Cancun,
Mexico, September 12 ,2003 -- Robert Ovetz, PhD., marine species
campaigner for the Sea Turtle Restoration Project, silently
dragged a puppet of a dead Pacific Leatherback sea turtle through
the WTO convention center ground floor. Wearing a sign reading
"Save the Sea Turtles. NO WTO!" The activist worked
his way around the passive NGOs, media and delegates until resting
before a crowd where he spoke on the link between the massacre
of sea turtles by free trade. "Free trade is the problem,
not the solution" he explained. He was able to deliver
a 10 minute speech on the impacts of free trade on the marine
environment before being escorted out of the WTO meeting.
Unregulated
high seas longline swordfishing by large industrial fleets have
not only depleted this fishery but are slaughtering thousands
of endangered leatherbacks. Leatherbacks, whose population has
declined to 5% of their numbers only 20 years ago, are caught
along with millions of sharks, sea birds, dolphins, porpoises,
marlins and whales which are thrown back as so-called "by
catch" dead or dying. The governments of the US and Chile
are key members of the "Foes of the Fish" efforts
to expand WTO control over our oceans. The WTO has already made
clear its position on ocean conservation in the 1990s when it
struck down "Dolphin" safe measures in the US and
forced the US to weaken a US law requiring "turtle excluder
devices" to allow sea turtles to escape shrimp nets.
Minutes
later about 200 activists shut down the narrow streets bypassing
the WTO convention centre with a festive action of singing and
meditation for more than 3 hours.
