Friends Of The Earth

By the Mother Earth News editors

September/October 1977

Friends of the Earth is one of the most effective environmental groups in the world today. Although FOE publishes its own journal-a monthly tabloid called Not Man Apart-far too few of MOTHER's readers regularly see a copy of NMA . . . which is why we've agreed to publish this column, written by the FOE/NMA staff.

THE BATTLE OF PALAU

Palau (pop. 11,200) is an idyllic string of 200 islands in Micronesia . . . a true South Pacific paradise. Since World War II, Palau has been administered by the U.S. under a trust territory agreement with the United Nations. Until recently, Palau's natives fished the area's coral reefs (some of the richest in the world) and lived on the islands' fruits and taro.

In 1975 Robert Panero--an American working as a consultant for a Japanese bank-proposed that a colossal oil shipment facility be built at Palau, a "superport" that would serve huge supertankers carrying Iranian oil to Japan. Panero's proposal included oil tanks, refineries, and a gigantic harbor that would be dredged among the coral reefs. Of course, such a development-entailing the possibility of enormous oil spills, siltation of the coral reefs, and a great influx of people, money, and machinery to the area-would forever change Palau's people and uniquely beautiful ecosystem.

The Palauans themselves are divided on the superport question. Some see economic benefits to the islands . . . others see the obvious danger to their reefs and their way of life.

Meanwhile, environmentalists and other friends of Palau from around the world have been working to save Palau from the potentially devastating effects of largescale development. Last March, a coalition of environmental organizations representing over 20 million people from more than 50 countries petitioned the Japanese Congress to investigate the superport proposal more closely and to reconsider the course of Japanese investment.

Likewise, on June 14 of this year a coalition of eleven environmental and public interest groups-including FOEasked the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create a marine sanctuary at Palau. The sanctuary-if established-would include all of the islands, except for the water around the district's population center.

The coalition's petition notes that Palau "sustains a veritable encyclopedia of marine life" and asks for an environmental impact statement for the proposed superport. NOAA officials believe that the superport could coexist with a sanctuary, but environmentalists are skeptical. In World War II-when terrible battles were fought at Palau-the greatest damage to the is lands was done not by bombs or bullets, but by oil leaking from ships.

PORPOISE QUOTA COMPROMISE

The controversy over porpoise quotas for tuna fishermen has finally been settled by legislation, although nobody's really happy with the outcome. As you'd expect, fishermen have been trying to liberalize porpoise quotas, and environmentalists have been trying equally hard to lower the maximum number of porpoises that can legally be taken.

Years ago-before there were any "porpoise quotas"-an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 porpoises died annually in tuna nets. (Porpoises are often found swimming above schools of tuna.) Then-in 1972-Congress passed the Marine Mammal Protection Act, authorizing the Commerce Department to set upper limits on the unintentional killing of porpoises. As it turned out, however, the Commerce Department didn't go ahead and set any limits.

Last year, environmentalists sued the Commerce Department to get a quota, and-as a result-the National Marine Fisheries Service of the Commerce Department set a limit of 59,000 porpoise kills for 1977.

The tuna fishermen-who claim that they cannot earn a decent living and comply with the Commerce Department limitation-have been protesting ever since the first quota was set. In response to this outcry, the Chairman of the House Merchant Marine Committee, John Murphy (DN.Y.), earlier this year introduced a bill in Congress which would modify the porpoise quota upwards to 78,900 kills per year for 1977 and 1978. Since the tunafishing fleet had been in port protesting for almost half of 1977, this would have meant that the fishermen would be allowed to trap 78,900 porpoises in the remaining six months of 1977 (the equivalent of a yearly quota of 157,800 porpoises).

After a long debate and the introduction of many proporpoise amendments, the House decided on a compromise final quota of 69,000 and rejected a Carter administration proposal to halve the quota over the next three years. Under present regulations, Commerce Department observers will monitor porpoise kills on all boats for the next year and a half, and skippers will be fined $32 for each porpoise they catch over the industry average. Captains with a high kill rate will be subject to penalties ranging from mandatory attendance of a 30day "training course" to a year's suspension from fishing.

The tuna industry will reportedly lay out $2 million for a research ship to investigate new fishing techniques and equipment, and for rebates to those captains with the lowest ratios of porpoises killed to tuna caught.

WHALEN AND HUTCHINSON TO HEAD PARK SERVICE

President Carter's reputation for making praiseworthy appointments got another boost recently with the appointments of William Whalen -one-time General Manager of the well-managed Bay Area National Parks in California-as Director of the National Park Service, and Ira Hutchinson -former Director of the Gateway National Recreation Area in the New York Harbor area-as Deputy Director of the Park Service. Both of the above recreation areas are known for their easy accessibility by bus (a feature that has endeared them to nature-loving city dwellers without cars). FOE applauds Carter's choices and wishes Whalen and Hutchinson well.

NEWSBRIEFS

The League of Conservation Voters has awarded a perfect 100% to William Brodhead (Mich.), Ronald Dellums (Calif.), Andrew Maguire (ICJ.), Frederick Richmond (ICY.), and Pete Stark (Calif.) -all Democrats-in its annual rating of House members on environmental and energy issues . . . . On July 7, Publishers Paper Company of Oregon sprayed a group of protesters with the very poison (Tordon 101, a mixture of 2,4-D and picloram) the group had been protesting. Twelve people have become ill following the incident, and legal action against Publishers is expected . . . . Voters in Basel, Switzerland recently passed the first nuclear power referendum in Western Europe. A network of plants had been planned for the Basel area, but an ordinance now requires local officials to oppose construction of the power stations.

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To become a member of Friends of the Earth-and receive their excellent publication, Not Man Apart, year round--remit $20 to FOE at 124 Spear, San Francisco, Calif. 94105.--MOTHER.