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.

  Court rules Makah whale hunt illegal...   In mid-December a federal appeals court ruled that the Makah tribe's hunting of gray whales off the coast of Washington violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The ruling reverses a previous trial court decision, finding that in approving the hunt, the government had failed to comply with its own regulations governing activities that may harm the environment.

A three judge panel from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a halt to all Makah whale hunts until the federal government can complete a comprehensive environmental impact analysis, and both government and tribe comply with the requirements of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA).

"Having reviewed the environmental assessment prepared by the government agencies and the administrative record, we conclude that there are substantial questions remaining as to whether the tribe's whaling plans will have a significant effect on the environment," wrote Judge Marsha Berzon. "The environmental assessment simply does not adequately address the highly uncertain impact of the tribe's whaling on the local whale population and the local ecosystem."

The ruling, which came in a legal challenge filed by The Fund for Animals, The Humane Society of the United States, and other groups and individuals, marks the first time that the tribal hunt has been ruled in violation of the federal law that protects ocean mammals.

The plaintiffs had argued that the government failed to adequately study the ways in which the Makah whale hunt could harm the environment, as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Their argument was bolstered by a 2001 decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) which expanded the Makah's whaling permit to include a small population of gray whales that lives year round in the Juan de Fuca Strait.

Previous permits from NMFS had banned hunting of the resident gray whales, which number between 30 and 50 animals, compared to the estimated 26,000 (Note: current population estimates are around 18,000) gray whales that migrate past the Strait twice each year. Under the 2001 decision, the Makah could kill up to five of the resident whales each year.

The plaintiffs also argued that the government's authorization of the whale hunt violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which expressly prohibits whaling, while creating an exemption for Alaskan tribes but not for the Makah.

The Makah, who are based at Neah Bay, Washington some 30 miles west of Port Angeles, resumed their hunt in 1999 after a hiatus of almost three-quarters of a century. They claimed it was a part of their tradition and culture, and in fact, whaling is written into the Makah's 1885 Treaty, making the Makah the only U.S. tribe to have explicit permission to whale.

Tribal officials said that the appeals court ruling sets a dangerous precedent for the authority of all Indian treaties, which the U.S. Constitution defines as "the supreme law of the land," ranking higher than federal laws such as the MMPA.

Critics of the Makah whale hunt charge that it cannot be justified under cultural or subsistence arguments because the tribe's hunting methods have changed so much since they gave up whale hunts in the 1920s. At that time, the population of gray whales that summers in and around Neah Bay had been decimated by commercial whalers, leaving the Makah with their traditional canoes and spears little chance of landing a whale.

But after the gray whale was removed from the federal Endangered Species List in 1994, the tribe petitioned for permission to resume the hunt. Under requirements set by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the tribe can still hunt in traditional dugout canoes - though boats with motors are most often used now - but must kill the whales with guns, a method the federal agency calls more "humane" than spear hunting.

The Makah plan to appeal the decision to the full panel of 9th Circuit court judges, and said they will take the case to the United States Supreme Court if necessary.     Environmental News Service

  Bay of Fundy shipping lanes moved to protect right whale...   Canadian Transport Minister David Collenette and Fisheries and Oceans Minister Robert Thibault announced in early January that the Maritime Safety Committee of International Maritime Organization (IMO) has approved and adopted the Government of Canada's proposed changes to the shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy to protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale population from ship strikes.

The new lanes will become effective on July 1, 2003 following the necessary amendments to the navigational charts and vessel traffic control procedures, as well as the completion of distribution and notification procedures. As a result, the additional protection for the right whales provided by the lane changes will be in place prior to their expected seasonal return to Fundy waters in the summer of 2003.

"The Government of Canada has created new safe and effective shipping lanes which will reduce the likelihood of a Right Whale suffering a ship strike in the Bay of Fundy by up to eighty percent," said Mr. Collenette. "Many groups with varied interests came together to help create what is believed to be the world's first ship strike sensitive shipping lanes."

The new lanes will help to protect the right whale by organizing the ship traffic flow in and around an area where the right whale densities are the greatest. The Government of Canada's Right Whale Recovery Plan, implemented in 2000, identified a number of measures to reduce human impact on this endangered whale. Changes in the shipping lanes are one of these measures and is a major step forward in helping the marine mammal recover. A Working Group on Ship Strikes co-chaired by Transport Canada and the Canadian Whale Institute, and including representatives from the shipping, fishing and whale watching communities, determined that this approach would be the most effective in reducing strikes and maintaining safe commercial marine operations. The new shipping lanes are based on considerable scientific whale research and were reviewed by several marine industry stakeholders and experts to ensure safety would be maintained.     Ottawa News

  Endangered right whales eating poison food...   Ocean scientists are worried that endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Bay of Fundy are eating zooplankton contaminated with deadly poison. (Also see the ACS January '03 Research Report.) Pound for pound, the rare mammals are ingesting enough poison to kill a man. A team of scientists has discovered that the whales are dining on zooplankton contaminated with the neurotoxins responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning.

Right whales come to the lower Bay of Fundy every summer for two or three months. The problem is the favorite microscopic animals on their menu like to eat a phytoplankton called alexandrium that's responsible for paralytic shellfish poisoning. The very potent neurotoxin, which can kill mammals by stopping their breathing, is passed on to the whales. The whales seem to be eating about the same amount of toxin per kilogram of tissue as when human death has occurred. While the toxin isn't killing the whales, it may reduce their swimming and diving capabilities, and it could even harm their ability to reproduce.

The calving frequency and blubber thickness of the adults appear to be less than the southern right whales, indicating the northern group is in poorer condition. While the past two years have been good ones for right whale births, the northern herd of 300 is rebounding after three poor years when barely a handful of mothers gave birth.

Although protected from whaling since 1935, the right whale today is under threat from collisions with ships and entanglements in fishing gear. The paralytic shellfish poisoning, however, is courtesy of Mother Nature.     The Daily News

  British Columbian spending on wildlife protection at a historic low by 2004...   By 2004, B.C.'s spending on wildlife protection and law enforcement will be the lowest it's been in over 20 years, says a new report by a Calgary wildlife scientist. The report, released in November, says that after adjusting for inflation, provincial spending on wildlife law enforcement in 2004 will have dropped more than 50 % since 1983, the earliest year for which exact statistics were available.

In 1983 the province spent $7.5 million on wildlife enforcement, or the equivalent of $14.5 million in current dollars. In 2004, it will drop to $7 million. In comparison, Alaska's budget continues to increase. Alaska is roughly one and a half times as large as B.C. in terms of land mass and has one-sixth the population, yet it spends 50 per cent more money on wildlife protection.

Earlier this year, Victoria closed eight conservation offices around the province, and eliminated 22 conservation officer positions, leaving a total of 120.

Spending on wildlife enforcement now accounts for 1/28 of one per cent of B.C.'s total expenditures. By 2004, it will fall to 1/29th of one per cent. In 20 years, over-all expenditures in B.C. have increased 200 per cent or roughly $16.3 billion. During the same period, money spent on wildlife enforcement has declined.

Conservationists say the report graphically shows how inadequate wildlife protection is in the province. "This report illustrates how the B.C. government is abdicating its responsibility for managing our wildlife and for conservation enforcement," said Chris Genovali, director of the Raincoast Conservation Society, which commissioned the report.

"We're concerned that poaching will increase and that non-reporting [of wildlife kills] will increase. The fact that there's no one out there watching or monitoring is creating a Wild West kind of scenario in which people will be free to do what they want."

This could have an impact on cetaceans as the BC government helps with providing monitoring orcas in Robson Bight.     Vancouver Sun

  Rescuers save 39 pilot whales in New Zealand...   Rescuers have managed to refloat 39 members of a beached pod of whales during high tide as dozens of other whales lay dead on a remote island off southern New Zealand.

Locals joined conservation specialists in the race to rescue surviving members of a 159-strong pod of pilot whales stranded on Stewart Island, 40 kilometers (25 miles) off the south coast of New Zealand's South Island. By nightfall, the 39 whales had moved about 4 kilometers out into open sea and were heading south away from the stranding site on a beach called The Neck in Paterson's Inlet. It is a few kilometers from the island's only settlement of Oban.

New Zealand has one of the world's highest rates of whale strandings, which are thought to occur when the animals become disoriented or when a dominant animal leads others ashore. But the strandings are not clearly understood by scientists who believe illness or other types of trauma might also play a role.

Some groups in New Zealand have called for butchering stranded whales, stating that many probably die after they are refloated and go out to sea.     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

  Legislation to counter Bush administration's assault on dolphins...   Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California) said (January 15, 2003) she would introduce legislation to counter Bush administration rules that she said "gutted" the dolphin-safe definition on cans of tuna.

The legislation, to be introduced January 16th, is to counter new labeling rules the government announced Dec. 31. which Boxer said are "putting free trade ahead of protecting dolphin." That day, the Commerce Department announced tuna caught by encircling dolphins may immediately be imported into the United States and bear the "dolphin-safe" label as long as observers aboard the fishing vessels certified no dolphins were killed or seriously injured. The ruling opens the way for Mexico and Ecuador, who use such encircling practices, to ship tuna to the United States.

Under the old dolphin-safe definition, which Boxer's legislation seeks to reinstate, tuna caught using dolphins as targets was automatically barred from bearing the consumer-friendly label on cans sold in the United States.

Dolphin commonly swim with schools of tuna. Various reports have said between 2,000 and 3,000 dolphins are killed annually in connection with tuna fishing in the eastern Pacific. Dolphin fatalities numbered in the hundreds of thousands decades ago, prompting international efforts and the emergence of the "dolphin-safe" label to better protect the mammals.

Boxer said the new definition is "completely false advertising" and said the previous rule has "been gutted by the Bush administration."

The revision by the Commerce Department's National Marine Fisheries Service came after the agency determined that while thousands of dolphins continue to be killed during tuna fishing, the losses pose no significant threat to the species.

"Americans can continue to have confidence that when they purchase tuna with the dolphin-safe label that dolphins are being protected," Bill Hogarth, the agency's director, said when the revisions were announced.

On another front, conservationists are challenging the administration's new guidelines in federal court here. The San Francisco-based Earth Island Institute and the National Marine Fisheries Service were behind closed doors Wednesday working on a possible settlement, according to representatives from both sides. Environmentalists are also asking a judge to nullify the new labeling standard.

In seeking to overturn the new dolphin-safe definition, the institute and other environmental groups charge that the government is sacrificing dolphins for the sake of free trade and misleading consumers in the process.

Among other things, the lawsuit said targeting dolphins during tuna fishing stresses dolphins to the point of "fatal heart damage" and can cause mothers and their offspring to become separated. Those and other factors may go unnoticed to fishing monitors, the groups charged.     Associated Press

  Two scientists contend U.S. suppressed dolphin studies...   Two former government scientists who spent years investigating stress in dolphin populations charged this week that superiors at their federally financed laboratory shut down their research because it clashed with policy goals of the Clinton and Bush administrations.

The scientists, who worked at different times over the past decade at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center in San Diego, said their research indicated that the practice of chasing and encircling dolphins to catch tuna exposed the dolphins to dangerous amounts of stress.

The accusations, by Dr. Albert Myrick, a wildlife biologist, and Dr. Sarka Southern, a research associate, came days after the Bush administration relaxed the criteria for declaring tuna netted by Mexican and other foreign fishing boats to be "dolphin safe." In making that declaration last week, Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans said that chasing and corralling dolphins and the tuna that often accompany them into purse nets had "no significant adverse impact" on the dolphins.

The ruling cleared the way for Mexican and other Latin American tuna producers to place a dolphin-safe label on cans for American shelves. The foreign producers seek the designation - which many consumers demand - to be competitive with American companies, which do not chase dolphins to catch tuna.

But this week, Dr. Myrick said he decided in 1995 to retire from the center, which is part of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, after he was forbidden to continue his stress research. Dr. Southern, who helped pioneer the search for a molecular signature of stress, said that last year she was ordered to curtail her work after discovering signs of chronic stress in a large number of dolphins.

For nearly a decade, Clinton and Bush administration officials have sought to grant Mexico the dolphin-safe designation, as that government has taken steps to reduce dolphin kills.

Scientists studying dolphins in the waters off the coasts of Mexico and Central America have struggled to understand why the populations have failed to regenerate, even as mortality rates have sharply fallen, from hundreds of thousands a year to fewer than 3,000. A leading theory is that stress caused by the chase and netting - or the separation of cows from calves - has disrupted the dolphins' ability to reproduce.

In 1997, Congress ordered NOAA and the fisheries center to prepare a study to determine if the purse net fishing was harmful. A top official at the agency, William T. Hogarth, said the study, which was released last week, was "not conclusive."

Officials at NOAA and the Commerce Department said there had been no effort to suppress research. The officials said that in the case of both scientists financing shortfalls and problems with peer reviews, not political considerations, ended their work.

Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, said she would call for hearings in the Senate Commerce Committee to determine whether the Bush administration was running roughshod over the scientific evidence or suppressing research. Ms. Boxer, who wrote the original 1990 legislation that set out criteria for dolphin-safe fishing, said she would introduce a bill on Thursday (1/16) seeking to overturn Mr. Evans's ruling.

Dr. Southern, a biophysical chemist, arrived at the fisheries center in 1998 under a grant to develop a technique for measuring stress in skin samples. After conducting an analysis on 900 dolphins, she established a link between animals that showed molecular evidence of stress and those that had been in most contact with the tuna fleets, she said.

But last February, her supervisor ordered her to withhold her findings, she said. "He came to my office and said that I have to understand that there's science and there's politics, and the politics dictates what sort of science can be used," Dr. Southern said.

A few weeks later, Dr. Southern said, her research was terminated, and her laboratory was dismantled. Stephen Reilly, who led the stress research at the center, said Dr. Southern's grant had expired. While her research was promising, he said, she ran into problems with the peer review process, with experts demanding more data. "We didn't have the money or the time," Mr. Reilly said.

Dr. Myrick, who was one of the first to study the indirect effects on dolphins of chase and capture, said he concluded in the mid-1990's that contact with tuna fishermen had resulted in lower pregnancy rates and the separation of calves from cows and otherwise had prevented the population from rebounding.

He said he was ordered to abandon his stress physiology project when Mexico was heavily lobbying the Clinton administration to relax its dolphin-safe rules. "They said, "No more, you can work on something else," Dr. Myrick said.

Dr. Tillman, the center's director, blamed severe budget cuts for curtailing the work. "There was no funding for the tuna-dolphin research at that time," he said.     New York Times

  Alarm over Bryde's whale deaths in New Zealand...   The number of Bryde's whales found dead in New Zealand waters are disturbing conservationists. Five whales have been found dead in the past 18 months. Four were hit and killed by vessels in the Hauraki Gulf. The latest whale has yet to be examined, and it is not certain why it died.

Examination showed that the most recent whale died almost instantly when a container ship fractured its skull. With busy shipping channels around New Zealand, whales were likely to keep getting hit.

Bryde's whales generally like subtropical waters and New Zealand coastal waters are probably the outskirts of their preferred territory.

Project Jonah national spokeswoman Trish Steward said whales were curious creatures. She was concerned at the increased number of boats in the water for the America's Cup. Many people were not aware of the rules governing whales and dolphins. Boats must keep 500m from the mammals.     New Zealand Herald

  Ultra rare whale species beached in Japan...   A beached whale found on Japan's southern coast five months ago has turned out to be the first complete adult remains seen of an extremely rare species, researchers said Thursday. Experts identified the 21-foot whale as a female Longman's beaked whale.

Five other remains of the elusive species have been collected in Australia, Somalia and South Africa, but those were mostly skeletal or young. Scientists have never identified a living Longman's whale.

The shape of the skeleton and its skull closely resemble remains of other Longman's beaked whales preserved overseas, and results of DNA testing matched those of a specimen at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, the National Science Museum said in a statement.

Longman's beaked whales, also known as Indo-Pacific beaked whales, have long beak-shaped mouths and resemble elongated dolphins. They also have forward-pointing teeth in the lower jaw.

Much about the Longman's whale remains unknown, including how many there are and where they live.     Associated Press

  Environmentalists raise concern over Antarctic tourism boom...   Along the volcanic shores of Antarctica's Deception Island, a tourist ship operated by Clipper Cruise Line of St. Louis ran aground last month, a relatively minor incident remedied when a Chilean icebreaker came to the rescue.

But it was the third problem the Clipper Adventurer has encountered in recent years on the fragile continent at the bottom of the globe. And an advocacy group devoted to protecting the Antarctic environment says the grounding and other mishaps like it point to the need for regulations governing the continent's burgeoning tourism, which has increased six-fold in the last decade.

"The fact that in a place as well mapped as Deception Island a ship still ran aground is disturbing," said Josh Stevens, spokesman for the Antarctica Project, a Washington-based conservation organization and the only environmental advocacy group focused solely on Antarctica. "By no means are we saying they were negligent and we have no interest in ending tourism. We just want to make sure that before these places become too damaged to fix, there is a system in place for regulation," he said.

Among environmentalists' concerns are oil spills, snowmobiling scientists and an increase in pollution brought by visitors.

Doug Bolnick, a spokesman for Clipper said that his company's "No. 1 goal is that people learn a little bit more about the region and that they respect the environment." He played down the incident and said there was no environmental harm.

Such incidents are reported to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, a trade association of about 25 travel companies from around the world that is based in Colorado. While companies have reported no major accidents in the past decade, one ship injured a humpback whale in a collision two years ago.

Denise Landau, executive director of the association, said that companies strictly regulate themselves while in Antarctica and adhere to American environmental laws as well.

Concerns about the Antarctic environment began to surface in the 1970s amid proposals for oil and mineral drilling and reports of messy operations by scientists.

Remote Antarctica has no government, and it has been set aside by countries of the world as a zone of scientific exploration. Activities there are governed by the Antarctic Treaty of 1959 and multinational agreements, among them a protocol on environmental protection that went into effect in 1991.

Once a year, countries and groups send representatives to the annual Antarctic Treaty consultative meeting, where the environment, tourism and other issues are considered.

The Antarctica Project represents more than 200 environmental groups around the world and is an official participant in the annual meeting. The organization intends to bring up matters like the Clipper Adventurer's grounding, which was the first incident reported by a tourist vessel this year.

Joe Montgomery, an official with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, examines documents prepared in advance by tour companies describing trips to Antarctica and potential environmental impact. He said he thinks that most countries believe the self-regulatory system is working but that he has heard concerns from some about the long-term effects of tourism.     STLtoday.com

  Pew Commission reports U.S. needs better fisheries management...   America's fishing industry is on the decline, due in large part to bad management, too much competition and not enough productivity, according to three reports released January 14 by the Pew Oceans Commission.

The decline in the industry costs tens of thousands of jobs and means the economy of coastal communities is being adversely impacted, according to the reports. In order to stem that drain on the economy, fisheries need better management and need to be rebuilt, the reports state.

The United States is the world's fifth-largest seafood producer, and the commercial fishing industry brought in $28.6 billion to the American economy in 2001. But the nation is still importing more seafood products than it exports, with about $18.5 billion in imports in 2001, compared to $9.9 billion in exports. And, in the last 10 years, commercial catches have declined 5 percent overall, one of the reports says.

Advances in technology and open access to fisheries have resulted in too many fishermen with too much ability to catch fish, increasing competition for resources that are fast becoming depleted, according to one of the reports. So fishermen are turning to lower-value species as the higher-value stocks become harder to catch.

One of the reports, "Socioeconomic Perspectives on Marine Fisheries in the United States," states that fish populations need to be rebuilt to increase catches. It points to the collapse of the sardine fishery off the Monterey Bay coast, which peaked at 700,000 tons of sardines caught in 1936, and within the next 10 years fell to below 100,000 tons. By the 1960s and 1970s, there were almost no sardines left.

That collapse showed that "fisheries are as much about people as fish," the report by Pew Oceans staff members states. As fisheries decline, the need to rebuild becomes even more urgent, but for some species it could take decades.

Some rockfish in the West Coast groundfish fishery, which was declared a disaster in 2000, could take 50 years to a century to rebuild. The decline prompted federal regulators to severely restrict fishing.

Management also is part of the problem, according to the reports. The "Managing Marine Fisheries in the United States" report calls the federal fishery management system "general and permissive, lacking in both specificity and mandates" and charges the act governing that system "contains few requirements for conservation of ecosystems."

The independently financed Pew Oceans Commission has been conducting a comprehensive study of U.S. ocean policy and plans to present its recommendations for a new policy to Congress and the Bush administration next year.     Associated Press

  Irrawaddy dolphin threatened by human activities...   A small dolphin known for assisting fishermen by driving fish into their nets may soon disappear from the great Asian river for which the animal is named. According to a recent scientific survey by WDCS, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), and their Myanmar partners, the Irrawaddy dolphin may vanish from the Ayeyarwady River (formerly Irrawaddy) without efforts to protect these aquatic mammals from the combined threats of net entanglement, electric fishing and gold mining along the river.

Researchers from WCS, the Myanmar Departments of Fisheries and Forests, and Yangon University estimate that only a few tens of dolphins currently exist within the river as opposed to a population size that was undoubtedly much greater in the past. "The range of this dolphin has dramatically declined over the past century," said WDCS's Asian River dolphin coordinator Brian Smith. "The decline in their range and the low numbers observed indicate that this population is critically threatened."

Irrawaddy dolphins, which bear a resemblance to the widely familiar beluga whale, are beloved by fishermen for their habit of working cooperatively to drive fish into range of throw nets. Smith is hopeful that the dolphin's popularity and value to fishermen as a living resource will facilitate a site-based conservation program that would work to eliminate threats and promote cultural traditions that would benefit the dolphins.

"Local throw-net fishermen along the river have great affection for the dolphins, so I believe there would be good local support for a site-based conservation program," said Smith. "A protected area could also preserve both the dolphins and the traditional fishing practice of cooperating with the dolphins."

During the recent 27-day survey of the entire length of the Ayeyarwady, researchers recorded only nine sightings of this rare dolphin, compared with 14 sightings from a 1998 survey along the same portion of river. The researchers failed to observe dolphins below Mandalay and the delta, leading them to believe that the upper Ayeyarwady population is separate from coastal populations. The species' full range includes the coasts and rivers of southern Asia and Australasia; the most threatened populations of Irrawaddy dolphins are the freshwater lake and river populations.

The researchers also recorded numerous gill nets - dangerous to dolphins - in areas previously known to be prime dolphin habitat. The illegal activity of electric fishing, which uses high voltage to kill all organisms within its range and is conducted under the cover of night, is another threat to the dolphins. Extensive gold-mining operations pose an enormous threat to both dolphins and humans, due to the use of mercury to amalgamate the gold. Mercury can have detrimental effects on living organisms, accumulating in predators on top of the food chain.

Smith expects the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to list the Ayeyarwady population as critically endangered in the near future.     WDCS

  Japanese consumer protection accuses government of toxic data cover up...   Safety First, a consumer protection group in Japan has strongly criticized the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare for failing to make public the results of its damning research into whale meat contamination.

In 2001, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare commenced a study of contamination levels in different species of whale meat. The results were to have been published in spring 2002, but almost a year later, nothing has been released.

Ministry officials have told Safety First that they are dealing with the results on a case-by-case basis but admitted that the levels they had detected were consistent with Safety First's own studies. This means that the Government of Japan is sitting on a time bomb while consumers eat contaminated whale products.

In contrast, when Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci (VRE) was detected in pork and chicken, the ministry warned the public about the risks. But, even though some whale species contain acutely toxic levels of mercury, the government is still protecting the interests of the whaling industry over its consumers and is not issuing warnings.     Safety First

  Food safety legislation to be introduced in Japan...   Plans are underway for new legislation to improve consumer confidence in food safety, with the onus on government to introduce an overall policy on food safety and to ensure the policy is being applied.

Under the proposed Basic Food Safety Law, a new food safety committee will be appointed to independently carry out scientific investigations into food additives and residual chemicals that could be potentially harmful to human health and to monitor government policies.

According to the bill, the food safety committee will report its findings and advise the ministries of Forestry, Fisheries and Food Safety.

The bill also states that in an emergency the government can take appropriate action without waiting for results from the food safety committee's evaluation, which can be carried out after the fact. The bill does state clearly, however, that food-processing industries bear primary responsibility for guaranteeing food safety and they are specifically required to provide accurate food safety information for consumers.

The bill also asks for public comment so the government's food administration can improve its understanding and handling of consumer concerns.

The new bill is seen as a positive step towards forging a relationship between consumers and the food administration that conventional legislation has overlooked.     FIS Asia

  Study finds rare porpoises in Japanese coastal waters...   About 18,000 finless porpoises live in Japanese coastal waters, researchers at the University of Tokyo said. A study of the rare porpoises led by Kunio Shirakihara of the university's Ocean Research Institute was conducted from the spring to summer of 2000 at the request of the Environment Ministry.

The porpoises live in at least five areas including waters from Sendai Bay to Tokyo Bay, Omura Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture as well as Ise Bay in the Chubu region. This was the first study of the species nationwide. The study, undertaken using sightings from low-flying planes, is expected to aid their protection.     Asahi Shimbun

  Japanese village starting to whale watch, not slaughter...   The village of Futo, in Japan, has a long history of dolphin killing using the gruesome drive hunt method, where dozens (and sometimes hundreds) of small whales or dolphins are driven into bays for slaughter. In 1999, this village became infamous around the world for the brutal killing of a pod of some 70 dolphins.

Change is now afoot in Futo as September saw the launch of a whale and dolphin-watching enterprise from the village. Izumi Ishii, former drive hunt fisherman and now reformed founder of the dolphin-watching expeditions, explained why he had such a change of heart: "I heard the dolphins crying as they were killed. I could not bear it. The value I now see in dolphins is not the value of their meat, but of the wonder they incite in us".

Some of the fishing villages previously involved in the hunts no longer kill dolphins, but other villages continue the slaughter. In addition, the Japanese captivity industry has become embroiled in the controversy as they use the hunts to select live animals for their captive facilities, paying higher premiums for individual animals than they are sold for meat and helping to make the drive hunts an ongoing reality.

On September 25th 2002, a boatload of whale-watchers from Japan, Australia and the United States departed for the whale and dolphin-watching trip from Futo. The successful whale and dolphin-watching expedition was extensively covered by the Japanese media and has encouraged bookings for the Futo-based trips and support from representatives of the Japanese tourism industry. This trip has also stimulated interest in whale and dolphin watching, a concept that is already established in some parts of Japan.

Ishii, who killed dolphins himself for decades, describes best what he seeks to achieve in the future: "The most important thing is that I succeed in the dolphin watching business. If I can succeed in it, other fishermen in Futo will follow me."     WDCS/BlueVoice.org

  Whale meat processor in Japan files for bankruptcy...   Kyoshoku Co, a sea food processor specializing in whale meat, has gone bust and filed for court protection from creditors last Friday after giving up efforts to rebuild itself, a credit-research agency said Monday.

The company, with liabilities estimated at 8.9 billion yen, filed the application with the Chiba District Court under the civil rehabilitation law, Teikoku Databank Ltd said.     Kyodo News

  Poor whale meat sales in Japan...   Japan's annual 'scientific' whaling operation in the North Pacific has yielded vast quantities of whale meat. 100 minke, 50 Bryde's, 39 sei and five sperm whales have provided 1,300 tons of whale products. Over 400 tons of meat will be sold directly to wholesalers - more than double the quantity offered last year. But, like last year, when heavy discounts had to be offered, this year's prices suggest that the market is not only saturated, but that the public is deeply suspicious of the health risks associated with whale meat.

According to a Japanese fisheries newspaper, 304.9 tons of minke whale, 425.8 tons of Bryde's whale products and 583.3 tons of sei whale are available from the 2002 hunt. But the report only mentions 14.9 tons of sperm whale products - a fraction of meat available from the five huge animals caught. Even this will not be released for public consumption. The Fishery Agency insists that the products must be processed first - in the hope that treatment will remove contaminants contained in the fat. No test has yet been found, however, to remove the high levels of mercury in sperm whale meat.

Thanks in part to a popular book recently published by "Shufu no Tomo" (Friend of the Housewife), which recommends that whale meat should be banned from sale, concerns are growing in Japan about the high levels of contaminants in whale species. Consumer demand for whale meat has been falling steadily since the health risks first came to light in 1999. Since then, regular surveys of the Japanese marketplace have revealed that almost half the whale products tested contain levels of contaminants, including PCBs and heavy metals, that exceed advisory levels for human consumption set in Japan. Even a Japanese government survey last year found that four of five North Pacific minke whales exceeded advisory levels.

Rather than reduce its hunts and better regulate the market - as Japanese consumer groups and toxicologists demand - the government has ignored the health concerns and chosen instead to stimulate consumer taste buds with new species and marketing ploys. In the sickest gimmick of all, in 2003 the government will supply over 195 tons of whale meat to 'public benefit projects', including school lunches, intended to educate the public about the joys and benefits of eating whales.

However, in what must come as a tremendous dent to the government's pride - as well as its coffers, the extra hundreds of tons of new whale products flooding the market from its expanded whaling operations are not selling well. One third of the meat from 440 whales caught last year in Antarctica went unsold and, in early 2002, the price of the north Pacific whales had to be cut by 20% to entice wholesalers to buy. It is not clear what happened to any unsold meat, but it may have ended up in animal feed - and still in the human food chain.

This year, wholesale prices are starting lower than ever - almost half their value in 2000. The mathematics are simple and compelling. If - and it's a big 'if' - all the meat sells at the prices set, th30-Jun-2006 9:46peration itself is hugely expensive and already subsided by at least US$8 million.     WDCS

  U.K. dolphins die in trawl nets...   A promise to modify vast trawl nets to save dolphins from slaughter has not been kept by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, resulting in continued dolphin and porpoise deaths along the south coast of Britain.

Thirty dead dolphins have been reported on Cornish beaches in the first nine days of the sea bass fishing season. The boats use the pair trawling system in which two trawlers drag nets as large as football pitches, trapping not only the bass but also dolphins and porpoises feeding on the same shoals.

Elliot Morley, the fisheries minister, shocked by the carnage last year when hundreds of dolphins were washed ashore in the West Country and France, announced that he was bringing forward £30,000 trials of new nets and promised they would be in use as early as December, when the new season began.

The trial nets were made with a grid at intervals to allow intelligent dolphins to find their way out while the bass were trapped as they continued to follow the line of the net. The trials began in March but one of two video cameras fixed to the nets fell off. One tope shark was seen to make its escape through the grid but no dolphins were spotted. In other respects, the nets worked because the catch did not escape.

The practice of pair trawling is banned in the US and some other parts of the world because of dolphin deaths. In Britain it is illegal to use the nets if the deaths of any non-targeted species exceed 1.7% of the population, but Mr. Morley said no one knew how many dolphins there were. Although he believed that the deaths figure was above 1.7%, the French and Dutch fisheries were hard to convince, and it needed an EU decision to ban pair trawling.

Stella Turk, Cornwall's coordinator for dolphin strandings, said: "This season could be one of the worst we've had since records began 10 years ago." Volunteers had been tagging dead dolphins and porpoises. "It has been heartbreaking," she said. "Some of the dolphins were females about to give birth."

It had been estimated that one dolphin died for every two casts of a trawl net, yet 30 had been killed in a single net.

British boats make up less than a quarter of the bass fishery, the bulk being carried out by French fishermen, with 45 boats, and Dutch trawlers.

The EU is putting forward proposals to fit acoustic devices to nets to save porpoises.     The Guardian

  Spanish slick affecting marine mammals...   The disastrous oil spill off Spain's northwest coast has nearly smothered several dolphins and threatens the lives of many more marine mammals, Spanish environmentalists and scientists say.

Five bottlenose dolphins, six common dolphins, three porpoises and 13 sea turtles have been found coated in the tar-like heavy fuel oil off Galicia province where a loaded tanker sank more than a month ago, Spain's Organization for the Study of Marine Mammals (CEMMA) says.     ABC News Online