Impacto científico na legislação europeia sobre bem estar animal

DIRECTIVA 2010/63/UE DO PARLAMENTO EUROPEU E DO CONSELHO
de 22 de Setembro de 2010
relativa à protecção dos animais utilizados para fins científicos


O bem-estar dos animais é um valor da União, consa­grado no artigo 13º do Tratado sobre o Funcionamento da União Europeia (TFUE).

Existem novos conhecimentos científicos a respeito dos factores que influenciam o bem-estar dos animais, assim como a capacidade dos mesmos para sentir e manifestar dor, sofrimento, angústia e dano duradouro. Por conse­guinte, importa melhorar o bem-estar dos animais utili­zados em procedimentos científicos, reforçando as nor­mas mínimas relativas à sua protecção de acordo com a evolução mais recente dos conhecimentos científicos.

Para além dos animais vertebrados, incluindo os ciclós­tomos, deverão ser igualmente incluídos no âmbito de aplicação da presente directiva os cefalópodes, pois a sua capacidade para sentir dor, sofrimento, angústia e dano duradouro está cientificamente demonstrada.

A presente directiva deverá igualmente abranger formas fetais de mamíferos, pois existem provas científicas de que essas formas, no último terço do seu período de gestação, apresentam um risco crescente de sentir dor, sofrimento e angústia, o que pode igualmente prejudicar o seu desenvolvimento ulterior. Está igualmente demons­trado cientificamente que os procedimentos efectuados em formas fetais e embrionárias numa fase mais precoce do seu desenvolvimento podem provocar dor, sofri­mento, angústia ou dano duradouro se essas formas fo­rem mantidas em vida depois dos primeiros dois terços do seu desenvolvimento.

A utilização de grandes símios enquanto espécies mais próximas dos seres humanos, com capacidades sociais e comportamentais mais avançadas, só deverá ser permitida para fins de investigação destinada à conservação dessas espécies e em casos que exijam medidas relativamente a condições debilitantes ou que possam pôr em perigo a vida de seres humanos e em que não existam outras espécies ou outros métodos alternativos que permitam atingir os objectivos do procedimento.

Natal

Explêndido trabalho de Jörn Kasphul

What about us?

E eu, que faço? Entradas num blogue...

Michael Jackson

What about sunrise What about rain What about all the things That you said we were to gain.. . What about killing fields Is there a time What about all the things That you said was yours and mine... Did you ever stop to notice All the blood we've shed before Did you ever stop to notice The crying Earth the weeping shores? Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah What have we done to the world Look what we've done What about all the peace That you pledge your only son... What about flowering fields Is there a time What about all the dreams That you said was yours and mine... Did you ever stop to notice All the children dead from war Did you ever stop to notice The crying Earth the weeping shores Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah I used to dream I used to glance beyond the stars Now I don't know where we are Although I know we've drifted far Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaaaah

Hey, what about yesterday (What about us) What about the seas (What about us) The heavens are falling down (What about us) I can't even breathe (What about us) What about the bleeding Earth (What about us) Can't we feel its wounds (What about us) What about nature's worth (ooo,ooo) It's our planet's womb (What about us) What about animals (What about it) We've turned kingdoms to dust (What about us) What about elephants (What about us) Have we lost their trust (What about us) What about crying whales (What about us) We're ravaging the seas (What about us) What about forest trails (ooo, ooo) Burnt despite our pleas (What about us) What about the holy land (What about it) Torn apart by creed (What about us) What about the common man (What about us) Can't we set him free (What about us) What about children dying (What about us) Can't you hear them cry (What about us) Where did we go wrong (ooo, ooo) Someone tell me why (What about us) What about babies (What about it) What about the days (What about us) What about all their joy (What about us) What about the man (What about us) What about the crying man (What about us) What about Abraham (What was us) What about death again (ooo, ooo) Do we give a damn?

Ecosystem-based fisheries management requires a change to the selective fishing philosophy

A new ecosystem-based fisheries management (EBFM) paradigm has emerged. As part of this approach, selective fishing is widely encouraged in the belief that nonselective fishing has many adverse impacts. In particular, incidental bycatch is seen as wasteful and a negative feature of fishing, and methods to reduce bycatch are implemented in many fisheries. However, recent advances in fishery science and ecology suggest that a selective approach may also result in undesirable impacts both to fisheries and marine ecosystems.

We argue here that a “balanced exploitation” approach might alleviate many of the ecological effects of fishing by avoiding intensive removal of particular components of the ecosystem, while still supporting sustainable fisheries. This concept may require reducing exploitation rates on certain target species or groups to protect vulnerable components of the ecosystem.

S. Zhou, A. D. M. Smith, A. E. Punt, A. J. Richardson, M. Gibbs, E. A. Fulton, S. Pascoe, C. Bulman, P. Bayliss, K. Sainsbury. Ecosystem-based fisheries management requires a change to the selective fishing philosophy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0912771107

Why fishing magnifies fluctuations in fish abundance

It is now clear that fished populations can fluctuate more than unharvested stocks. However, it is not clear why. Here we distinguish among three major competing mechanisms for this phenomenon, by using the 50-year California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations (CalCOFI) larval fish record. First, variable fishing pressure directly increases variability in exploited populations. Second, commercial fishing can decrease the average body size and age of a stock, causing the truncated population to track environmental fluctuations directly. Third, age-truncated or juvenescent populations have increasingly unstable population dynamics because of changing demographic parameters such as intrinsic growth rates. We find no evidence for the first hypothesis, limited evidence for the second and strong evidence for the third. Therefore, in California Current fisheries, increased temporal variability in the population does not arise fromvariable exploitation, nor does it reflect direct environmental tracking. More fundamentally, it arises from increased instability in dynamics. This finding has implications for resource management as an empirical example of how selective harvesting can alter the basic dynamics of exploited populations, and lead to unstable booms and busts that can precede systematic declines in stock levels.

Paralelos oleosos

O título é um bocado parvo, mas quero registar aqui o artigo de Ugo Bardi, traçando o paralelo entre a crise petrolífera actual e aquilo que ele descreve como o primeiro exemplo de um recurso não-renovável que atravessou um ciclo de Hubbert completo:

PRICE TRENDS OVER A COMPLETE HUBBERT CYCLE: THE CASE OF THE AMERICAN WHALING INDUSTRY IN 19th CENTURY

Aichi-Nagoya International E-Conference on the Post 2010 Biodiversity Target (ANIEC 2010)

Uma imagem bonita para um assunto importante. A conferência tem lugar no Japão..