BANGKOK: The world’s top wildlife trade body voted Thursday to effectively ban all international trade in the critically endangered oceanic whitetip shark but rejected a proposal to protect more species of eel.
The decision to upgrade protection of the shark species was welcomed by conservation groups that have warned oceanic whitetips are on the brink of extinction.
“This was our last hope,” said Barbara Slee, senior program manager at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
“This listing might just spare them from extinction.”
The species has suffered dramatic declines linked to the shark fin trade, and is one of dozens of shark species proposed for greater protections at the meeting of signatories to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
The 50-year agreement protects the world’s most endangered animals and plants, and regulates trade in over 40,000 species.
Earlier, members meeting in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand rejected new protections for eels that had been fiercely opposed by top consumers of the fish, led by Japan.
Eel populations are falling worldwide, scientists say, largely due to factors linked to human activity such as the pollution of waterways, destruction of wetlands, hydroelectric dams, and fishing.
European eels are considered critically endangered and their trade has been restricted by CITES since 2009.
Eels cannot be bred in captivity, so much of the trade is in wild-caught baby eels, with one species virtually indistinguishable from another.
The European Union and Panama sought to bring all 17 eel species under CITES Appendix II, placing new restrictions on trade.
The “harvest for international trade is a major cause of international decline,” the EU’s representative warned.
But Japan dismissed the proposal as unscientific and “excessive,” backed by multiple countries including African nations who warned it would place undue administrative burdens on their authorities.
In a sign of the pressures around the issue, countries voted by secret ballot, a relatively uncommon procedure at the gathering, with nearly 75 percent of votes against.
The result was “not very surprising,” said Oliver Tallowin, senior program officer for wildlife use and trade at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Japan’s opposition had been made clear early on in a submission running over 100 pages.
There are also differing views on the pressures other eel species face, said Tallowin.
“International trade has to be a threat to the species and... that was something we couldn’t say with any sense of certainty,” he told AFP.
For Andrew Kerr of the Sustainable Eel Group, “the short-term commercial and financial side won the debate massively.”
Kerr, who has called eel trafficking the “greatest wildlife crime” on the planet, said the vote was a “real pity,” but there were some silver linings.
A separate resolution proposing measures including more data gathering on eels and conservation capacity-building was approved later in the day.
“We’ve had a missed opportunity this morning, but then the fact that everyone’s talking about eel, that’s a huge victory too,” Kerr said.
The resolution means more data will be collectd that could support protection of all eel species in the future, added Tallowin.
“Once something has been rejected... that doesn’t mean its going to go away.”
Votes are finalized later in the meeting, though it is unusual for them to be revised.
New protections for oceanic whitetip sharks, but not eels
https://arab.news/5ug69
New protections for oceanic whitetip sharks, but not eels
- The decision to upgrade protection of the shark species was welcomed by conservation groups
- The species has suffered dramatic declines linked to the shark fin trade
Trump awards medals to the Kennedy Center honorees in an Oval Office ceremony
- Trump said they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture”
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Saturday presented the 2025 Kennedy Center honorees with their medals during a ceremony in the Oval Office, hailing the slate of artists he was deeply involved in choosing as “perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class” ever assembled.
This year’s recipients are actor Sylvester Stallone, singers Gloria Gaynor and George Strait, the rock band Kiss and actor-singer Michael Crawford.
Trump said they are a group of “incredible people” who represent the “very best in American arts and culture” and that, “I know most of them and I’ve been a fan of all of them.”
“This is a group of icons whose work and accomplishments have inspired, uplifted and unified millions and millions of Americans,” said a tuxedo-clad Trump. “This is perhaps the most accomplished and renowned class of Kennedy Center Honorees ever assembled.”
Trump’s takeover of the Kennedy Center
Trump ignored the Kennedy Center and its premier awards program during his first term as president. But the Republican has instituted a series of changes since returning to office in January, most notably ousting its board of trustees and replacing them with GOP supporters who voted him in as chairman of the board.
Trump also has criticized the center’s programming and its physical appearance, and has vowed to overhaul both.
The president placed around each honoree’s neck a new medal that was designed, created and donated by jeweler Tiffany & Co., according to the Kennedy Center and Trump.
It’s a gold disc etched on one side with the Kennedy Center’s image and rainbow colors. The honoree’s name appears on the reverse side with the date of the ceremony. The medallion hangs from a navy blue ribbon and replaces a large rainbow ribbon decorated with three gold plates that rested on the honoree’s shoulders and chest and had been used since the first honors program in 1978.
Trump honors the honorees
Strait, wearing a cowboy hat, was first to receive his medal. When the country singer started to take off the hat, Trump said, “If you want to leave it on, you can. I think we can get it through.” But Strait took it off.
The president said Crawford was a “great star of Broadway” for his lead role in the long-running “Phantom of the Opera.” Of Gaynor, he said, “We have the disco queen, and she was indeed, and nobody did it like Gloria Gaynor.”
Trump was effusive about his friend Stallone, calling him a “wonderful” and “spectacular” person and “one of the true, great movie stars” and “one of the great legends.”
Kiss is an “incredible rock band,” he said.
Songs by honorees Gaynor and Kiss played in the Rose Garden just outside the Oval Office as members of the White House press corps waited nearby for Trump to begin the ceremony.
The president president said in August that he was “about 98 percent involved” in choosing the 2025 honorees when he personally announced them at the Kennedy Center, the first slate chosen under his leadership. The honorees traditionally had been announced by press release.
It was unclear how they were chosen. Before Trump, it fell to a bipartisan selection committee.
“These are among the greatest artists, actors and performers of their generation. The greatest that we’ve seen,” Trump said. “We can hardly imagine the country music phenomena without its king of country, or American disco without its first lady, or Broadway without its phantom — and that was a phantom, let me tell you — or rock and roll without its hottest band in the world, and that’s what they are, or Hollywood without one of its greatest visionaries.”
“Each of you has made an indelible mark on American life and together you have defined entire genres and set new standards for the performing arts,” Trump said.
Trump also attended an annual State Department dinner for the honorees on Saturday. In years past, the honorees received their medallions there but Trump moved the ceremony to the White House.
Trump to host the Kennedy Center Honors
Meanwhile, the glitzy Kennedy Center Honors program and its series of tribute speeches and performances for each recipient is set to be taped on Sunday at the performing arts center for broadcast later in December on CBS and Paramount+. Trump is to attend the program for the first time as president, accompanied by his wife, first lady Melania Trump.
The president said in August that he had agreed to host the show, and he seemed to confirm on Saturday that he would do so, predicting that the broadcast would garner its highest ratings ever as a result. Presidents traditionally attend the program and sit with the honorees in the audience. None has ever served as host.
He said he looked forward to Sunday’s celebration.
“It’s going to be something that I believe, and I’m going to make a prediction: this will be the highest-rated show that they’ve ever done and they’ve gotten some pretty good ratings, but there’s nothing like what’s going to happen tomorrow night,” Trump said.
The president also swiped at late-night TV show host Jimmy Kimmel, whose program was briefly suspended earlier this year by ABC following criticism of his comments related to the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in September.
Kimmel and Trump are sharp critics of each other, with the president regularly deriding Kimmel’s talent as a host. Kimmel has hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards and the Academy Award multiple times.
Trump said he should be able to outdo Kimmel.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible,” Trump said. “If I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
