroccan authorities commit human rights violations against Sahrawis who voice their political views. No EU states, nor the UN, recognise the Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara.

In this context, cooperating with Morocco in exploiting Western Sahara’s natural resources is highly unethical, and clearly jeopardizes the UN’s efforts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

According to the UN, the natural resources in Western Sahara cannot be exploited without regard to the wishes and interests of the people of the territory. However, the EU is transferring European taxpayers’ money to the Government of Morocco for access to Western Saharan waters, without even consulting the Sahrawi people.

The EU has the legal and moral obligation to stop subverting the UN peace process in Western Sahara, by respecting the Sahrawi people’s right to self-determination over their land and their resources.

We urge the European Commission to put an immediate stop to the granting of all licenses to EU vessels fishing in Western Saharan waters, and we demand that no further EU fisheries operations take place in Western Sahara until a peaceful solution to the conflict has been found.

Yours sincerely,

Sign the petition!

The petition was published on 06.11.2009 and has now 10414 signatures.

I would add: pay the taxes to the Arab Sahrawi Democratic Republic and, with their agreement, send that useless NATO navy to ensure the safety of our fishermen and fight against Morocco for the sovereignty of West Sahara.

Paleolithic Chinese ate fish regularly

At least it was the case of Tianyuan 1, a Paleolithic individual from Northern China who lived some 40,000 years ago. Isotope analysis from the teeth show that this person was a regular consumer of fish. This finding determines that ancient humans had the ability of fishing on regular basis at least as early as that date.

Yaowu Hu et al., Stable isotope dietary analysis of the Tianyuan 1 early modern human. PNAS, 2009. Open access.

Divulgative article also at Science Daily.


Update:

Ezana at Anthropology Forum points me to another older evidence of coastal food-gathering habits: Eritrea c. 125,000 years ago:

Robert C. Walter et al., Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial. Nature, 2000. It's behind a paywall but you can access the tables and figures freely.

A divulgative article can be found here.

It seems that there is a lot of evidence accumulating in favor of early humans using the coastal landscape quite naturally. This, of course, supports the coastal migration model.
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Somalian pirates claim defense of national waters

There's an interesting first-hand account from a Somalian pirate at the BBC today. Dahir Mohammed Hayeysi claims that foreign illegal industrial overfishing and toxic waste dumping are the main reasons behind Somali piracy. He also claims that foreign navies can't do nothing to stop it, that only a government who can protect their waters can.
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No to bottom-trawling!

Only 4% of the Ocean remains untouched. The situation is catastrophical in Europe and Japan specially.




Effects of bottom trawling.

I just can't believe that EU authorities, from Parliament to Comission passing by the council of Ministers are not able to just forbid bottom trawling in European waters. The situation is getting worse every year and fishing industries are suffering it already but nobody seems to care. There's an attitude of eyes that don't see, heart that doesn't feel. They are perfectly able to make such stupid agreements as banning patio heaters or whatever other idiocy but they are not able tackle any real problems, much less if they have to face the industry.

It's so outrageous that I feel shame of being European sometimes.