Can CITES help conserve Saturn's aquatic species?

You might not know this, but scientists working on NASA's Cassini Equinox probe mission have detected sodium salts in ice grains of Saturn's outermost ring. NASA believes that detecting salty ice indicates that Saturn's moon Enceladus, whose jet discharges replenishes Saturn's ring with material, harbours a reservoir of liquid water - an ocean beneath its surface. And that ocean may well be home to rich marine life.

Now, you might be wondering why I am broaching a clearly astronomical subject here on what is supposedly a CITES blog. Well, there is actually a Facebook campaign now urgently calling for "an interstellar treaty ... to stop the Earth's fishing industry from treating the alien seas of Saturn with the same environmental contempt they are treating the oceans of Earth. " The 'Stop over-fishing on Saturn's moon Enceladus' campaign warns that "Saturn's xeno-fish are too rare for just another stinking bag of fish & chips" and urges human fishermen to leave Saturn alone and save its maritime species from extinction.

I don't know about inter-stellar treaties but I certainly think there is an opportunity for more Earth-bound treaties such as CITES to help here. So I wrote the following message to the leader of the campaign:

"Dear Mr Hunt,

I am a participant at the 15th Meeting of the UN Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild fauna and Flora (CITES) now taking place in Doha, Qatar. As you may have seen from a posting today on your Facebook page 'Stop over-fishing on Saturn's moon Enceladus', a vote was passed on Thursday which saw proposals by Monaco and the European Union to ban international trade in Atlantic Bluefin tuna completely destroyed by an aggressive and well-funded lobby by Japan, the Arab States, the fishing industry and other Friends of Overfishing. Atlantic bluefin tuna stocks have plummeted by 85% to feed the insatiable demand of sushi bars in Japan and the decision this week will almost certainly lead to a complete collapse of the fishery and the commercial extinction of the species."

"The fisheries lobby will no doubt seek to demolish other fisheries proposals that are going to be tabled in the meeting tomorrow, including international controls to restrict trade in Scalloped Hammerhead sharks, Porbeagles, Spiny Dogfish, Oceanic Whitetip sharks and red and pink corals."

"It's not too late - and here's where you can perhaps help. The Bluefin tuna defeat this week clearly showed our governments are either too weak or too powerless or too indifferent to the task of caring for our planet's marine resources - or are themselves complicit in emptying our seas of its rich biodiversity. They obviously can't or won't do anything to prevent the pillaging and destruction of our planet's marine resources - so they should now at least prevent the destruction of Saturn's."

"I would therefore be very grateful if your Facebook campaign and its supporters demanded that their respective governments do the following at the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES this week (and it's going to get a little technical here):"

"'CITES Parties must propose and support a listing of all populations of aquatic species of fauna and flora in Saturn, and its moons, under Appendix I of CITES, thereby forbidding any international commercial trade in these species.'"

"If you can make an announcement of this call at your Facebook page and urge your members to write to their governments to either table or support this proposal, it may make a real difference and a change for the good - not just for Saturn but maybe for good old Earth as well. And looking at the strength of the opposition that conservationists face here at the CITES meeting, we need all the help we can get."

"Yours sincerely,
The Devil's Advocate"

Okay, I have to admit, there may be a few little CITES complications with regard to this proposal. For one thing, I'm not sure if any of Saturn's marine species meet the biological criteria for listing in Appendix I under the provisions of Res. Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP14). Primarily because I'm not even sure if there are even any marine species on Saturn - I'm working on a funding proposal for a stock assessment. And I shudder just thinking of any implications this would have in relation to the footnote with respect to application of the definition of ‘decline’ for commercially exploited aquatic species.

I'm also not sure if Saturn's marine species meet any trade criteria, since there is probably little evidence or few trade records of any inter-planetary trade with Saturn (though a few of the Doha restaurants I've been to this week served fish that looked decidedly alien).

There is also the fact that Saturn is a non-Party and may not be subject to the provisions of the Convention. I have so far been unsuccessful in contacting any of Saturn's competent authorities and scientific institutions to determine whether they currently issue any permits and certificates that are acceptable to CITES under the provisions of Res. Conf. 9.5 (Rev. CoP14).

Nevertheless, I am sure the European Union can think up of some impenetrable, maze-like 'compromise' that will no doubt overcome these complications.

Complications aside though, the message is simple: human greed and avarice is turning our seas into a vast barren ecosystem and the international community is unable to stop the maritime pillaging on Earth - so let's see if we can do better in Saturn. It's certainly worth a try but, looking at events at CoP15 this week, I probably wouldn't hold my breath for too long.