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Last Two Weeks in Whales: Working to Save Whales in the Pacific Northwest; Cape Cod Dolphin Stranding; Dolphins and Whales Play Together; Debate Over Tagging Endangered Killer Whales; Dolphins Mimic Whale Songs...

2012-02-08T23:22:08Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales over the last two weeks (or close to it).

Here’s a blowout edition of “This Week in Whales.” I’m sorry for the delay. But, as you’ll see from the first entry, I was a little bit busy filing a case against the National Marine Fisheries Service for its illegal authorization of Navy training activities in the Pacific Northwest.

On January 26, NRDC sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for failing to protect thousands of whales, dolphins, porpoises, seals, and sea lions from U.S. Navy warfare training exercises along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington. As I stated in our press release, “The Navy’s Northwest Training Range is the size of the State of California, yet not one square inch is off-limits to the most harmful aspects of naval testing and training activities. We are asking for common-sense measures to protect the critical wildlife that lives within the training range from exposure to life-threatening effects of sonar. Biologically rich areas like the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary should be protected.” We’re joined in the suit by InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the San Juans, and People for Puget Sound, all represented by Earthjustice. You can read my prior blog on the suit, NRDC Seeks to Protect Whales in the Pacific Northwest from Sonar, which provides more details about our case and also has a cool slideshow.
Unfortunately, the dolphin stranding disaster in Cape Cod continues. Since January 12, 129 common dolphins have stranded, resulting in 92 deaths. While dolphin strandings are common this time of year, never in these numbers, making this the largest single-species event of its kind on record in the northeastern United States. The unusual numbers are leaving scientists and other specialists puzzled. A research team has conducted nine complete necropsies and blood and microbial swab samples have been taken from some of the dolphins that were found alive. While results of these studies have not been finalized, no pattern of disease or trauma has been found pointing to a cause. According to Katie Moore, Manager of the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s Marine Mammal Rescue and Research Program, “We’re not ruling anything out at this point. But we also don’t have any hard evidence to suggest once cause over another. So although it pains me to say these three words, when asked why this is happening, for right now, ‘I don’t know’ is the only answer I can give.” Some have noted that the weather this season in the Cape has been unusually warm, which may have caused changes in the distribution of prey species, leading more dolphins into stranding-prone situations. But Katie Moore says that while climate and other factors such as acoustic disorientation cannot be ruled out, “we don’t have a single answer.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, there was a mass stranding of pilot whales in New Zealand. 99 whales stranded and restranded at New Zealand’s Golden Bay over a four day period. Rescuers worked to save the whales throughout this period, with several refloating attempts. Unfortunately, officials eventually had to euthanize the whales that could not be saved.
For some good news, let’s move slightly west to Australia, where whale pingers on Gold Coast shark nets are keeping humpbacks from becoming entangled. The acoustic alarms were fitted in 2010 to warn whales about the presence of shark nets – put in place to protect swimmers from sharks. Of course, the unfortunate side effect is that humpback whales were becoming entangled in the nets. Apparently the pingers are working; government officials report that whale entanglements have dropped from six in 2009 to one last year.
You may have heard about the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would move costly and polluting fuel from Canada’s tar sands mines (themselves an environmental disaster) to the Gulf Coast. NRDC has vigorously opposed the construction of the Keystone Pipeline – it undermines our Nation’s efforts to shift to a clean energy economy and presents serious environmental and health risks. NRDC also opposes Canada’s plans for a tar sands pipeline from Central Canada to the pristine coast of British Columbia. This pipeline, “Northern Gateway,” would keep us hooked on dangerous fossil fuels and present an unacceptable risk to some of the most rugged terrain on the continent. This fall, a documentary produced by Raincoast Conservation Foundation and Patagonia will tell the tale of four surfers who set out to find big waves in the choppy waters off the Great Bear Rainforest – an area threatened by the proposed pipeline. Here’s a trailer of the documentary:

There’s a debate going on right now over a plan to dart tag Southern resident killer whales off Puget Sound. The population is critically endangered, estimated at about 88 individuals. While we know where they spend the summer months (Puget Sound) we don’t know where they go for the winter. Having this vital piece of information could help scientists device a better plan for their recovery. So, how do you find out where they go? You can shoot them with dart tags, producing an injury about the size of a golf ball that may get infected, or you can use more passive measures to track the whales such as listening to their distinctive sounds. The risk associated with dart tags could be justified if the National Marine Fisheries Service (who has to approve such plans) committed itself to using the information to designate additional critical habitat that could save the whales, but it hasn’t and it’s unlikely they will. The agency already has survey results showing the whales in shallow waters of the West Coast, as far south as Monterey, California, but has refused to use this information to protect whales from known threats, like military sonar. You can have all the data in the world, but if you don’t use it, what’s the point? As The Whale Museum noted in a letter to the agency, “[W]e cannot see a compelling need to use an invasive technique to show similar data trends when the existing data observations were not used, or were not adequate, to take conservation measures that would have prevented potential impact to whales in areas and times of the year when they have been demonstrated to use the area.” Yes, what they said.
Dolphins and whales have been recorded playing together. The humpback whales lift bottlenose dolphins out of the water, which then slide down the whales back into the ocean. Neither species showed signs of aggression or distress, indicating that the interaction was a playful social activity.
Did you know that fishing communities in southern Vietnam worship whales and hold huge burial ceremonies for washed up whales. These Vietnamese fishing communities also host a Whale Festival every year.
Captive dolphins in France have been repeating humpback whale songs that are on their performance soundtrack. The dolphins were breed in captivity, so their only exposure to the whale songs were on the soundtrack that plays during their show. While dolphins have been known to repeat back sounds immediately upon hearing them, scientists say this is the first time that dolphins have been recorded repeating sounds after a significant delay. The speculation as to why they are repeating the whale songs raise intriguing questions. Are the dolphins expressing something that’s occurring in a dream? Are the dolphins going over their performance routine in their heads like humans do when prepping for a dance recital? I don’t know if we’ll ever know for sure, but I’m glad they do it.
Speaking of captive dolphins, I’m guessing there’s a dolphin in China that’s dreaming of choking. Just in case you need another reason to oppose torturing dolphins for our entertainment, an operation was recently performed on a captive dolphin in China to remove a rubber ball that it accidentally swallowed during a performance. At one point, doctors issued a call for someone with arms measuring at least 1.1 meters long to reach in and grab the ball. Meng Da, a professional basketball player answered the call, but alas was not able to reach far enough into the dolphin’s stomach. The ball was finally removed in a three-hour operation, during which the dolphin was awake. That sounds awful.
Katy Perry techno tunes did not cause the death of two dolphins found dead at a Swiss amusement park in November 2011 following an all-night rave. The real culprit was brain injuries caused by overdoses of antibiotics.
Plastic bags are bad. They don’t decompose and they end up in the ocean. Here’s a video of a dolphin in Hawaii struggling with a plastic bag. It’s all fun and games until a dolphin can’t breathe.
Disappearing Arctic sea ice is enticing orcas to head North. Beluga whales, narwhal, and seals that could otherwise avoid the whales are increasingly on the menu. According to researchers, the killer whales will compete with Inuit hunters for food and may replace polar bears as the North’s top predator. As if polar bears didn’t have enough problems to deal with – global warming literally melting their habitat and unsustainable hunting in Canada.

Last Week in Whales: Mass Stranding of Dolphins in Cape Cod; Dolphins Are People Too?; Sale of Whale Bycatch in Korea Spurs Illegal Slaughter...

2012-01-27T23:11:19Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales last week (or close to it).

Okay, let’s start with some dolphin news.

The big news last week was the mass stranding of dolphins that continued throughout the week in Cape Cod. It started on January 14 with the stranding of about 30 dolphins and appears to have ended at the close of the weekend after a total of 90 dolphins stranded, making it the largest dolphin beaching in years. Rescuers not only saved dolphins that were trapped on shore, but also helped about 300 dolphins swim out of Wellfleet Harbor, where they were at risk of stranding. Scientists do not know why the animals strand, but it is not unusual for a high number of dolphins to strand this time of year on the Cape, although these numbers are startling.
Speaking of dolphins, while I am not a fan of “swim with dolphin” attractions (I think all marine mammals that are capable of making it in the wild should be released and those that can’t shouldn’t be exploited for our entertainment), if they are going to exist I’m glad that swimming with dolphins provides wounded soldiers some solace.
One of the reasons I don’t support dolphin attractions is because of research showing how intelligent and self-aware they are. This article discusses the research and rightfully questions why such studies aren’t mentioned on SeaWorld’s website (which devotes enormous space to discussing and disseminating other information on marine mammals but omits any research that indicates the intellectual and emotional sophistication of these animals). It’s unethical to exploit such species for our entertainment in light of this research. According to Thomas I. White, a Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, “There is now ample scientific evidence that capacities once thought to be unique to humans are shared by these beings. Like humans, whales and dolphins are ‘persons’. That is, they are self-aware beings with individual personalities and a rich inner life. They have the ability to think abstractly, feel deeply and choose their actions. Their lives are characterized by close, long-term relationships with conspecifics in communities characterized by culture. In short, whales and dolphins are a who, not a what.” Yeah, what he said.
In defense of our laws protecting dolphins, it’s great to see that the US is appealing a WTO ruling against US dolphin-safe tuna labeling.
Finally in dolphin news, a Hong Kong conservation group has set up a DNA bank for the rare Chinese white dolphin. There are about 2,500 Chinese white dolphins in the body of water between Macau and Hong Kong and experts say their numbers have dropped significantly in the past few years because of the usual litany of problems: increase in maritime traffic, water pollution, habitat loss, and coastal development. So, the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation Hong Kong has joined hands with a Chinese university to set up a DNA bank. According to Judy Chen, the foundation chairwoman, “We hope to offer the scientific community a standardized genetic analysis platform to assess the sustainability of Chinese whit dolphin populations. The collected datat will provide important reference to governments in the region for developing critical strategies of Chinese white dolphin conservation.” I hope it’s not too little, too late.
Let’s kill seals, they’re eating our cod. Yep, you read that right. A study has come out showing seals should be blamed for cod’s failure to recover off Nova Scotia. Turns out that seals love to eat. Go figure. And they’re eating lots of cod. Of course, this will only support the Canadian government’s proposal to wipe out about 70 percent of the grey seals in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence. Ah, Canada, just when I thought you couldn’t have an even more horrible conservation record.
Very interesting news coming out of Britain. I’m not going to jump for joy just yet, until I do more research, but it looks live British naval ships could be forced to scale back its use of sonar off Cornwall’s coast to protect dolphins and whales. If this turns out to be true, it will be a significant step in the right direction.
A Western Pacific gray whale from Russia just passed through Southern California waters. The female whale, Varvara, is from a critically endangered population of fewer than 100 individuals. It’s becoming increasingly clear that the Western Pacific gray whales use the same breeding and calving area as the Eastern Pacific gray whales (Baja California), although their summer feeding grounds are different.
Wow, during the past ten years alone, cetacean bycatch in South Korean waters accounted for 33% of global large whale mortality from bycatch. According to a new study, Cetacean By-Catch in the Korean Peninsula—by Chance or by Design? by Douglas MacMillan and Jeonghee Han, this high level of bycatch is no accident, but is actually deliberate and supported by South Korean laws that ban whaling outright but allow the sale of whale meat and other products if the whales are caught “accidentally” when fishing. This legal loophole also encourages the illegal hunting of whales, which can then be sold on the market described as bycatch. Ugh.
In a surprising turn of events, the circle of life is alarming some scientists as orcas and other predators are targeting and killing Steller sea lion pups. Okay, I jest, it’s not the circle of life that’s alarming them, it’s the status of endangered Steller sea lions and how this predation may set back their chance of surviving as a species. According to researchers, there are not enough Steller sea lions born each year to rejuvenate their populations, which has declined by 80 percent from a peak about forty years ago. Markus Horning, a marine mammal expert at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center says, “As the density of more ‘profitable’ adults declines, more juveniles may be targeted and never grow to adulthood, which makes rebuilding their populations problematic.” It’s a classic vicious cycle. Let’s hope these sea lions find a way to break it.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

First Minister Carwyn Jones says that austerity’s not working. He’s right; the British government’s economic policy has been a disaster. Responding to GDP figures showing contraction in the final quarter of 2011, the First Minister said, “The figures confirm what we have been telling the UK Government for some time – their economic policies are simply not working. The cuts being imposed on Wales are too deep, too fast – and we now face the very real prospect of a double dip recession.” Yep, heckuva job George Osborne.

NRDC Seeks to Protect Whales in the Pacific Northwest from Sonar

2012-01-24T17:47:44Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

Today, NRDC is suing the government agency charged with protecting marine mammals from the Navy’s harmful use of sonar. That agency, the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) has a statutory responsibility to manage, conserve, and protect living marine resources, like whales and dolphins, particularly those protected by the Endangered Species Act. Unfortunately, when it came to protecting whales and other marine life from the harmful impacts of the Navy’s use of sonar in the coastal waters of the Pacific Northwest, NMFS simply didn’t do its job, authorizing more than 700,000 marine mammal “takes” from Navy activities in the area over five years without any meaningful mitigation.

It seems as if every time NMFS had a chance to do more for whales, it merely rubber-stamped the Navy’s analysis. How else are we to understand NMFS’s failure to set aside one square inch of a Navy range the size of the State of California from sonar’s dangerous impacts? How else are we to understand NMFS’s failure to set any mitigation for harbor porpoises – an extremely sensitive species that stands to bear 90% of the harm according to NMFS’s own analysis. Instead of seeing this disproportionate impact as a sign that more must be done to protect harbor porpoises, NMFS used the species’ sensitivity as a reason to dismiss the high number of impacts.

Make no mistake, mid-frequency active sonar can kill, injure, and disturb marine mammals. The Navy and NMFS accept this fact. It has definitively caused or been associated with multiple mass stranding events of whales and other marine mammals around the world.

Let’s go through the following slide show to understand a bit more about what’s at stake:

The first picture is a composite of four photos of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, a region of extraordinary biological diversity that is completely encompassed within the Navy’s Northwest Training Range Complex (“NWTRC”). Twenty-nine species of marine mammals occur in the Olympic Coast NMFS, including eight threatened or endangered species of whales, pinnipeds, and otters. The sanctuary provides important regular foraging habitat for humpback and killer whales, including the critically endangered Southern Resident killer whale, whose dramatic sensitivity to mid-frequency sonar was documented during a 2003 incident in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Gray whales use the sanctuary during biannual migrations between calving and feeding areas, and a small, possibly distinct, group of gray whales known as “summer residents” use the area for feeding every summer. Oregon/Washington harbor porpoises have primary habitat within the coastal waters encompassed by the Sanctuary.

The second slide is a detailed shot of Southern California and shows the size of the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary in relation to the area’s National Parks. We don’t allow our military to have unfettered access to our National Parks for training purposes, for what I hope are obvious reasons. Yet NMFS refused to put any restrictions on the Navy’s use of sonar in the Sanctuary.

The third slide shows the size of the NWTRC Offshore Area – 122,400 nm² – in comparison to the rest of the United States. It covers an area equivalent to the entire state of California! Do you think there may be small portions of this California-sized range where sonar shouldn’t be used because they are so biologically important? NMFS apparently doesn’t think so, despite repeatedly acknowledging that keeping sonar out of important marine-mammal habitat is the most effective means of protecting marine mammals from sonar impacts.

The remaining slides are images of some of the marine mammal species that will be harmed by the Navy’s use of sonar: minke whales, humpback whales, harbor porpoises, striped dolphins, pygmy sperm whales, California sea lions, gray whales, Dall’s porpoises, and Southern Resident killer whales.

Our suit, which we bring with other concerned organizations (InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Friends of the San Juans, and People for Puget Sound), asks the Court to send the approvals of the Navy’s activities back to NMFS for further work, with instructions to get it right – do your duty under the law, do more to protect marine mammals.

I look forward to keeping you updated on our challenge in the months ahead.

Click this link if you'd like to read a copy of our press release, Navy Training Blasts Marine Mammals with Harmful Sonar.

Last Week in Whales: Is a Market-Based Solution to End Whaling a Bad Idea? (Hint, It's a Bad Idea); Activists Board Japanese Whaling Ship; Cook Inlet Beluga Whale Population Plummets, NOAA Yawns...

2012-01-18T01:33:38Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales last week (or close to it).

Three professors float a market-based approach to managing international whaling. Let’s hope it sinks. Ah, the market. Isn’t it wonderful? Why, it’s already solved so many of our problems, like global warming and over fishing. Oh, wait, it hasn’t. Nonetheless, some people continually feel compelled to dredge up “market-based” solutions to our environmental problems. I suppose they think it will be more palatable if our tough choices are cloaked behind the workings of the invisible hand. The professors advocate the development of whale quotas that could be bought and sold in a virtual whale market, allowing conservation groups to save whales by buying quotas and whalers to profit by selling quotas. Of course, whalers could choose to use their quotas too, legally slaughtering the whales allowed by their quota. There are so many reasons why this proposal is a bad idea, as my colleague, Taryn Kiekow, describes in her post, Putting a Price Tag on Whales Won’t Save Them. For me, she gets at the crux of why this is a non starter – commercial whaling would be legalized. I don’t want to legalize commercial whaling and I shouldn’t have to spend money to save whales from being slaughtered. It’s wrong to kill whales for commercial purposes, end of story. It’s wrong to put lead in paint that will be used in children’s classrooms or toys, end of story. We don’t have to depend on child-welfare organizations to buy up lead paint quotas to keep the lead paint industry from poisoning children. And I don’t want to depend on conservation organizations to buy up whaling quotas to stop commercial whaling. Commercial whaling’s already illegal, let’s keep it that way.
Speaking of whaling, three Australian activists climbed aboard a Japanese whaling security ship last week to protest the illegal poaching of whales in Antarctic waters. Apparently not wanting to provoke Australia any more than it’s whaling already does, Japan released the three activists to Australian officials without charge. While it’s not the same as boarding a Japanese ship in the dead of night, a new iPhone game allows you to assume the character of a minke whale and dodge the dangers of the Antarctic as you save whale calves from whalers. Fun.
With a solid hat tip to the Occupy Movement, demonstrators are planning an “Occupy the Japanese Embassy” in Miami this week to protest the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji, Japan. The slaughter got international attention following the release of the Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove. Taiji is currently midway through its killing season. You can get updates from Ric O’Barry reporting live from Taiji.
Rare dolphins spotted around the globe: rare Irrawaddy dolphins found in Vietnam and rare Hector’s dolphin calves spotted in New Zealand (with great photos). And the Cambodian government is working to save Mekong dolphins – experts estimate there are fewer than 100 adults left. Good luck Cambodia!
Speaking of dolphins, the U.S. Navy may use dolphins to keep the Strait of Hormuz open if Iran closes the strait in response to U.S. financial sanctions.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released results of its annual survey of Cook Inlet beluga whales, reporting that the population plummeted 20 percent in 2011. Downplaying the significance of its owns survey, the agency tasked with protecting these belugas then immediately backpedaled, noting that “an actual decline of 20 percent in a year would likely be reflected in a large number of reported mortalities, which NOAA has not seen.” Here, I’ll translate: “We didn’t see a lot of dead whales, so they must not be dead.” Great job, NOAA, way to go out on a limb for belugas. I don’t care how big a bow you put on this story, it’s bad news for Cook Inlet Belugas, as my colleague Taryn reports. NRDC and other environmental groups have been fighting for years to ensure protection for this iconic species, which is both genetically distinct and geographically isolated to Cook Inlet. In April 2006, we petitioned NOAA to list Cook Inlet belugas as endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The government finally listed the Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered in April 2008 and designated more than 3,000 square miles of the Cook Inlet as critical habitat essential to the whales’ survival.

A study just released indicates that a sound experiment conducted in 2006 lead to a significant fall in humpback whale song in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary (SBNMS) after being exposed to low frequency pulses of sound, up to 200 kilometers away. This study can be added to the pile of studies showing how marine mammals and other marine life are negatively impacted by man-made sounds.
Finally, Australia’s famous albino humpback Migaloo has had a baby—the also-albino calf is named MJ for Migaloo Junior.

Meanwhile, last week in Wales…

Unwilling to revisit even two hours of Thatcherism, Welsh are shunning The Iron Lady, starring Meryl Streep (who just won a Golden Globe for her performance). As stated by Kevin Madge, deputy leader of Carmarthenshire council, “I saw, and many others saw, the devastating things she did for these areas, for the Valleys. Whether it was pit closures, steelworks, cuts in public services – the upheaval of this period and for my generation will not be forgiven here for a long time. The coal industry was absolutely destroyed – so is it any wonder ticket sales are bad where many closures happened? For most people in the Valleys, she will never be forgiven for that. I don’t really want to see the film but as a politician I can understand why people want to – she was a hated figure in the 1980s and ‘90s and that may never go away. It will take a generation.”

Last Week in Whales: Global Warming Killing Seal Pups; Listening to Human Noise Pollution; Strandings on the Rise in Ireland; Dolphin Burgers...

2012-01-10T00:05:47Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales last week (or close to it).

First of all, Happy New Year! Let’s hope this is the year humans collectively pull their heads out of the sand and get serious about saving the planet. I’m not looking forward to a plus 4 degree Celsius world, are you?

Speaking of global warming, there’s a lovely new study from Duke University that shows seal pup deaths in the North Atlantic have spiked in the last 30 years because of global warming. First its clubs and now it's global warming, when are seal pups going to catch a break? The study warns that “climate change and disappearing sea ice off Canada’s east coast could prove to be a more dire challenge for the animals going forward, with entire year-classes of seal pups dying as a result of diminished breeding spaces.” Good thing Canada’s working overtime on this global warming thing…oh, wait, it’s not. In fact, Canada’s awful when it comes to climate change – both in terms of emissions and politically. Canada has failed to curb its carbon emissions over the last decade, which rose by 20.4 percent, putting it in breach of its Kyoto-protocol promise to cut its emissions by 6 percent from their 1990 levels. And, adding insult to injury, last month Canada announced that it was pulling out of the protocol. Way to lead Canada!
NRDC has been working for over a decade to raise awareness of human-made undersea noise and to combat its proliferation and worst offenders. Humans have been filling the oceans with harmful noise over the last century and, unfortunately, our efforts are picking up steam, with more and more shipping, seismic surveys, and military sonar. This noise pollution affects marine animals, including whales and dolphins, in a variety of ways, ranging from adding stress to daily lives to killing marine animals outright. Researchers are working to understand the sources and impacts of this noise pollution in the ocean. Now, you can listen to what they’ve been recording at the Listening to the Deep-Ocean Environment website. Here’s a preview:

Sounds of the Deep Ocean by The World

Ireland saw a big increase in whale and dolphin strandings last year, the third highest number of strandings since 1991, when the stranding started being recorded. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group reported a total of 160 strandings for 2011, with a high number of common dolphin and porpoise strandings, compared to 92 strandings in 2010.
The Seattle P-I, has an update on many of the compelling whale stories of 2011, including an update on the status of the Southern Resident killer whales that live in the area (there’s a new baby! – I know, I know, “calf.”).
Can I get fries with my dolphin burger? Guess what happens when coastal fish catches plummet in poor nations? Hungry people turn to the “bushmeat of the sea” – marine mammals, like whales, dolphins, and manatees. According to a study appearing in Biological Conservation, by Martin Robards and Randall Reeves, “Smaller cetaceans are making their way to dinner plates as other protein sources are dwindling in coastal areas of west Africa, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India, the Philippines and Burma. From 1970 to 2009, at least 92 species of cetaceans were eaten by humans.” Of course, this isn’t just an issue for poor countries. Plenty of marine mammals are consumed in countries like the US and Japan as well, either as a result of subsistence native hunting in Alaska (for the US) or Japan’s rapacious appetite for marine mammal flesh.
If you have a fossilized whale brain, you can use it as a doorstop or sell it for millions. It’s up to you. Pepper Oshaughnessy has been using a fossilized whale brain as a doorstop for the last nine years. She found the fossil on her family’s ranch in San Luis Obispo County, California, and believed it was fossilized brain corral. Alas, last fall she found out that it was in fact one of only two fossilized whale brains ever discovered – the only one ever found in one piece. It’s estimated to be 11-15 million years old and worth at least 10 million dollars. “It’s believed the fossil is the brain from a baleen whale that lived in what is now the Central Coast region of California…. The discovery is significant because it will give scientist’s [sic] the opportunity to look at brains of animals of the same family, millions of years apart, and do evolutionary comparisons.” It couldn’t have happened to a nicer lady; she’s going to use money she makes from the sale of the fossil to fund a paralysis treatment center.
There’s a new book out, The Sounding of the Whale: Science and Cetaceans in the Twentieth Century, by D. Graham Burnett. Sounds like a good read if you’re interested in the story of how cetacean science has developed over the years. The New York Times has reviewed The Sounding of the Whale.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

Cardiff University researchers are reporting that the iconic big-nosed proboscis monkey is threatened with extinction. The monkey, once championed by David Attenborough is losing its Borneo habitat at an alarming rate as their swamps are cleared to make way for palm oil plantations. They now number around 5,900.

This Week in Whales: Happy Birthday Endangered Species Act; Russian Beluga Whale Rescue Flounders; Japan Takes Sea Shepherd to Court...

2011-12-30T01:16:49Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales this week (or close to it).

Happy Birthday Endangered Species Act!!! Thirty-eight years ago, President Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act and it’s been under attack ever since. NRDC has been fighting anti-environmental laws and riders all year. And we’ll keep it up. Here’s a toast to the ESA reaching a ripe old age. Twenty-four marine mammals are listed under the ESA: beluga, blue, bowhead, fin, gray, humpback, killer, North Atlantic right, North Pacific right, sei, Southern right, and sperm whales; Chinese River and Indus River dolphins; Gulf of California harbor porpoise; Guadalupe fur, Hawaiian monk, Mediterranean monk, Saimaa, and spotted seals; Steller sea lion; manatee; sea otter; and polar bear. Am I missing any?
The effort to save 100 beluga whales trapped in ice floes in Russia has been suspended due to bad weather. A rescue tug sent to rescue the belugas failed to make its way through the ice and headed to port for refueling, hoping for improvements in weather and ice conditions. Fortunately, there’s still time for future attempts as experts from the Chukotka Fishery Research Center believe there is enough food in the area to keep the whales alive until January. The whales can break an ice layer up to 10 centimeters thick if the need arises to maintain open water for breathing. Fingers crossed.
Japanese authorities have extended the detention of a Dutch anti-whaling activist apprehended while attempting to film the transfer of dolphins from the sea to holding pens in Taiji. The yearly slaughter and capture of dolphins in Taiji was the subject of the 2009 Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove. An employee claims that the Dutch activist pushed him, but there were no witnesses to the alleged push. Really? Weeks in jail for allegedly pushing someone? Seems excessive. Typical though for a government seeking to hide shameful conduct. If what Japan allows is so great and they have nothing to hide, why not let people film?
In other news of Japans’ errant determination to kill marine mammals without pesky interruptions, Japanese whalers have filed suit in US court to stop Sea Shepherd from disrupting whaling in the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica. Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research – the cover for Japan’s whaling interests – is seeking a U.S. court order to prevent Sea Shepherd from engaging in activities at sea that could harm the crew and damage its vessels. Sea Shepherd’s response: “The lawsuit is frivolous.” The judge set a hearing in the case for February 16.
Meanwhile, one of Sea Shepherd’s boats, the Brigitte Bardot, was damaged by a wave while pursuing the Japanese factory ship, the Nisshin Maru, off the west coast of Australia. Pursuing the Japanese whaling ship in six-meter swells, Brigitte Bardot was slammed by a wave that cracked the hull on impact. The Sea Shepherd’s flagship, Steve Irwin, arrived 18 hours later and is towing the damaged ship to port. All 10 of the crew are safe. What are not safe are the hundreds of whales the Japanese plan to kill this season, which are currently feeding like crazy and fattening up in unwitting preparation for the whaling fleet’s arrival. According to Australian Marine Mammal Centre scientist Nick Gales, “These whales feed like blazes. Their whole annual cycle is set around access to this hugely abundant food in a short period of time.” Sounds like at least some of these whales will be enjoying their last supper.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

A record number of people, more than 650, took part in the annual Boxing Day swim in Tenby on Monday, which raises money for charities. Many were in fancy dress.

This Week in Whales: Belugas Trapped in Russian Ice Floes; Russia Bans Harp Seal Trade; Bad Changes to Canadian Narwhal Tusk Ban?; Trendy Whale Songs...

2011-12-22T22:44:58Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales this week (or close to it).

More than 100 beluga whales are trapped in ice floes in Russia’s far north-east. The whales face exhaustion and death if a channel doesn’t open up that will enable them to swim to open waters. Immense volumes of ice advancing into a channel in the Bering Sea are blocking the whale’s path. The regional governor has asked Russia’s transport and emergencies ministers to send an icebreaker to the channel to free the whales.

Good news, Russia is banning the trade of harp seal products, spelling a possible end for Canada’s seal industry. Canada currently sends 90% of its seal products to Russia, so the ban should crush the industry. Of course, Canada is fighting a similar ban by the European Union at the World Trade Organization and has been trying to prop up the industry by helping cut deals with China to import more seal products. Some industries are meant to die, this is one of them; people’s beliefs and tastes change, that’s the way the market works. Canada can continue pouring resources into propping up a product that people don’t want anymore, or they can spend the same resources on developing new opportunities for their people.
Meanwhile, negotiations within Canada continue over a narwhal tusk export ban. A year ago, taking the unusual step of protecting a species, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans imposed an international trade ban on narwhal tusks from 17 Nunavut communities. Narwhal are listed as near threatened by the IUCN, noting that “intense hunting (including associated loss due to wounding and sinking) in Greenland and Canada gives cause for concern, particularly given the lack of reliable data on hidden mortality and serious injury.” Of course, the Nunavut communities engaged in potentially unsustainable harvest of Narwhal were up in arms over the ban and sued the Canadian government to lift it. The parties agreed to negotiate the issue and word on the street is that the Nunavut believe the ban may be lifted from some communities. Ugh.
Did you know that whale songs change from season to season to keep up with the latest craze. According to marine biologist Carter Esch, whale songs work much like fashion; “[s]ome styles come and go as quickly as hot pants and jelly shoes. Others, like trench coats and corduroys, catch on and become integrated into the collective wardrobe, and still others may endure and span eras, as timeless as a tuxedo.” While all whales of a particular species generally sing the same song all season long, the song changes year to year and throughout the season. “We don’t know which whales introduce changes to the song, but we do know that the other singers adopt these changes and end up singing the same tune.” Cool.
Uh, oh; unusual marine mammal death clusters on four US coasts: the Atlantic, the Gulf of Mexico, the Bering Sea, and the Chukchi Sea. Of course, there’s the ongoing stranding of whales and dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico (611 as of December 18), which are increasingly being linked to the BP disaster. Then, in New England, there’s an ongoing stranding of harbor seals (162 since September), mostly under six months old that is being linked to an influenza virus similar to an avian flu seen in wild birds. And finally, in the Arctic and Bering Strait, there’s an ongoing stranding of dead and diseased ringed seals (60 dead and 75 diseased since mid-July) likely linked to an unknown disease causing lesions all over their bodies. And we may have to add walruses to the list soon too. This is not good.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

A “big cat” is terrorizing and killing lambs in the South Wales Valleys.

This Week and Last Week in Whales: Whale-Themed Holiday Gifts; Japan's Whaling Fleet on the Move; Mass Stranding of Beaked Whales in Mediterranean...

2011-12-15T20:30:23Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales.

Here's a last-minute gift idea: holiday gifts that save wildlife. NRDC has a green gifts initiative where you can dispense with trying to find the perfect gift for the caring people on your holiday list. No more well-meaning chotchkies. Instead, you can give gifts (starting as low as $15) that save wildlife and wild places, with a personalized card or e-card to the recipient. Do good, feel good, help the world. Sounds perfect.

Last week, Japan’s whaling fleet (can you call three ships a fleet?) left port to pursue its annual slaughter of whales in Antarctica. If that news wasn’t bad enough, the Japanese government confirmed that the money for extra security measures ($29 million) for the fleet is coming out of the government’s budget for post-earthquake and tsunami reconstruction. Yeah, nothing says reconstruction of fishing villages like paying your coast guard to follow around three whaling ships as they travel thousands of miles away to attack and kill whales. Japanese environmental groups are outraged. “Pouring billions of yen into Antarctic whaling during this time of crisis is downright shameful,” Junichi Sato, head of Greenpeace Japan, told the Guardian last week. “Japan cannot afford to waste money on whaling in the Antarctic when its people are suffering at home.” Somehow, I can’t think of a better way for the Japanese government to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Empire of Great Japan’s surprise attack on the United States. Hmm, as I recall, that didn’t work out too well for them either.

Using the words “Japan” and “Empire” in a different way, comes news that the Empire State Building was bathed in red lights last Saturday to honor the thousands of dolphins slaughtered annually off the coastal waters of Taiji, Japan – subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary, The Cove. The color red was chosen to symbolically represent the bloodshed. Well done.
There’s been a new mass stranding of beaked whales in the Mediterranean that may be tied to military sonar. As my colleague, Michael Jasny, has reported at least 7, and possibly 8, beaked whales haves stranded on the Greek island of Corfu and a mother and calf stranded in Calabria, Italy. As Michael says, “The event looks increasingly like another mass mortality caused by naval training,” as it coincides with a major Italian naval exercise taking place in the Gulf of Taranto. Here’s a recent article out of South Africa summarizing how ocean noise torments marine mammals.
Sperm whales separate themselves into distinct “clans” through learned cultural behavior not genetics. Sperm whales in the Pacific are divided into five clans, each using a different dialect (a different pattern of clicks and sounds) to communicate. Researchers have determined that these different dialects are transmitted culturally, not genetically. “If the whales’ dialects were biologically determined, those that share the same dialect would have similar genes too. But that isn’t what the researchers found.” And it wasn’t just differences in dialect that were culturally transmitted; the clans also demonstrated different hunting patterns, parenting habits, and reproductive rates. It’s like West Side story for whales.
Climate change isn’t something that’s going to happen one day; we’re living it right now. Climate change in the Arctic is creating winners (whales) and losers (walruses and polar bears). Of course, we’re all losers eventually as a global average temperature rise of 4 degrees C – we’re on track for over 6 degrees C – above pre-industrial levels is “incompatible with an organized global community, is likely to be beyond ‘adaptation,’ is devastating to the majority of ecosystems, and has a high probability of not being stable.” In other words, game over. But I digress; we were talking about whales benefiting from climate change in the Arctic. While walruses and polar bears will lose the sea-ice habitat they use for hunting, whales that migrate to the Arctic from temperate areas are winners because they can stay for longer periods in Arctic waters during the summer, noshing on delicious Arctic food.
Darren Naish at Scientific American has produced a clearing house of all his whale-related blog articles, titled “All the whales of the world, ever (part I).” There’s a Part II as well. Why am I blogging again? Anyway, it’s a great resource. Check it out when you’re feely extra brainy.
KCET aired a great program on the threat to blue whales in Southern California from ship strikes, called Giants in Danger. Here it is, about 8 minutes long:

Blue whales sighted off Washington coast – one of only three times in the last 50 years. According to Cascadia Research, the sighting of six blue whales last week is the most known sightings of blue whales ever off the state’s coast. While there were once more than 350,000 blue whales swimming around the world, today there may be as few as 14,000. I hope these six enjoy Washington this time of year.
I’ve written before about the problem of exporting live dolphins from the Solomon Islands to theme parks. There are a lot of problems with such practices (of course there’s the morality of it), but one of the biggest problems is the real danger that dolphins in the Solomon Islands are taken from small populations that may not recover from the loss. The Solomon Islands Government has routinely claimed that the taking of live dolphins is sustainable, but has been unable to justify the claims with science. Instead, the best available science pointed to small, distinct populations that likely could not afford to lose members to the theme park industry. Now, the Solomon Islands Government is moving ahead with draft legislation to enforce a ban on dolphin exports from January next year. What a wonderful Holiday gift to the world. Thanks Solomon Islands Government, we’re going to hold you to this promise.

And other news, as sent to us from my colleague, Lauren:

Sean Connery joins the Sea Shepherd board—which already includes Pierce Brosnan. Insert James Bond joke.
More on dolphin pregnant-belly drag. Seems like kind of a no-brainer, for anyone who has seen a pregnant human walk…
Another sperm whale stranded off Tasmanian coast recently. Rescue efforts were underway over the weekend, and the whale was successfully returned to the ocean.
On Monday night a few weeks ago, Flipper the dolphin predicted that the WVU football team would beat the Clemson Tigers. He was presented with two balls, each emblazoned with one team’s mascot, and booted the WVU one out of the pool. Captivity sucks.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

First Minister Carwyn Jones has warned UK Prime Minister David Cameron that Cameron’s position on the development of a new European treaty could help break up the UK, starting with a Yes vote in a referendum on Scottish Independence. In a letter to David Cameron, First Minister Jones expressed concerns about the UK becoming isolated at the margins of Europe. I hope the First Minister’s letter also called out Cameron’s “growth through austerity” plan for the UK, which is driving the country into the loo (although I’m sure he used more diplomatic language). Welsh unemployment is on the rise.

Challenge to First Oil and Gas Lease Sale in the Gulf of Mexico Since the BP Deepwater Horizon Disaster

2011-12-13T21:56:06Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

NRDC initiated legal action today against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) for violating our most basic of environmental laws when it decided to move forward with an oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico without implementing common sense lessons of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which released more than 200 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico in the summer of 2010.

This is the third post-Gulf-disaster case NRDC is actively litigating to force change at BOEM, an agency that is proving to be stubbornly resistant to doing right by our environmental laws, continuing to look for easy ways around complying with the letter, and especially the spirit, of laws put in place to protect our oceans and wildlife.

The lease sale will open up about 18.3 million acres in the Western Gulf of Mexico a rich and productive marine environment with abundant and diverse marine life, including threatened and endangered species, as well as species that are critical to the nation’s multi-billion dollar domestic seafood supply, responsible for millions of jobs. Coastal tourism and commercial fisheries generate more than $40 billion of economic activity annually in the five Gulf states.

As our complaint states, these species and economic activity are threatened by BOEM’s decision to move forward with the lease sale, “without taking into account what this disaster taught us about the likelihood of oil spills, the difficulty of cleaning them up, and their environmental impact on the resources and species of the Gulf.”

The government has failed to apply any of the lessons learned from last year’s Gulf disaster. Falling back on a claim that catastrophic oil spills are a low probability event, BOEM continues to rely on demonstrably false assumptions about worst-case scenarios, the impacts from spills, and the industry’s ability to respond to spills. The Presidential Commission that investigated the disaster criticized BOEM’s prior environmental reviews, concluding “that the breakdown of the environmental review process for [outer continental shelf] activities was systemic.” It’s as if BOEM filed away the Presidential Commission’s report without even cracking it open. Hopefully this lawsuit will get them to pull it off the shelf, dust it off, and give it a good read.

To quote my colleague David Pettit, “The federal government is failing to learn from one of the most environmentally and economically destructive incidents in U.S. history. Fresh oil from the Macondo well continues to wash ashore nearly two years later, and the government is being negligent by issuing leases to drill now and drill deeper without ensuring all necessary precautions.”

The people of the Gulf deserve better than this. They deserve jobs that don’t threaten their livelihoods and way of life and they deserve to trust their government not to put those jobs and resources in jeopardy in efforts to drill here and drill now.

This Week in Whales: North Atlantic Right Whales Head South for the Winter; Big Victory for Belgua Whales; Surviving Baby Dolphin May Hold Clues in the Gulf; Canadian Seal Industry Can't Compete...

2011-12-01T22:31:56Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales this week and from last week (or close to it).

The endangered North Atlantic right whale (there are likely less than 400 left in the world) is heading south for the winter. Leaving their feeding grounds off Canada and New England, pregnant right whales are heading to the warm coastal waters off South Carolina, Georgia, and northeastern Florida their only known calving ground. It’s in these calmer and warmer waters that the whales will give birth and nurse their young. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (the US agency charged with administering the laws protecting the right whale, have sent out notice to boaters, ship captains, etc. about the annual migration. Right whales are very difficult to see at the surface, making them vulnerable to ship strikes – a leading threat to their survival. NOAA grants help pay for airplane survey crews to help monitor the migration to alert vessels about the whales location.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the discovery of approximately 80 whale fossils dating back seven million years in Chile’s Atacama Desert. This new brief article on the discovery has a really cool photo of a whale fossil. Check it out.
Yo! NRDC and its allies secured a victory for the Cook Inlet beluga whale. We intervened in a lawsuit initiated by the state of Alaska seeking to overturn the beluga’s listing under the Endangered Species Act. Why is the state of Alaska such a hater when it comes to these belugas? About two weeks ago a judge ruled in our favor – the law was on our side. Hopefully rulings like these will help the species from going extinct, which is a real risk in the next 100 years.
If only Sherlock Holmes was on the case (and no, I don’t mean the Robert Downey Jr. version. I’m thinking more of Basil Rathbone’s Holmes), maybe we’d get to the bottom of what’s killing all of the dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico (me thinks the BP Disaster is to blame, but the “official” verdict is still out). One new clue that could help solve the mystery is the rescue of a live baby dolphin in Alabama. Other baby dolphins have not been so lucky; a dead dolphin, the fifth to wash up on Gulf Coast shores in the past week, was found a few days ago in Mississippi. Over 600 dolphins have washed ashore in the region since February, 2010, when normally only 60 a year would be found. Researchers, like Moby Salangi, director of the Institute for Marine Mammal Studies, hope that studying the rescued baby dolphin – which now has about an 80% chance of survival (the people of Alabama have taken to calling the rescued dolphin, Chance) – are hopeful that studying the rescued dolphin will yield clues to explain the cause of the mass die off. I bet Sherlock Holmes would have already turned over BP executives to Scotland Yard for this crime.
Everyone embraces “market” forces and complains about government red tape getting in the way of entrepreneurism until the market for their crappy products go bust. Then it’s time to run to the government to prop up their dying industry. Such is the case for Canada’s seal industry. Despite the fact that (Surprise!) people don’t want to eat seal meat and are horrified by the brutal seal harvest, Canada’s seal industry is seeking help for marketing from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency for marketing its foul products around the world, although not in the European Union and U.S., which have banned the products. I wonder what they’ll come up with. “Seal, the other red meat.”

Apparently, killer whales use the tropics how most of the fancy 1% do, as a spa trip destination. Researchers have released a study showing that killer whales in Antarctica migrate rapidly to the tropics potentially seeking spa-like relief from Antarctica’s icy waters. The killer whales traveled more than 5,000 miles to visit the tropical waters off southern Brazil before quickly swimming back to Antarctica 42 days later. The scientists “believe these movements are likely undertaken to help the whales regenerate skin tissue in a warmer environment with less heat loss.” Hmm, brings whole new meaning to seaweed wraps and sea-salt scrubs.
I did not know that some male spinner dolphins that live in the eastern tropical Pacific have backwards dorsal fins. Matthew Leslie, a graduate student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, is raising funds for an experiment that he hopes will answer the question as to why some of these adult male dolphins (it does not appear in femals or juveniles) have the strange fin. I’ll let Matt take it from here:
And, rounding out our news with a segment on the bizarre, an amateur photographer captured an image of thousands of starlings in the shape of a whale and a dolphin and Pakistani authorities do not want you to text about “flogging the dolphin”….

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

First Minister Carwyn Jones told the Eurochild conference in Cardiff that the Welsh government is committed to eradicating child poverty by 2020. Wales is the only UK country to enshrine the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in national law. There are only two nations in the world that have not ratified the Convention: the U.S. and Somalia. Ah, the company we keep.

This Week in Whales: Great News for Some Dolphins; Bad News for Some Whales; Whale of a Find in Chile...

2011-11-17T21:16:32Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales this week (or close to this week).

Great news for the Gangetic river dolphin living in the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in Bihar, India. The endangered species’ population in the sanctuary has grown from 175 to 223. While the Gangetic river dolphin is India’s national aquatic animal, it’s also a target of poachers who kill the dolphins for their flesh and oil. For the whole country, there are only about 2,000 Gangetic river dolphins left, down from tens of thousands a few decades ago. The river dolphin is one of four freshwater dolphin species in the world. The other three are found in China’s Yangtze river, Pakistan’s Indus river, and South America’s Amazon river.
And great news for Vidalia, the baby dolphin in Florida that was trapped in fish lines for several months. Vidalia was set free of the fishing line after a massive rescue involving 38 people. The line was running through the calf’s mouth, cutting into its jaw, and wrapped around its right flipper and cut several inches into its dorsal fin. Later in the day, Vidalia was seen jumping and leaping – probably with joy.
The baby dolphin freed in Florida was a victim of bycatch – the unintentional catch of other species while fishing (such as dolphins, sharks, sea turtles, and even birds). While Vidalia was saved, most marine mammals are not so lucky. Hundreds of thousands die every year because of unscrupulous fishing methods. Greenpeace has just released graphic video footage from a helicopter pilot involved in the tuna fishing industry that documents the suffering of whales, dolphins, rays, and turtles caught in fishing nets meant for tuna. The footage, which is not for the squeamish, shows the cost of tuna fishing when such operations use “fish aggregating devices” which not only lure tuna, but also numerous other species, to their death.

Two unrelated mass strandings in Australia and New Zealand have resulted in the death of 91 whales. In Australia, 24 sperm whales and two minke whales died in a stranding on and around Ocean Beach in Tasmania. In New Zealand, 65 pilot whales died on the tip of Farewell Spit on the South Island. While rescuers were able to free two of the large sperm whales in Australia using high-powered water jets and nets to guide them back to see, their efforts to save three other whales that were found alive proved unsuccessful. In New Zealand, despite repeated attempts to save the pilot whales, all of the stranded whales either died or were euthanized. These strandings have taken place during the peak stranding time in the South Pacific between October and February. Sick whales often head to shallow waters where it takes less energy to get to the surface and breath. If they become beached, they will often call to their pods for help, which results in mass strandings. Sounds like what humans do when they jump into rushing rivers to help people who have fallen in.
As the above stories show, marine mammal rescue operations deserve our support. The Marine Education, Research and Rehabilitation Institute of Delaware has been making cuts in the face of funding declines over the past years. So, if you’re anywhere near the Lewes Yacht Club this Saturday night, consider dropping by for MERR’s annual “Fin-raiser,”[ http://merrinstitute.org/events-and-fundraisers/] a live and silent auction, to help them keep up the good work.
Paleontologists make a whale of find in Chile’s Atacama desert. The discovery of around 80 whale fossils, dating back seven million years, “is a discovery of global importance. There has never been a find of this size or diversity anywhere in the world,” said Sol Squire, a paleontologist working on the project. The whales are the ancient relatives of today’s whales and date from the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. The discovery includes new species and a family group that appears to be a mother, father, and baby whale.
Which is worse, dying from being drugged or having your immune system degraded by two days of constant harassment? Either sounds like torture to me and either could be the reason that two dolphins died at Switzerland’s Connyland aquarium. One theory is that 16 hours of techno music from a two-day rave hosted at the aquarium degraded the dolphins’ immune systems, leading to their deaths. “The sound levels which would have been heard by the dolphins is comparable with that of a pneumatic drill on top volume,” said Andreas Morlok, an animal rights activist. According to Morlok, “before the event we warned of these noise levels and the damage which could be done and called for the event to be called off.” Nonetheless, the event went on and the dolphins were forced to perform at the park during the rave. The other theory is that the dolphins died after being fed drugs by ravers at the event. The second dolphin that died, Chelmers, suffered a “drawn out and painful” death, according to Connyland keeper, Nadja Gasser. According to Gasser, “He was drifting under the water and was clearly in trouble and so we jumped into the water. We tried to hold him. He was shaking all over and was foaming at the mouth. After an hour the dolphin died.” This is awful on many levels, but I continually come back to “Dolphins in Switzerland? Really? Who thought that was a good idea?”

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

If you find yourself in Caerphilly this weekend, head over to the Green Fayre held by Caerphilly Friends of the Earth in the Twyn Community Centre Caerphilly. The aim of the fayre is to show people in Caerphilly that there are alternatives to buying goods with have travelled thousands of miles from large, remote multinational companies. Excellent.

This Week in Whales: CSI Eocene Gets Shark Attacking Whale Case; Rare Dolphin on the Brink in New Zealand; Dolphin Safe Tuna from Mexico May Not Be So Safe...

2011-11-11T00:56:10Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales this week (or close to this week).

Forty-million years ago, the circle of life played out with a shark chomping on a whale. An Italian stonecutter discovered the 40-million-year-old fossil of a whale that had tooth marks on its ribs from a shark attack that likely killed it. The fossil of the new ancient whale species, Aegyptocetus tarfa, was found in an Egyptian quarry and revealed that whales 40-million-years ago still had a sense of smell, a sense that is mostly lost in modern whales. This whale likely died as a result of being attacked by an ancient shark, as tooth marks on its right flank suggest the same kind of come-from-behind attacks that modern sharks make on larger animals.
The death of a rare female dolphin may spell the end for a species in New Zealand. There are likely less than 100 Maui’s dolphins, 25 of which are adult females, and the loss of this adult female could have dire consequences. According to Otago University associate professor Liz Slooten, “Losing one of those is a tragedy. This species is listed as critically endangered. If you remove that individual from the population, that’s really, really bad.” One of the big worries is that there’s evidence that this dolphin may have been killed by humans. The dolphin suffered a cut down its midline, which Professor Slooten says was caused by a human, probably a fishing bycatch related injury when the dolphin was hauled onto a boat.
“Dolphin-safe” tuna may not be so safe for dolphins if the tuna comes from Mexico. Mexico recently won a preliminary decision at the World Trade Organization (the WTO is a disaster on environmental issues), which said that the US’ Dolphin Safe tuna label is “trade restrictive.” The US thinks the dispute should be resolved via the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and has pushed to transfer it there. Mexico, finding the WTO a more receptive forum for its arguments, has dragged its feet. If things go Mexico’s way, we may see a lot more dead dolphins and the Dolphin Safe label won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on.

Here's a photo of dolphins circled by a tuna net:

And here's a photo of what can happen to a porpoise trapped in a net:

A colleague of mine sent me this story via email with the subject line, “This is Nuts!” She’s right, the danger these gawkers put themselves in and the potential harassment of whales is nuts. Nonetheless, gawkers have been getting dangerously close to humpback whales as they feed along the coast near Santa Cruz, California. The Coast Guard, which can issue fines to people harassing whales, has continued to tell onlookers to stay at least 100 yards away – a likely safe distance for the gawkers and for the whales, but many people have been ignoring the warnings, worrying marine biologists concerned for human observers and the whales, which could be disrupted by all of the people to the point that they abandon their feeding. Maybe they feel like humans do at a picnic when the bees arrive.

Dumb humans.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

The Welsh government has given the go-ahead to a gas-fuelled power station in Pembroke, Wales, which is supposed to have a devastating impact on marine life around Milford Haven. Gareth Clubb, Director of Friends of the Earth Cymru says, “This plant is still going to have a devastating impact on one of Europe’s most important wildlife sites, it’s still going to be using second-rate technology, and it will still be throwing away energy equivalent to 40% of Wales’ electricity demand.” I say, “Boo Wales!!”

Business as Usual Plan for Future Offshore Drilling Threatens More Whales and Dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico

2011-11-08T21:58:55Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

The Obama Administration has announced its blueprint for offshore oil and gas activities for the next five years (2012-2017). See the Proposed Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program for 2012-2017. From the looks of it, we’re back to business-as-usual even though major risks remain.

As my boss, Frances Beinecke, President of the Natural Resources Defense Council and member of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, said, “Congress has failed to pass a single law to better protect workers or the environment. Industry has not invested sufficiently in developing the technologies needed to prevent future disasters. And the government still needs additional resources and science in order to effectively police an industry that so desperately needs it.” Given the above, it’s clear we’re not ready to proceed with this plan.

Take, for example, the issue of seismic exploration. To search for deep deposits of oil, industry trolls the ocean with high-powered airguns that, for weeks and months on end, regularly pound the water with sound louder than virtually any other man-made source save explosives. These surveys have a vast environmental footprint, disrupt feeding, breeding, and communication of some endangered species over literally hundreds of thousands of square miles. For many species this can result in less food, as even moderate levels of airgun noise appear to seriously compromise the ability to forage. Compromised foraging can lead to compromised reproduction – a serious problem for endangered species, especially those already suffering from other oil and gas impacts like the devastation that followed the Deepwater Horizon disaster. For more on environmental impacts, see our fact sheet, Boom, Baby, Boom: The Environmental Impacts of Seismic Surveys.

But instead of allowing Gulf species to take the equivalent of a deep breath in a region still suffering from the worst oil spill in US history, the Obama Administration dusted off previous plans for the Gulf and proposed the same level of activity that has characterized the area for decades. It’s like we’re conducting a grand experiment to see how much these species can take before they cry uncle. And hardly backing of previous intentions to bring this dead-end industry to the Atlantic Coast, the Administration has committed to move “forward expeditiously to facilitate resource evaluation” in the region, promising an environmental analysis of the impacts from seismic exploration covering hundreds of thousands of track miles up and down the Atlantic Coast, though critical habitat and migratory corridors for endangered species.

The simple fact is that this five-year plan for offshore oil and gas activities represents an immense amount of leases up for grab in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska and a commitment for future activities in the Atlantic. For seismic exploration this translates into thousands of hours, some lasting months at time, of “the most severe acoustic insult to the marine environment,” as described by the director of Cornell’s Bioacoustics Research Program. Short of a cataclysmic oil spill (and we just had one of those), the seismic exploration that will result from this plan represents the biggest direct (I say direct because, of course, everything pales in comparison to global warming) impact to the environment all in service to an insatiable thirst for oil that this plan apparently seeks to satisfy.

This Week in Whales: Saving North Atlantic Right Whales from Entanglement; Closer to Linking Dolphin Deaths to BP?; Coast Guard's No-Brainer...

2011-11-05T00:42:54Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

News in the world of whales this week (or close to this week).

Three cheers for the three groups (Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society) who sued the National Marine Fisheries this week for continuing to allow fisheries that it manages to injury and kill endangered whales, like the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. As their lawsuit points out, “Each year, critically endangered North Atlantic right whales and endangered humpback, fin, and sei whales become entangled in commercial fishing gear. In these incidents, fishing line wraps around whales’ heads, flippers, or tails, often impending basic movement, feeding, and reproduction, causing infection, and sometimes preventing the animals from resurfacing, resulting in drowning.” The lawsuit notes that so far this year “there have been at least seven new right whale entanglements, ten new humpback entanglements, and at least two right whales have died from entanglement-related injuries.” For the North Atlantic right whale, a species where the loss of a single individual may lead to extinction (as the National Marine Fisheries Service itself has found), something more has to be done to protect these whales from entanglement and hopefully this lawsuit will make that happen.

(Photo of dead dolphin washed up on shore in Gulf of Mexico by Shirley Tillman)

We may be getting closer to finding the smoking gun for the plague of bottlenose dolphin deaths (more than 580 over the last year and a half) occurring in the Gulf of Mexico. Scientists have found that some of the dead dolphins were infected with the Brucella bacteria, which occasionally kills marine mammals. The key word here is “occasionally.” The rate of infection in these bottlenose dolphins is unusually high, which may be the result of compromised immune systems resulting from the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster. According to Dr. Terry Rowles, director of NOAA Fisheries Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program, “Various chemical contaminants may have lowered [the dolphins’] immune response, making them more susceptible” to infection.
The US Coast Guard (my grandfather was a sailor in the Coast Guard) has proposed a half measure to protect whales from ship strikes off the southern California coast. The Coast Guard has recommended shifting shipping lanes in the Santa Barbara Channel to keep giant commercial shipping vessels away from whales dining in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary. A few things. First, why are there shipping lanes through our National Marine Sanctuaries to start with? I’m not aware of any freeways cutting through Yosemite National Park. Isn’t it a no-brainer that shipping lanes shouldn’t be routed through these sanctuaries? Why is it called a sanctuary if the animals in it aren’t protected from getting plowed down by ships? Second, the reason why this is a half measure: the proposal does not include speed restrictions. It’s great to try to keep whales and commercial vessels apart, but while the Coast Guard can force commercial ships to stay in certain areas, it can’t do the same for whales, so there’s bound to be overlap in this prime feeding area. This means that including speed restrictions is critical to keeping whales safe from container ships.
Wish I had been there to personally witness the smack down a Scottish member of the European Parliament gave to the Canadian government over their barbaric seal hunt. In 2009, the European Union banned seal products from Canada because of the cruelty associated with the hunt. As David Martin, the Scottish MP, told reporters, “I have visited abattoirs (slaughterhouse), I have seen animals being killed in the wild, I have seen many instances of animal treatment and animal cruelty. I say unequivocally, I have never seen anything as barbarous as the seal cull that takes place on your shores.” Snap!
Building on previous success, Sea Shepherd intends to completely shut down Japan’s whaling in the Southern Ocean this year. One of its ships, the Bob Barker (“I’ll bid one dollar Bob”) is currently prepping in Sydney with a crew of 35 conservationist volunteers. The linked article details a day in the life of the crew and has a great video.

Meanwhile, this week in Wales…

Engineers have completed construction of a 90-foot bridge over the River Tweed that is made completely from recycled plastic, high-density polyethylene materials (like those opaque Nalgene bottles) that would otherwise have ended up in a landfill. According to the engineers it will never rust or rot and will support vehicles up to 44 tons. Cool.

For Polar Bears, Road to Hell Is Paved with Good Intentions

2011-11-03T22:14:30Z

Zak Smith, Attorney, Marine Mammal Protection Project, Santa Monica

Most everyone wants to do the right thing for polar bears: ensure that the species survives the threats posed by global warming. Unfortunately, that’s where agreement ends. For while most people have the best of intentions for the species – strengthening populations and ensuring their survival – common ground breaks down immediately when it comes to characterizing the threat posed by global warming and polar bears’ ability to survive what’s coming. But if we all don’t get on the same page soon, it’s going to be too late.

That’s one of the things I learned last week when I attended a meeting of the polar bear range states (Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia, and the United States) in Iqaluit, Canada. Technically, it was a Meeting of the Parties to the 1973 Agreement on the Conservation of Polar Bears, and I attended as an “observer,” which meant that I and representatives from other nongovernmental organizations were excluded from parts of the meeting. Regardless of the fact that I was not able to “observe” all of the meeting, the trip was incredibly informative. We spoke with several delegations and individuals attending the meeting about the threats polar bears face, most notably the threats from global warming, but also the threats posed to polar bears by unsustainable harvest and pollution.

Particularly informative was a presentation made by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s “Polar Bear Specialist Group,” the Agreements’ formal scientific advisor. The presentation was packed with information, but its bottom line was that global warming poses a deadly threat to polar bears as a species; it’s not an issue of if polar bears will be wiped out if we do not adequately address global warming, but when. There’s room for uncertainty at the edges (no one is able to predict the exact year that polar bears will only exist in zoos), but there’s no uncertainty as to the end game for the species if we continue business as usual, which can be summed up in three letters: R.I.P.

In the face of this information, I would expect broad agreement that we should do everything we can to protect polar bears for as long as possible, giving them the best chance to make it until we stop dragging our feet on global warming. Thus, we should reduce the pollution in the Arctic that accumulates in polar bears, we should limit development activities like oil and gas that harm polar bears, and we should be absolutely certain that any harvest of polar bears is sustainable in the long-term. Given the real and deadly threat of global warming, there’s no room for error.

But there is no broad agreement on these measures. At first I thought it was just an issue of people not seeing the forest through the trees – maybe they were unfamiliar with the climate change science. But it turns out that it’s an issue of denying these trees could ever make up a forest. People ascribing to this view accept that climate change poses a threat, but believe that polar bears will adapt. However, there’s very little scientific evidence supporting this view

So, yes, we can all agree that polar bears should be protected. But when that protection requires real sacrifice on the part of range states, the equivocation begins.