ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2009) — What do a West African drummer and a sperm whale have in common? According to some reports, they can both spot rhythms in the chatter of an ocean crowded with the calls of marine mammals -- a feat impossible for the untrained human ear.

/////

 [ send green star]

ScienceDaily (Sep. 21, 2009) — When a whale dies, it sinks to the seafloor and becomes food for an entire ecosystem. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered previously unknown species that feed only on dead whales -- and have used DNA technology to show that the species diversity in our oceans may be higher than previously thought.

Dead whales constitute an unpredictable food source - it is impossible to know when and where a whale is going to die, and when it does, the food source does not last forever. Nevertheless, some marine species have specialised in feeding on whale cadavers.

Big source of nutrients

This is shown by researchers at the University of Gothenburg who have studied the ecosystem around dead whales using underwater cameras. A dead whale is an enormous source of nutrients. In fact, one cadaver offers the same amount of nutrients that normally sinks from the surface to the seafloor in 2000 years, and this is of great benefit to innumerable species: First the meat is eaten by for example sharks and hagfish, then tremendous amounts of various organisms come to feast on the skeleton.

Specialised worms

One group of animals commonly found on whale skeletons is bristleworms, which are related to the earthworm. Some bristleworm species are so specialised in eating dead whales they would have problems surviving elsewhere. One example is Osedax, which uses its root system to penetrate the whale bones when searching for food. Other species specialise in eating the thick layers of bacteria that quickly form around the bones.

Nine new species

A dissertation from the Department of Zoology at the University of Gothenburg describes no fewer than nine previously unknown species of these bacteria-grazing bristleworms.

Cryptic species

Four of the new species were found on whale cadavers placed at a depth of 125 metres in the new national park Kosterhavet off the coast of Strömstad, Sweden. The other five species feed on whale bones in the deep waters off the coast of California, USA. The family tree of bristleworms was explored using molecular data. The DNA analyses show that there are several so-called cryptic bristleworm species, meaning species that despite looking identical differ very much genetically.

The analyses show that the adaptation to a life on whale cadavers has occurred in species from different evolutionary paths and at several points in time. The study also shows that some species that are assumed to inhabit many different areas globally, so-called cosmopolitan species, may in fact be cryptic species. This finding may be very significant for our understanding of how animals spread around the world and of how many different species dwell on our planet.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090921091601.htm

 [ send green star]

ScienceDaily (June 29, 2009) — Scientists are warning that a new form of unregulated whaling has emerged along the coastlines of Japan and South Korea, where the commercial sale of whales killed as fisheries "bycatch" is threatening coastal stocks of minke whales and other protected species.

Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, says DNA analysis of whale-meat products sold in Japanese markets suggests that the number of whales actually killed through this "bycatch whaling" may be equal to that killed through Japan's scientific whaling program – about 150 annually from each source.

Baker, a cetacean expert, and Vimoksalehi Lukoscheck of the University of California-Irvine presented their findings at the recent scientific meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Portugal. Their study found that nearly 46 percent of the minke whale products they examined in Japanese markets originated from a coastal population, which has distinct genetic characteristics, and is protected by international agreements. 

Their conclusion: As many as 150 whales came from the coastal population through commercial bycatch whaling, and another 150 were taken from an open ocean population through Japan's scientific whaling. In some past years, Japan only reported about 19 minke whales killed through bycatch, though that number has increased recently as new regulations governing commercial bycatch have been adopted, Baker said.

Japan is now seeking IWC agreement to initiate a small coastal whaling program, a proposal which Baker says should be scrutinized carefully because of the uncertainty of the actual catch and the need to determine appropriate population counts to sustain the distinct stocks.

Whales are occasionally killed in entanglements with fishing nets and the deaths of large whales are reported by most member nations of the IWC. Japan and South Korea are the only countries that allow the commercial sale of products killed as "incidental bycatch." The sheer number of whales represented by whale-meat products on the market suggests that both countries have an inordinate amount of bycatch, Baker said.

"The sale of bycatch alone supports a lucrative trade in whale meat at markets in some Korean coastal cities, where the wholesale price of an adult minke whale can reach as high as $100,000," Baker said. "Given these financial incentives, you have to wonder how many of these whales are, in fact, killed intentionally."

In Japan, whale-meat products enter into the commercial supply chain that supports the nationwide distribution of whale and dolphin products for human consumption, including products from scientific whaling. However, Baker and his colleagues have developed genetic methods for identifying the species of whale-meat products and determining how many individual whales may actually have been killed.

Baker said bycatch whaling also serves as a cover for illegal hunting, but the level at which it occurs is unknown. In January 2008, Korean police launched an investigation into organized illegal whaling in the port town of Ulsan, he said, reportedly seizing 50 tons of minke whale meat.

Other protected species of large whales detected in market surveys include humpbacks whales, fin whales, Bryde's whales and critically endangered western gray whales. The entanglement and death of western or Asian gray whales is of particular concern given the extremely small size of this endangered populations, which is estimated at only 100 individuals.

It will be published in a forthcoming issue of the journal Animal Conservation.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090623120846.htm

 [ send green star]

SAN DIEGO (AP) A California gray whale has wandered into San Diego Bay after migration season is over.

Coast Guard officials say boaters spotted the whale Tuesday afternoon and gathered nearby to warn ship traffic away.

The San Diego Harbor Patrol is trying to herd the whale back out to sea, and says that the receding tide will help its efforts.

Joe Cordero, a marine biologist with the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service, says gray whales occasionally stray during their Pacific migration from Alaska, where they feed during the summer. Sometimes the whales head to Baja California, where their calves are born during the winter.

Usually, whales finish their migration by the end of February.

There was no indication the wayward whale was injured.

Information from: The San Diego Union-Tribune,

http://www.signonsandiego.com

 [ send green star]

March 9, 2009—Eastern gray whales are migrating farther south along Mexico's Pacific coast, according to the country's environment secretary, who says global warming is the likely cause.

//

VIDEO: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090309-mexico-graywhales-video-ap.html

 [ send green star]

March 4, 2009—For the first time, a newborn blue whale (shown with photographer) has been captured on camera, according to a National Geographic documentary to air Sunday (video clip from the show below).

The baby is believed to be the first proof that a blue whale hot spot in the Pacific Ocean is a birthing ground for the endangered species.

During an early 2008 expedition to the "Dome"—a warm-water region off Costa Rica that draws blue whales from hundreds of miles away—the researchers had begun to lose hope of finding a calf. Then two telltale spouts began erupting at the sea surface.

"Oh, tell me that one of them is a small blow, please," Bruce Mate, of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, says in the documentary.

//

Read the Full Aricle: Plus Video -  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/03/090304-newborn-baby-blue-whale-missions.html

 [ send green star]

/

SAN DIEGO (AP) Scientists have discovered the remains of a baleen whale that may be 600,000 years old, the second such archaeological find in the past month at a construction site for a new law school.

/

Crews found the whale's shoulder blade, neck bone and upper spine on Thursday at the site for the $68 million Thomas Jefferson School of Law.

/

Scientists believe the ocean-going creature may have been 40 feet long.

Thomas Demere, curator of paleontology at the San Diego Natural History Museum, says the whale is the first of its geological age found in the county and only the second found in Southern California.

/

Earlier this month, crews found the skull, two tusks, foot and leg bones of a Columbian mammoth believed to be about 500,000 years old and was the largest land animal of its time, possibly standing 15 to 17 feet tall.

/

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/ap_news.php?story=AP/APTV/State/CA/n/CA--SanDiego-FossilsF

 [ send green star]

/

SUN MAR 8 7P SUN MAR 8 5P

/

/

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/episode/kingdom-of-the-blue-whale-3302?source=link_ngm_99#tab-Overview

 [ send green star]

Animals  (tags: animaladvocates, endangered, GoodNews, rescued, whales )

Teresa
- 1 minute ago - youtube.com

http://www.care2.com/news/member/531904814/1056050

 [ send green star]

Raven
- 2 seconds ago - livescience.com

add comment  |  problem?: duplicate bad

 [ send green star]

Changing our way of thinking...

/>

Science & Tech  (tags: energy, environment, habitat, health, humans, interesting, investigation, research )

Teresa
- 7 minutes ago - youtube.com

http://www.care2.com/news/member/531904814/1034889

 [ send green star]

/>

Environment  (tags: animals, conservation, ecosystems, environment, GoodNews, habitat, nature, oceans, protection, world )

Teresa
- 1 minute ago - nature.org

 [ send green star]

Raven
- 26 minutes ago - orcanetwork.org

 [ send green star]

1 Ways of Whales Workshop This January 24 in Coupeville Washington Animals (tags: workshop, whales, orcas, health, washingtonwildanimals, whales, environment, conservation, animaladvocates ) Raven - 30 seconds ago - orcanetwork.org Come learn current news on the Health and state of our Southern Resident Killer Whales. I have taken some of these workshops, and for anyone who is an advocate or simply wants to learn more this is a worthwhile workshop... add a comment | visit site | pro

 [ send green star]

Raven
- 32 seconds ago - en.epochtimes.com

 [ send green star]

1

Serious Action Needed for Our Orcas

Animals  (tags: orcas, action, death, missingprotection, environment, endangered, habitat, whales, wildlife, conservation, animalwelfare )

Raven
- 23 seconds ago - canada.com

Many of you might know that six of the Southern Resident Orcas went on the offical missing list in September. Presumed dead, although not confirmed for a year. The biggest problem is lack of Chinook salmon, this is a serious problem.. see story for more

add a comment  |  visit site  |  problem?

 [ send green star]

14 October 2008 – The United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) has reported major progress on efforts to cut polluting and global warming emissions from ships, achieve more environmentally friendly recycling of vessels and prevent contamination from harmful organisms in ballast.

Under amendments to the so-called MARPOL (marine pollution) accords unanimously adopted by IMO’s Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) earlier this month, emissions of sulphur oxide (SOx), nitrogen oxide (NOx) and particulate matter from ships will be progressively reduced.

“The MEPC maintained momentum on the issue and made substantive progress in developing technical and operational measures to address such emissions, including the development of an energy efficiency design index for new ships and an energy efficiency operational index, with associated guidelines for both,” the agency said in a news release.

According to a consensus estimate for 2007, CO² emissions from international shipping amounted to 843 million tons, or 2.7 per cent of global CO² emissions, as compared to the 1.8 per cent estimate in 2000. In the absence of regulation, such emissions were predicted to increase by a factor of 2.4 to 3.0 by 2050.

MARPOL Annex VI Regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution from Ships entered into force in May 2005 and has so far been ratified by 53 countries, representing some 81.88 per cent of the gross tonnage of the world’s merchant shipping fleet.

The MEPC discussed whether the application of measures to reduce or limit greenhouse gas emissions from ships should be mandatory or voluntary for all States. Several delegations spoke in favour of limiting mandatory reductions to those countries, mainly the more developed industrial nations countries listed in Annex 1 of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

But several other delegations said the regulatory framework should be applicable to all ships, irrespective of the flags they fly, noting that as three-quarters of the world’s merchant fleet fly the flag of countries not listed in Annex I, any regulatory regime would be ineffective if it were made applicable only to Annex I countries.

On the issue of harmful aquatic organisms in ballast water, the MEPC adopted guidelines for ballast water sampling and approval of ballast water management systems as well as arrangements for responding to emergency situations involving ballast water.

It also agreed on a guidance document on minimizing the risk of ship strikes with cetaceans, such as whales. With regard to recycling, ships will be required to carry an inventory of hazardous materials, specific to each ship.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=28563&Cr=maritime&Cr1=

 [ send green star]

ScienceDaily (Sep. 17, 2008) — For the first time in waters surrounding New York City, the beckoning calls of endangered fin, humpback and North Atlantic right whales have been recorded, according to experts from the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).

"This is an exciting time for New Yorkers. Just think, just miles from the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, Carnegie Hall and Times Square, the great whales are singing," says Chris Clark, the Director of the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. "These are some of the largest and rarest animals on this planet trying to make a living just a few miles from New York's shores. It just goes to show us that there are many important and wonderful discoveries to be made about the living world right here, right in our back yards."

"With data generated by acoustic monitoring, we can better understand New York's role in the life history of these endangered whales and make more informed conservation decisions," says James Gilmore, chief of the DEC's Bureau of Marine Resources. "This is especially important for the survival of right whales."

The recorders were placed about 13 miles from the New York Harbor entrance and off the shores of Fire Island. Information about the seasonal presence of whales will help New York state policymakers develop management plans to protect them. Knowing the whales' travel paths will help ship traffic managers avoid whale collisions in New York waters. Further, the study will characterize New York waters' acoustic environment and examine whether underwater noises, including shipping, affect the whales.

Acoustic monitoring was initiated in spring 2008 – between March and June – in order to record the right whales' northward migration from their calving ground off the Florida eastern coast to their feeding grounds off Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Acoustic monitoring has begun for the whales' southern migration in the fall, back to the calving areas. The study will continue through February 2009 and is expected to reveal which species occur in New York waters throughout the winter months.

.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080916143906.htm

 [ send green star]

http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=7516&pst=918426

Unfortunately the poor baby was euthanised earlier, I'm trying to believe it was for the best but finding it difficult to believe that there was nothing else they could do - it always comes down to $$$$$

 [ send green star]

.

 [ send green star]

August 18, 2008—An apparently injured humpback whale calf in waters near Sydney, Australia, is behaving with a yacht in ways the whale would normally behave with its mother.

VIDEO: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/08/080818-whale-video-ap.html

 [ send green star]

Aug. 12, 2008 -- The humpback whale, nearly hunted into history four decades ago, is now on the "road to recovery" and is no longer considered at high risk of extinction, an environmental group said Tuesday.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature -- the producer each year of a Red List of threatened species -- also upgraded the status of the southern "right" whale from vulnerable. The right whale gets its name from whalers who deemed it a particularly good species to hunt, because it floats after being killed.

"Humpbacks and southern right whales are making a comeback in much of their range mainly because they have been protected from commercial hunting," said Randall Reeves, an expert on marine mammals for the conservation organization.

"This is a great conservation success and clearly shows what needs to be done to ensure these ocean giants survive," he said in a statement.

Bill Perrin, another expert at the group known by its acronym IUCN, said the humpback whale population dropped to the "low thousands" when it was finally banned from commercial hunts in 1966. Its numbers have since risen to at least 60,000, Perrin said, adding that the population is growing at a healthy rate of 5 percent each year in the North Pacific.

While the right whales that hug the southern coasts of Argentina, South Africa and Australia are also recuperating, their cousins in the north are struggling.

There may be only 300 North Atlantic right whales along the Eastern Seaboard, Perrin said. While hunting them is illegal, many continue to be wounded or killed in collisions with ships or entanglements with fishing gear, he added.

http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/08/12/humpback-whale.html

 [ send green star]

We're still killing the creatures with the biggest brains on the planet—to make dog food

NOT LONG AGO I HAD the good fortune to freeze my knuckles off radio-tracking wolverines across the snowy mountainsides of Glacier National Park in Montana. So little is known about the lives of these animals that on any given day, at any moment, there is a chance to learn something new. Wolverine young are generally believed to be weaned and leaving their mother's side at six months, but we found them traveling with at least one parent--most often their father--for an entire year. And no one knew that wolverines still exist in California until a graduate student photographed one by accident last winter near Lake Tahoe.

Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century mathematician, physicist, and philosopher, offered an instructive proposition in regard to the human thought process: "We understand and believe vastly more than we know." Both as a scientist and a journalist, I've worked with mammals of many kinds around the world--big, long-lived, smart, socially complex, and evocative mammals such as elephants, jaguars, grizzlies, chimps, and gorillas. I've also been able to tag along with researchers studying various types of whales. As with wolverines (and so much else), we understand and believe vastly more about whales than we know.

This much is certain--the most colossal animal ever to appear on the planet happens to be alive today: the 90-foot-long, 100-ton blue whale. Even though commercial hunters had been killing whales and handling carcasses since at least the 14th century, it was 1692 before this titan was first scientifically described and 1693 before it was recognized as a mammal. Our knowledge of blue whale natural history hasn't improved a whole lot since then. During the late 1980s, the largest known surviving population of blue whales was discovered feeding right off the coast of California in summer and fall. Another decade passed before anyone found out where they go for the other half of the year.

You'd think we would have made a real push to get better acquainted with Earth's ultrafauna--the mega-most of its megafauna--before now. But whales roam far and deep across whole hemispheres, and back when they were abundant and easier to find, our focus was on harpooning every one we came near. Most of what they actually do out there in the boundless blue remains soaked in mystery. We have all kinds of things left to discover about some of the most advanced beings on the planet, from their basic habits to the ways in which they communicate, learn, remember, and think. Revelations await. So why are we killing these supermammals in the meantime?

Read the Full Article: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200807/whales.asp

 [ send green star]

July 31, 2008—With a reported repertoire of 32 sounds, belugas are called canaries of the sea. But in Russia some conservationists warn that the white whales may be too enticing for their own good.

VIDEO: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/07/080731-whales-video-ap.html 

 [ send green star]

A group of dolphins who are in a river near the Jersey Shore will be allowed to stick around through the holiday weekend. Officials say the danger of trying to move the dolphins back into the ocean outweighs the risk of letting them stay. (July 2)

http://video.ap.org/v/Legacy.aspx?mk=en-ap&g=82ea967a-7dc2-44fc-952c-e5699554ec49&f=1167894&t=s201fg=tool&partner=en-ap

 [ send green star]

For the anti-whaling lobby, Japan appears to be its Moby Dick, a foe to be singled out and endlessly pursued.

For example, activists chased Japanese whalers across the Southern Ocean under a full media glare this past winter.

But are the attacks fair, when other nations also engage in substantial amounts of whaling—and unlike Japan, in open defiance of international conventions?

Hunting opponents seeking to influence the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the world regulatory body, at its annual meeting in Santiago, Chile, this week were unequivocal.

Japan is the "head of the zombie and needs to be cut off," said Willie Mackenzie, oceans campaigner for Greenpeace U.K. "It's very, very clear that, internationally, Japan is behind the drive towards commercial whaling."

Japan not only kills the most whales, Mackenzie said, but it is also trying to "undermine" the international moratorium on commercial whaling and challenge the endangered status of some species.

Yet Norway and Iceland also have substantial whaling programs—and do so not under the auspices of research but commercially, flouting IWC rules that have banned such activities since 1986.

"Japanese people feel that, yes, maybe there is a little bit of racism in the way in which we are considered in comparison with the way Norway or other whaling nations are treated," said Noriko Hama, a professor of economics at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

"If Japan continues whaling, we're 'barbarians.' But at the same time, I think Japan is giving its critics the excuse to level those accusations, because the government is simply not coming clean on its whaling policy," she said.

According to IWC figures, Japanese ships killed 866 whales in the 2006-2007 season, a haul that included minke, fin, sei, and sperm whales—the most of any nation. Norway placed second with a total catch of 545 whales.

Read the Full Article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080627-japan-whaling.html

 [ send green star]

Could a little legalized commercial whale hunting actually help save the animals? That's one idea floating around this year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission in

The still unofficial proposal involves backing off a 22-year-old moratorium that bans all but a small amount of whaling for scientific and sustenance purposes.

Some problems with the ban as it stands include Iceland and Norway openly defying it to kill several hundred whales a year and Japan's liberal and allegedly dishonest use of "science" to justify its annual hunt of up to a thousand whales.

If these countries are permitted to whale a little, the idea's proponents argue, then their hunts can be monitored and the effects of these hunts better understood.

"It would resume our science-based methods for determining how many whales can be safely harvested from a particular population," said Andrew Read, a marine conservation biologist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Read has served on the IWC's scientific committee for more than a decade. He notes that any member country can already issue itself a permit to take as many whales as it wants for "scientific" research, as Japan does.

Susan Lieberman is the director of the World Wildlife Fund's global species program. She said whaling itself does not help conservation, but a compromise that ended unregulated killing would be worth considering.

"I think governments have an obligation to try to see if they can bridge the gap here," she said.

Read the Full Article: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080626-whale-hunt.html

 [ send green star]

June 24, 2008—Amid protest, the 2008 meeting of the International Whaling Commission opened in Chile, where the host nation proposed a permanent ban on whaling in its waters.

VIDEO: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/06/080624-whales-video-ap.html

 [ send green star]

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) Members of the International Whaling Commission say they have put off the most controversial issues on their agenda because of a deadlock between pro- and anti-whaling nations.

The commission says it will name a working group to overcome the differences. Its report will probably come next year.

Commission President William Hogarth says the agreement is ''a step forward.''

Tuesday's agreement follows bickering between whaling countries such as Japan and critics such as Australia. Japan favors limited commercial whaling while some other nations want an outright ban on whale kills.

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/ap_news.php?story=AP/APTV/National/a/i/Chile-Whaling

 [ send green star]

Center Says 3 Blue Whales Died Last Year Off SoCal Coast

SAN FRANCISCO -- Conservationists filed suit against the U.S. Coast Guard Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, alleging the agency has not done enough to protect endangered whales from being killed by ship traffic off the coast of California.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed the claim in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, three endangered blue whales died in 2007 after being hit by ships off the coast of Southern California.

Endangered whale species, including blue, humpback, sperm and sei whales all navigate through some of the most-trafficked shipping lanes in the world, including those near the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, according to the conservation group

The lawsuit alleges the Coast Guard, which oversees ship traffic in U.S. waters, is not in compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act in consulting with the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency directly responsible for protecting the endangered whales, to find ways to regulate ship traffic to protect them.

"The Coast Guard has the ability -- and the responsibility -- to protect these magnificent species by instituting mandatory speed limits, moving shipping lanes and installing monitoring buoys that alert ships to the presence of whales," said Andrea Treece, an attorney for the group, in a statement announcing the lawsuit.

The lawsuit aims to impel the Coast Guard to study how ship traffic affects endangered whale species and how to prevent them from being harmed.

Attorneys for the Coast Guard were not immediately available for comment on the lawsuit, but a Northern California Coast Guard spokesman indicated Thursday they were still reviewing the case.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, blue whales, the largest creatures on earth, once numbered more than 300,000 worldwide but have been reduced to less than 10,000 due to commercial whaling.

http://www.nbc11.com/news/16660261/detail.html?dl=headlineclick

 [ send green star]

January 2, 2008—The delicacy is a status symbol in fast-growing China, where demand has caused a startling drop in the number of sharks in the Atlantic.

Video: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/01/080102-shark-video-ap.html

 [ send green star]

POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE, Calif. (AP) Gray whales are beginning to appear off Point Reyes as they travel south on their annual migration.

Because the point juts ten miles out to sea, it provides a prime spot to see the giant mammals as they journey south from waters off the coast of Siberia and Alaska to the warmer waters of Baja California.

The Point Reyes National Seashore is planning to offer bus rides from the Ken Patrick Visitor Center at Drakes Beach to viewing areas such as Chimney Rock and the historic lighthouse.

The rides were scheduled to begin Saturday, but a park ranger says they could be canceled if it rains.

Information from: Marin Independent Journal, http://www.marinij.com

 [ send green star]

"The U.S. asked Japan to freeze planned humpback hunts" for one to two years to support its efforts as chair of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said.

The Hunt

Japan dispatched a whaling fleet last month to the southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpback whales since the 1960s, triggering widespread international criticism.

Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966. The World Conservation Union considers the species "vulnerable," meaning it faces a high but not immanent risk of extinction in the wild.

The Japanese whalers had argued that the hunting ban didn't apply to them because their hunt was for the sake of science.

"There will [be] no changes to our stance on our research whaling itself," Machimura said Friday.

Australia

Australia announced earlier this week it was launching a new push to stop Japan's annual whale hunt, including sending surveillance planes and a ship to gather evidence for a possible international legal challenge. (See story.)

Earlier Friday, Japan's Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters he hoped to discuss the whale hunt and related issues with his Australian counterpart soon.

"This seems to be a problem of differences in national sentiment between Japanese and Australian culture," Komura told reporters. "It's not a matter that can be solved by appealing to one another through logic."

'A Good First Step'

The Japanese mission also aims to take as many as 935 minke whales and up to 50 fin whales in what Japan's Fisheries Agency says is its largest-ever scientific whale hunt.

Critics say the program is a shield for Japan to keep its whaling industry alive until it can overturn a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Karli Thomas, who is leading a Greenpeace expedition heading to the southern Pacific, lauded Japan's promise to .

"This is good news, indeed, but it must be the first step towards ending all whaling in the Southern Ocean, not just one species for one season," Thomas said in a statement from the group's ship, Esperanza, which set out from New Zealand this week to thwart the Japanese whaling mission.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/12/071221-AP-japan-humpb.html

 [ send green star]

TOKYO (AP) The United States is pushing Japan to suspend its hunt of humpback whales, and the American ambassador to Tokyo said Wednesday an agreement to stop it may have already been reached.

Japan dispatched its whaling fleet last month to the Southern Pacific in the first major hunt of humpbacks since the 1960s. Commercial hunts of humpbacks have been banned worldwide since 1966.

Word of a possible delay in the hunt came as the Australian government said it would send planes and a ship to conduct surveillance of Japanese whaling ships off Antarctica.

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer said Japanese and U.S. negotiators were working on an American demand that the hunt part of a scientific research program allowed under international rules be halted.

``I think we had an agreement this morning or last night between the United States and Japan that humpback whales would not be harvested, I think, until maybe the international whaling conference in June,'' Schieffer said.

Because of the migration patterns of the whales, such a delay until the next annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission would mean ``that it'll be awhile before they're at risk again,'' he said.

A Japanese official said there was no written agreement to halt the hunt, but acknowledged that Tokyo could be considering changes to its whaling program in light of the fierce international opposition to the hunt.

``To take the concerns and anger of Australian people and other people into consideration, I think the Japanese government has started to have an intensive discussion about what steps should be taken,'' said Tomohiko Taniguchi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman.

``But at the moment I have heard no action, or no decision as to whether or not any sort of halt would be done this time around during this research season,'' he said.

Japan takes more than 1,000 whales a year under the scientific program allowed under International Whaling Commission rules. This year, Japan plans to take some 50 humpbacks.

Critics say the program is a shield for Japan to keep its whaling industry alive until it can overturn a 1986 ban on commercial whaling.

Japanese coastal communities have a long history of eating whale meat, and it was a major staple in the poverty-stricken years after World War II. The red meat, however, has plummeted in popularity as alternatives such as beef have become widely available in Japan.

The Australian planes and ship will collect photographic and video evidence that would be used to decide if Australia will launch legal action to try to stop Japan's whaling program, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

Smith also said Australia will lead a group of anti-whaling nations in lodging a formal protest with the Japanese government within the next few days against Japan's hunting plans. He declined to identify the other nations involved, saying it was up to them to name themselves.

``We are dealing here with the slaughter of whales, not scientific research,'' Smith told a news conference. ``That is our start point and our end point.''

An Airbus A-319 used by the Australian government's scientific division in Antarctica will conduct surveillance flights over the Japanese fleet.

Australia will also send a ship operated by its Customs service to the area to collect any evidence that could be used in international legal action against Japan.

Smith said that the ship would be stripped of its .50-caliber machine guns before it is deployed, emphasizing that its role would be purely for surveillance.

He said Japan and Australia would continue to have good relations despite ``strong feelings on both sides'' on the whaling issue.

A Japanese official said Australia's announcement was an improvement on earlier threats to send military planes and warships.

``Australia is free to do whatever it wants, send planes or a ship,'' said Ryotaro Suzuki, director of the fisheries division at Japan's Foreign Ministry. ``We have no immediate plans to lodge a protest against the Australian action, as long as they don't use force to stop the Japanese whaling fleet.''

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/ap_news.php?story=AP/APTV/National/a/i/Whaling

 [ send green star]

``We'll be taking nonviolent direct action to stop their hunt ... putting ourselves, our inflatable boats, in between the harpoonists and the whales to stop them getting a clear shot,'' Thomas told The Associated Press.

http://www.kcbs.com/topic/ap_news.php?story=AP/APTV/National/a/i/Whaling

 [ send green star]

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Nearly a year after ending its ban on commercial whaling, Iceland will not issue new whale-hunting quotas until market demand increases and it gets an export license from Japan.

Iceland's fisheries minister, Einar K. Guofinnsson, told Reuters this week it made no sense to issue new quotas when the present quota period expires on August 31 if the market for whale meat was not strong enough.

"The whaling industry, like any other industry, has to obey the market. If there is no profitability there is no foundation for resuming with the killing of whales," he said.

Iceland announced last year it would allow up to 30 minke whales and 9 fin whales to be hunted, controversially ending a ban in place since 1986.

But they have killed just seven minke whales and seven fin whales because of slack demand for whale meat and products.

"I will not issue a new quota until the market conditions for whale meat improve and permission to export whale products to Japan is secured," said Guofinnsson.

"There is no reason to continue commercial whaling if there is no demand for the product."

Buyers of whale products demand thorough testing to ensure food safety. In addition, without an export agreement with Japan, a huge source of buyers is taken out of the equation.

Stefan Asmundsson, an officer at the ministry of fisheries, said negotiations for market access to Japan were ongoing.

"We are talking to the Japanese government but so far we have not reached a conclusion on how best to secure the health and quality of the products," he said. "Hopefully this will clear up soon as the uncertainty is not good for anybody."

Whalers had celebrated the decision to allow them to resume a traditional custom despite protests from some two dozen anti-whaling countries, including the United States.

They are now frustrated with the government's stance and say they should be allowed to keep hunting to develop the market.

"In my opinion the minister should not have any say on whether there is a market for our products or not," said Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, who leads a minke whaling association. "How are we supposed to find markets if we don't have a product?"

http://uk.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUKL2460655320070824

 [ send green star]

 A minke whale that got lost and swam some 810 miles (1,300 kilometers) up the Amazon River died after a failed effort to capture it and transport it back to the ocean, an environmental official said Wednesday.

The 18-foot (5.5-meter) minke whale was stranded on sandbars at least twice after it was first spotted last week in the Tapajós River, a tributary of the Amazon, near the jungle city of Santarém.

A group of biologists and veterinarians managed to examine the animal on Sunday, but the whale got away and was found dead Tuesday on a Tapajós River beach, said Nazarena Silva, an official with the Brazilian environmental protection agency's Santarém office.

The group had been trying to contain the whale in a small area of river while arranging for a ship to take it back to sea. Local residents had never seen a whale in the region before, Silva said.

Rescuers, including local villagers, abandoned efforts to secure a net around the whale on Sunday because it became agitated and risked injuring itself.

Scientists said the whale was in the river for at least 15 days, and experts had expressed confidence it could survive because there have been cases of whales spending two months in fresh water

Biologists conducted an autopsy on the whale to determine the cause of death, Silva said. Authorities were making plans to transport the whale's carcass to the ocean.

The minke whale is the second smallest of the baleen whales after the pygmy right whale.

The International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee estimates there are about 184,000 minke whales in the central and northeast Atlantic Ocean.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/11/071121-AP-brazil-whale.html

 [ send green star]

This information concerns WHO is actually hunting and profiting from killing endangered bowhead, right, beluga whales and narwhals, as well as walruses:

These Alaska Native Corporations originally paid with old-growth forest to shred in return for abandoning land claims (done to facilitate oil pipeline building back in the 80s), are now sophisticated corporate earth-rapers.

 
One such, listed in the article below, helps build those unneeded military bases the US is so fond of creating, as well as performing other government work mentioned in the usual corrupt Cheney/Rove/Bush fashion of no-bid contracts.
Point-aside from the obvious deceptive practices engaged in by our government to enrich corporations (Cheney's Halliburton is of course involved) and bypass representative democracy in its quest for world domination and subjugation:

There are no "traditional" "subsistence" cultures needing to "harvest" endangered whales, polar bears, walruses or other special treatment to profit by.

This particular lie needs to be shut down.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/19/halliburton/

http://www.care2.com/news/member/811583967/402733?saved=1

 [ send green star]

By Alan Cooper of Cetacean Defense:

Reports of Anchorage IWC meeting May 2007 9:11 AM

Wednesday at the IWC meeting: http://www.cetaceadefence.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=346&Itemid=1

Tuesday IWC some quotas set:

http://www.cetaceadefence.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=345&Itemid=1

Monday, Day 1:

http://www.cetaceadefence.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=344&Itemid=1

Preview IWC in Alaska by Alan Cooper, Cetacean Defense:

http://www.cetaceadefence.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=343&Itemid=1

 [ send green star]

UPDATE; 30TH JUNE WORLD WHALE AND DOLPHIN DAY

Information and events.

Please go to : http://www.cetaceadefence.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=342&Itemid=1

to find and act in your area, if possible.

Write, speak out, support this issue please.

Thank you.

 [ send green star]

A must read:

http://www.10news.com/news/13334667/detail.html

Did you know that Seaworld has had over 51 "Shamu's"?

 [ send green star]

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. -- In a race against time, rescuers on New York's Long Island are trying to save dozens of dolphins stranded in a shallow cove.

For more than a week, the dolphins have been seen frolicking and feeding in the small cove. Experts, reporters and even students on school field trips flocked to the site.

However, by last weekend, two of the dolphins were discovered dead. By Monday, the number had increased to five. The rest of the dolphins were moving very slowly.

Full Story: http://www.nbc11.com/news/10761291/detail.html

 [ send green star]

In the frigid waters off Argentina's southern Valdés Peninsula, the southern right whale is under attack from an odd-sounding predator: the seemingly docile seagull.

Uncovered garbage dumps and waste from fish-processing operations have fueled a spike in the number of kelp gulls in the region's coastal towns

Experts say the birds, which nest near the prime breeding waters for the endangered whales, are causing a peck of problems.

Full Story: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/12/061204-whales-gulls.html

 [ send green star]

Please use this Thread for news on other whale issues.

 [ send green star]