ACS Conservation Committee Report

ACS Conservation Reports are selected summaries of current news articles on whales, dolphins, porpoises, and their environment. These reports are offered to you under the fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law.

  Right whales entangled in fishing gear   Off the east coast of North America, from Georgia to Newfoundland, scientists recently have spotted at least seven North Atlantic right whales entangled in fishing gear or line. At least four of the entanglements are severe and possibly life threatening, said Scott Landry, spokesman for the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown.

Among the most serious is right whale 3120, who was first seen last April in North Carolina off Cape Fear and is now in the Bay of Fundy. The young whale has line wrapped around its upper jaw, head, flippers and tail. "The animal is pretty effectively hogtied," Landry said. "It will likely die without intervention."

Landry said an at-sea rescue (similar to the attempt to save Churchill earlier this summer) for right whale 3120 would be considered only as an application of last resort. During a rescue attempt about a week ago, a tracking buoy attached to line trailing from the whale was removed. It could not be reattached because the whale was taking long dives and avoiding rescuers.

Landry said teams from Provincetown would not head to Canada until a buoy is reattached because of unpredictable conditions in the North Atlantic. Though it is summer, rescuers have to contend with 30-knot winds, fog and high seas.

Right whales are the most endangered large whales in the region, with population estimates hovering between 300 and 350. They are listed as an endangered species and protected under federal and international laws. Last year, seven right whales died in American and Canadian waters, according to National Marine Fisheries Service spokeswoman Teri Frady. "I don't know if we've ever known of this many whales entangled in one season," Landry said.

Researchers are cautious to point to a reason. It could just mean right whales are migrating to places that are more visible, Landry said.     Cape Cod Times

  Australian whale in shark net ...   A young humpback whale remained tangled in a shark net off the Gold Coast in mid-August, despite valiant efforts by marine rescuers. With its head snared by the net and an anchor rope wrapped around its tail, the stricken whale was still swimming but hopes for its survival were fading.

A second rescue attempt was planned for the next day after rescuers braved heavy seas, strong wind and driving rain to try to free the whale. Sea World marine sciences manager Trevor Long, who led the rescue mission, called for the removal of the coast's shark nets during the whales' annual winter migration up the east coast.

Mr. Long said rescuers were risking their lives to save whales trapped by the nets but his calls for the nets to be removed during winter had fallen on deaf ears.

"We've got about 4000 whales passing the coast every year and the whale population is increasing at a rate of about 8 per cent a year, so we're only going to see more of these incidents," he said.

The incident happened about 9am when the whale, aged about five and 12m to 13m long, became snagged in nets off Palm Beach. It dragged the net and anchor about 2km out to sea where Sea World and Boating Fisheries Patrol experts worked to free it. The whale was badly tangled and conditions were too dangerous to send down divers to cut the ropes. However, by the end of August, divers had managed to free the whale.     The Courier Mail

  New Jersey governor calls for stricter dumping regulations...   Given the enormous rise in PCB-contaminated marine mammals and fishes from Mexico-to-Alaska it is time concerned citizens got behind politicians the like of New Jersey Governor McGreevey in calling on the federal Environmental Protection Agency and Canadian and Mexican regulatory counterparts to require stricter guidelines for ocean dumping and discharging off our coastlines.

At a Labor Day news conference, Governor McGreevey said ocean dump sites off the New Jersey coast should be formally closed to material contaminated with more than 113 parts per billion of toxic PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls.

EPA Administrator Christie Whitman was the state's governor in 1997 when environmentalists, lawmakers, and port officials agreed to that limit. But in July, a federal judge ruled that proper procedures had not been followed for adopting the new standard. The previous limit was 400 parts per billion.

McGreevey called on the EPA to formalize a new lower standard and make it a "mandatory threshold." "Considering the substantial success we have had to clean the ocean, at this late date the state would adamantly oppose any effort of the federal government to relax standards," he said.

Restricting ocean dumping should part of a larger beach and water quality protection plan that includes land-based sewage facility upgrades, restrictions on sea walls, and the creation of no-discharge zones from inshore shipping fleets.

Canada's new Ocean Strategy consultations would be an opportune time to raise ocean-dumping and immediate zero-discharge protection provisions for inshore waters.     Orca Network

  Australian humpback numbers up...   Whales have arrived at their Queensland wintering grounds in their biggest numbers in 40 years, as research suggests that they head north to give birth to avoid great white sharks and other predators. More humpback whales were seen off the southern Queensland coast earlier this winter than at any time since before commercial whaling began in the early 1800s.

When whaling stopped in 1962, Australia's east-coast population of humpbacks was estimated to have been reduced to as low as 300. Whale watching has become a big attraction, with 80,000 people last year boarding boats to see them in Hervey and Moreton Bays during the annual migration season between June and October.

The whale population today is estimated at between 4000 and 4800 and is growing at a rate of between 10 and 12 per cent a year, according to Trevor Hassard, the Tangalooma Resort's marine research manager on Moreton Island.

The whales leave their Antarctic feeding grounds each year to mate and calve in the Whitsundays on the Great Barrier Reef.     Brisbane Times

  Russian conference highlights killer whales...   The Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP) presented strong findings about wild - as well as captive - killer whales at the 2nd International Conference, Marine Mammals of the Holarctic. The conference, held last week at the Irkutsk Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences at Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, attracted whale, dolphin and marine mammal researchers from throughout Europe, the US and Canada, as well as the mainly Russian attendees.

Representatives of FEROP, a Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society-funded project and the first study to look at orca populations off Far East Russia, argued that the peculiar biology and uncertain conservation status of orcas presents a strong case for protection and against captures. To date, FEROP has photographically identified more than 150 resident orcas off southeast Kamchatka, recording their unique dialects and studying the behavioral ecology. It is thought that these orcas - as with the well-studied orca populations in the eastern North pacific and the North Atlantic - exist in small, distinct communities, or breeding populations of from fewer than 100 to no more than 325 animals. With an extremely low population birth rate of 2-3% a year and a high infant mortality rate of 42%, orcas are proving to be not only big predators but also highly social mammals who depend on each other for survival.

In 2002, permits were granted to capture up to ten orcas off eastern Russia, for public display in national and international aquaria. There is no previous experience of capturing and keeping orcas in Russia. Any animals targeted are likely to suffer greatly from stress and potential harm through capture and long distance transportation to a display location. It is unlikely that captures would end with a few individuals taken. The long-term danger is that Russian waters will become a regular source of orcas for the captivity industry, with disastrous consequences for the populations targeted.

A letter signed by more than 25 international orca scientists has recently been presented to Russian authorities asking them not to allow any orcas to be captured in Russian waters. The letter also warns about the possible consequences of taking individuals from populations about which very little is known and for which any removals would have seriously negative implications.

FEROP and WDCS also presented arguments for the development of high-quality commercial whale watching in the Holarctic, hoping to encourage the Russian government to support whale-watching initiatives for orcas and other whales in Russian waters. Many countries around the world are developing whale-watching enterprises focusing on wild orcas, rather than turning orcas into circus-type aquarium performers. Orcas, wherever they are found, have become some of the most popular whales in whale-watch operations, with many positive benefits for education, science and local communities. Around Vancouver Island alone, in US and Canadian waters, approximately 400,000 people a year watch orcas from boats or shore-based parks, spending $75 million USD in total revenues.     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society website

  Protected species dolphin meat found in Taiwan...   Investigators from Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration and other agencies acted on a tip off that traders in the east coast were catching and killing protected dolphin species to sell as meat in counties on the west coast. Marine investigators operated an undercover surveillance until they caught a woman selling dolphin meat in local market in mid-May. Investigators found more than 5,000 kilograms of whole and partial dolphin carcasses in a refrigerated warehouse after the woman was questioned.

Investigators discovered a further haul of 1,000 kilograms of dolphin meat. More investigations discovered that the dolphin meat was being traded in the local area.

Past records from the Agriculture Department and investigations by other relevant authorities show that the accused started butchering and marketing dolphin meat about 6 or 7 years ago. Every year the couple had been caught and fined but avoided prosecution as each time they were caught a different member of their family would come forward saying that they were guilty and would receive punishment instead. The trader admitted that he did own the more than 1,000 kg of dolphin meat in cold storage but he refused to reveal the source of the meat and its marketing channels and distribution. The case is awaiting further investigation and charges will be bought by the district prosecutor's office.     International Conservation Newsletter

  Russian beluga dies in Taiwan aquarium...   Six belugas arrived in Taiwan from Russia on August 12 but at the opening of the beluga display at the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium in Pingtung on August 18, only three were on show. Two other belugas were under observation and one died on August 15.

The museum said the whale died due to extreme stress from the long journey from Russia. She was found to be in poor condition after arrival as she swam rapidly round the pool, convulsions shaking her body. An initial autopsy found that she had suffered heart failure.     Taiwan News

  Rising sea temperatures could threaten Antarctic species...   British Antarctic Survey biologist Lloyd Peck says a rise in sea temperature could wipe out thousands of species. The threatened species listed include sea spiders, 750 kinds of sand flea and many small mollusks and worms. If these species perish, fish and larger organisms like penguins, seals and whales could eventually be affected. Scientists are expecting a two degrees Celsius rise in the coming century, which could be enough to trigger fatal changes in the habitats of rare and fragile cold-water creatures.

Professor Peck said: "If the climate models are correct, we are likely to lose at least large populations of these species."

Antarctic species that live in lakes adapt well to large changes in temperature, but those that live in the seas are far more sensitive. Some areas of the Antarctic Ocean have temperatures that vary only 0.1 degrees Celsius over the course of a year, conditions that have existed for 10 to 15 million years. Temperatures rise to a high of about 1 degree Celsius during the summer. Most cold-blooded residents of the Antarctic seabed cannot survive long-term in temperatures higher than 3 to 6 degrees Celsius.     Orange Today

  Pilot whales and dolphin slaughtered in the Faroe Islands...   Faroese news has reported that four hunts or 'grinds' took place on 3 September. Around 200 pilot whales and 35 bottlenose dolphins were taken. Two of the grinds took place near the capital Torshavn. No further news is available yet.     Whale and Dolphin Conservation website

  Fear of whale hunting expansion by Japan sparks patchwork of sanctuaries...   Combating Japan's effort to resume commercial whaling in the South Seas, island nations and territories across the South Pacific have begun creating a patchwork of whale sanctuaries to protect the giant mammals. During the last year, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Niue have banned whaling in their territorial waters. Environmental activists hope that other nations, such as Fiji and the Solomon Islands, will follow suit.

In some cases, the sanctuaries are huge. Extending 200 miles from shore, they comprise the same area as the islands' territorial waters, known as exclusive economic zones. French Polynesia's whale sanctuary, for example, is 1.9 million square miles, more than half the size of the United States. Although there has been little whaling in the region for decades, advocates say the sanctuaries will help protect whales if Japan tries to expand what it calls 'scientific' whaling into the South Pacific. The havens would also provide long-term protection for the animals should Japan ever succeed in rolling back the International Whaling Commission's 16-year-old ban on commercial whaling, sanctuary advocates say.

The recent designations add to the areas of the South Pacific that have been off limits to whale hunters since Australia, New Zealand, the United States and Tonga banned whaling in their territorial waters in the 1970s. The Cook Islands, an autonomous territory of New Zealand 3,000 miles south of Hawaii, started the recent wave of whale protection last September when it declared its 700,000-square-mile exclusive economic zone a haven for whales.

Despite their small landmasses, many of the island nations are spread out over vast distances and their territorial waters make up much of the South Pacific. Altogether, the newly protected region covers 4 million square miles, an area larger than Europe.

The World Wildlife Fund, which is spearheading the sanctuary movement, hopes to persuade all Pacific island nations and territories to ban whaling in their economic zones by 2004.

There was little whaling in the South Pacific until the whaling fleets of the United States and other northern nations began hunting the giant mammals here in the 19th century. By the 1960s, the great whales of the South Pacific had been nearly wiped out.

In 1986, the International Whaling Commission enacted a moratorium halting the hunting of whales. But the commission still allows whaling by indigenous hunters for subsistence or cultural purposes. It also allows Japan to carry out its limited hunting and to kill more than 400 whales a year.     Los Angeles Times

  Australia moves to add more whale species to migratory conservation treaty...   Australia is opening a new front in the 'war' over whales, seeking protection of 7 species, including the heavily hunted minke whale, under global migratory conservation treaty.

The move has drawn immediate opposition from Norway, a whaling nation, and threatens to force the normally low-key United Nations Convention on Migratory Species to the first vote in its 23 years. Observers believe Australia may eventually accept less protection than it is seeking. But that would still mean the Government could go ahead with plans for a new regional agreement with South Pacific countries to prohibit whaling.

The move at the 80-nation convention meeting later this month comes with the International Whaling Commission deadlocked. Although Japan and Norway cannot muster enough votes to overturn the moratorium on whaling, Australia has failed three times to win commission approval for a South Pacific whale sanctuary.

The Government still backs the commission but is now moving on the convention, which usually deals with issues such as habitat protection for migratory birds, but can be used to take much stronger measures.

Some endangered whales are already listed under the convention. For the first time, Australia is putting forward contentious species - minke, Bryde's and sperm whales. Also included are the pygmy right, sei and fin whales, the killer whale, and the great white shark.

All but the killer whale are being nominated for the convention's appendix one, which declares the species endangered, and appendix two, which lists species with an unfavorable conservation status. Appendix one listing requires member nations to immediately protect the species; appendix two calls for multi-lateral agreements on their conservation and management.

Japan, Australia's usual foe in whaling politics, is not a signatory to the convention. The threat to listings this time comes from Norway, which has submitted a reaction against the proposals.

"Its fairly obvious Norway intends to block the Australian nominations," said Margi Prideaux, of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. "Their reaction says they don't believe any species qualify for appendix one, and they claim other conventions are doing the work." Nicola Beynon, a campaigner with the Humane Society International, said the issue was likely to go to a vote if Norway held to its position. "It's very difficult to gauge the fate of these nominations. The threshold for an appendix two listing is much lower, but we are concerned about not getting these whales on appendix one because of the threats they face."

If only appendix-two listings are agreed, the door will still be open to a South Pacific regional marine mammal agreement, which could take powerful steps to protect whales in the area. A comparable agreement under the convention's umbrella was reached in 1996 on conserving cetaceans in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Australia goes to the convention meeting in Bonn this month with a strong recent record. It provided the impetus behind an agreement on Southern Ocean albatross and seabirds, and played a role in another to protect Indian Ocean turtles.     Los Angeles Times

  River dolphins fight for survival...   Conservationists working to save India's endangered blind river dolphins say there are encouraging signs that the population is starting to stabilize in some areas. But there are still many factors which give cause for concern. It has been illegal to kill the river dolphins since 1972, but until a High Court ruling last year many dolphin poachers went unpunished.

Now, according to Dr RV Sinha, head of the Indian Government's Dolphin Conservation Project, the conservationists' message is starting to get across. While the dolphin population across India is under 2000, numbers are starting to stabilize in the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary - a 50-kilometre (30 mile) stretch of the Ganges in India's eastern state of Bihar.     BBC Online

  Public warned about swimming with dolphin in the United Kingdom...   Wildlife experts have warned the public to stay away from a boisterous dolphin because they fear someone could be injured. Georges the dolphin has entertained crowds along the UK's south coast but he has hurt several people with his tail after they entered the sea to play with him. The friendly 800lbs mammal has been coming into beach areas to interact with humans but his behavior has become more erratic. One swimmer was reportedly taken to hospital for shock after being tossed out of the water by Georges.

Vanessa Williams, from the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "It seems their common sense goes out of the window when they see Georges and they climb over him. It's likely that if he gets hemmed in he might lash out but whether that's deliberate or an accident is a moot point."     Ananova

  Japanese research institute admits mislabeled whale meat...   Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR), which runs the government's whaling program, has announced the results of a study showing that only about a quarter of whale meat sold in Japan is properly labeled. 9% of products sampled came from a different species to the one advertised and 59% carried no identification.

This is the third national study of this type undertaken by the ICR since 1986. In December 2000 the Institute admitted that 3.3% of samples it tested were from species protected from exploitation, but was unable to identify a further 2.3% of the samples.

In the present study, the ICR purchased about 980 whale products at some 400 outlets nationwide. Ninety, or about 9%, were falsely labeled, the study says. In several cases, meat from minke whales was labeled as fin whales, whose capture is prohibited under International Whaling Commission (IWC) rules, while dolphin was sold as minke whale. About 59% of the whale products did not identify species, and only 24% of them had the proper label. Meat from humpback whales, hunting of which has been prohibited since 1966, was also found on sale, according to the study. The sale of mislabeled food in prohibited in Japan under the Food Sanitation Law and other regulations.

The same study has found that almost half of all 'whale' products sampled in Japan contained at least one pollutant type at a level above advisory limits set for human food by national and international authorities. Consumer protection groups in Japan regularly call on the government to properly enforce laws prohibiting the sale of mislabeled and contaminated whale products, and point to developmental problems in children in the Faroe Islands that are attributed to their mothers' consumption of contaminated whale products.     Kyodo News Service

  Japanese authorities claim ignorance about toxic levels in whale and dolphin products...   The silence has been deafening from the Japanese government since three Japanese scientists recently discovered dangerous mercury levels in whale and dolphin products and urged health authorities to follow countries like Denmark by warning children and pregnant women to avoid them. Mercury dumping in the seas around Minamata in the 1950s and 1960s gave rise to one of Japan's darkest food contamination episodes, with toxin-laden fish causing thousands of cases of brain damage and hundreds of children to be born with horrific birth defects.

"We don't know anything about them," Health and Labor Ministry spokesman Kenichi Mikami said to Eat (magazine) of the findings, several weeks after they were picked up by newspapers and magazines like the June 2002 New Scientist. Meanwhile, some fishing communities continue to push consumption of whale and dolphin by serving curry-rice meals of the meat to still-growing schoolchildren. Between 1999 and 2001, the scientists, led by Tetsuya Endo of the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, purchased vacuum-packed whale/dolphin meat and innards from stores in Wakayama and Tokyo, and found that 26 samples contained on average 900 times the government's safe limit of mercury. Two liver samples contained almost 5,000 times the limit. At this level, says the study, a 60kg adult consuming just 0.15 grams of contaminated liver risks acute poisoning. A Fisheries Agency official, speaking to the Associated Press, dismissed the research by saying that the species tested were "not sold in Japan". But he would not speculate on how the scientists obtained their samples.

In 2000, the Royal Society of London published DNA tests of over 650 parcels of whale meat - many of which retail for thousands of yen per 100 grams - which found that many samples did not originate where they were claimed to. Some of those labeled "minke" were in fact endangered, protected species such as sperm, baleen or humpback, while others came from waters such as the Sea of Japan that are off-limits to whaling. Still other samples were found to be lamb, or even horse. So much, it would seem, for 'scientific whaling'. Of course, none of this should surprise Japan's consumers, who for the best part of this year have been throwing up their hands - if not their dinners - over their worst-ever succession of food contamination and fraudulent labeling scandals.

Bitter scenes at this year's International Whaling Commission meeting at Shimonoseki show that whaling is a nationalistic issue, and perhaps this accounts for the authorities' apparent reluctance to acknowledge a problem that plays to anti-whalers.

"Last summer, the Health and Labor Ministry began its own tests of whale-meat contamination," says Dr Endo. "The results were supposed to be announced this spring, but they weren't. I wonder if it had something to do with the IWC meeting taking place at the same time." We asked the Ministry about their tests, and were mildly puzzled to learn that the results had been delayed due to a "lack of samples".     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society website

  Japanese ministry investigation of mercury levels in seafood to include whales?...   Japan's Ministry of Environment has begun a ten-year investigation into the effect on human fetuses of mercury levels found in seafood. It is not clear whether this includes cetaceans, which are known to contain significant levels of mercury.

Reports from other countries link developmental problems in babies with mothers' mercury intake, but this is Japan's first study despite its devastating experience of Minamata disease. Currently the Japanese government considers levels accumulated in human hair of 50 parts per million (ppm) or less to be safe.

However, European and American reports, based on studies in the Faroe islands (where pilot whales have high levels of mercury) have linked influences on athletic ability, attentiveness and intelligence with mercury concentration of 10 ppm.

The Ministry decided to focus on impacts on embryos, concerned that Japanese consume more fish than Europeans and Americans and that the mercury concentration in many Japanese consumers' hair exceeds standards set by the USA.     Asahi Shimbum

  National Marine Fisheries Service rejects bowhead petition ...   The National Marine Fisheries Service has rejected a petition to set aside critical habitat for the Western Arctic stock of bowhead whales. The agency said critical habitat for the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort stock of bowhead whales is not needed as the population is increasing and that habitat degradation is not having a negative impact. NMFS officials say past declines in area bowhead stocks were due to commercial whaling, not habitat problems.

The petition seeking critical habitat was filed in February 2000 by the Center for Biological Diversity and the Marine Biodiversity Protection Center. Those groups wanted protected areas set aside in the Chukchi Sea and a wide swath of the Beaufort, stretching from Point Barrow to the Canadian border.

NMFS is basing its decision on results of a comprehensive survey of the Western Arctic stock conducted in the spring of last year. Analysis continues, but preliminary information indicates that those bowheads are abundant.     Anchorage Daily News

  Conservation groups sue to stop the unnecessary killing of marine mammals in fishing gear...   A coalition of conservation groups filed suit in federal court recently against the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). Oceana, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Turtle Island Restoration Network demand in the lawsuit that NMFS comply with the federal law requiring the agency to substantially reduce the killing of marine mammals during commercial fishing operations.

"The recent beaching of dozens of whales off New England shows just how important it is for the government to protect marine mammals. But, each year, hundreds of whales, dolphins, and porpoises are caught and drowned in fishing gear in U.S. waters. The Bush Administration must kick into high gear to stop this needless killing," said Sylvia Liu, a senior attorney at Oceana.

Commercial by catch is more than a just a problem, it is a worldwide crisis that needs to be addressed immediately. New research released this month by the World Wildlife Fund finds that nearly 60,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are killed each year worldwide by destructive fishing practices. This is a figure three times greater than the deliberate killing of an average of 21,000 whales a year by whalers during the 20th century, a practice that caused severe declines in nearly all large whale species.

Fishing gear such as, long lines, gillnets and trawl nets can trap and drown marine mammals. Some, such as large whales, while not immediately drowned, often swim away with portions of gear or nets wrapped around them. This gear can cut into and become imbedded in the skin causing a number of debilitating and life threatening problems, which often result in a slow death. Each year, over 400 harbor porpoises, more than 400 common dolphins, and nearly 250 pilot whales are killed by commercial fishing gear in U.S. waters.

In 1972, Congress adopted the MMPA to protect marine mammal populations, many of which had severely declined due to fishing and other human activities. In 1994, the law was amended to require more aggressive steps to protect marine mammals from being captured and drowned in commercial fishing gears.

"NMFS has failed time and time again to meet congressionally set deadlines for taking actions designed to prevent the needless killing of marine mammals. As it has done with so many other environmental laws, this administration believes it can simply ignore the Marine Mammal Protection Act," stated Brendan Cummings, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. "We are confident the courts will hold otherwise."

While the MMPA calls for the reduction of all marine mammal by catch, certain high risk populations are subject to special protections including the development of 'Take Reduction Plans.' These plans, developed by teams of experts, are required to be implemented within 20 months of a scientific assessment concluding that populations are threatened by commercial fishing. Well-designed Take Reduction Plans will help rebuild these at-risk populations. The agency has only convened six teams and completed four take reduction plans.

"To date, NMFS has failed to develop many of the Take Reduction Plans that are warranted by scientific assessments," stated Todd Steiner, Director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network. "Our lawsuit calls upon NMFS to complete take reduction plans for strategic stocks that the agency itself has identified as being threatened by commercial fishing." Three of the key populations that are the focus of the lawsuit are the harbor porpoises off of Central California, the common dolphins in the Western North Atlantic, and long-finned and short-finned pilot whales in the Western North Atlantic.

Under the MMPA, commercial fisheries are required to reduce incidental mortality and serious injury of all marine mammals to "insignificant levels approaching a zero mortality and serious injury rate." The deadline for achieving this goal passed on April 30, 2001, with almost no progress. The lawsuit also calls on NMFS to issue to Congress a long overdue report (due April 30, 1998) detailing the progress all commercial fisheries have made towards reducing by catch.

Citizens have expressed outrage over the practice of discarding unwanted marine mammals, birds, sea turtles, and large numbers of fish, injured, dead and dying, during massive scale fishing operations. This summer, over 110,000 Americans supported Oceana's petition demanding that NMFS implement a program to count, cap, and control wasted catch, the largest number ever to comment formally on an ocean related issue. The fisheries responsible for such killings use long lines, gillnets, and trawl nets - fishing techniques that indiscriminately kill large numbers of non-targeted ocean life.     Center for Biological Diversity website

  Keiko update...   On September 1, Keiko followed a Norwegian fishing vessel and entered a small harbor in Norway where he interacted with several vessels and members of the public, some of who evidently provided food to him and entered the water. Humane Society staff remain on site in Norway to monitor Keiko's status and educate people about the project's goal and are engaged in an effort to alert media and the public in Norway to avoid further interaction with Keiko, as human contact could erode the incredible progress he has made to return to the wild. The staff in Norway is conducting a massive educational effort with children and the townspeople on why it's important to avoid contact with Keiko. They are working with local and federal officials to set up guidelines for approaching Keiko when he is in and around the fjord.

The most recent data on Keiko show that he is making real progress and is still on a track toward freedom. After receiving satellite transmissions indicating he was moving toward the Norwegian coastline two HSUS staffers were dispatched to Norway. They made visual observations of Keiko on August 30. After analyzing this photographic data and comparing it to photographs taken of Keiko prior to his departure from Iceland, Keiko's veterinarian, who has more than 30 years of experience working with orcas, has determined that Keiko is in excellent condition and has not lost any weight. This photographic evidence is also a strong indication that Keiko has foraged successfully in the wild and is capable of sustaining himself in the wild.

In cooperation with the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation, which still maintains legal custody of Keiko, HSUS will continue to monitor Keiko on a daily basis. If data changes in a way that indicates Keiko is in distress and the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation requests HSUS to assist with an intervention to insure his health and safety, they will do so. The Free Willy/Keiko Foundation has many options under consideration to encourage Keiko to move to the waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Right now, they want Keiko to make that decision on his own. For that reason, the effort to discourage people from interacting with Keiko is continuing.

HSUS believes that if the people who have been flocking to see Keiko would leave, he will lose interest and move on, possibly to join a pod off the coast of Norway. After everything Keiko has been through, its amazing to think that the same animal just covered a thousand miles in the open ocean, is diving up to 75 meters for fish and is in excellent health.

A Norwegian government official has offered reassurances that Keiko will not be harmed, despite a widely reported call from a Norwegian whale researcher for Keiko to be destroyed. The reports of children frolicking with Keiko are very troubling. The effort to free Keiko is in jeopardy because of these irresponsible activities.

Just because Keiko has approached vessels now, doesn't mean that he can't make it in the wild or won't return to the open sea. What Keiko needs is to have the space to continue being a wild whale. The project managers have taken just the right approach of educating the boaters and the public that it is not in Keiko's best interests to feed him, swim with him or approach him with boats.

This isn't the first time Keiko has followed boats and it may not be the last. But that is no reason to pull the plug on his reintroduction to the wild. He needs continual reinforcement for keeping distant from boats. It certainly can be successfully done.

The leading orca whale experts in the world have stated that, at this point, Keiko's ability to feed himself in the wild is more important than traveling with whales. There are plenty of examples of wild male orca whales being on their own for significant periods of time. Keiko has spent a lot of time with orca groups and he will surely encounter more orca groups in the future.

Many people have doubted Keiko's ability to succeed at every step of the way. Some people felt he would not survive the move from Mexico City to Oregon, or that his skin condition would never heal, or that he would never learn to eat live fish or survive in the wild. At each stage he has proved his naysayers wrong. The staff is optimistic that Keiko has learned the skills he needs to be a wild whale and will continue to give him the choice to do that.     The Humane Society of the United States website

  Underwater noise threatens belugas...   Scientists have begun a major study to find out whether beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River are suffering from noise levels that can be so high, the mammals must repeat themselves to be heard. Canadian federal scientists are mapping the sound levels experienced by the animals, fearing the constant din of whale-watching boats and commercial freighters might cause permanent damage.

Belugas have been nicknamed canaries of the sea because of their frequent vocalization. Experts say even partial deafness could be catastrophic as hearing is their primary sense in a murky world.

The St. Lawrence estuary is home to a dwindling population of about 500 of the animals, decimated by whaling in the past and more recently by pollution spewed by surrounding industry.     National Post

  Hawaiian humpback whale sanctuary approved...   Gov. Ben Cayetano approved a revised plan to set up for a humpback whale sanctuary in Hawaii in the next five years. The Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary plan was sent to the governor by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It includes updated strategies for education, research and administration as a result of public input. The new plan also includes species such as monk seals and sea turtles under its protective umbrella. The proposed sanctuary includes areas around the major Hawaiian Islands.

The sanctuary's goal is to promote comprehensive and coordinated management, research, education and long-term monitoring for the endangered humpback whale and its habitat. Humpback whales stay in Hawaii during the winter months to breed, calve and nurse.     Pacific Business News