Advancing tuna catch allocation negotiations: an analysis of sovereign rights and fisheries access arrangements

Regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) determine conservation measures for transboundary fsheries resources. They are also a forum for collective action toward the management of marine resources. One of the most complex and controversial aspects of this process is the allocation of catches between RFMO members. There are a variety of processes that can be used for catch allocation. In recent years, there has been a trend in some RFMOs towards establishing a system of criteria or indicators to determine the volume or percentage of catch that should be allocated to each RFMO member. Establishing such a system is challenging and the position of countries negotiating at RFMOs is also shaped by fisheries access arrangements. The debate on allocation has been ongoing at the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission for more than a decade, where one key point of disagreement is the treatment of historical catch taken in the waters of a coastal State. On the one hand, coastal states claim that catches historically taken in their exclusive economic zones (EEZ) should be attributed to them based on their sovereign rights over living resources. On the other, some fishing countries from outside the region claim catch history based on fishing conducted in the coastal State’s waters pursuant to access agreements. We analysed UNCLOS articles, publicly available fisheries access agreements, and national legislation to unpack the linkage between fisheries access arrangements and catch allocation discussions, and we also explored examples from other regions and RFMOs. We point out that the sovereign rights of coastal states over their EEZ provide a strong basis for allocation negotiations. In the absence of specific agreements to the contrary, any catch history that arises from foreign vessels fishing inside the EEZ should be attributed to the coastal State. We also argue that it is time for members of RFMOs—and especially of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission—to move beyond the historical catch debate. They need to resolve their differences or consider other ways to allocate participatory rights in shared fisheries

Comparison of embedded and added motor imagery training in patients after stroke: Results of a randomised controlled pilot trial

Copyright @ 2012 Schuster et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Background: Motor imagery (MI) when combined with physiotherapy can offer functional benefits after stroke. Two MI integration strategies exist: added and embedded MI. Both approaches were compared when learning a complex motor task (MT): ‘Going down, laying on the floor, and getting up again’. Methods: Outpatients after first stroke participated in a single-blinded, randomised controlled trial with MI embedded into physiotherapy (EG1), MI added to physiotherapy (EG2), and a control group (CG). All groups participated in six physiotherapy sessions. Primary study outcome was time (sec) to perform the motor task at pre and post-intervention. Secondary outcomes: level of help needed, stages of MT-completion, independence, balance, fear of falling (FOF), MI ability. Data were collected four times: twice during one week baseline phase (BL, T0), following the two week intervention (T1), after a two week follow-up (FU). Analysis of variance was performed. Results: Thirty nine outpatients were included (12 females, age: 63.4 ± 10 years; time since stroke: 3.5 ± 2 years; 29 with an ischemic event). All were able to complete the motor task using the standardised 7-step procedure and reduced FOF at T0, T1, and FU. Times to perform the MT at baseline were 44.2 ± 22s, 64.6 ± 50s, and 118.3 ± 93s for EG1 (N = 13), EG2 (N = 12), and CG (N = 14). All groups showed significant improvement in time to complete the MT (p < 0.001) and degree of help needed to perform the task: minimal assistance to supervision (CG) and independent performance (EG1+2). No between group differences were found. Only EG1 demonstrated changes in MI ability over time with the visual indicator increasing from T0 to T1 and decreasing from T1 to FU. The kinaesthetic indicator increased from T1 to FU. Patients indicated to value the MI training and continued using MI for other difficult-to-perform tasks. Conclusions: Embedded or added MI training combined with physiotherapy seem to be feasible and benefi-cial to learn the MT with emphasis on getting up independently. Based on their baseline level CG had the highest potential to improve outcomes. A patient study with 35 patients per group could give a conclusive answer of a superior MI integration strategy.The research project was partially funded by the Gottfried und Julia Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation

The fungus Armillaria bulbosa is among the largest and oldest living organisms

ASEXUALLY reproducing organisms occur in a variety of taxa in all biological kingdoms1 and distinguishing asexually propagated genotypes is essential for the understanding of their population biology. Among the higher fungi, however, the clonal \u27individual\u27 is especially difficult to define2 because most of the fungal thallus consists of a network of anastamosing hyphae embedded in the substratum. Whether fruit-bodies, the most recognizable part of a fungus, are produced by a single supporting mycelium can only be determined by establishing direct physiological continuity or genetic identity. We report a means by which individual fungi can be unambiguously identified within local populations and identify an individual of Armillaria bulbosa that occupies a minimum of 15 hectares, weighs in excess of 10,000kg, and has remained genetically stable for more than 1,500 years. © 1992 Nature Publishing Group

Cenozoic environmenal shifts and foraminiferal evolution

The dense record of Cenozoic foraminifera simultaneously supplies a mosaic of biostratigraphy, a rich field for evolutionary studies and the vehicles for geochemical environmental proxies. Four groups are discussed: the larger foraminifera on the warm-water shelves and platforms, the planktonics, the deep-sea faunas and the southern-extratropical benthics. The environmental trajectory from greenhouse in the later Cretaceous and earlier Paleogene to icehouse in the Neogene is not smooth but punctuated, and there are two particularly critical intervals, later Eocene and early-middle Miocene. The foraminiferal record is not smooth but chunky at 107 years’ scale. There are several good examples of two powerful synchroneities, one being between the faunas of the different realms and the other between the fossil record and the physical-environmental record.Brian McGowra