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.

 NMFS Sued for Failure to Protect Hawaii's False Killer Whales ...   In November 2003 a lawsuit was filed by Earth Justice on behalf of Hawaii's community group Hui Malama i Kohola, the Center for Biological Diversity and Turtle Island Restoration Network. The suit's goal is to force NMFS to increase protection for the whale, as mandated by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, by reclassifying the fishery from its current Category III status to Category I. This change would trigger the creation and implementation of plans to reduce killing and wounding by the Hawaii's longline fleet of false killer whales and other marine mammals, including the Hawaiian monk seal, humpback whale, sperm whale, blue whale and fin whale.     MARMAM

 Pacific Gray Whales Threatened by Gas Project's Impact ...   In late November 2003 a coalition of conservationists urged the Export Import Bank of the United States to deny financing to an international oil consortium project that threatens the critically endangered western Pacific gray whale. Scientists estimate there are only some 130 of the whales remaining in the world and fear the project will harm the waters around Russia's Sakhalin Island - the species' only known summer feeding ground.

Every year, from May to November, the entire known population of western gray whales comes to feed off the northeastern shores of Sakhalin Island, located off the eastern coast of Russia just north of Japan.

This habitat is slated for increased oil exploration and drilling activities under a proposal by the Sakhalin Energy Investment Company (SEIC) - a consortium led by oil giant Royal Dutch Shell and including Japanese companies Mitsubishi and Mitsui. The consortium does not currently have any American companies. The consortium began exporting oil from a massive field offshore of Sakhalin Island in 1998.

SEIC says it exported some 10.7 billion barrels of oil from the area in 2002 and it is eager to tap into the massive gas reserves of the region. The consortium is now seeking public financing for the second phase of the project, which includes plans to build four pipelines and to construct one of the world's largest production plants for liquid natural gas (LNG).

The western Pacific gray whale has been decimated by hunting and conservationists fear expansion of oil and gas production in the species' primary feeding ground could drive the species into extinction. This population of gray whales is listed as endangered under the ESA in 1970 and as critically endangered by the World Conservation Union-IUCN.

The consortium plans to export the LNG to Asia - its facility will have an annual capacity of some 9.6 million tons. But the coalition of 11 environmental groups says these plans will harm the whales and "pose an unacceptable risk to the region's environment and economy."

In a letter sent to Export Import Bank President and Chairman Phillip Merrill, the environmental coalition urged the bank to "conduct the rigorous and objective review of environmental impacts that U.S. law and the Bank's policies require."

The pipelines and the LNG facility are located within the gray whale feeding grounds and the coalition says the project will negatively impact the endangered whales and the surrounding ecosystem. The waters around the island are key migration paths and habitat for commercial species such as salmon, crab, Pollock and herring.

The Export Import Bank is the official export credit agency of the United States, with the mission to "assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to international markets."

The coalition is lobbying the bank because the federal agency is required by the National Environmental Policy Act to consider the environmental impacts of its actions, including those that take place outside U.S. territory. It also has obligations under the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act to protect the endangered whales.

And the International Whaling Commission adopted a resolution in 2001 that called for the minimization of any human interference with this population of whales, describing it as a matter of "absolute urgency." The environmentalists called attention to a list of environmental conditions for the Sakhalin project published in January 2003 by a coalition of 50 non-governmental organizations with memberships in Russia, the United States, Europe, and Asia.

They believe the oil consortium has little interest in protecting the whales, and say it failed to satisfy environmental conditions of the first phase. The environmentalists cite potential impacts on the whales such as disturbance from intense noise, contamination from oil and chemical spills, entanglement in cables, and physical habitat alteration such as that caused by dredging.

They informed Merrill of documentation from a joint team of scientists from the United States and Russia that indicated a number of whales appeared to have been displaced from their main feeding area while seismic surveys were conducted, along with evidence that worsened malnourishment that was observed in more than a quarter of the population in 2000.

Whether the Export Import Bank, which could consider the funding as early as next month, will be swayed by the environmentalists' concern is far from clear. The oil consortium has refuted criticism of its environmental record, and cites its own studies that the first phase of activity had minimal impact. Consortium officials say they have spent millions of dollars on to monitor and mitigate the effects of its projects on the whales - and earmarked an additional $5 million this year for whale research.

Environmentalists say the consortium has not directly addressed their concerns, but the development of Sakhalin gas and oil reserves has strong support from business interests and the Russian government. The area around the 600 mile long island is estimated to contain as much as 50 billion barrels of oil and some 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

Recent price spikes of natural gas have prompted increased interest in world LNG supplies, and the consortium also touts the $10 billion phase two of the Sakhalin project as the single largest foreign direct investment project in Russia.

The coalition who sent the letter to the Export Import Bank include: the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earth Island Institute, Environmental Defense, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace USA, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pacific Environment, Sakhalin Environment Watch and World Wildlife Fund.     World Wildlife Fund

 US Military Exempted from Environmental Regulations...   President Bush signed a bill in November easing restrictions on the Department of Defense that deal with whales and rare species.

The bill allows the Navy to redefine "harassment" under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, making it easier to use low- frequency sonar suspected of harming whales and dolphins. The Pentagon's $401 billion authorization bill for the 2004 fiscal year also exempts military bases from stringent habitat-protection requirements under the federal Endangered Species Act.

In addition, the Pentagon, as it has in the past, is seeking exemptions to the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (which governs hazardous waste), and the Superfund Act responsible for cleaning up toxic-waste sites around the country. Last year, an exemption to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act was granted the military as well.

The scope of the issue is enormous. The Defense Department oversees some 25 million acres of military bases and other training facilities. The military's pollution problems - including corroding bombs and rockets, and old chemical munitions now outlawed - date back over a century.

Making a case for giving the Navy a break under the Marine Mammal Protection Act may be harder. Many marine biologists believe that the Navy's powerful sonar systems seriously affect and in some cases permanently damage the animals' means of communication and navigation, sometimes driving them into a frenzy in which they beach themselves and die.

Three years ago, 16 beached whales were found in the Bahamas after the Navy conducted sonar exercises in the vicinity. Seven died - apparently the victims of severe sound pressure that caused cranial hemorrhaging. Whales also beached themselves shortly after exercises in Greece, California, and the Canary Islands.     Christian Science Monitor

 Whale Nursery Discovered in Chile...   In early December 2003 scientists made the extraordinary discovery in Chile of a hidden nursery where blue whales go in large numbers to rear their young and to feed. The find, in the south of the country, will help researchers understand the behavior and migration of blue whales, aiding conservation measures.

The blue whale is the largest mammal on Earth and was driven to near-extinction by commercial whaling.

The researchers claim the area, located in a sheltered network of fjords surrounded by long-dormant volcanoes, is one of the most important blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) feeding and nursing grounds yet discovered in the southern hemisphere.

Researchers said it was possible that the whales were also giving birth in the area, but there was no evidence currently either way for this. Scientists have little information on where blue whales breed, although it is thought to take place in tropical waters.

The nursing and feeding area was discovered following a blue whale study cruise along the Chilean coast in early 1997 organized by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Observers on the boats noticed that many whale sightings were occurring closer to shore than expected. A follow-up boat trip into the fjords by whale expert Don Ljungblad and others found the site which was later identified as a whale nursing and feeding ground.

But the findings appear to contradict traditional theories about the seasonal migration of blue whales. Southern Hemisphere blue whales generally leave their Antarctic feeding grounds at the onset of autumn. They arrive in the tropics at the onset of winter, in order to give birth and breed. When spring arrives, they begin to migrate back to the Antarctic. However, the blue whales at Chiloe-Corcovado were clearly spending summer near the tropics, in contrast to conventional wisdom.

One possibility is that the population found in the fjords of southern Chile are in fact pygmy blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus brevicauda), thought by some marine biologists to constitute a separate sub-species.

But the designation is highly controversial and not accepted by all whale experts. Pygmy blue whales are not thought to follow the same migration patterns as "true" blue whales.

The authors of the latest paper say it is too early to determine whether the Chilean whales belong to this sub-species and that genetic testing, satellite tracking and photogrammetry - the technique of measuring objects from images - is needed to say for certain.

Another possibility - that the animals are capable of changing their habits - is not currently accepted by many marine biologists. But some scientists do consider this a plausible alternative.

The IWC estimates that there could be up to 1,400 individual Southern-Hemisphere blue whales left. This has risen from 500 around a quarter of a century ago, but the recovery has been proceeding slowly.

The Chilean National Environmental Agency has endorsed a proposal towards declaring the area a protected marine park.     BBC News

 Court Refuses to Reconsider Makah Ruling...   In December 2003 a federal appeals court refused to reconsider its ruling that gray whale hunts by the Makah Tribe must be subject to a full environmental impact statement and a special permit for the whalers.

The tribe and the U.S. government had asked the full court to reconsider the ruling by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The government has not yet decided on its next step, said Brian Gorman, spokesman for the Seattle office of the National Marine Fisheries Service. That agency did a less extensive environmental assessment of the hunt and was charged by the court with conducting a more thorough study. The defendants have 90 days to seek another review.

The appellate panel ruled in December 2002 that NMFS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, its parent agency in the Commerce Department, failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act when their assessment determined there would be no significant impact from the hunt.

The panel found "substantial questions remaining as to whether the tribe's whaling plans will have a significant effect on the environment." It said a whale hunt would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and that the tribe needs a federal permit for it.

The panel also said it was concerned about the hunt's effect on Washington state's local whale population and what precedent would be set - especially for global commercial whaling - if the hunt resumes.

After a seven-decade break, the tribe at the northwest tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula moved to resume whaling after gray whales were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994. The International Whaling Commission has given permission for the Makahs to kill up to five whales a year, but tribal whalers have killed just one whale, in May 1999.

The lawsuit contends Makah whaling would endanger public safety and would harm resident gray whales, which linger in Washington's Strait of Juan de Fuca while most grays migrate between Alaska and Mexico.     Associated Press

 Driftnets Decimating Mediterranean Dolphins...   Driftnets are killing tens of thousands of dolphins in the Mediterranean despite bans on the fishing method by the European Union and United Nations, a major environmental group said in late November. The Swiss-based WWF-International said fishermen from Italy, France, Turkey and Morocco -- and probably other countries -- were decimating the dolphin population as well as shark and turtle species by using the nets.

WWF marine expert Simon Cripps said the only way to prevent the slaughter "is to make the Mediterranean a driftnet-free sea by enforcing a total ban on all driftnet fisheries". EU member states violating the ban should be prosecuted, the WWF said.

The 15-nation EU banned all driftnet fishing by member states from January 1, 2002 and there has been a U.N. moratorium on large-scale driftnets since 1992.

The nets, aimed at catching fish varieties, stretch for anything between seven and 14 km (about four to eight miles) and entangle dolphins and other endangered marine species, most of which die or have to be killed.

The WWF said the Moroccan driftnet fleet with 177 boats was "the most lethal for Mediterranean marine biodiversity," catching annually 3,000-4,000 of one threatened dolphin variety alone in a southwestern part of the sea. This was more than one tenth of the dolphin population of the area, known as the Alboran Sea.

The WWF said the Italian driftnet fleet, which had 700 boats in the early 1990s, still had nearly 100 boats that had not been adapted despite restructuring subsidies from the EU. France still had 75 boats that did not comply with the Brussels ban.     Reuters

 Southern Resident Orcas Get Their Day in Court ...   Canadian conservation groups joined their American allies in U.S. federal district court in a successful attempt to protect the endangered 'Southern Resident' population of killer whales that share the international waters between British Columbia and Washington State.

On December 17th, a U.S. District Court judge said that National Marine Fisheries ignored available science in 2002 when they decided to list the Southern Resident killer whales as "depleted" rather than "endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. NMFS must revisit the decision and report back to the court.

A coalition of American conservation groups appealed a recent U.S. government decision which asserted that the Southern Resident population is not 'significant' and thus does not qualify for the highest-level protection under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Instead it is considered 'depleted' under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which offers much weaker protection.

Sierra Legal Defense Fund, acting on behalf of the Georgia Strait Alliance and the Western Canada Wilderness Committee, made a submission of Canadian interest in the case. The same dwindling population is designated 'endangered' in Canada and a recovery strategy is being developed.

"The Canadian government already listed this population of killer whales as endangered," said Margot Venton, staff lawyer for Sierra Legal Defense Fund. "We simply asked the U.S. court to do the same and help protect these magnificent creatures before it is too late. Without meaningful legal protection on both sides of the border, these whales could face extinction in as little as 30 years."

Designating the population as endangered under the ESA will help to alleviate human-caused threats that have reduced the population to as few as 78 whales. The main threats to killer whales are toxic chemicals such as PCBs, declining salmon stocks, and considerable boat traffic in their home range.

"Killer whales in this region are among the most contaminated marine mammals in the world," said Peter Ronald of the Georgia Strait Alliance. "The ESA designation will provide the strongest possible protection for this imperiled population, requiring a comprehensive recovery plan to address various threats, including PCB contaminated sites in Puget Sound. Both of our countries must do everything possible to reverse their decline."

"The killer whale has been a beloved cultural icon of the Pacific Northwest for thousands of years," said Gwen Barlee, Endangered Species Campaigner for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. "We asked the U.S. courts to recognize this integral part of our natural and cultural heritage and provide the killer whale with the protection it needs and deserves."     Seattle Intelligencer

 Puget Sound Oil Spill Raised Concerns for Orcas ...   In December, wildlife biologists discovered a new orca calf in waters only 15 miles from the spot most contaminated by an oil spill a few days before, creating fears that the baby whale could be harmed.

The family of whales the new calf was born into, known as K-pod, was seen off of Vashon Island on the day after the Edmonds-area spill. Vashon Island is considerably south of the most contaminated area, directly west of Shoreline on the Kitsap Peninsula.

With the new baby, K-pod was seen off of Whidbey Island near Mukilteo, which means the family could have been exposed to the oil as it moved north. The spill occurred near Edmonds and migrated across Puget Sound to the Kitsap Peninsula. Female orca give birth every three to five years, which means any birth is critical to the species' survival.

About 4,800 gallons of oil spilled into the Sound when a Foss Maritime barge was overfilled off Point Wells near Edmonds. Most of the oil was removed from the water, or had washed up or was just offshore of a two-mile section of beach between Point Jefferson and the community of Indianola on the Kitsap Peninsula.

Those two miles of beach are a sensitive wetland on the Suquamish Indian Reservation called Doe-Keg-Wats Marsh, a critical shellfish harvesting area for the tribe.

Cleanup efforts focused solely on that beach after aerial surveys found no other contaminated locations. The cleanup has already cost more than $1 million,

The tribe said cleanup officials failed to assess the severity of the spill before it contaminated the estuary, and suggested that more workers should have been deployed when it was discovered that the oil slick was headed for the beach. Damage to the tribe's geoduck and clam trade could total several hundred thousand dollars, members of the tribe say. "It's disheartening to smell the oil and see the marsh grass black" tribal spokesman Leonard Forsman said.

Tribal biologists collected samples of geoducks and clams, which they planned to send to labs for testing. While there was little fear that adult fish and birds that live in the estuary would suffer long-term damage, there was concern that it might be years before immobile species, larvae and younger fish recover.

There is also fear that other wildlife, including whales and eagles, will eat birds or fish killed by the oil spill, which could in turn cause them problems.     The Herald

 Judge Allows Testing of New Sonar...   On January 17, a federal judge rejected environmentalists' pleas to halt testing of an experimental sonar system to detect whales.

Environmental groups had asked U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti to stop research on the sonar, claiming it could disturb and disorient whales, drive them from their feeding grounds and separate calves from their mothers.

The company that designed the sonar, Scientific Solutions, of Nashua, N.H., resumed testing earlier this month after receiving a new permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service. It says the system is safe and will help protect whales from dangers like ship collisions and underwater explosions related to oil exploration.

Environmental groups first sued more than a year ago, arguing that Scientific Solutions should have conducted an environmental assessment before starting the project.

The judge agreed and temporarily blocked testing of the system last year. He ordered the company to obtain an environmental assessment and apply for the new permit, which it received Dec. 24.

The environmental groups went back to court in early January, arguing that the assessment was inadequate and that high-frequency sonars were known to disturb whales.

On January 12, the judge said the environmental groups hadn't provided enough evidence to justify an immediate halt, but scheduled a hearing for January 15 on whether to allow the research to continue. At that hearing, he allowed Scientific Solutions to continue the testing.     Associated Press

 Whale Culture ...   Scientists who study whales are starting to notice signs that these giant creatures may be exhibiting signs of what we humans would call culture. It's the latest research into a question that has puzzled scientists for years.

Humans may not be the only mammals who have different cultures. Some scientists are starting to consider the notion that whales might also. "Whales are pretty hard to study, but evidence is coming up from quite a number of species that in a whole range of ways, they're learning things from each other and they're passing it on to other whales, and that's culture," says Hal Whitehead.

Whitehead says whale culture isn't exactly like ours; for instance, whales don't have opposable thumbs, so they can't make objects to pass on through the generations. "[Whale] cultures are in their minds and not in the things that they make," says Whitehead. He said much of what scientists know about whales comes from studying their language.

What do they have in common with our cultures? "Whale culture has, like human culture, a range of types and styles," says Whitehead. "At one end, there are the fast moving what might be called 'pop' cultures," such as when male Humpback whales sing songs to attract females or ward off other males. "These songs evolve, so that at the beginning of the breeding season they're all singing one song and then it's changed a bit by the end," says Whitehead. "And after a couple of years they're singing a totally different song."

But other whale languages don't change as quickly. The dialects of killer whales, which travel in large extended-family groups called pods, "seem to change much more slowly and to be linked to particular social structures," says Whitehead. "A particular pod will have its own dialect, and that dialect will be similar to pods which are the members of the same clan, and clans will have dialects which are different from one another-just as humans from different parts of the same country may sound a bit different, but humans from different countries may be totally unintelligible to each other," says Whitehead. And these dialects will be stable. "In sperm whales which we study, we can record a group of sperm whales now, we can record them ten years from now, and we won't notice any difference in the sounds they're making."

In addition to language, Whitehead says that different behaviors among whales indicate that whales might have what we'd call a culture. He notes that different pods of whales can have distinctly different sets of behaviors and languages even though they share territory. "We find this situation where we have multi-cultural societies," he says. "In one place, there are animals who make their living in very different ways. "It isn't just killer whales. Whitehead says sperm whales off the Galapagos islands have two distinct ways of speaking. These whales speak in a series of clicks, but some of them often add a pause and a final "click." Whitehead likens it to the way many Canadians often add "eh" to the end of a sentence. Where this is important, says Whitehead, is that depending upon the weather, one group may survive better than the other. He notes that the whales with the last click accent seem to thrive in El Nino years, when the water is much warmer, while the group without the accent prefers the colder waters of normal years.     ScienCentral News

 Keiko dies...   In early December came the very sad news that Keiko, the orca who starred in the "Free Willy" films, had died. Keiko was the first captive orca to be reintroduced to the wild and his journey to freedom highlighted the plight of captive orcas around the world. While many newspaper reports have criticized the project that returned him to his natural environment, many welfare groups that supported his return to the wild celebrate the fact that, after years spent languishing in a small decrepit tank in Mexico, he was able to experience the joys of freedom once again.

At the time of his death, Keiko was living in the Taknes Fjord in Norway and, after a brief illness and beaching himself, he died in the company of the team who were looking after him. They report that he appears to have died of an acute pneumonia that developed very rapidly.

Each month following his return to Iceland (the place of his capture), Keiko became more independent, recovering his health, making contact with local wild orcas and exploring the rich ocean environment of his birth. In 2002 Keiko swam nearly 1000 miles between Iceland and Norway in complete freedom. In the days before his death in Taknes, Norway, he was free to come and go as he pleased, something he would never have experienced had he remained in captivity.

Keiko's story of his journey to freedom inspired a massive educational effort around the world, and has made the capture of wild cetaceans a questionable practice. Springer, the young Northern Resident orca who was successfully returned to her natal pod from the Puget Sound area last year may not have had that chance if captivity was considered a viable alternative for her. Luna, the young Southern Resident male who will be returned to his pod in Puget Sound this summer, also might have been threatened by captivity to "solve" his dilemma of being separated from his family.     WDCS