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.

 IUCN World Conservation Congress Makes Marine Conservation a Top Priority ...  The IUCN World Conservation Congress tri-annual meeting in Bangkok in November recognized that a number of whale species globally are unacceptably at risk and has called for special protection of their marine habitats. In addition, undersea man-made noise was identified as a significant threat, as was the lack of regulation and conservation on the world's high seas.

The IUCN Congress also expressed its concern for the critically endangered Western Gray whale population - with only 100 individuals remaining, off Sakhalin Island, Russia. This population is facing a fight for survival with major oil developments in process in their feeding grounds in Russian waters above Japan.

The Congress actively encouraged Chile to establish a Marine Protected Area over the critically important blue whale feeding and nursing area recently discovered by Chilean scientists.

Significantly, the IUCN Congress recognized the urgent need for international cooperation to control the increasing amount noise in the world's oceans, as a result of the expansion of oil and gas, military sonar and shipping. This is the third international gathering of scientists, NGOs and governments in the last six months that has identified undersea noise pollution as a significant and increasing threat to the world's whales and dolphins. Earlier this year, both the International Whaling Commission and the CITES meetings issued warnings about sound in the oceans.

The IUCN Congress also expressed its alarm at the rate of degradation of the world's High Seas, which comprise 80% of the Earth's biosphere but which are almost entirely unregulated and without any areas of formal protection.

The High Seas are the highways of the world's great whales and other migratory marine life, and are key to regulating the world's climate, yet the marine life that depend on them are increasingly at risk from indiscriminate over fishing away from the public eye. IUCN called on the world's nations to put in place a network of protected areas on the high seas within the next 10 years. The Congress called for Marine Protected Areas to be established in the Antarctic which is a haven for many of the world's great whales, but which are increasingly at risk from over fishing and other threats.

The Congress recognized the serious impacts caused by climate change, congratulated the Russian Federation for ratifying the Kyoto Protocol and called on those States that have not yet done so to do so as soon as possible.     Source: Whale & Dolphin Conservation Society website

ACS urges our members to contact your congressional representatives and express your concern that the United States has refused to even consider discussing the Kyoto Protocol.

 European Commission Acts to Stop Cetacean Deaths ...  In early November the European Commission unanimously voted to adopt a moratorium for naval sonars until an environmental impact study has been carried out to ascertain exactly how much man's noise affects marine mammals and fish. The resolution was passed with 144 votes in favor and just 15 against with 14 abstentions.

A recent study carried out by 18 scientific bodies and printed in "Nature Magazine" has helped to raise concern about this issue and confirms that the noise produced by ships' sonars is a serious threat to marine species and commercial fishing.

In particular the document refers to the Canary Islands as the European region most affected by the death of cetaceans, and blames the dramatic increase during 2002 and 2004 on the NATO naval operations that were proceeding at the time. European Parliament members are now demanding that member states introduce alternative technology instead of the high intensity naval sonars used now. Other issues of concern surround the impact that the growing tourist industry has on the archipelagos coastal waters.

The large variety of whales and dolphins that can be found in Canarian waters are one of the most attractive of the islands' natural resources. Throughout the archipelago some forty boats carry over half a million passengers a year on excursions. While this type of "eco-tourism" generates more and more income for the islands each year, some environmental groups feel that more needs to be done to educate those involved in the excursion industry. To address this concern, the Tenerife Conservation organization will launch an awareness campaign to inform locals about the diversity of cetaceans present in Canarian waters and to explain the dangers they face while underlining the importance of preserving these fundamental members of the Canarian underwater eco-system.     PR Web

 Mass Strandings in Australia and New Zealand...  In late November 73 long-finned pilot whales and 25 bottlenose dolphins washed up on a beach on Tasmania's King Island. Although a rescue operation was attempted, all of the animals are now dead. The following day, another mass stranding occurred on Tasmania's east coast, at Maria, where 53 long-finned pilot whales were washed up. 18 of these died, 22 were refloated and efforts to save the remainder were underway, including the use of a helicopter to check that the refloated whales had not restranded further along the coast. Yet another mass stranding was reported in New Zealand the same day, with 55 long-finned pilot whales stranded on the Coramandle Peninsular. 18 were refloated that evening and two more on the 30th.

A similar group of strandings occurred in this region at almost exactly the same time last year. In the past 9 years, 2768 long finned pilot whales and 146 bottlenose dolphins have stranded in Tasmania, with a total of 4661 whales and dolphins overall, with the total number of standings events being 556 over that period of time.

While the cause is unknown, three mass stranding events in the space of 48 hours in Australia and New Zealand is certainly a matter that raises public concern. Such strandings can occur solely from natural causes, but some strandings of some species have also been correlated with human activities, particularly certain powerful military sonars.

Live mass strandings of mixed species often point to human activities. A series of highly unusual and fatal strandings seemingly starting in the 1980s in the Canary Islands have been linked to naval exercises in the area and more recently other strandings of beaked whales again in the Canary Islands, and also in Greece and the Bahamas have been linked to the use of powerful military sonars. Naval exercises in the waters of the Canary Islands have recently been banned in response to these events.     Source: WDCS

 New Zealand - Three Orcas Strand...  On November 23rd, three orcas (killer whales) were found stranded on a beach at Taiharuru, New Zealand. The group included an adult male, adult female and a calf. The calf was only intermittently stranded, as the water was just deep enough to enable it to move around a little.

Taiharuru is about 5 miles south of Ngungururu and Tutukaka and to the North of Whangarei Heads and Ocean Beach. The area is a network of narrow, shallow channels. Researchers reported seeing six orca waiting for the stranded three, about 100 meters away. All six were free swimming, but at times at risk of stranding, as they were in water that was only one meter deep.

The adult female refloated herself and with her calf, and moved towards the waiting group. Together they swam out of the estuary, leaving the male on his own. It was another few hours before the male was able to refloat himself.

All orcas were seen a little later in Tutukaka harbor, looking well. At 11 am on the following day the orcas were again sighted in the Bay of Islands. They were later sighted with another group of orcas and all were doing well - feeding and hunting in shallow water again.     Source: WDCS

 Japanese Department Store Ends Whale Meat Sales...  Tesco PLC, a large Japanese department/grocery store, has announced that it has decided to stop selling all cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) products in its Japanese supermarkets, following a joint campaign by WDCS, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) and Greenpeace.

As part of an ongoing campaign to make leading supermarket multinationals aware of the issues related to the hunting of cetaceans by Japan, WDCS, EIA and Greenpeace met with Tesco representatives twice in May and October 2004. They called upon the United Kingdom's leading retailer to immediately withdraw all whale meat products that were being sold in at least 45 of their supermarkets stores in the Tokyo area.

Tesco was made aware that the Japanese government sanctions the killing of more than 800 whales in the North Pacific and Antarctic, under the guise of 'scientific research', and in direct contravention of the expressed will of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its ban on commercial whaling. More than 20,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises are also killed in Japan's coastal waters. A significant percentage of cetacean products on sale in Japan have been shown to be highly polluted, posing a potential health threat to consumers.

The groups demonstrated that there was an increasing concern among Japanese consumers, and that falling prices and growing stockpiles of whale meat indicated a significant decrease in domestic demand for the products. The groups pressed Tesco to consider this wealth of evidence and cease selling whale meat.

Tesco made its decision to stop selling whale products shortly after the second meeting, and indicated that it had immediately stopped purchasing whale meat. According to Tesco they made the decision "due to a lack of customer demand."

Willie MacKenzie, Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner, said, "This is an important decision, illustrating clearly that the market for the products of whaling in Japan is dying. This can only have a positive effect on whale conservation. We are certain that the vast majority of Tesco customers will applaud this action."

WDCS Chief Executive, Chris Stroud, said: "Tesco has a responsibility to its customers, in the UK and in Japan. The sale of potentially contaminated whale products is a human health threat, and for this reason alone, Tesco is right to stop selling any such products".

Japan's so-called 'scientific' whaling fleet set sale for the Antarctic in November to hunt protected minke whales in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Tesco's decision will help to reduce the market for these protected species within Japan, ultimately building pressure on Japan to abide by the worldwide ban on commercial whaling. Tesco's decision is a clear indication that this hunt is unnecessary and that decreasing demand for whale products in the Japanese market makes a mockery of Japan's ongoing commercial whaling.     Source: EIA

 Whale Meat Back in Japanese Schools...  Japan's whaling heartland will resume serving whale meat to schoolchildren after a gap of 20 years in a bid to preserve the whaling culture under attack from environmentalists, an official said.

Elementary and junior high school students in southwestern Wakayama prefecture will be served whale meat twice a month starting in January, local education board official Yoshiki Tachibana said.

It is the first time the province has served the meat since international whaling was banned in 1982. Although no figures are kept, nearly all of Japan's schools have also since stopped serving the traditional food.

"It is important for people in Wakayama to maintain the whale culture as we had long been engaged in the whaling industry here," Tachibana said, adding there has been no complaint about the meal plan from teachers or parents.

"Also, the plan was realized as prices of whale meat declined thanks to an increase in the quantity of catches in recent years," he said. Whale meat is now available in Japan at $1.17 dollars per 3.5 ounces.

Since 1987 Japan has used a loophole in the global moratorium on whaling and killed whales for what it calls research. The estimated 2,000 tons of meat from each year's cull ends up in supermarkets and restaurants.

Japan says the global ban on whaling is disrespectful of its national culture. The country failed in October to persuade a UN convention in Bangkok to ease the total trade ban on some Minke whale populations.

Japan's research whaling fleet left the Wakayama port of Shimonoseki in mid-November on a mission to the Antarctic Ocean. Another fleet heads each summer to the North Pacific, where endangered sei whales are killed. The annual cull totals about 700 large whales a year.     Source: AFP