Dead Whale in Washington State Had Golf Ball in Stomach

It's just another sign of the garbage we throw into the oceans. There was also some plastic and pieces of rope, but there's no determination of what may have actually killed it. It was not emaciated so it's still a mystery as to whether what it consumed played a factor in its death. Full story here in Washington Post.

Puget Sound Whale Found Dead

We'd posted last week that the injuries would probably be fatal and they were. It appears that it was hit by boat propellers. Horrible.

Garbage Found in Dead Whale

It looks like the garbage didn't kill it, but still....just plain gross and unacceptable.

From the Seattle Times....

A gray whale that died after stranding on a West Seattle beach had a large amount of trash in its stomach, ranging from a pair of sweatpants to a golf ball, said biologists who examined the animal.

Scientists with the Cascadia Research Collective said the examination did not immediately determine why the 37-foot near-adult male died, but it was found to be in better nutritional condition than other gray whales that died recently. Starvation was not considered a major contributor to its death.

Whaling Compromises Of Little Use

This sucks.

The packages, announced by IWC Chairman William Hogarth, would either phase out Japan's scientific whaling programme in the Southern Ocean in exchange for Japan being allowed to take a unspecified number of Minke whales off its own coast in the North Pacific or would allow Japan's scientific whaling programme to continue in the Southern Ocean if it adheres to annual limits set by the IWC's Scientific Committee.

What about Norway and Iceland? Nada. And they flagrantly continue killing.

Iceland recently announced a quota of 100 fin whales - an endangered species - which is a dramatic increase its original self-assigned quota of nine.

They also almost doubled their quota of Minke whales. "

National Security or Whale Protection? Supreme Court Says Whales Lose

Not surprising.

On the one hand, there is “the potential for harm to marine mammals,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said Wednesday at a Supreme Court argument over the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises off the coast of Southern California.

On the other, the chief justice continued, there is “the potential that a North Korean diesel electric submarine will get within range of Pearl Harbor undetected” if Navy personnel are not properly trained in the use of sonar.

“Now, I think that’s a pretty clear balance,” Chief Justice Roberts said.

The Other Economic Value of Whales and Dolphins

Whales and dolphins have economic value as living things, not simply when dead and on a plate.

Whale and dolphin watching is one of the fastest growing industries in the Pacific region, injecting millions of dollars into the small island nations’ economies, Radio New Zealand reported Thursday. The radio quoted a report released Wednesday by the NGO International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) that whale watching is worth 26.7 million New Zealand dollars ($21 million) a year to Pacific nations.

The number of people in the region watching the marine mammals has jumped an average 45 percent each year. The figures exclude data on New Zealand and Australia.

The report said there were just 10,309 whale and dolphin watchers in Pacific island nations in 1998 but that figure had risen to 110,716 in 2005.
Xinhua

Photo by raphie.

Illegal Makah Whale Hunters Getting Easy Ride

Disappointing. Basically, it's a victory for the Makah whalers who conducted the illegal hunt.

Five Makah whalers will face fewer charges at their federal trial in April, a U.S. magistrate ruled Tuesday.

Gone is the count of violating the federal Whaling Convention Act, and with it a charge of conspiring to violate that same 1949 law.

Magistrate Judge J. Kelley Arnold quashed the indictments after hearing oral arguments from Assistant U.S. Attorney James Oesterle and from Yakima attorney Jack Fiander, one of the defendants' lawyers.

What remain are charges of conspiracy to hunt a whale and of harassing and killing the gray whale Sept. 8 in the Strait of Juan de Fuca near Neah Bay, a violation of the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Conviction on each count — a misdemeanor — could carry a $100,000 fine and one-year prison term.

Photo by ricardo.martins.

Whale Strandings in New Zealand

As the international media follow the exciting Japan/Australia/Greenpeace/Sea Shepherd drama, New Zealand is the site of a whale tragedy.

Fifteen pilot whales died today after being stranded on a beach in New Zealand, and more were still at risk.

The dead whales were found beached in two areas of Farewell Spit, a strip of sand on the country's South Island.

Rescuers managed to refloat another 15 of the mammals and are monitoring their progress toward safer waters.

Scientists are unable to explain why whales strand, but some believe it is caused by disorientation in their sonar sounding systems.

Photo by ahisgett.

Australia Sends Ship to Monitor Japanese

Wow, so they really did it!

An Australian customs ship left for the Southern Ocean to monitor Japan's whaling fleet and determine whether the government in Tokyo is breaching a commercial whaling moratorium.

The Oceanic Viking departed from Western Australia late yesterday with 50 crew and officials on board, Samantha Wills, a spokeswoman for Home Affairs Minister Bob Debus, said by telephone from the capital, Canberra.

``Its purpose is surveillance, not enforcement,'' Wills said, adding the 30 customs officers on board aren't armed and the vessel's weapons are ``secured.'' The Oceanic Viking carries two .50-caliber machineguns.

Photo by ::DanWah::

Big Surprise! Aussie Whaling Position May Piss Off Japan

Big surprise is right. The new opposition party leader warned that the tough Australian position on whaling may harm relations with Japan.

Australia's newly-elected government risks damaging political and trade ties with Tokyo if it uses the military to monitor Japanese whaling in Antarctic, the opposition said Friday.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, whose centre-left Labor Party won power in November, suggested using the navy to monitor Japan's controversial whale cull and will announce next week whether he will act on the plan.

But opposition leader Brendan Nelson said that, while he was against whaling, Rudd must think carefully before deploying warships to shadow vessels belonging to one of Australia's major allies.

"To what extent would sending military assets unnecessarily escalate diplomatic tensions with Japan, Australia’s ally for 60 years and one of our major trading partners?" Nelson asked. "Would this be an appropriate and necessary use of Australian Defence Force assets?"

Why should the Australians be so worried about Japan? Japan sure doesn't seem to care about relations with its trading partners.

And this just kills me....

Japan makes no secret that the meat goes on dinner plates and accuses Western nations, usually among its closest allies, of cultural imperialism.

I'm sorry, but the sanctimonious tone of the Japanese government is too hard to bear. Any student of history who knows about Japan's aggressiveness against its neighbors knows that it has no moral credibility to point figures at "imperialists."

Photo by troyscan☆n

Australian Scientists Say Japanese Whale Killing Unnecessary for Research

Australian scientists are saying that the Japanese don't need to kill whales for research purposes.

Researchers from Southern Cross University in New South Wales said they have developed a more humane technique for collecting the scientific data.

The process involves DNA testing of the whales' skin flakes, which naturally shed when they breach the water, said Peter Harrison, an associate professor at the university.

''The skin samples can give you the genetic information of the whale, they can tell you the relationships to the other whales, who's the mother, who's the father, etc.,'' Harrison told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

The Japanese whaling fleet is due to set sail for the Antarctic Ocean within weeks. Once there, the whalers plan to kill more than 1,000 minke, fin and -- for the first time -- humpback whales.

The whales, Japan says, are taken to collect their genetic information, which in turn is needed for the future management of the ocean mammal's stocks.

These methods do not allow for exact age determinations for population studies, but that breakthrough may only be a matter of time. For now, it is at least possible to humanely estimate the age of a whale from its genetic material.

Let's be honest though. In my opinion, Japanese whaling is not about research. It's about PRODUCT and PROFIT. This sentence from the article says it all.

'Japan's research makes a valuable contribution to the management of Antarctic whale species to ensure that any FUTURE COMMERCIAL WHALING REGIME is robust and sustainable TO PROVIDE A RELIABLE FOOD SOURCE for generations to come,'' {Institute of Cetacean Research Director General Minoru} Morimoto said.

Photo by jmcar.

Japanese Whaling Hypocrisy

The Japanese are so full of it when they argue cultural prerogative as the basis for their whaling practice. My parents are Portuguese and whaling was a big part of Portuguese history. Are they still whaling now....uh, no. So why should the Japanese?

Apparently, the Japanese aren't even consistent in their own application of the culture argument.

Whaling is part of Japan's culture, they say. They point to archaeological evidence that whale meat has been a Japanese staple for more than 2,500 years. Respect for the "brave fish" courses through Japanese literature and paintings, they say, and has inspired folk festivals and puppet shows. Whales are so revered that the souls of the hunted and killed are commemorated in the Buddhist temples of Japan's hunting ports.

Yet despite contending that tradition justifies the whale hunt, the Japanese government BALKS AT ACCEPTING SIMILAR ARGUMENTS from the Ainu people on the northern island of Hokkaido who want to fish for wild salmon. The Japanese government has long PREVENTED THE INDIGENOUS AINU PEOPLE FROM EXERCISING THEIR TRADITIONAL HUNTING AND FIHING RIGHTS, including the right to catch salmon as they return to Hokkaido's rivers to spawn.

Salmon have always been a food staple for the Ainu, such a fundamental element of their culture that they annually perform ceremonies to give thanks for the fish. Only in recent years has the government bent to Ainu lobbying and agreed to permit a small salmon haul that allows a few fish to be caught for ceremonial purposes.

This year's allowance is 1,700 salmon, up from the 20 approved in previous years.

I would not claim that my government is always consistent," Joji Morishita, director for international negotiations for the Japanese government's Fisheries Agency, said when asked about the discrepancy between how Japan wants its whalers to be treated and the restrictions it imposes on the Ainu community. "You cannot be perfect on every issue and unfortunately that's happening in the case of the Ainu."

How noble of him to admit it.

Photo by Greenpeace_Flor.

Whaling Protests Bound to Get Very Nasty

Sea Shepherd has vowed to stop the Japanese whalers from reaching their quota of whales.

The Robert Hunter's first officer Peter Hammarstedt said targeting humpbacks was the group's "line in the sand".

"We are taking an uncompromising stance," Hammarstedt told AFP, refusing to divulge details of tactics. "We are going down there to enforce international conservation law."

In its last encounter with the Japanese in Antarctic waters, the vessel collided with a Japanese ship.

The incident led the Japanese to brand the group "terrorists", an accusation Sea Shepherd rejects. It says no one has been injured by its activities in its 30-year history.

Greenpeace will also be there to try to disrupt the hunt. If Australia's Labor Party wins as predicted in the Saturday election, it's possible the Australian military may monitor the whaling vessels as well.

Photo by Ajft

Aussie Labour Party Opposes Japanese Whaling

Australia's Labour Party is talking tough about Japanese whaling in the Antarctic. The Labour Party is poised to win Australia's general election this weekend.

Labour's foreign affairs spokesman, Robert McClelland, said that under a Labour government Australian military aircraft would range across Antarctica, collecting data on the activities of the Japanese fleet.
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The information would be used to mount a challenge against Japan's annual whale hunt, which Tokyo claims is conducted for "scientific research".

Australia's new policy would not, however, involve the interdiction or apprehension of whaling vessels.

"We are going to use... military resources to monitor the activities of the whaling vessels," said Mr McClelland.

"What is important is getting evidence... as to what's going on and getting the facts that can actually be presented to an international tribunal to try to get rulings to stop this.

"That is going to be a really strong point of emphasis for a future Labour government."

Japan does not recognize an Australian-declared whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean.

But Prime Minister John Howard's Liberal Party government say it's all political posturing.

..the foreign minister, Alexander Downer, dismissed Mr McClelland's declaration as a political stunt aimed at winning the election.

"It shows a complete lack of understanding of the legal status of Antarctica," Mr Downer said in a statement.

Photo by Greanpeace_Flor.

Japanese Whale Hunt Threatens Lone White Whale

Here's some more well-deserved bad press for Japanese whale hunting.

Australians fear that the world's only known white humpback whale could be slaughtered as Japan's whaling fleet prepares to embark on its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.

The unique male whale, named Migaloo - an Aboriginal word for "white fella" - has become a celebrity in Australia since being spotted for the first time in 1991.

Each year Migaloo - along with thousands of other humpbacks - migrates from the icy seas of Antarctica to the warm shallows of the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef.

Conservationists fear that Migaloo is so accustomed to whale watching and fishing boats, that he will be easy pickings for Japanese hunters.

With the southern hemisphere summer approaching, the Japanese whaling fleet is preparing to leave port within days. It refuses to say exactly when.

It has declared that for the first time it will kill 50 humpbacks, as well as 50 fin whales and hundreds of minke whales.

The Japanese argue that after decades of hunting fin and humpback whales have recovered to sufficient levels that they can now withstand being harpooned again.

The Fisheries Agency in Tokyo refused to rule out killing Migaloo today {November 12}, with officials offering a blunt "no comment" to media inquiries.

Instead the agency called on Australia and New Zealand to ensure that the Japanese fleet would be protected from anti-whaling ships operated by a militant environmental group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Excuse me Japan, but is it so much to ask for that you at least TRY TO AVOID the white whale? He is WHITE ya know, so he should stick out!

GAAD!

Photo by RetroRoger1.

Canada Providing Sanctuary to Right Whale

Good news from Canada!

Canada Wednesday said a safe haven has been set aside in the Atlantic Ocean where the endangered North Atlantic right whale can feed and socialize without fear of colliding with large ships.

The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has designated the Roseway Basin, some 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) south of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, as an "Area to be Avoided" by commercial shipping, on a seasonal basis, the Ministry of Transport said in a statement.

On the endangered list since 1935, the right whale is on the verge of extinction, with scientific estimates putting its current total population at less than 400.

Now let's try to do something about that seal hunting.

Photo by Marc Eschenlohr