News Reports - 1998
January
- Jan98 - NO NEWS COLLECTED
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
|
- Jan98 - NO NEWS COLLECTED
Date: Mon, 2 Feb, 1998
Dolphin death toll tops 70 on Cape Cod
WELLFLEET, Mass., Feb 2 (Reuters) - Biologists were gathering tissue and blood samples on Monday from the bodies of 71 dolphins that ran aground and died on Cape Cod beaches over the weekend.
"We still don't know why they beached themselves," said Sue Knapp, a spokeswoman for the New England Aquarium which has led recovery and rescue attempts. "We were able to herd back out to sea between 16 and 18 dolphins."
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, defiantly juts out into the Atlantic and "has the most mass strandings of dolphins anywhere in the world," Knapp said.
The Atlantic white-sided dolphins, which range in size from 6 to 9 feet (two to three metres), roam the waters between southern Greenland and northern Virginia, traveling in pods, or herds, of up to 1,000 individuals. The species is not endangered
or threatened.
The last major white-sided dolphin stranding was in 1995 when about 30 animals beached themselves on Cape Cod.
Date: Mon, 2 Feb, 1998
WWF & Europe Conservation call on France, ...
M2 Communications - Upholding the cause of the whales, WWF's Mediterranean Programme Office drew attention to its campaign for a whale sanctuary with this 90-foot inflatable whale, during the International Whaling Commission meeting in Monaco in October. ROME--WWF-World Wide Fund For Nature and Europe Conservation today called on the governments of France, Italy and Monaco to sign a treaty establishing a whale sanctuary in the Ligurian Sea area of the Mediterranean Sea.
The two groups joined forces and today launched a new joint campaign to push government leaders to sign a treaty that would establish an "International Pelagic Sanctuary" in an area where approximately 2,000 whales and thousands of other cetaceans gather to feed during the summer months.
Despite pressure from local Italian authorities in the Regione Liguria and initiatives taken recently by several international figures, including England's HRH Prince Philip and Prince Rainier of Monaco, the governments of France, Italy and Monaco have not yet signed the treaty they originally agreed to in a 1993 declaration of intent.
The main provisions of the declaration ban driftnet fishing in the area, provide the strict banning of all off-shore boating competitions, and urge the enforcement of pollution control measures. Since 1993, the French and Italian governments have not made any further concrete steps to reach a binding agreement.
For this reason WWF and Europe Conservation are now calling for negotiations among the governments of France, Italy and Monaco to be re-opened immediately. The two environmental groups are calling on the three to sign the treaty as a "Gift to the Earth" as part of the United Nation's Year of the Ocean.
Today, a mere 0.22% of the Mediterranean marine area is protected. The establishment of a Mediterranean Whales Park would increase the area protected to 4 %. In total, the park would cover approximately 100,000 Km3/4, ranging from France's Giens peninsula, to Cape Caccia in northern Sardinia, and from the Bonifacio Strait to Grosseto in Italy.
A further proposal to widen the borders up to the Balearic Islands in Spain -- an area well-known as a crucial stopover in whale migration routes--will soon be put forward by WWF to Spanish authorities. In addition, the recently signed Protocol on Biodiversity and Specially Protected Areas of the Barcelona Convention specifically sets up the legal framework for the establishment of protected areas in the Mediterranean. With their new Campaign, WWF and Europe Conservation are pushing for the Mediterranean Whales Park to be the first of these Special Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI).
The Mediterranean Whales Park Campaign will last throughout 1998 and will include various initiatives to increase public awareness and lobby national governments. Supporters of the campaign include: Acquario di Genova, FIN - Italian Swimming Federation, MISA - Mediterranean International Sea-Swimmers Association, LNI - Italian Naval League of Pantelleria and Mazara del Vallo and Eco Guides Sans Frontiers. Various entertainment personalities including: Bruno Lauzi, Enrica Bonaccorti, Gino Paoli and Paolo Villaggio are also backing the campaign.
The opening event will be held tonight at the Acquario di Genova with a fundraising dinner party. All the funds WWF and Europe Conservation raise through the Campaign will be used both to improve the scientific knowledge of the behaviour, and state of conservation of cetaceans in the area, and to increase public awareness.
WWF is known as World Wildlife Fund in Canada and the United States.
(C)1994-98 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
CONTACT: Alessandra Poggiani,
Communications Officer,
WWF Mediterranean Programme Office,
Tel: +39 6 844 97 424,
Giulietta Rak, Assistant at WWF Mediterranean Programme Office
Tel: +39 6 844 97 360
Date: Tue, 3 Feb, 1998
New debate on bid to allow whale huntingBy Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News
The Government has pledged its opposition to commercial whaling as international talks today aimed at lifting the global slaughter ban.
Anti-whaling groups attacked a "cruel and unnecessary" proposal by the Irish to allow hunting within coastal waters up to 200 miles, which they claim threatens the survival of these creatures.
Britain will be represented at the emergency talks in Antigua of the International Whaling Commission which open today specifically to discuss the plan.
It was first debated last October when the IWC met in Monaco.
While some groups claim it would curb the number of whales killed each year, others say it will be a disaster for whale conservation efforts.
Agriculture and fisheries minister Elliot Morley has deep misgivings over the Irish compromise and attended the IWC meeting last autumn to express his views.
UK commissioner Ivor Llewellyn is representing the UK at the negotiations in the West Indies but a MAFF spokesman confirmed to PA News the Government stance has not shifted.
"We do have doubts about this procedure and we are opposed to commercial whaling. We want to end the loophole for scientific whaling," the spokesman said.
Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: "Not only is commercial whaling cruel and unnecessary, but the whole terrible history of whaling shows it to be impossible to regulate.
"Let's learn from the past and not give in to pressure from the whalers."
Irish commissioner Michael Canny's proposal is being seen as a bid to bring hunting back under IWC control, as Japan and Norway continue to defy a ban on commercial slaughter.
According to opponents, Japan is currently killing hundreds of whales in Antarctica for so-called "research" - the meat being sold for profit - while Norway has announced plans to kill more than 600 whales this summer.
Some campaigners fear easing the ban will also increase whale hunts and the smuggling of whale meat to Japan where it is an expensive delicacy, fetching up to and more than 200 per pound.
Sarah Wheeler, of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, said in Antigua today:
"The Irish Government is preparing the ground to overturn the whaling moratorium behind closed doors miles from the media spotlight."
Date: Tue, 3 Feb, 1998
Three Stranded Whales Rescued in Hainan Province
HAIKOU (Feb. 3) XINHUA - Local people in China's southernmost province, Hainan, have successfully helped three stranded grey whales return to the sea, according to official sources.
In recent months, grey whales and white dolphins were frequently visiting the sea area of Lin'gao County. A few days ago, the three young whales weighing 300-to-500 kilograms, washed ashore near Bohou Town.
People from the local fishery administrative departments pushed and guideed the whales back to sea.
The rescue was part of a concerted effort to protect grey whales and white dolphins.
Moreover, local fishermen have been directed by the authorities to help protect and rescue any stranded white dolphins. And killing stranded whales or white dolphins is forbidden, the fishermen were told.
The two maritime animals are listed as grade one state-protected wildlife. And they are also on endangered species lists by the relevant international conventions.
Date: Tue, 3 Feb, 1998
54 Sperm Whales Beached in Tasmania
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- A pod of 54 sperm whales beached themselves Tuesday in western Tasmania, and rescue workers told local media that none was expected to survive.
The whales, some weighing up to 50 tons, swam aground in the shallows at Ocean Beach near Strachan, according to a radio report.
Conservation officials said they were too heavy to move, and urged volunteers to stay back.
It is not known why whales beach themselves periodically, but when one or two do, the whole pod often follows.
Date: Wed, 4 Feb, 1998
Beached whales dying despite rescue efforts
By Don Woolford of AAP
Hobart, Feb 4 AAP - A barge is being brought to a western Tasmanian beach to try to tow back to sea the surviving whales from a pod of 65 that stranded themselves yesterday and are rapidly dying.
But Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service director Max Kitchell said the move was a long shot and he feared all the giant sperm whales would be lost.
"In the last 15 minutes I've just watched two of the three whales we were hoping to tow die," he told AAP from Ocean Beach, near Strahan.
"The prognosis is not flash, it's very frustrating."
The whales, some up to 15 metres long and weighing up to 40 tonnes, came ashore between 5pm and 6pm yesterday and rapidly started to die. By late this morning, more than half were dead.
About 30 people including Parks and Wildlife and State Emergency Services officers, private veterinarians and scientists, were on the beach early today to do what they could.
Mr Kitchell said most were in very shallow water and much too big to manhandle.
A spotter plane was used to see if there was any sign of more whales further out to sea, but none was found.
Mr Kitchell said a barge was being brought from Strahan to try to tow a few that were in slightly deeper water out to sea and hope that others would follow.
"But the odds are that all 65 will die," he said.
Ocean Beach is notorious for whale strandings.
About seven years ago, more than 70 smaller pilot whales beached themselves there.
Mr Kitchell said there were a lot of theories, but no definitive answers to explain the fatal strandings.
"But it always happens on shallow, shelving beaches like Ocean Beach and it seems their sonar doesn't detect the gradual change in depth," he said.
Authorities now face the huge job of disposal, which Mr Kitchell said would be a "logistical nightmare".
They could be left where they were, which would mean "a very smelly beach for many weeks".
Or they could be dragged high into the dunes and buried in huge pits, a massive undertaking.
Date: Wed, 4 Feb, 1998
Frantic rescue operation appears to have saved whales
Hobart, Feb 4 AAP - A push-pull rescue operation involving a tractor and a barge appears to have saved two of the 65 sperm whales stranded on a western Tasmanian beach.
Two of the 30 tonne giants are now swimming beyond the breakers off Ocean Beach, near Strahan.
However, Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service director Max Kitchell said there was no certainty the two would survive the trauma of the beaching and rescue, or would not meander back into the shallows.
Of the pod of 65 that became stranded late yesterday, 61 are dead.
Two others are still alive, but trapped in shallow water.
Mr Kitchell said the seas were now too rough for a similar rescue to be attempted.
"All we can do is hope they stay alive until the morning, when we can try to get them out to sea," he said.
Apart from digging trenches in the sand to ensure they remained in water as the tide receded, there was little the team of Parks and Wildlife officers, veterinarians and scientists could do for them.
For the two that were rescued, officers brought in a four-wheeled drive tractor with a grading blade covered in layers of hessian from land and a barge by sea.
As the tractor pushed, the barge pulled a rope attached to each whale's tail fluke.
It took about 10 minutes for each to be push-pulled into deeper water.
Mr Kitchell said the whales were clearly traumatised by their rescue.
"They were thrashing about and making clicking sounds," he said.
"But there was nothing else we could do. The only alternative was to sit and watch them die. It was worth a go."
Date: Wed, 4 Feb, 1998
Whaling commission hopes to end impasse in Antigua
By Colin James
ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, Feb 4 (Reuters) - International Whaling Commission members said they hoped to end a long impasse over whaling restrictions at their informal meeting in Antigua, but had made no decisions on the issue on Wednesday.
During their first day of talks, commissioners discussed a plan that Ireland put forward in October to ban whaling on the high seas but allow some hunting in coastal areas for local consumption and under the strict control of the IWC.
The plan would phase out "scientific whaling" -- killing whales for research as the Japanese do. And no new countries would be allowed to begin whaling.
Pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, were making a strong bid to resume commercial whaling, conference participants said. Norway opposed any plan to limit consumption of whale products to local areas, as its whalers want to export whale blubber, which is prized in Japan.
"Whale species are not in danger," said Nobuyuki Yagi, a Japanese fisheries official. "The ordinary people don't know that there are many species of whales. We don't want to endanger the whale population, but we see the recovery of the endangered species," he said.
Japan has argued that the clause banning high seas whaling contravenes the IWC's mandate -- the group was founded in 1946 to conserve stocks for the orderly development of the whaling industry.
The United States, Britain, New Zealand and Australia, supported by a number of nongovernmental organizations and pressure groups, want a 15-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling to stay intact, although delegates from the United States and Britain attending the meeting have said they would listen to arguments in the Irish plan's favor.
Antigua and Barbuda whaling commissioner Daven Joseph said discussions had focused mainly on the Irish proposal.
"We are trying to define what are coastal areas, if we agree to resume commercial whaling," he said.
He said Antigua, which has softened its former staunch opposition to lifting the ban, believes the Irish proposal could be a viable compromise. "A window of opportunity has presented itself through the Irish proposal," Joseph said.
Ireland was driven to try to forge a compromise after the global tally of whale kills surged to 1,043 in 1997 -- almost double the catch of 10 years earlier -- despite the international moratorium.
The IWC voted the moratorium on commercial whaling in 1982.
Date: Wed, 4 Feb, 1998
Frantic rescue operation appears to have saved whales
By Don Woolford
HOBART, Feb 4 AAP - A push-pull rescue operation involving a tractor and a barge appears to have saved two of the 65 sperm whales stranded on a western Tasmanian beach.
Two of the 30 tonne giants are now swimming beyond the breakers off Ocean Beach, near Strahan.
However Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service director Max Kitchell said there was no certainty the two would survive the trauma of the beaching and rescue, or would not meander back into the shallows.
Of the pod of 65 that became stranded late yesterday, 61 are dead.
Two others are still alive, but trapped in shallow water.
Mr Kitchell said the seas were now too rough for a similar rescue to be attempted.
"All we can do is hope they stay alive until the morning, when we can try to get them out to sea," he said.
Apart from digging trenches in the sand to ensure they remained in water as the tide receded, there was little the team of Parks and Wildlife officers, veterinarians and scientists could do for them.
For the two that were rescued, officers brought in a four-wheeled drive tractor with a grading blade covered in layers of hessian from land and a barge by sea.
As the tractor pushed, the barge pulled a rope attached to each whale's tail fluke.
It took about 10 minutes for each to be push-pulled into deeper water.
Mr Kitchell said the whales were clearly traumatised by their rescue.
"They were thrashing about and making clicking sounds," he said.
"But there was nothing else we could do. The only alternative was to sit and watch them die. It was worth a go."
Date: Wed, 4 Feb, 1998
Another whale saved but beach scattered with others
By Don Woolford
HOBART, Feb 5 AAP - A third sperm whale was today rescued from a western Tasmanian beach.
But the bodies of another 62, ranging from calves to 30 tonne giants, lie scattered along three kilometres of Ocean Beach, creating a massive clean-up operation for Parks and Wildlife Service staff.
Wildlife officers were delighted that they appeared to have saved three of the pod, which beached on Tuesday afternoon.
Two were push-pulled back into deep water by a grader and a barge yesterday and have disappeared out to sea.
A spotter plane, shared with the Fire Service which is dealing with bushfires in the area, could find no trace of them today.
The third was rescued the same way this afternoon.
"It's swimming around in reasonably deep water, getting oriented, and it's looking good," Peter Mooney, the officer in charge of the operation, said.
Mr Mooney said about half the whales were dead before they were found and only nine were alive by the time sufficient people and equipment were mustered yesterday morning.
"So really we have rescued three out of nine," he said.
"We've never had such a successful operation with sperm whales before and we've learnt a lot."
Bulldozers and excavators have been assembled on the beach to deal with the bodies.
They are being dragged into dunes about 500 metres above the high water mark where they will be buried under three metres of sand.
Mr Mooney said he hoped the clean-up would be finished by tomorrow night because the bodies were decomposing quickly and delays would mean they would fall apart when dragged up the beach.
Date: Fri, 6 Feb, 1998
GREENPEACE: Whaling countries sabotage ...
FEB 6, 1998, M2 Communications - At a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) which ended in Antigua and Barbuda today, Japan and Norway again rejected attempts to bring their ever-increasing whaling under international control.
Japan and Norway failed to change their hard-line stand, even rejecting a proposal which would have allowed them to carry out coastal whaling.
The compromise proposal by the Irish Government, fundamentally unacceptable to Greenpeace and many conservation groups, would have permitted coastal whaling in exchange for a ban on international trade in whale meat and closure of the 'scientific' whaling loophole.
Greenpeace understands that Japan and Norway refused to move on the proposal precisely because they want to carry out large-scale whaling and trade whale meat internationally.
"This meeting simply confirms that Japan and Norway are not interested in what the rest of the world thinks," said Greenpeace whale campaigner John Frizell who attended the meeting in Antigua.
"How long is the IWC going to wait for them to halt their whaling activities? A global whale sanctuary is now the only answer."
Greenpeace is calling for a global sanctuary to cover coastal waters as well as the high seas and a final end to Japanese and Norwegian whaling.
Norway and Japan conduct commercial whaling despite the IWC's worldwide moratorium. Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993. Japan conducts so-called "scientific" whaling and sells the meat on the commercial market.
(C)1994-98 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
CONTACT: Greenpeace Press Office
Tel: +44 (0)171-865 8255/6/7/8
M2 COMMUNICATIONS DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY FOR INFORMATION PROVIDED WITHIN M2 PRESSWIRE.
DATA SUPPLIED BY NAMED PARTY/PARTIES. Copyright 1998
Date: Fri, 6 Feb, 1998
Antigua meeting ends with no change in whale rules
By Colin James
ST. JOHN'S, Antigua (Reuters) - Delegates left an interim meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Antigua Friday without a decision on lifting restrictions on whaling.
"It was agreed that it will be useful to continue the discussions," the group said Friday, in a statement issued at the end of the meeting.
The IWC's annual general meeting will take place in Oman in May.
Participants said they were pleased with the discussions on a plan that Ireland put forward in October to ban whaling on the high seas but allow some hunting in coastal areas for local consumption and under the strict control of the IWC.
"There was a full and frank exchange of views on the elements of the Irish proposal. The fundamental positions of the government were maintained, but progress was made in reaching a better understanding," the statement said.
Ireland was driven to try to forge a compromise after the global tally of whale kills surged to 1,043 in 1997 -- almost double the catch of 10 years earlier -- despite the international moratorium on commercial whaling since 1982.
Pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, want to resume commercial whaling.
Other nations, including the United States and Britain, supported by a number of nongovernmental organizations and pressure groups, want the 15-year-old moratorium on commercial whaling to stay intact.
The two sides have been at impasse for years.
Nobuyuki Yaki, a Japanese whaling commissioner, said he had left the meeting with some hope for the IWC's future.
"In this meeting some sort of negotiations took place and each other's positions were expressed. I see a slight hope for the future of the IWC."
Date: Fri, 6 Feb, 1998
Florida's manatee count could rise in 1998
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (Reuters) - Researchers at Florida's Marine Research Institute said Friday they were optimistic the state's manatee population would be bigger in 1998 than in 1996 or 1997 after promising survey results. The first aerial survey of the year, which revealed a count of 2,019 of the endangered mammals, was "pretty good," Bruce Ackerman, a marine biologist for the state's Environmental Protection Department, said.
"We're optimistic that we'll have a better year in 1998 than both 1996 and 1997," Ackerman said.
The Florida manatee, a gentle, leathery marine mammal that averages 10 feet in length and 1,000 pounds in weight, dates back at least 45 million years, scientists say.
Experts have long been concerned about its survival because it reproduces slowly and dozens are killed each year by speeding boats as manatees surface in canals, rivers and lagoons in Florida.
Ackerman said he was cautious about being too optimistic after the latest results. He said the institute was hoping for a cold spell later this month so it could make another survey.
"Counts are more accurate when it is cold, clear and windless because manatees move to the surface to warm in the sun, making them more visible," he said.
The survey information plays an important part in helping protect manatees, 149 of which died along Florida's west coast in the spring of 1996 from a bloom of toxic algae commonly known as a red tide.
That year 415 manatees died in Florida, the highest death toll ever. Earlier in 1996, observers had reported a record population figure of 2,639.
"In 1996 we had a very, very high level of deaths, and we're pretty sure that the population dropped some after 1996,"
Ackerman said.
"But we feel the population had been increasing up until then. We hope that it's better in 1998."
The survey was taken by a team of 31 observers and involved staff from 13 agencies, research labs and universities. The search covered both Florida coasts, using 19 aircraft and six ground teams.
Date: Mon, 9 Feb, 1998
Whales, Dolphins Run Aground On Southern Chinese ...
HAIKOU (Feb. 9) XINHUA - Ten gray whales and white dolphins ran aground and died on a beach on Hainan, an island province just off the coast of southern China.
The mammals were found by fishermen in the town of Lindeng and the Hainan's capital of Haikou, who spotted a dozen more of the giant mammals swimming nearby.
Experts from the local aquatic products bureau and related departments have worked out a series of protection measures to help the whales return to deeper marine areas, and organized local fishermen to lead the mammals away from shallow waters along the beach.
Three young gray whales weighing 300 to 500 kg have been saved by the joint government and fishermen efforts.
Scientists are looking into reasons for the whale's behavior.
Date: Wed, 18 Feb, 1998
Norway opposes Ireland's whaling proposal
TOKYO, Feb. 18 (Kyodo) -- The visiting Norwegian fisheries minister Wednesday voiced Norway's strong opposition to Ireland's proposal to allow commercial whaling in waters near whaling nations in exchange for a ban on the operation in high seas.
Norway and Japan opposed the proposal when it was discussed at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) held in early February to prepare for the commission's annual assembly in Oman in May, Peter Angelsen said during an interview with Kyodo News.
The February meeting took place in the Caribbean island nation of Antigua and Barbuda.
Ireland made the proposal in an attempt to reconcile long-standing antagonism between whaling nations -- Norway and Japan -- and countries opposing whaling, such as the United States.
The proposal calls for allowing the two whaling nations to catch minke whales in their respective 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zones, while requiring the countries to accept a ban on commercial whaling in high seas.
Angelsen said the IWC is unlikely to adopt the proposal at its May meeting in view of opposition by not only Norway and Japan but also antiwhaling nations.
Angelsen also said Norway will set its minke whale catch quota at 750 for this year, some 200 more than last year.
Date: Thu, 19 Feb, 1998
High Seas Stall Whale Rescue
HOBART, Australia (AP) -- Strong waves stalled attempts today to rescue 35 sperm whales stranded on a beach in Australia.
The pod is the second in less than three weeks to have become stuck in the island state of Tasmania.
The whales beached themselves today at Marrawah, on the northwestern tip of Tasmania, state Parks and Wildlife Service biologist Hans Wapstra said.
High seas, whipped by winds gusting above 50 knots, made the attempt too hazardous tonight, rangers said.
Rangers will try to keep the whales comfortable on the beach overnight in hopes a rescue operation can be mounted Friday, Coles said.
Earlier this month, 65 sperm whales were stranded at Ocean Beach, midway down Tasmania's west coast. Only three of them survived after a huge rescue effort lasting several days.
Date: Sat, 21 Feb, 1998
Bequian Whalers Successful In 1998
On February 26, 1998, a whaling crew on the island of Bequia in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, successfully landed two humpback whales, a non-lactating female 15.3 m in length, and a male in the 4-6 m. range. As there had been a number of years without a successful hunt, there was considerable interest attached to the news of this year's hunt, which was carried out by a younger crew being coached by the elderly senior whaler.
Date: Sat, 21 Feb, 1998
Groups demand U.S. Navy stop Tests on Whales
HONOLULU (Reuters) - A coalition of environmental groups Monday asked a federal court to stop the U.S. Navy from launching tests designed to see how humpback whales react to piercing sounds blasted through the water. The proposed Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system would use huge transmitters towed behind ships to pump deafening sound into waters just a few miles from the new Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. The groups, including Greenpeace and the Animal Welfare Institute, asked for a temporary restraining order to stop the tests off the Kona coast of Hawaii's Big Island on Feb. 25.
"The Navy has tried to minimize public awareness and input," said attorney Paul Achitoff of the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
"The public has a right to judge for itself if we need to put our endangered marine life at risk in this way." The groups said the test of LFA, designed as a long-range sonar system to detect "quiet" submarines by flooding the oceans with soundwaves, could torture and possibly injure the targeted whales in their favorite breeding habitat.
"The test is specifically designed to see how the endangered whales -- including those breeding and nursing -- react to bursts of underwater noise a thousand times louder than a 747 jet engine," the groups' news release said. The Navy plan reportedly intends to use sounds of up to 215 decibels to see how loud a sound must be before it causes a "behavioral change" in the whales.
Scientists familiar with the project said it was designed to help the Navy avoid disturbing marine life in future by obtaining data on what exactly the whales can and cannot tolerate. Similar tests have already been completed in recent months on blue whales and migrating gray whales near the California coast, they added.
"This will allow them more accurately to see how animals perceive sound," said Adam Frankel of the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) project run by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, an unaffiliated research venture that also uses sound waves in Hawaiian waters. "There is no reason to think that physical injury would occur," he said.
Mark Berman of the Earth Island Institute, one of the groups demanding a halt to the tests, said much more research should be done before filling the whales' habitat with what could be intolerable noise.
"We don't think they've done enough studies in advance to protect the whales," Berman said.
"We find the whole thing outrageous because of the fact that these tests are being done for the military when it is not really necessary," Berman said. "The Cold War is over, nobody else even has the kind of submarines these systems are designed to look for."
Date: Wed, 4 Mar, 1998
In the nose of Jaws
By: Mark Wheeler - Discover
Some parasitic copepods have seized on a unique piece of ocean real estate
SURE YOU HAVE YOUR Nobel Prize winners, your MacArthur genius awardees, your endowed chair holders at prestigious universities, but give me a scientist that I, common guy, can identify with. Give me a man like George Benz, who will roll up his shirtsleeves and, on any given day, slap the sucking mouth of a lamprey on his forehead to let the tail serve as a windshield wiper for his sunglasses.
Perhaps a sense of humor is necessary when you take a stand that is out of syc with the lockstep of conventional science. Benz rails against ecologist. He fights the good fight in defense of disease. In particular, he champions the most reviled creatures in the animal world (after politicians)-namely, parasites.
Benz is a fish biologist and the chief research scientist for the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga. While his main job is to oversee health problems faced by the aquarium's animals, he's also interested in conservation and natural history research. He's studied turtles, salamanders, birds, and freshwater mussels, specializing in animals that are native to the southeastern United States.
Closest to his heart, though, are the little aquatic crustaceans called copepods, which live pretty much everywhere it's wet. Copepods live in salt water and fresh, cold water and hot, shallow water and deep. They live in marshes and bogs. If you've ever swallowed a mouthful of water while swimming in a lake or ocean, chances are excellent you've quaffed a copepod or two. Bon appetit! If insects are the most abundant animals on Earth, then copepods are the insects of the ocean. Benz goes further, flipping the thinking: "I like to annoy entomologists by referring to insects as the crustaceans of the land." These multitudinous copepods live among ocean plankton, thus helping form the first link in the food chain that starts with algae cells, then works its way up to the likes of Charlie the Tuna and Moose and Squirrel.
Benz is especially enamored of copepods that are parasites (roughly 20 percent of all copepod species), so much so that he has lent his name to one: Kroeyerina benzorum. And he is especially interested in those that make their home in and on the ocean's most infamous predator, the shark. Large numbers and different species of the little cadgers reside in very specific places on a variety of sharks: thresher, great white, hammerhead, and blue, among others. Benz gives a talk about these shark-dwelling copepods, called Putting the Bite on Jaws.
Copepods live on the fins of sharks. They live in the gills of sharks. They live in the noses of sharks, "presumably eating shark snot," says Benz cheerfully. They live between the teeth of the great white. "We know that a shark's jaw evolved from a gill," says Benz. "I figure this particular copepod thinks it's still living in a gill." One species of copepod even dangles like an earring from the eyeball of the Greenland shark. At this, told to me over the phone when I was first introducing myself, even I, a trained science journalist, couldn't help blanching and exclaiming something to the effect of, "Yech!" Benz, used to such spontaneous outbursts, simply went on talking.
Now, is there anybody who doesn't hate the thought of parasites, except for Benz and his fellow parasitologists? The idea of wading in some river, say, only to have a little schistosome bore a hole in your leg (guaranteed to inflict the nasty disease schistosomiasis), would give anybody a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. And though modern medicine may be experimenting with leeches to eat away rotting flesh on infected human limbs, it won't be experimenting on this journalist's. But as Benz was quick to point out when I visited his lab, from an evolutionary standpoint, parasitism is a wise survival strategy.
Further, if it weren't for parasites, life would not be as we know it.
When he's not at the aquarium, Benz spends his time in his lab, which is just a short drive across the Tennessee River and down a couple of residential side streets. There he's carved out some space in a nondescript building that also serves as the warehouse for the aquarium's gift shop.
"Parasites are some of the most successful organisms around," says the 40ish, bulked-up former competitive weight lifter. From that perspective, pity the fool animal who can't live inside another animal or a plant. After all, the host for a parasite provides a consistently rich supply of nutrients and a habitat void of predation. Or, as Benz puts it more succinctly, free food and shelter, which, come to think of it, means that my chronically unemployed friend Bob, whose freeloading head is still back in the hippie-dippy sixties, isn't quite the lowlife I thought he was.
For copepods, parasitism has worked especially well. They've lived successfully in their own little worlds for millions of years, says Benz. One fossilized parasitic copepod was discovered in Brazil in 1973, attached to the gills of a bony fish that dated back to the lower Cretaceous, more than 110 million years ago. Benz believes copepods lived even earlier than that. "I commonly see copepods that look much more primitive than that fossil," he says. "The fact that that fossil is not startlingly primitive, and has some advanced characteristics about it, suggests that copepods go back much further in time, perhaps as much as 400 to 500 million years ago.
"Now, that's successful."
We are sitting around a table in Benz's lab. This is copepod central. On one long wall are shelves that contain mason jar after mason jar of pickled copepods. On a small table are more copepod samples in rusty jars dating from the 1970s, bequeathed to Benz by a retired fellow copepod fanatic. There is a slight aromatic scent of fish and ethanol in the air, rising from sealed plastic buckets stacked on the floor. These contain shark bitsprincipally snouts and gills-that Benz or his students will eventually dissect in his ongoing research into the copepod life cycle. "Biologists study their animal of interest in its habitat," says Benz, "so a wolf guy will go to Yellowstone or the tundra, a whale guy to the ocean.
"My savanna comes to me," he laughs, pointing to the buckets.
Actually, Benz usually travels far afield for his samples. Last summer he went to Australia's Great Barrier Reef to harvest sharks. One of his students collected specimens in the Gulf of California, off the Baja Peninsula. Benz rarely kills sharks. Generally he tags along with other research expeditions that are netting fish, or with commercial fishermen, who inevitably snare sharks in their nets.
"You haven't lived until you're on the rolling, slippery deck of some boat, standing in a pile of thrashing, half-dead, snapping sharks and trying to get your samples," says Benz. Sometimes sport fishermen will offer to collect copepods for him.
"I tell them that in a pinch they can pickle the things in good rum or whiskey," he says. "Fishermen always seem to know where to get this."
As we chat, Benz pulls mason jars off the shelves and puts slides under a microscope to show me various examples of copepods. There are tiny copepods that look like worms, and bigger copepods that look like more familiar crustaceans. Benz points out one species that's a dead ringer for Darth Vader. Copepods can range in size from very small, .02 inch long, to as much as 13 inches long, as in Pennella balaenopterae, although this particular species resides not in sharks but in finback whales. On most parasitic copepods, one of the creature's two antennae is hooked so it can hang on to the host.
A mandible rasps at the host's flesh, while a maxilla sweeps the food to the copepod's mouth cone.
It's estimated that parasites make up more than half of all the species on the planet. That makes the other half of us, except Bob, so-called free-living species. It also means that all of us free- livers serve as hosts for these spongers. Humans, for example-if you're reading this during a meal, hold the chow-can carry more than 100 different critters, a veritable smorgasbord of flagellates, amoebas, and ciliates (all protozoans); flatworms, such as tapeworms and trematodes; lice, ticks, and fleas; as well as nematodes, principally hookworms and pinworms. Most nematodes, by the way, are minute, but Ascaris lumbricoides, a common parasite of humans, can reach a foot or more in length.
Yech! But before you start spraying Raid down your throat, consider that many parasites live in harmony with their hosts-that is, they can all just get along. Then again, others carry numerous, frequently fatal, diseases.
Pity the beleaguered shark, then, which carries more types of these pests than humans do. "We think of animals that carry parasites as being sick," Benz says, "but that's not necessarily so." He tells me that a blue shark, for example, can carry enormous numbers of copepods-100 on the fins, 4,000 in the gills, and 400 in its schnoz, giving the shark, says Benz, "the equivalent of a perpetually stuffed-up nose." In addition, a reasonably healthy blue shark can carry something like 10,000 individual tapeworms, thus becoming what Benz calls a floating hotel for parasites. Each tapeworm, of course, places what Benz euphemistically calls a small tax upon the host but which the nonpartisan might describe as consumption of the host.
Benz got hooked on copepods, as it were, while in graduate school. Although he'd originally wanted to study sharks, his plans were diverted by a course in parasitology he had to take to graduate. It turned out that the parasitologist who taught the course knew more about sharks than anyone Benz had met. "That's when I learned that parasitologists have to know a little bit of everything," he says. They need to understand the anatomy and phylogeny not only of the animal they're interested in but of its host as well. And they need to understand the environments of both.
That's his bug about ecologists. "Freeliving researchers"-Benz- speak for biologists who study nonparasitic animals-"should be studying the total environment too, but they don't," he complains. "I don't like to rag on them, but if one-half to two-thirds of all animals are parasitic, it seems as though half the ecologists should be studying parasites. But they're not."
This is important, says Benz, "because the bulk of what we call biodiversity isn't lions and tigers and bears. It's the little animals that support all these larger animals. And no matter how small the animal, they all have parasites. Even the parasites have parasites.
"In addition, parasites are probably responsible for a lot of the diversity we see in free-living animals. They've influenced that diversity through time by the tax they impose." Parasites cause disease and sometimes kill their hosts, Benz grudgingly admits, but that process has surely influenced the gene flow of species by preventing some animals from passing on their genes. The ability to scuffle and sort the genetic potential of their hosts means that parasites have helped chart the evolutionary paths of the free- livers. In other words, parasites have helped shape biodiversity as we know it.
"So parasites get a bad rap, but they probably shouldn't," says Benz.
Now hold on a minute. I'm no Mike Wallace, but even I couldn't help rising to the bait. Don't parasites have a bad rap, I politely inquire, because they are vectors of parasitic diseases that have been responsible for untold millions of deaths?
Benz grins like a parasite-ridden Cheshire cat. "Absolutely!" he says, happy that I served up a softball question he can hit out of the park. "But disease really isn't a bad or evil process," he says. "All of us have to die in some way. Ideally, we want to live healthy until we're 102, then die quietly and gently in our sleep. How wimpish and unrealistic." Benz reaches for a mason jar with a giant pickled eyeball inside. "Disease is a dialogue between living things," he says. "It allows two organisms to exchange ideas and move forward, and it can be a very nonviolent dance. It's not like predation or an accident, where the process is swift and there's no communication.
Like parasites, disease is an important part of our natural world." Disease, he finishes up, deadpan, "is a process that is appreciated only by those who are truly cultured."
We break for lunch, after which Benz regales me with the best parasitologist story I've ever heard. (Of course, it's also the only parasitologist story I've ever heard.) It's the true tale of a young biologist fresh out of Harvard by the name of Jerry who was doing fieldwork in Central America. That's where a botfly maggot larva took root in his scalp. Removal by scalpel is the best treatment, but surgeons in Central America were in short supply. Jerry's second course of action was the "meat cure"- botfly larvae, you see, breathe air through a snorkel-like tube called a respiratory spiracle. Slap a steak on your head and it cuts off the air, forcing the larva to crawl up and into the steak, thereby exiting the scalp.
But Jerry didn't want to shave his hair off, so he adapted to the maggot, waiting until he returned to Cambridge for treatment of the by-now goose-egg-size swelling. There, not surprisingly, he was the talk of the Harvard Health Services clinic, whose services he ended up declining in favor of letting nature take its course. Which it did one night in Fenway Park, as the inch-long larva, probably a Red Sox fan, made its way out of Jerry's scalp.
Ute return to Benz's lab, where he again shows me the large pickled eye. It belonged to a Greenland shark, and, sure enough, there is a copepod dangling from it. A Greenland shark is a large, lethargic bottom feeder. The copepod does blind the shark, but Benz thinks the shark has adapted to its presence.
"The Greenland shark lives at depth in the Arctic and probably only needs to use its eyes as light meters," he says. Further, he thinks the dangling copepod may serve as a sort of lure to attract other fish and even the occasional seal, which the shark can then snatch.
It's finally come time to cut open the schnoz of a shark. As Benz dissects and I watch, I begin to understand his respect for what a complicated little animal a copepod is. As a shark swims, water enters its nose and then hits a back wall. When the water rebounds, it radiates through the olfactory chambers before exiting. While explaining this, Benz squeezes one of the sacs he's just cut into; copepods, looking like tiny worms, come pouring out. Benz has determined that, in the case of one such copepod, Kroeyerina elongata, larvae enter the shark's olfactory sac with the inflowing water, then settle on the olfactory lamella (a thin layer of tissue).
Like lobsters and other crustaceans, the larvae molt until they achieve adulthood. The males then seek out the females. Once they've copulated, the females move to a very specific spot in the outbound water channel. When their larvae have matured, the females' embryo sacs burst and the new larvae are sent to sea.
Once in the ocean, the larva, which is about the size of the period at the end of this sentence, must find a new hostanother shark. Not just any shark, but the same species the parents parasitized. Larvae can't eat until they do, so "the clock is ticking," says Benz. He hypothesizes that the larvae swim to a water- density boundary within a current; since it's where prey tend to congregate, big predators are attracted.
Still, says Benz, "think about it-what are the odds that one larva will find the right species of shark just passing by, then make its way to the right spot on or in that shark, in something as vast as the ocean? It's mindboggling."
"It makes our success at putting a man on the moon seem like nothing by comparison."
Benz's copepod studies have led him to another theory about sharks. "I noticed that the copepod taxa in the gills and nose appeared to be closely related," he says, "both physically and in the niches they occupy. That made me think that somewhere along the line a habitat shift took place." That, in turn, led him to ask another question. Where did a shark's nose come from? The answer, says Benz, is it came from a gill.
With his gloved hands dripping ethanol and whatever else oozes out of a dead shark, Benz picks up a diagram of the internal workings of a shark's gill. "Look," he says, "see how the anterior and posterior gill arches join at the top? If you take them and turn them, what do you get?" He reaches for another diagram of a gill, this one with its insides twisted around. He holds it next to the dissected shark's proboscis, whose odor is beginning to waft, and not pleasantly. The two look roughly the same. "You get a nose?" I answer, feeling like a kid on Mr. Wizard. "Isn't that cool?" says Benz.
Actually, it is cool, and Benz plans to prove it by doing DNA analysis of the copepods in the nose and gill. "If I'm right," he gestures happily, accidentally flicking some ethanol onto my shirt, "that gives even more value to parasites. Because we can use parasites to study the phylogeny of the host, which allows us to ask the larger questions."
As I dab at my shirt, I realize that Benz's parasitic proselytizing is going to be a steep, uphill struggle. And I don't care what he says, I'm not about to let a botfly maggot homestead on my scalp. Still, Benz has helped me develop a respect for parasites. Bob, may you live long and prosper.
DISCOVER, a Division of Disney Magazine Publishing, Inc. Mar 1998
(Copyright UMI Company 1998 All rights reserved.)
Date: Wed, 4 Mar, 1998
Sonar tests linked to beached whales in Greece
LONDON, March 4 (Reuters) - Greek scientists said on Wednesday that NATO tests of an underwater sonar system could have caused a mass stranding of whales off the coast of Greece.
Twelve Cuvier beaked whales, a deep diving breed that is rarely stranded, washed up on the west coast of Greece in May 1996 just days after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation tested a Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) system used to detect diesel and nuclear submarines.
Alexandros Frantzis, and colleagues at the University of Athens, think the two events are more than just a coincidence.
"We know that LFAS was used in the Kyparissiakos Gulf. We also know that no other LFAS or mass strandings have occurred in the Greek Ionian (Mediterranean) Sea since 1981," he said in a letter to the scientific journal Nature.
"Taking the past 16.5 year period into account, the probability of a mass stranding occurring for other reasons during the period of the LFAS tests is less than 0.07 percent."
The LFAS generates very loud, low-frequency sound which enables long detection ranges. Although its effect on whales has not been studied thoroughly, many specialists think that at high levels it could physically damage the whales and affect their behaviour.
Mass strandings of the creatures are extremely rare. Since 1963 there have been only seven cases worldwide of four or more whales and three of them occurred near the Canary Islands during similar military manoeuvres.
The latest stranding was also odd because the animals were not stranded together, but over a 40 kilometre (25 mile) area. Deep diving whales also seem especially affected by low-frequency sounds, even at low levels.
Frantzis said that more information is needed to solve the mystery, but unfortunately most of the data about the use of LFAS are a military secret.
Date: Thu, 5 Mar, 1998
Greenpeace wants oil exploration permits - to count whales
Wellington, March 5 - Environmental group Greenpeace said today it has applied for oil exploration permits for all available remaining on and offshore areas of New Zealand.
Greenpeace declared the move was part of its campaign to protect the climate from global warming.
It said the application was serious but it has submitted a proposed work programme of WHALE, seabird and native fauna survey.
But the Ministry of Commerce's criteria for exploration requires applicants to look for petroleum and drill for petroleum to get a permit.
Permits are granted for five years with a right of renewal for a similar period. Greenpeace wants permits for the next 100 years.
Greenpeace said it was applying for "non interventionist management of areas of New Zealand that would otherwise be open to oil company activity.
Climate campaigner Adam Laidlaw said there was already enough oil in existing reserves to wreck the climate if it were all burned.
"Investment in oil exploration should instead be switched to the new frontier of solar and wind energy development."
Most of Taranaki, large areas in Northland, the East Coast and the southeast coast of the South Island are covered by existing oil exploration permits.
Greenpeace wants the rest of the country -- on and offshore.
Commerce Ministry senior petroleum geologist Clyde Bennett, the man who overlooks permit applications, told NZPA he hadn't yet sighted Greenpeace's papers.
"If and when we do we'll subject it to our normal criteria."
Under the government's "acceptable frontier" exploration programme, anyone can apply for a permit. But there are rules.
An applicant has to do seismic exploration and drilling in set timeframes and the ministry investigates applicants' technical and financial ability to do the work.
Limits also restrict the size of the permit area and the whole thing costs a deal of money with hefty annual fees per square kilometre of exploration areas.
The rules say nothing about surveying whales and seabirds.
"It doesn't appear Greenpeace's application would fit our criteria but we'll judge it when it lands," said Mr Bennett.
He noted Britain's Greenpeace had made what he understood was a similar but unsuccessful application for the West Shetlands and parts of the North Sea some time ago.
Date: Thu, 5 Mar, 1998
Canada-Seal Suit
TORONTO (AP) -- An environmental group said Thursday it is suing the Canadian government to block its involvement in the export of seal penises.
The suit against Fisheries Minister David Anderson was filed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has been campaigning for years to halt Canada's commercial seal hunt.
Seal penises are particularly popular in Hong Kong, China and Korea, where their testosterone content is believed to act as an aphrodisiac.
"It is simply against the law in Canada to sell or import testosterone unless you're a physician," said Clayton Ruby, the animal rights group's lawyer.
He said the suit demands an explanation from the government within 20 days.
"Very shortly after that, I can have them in court and I can make a judge, I hope, order them to stop this vile, fraudulent and illegal trade," Ruby said.
The fisheries ministry said it had been advised of the suit but would not comment on matters before the courts.
Date: Sat, 7 Mar, 1998
US Defense Dept. says Whale Plan threatens Security
by John H. Boit
The Patriot Ledger Quincy, MA
The Defense Department says a proposal aimed at protecting the world's 300 remaining North Atlantic right whales from ships in Massachusetts waters is a potential threat to national security.
The proposal, created about six months ago by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would require ships entering right whale feeding and calving areas to register with a whale tracking station that would monitor the ship and whale locations. The areas would include Stellwagen Bank, Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay.
Military vessels would be exempt from the requirement.
But defense officials worry that civilian ship registration would make it easy for an enemy to figure out which ships are military vessels by process of elimination. The officials say that while not a concern in friendly waters, the idea of tracking ships for the protection of endangered species could be adopted by other nations.
The Defense Department said it "believes this would erode navigational freedoms globally and potentially endanger American lives," according to a Feb. 18 memo from U.S. Navy Rear Admiral John Hutson.
"That's absurd," said U.S. Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., one of the lead supporters of the proposal. "This isn't Iraq, Bosnia or Libya. This is Cape Cod."
Whaling crews gave the mammals their name because their slow-moving nature and the high oil content in their blubber made them the "right" whale to hunt.
Today, their sluggish traits continue to put them in harm's way, biologists say: In the past three decades, researchers have confirmed that at least 15 deaths of the rare whales were due to blunt impact with ships' hulls or because of deep wounds caused by propeller blades.
About half of the deaths occurred in the 1990s, but only one confirmed death occurred in Massachusetts waters. Still, the prevalence of the whales in local waters will eventually bring additional deaths that could be averted, proponents of the plan say.
"When you see these numbers, 15 might not seem like a lot. But with only 300 left, it's a big deal," said Amy Knowlton, a biologist specializing in right whale research at the New England Aquarium.
The proposal would affect two areas: the whales' calving grounds off Florida and Georgia and its feeding areas off Massachusetts, including Massachusetts Bay, Cape Cod Bay, Great South Channel and Stellwagen Bank. Ships over 300 tons, roughly 150 feet long, would have to enter their name, direction, destination and speed into a satellite communication system now common on large vessels.
A land-based computer would send a message back to the ship warning of any right whales in the area. Ships would be required to check in with the station and receive information on whale locations, although they would not be required to alter their courses to steer around areas where the whales might be concentrated. The project is estimated to cost $100,000 a year.
Failure to register upon entering a whale area would be against the law. No fines or penalties have yet been suggested.
"The intent is not to bust people," said Greg Silber, a marine biologist with NOAA headquarters in Silver Spring, Md., who has been working closely on the project. "The intent is to provide information on how to avoid the whales."
Delahunt is taking the lead in pushing the project because it mainly affects the waters off Cape Cod, which is in his district, and because he is a member of the Resources Committee.
"We have this incredible mammal that is on the verge of extinction. Let's not set up scenarios that are just fantasy and have no basis in fact. We can come up with a reason not to do anything," Delahunt said.
Lt. John Oliveira, a Pentagon spokesman for the Navy, said military vessels already take steps to protect the whales in their calving grounds off Florida and Georgia by:
- -- Posting lookouts on the decks of ships when passing through some whale territories.
- -- Financing aerial surveys and monitoring of the whales.
- -- Barring exercises with live ammunition in calving grounds.
In a letter last month to Defense Secretary William Cohen, Delahunt called the military's objections to the proposal "perplexing," and urged him to approve the project. The letter was signed by the other nine congressmen and two senators who make up the Massachusetts delegation.
There are several types of right whales throughout the world. Biologists estimate there are about 300 North Atlantic right whales left, which roam from Florida to Newfoundland. The whales grow up to 50 feet long and weigh as much as 50 tons.
Date: Mon, 9 Mar, 1998
Submarine tests too loud for whales?
By GLENN GARELIK
UPI Science News
WASHINGTON, Mar. 9 (UPI) -- Using sonar to detect distant enemy submarines presents a problem for the military: Seawater quickly dampens most sound, leaving the far-off subs to maintain their stealthy existence.
But scientists found a way around the problem: Since very low-frequency waves can travel much farther than other sounds, they said, the military should try blasting very loud, very low-frequency signals into the water and wait for the echoes to return. That's the method whales use to communicate over thousands of kilometers.
In the early 1990s scientists for the Navy and NATO began experimenting around the globe with such extremely loud, low-frequency sounds.
Then in 1994, Joel Reynolds, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, learned of the experiments and insisted the Navy determine whether the noises might be disturbing endangered marine life. To do so would constitute a violation of federal laws.
The Navy halted the program until an Environmental Impact Statement could be prepared. It targeted the end of 1998 for a draft.
To test the impact of the sounds on whales, the Navy engaged experts from Cornell University's Shoals Marine Laboratory and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts. The first experiments -- on gray, blue, and fin whales off the coast of California -- began last
fall. The final tests were to begin late last month off Hawaii, where two-thirds of the world's population of humpbacks breed in March.
Whereupon an angry coalition of environmental groups stepped in.
The groups sued to halt the Navy testing. When the federal district court judge in Honolulu ruled against them recently on grounds they had failed to establish sufficient evidence of harm to the animals, members of one of the groups sailed into test-site waters. Benjamin White, the group's director, promised to "get as many human bodies as possible between the Navy and the whales."
Judge Helen Gilmor at the federal district court in Honolulu heard the case twice, and a decision is expected anytime.
Chief plaintiff against the Navy and its researchers is psychobiologist Marsha Green, of Albright College in Reading, Pa., a
specialist on the effects on whales of the engine noise of marine vessels. Says Green, "Blasting humpback whales with sounds of this intensity could kill them."
A Navy spokesman responds that neither the environmental impact tests nor its military program have yet produced ill effects on any marine creatures. If further testing turns out to affect those creatures, the spokesman told United Press International, the program "will stop."
Green fears the damage will already have been done.
She bases her reasoning in part on an understanding that the experimental sonar is capable of sounds as loud as 230 decibels, and that even the environmental impact tests could run as loud as 215 dB. Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, the firm that has taken up the environmentalist case, describes that as 1,000 times louder than a 747 engine.
Green argues that troubles start at intensites well under 215 dB. She points to a recent research paper in which the authors say even at 180 dB sound waves can "shear" living tissues -- especially in marine mammals, which have lungs, and so a significant differential versus
surrounding water pressure.
She notes there was a mass-stranding of beaked whales on the Greek shore in May. Because such mass-strandings are highly unusual, a University of Athens zoologist has written in the journal Nature that it may have been precipitated by NATO tests of its low-frequency submarine-detection system.
And Green refers to sightings of dead whales at places where biologists from the Scripps Oceanographic Institute studied the behavior of loud, low-frequency sounds to gauge ocean temperatures.
Cornell University animal communications specialist Christopher Clark, the researcher leading the environmental impact experiment for the Navy, says he will issue sonic "pulses" of 125 dB or lower, at least initially. In water, he says, that is about as loud as human
speech. And he says he will take the signals no louder than 155 dB. In water, he says, that is "about as loud as a Waring blender."
But Clark also acknowledges he has seen apparent signs of discomfort in whales exposed to loud boat engines.
According to Peter Tyack, a Woods Hole whale expert respected by both sides of the controversy, whales have been known to change their migratory patterns when encountering manmade sounds as "low" as 120 dB, such as those produced by underwater oil-drilling.
Environmental lawyer Reynolds, for his part, says that while he opposes deployment of the submarine detection system per se, he reluctantly supports research into the damage it might cause. "If it's necessary to get data," he says, "then I'm prepared to live with it."
Date: Mon, 9 Mar, 1998
Scientists Hurry to Study Carcass of Rare Blue Whale
Middletown, RI (AP) - Even as they mourned the death of a 40-ton specimen of the world's largest animal, scientists have been working hard to preserve pieces of the carcass for research.
The blue whale, which had been floating off the coast, was towed to Second Beach by the Coast Guard.
The whale's skin and blubber were pealed off, and some of its parts - its head, larynx, ear bones and tissue samples - were carted off by scientists. They say it is the first time a blue whale has been found dead along the New England coastline. Only about 300 blue whales, which are an endangered species protected by the federal government, are believed to exist in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
What is special about the stranding on Saturday is that scientists have never had a fully intact specimen of a blue whale to study before, said Dr. Phillip Clapham, a whale specialist at the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Mass.
"This is an incredible, rare event," Clapham told the Providence Journal-Bulletin.
"It's the largest animal ever to live on this planet and we've never had a specimen like this to work with."
Whale specialists from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C. and Mystic marine Life Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., were also at Second Beach to take samples of the whale for study. About a dozen scientists will first measure and later dissect the whale as part of the study process.
Middletown Police have posted a 24-hour surveillance of the carcass. The public can view the whale from behind storm barriers set up around the whale.
"Police will watch over the site until the research is complete," said Mike Embury, Middletown's town administrator. "People can look, but they can't touch."
The whale was found by a marine pilot who was on a tanker in Narragansett Bay on Tuesday. He saw the animal wrapped around the ship's bow. Coast Guard officials originally thought it was a finback whale.
Scientists say it is not clear if the blue whale was killed by the ship or if it was struck by the vessel after it was already dead.
Date: Tue, 10 Mar, 1998
Whale provides fodder for study
MIDDLETOWN, R.I., March 10 (UPI) -- Marine scientists have dissected a rare blue whale that was apparently killed by a ship and towed ashore in Middletown, R.I.
The 40-ton, 2-year-old male was described as a "unique find" and a "treasure trove" for scientists.
The National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Mass., says the whale has been cut up for scientific research.
Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City will get the whale's larynx, Harvard University in Cambridge the earbones, and the skull is to go to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
A blue whale -- the largest animal in the world -- is said to be so rare that this is only the second time this century that one has been found dead on the East Coast.
After the whale was towed ashore on Sunday, crowds gathered on Second Beach to get a look at the huge animal. While many onlookers described it as "yucky" and "smelly," scientists said it was "the find of a lifetime."
Experts said that judging from injuries on its skull and jaw, the whale apparently had been killed in a collision with a ship.
There are estimated to be fewer than 300 blue whales remaining in the North Atlantic. Although they normally grow to about 110 feet, this one was just about 65 feet in length.
Scientists said "so little is known" about the blue whale and they hope their examinations will help develop ways to protect the animal, which had been hunted to near extinction.
Date: Wed, 11 Mar, 1998
Whale Skeleton is Saved Going to Museum in New Bedford
As published in The Patriot Ledger Quincy, MA
PROVIDENCE (AP) -- The New Bedford Whaling Museum has been chosen to receive the skeleton of a 65-foot blue whale whose body was towed out of Narragansett Bay last weekend.
The museum was chosen yesterday because it has enough space to display the entire skeleton, said Teri Frady, spokeswoman for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Woods Hole, Mass. The museum also will give researchers access to the skeleton to study the bones.
"The museum will strike a balance between scientific research and public education," Frady said.
The skeleton will be displayed in a new $3.5 million lobby that is scheduled to be built by the time the blue whale is ready for public view in three years, said Ann Brengle, director of the Whaling Museum.
The whale was believed to be the first dead blue whale found on the Eastern Seaboard since the late 19th century. The 1- to 2-year-old blue whale was towed Saturday onto Second Beach in Middletown after being found a week ago wrapped around a tanker's bow. It had a fractured skull and jaw on its left side, possible evidence of collision with a ship.
Scientists dissected the whale Sunday and Monday while hundreds of onlookers watched. Its remains will be used for research, which might be applied to bolster its population.
To prepare the skeleton for display, any flesh remaining on the bones must be removed, Frady said. The rest of the whale is being sent to research laboratories and for burial at the Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge Center in Middletown, R.I.
Date: Wed, 11 Mar, 1998
New Look SeaWorld Adventure Parks
NEW YORK, [PRNewswire] - After an eight-year expansion push and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment since the acquisition by Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc., SeaWorld today unveiled a new identity and positioning to reflect the evolution of the highly popular parks.
"Thirty-four years ago this month, SeaWorld was born in San Diego and set the standard for a new type of entertainment experience," said John B. Roberts, chairman and president of Busch Entertainment Corp. "Today, we are delighted to announce the most important evolution in the history of our brand -- the launch of the new SeaWorld Adventure Parks."
Significant expansion at all four SeaWorld parks - in Orlando, Fla., San Diego, Calif., San Antonio, Texas and Cleveland, Ohio - made it necessary to find a new way to describe SeaWorld, Roberts said in an announcement today to national news media and travel-industry partners in New York.
"The addition of 'Adventure Parks' to the name, and the new brand logo unveiled today, reflects the transformation of SeaWorld," he said. "These parks are not simply aquariums or marine theme parks. SeaWorld truly is a new breed of entertainment park - an Adventure Park."
The new graphic identity was introduced at the four parks today and will be phased in on signage, printed materials, advertising and other items over the next year.
In addition, SeaWorld has developed a special seal for its popular icon, Shamu the killer whale, that will be used throughout the parks and on licensed merchandise. Roberts said that when Anheuser-Busch Cos., Inc. purchased SeaWorld in 1989, it acquired a brand with high awareness and a quality reputation. "Even so, we had to look to the future of the SeaWorld parks and ensure they would be just as strong in 1999, 2009 and beyond," he said.
"By talking to our guests, and thanks in large measure to the commitment of Anheuser-Busch, we set about to make SeaWorld even better," Roberts said. To date, that effort comprises dozens of new attractions, shows, facilities upgrades and a stronger focus on theming and active adventures.
Typical of SeaWorld's new attractions:
- Journey to Atlantis, an attraction that combines a water ride, roller coaster and high-tech special effects, opening at SeaWorld Orlando in April. It is the largest and most significant new attraction in the history of Busch Entertainment Corp.
- The Great White, the only inverted roller coaster in the Southwest, introduced at SeaWorld San Antonio in 1997.
- Wild Arctic, a ride that takes guests at SeaWorld in Orlando and San Diego on a simulated helicopter ride to the North Pole where they interact with live polar bears, beluga whales, harbor seals and walruses in a research station built amid a 19th century shipwreck.
- Pirates!, a high-tech 4-D special-effects film adventure starring Leslie Nielsen, at SeaWorld Cleveland.
"Over the years to come, we are committed to offering SeaWorld guests breakthrough new attractions -- thrilling adventure rides, state-of-the-art roller coasters, immersive animal attractions and all-new shows," Roberts said.
The relaunch of the SeaWorld brand will be supported by aggressive national advertising and promotions, said Chris Shea, vice president of marketing for Busch Entertainment Corp.
A national brand campaign will run on network and cable television and in print media, he said, and park brand advertising will use a variety of media in target markets. A number of national and market-specific promotions throughout the year will reinforce the new brand identity and adventure positioning.
"Our new identity represents what the new SeaWorld Adventure Parks offer our guests today -- fun, thrills, activity and variety," Shea said. "The relaunch of the SeaWorld brand symbolizes a whole new philosophy, not only of who we are, but how we talk about ourselves. This transformation will be executed through all of our marketing efforts: advertising, promotions, sales collateral and public relations."
The new brand identity was developed by Landor and Associates, San Francisco, a leading brand consultant. DDB Needham, Chicago, is lead agency on the national brand advertising campaign. Fleishman-Hillard St. Louis will execute a national public relations campaign.
In addition to the four SeaWorld Adventure Parks, St. Louis-based Busch Entertainment Corp. operates Busch Gardens parks in Tampa Bay and Williamsburg, Va.; Sesame Place near Philadelphia; Adventure Island in Tampa Bay; and Water Country USA in Williamsburg. The nine parks entertain more than 21 million guests a year and employ more than 15,000 people. A leader in animal rescue, care and conservation, SeaWorld and Busch Gardens maintain the largest animal population of any institution in the world. SOURCE SeaWorld Adventure Parks.
Date: Fri, 13 Mar, 1998
A Senator and a Captain! Guests of Honor at Twelfth Annual Genesis Awards
By Entertainment/News Editors, Environmental Writers &, Photographers - BUSINESS WIRE
LOS ANGELES--(ENTERTAINMENT WIRE) Special Honors to Be Presented by Keely Shaye Smith and Gretchen Wyler and Pierce Brosnan and Martin Sheen, Respectively United States Senator Barbara Boxer and Captain Paul Watson, founder/president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, will be Guests of Honor at the Twelfth Annual Genesis Awards, The Ark Trust, Inc. announced Friday.
The Genesis Awards recognize members of the major news and entertainment media who have spotlighted animal issues with courage, creativity and integrity. Presented by The Ark Trust, Inc., an Encino, Calif.-based non-profit animal protection organization, Genesis Awards ceremonies will be celebrated at a taped-for-television, star-studded gala on Saturday evening, March 28, in the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.
Unlike Genesis awardees whose works are honored for spotlighting animal issues, Guests of Honor each year are heralded for having personally "made news" on behalf of animals.
Senator Boxer has been called the leading voice for the protection of wildlife in the United States Senate. In 1997, she persuaded the Agency for International Development to prohibit U.S. dollars from being used to support trophy hunting of African elephants, an animal at risk of extinction. Senator Boxer also blocked legislative efforts to weaken the dolphin protection standards established under the Boxer-Biden Dolphin Protection Act. She then introduced legislation to lift the embargo on foreign dolphin-safe tuna imports while protecting the dolphin-safe tuna label. Since the Boxer-Biden law was passed in 1990, dolphin deaths resulting from tuna fishing have decreased from 60,000 to 3,000 per year.
Without Senator Boxer's voice in the United States Senate, the cause of animal protection would suffer a devastating blow.
As founder/president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (and one of the original co-founders of Greenpeace), Captain Watson is a highly effective defender of marine wildlife on the high seas. As commander of his ship, Sea Shepherd, he positions himself between marine wildlife in peril and those who endeavor to harm it. In 1997, Norway -- which continues to defy the International Whaling Commission's ban on hunting whales -- issued an Interpol warrant for Watson's arrest on charges that he rammed a Norwegian Coast Guard vessel and for the 1992 dockside scuttling of a whaling ship. Although innocent of all charges, Watson was arrested while on a mission in Europe and languished in jail for 80 days while the court considered his extradition to Norway.
His plight made worldwide news. Facing a possible lifetime in prison or almost certain death at the hands of angry Norwegian whalers, Watson ultimately was able to convince the court he was a political prisoner in the battle to save whales and was set free.
Making the Special Guest of Honor presentation to Senator Boxer will be former Genesis Awardee and journalist Keely Shaye Smith and founder/president of The Ark Trust, Gretchen Wyler. Smith worked with Boxer's office to oppose the "Dolphin Death Act," legislation that would have gutted the protections for dolphins which Boxer originally championed while in Congress. Presenting the Guest of Honor distinction to Captain Watson will be his friends Pierce Brosnan and Martin Sheen.
Other celebrities slated to attend include co-hosts Joely Fisher ("Ellen") and Bill Maher ("Politically Incorrect") joined by presenters Alicia Silverstone, Lyle Lovett, Leeza Gibbons, Montel Williams, Harry Hamlin, Ed Begley Jr., Sid Caesar, Shari Belafonte, Tippi Hedren, Linda Blair, Ally Walker ("Profiler"), Frances Fisher ("Titanic"), Joe Mantegna ("Up Close and Personal"), Kevin Nealon ("Hiller and Diller"), Bonnie Hunt ("Jerry Maguire"), James Cromwell ("L.A. Confidential"), Tiffani-Amber Thiessen ("Beverly Hills 90210"), David James Elliot ("JAG"), Peter Scolari ("Disney's Honey I Shrunk The Kids: The TV Show"), Alex D. Linz ("Home Alone 3"), Andy Kindler ("The Pet Shop"), and "Verdell" the dog ("As Good As It Gets").
1997 Genesis Award recipients will go to 21 winners, including, among others, Utopia Pictures' "Shiloh" (Feature Film); Paramount Pictures' "Charlotte's Web" (Film Classic; 1972); CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond" (Television Comedy Series); Fox's "Millennium" (Television Dramatic Series); ABC's "Primetime Live" (Network Newsmagazine); "Hard Copy" (Syndicated Newsmagazine); NBC's "Leeza" (Television Talk Show); and New York Times Magazine (Newspaper Feature Article).
The 1997 Doris Day Music Award -- honoring musical achievement for animals -- will be a Tribute to the late John Denver by honoring the song he made famous, "You Say The Battle Is Over" about the slaughter of Earth's majestic wildlife, composed by David Mallett.
All 1997 Genesis Awards are selected from material released in 1997. Entries are submitted by those in the industry or by "people's choice," with finalists voted upon by the 17-member Genesis Awards Committee.
Since its inception in 1986, the Genesis Awards has become the nation's premier animal issues "consciousness-raiser," and the award is the only major news and entertainment media distinction concerning animal issues. The awards ceremony will be taped-for-television before a live audience of 1,000 attendees to world-premiere as a 90-minute TV special on Tuesday, May 5, at 6 p.m. PT and 9 p.m. ET on Animal Planet, with four encore broadcasts. Sponsored in part by Hallmark Entertainment, Inc., The Twelfth Annual Genesis Awards is produced by Paul Flattery and directed by Stanley Dorfman. To purchase tickets, call 818/501-2ARK.
Date: Fri, 13 Mar, 1998
The Japanese Appetite for Whales
By: Seth Robson
As published in "The Press"
Jenny Shipley's visit to Japan has focused attention on the country's whaling practices. SETH ROBSON canvasses a rarely heard view.
In the movie Free Willy a killer whale is portrayed as possessing intelligence on a par with humans. Having watched those images it is hard for Westerners to accept that some Japanese gourmets might prefer to fry Willy than to free him. Unlike New Zealanders, many of whom would rush to save a stranded whale, Japanese see the creatures as a source of protein to be managed as a valuable resource.
The First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Wellington, Masahiko Suneya, says reports tend to humanise whales and it is rare to hear the Japanese point of view.
"I cannot help but feel that there is too much emotion associated with this issue," Mr Suneya says.
Japan is asking to continue whaling on the basis of the International Whaling Commission mandate. The mandate is not to ban whaling, but to continue it on a sustainable basis.
"Some species are facing extinction but other species can be used as a resource," Mr Suneya says.
The most typical example is the minke whale. Data generated by the Japanese scientific whaling programme puts the minke whale population at more than three-quarters of a million. A certain amount of whaling would not affect the sustainability of those stocks, Mr Suneya says.
DNA testing by an Auckland University forensic DNA specialist Dr Scott Baker has revealed killer whale and dolphin meat is being sold at markets in Japan. According to Mr Suneya, the meat may have been stockpiled before the moratorium on whaling was introduced in 1994. If there were evidence of illegal sales, markets would be prosecuted.
"The Japanese Government is taking stringent measures to restrict the importation of whale meat from non-member countries of the IWC."
Mr Suneya says whale meat is not a significant part of the Japanese diet and the amount consumed is small compared with beef, crops, and other seafood.
The World Wildlife Fund is campaigning against Japan's scientific whaling programme and raising funds for more DNA research into whales in the wild.
"WWF's campaign is pro-whale, rather than anti-Japanese, but having said that, it is the Japanese who are whaling in the Southern Ocean," says director of conservation programmes Simon Towle.
The IWC's scientific committee has concluded that Japan's scientific whaling programme does nothing to help the management of whale stocks.
DNA research would not require the killing of any whales. It would determine how large the gene pool is for each species.
"If the gene pool is too small a species can become extinct easily because there is little tolerance to disease."
Mr Towle says the Japanese appetite for whale meat was created by a shortage of protein during the post-war years. Whale meat became a standard meal for many Japanese and now it is proving a habit hard to break.
Date: Mon, 16 Mar, 1998
All Australian Whales Now Under Protection List
CANBERRA (XINHUA) - All of Australia's whale species are now protected by the Australian law following Monday's announcement that the Sei and Fin whales have gained legislative protection. Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill said the decision would add impetus to Australia's push for a global whale sanctuary at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Oman in May.
It is expected that whaling countries like Japan will oppose such a sanctuary at the meeting.
"Our efforts to conserve our own whales strengthen our push for a global whale sanctuary," Hill said in a statement.
Listing the Sei and Fin whales as vulnerable species under the Endangered Species Act, which meant they could not be killed, traded or moved and that the Australian federal government must develop recovery plans for them, was the most effective way to ensure their survival, he said.
"Australia's populations of the Sei whale have declined by 75 percent in the past 40 years alone, and there are estimated to be only 25,000 of this species of whale remaining," the minister said.
Populations of the Fin whale have seen an even greater decline in numbers. They were originally estimated at 500,000 prior to the 1960s and have been depleted to a mere 25,000.
From: Australian Marine Conservation Society
We would like to clarify a few points made with regard to the statement on March 16th that all Australian whales are protected by the Australian law. This could be misleading, as it suggests that they are all protected under the Endangered Species Act, (which is referred to in the same statement). All 43 species of cetaceans found in Australian waters are in fact protected under the Commonwealth Whale Protection Act 1980, which prohibits killing, injuring, taking, capturing or interfering with cetaceans. However, it is only the Blue, Southern Right, Humpback and now the Sei and Fin whales that are protected under the Commonwealth Endangered Species Act.
Environmental organisations, like ours, lobbied for a listing for the Sei and Fin under this reasonably robust act, because it includes a statutory obligation to develop a recovery plan. This will look at threats, other than killing, which is at present not an issue to these species and identify ways to mitigate them. These include depletion of food stocks through commercial fishing, shipping strikes, oil spills and toxic pollutants, entanglement in fishing gear and acoustic pollution, amongst others. Other cetacean species that we have reason to be concerned over at present, include the Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin and the Irrawaddy dolphin. As soon as we have sufficient data, we will be nominating these for inclusion under the Act.
Bill Foster
Australian Marine Conservation Society
Email: amcs@ozemail.com.au
Date: Wed, 18 Mar, 1998
Orphaned whale to be released into ocean
SAN DIEGO, March 18 (UPI) -- An orphaned baby gray whale that washed up near death on a Southern California beach is expected to be released next week following a rehabilitation program that's taken more than a year.
J.J. will be moved March 26 from her 1.7-million gallon pool at Sea World in San Diego back to the ocean.
She's being fitted with four transmitters that will help researchers pinpoint her location and the depth and duration of her dives. Those devices are expected to last 18 months.
Officials acknowledge they're not sure about the whale's chances of survival in the wild because of hazards including commercial fishing gear, her own curiousity and killer whales on the hunt for young whales.
The reintroduction team includes the U.S. Coast Guard, National Marine Fisheries Service and Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute.
The whale has made a miraculous recovery since beaching herself on a Marina Del Rey beach in January 1997. She was diagnosed as severely dehydrated and hypoglycemic, and moved to Sea World for an extensive rehabilitation program.
The whale now weighs 18,200 pounds and is more than 30 feet long. She eats 400 to 500 pounds of food a day.
J.J. is among the amusement park's most popular attractions and her progress is regularly monitored on Sea World's web site (www.seaworld.com).
Date: Thu, 19 Mar, 1998
Sea Shepherd Vessel Tends to Her Flock
International spotlight put back on Canada's seal slaughter
THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE -- The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society flagship Sea Shepherd III has been among the newborn seals in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence for over a week, like a shepherd guarding her flock. The conservation ship is attracting international attention to the world's largest wildlife slaughter.
The Sea Shepherd currently rides at anchor in the ice twenty miles off the coast of Prince Edward Island, two Canadian Coast Guard ice-breakers nearby, with detachments of Royal Canadian Mounted Police on board. More Mounties are ready in the nearby Magdalen Islands, equipped with a fleet of helicopters.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society estimates the cost of Canadian surveillance at over $150,000 per day. Since the arrival of the Sea Shepherd ship, Canada has run up a bill of over one million dollars for labor, ships, and aircraft.
"The Sea Shepherd Society has three objectives for 1998," said Captain Paul Watson.
- "The first is to attract international attention to the world's largest wildlife slaughter. To that end, the Society has hosted media crews from Australia, Austria, Canada, France, Germany, and the USA over the past week. John Paul DeJoria, the owner of John Paul Mitchell Systems Hair Products, was photographed with his daughter among the baby seals. The picture will be displayed in over 40,000 salons around the world along with a message to protest the seal hunt.
- "The second objective is to gather documentary video to be used in producing commercials hosted by actress Michelle Yeoh ("Tomorrow Never Dies"), which will be aired in Asia with the aim of exposing the cruelty of the Canadian/Asian seal penis sex-potion trade."
- "The third objective is to promote the Sea Shepherd idea of creating jobs in the Maritimes by introducing a cruelty-free, non-lethal seal industry. Sea Shepherd has found markets for the naturally molted hair of harp seal pups. The obstacle to providing jobs based on brushing seals instead of killing them is the Canadian government’s refusal to issue permits for non- lethal sealing."
Notable individuals who have joined Sea Shepherd on board over the past week include author Farley Mowat and actress Bronwen Booth, the sister-in law of British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Montreal Radio talk show host Howard Galgonov broadcast from the ship before going on to the March 20 rally against the seal hunt at Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
"Brigitte Bardot intended to join us in order to personally express her opposition to Canada's ongoing slaughter of the seals," said Watson.
"Unfortunately, her plane encountered mechanical difficulty in Paris just prior take-off, and she was unable to attend a press conference. But we are pleased to note that her commitment to this cause remains as strong as it was when she came out to the ice in 1977."
The arrival of the Sea Shepherd III at the seal hunt marks the first time since 1983 that a conservation ship has been to the ice. That year, the Sea Shepherd II was seized and her crew arrested for protecting seals. The Sea Shepherd Society won the case and later successfully sued the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for $50,000.
One sealing boat arrived in the area on Monday. The vessel departed the area with the arrival of the Sea Shepherd III.
When Watson asked the Captain of the Coast Guard ship George R. Parkes what their intentions were in shadowing the Sea Shepherd III, the officer replied, "to protect the sealers from the likes of you, Captain Watson."
Date: Tue, 24 Mar, 1998
Drift-net fishing banned by Ministers
By Maxine Frith, PA News In Brussels
A EU-wide ban on drift-net fishing, which kills thousands of dolphins and whales each year, was backed by European fisheries ministers today.
British Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley hailed the backing of a qualified majority of ministers in favour of a ban as a "major achievement" for the British presidency of the EU.
But ministers at the Fish Council in Brussels are unlikely to vote on the matter today - delaying a decision until June.
Ireland, France and Italy are opposed to a ban and ministers want to negotiate a transitional period for phasing out drift nets and to agree compensation for fishermen.
Drift-net fishing has been dubbed "the wall of death" by environmental campaigners, because thousands of dolphins and whales are killed and thrown back into the sea as unwanted by-catch.
The Striped Dolphin population has its numbers cut by 2% every year because of the practice, used for catching tuna, salmon and swordfish.
Campaigners want countries to adopt the "rod and pole" system of tuna fishing which yields better quality fish and does not endanger dolphins or whales.
The United Nations called for a ban on drift nets more than one-and-a-half miles long in 1992.
The EU has already ratified this but the British Government has made the outlawing of all drift nets a priority for its presidency.
Mr Morley said: "This is a major achievement for the Presidency. There are issues about compensation and transition periods and we have got to give countries time to make the switch but this is a very rare step - closing down a major fisheries sector."
Britain has a relatively small drift-net fleet of just five boats, but France has around 40 and Italy hundreds, with thousands of fishermen dependent on the industry.
The majority of drift nets are used in the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay and fishermen say it would be difficult to convert drift-net boats to other uses.
Date: Fri, 27 Mar, 1998
Dolphins Provide Therapy in Mexico
By NIKO PRICE - Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- At a flick of the trainer's wrist, Sparky the dolphin reared back and slid through the water to Dalia Morales Gutierrez, a 2-year-old girl suspended by a therapist treading water.
Sparky nuzzled up to the back of the girl's head, opened her snout and chirped for a few seconds. Then she glided back over to the trainer to receive a chunk of fish.
This is part of a therapy program for children with neurological disorders that by every account is experimental and unproven. Yet its directors -- and many of its clients -- say that for reasons they can't fully explain, it seems to work.
The program's medical director, Dr. Misael Vilchis Quiroz, said the dolphins can diagnose and treat neurological problems. Scientists are skeptical.
"It sounds pretty hokey," said Dr. Bernard Rimland, director of the Autism Research Institute in San Diego. "There is no scientific evidence at all that using dolphins is helpful. The reputable people in the field simply feel the kids like the dolphins and it's a recreational thing."
Four days a week, the dolphins at Mexico City's Aragon Aquarium take a break from jumping, flipping and playing with a ball to nuzzle with and chirp at children suffering from disorders such as autism, Down syndrome and movement disorders.
Until about a year ago, the program was similar to others in Florida, Philadelphia and Australia that help rehabilitate people by having them swim with dolphins. But a new team has taken over the company that administers the treatment, and it has set its goals much higher.
Vilchis Quiroz, the medical director of the Convimar company, said he identifies what part of the brain is damaged before children begin treatment, then has the therapists signal the dolphins to work on that area with their high-powered ultrasound.
Sometimes the dolphins refuse and move to another part of the head. Every time that has happened, he said, further tests have revealed the doctors' initial diagnosis was wrong. "They know more than we do," he said.
"Using sonar that they have, they somehow see the damage and emit the appropriate frequency," Vilchis said.
"There are things we don't understand. But what I do know is that it works."
He said 90 percent of his patients show significant results, although he hasn't completed a formal survey.
Vilchis conceded that his medical specialty is plastic surgery, but added that he "took several neurology classes last year."
Experts are skeptical that a dolphin would be able to diagnose a developmental problem. They note that no scientific study has ever been conducted to see if the treatment works.
"I'd be quite surprised if there was any validity to the notion that they (dolphins) could target any particular area with their ultrasound," said Michael Westerveld, a pediatric neuropsychologist at Yale University's School of Medicine in New
Haven, Conn.
"If there's any success, I'd be much more inclined to attribute it to the general effects of... the opportunity to interact with animals," he said. "You could buy them a puppy and probably see the same results."
Even Sparky's trainer, Gustavo Vargas, was skeptical.
"It's just that they like swimming with the dolphins," he said.
"The dolphins don't know what they're doing."
But many of the desperate families that come to the Aragon Aquarium from across Latin America see it differently.
Adriana Molina, who lives in Guadalajara, heard about the program on television and made the 280-mile trip to Mexico City with her 2-year-old daughter Maria Fernanda.
"(She) was very hyperactive, and now she's calm," Molina said.
"She can't walk either, and now she seems a little more solid on her feet."
She paid $470 for eight 13-minute sessions over two weeks.
"In Guadalajara, they do free-swimming with dolphins, but not this kind of treatment," she said. "I have a lot of faith that this will work. At least I hope it will."
Date: Sun, 29 Mar, 1998
Petition against 'Scientific Whaling' gains 50,000 signatures
Wellington, March 29 - A petition calling for an end to "scientific" whaling in the South Ocean Whale Sanctuary has attracted more than 55,000 signatures in less than a month.
Because of the interest, World Wide Fund for Nature - New Zealand, which launched the petition, has extended by a week its deadline for receiving back signed forms, organiser Carol Ellis said.
Japan's scientific whaling programme has been condemned by the International Whaling Commission, and Prime Minister Jenny Shipley also raised the issue during talks in Tokyo earlier this month with Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto.
Japan uses a loophole in the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling to take catches of whales from the sanctuary.
New Zealand scientists have proved that minke whalemeat caught for "scientific" programmes from the sanctuary is marketed commercially and ends up on restaurant tables in Japan.
The southern ocean sanctuary was established by the commission in 1994 and much of the area to be whaled in 1998-99 is within 200 nautical miles of the ice edge of the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand.
Date: Tue, 31 Mar, 1998
J.J. the whale returns to her ocean home
SAN DIEGO (CNN) -- The first California gray whale rescued as an infant last year and raised by humans was returned to the Pacific Ocean Tuesday after a transport operation by road and sea befitting the mammal's size and weight.
The 32-foot long, 18,000-pound (9.7 meters, 40,000 kilograms) whale was hoisted off the deck of a Coast Guard cutter and released from a sling. She splashed briefly before plunging underwater.
J.J. has several challenges ahead of her: dodging predators and avoiding fishing nets.
The whale started her journey back to sea on a bed of foam rubber in an open-topped 18-wheel truck, while handlers misted her down with water and piped in whale sounds to calm her.
After the one-hour, 12-mile trip to the U.S. Navy pier at San Diego Bay, her specially made sling was strapped to a crane and hoisted onto the cutter for the final leg of her journey home to the wild.
Keepers at Sea World had raised her ever since she was washed ashore as a newborn in the surf off Los Angeles' Marina del Rey on January 11, 1997.
J.J. was malnourished, dehydrated and undersized, leading authorities to believe she was abandoned by her mother during the migration south to Baja California, where most gray whales are born. Her umbilical cord was still attached and she was too young and too sick to survive on her own.
Marine biologists, desperate to learn more about the gray whale species, took a chance on J.J., transporting her 120 miles to San Diego's Sea World for emergency care.
The hope was that she would live so researchers could study her in a controlled environment and then track her once released back to the sea.
Scientists will now monitor J.J. by boat for the first three or four days. Then they will use four electronic transmitters attached to J.J.'s back to monitor her movements. If the batteries don't fail and J.J. doesn't knock out the transmitters, researchers can watch her for as long as 18 months.
One critical point for her will be Monterey Bay, where killer whales, natural predators of gray whales, live in large numbers.
"We're not certain if her avoidance of predators is instinctive or learned behavior," Sea World curator Jim Antrim said. "This is one way we might learn that."
Another behavior researchers hope to understand is a popping noise gray whales make. Ann Bowles, who studied J.J.'s vocalizations and played her those of her fellow whales, believes it may be a navigational tool.
"J.J. didn't make those noises in her pool," Bowles said.
"There was no need, since she knew her boundaries. That's why we believe the sounds are used in navigation. Maybe now, we'll find out."
If J.J. doesn't migrate, it doesn't mean Sea World will take her back to their tank. Joe Cordaro, a wildlife biologist for the National Marine Fisheries, said researchers won't intervene if J.J. is attacked or if her demise is because of a natural occurrence.
"Once she returns to the ocean, she has the status of a free-ranging marine animal," he said. "That means she'll have to make it own her own."
Date: Tue, 31 Mar, 1998
Movie's Killer Whale Not a Hunter
By BRAD CAIN - Associated Press Writer
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) -- The romantic notion of "Free Willy" star Keiko swimming back to the sea just like in the movies has run up against a hard reality: The killer whale doesn't have much of a killer instinct.
Keiko is so lousy at catching fish that even some of his most optimistic handlers acknowledge that the whale who has lived nearly his entire life in a pool may never be able to survive in the wild.
He is getting lessons from humans in catching fish. And in the first peek to be given to a reporter, Keiko managed to catch a couple, with a trainer using a dog whistle, hand signals and clapping to point him to his prey.
But for the most part, the black-and-white beast watched meal after meal flutter by.
"He may never reach the wild. This may not succeed," said Nolan Harvey, curator of marine mammals of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.
Regardless of whether his hunting abilities improve, the foundation still plans to take Keiko later this year to an enclosed bay pen in the North Atlantic where he would continue to be fed.
Two years ago, schoolchildren inspired by the movie "Free Willy" helped raise money to move the ailing killer whale from a cramped Mexico City aquarium to a spacious pool here at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in hopes of getting him healthy enough for a return to the open sea.
His health did indeed improve, helped along with daily hand feedings of 300 pounds of restaurant-quality fresh fish.
To get him ready for the wild, however, the hand feeding stopped abruptly a couple of months ago and trainers began dropping dead fish into the tank, then stunned fish that fluttered in the water. The sessions with healthy live fish began several weeks ago.
In Monday's training, Harvey screamed, "Go get that fish! Go get it!" after releasing cod and salmon into the mammal's path.
When Keiko finally grabbed a live fish in his jaws, then swallowed it whole, trainer Tracy Karmuza, clad in a wet suit, jumped into the tank next to Keiko and yelled, "Good boy!"
The famous whale ate a second fish minutes later but then seemed to lose interest, letting at least three other live fish swim by unharmed.
Critics say Keiko's lack of hunting ability isn't surprising because the whale has spent 18 of his 20 years in captivity.
"I don't think it's fair and humane to the animal to try this operation just to make a few people happy," said Brad Andrews, vice president of zoological operations at Sea World in Orlando, Fla. Sea World's theme parks around the country have 19 killer whales.
Andrews said his team of marine biologists has rehabilitated and released whales, usually ones that have been found beached or have other problems, such as malnutrition.
"But those animals are with us a very short time and not long enough to be imprinted by humans," he said. "Keiko has been imprinted a long time."
Though disappointed by the session, Keiko's trainers said it's still remarkable that a captive whale that's been fed dead fish practically its entire life now is able to catch and eat at least some live fish.
They said on better days, Keiko catches up to 15 live fish, or about half his daily diet.
"To my knowledge, no other project has attempted to teach an adult killer whale how to hunt," said Diane Hammond, spokeswoman for the foundation. "We're breaking new ground here every day."
She said the foundation believes Keiko would still be much happier in an ocean pen, even if he had to spend the rest of his days there.
"He will remain under our care as long as he needs it," she said.
"If that means forever, so be it."
Date: Thu, 02 Apr, 1998
Japan planning new commercial whaling operations, Director says
Palmerston North, April 2 NZPA - The Japanese appear to be planning a new attempt to start commercial whaling operations in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, a Massey University academic says.
Cetacean Investigation Centre director Per Madie said the Japanese were already killing up to 500 minke whales a year in the sanctuary for "scientific" purposes, and those studies were dominated by studies of whale population structures and dynamics.
"It is my belief that this data will be used to substantiate and justify a request for resumption of legitimate commercial whaling."
The International Whaling Commission will next meet in Oman in May, where Mr Madie said he suspected the Japanese would try to reopen the issue.
While the World Wide Fund For Nature had more than 55,000 signatures on a petition to try to stop scientific whaling -- a petition which would be presented at the IWC meeting -- Mr Madie said it would have limited impact.
What was needed was a unified approach from the 23 countries that had initially voted in favour of the sanctuary. Only Japan had voted against.
Mr Madie said he had made a search of the literature and found 60 papers based on information gathered by the Japanese, from such "scientific" whaling operations during 1992-97.
Of those papers, only 17 were published, and eight of those were in Japanese. Only nine were in English.
"That means that only 15 percent of the research is readily accessible to marine mammal scientists in the western world, and this has cost the lives of about 3000 whales."
Date: Fri, 03 Apr, 1998
JJ the Gray Whale Sheds Transmitters
By MICHELLE WILLIAMS - Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) -- J.J. may survive her life in the ocean, but no one will really know for sure.
The gray whale, rescued as a sick infant and raised in captivity, shed both her transmitter packs in less than three days at sea, Sea World spokeswoman Jonna Rae Bartges said.
"The only way she can be tracked now is going to be visually," Bartges said.
"It's disappointing because they hoped to do some long range tracking of the migration."
Sea World researchers followed her by boat until Thursday night. They recovered the first transmitter pack Wednesday off the coast of Coronado, a peninsula community across the bay from San Diego. The second pack was found late Thursday south of San Diego. The packs -- one radio transmitter and one satellite transmitter -- fit like a saddle and were secured with toggle bolts in her blubber. One set was on her back, the other near her blow hole. They were designed to operate for 18 months, but float to the surface if dislodged.
Researchers believed the transmitters broke away when J.J. brushed against the ocean floor foraging for food. While one of the packets was undamaged, the second showed scratches and splintering. Although researchers had planned to stop following J.J. by boat, Bartges said now that J.J. had lost the transmitter packs, researchers could resume their observation. Biologist Pam Yochem of the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute said, despite the setback, researchers felt assured about J.J.'s changes of survival.
Before the second pack was lost, it indicated Thursday morning that J.J. was near a migrating pod -- a female gray whale and two calves -- off Point Loma, west of San Diego.
J.J. was found rolling in the surf near Los Angeles in January 1997. Sick and near death, the baby whale was taken to Sea World in San Diego where marine biologists nursed her back to health. When released, she was a healthy 19,200 poundsand 31 feet long.
Yochem said the most critical time for J.J. was the first two days, and now she has passed that benchmark, researchers believe she will survive even if they lose track of her.
Since being released into the sea Tuesday, J.J. has stayed within a 15-mile radius off Point Loma, swimming south to Imperial Beach and north to Coronado, a peninsula community across the bay from San Diego.
"They are exploratory movements," Yochem said. "She's just trying to figure out where she is."
Researchers were encouraged by J.J.'s first few critical days -- bobbing her head out of the water to get her bearings and making vocalizations.
"You realize she's not this big thing in a pool anymore," said researcher Ann Bowles, who played J.J. sounds from gray whales so she'd recognize them as friendly voices in the ocean. "She's a youngster, just a small thing in a big ocean."
Date: Fri, 03 Apr, 1998
NMFS: aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas
WASHINGTON,DC (FedNet, 6-APR-98) -- NMFS announces aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas and other limitations deriving from regulations adopted at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). For 1998, the quotas are 77 bowhead whales struck, and 5 gray whales landed. These quotas and other limitations will govern the harvest of bowhead whales by members of the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) and the harvest of gray whales by members of the Makah Indian Tribe (Tribe). These are initial quotas that will remain in effect for the 1998 season unless they are revised as a result of the completion of arrangements with the Russian
Federation. Any revisions to the quotas will be published in the Federal Register.
DATES: Effective April 6, 1998. Comments on the aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas and related limitations must be received by May 6, 1998.
AGENCY: National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of aboriginal subsistence whaling quotas.
Date: Fri, 08 Apr, 1998
WWF says Japanese killed 440 more minke whales
Geneva, April 8 Reuters - A leading Swiss environmental group criticised Japan on Wednesday for hunting down 440 minke whales in their Antarctic sanctuary despite international calls to end whaling for scientific research.
The World Wide Fund for Nature said a Japanese factory ship accompanied by three WHALE catcher boats returned to the port of Shimonoseki with the catch of minke whales on Wednesday.
In a statement, it accused Japan's government of continuing large-scale scientific whaling despite an appeal by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) last year to phase out such whaling and make the Southern Ocean a WHALE sanctuary.
"Japan persists in defying world opinion. This lethal research whaling must be halted now," a WWF statement said.
Japan gave up commercial whaling in compliance with an international moratorium but has been carrying out scientific whaling since 1987.
It defends whaling for research, saying effective utilisation of whales caught for scientific purposes is approved by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
Some 1000 minke whales are hunted annually. The IWC estimates there are some 760,000 minke left.
The WWF said the meat from the latest catch of whales would soon hit the Japanese markets and also be used for school lunches to "foster the taste for whalemeat among children".
Whalemeat was very expensive, fetching a price of way above $US20 ($NZ36.82) per kilo in Japan.
Date: Wed, 08 Apr, 1998
Anti-Whaling groups join Government Forum
By Amanda Brown, Environment Correspondent, PA News
The Government is to meet top anti-whaling groups amid growing pressure for a permanent ban on commercial hunting of the creatures.
Fisheries Minister Elliot Morley -- who is personally deeply opposed to the cruelty involved in whaling -- is inviting the groups to join a new forum he is to chair which will meet before the end of the month.
He wants advice from experts including Greenpeace, the Environmental Investigation Agency and the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society on ways to help save remaining whale species from the threat of extinction.
The move has been welcomed by lobbying groups, which are impatient with slow progress over more than a decade towards ending the slaughter.
Whaling is controlled by the International Whaling Commission.
But Sue Fisher, of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "The IWC is not about conservation, they are merely interested in exploitation.
"We are delighted Elliot Morley has set up the forum."
"Our organisations represent millions of ordinary members of the public through the membership and they are against whaling."
"What we have to do now is stop all this navel-gazing and look outside the IWC to diplomatic ways to stop whaling nations. We would like to see ambassadors and top environmental lawyers at the forum meetings to try to move things forward more quickly."
"We have spent too many years at IWC meetings making only very small steps forward towards protecting the whale."
The IWC secured a worldwide commercial whaling ban in 1986.
But animal welfare groups warn that loopholes which allow whaling nations Japan and Norway to catch quotas of Minke whales for "scientific" reasons are regularly flouted.
Whale steaks are a delicacy in Japanese restaurants and the country is killing hundreds of whales in Antarctica for so called "research," while Norway has announced plans to kill more than 600 whales this summer.
The IWC is due to meet in Oman from May 11 to May 20 for its annual quota-setting conference -- and Mr Morley's appearance at the meeting has not been ruled out.
Sources told PA News: "No decision has been made on whether he will attend, but the picture will be clearer after the forum meets."
Mr Morley said in a statement that the Government remained opposed to all whaling other than subsistence hunting by indigenous people.
"The forum will help us to develop ways of furthering these objectives and I look forward to working with it to improve the conservation of whales throughout the world."
A controversial Irish proposal to allow hunting within coastal waters up to 200 miles offshore is due to be debated at the Oman meeting.
The idea sparked a row at a closed IWC session in Antigua in February, and was opposed by Britain.
Anti-whaling groups say the plan was dressed up as ocean sanctuary for whales but was nothing of the kind and would give Norway, Japan and other countries a licence to kill more whales than ever.
Date: Fri, 10 Apr, 1998
Better stewardship urged for humpback whales
By Environmental News Network staff
Humpback whale deaths in Hawaiian waters are increasing due to direct strikes by moving boats or entanglement in fishing gear, says Hawaii Sea Grant researcher Shannon Atkinson.
According to a study co-authored by Atkinson and published in Pacific Science, an average of one humpback whale has died in Hawaiian waters each year for the past 25 years. However, in 1996 there was a sharp rise in deaths, with the loss of eight humpbacks from encounters with human-created obstacles.
The numbers for 1997 have not yet been tallied, but Atkinson believes they will be equally alarming.
More than half of the deaths and entanglements occur during February, the peak season for humpback whale activity around Hawaii. Nearly 75 percent occur off the more populated islands of Hawaii, Maui and Oahu, and most fatalities happen to newborn
calves.
Aerial surveys suggest the humpback whale population wintering in Hawaii is increasing, but the loss of newborn calves does not bode well for the recovery of this endangered species, Atkinson says.
The new humpback whale data reinforces the importance of protecting habitat for the endangered whale, in particular lactating females and their newborn calves, Atkinson says.
"It is important for the recovery of our state mammal that we act as responsible stewards of the humpback whale's reproductive grounds," Atkinson says.
"This includes a heightened awareness of marine debris and a sense of caution when boating around marine mammals."
The report authors recommend better monitoring and management of the endangered humpback whale population in its breeding grounds around Hawaii and increased public education and awareness of the effects of human activities on visiting humpback
whales.
Date: Mon, 13 Apr, 1998
City assembly in Okinawa calls for dugong research
NAHA, Japan, April 13 (Kyodo) -- Twelve city assembly members of Nago, Okinawa Prefecture, urged the prefectural government Monday to study the ecology of dugongs and sea turtles living around the site proposed for a U.S. military heliport.
"We will try to start the research soon," Kiyoko Oshiro, a senior official in charge of cultural and environmental affairs in Okinawa, was quoted as telling the assembly members.
They said the central government in Tokyo and Okinawa Prefecture are responsible for protection of the sea animals' habitat. Dugongs were sighted recently off Nago.
The Nago city assembly also sent letters with the same request to the Environment Agency and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
Japan and the United States agreed in 1996 to close the U.S. Marine Corps' Futemma Air Station in Okinawa in five to seven years on condition that its heliport functions be relocated. The sea area off eastern Nago has been designated as the alternate site.
Date: Tue, 14 Apr, 1998
Japan, three other nations to set-up whale committee
Tokyo, April 14 AFP - Japan has agreed with China, South Korea and Russia to set up a committee on whaling in the northwestern Pacific, Kyodo News quoted Japanese fisheries agency officials as saying today.
The committee is intended to strengthen co-operation in research on whale resources and promote whaling by forming a group of countries in East Asia endorsing whaling, the news agency quoted the officials as saying.
The move also appears to be politically motivated, it quoted industry sources as saying.
They said the committee was designed to prevent passage of a proposition that Ireland was expected to put forward at the next general assembly of the International Whaling Commission in May.
Ireland is likely to propose that the high seas be made a sanctuary for whales, with whaling permitted in coastal areas.
Whaling countries such as Japan and Norway have stood opposed to anti-whaling countries, including Australia, France and the United States.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) urged Japan last week to stop its large-scale "scientific whaling" in the Antarctic, declared off-limits to international whale hunters.
Japan is conducting what it claims to be "research" whaling using the Whaling Convention, which allows countries to undertake scientific research in spite of the global moratorium on commercial whaling.
The meat from "research" whaling is sold on the open market in Japan, where it fetches more than 10 times the price of pork or beef, the WWF said.
Date: Fri, 17 Apr, 1998
Fears Grow that Russia may Resume Commercial Whaling
Fears are growing that Russia may be taking the first step towards a resumption of commercial whaling following reports that it has agreed to set up a committee with Japan, China and Korea to promote whaling.
President Yeltsin is meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Hashimoto tomorrow (Saturday). Earlier this week the media in Japan reported that Japan and Russia had agreed to setting up a 'cetacean management committee' with the intention of agreeing national whale catch limits. China and Korea were also named as members of the committee.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Greenpeace and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), today appealed to President Yeltsin to once again reaffirm Russia's faith in the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and its moratorium on commercial whaling.
"The IWC is the international body that is responsible for the management of whaling around the world. Establishing a regional committee, such as the one reported in the Japanese press, would seriously undermine this global organization," said Vassili Papastavrou, IFAW's Whale Team Leader.
Although the USSR stopped commercial whaling in 1987 it had previously lodged a formal objection to the IWC moratorium and is therefore not bound by it.
"This committee would be the first step back for Russia to resume commercial whaling. We are appealing to President Yeltsin to reaffirm his support for the IWC and international opposition to whaling. The best way he could show faith in the IWC would be to withdraw Russia's objection to the moratorium on whaling," added Papastavrou.
"Russia joined the major countries of the world when it banned whaling and if it were to join this committee it would be a grave decision that the majority of the world would condemn."
Further Information: Vassili Papastavrou (UK): 0117 924 9109
email: VPAPASTAVROU/0005743586@MCIMAIL.COM
or Nick Jenkins (UK): 01634 830888
Date: Fri, 17 April, 1998
Whales stall proposed Mexico salt mine
By Environmental News Network staff
(ENN) -- Scientific institutions from Mexico and the United States are conducting an environmental impact study to see if a proposed salt mine in Baja California would disrupt one of the last gray whale breeding habitats in the world. The Mexican government and Mitsubishi Corp. would like to construct a salt mine in the San Ignacio Lagoon. Environmental organizations are opposed to the project because they fear the mine would disrupt the ecological balance of the region, which includes historic mating and birthing grounds for gray whales.
In response to growing concern about the potential impacts of the salt mine, Mexico and Mitsubishi have agreed to halt development of the project until the completion of an environmental impact study.
After the study concludes in the summer of 1999, a panel of prominent scientists will review the results and make their recommendations. According to Joaquin Ardura, technical vice president of Exportadora de Sal, S.A. (ESSA), "If the environmental authorities say no to the project, we will not continue with it. We will give respect to the decision, to the final decision from the authorities."
Although the gray whale was removed from the U.S. endangered species list two years ago and populations are said to be thriving worldwide, localized pollution along their 12,000-mile migration route and human overfishing continues to reduce the quality of its habitat, said Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of the late Jacques Cousteau.
"Here, California gray whales enjoy a safe refuge for mating and giving birth," Cousteau said. "The proposed project threatens to disrupt the delicate ecological balance among the mangroves, birds, whales and other species in the lagoon."
In 1954, the San Ignacio Lagoon was declared a sanctuary by the Mexican government. In 1988, the area surrounding the lagoon was set aside as the El Vizcaino Desert Biosphere Reserve. The area, of which the lagoon is a part, is a World Heritage Site.
Cousteau, upon return from a recent visit and study of the lagoon, said that the proposed project is "incompatible with the goal of preserving wildlife in and around the Sebastian Viscayno Biosphere Reserve and World Heritage Site, of which San Ignacio is an important part."
However, ESSA has said that the project is unlikely to harm this ecosystem, and will in fact draw new wildlife to the area through the creation of wetlands. From ESSA's perspective, San Ignacio is an ideal location for the what it considers to be "a model sustainable development project that takes renewable resources -- sea water, wind and energy from the sun -- to create a mineral vital to human life and in high demand around the world."
The proposed mine includes more than 116 square miles of evaporation ponds, pumps and processing works, a pier and improvements to the nearby town of Abreojos, which would supply the workforce of 200 needed to operate the facility.
Even though Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project for the Natural Resources Defense Council, doesn't believe that there is a current international need for a new salt mine, he said that "if economic development is the issue, there are many other locations where Mitsubishi may build their facility."
Reynolds said that the elements needed for a salt mine include lots of sun and salt flats, elements that can be found all over the world in places like Australia, France and, of course, Mexico.
However, ESSA says there are few places in the world suitable for salt production, and the conditions needed to produce salt by solar evaporation are extremely rare. To produce salt, ESSA says they need: vast, barren salt flats or desert plains to accommodate shallow ponds impermeable soils to hold water so it can evaporate high temperatures and windy conditions to speed evaporation safe access for ships a natural salt-water source.
Reynolds believes that ESSA has decided to locate the facility at San Ignacio because it has a plant 150 kilometers north of San Ignacio in the town of Guerrero Negro, which would make it cheaper than operating a mine at a more distant site.
"If we have learned anything in the last century," Cousteau said, "it is that many development activities have long-term environmental impacts far beyond the ability of humans to foresee, or to limit."
"The issue is much bigger than whales," he said. "My concern is that with the proposed workforce will come a population increase that will disrupt the delicate ecological balance of the area. There is potential for huge human impact on populations of fish, birds, geese and marine species as well as on the Mangrove forest on which so many species depend."
"I have come to the conclusion that major developments such as that planned for San Ignacio Lagoon are fundamentally incompatible with protecting wild places and species," Cousteau said. "It is time to err on the side of prudence, and not at the expense of the future."
ESSA says their experience in the similar facility in Guerrero Negro does not indicate any reduction in the fishing industry and it appears that the only change in tourism has been positive, based in part on improvements in the basic travel infrastructure and available services.
PROPOSED SALT PRODUCTION FACILITY IN SAN IGNACIO LAGOON
BAJA CALIFORNIA SUR, MEXICO
Natural History, Exploitation, Protection, and Current Status of the Gray Whale Population in Mexico
From a report by Dedina, S. and E.H. Young (1995). Conservation and development in the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) lagoons of Baja California Sur, Mexico., U.S. Marine Mammal Commission:81
Laguna San Ignacio is the only primary gray whale breeding/calving area in Mexico that remains superficially unaltered. In contrast, portions of Bahia Magdalena have been changed by industrial and mining activities, as well as the recent construction of a thermoelectric plant. The majority of local residents at both sites are employed in fisheries, which suffer from chronic over-harvesting and poaching.
While Laguna San Ignacio is formally protected as part of the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve and Bahia Magdalena remains unprotected, they face similar problems in terms of management structure, insufficient funding, and a shortage of on-site personnel, facilities, and equipment.
In both areas, problems related to gray whale tourism have emerged as a result of:
- overlapping government agency jurisdictions;
- permitting irregularities;
- non-uniform interpretation and enforcement of rules and regulations; and
- poor communication among user groups and regulatory agencies.
One issue of particular concern is that of how to better redistribute the economic benefits from gray whale tourism and elicit more active involvement of local communities in gray whale conservation programs.
Mexico has played an important role in protecting the gray whale population and the population's main wintering areas. The gray whale has become a powerful political symbol of Mexico's commitment to environmental protection. Three federal agencies are primarily responsible for on-site protection of gray whales and regulation of human activities in Laguna San Ignacio and Bahia Magdalena. These are the National Institute of Ecology (INE), Federal Attorney General's Office for Environmental Protection (Profepa), and the Secretariat of Fisheries (Pesca). In terms of restricting development activities, INE and Profepa are both legally obligated to work within the legislative framework provided by the 1988 General Ecology Law to review and prevent development projects that could cause adverse impacts to critical gray whale habitats in both areas. Under the 1992 Fisheries Law, Pesca is required to develop conservation programs for marine mammals. Article 254 bis of the Federal Penal Code prescribes up to six years in prison for individuals convicted of harassing or killing marine mammals. In Laguna San Ignacio, federal agencies have taken the lead role in habitat conservation. In Bahia Magdalena, the municipal government of Comondu has convened local residents, state, and federal agencies to discuss issues related to tourism development and conservation in the bay.
The greatest threats to the whales and their habitats are from:
- the development of a 52,150 ha salt production facility on the shore of Laguna San Ignacio;
- a proposed 2,000 ha tourist resort development at Bahia Magdalena; and
- uncontrolled gray whale tourism in the North Zone of Bahia Magdalena.
Strict review and monitoring of development and whale-tourism by INE, Profepa, and Pesca under existing environmental impact assessment regulations, and the review of project plans and tourism activities by non-governmental organizations, research institutions and scientists familiar with gray whale habitats, should help to minimize potentially adverse impacts.
Possible ways to improve conservation of gray whales and their habitats in Laguna San Ignacio and Bahia Magdalena are to:
- decentralize INE management structure, shifting administrative responsibilities to La Paz and establish on-site administrative facilities for the Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve;
- create a gray whale conservation advisory committee, based in Baja California Sur and made up of representatives from related government agencies, research institutions, and the local communities to review and provide advice on development and other activities that could affect gray whales and their habitat;
- increase user fees for whale-tourism permits to help support on-site gray whale habitat protection;
- increase efforts to emphasize local involvement, participation, and education during implementation of management programs by government agencies;
- establish simple and inexpensive interpretive centers at the lagoons;
- establish permanent operation bases for INE, Profepa, and Pesca staff at both sites;
- hold regular meetings between gray whale advisory committee representatives and all users of the lagoons and their resources;
- conduct annual, on-site training seminars through INE and other relevant federal agencies and research institutions for operators of whale-watching boats;
- encourage voluntary, self-imposed restrictions by whale-tourism operators and government agencies on the promotion of friendly-whale encounters;
- issue permits to operate and/or guide whale-watching boats only to locally-based, whale-tour operators that employ lagoon and bay residents;
- foster greater involvement by whale-tour operators that employ around the lagoons, through sponsorship of education programs and community development projects;
- implement a twenty-year mitigation monitoring program of the proposed salt production facility in Laguna San Ignacio and a tax on salt production to fund biosphere reserve research and conservation programs;
- establish a five-year research program in Bahia Magdalena to assess impacts of tourism on gray whale behavior and distribution;
- establish a gray whale refuge in the North Zone of Bahia Magdalena;
- promote an international symposium on marine mammal tourism by government agencies, research institutions, non-governmental agencies, and tourism operators; and
- map North American gray whale habitat through remote sensing and use of geographic information system (GIS) to provide detailed, comprehensive assessment of human impacts and habitat alteration.
FULL REPORT - Conservation and Development in the Gray Whale Lagoons of Baja California Sur, Mexico.
Date: Sat, 18 April, 1998
Dugong numbers falling
Dugong numbers were estimated to have fallen from between 3,700-4,000 a decade ago to between 1,500-2,000 this year, dugong expert and research fellow at James Cook University in Townsville, Dr Tony Preen, said.
Dr Preen was one of three dugong experts asked for advice by the Endangered Species subcommittee.
"We may never have a definitive figure for the number of dugongs living south of Cooktown 10 years ago," he said.
"But what is more alarming is the rapidity of the downward trendin the population number."
"If this was a problem affecting kangaroos, they could breed and build up their numbers within a year or two."
"But dugongs are slow-growing creatures and the attrition rate will take at least a decade to reverse."
Date: Tue, 21 April, 1998
Govt announces Great Australian Bight Marine Park
CANBERRA, AAP - Australia has the two largest marine parks in the world following the proclamation of the 1.7 million hectare Great Australian Bight Marine Park.
Environment Minister Robert Hill today announced the Governor-General had approved proclamation of the park, the second largest following the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.
The marine reserve includes a 20 nautical mile band from the boundary of the South Australian state reserve - proclaimed in September 1996 - to the edge of the exclusive economic zone.
About 382,500 ha along the coastline is reserved for mammal protection while a 1.3 million ha benthic protection area will protect sea floor wildlife including sponges, algae and sea fans.
"This is the first major marine park in any part of the southern ocean that seeks to protect such a large area of the ocean's floor," Senator Hill said in a statement.
"It will provide protection for an area that will be of enormous importance to the nation's scientific efforts to understand our marine environment."
Declaration of the park followed consultation in South Australia with the government, fishing and petroleum industries and conservation groups.
A detailed management plan for the area is still to be drawn up.
But Senator Hill said it would ensure protection of the endangered Southern Right Whale and the Australian Sea Lion while also allowing continuing commercial use of the area, including by the South Australian tuna industry.
"For example, the mammal protection zone of the park will generally be closed to boats during the whaling season," Senator Hill said.
"As the whale season falls outside the tuna fishing season I am confident that existing tuna operators will not be affected."
The lobster industry is not expected to be affected, but trawling which affects the sea floor will not be permitted in the benthic protection area.
Mining and petroleum extraction will be banned during the first management plan in the mammal protection area.
Minerals exploration will be banned in the whale season and only allowed at other times on a case-by-case basis under strict environmental review.
Exploration activities which do not disturb the sea floor's plants and animals will be allowed while exploration activities which would disturb the sea floor and extraction activities would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Senator Hill later told ABC radio the fishing industry was generally happy with management proposals and he believed the industry would continue work within the limits set.
"The only fishing industry that might be affected to a small extent is the shark industry and we are going to have further discussions with them," he said.
Discussions with the mining industry and government geologists suggested prospects for mining in the area were very slight, he said.
But the management plan would allow selective exploration for five years while information was gained on the best way to protect the area.
"The future would depend on the basis of our scientific knowledge and technical ability at the time," he said.
Date: Tue, 21 April, 1998
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority: Report...
M2 Communications - A report, released by the subcommittee established under the Commonwealth Endangered Species Act, has recognised that dugong populations in the Great Barrier Reef, south of Cooktown, have declined by over 50% in the last decade.
Commenting on the report today, the Chairman of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Dr Ian McPhail, said that this decline was not an acceptable situation, particularly in a World Heritage Area.
"On the basis of the Endangered Species Scientific groups advice, it is clear that the establishment of Dugong Protection Areas in the southern Great Barrier Reef was urgently required to ensure the survival of the dugong in this region", said Dr McPhail.
The Authority Chairman said that dugong numbers would be closely monitored and the sanctuaries carefully watched to determine whether the measures taken were sufficient to arrest the decline in dugong numbers.
"If this initiative does not achieve its objectives, it may be necessary to take further steps", Dr McPhail said.
The report expressly noted that "dugong are recognised as an important world heritage value in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area."
"Australia has a responsibility to ensure the protection of these values and that Australia should be proud to have established the world's first chain of dugong sanctuaries to discharge this responsibility."
The report also noted that, "one of the two major sources of non-natural mortality is gill-netting."
Date: Wed, 22 April, 1998
Whale Slaughter Returning to the U.S.A. on Oct 1, 1998
Sea Shepherd Ships Will Sail to Washington State to Save Gentle Giants
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has learned that the Makah Tribe of Western Washington state will begin hunting for gray whales on October 1, 1998.
"The tribe will kill one 'ceremonial' gray whale during the first five days of the hunt," reports Captain Paul Watson, president of Sea Shepherd.
"Following the butchering and distribution of the first whale, tribal whalers will proceed to harpoon and shoot as many as nine more whales in order land five animals before November."
"Already, this hunt has degenerated into a travesty of the Makah's claim of "cultural" revival," adds Sea Shepherd's Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu.
"The tribal whaling commission claims they're doing it to revitalize Makah traditions, yet now they're looking to recruit an Alaskan Eskimo whaling captain, the Makah's boats are equipped with Evinrude outboards, and their hunters wear camouflage military gear while conducting .50-caliber gunnery drills. There have been no traditional ritual preparations whatsoever -- which was allegedly the whole point. Any "traditional" aspect was lost the moment the tribe smelled the prospect of selling whale meat in Asia."
Makah hunters had asked the United States Coast Guard to exclude media and protesters from the killing grounds inside the Olympic Marine Sanctuary. The Coast Guard has declined the request and elected to take a neutral position. Sea Shepherd's local Whale Guardians Network will be on location during the October hunt.
The Sea Shepherds have maintained a vigil around Neah Bay since 1994, when the hunt was first announced, and have made repeated offers to debate the Makah's hunt plans in a public forum, which the tribe has ignored.
"Since this hunt impacts the entire Northwest region, the Makah Whaling Commission's silence is cavalier," said Kundu.
"We'll be on-hand to remind the Makah that U.S. citizens, other native Americans, and members of Canada's First Nations people will not permit whales to be killed in Washington waters."
Sea Shepherd will initially have two vessels on site at the start of the hunt, with a number of additional vessels scheduled to join the flotilla later. Background information about the Makah hunt, prior and current footage and photographs are available from Sea Shepherd's northwest coordinator or through the main office in Marina del Rey, California. Interviews with Sea Shepherd staff, Makah elders, whale-watching operators or regional legislators can be coordinated through the Sea Shepherd offices.
A limited number of spaces on board Sea Shepherd vessels are available for journalists.
Contact: Sea Shepherd at (310) 301-7325; fax (310) 574-3161
Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu (360) 658-6252
Website: https://seashepherd.org
Date: Thu, 23 April, 1998
Clinton Moves To Protect Whales
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The endangered northern right whale is gaining protection from potentially fatal encounters with ships, thanks to President Clinton.
Clinton instructed U.S. representatives to the International Maritime Organization to push a proposal to require large ships to obtain notice from the Coast Guard on the presence of right whales in certain waters along the United States' eastern shores before they can enter those waters.
The proposal will be presented to the IMO in July in London.
Collisions with ships are the primary threat to the whale, which has been hunted nearly to extinction. The North Atlantic Ocean is the whale's home -- and a high traffic zone for cruise ships, carriers, tankers, commercial fishing vessels and freighters.
"We believe this reporting system is essential if we are to ensure the survival of these majestic creatures," Clinton said.
There are currently about 300 such whales in waters off the coasts of Cape Cod, Georgia and Florida.
Date: Thu, 23 April, 1998
Twelve U.S. marine parks get attention
By ARIES KECK - UPI Science News
WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- Twelve U.S. marine sanctuaries will be getting additional attention in the form of a one-person submarine and other submersibles in the first sustained effort to study the deepest sections of those underwater preserves.
The $6 million project, announced at the National Geographic Society in Washington Thursday, will probe these national marine sanctuaries:
- American Samoa: Fagatele Bay. Featuring a quarter-mile (0.4 kilometres) of nearly 200 species of coral, it's nestled inside an eroded volcanic crater.
- California: Channel Islands. An area about 30 miles (48 kilometres) south of Santa Barbara, these Pacific Islands have a blend of warm southern and cold northern currents. The islands are key nesting sites for endangered brown pelicans, and more than 20 kinds of sharks roam the waters, drawn there by a feast of one of the world's outstanding concentrations of sea lions.
- California: Cordell Bank. On the very edge of the continental shelf, it stretches 20 miles (32 kilometres) offshore of the northern California coast.
- California: Monterey Bay. The largest marine sanctuary, it spans 350 miles (563 kilometres) with it's northernmost tip off the coast of San Francisco. It holds the nation's greatest diversity of marine life. One of America's largest ocean canyons -- a crevasse more than two miles deep (3.2 kilometres).
- California: Farallon Islands. North of San Francisco, just 30 miles (48 kilometres) beyond the Golden Gate Bridge, it hosts the largest concentration of breeding sea birds in the continental United States.
- Florida: Florida Keys. It encompasses over 3,600 square miles (932,395 hectares) of water that surround the Keys. It also includes America's very first underwater park, the John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, established in 1960 near Key Largo. The Key park features many different types of ocean terrain, from coral reefs and mangrove swamps, to sand flats and seagrass meadows.
- Georgia: Gray's Reef. The sanctuary covers 23-square-mile (37 kilometres), 20 miles (32 kilometres) off the coast of Georgia. It's a feeding place for loggerhead sea turtles.
- Hawaii: Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale. This marine sanctuary protects 1,300 square miles (336,698 hectares) of warm, shallow waters around the islands. Scientists figure that two-thirds of the estimated 8,000 North Pacific humpbacks mate and calve here.
- Massachusetts: Stellwagen Bank. The 800-square-mile (2,072 square-kilometres) sanctuary is located in the Massachusetts Bay.
- North Carolina: Monitor. This one-square-mile of water (2.59 square-kilometres) contains the wreck of a Civil War ironclad vessel the Monitor. The ship, lies in 230 feet (70 metres) of water off Cape Hatteras and is now home to dolphins. This was the first sanctuary designated in 1975.
- Texas/Louisiana: Flower Garden Banks. In this sanctuary is 100 miles (160,930 meters) off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, a coral reef rises like an oasis in the ocean. The park encompasses 56 square miles (145 square kilometres) of the reef.
- Washington: Olympic Coast. It's north of the bay town of Aberdeen, covering more than 3,300 square miles (8,546 square kilometres) of the Pacific Ocean. It's one of the premier areas of open ocean in the National Marine Sanctuary system and also showcases Native American artifacts, and shipwrecks off the coast of Washington state. The park is also part of a major thoroughfare for massive oil tankers.
Date: Mon, 27 April, 1998
Canada natives prepare controversial whale hunt
By Robert Melnbardis
MONTREAL, (Reuters) - A plan by Canadian aboriginals to hunt a bowhead whale in the Arctic this summer
will revive an ancient cultural tradition but promises to outrage conservationists seeking to protect the endangered species.
A committee of Inuit community leaders are putting the finishing touches to plans for the hunt of the massive whale with the bow-shaped skull to be launched from Pangnirtung, a remote community in Cumberland Sound on the eastern tip of Baffin Island.
"We are trying to finalize the hunt plan. This week, the committee will review the recommendations put forward by our working group," Joanasie Akumalik, executive director of the Qikiqtaaluk Wildlife Board, told Reuters in an interview from the Baffin Island town of Iqaluit.
The hunt could take place in late July if Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans awards the Inuit, formerly
known as Eskimos, a license to go ahead.
The bowhead whale is an ocean leviathan that can grow to a length of up to 60 feet (18.5 m) and weigh 80 tons (80,000-kg). Named for its massive bow-shaped skull, the mammal ranges through circumpolar Arctic waters, from the Bering Sea off Alaska through the Beaufort Sea to Canada's Baffin Bay and Davis Strait.
It is considered one of the most seriously endangered of the large whales, and has been protected under worldwide law since 1935. Valued for its thick blubber and rich oil, the bowhead was hunted to near extinction in the last century, mainly by non-native whalers.
Estimates are that less than 8,000 bowheads now roam the pristine frigid waters of the Arctic where once there were 50,000.
Conservationists are outraged by the Inuit hunt and the Canadian government's acquiescence to aboriginals' demands that they be allowed to revive a bowhead whaling tradition abandoned for 80 years.
"I think it is quite laughable that the federal government would list this animal as critically endangered and then turn around and allow a yearly hunting of its population," said Rick Smith, Canadian director of the International Fund for Animal
Welfare (IFAW).
The Inuit demanded the right to resume bowhead hunting on a regulated basis as part of their signing of a 1993 land-claims settlement that will create a new Canadian territory called Nunavut next April.
The Inuit hunt of a 45-ton bowhead in August 1996 provoked a backlash from animal rights activists and the U.S. government. The bowhead was harpooned and shot so many times, its lungs filled with blood and water, causing it to sink.
The whale's decaying body rose to the surface two days later, and was towed into port. Much of the carcass, however, was discarded rather than distributed to Inuit communities as planned.
The Inuit say this year's hunt will be better managed.
"We learned from the bad things and used the good things. The hunt will be much stricter this time around," said Ben Kovic, chairman of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board.
Still, conservationists say Canada could be criticized at a meeting in Oman next month of the International Whaling Commission, the body that regulates commercial whaling.
Last year, former U.S. Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor threatened to ban Canadian fish imports because of the 1996 bowhead cull. President Clinton also pressed Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien to bring Canada back into the whaling commission.
Canada quit the whaling commission in 1982 on the grounds it does not engage in commercial whaling. But animal rights activists say that allows Canada to sidestep pressure to stem aboriginal hunting of endangered species like the bowhead.
"When Canada withdrew from the IWC, they set themselves up as a pirate whaling nation," said Paul Watson, co-founder of Greenpeace and now the head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
The Inuit argue that reviving the bowhead hunt is important culturally and spiritually for the Inuit, who hunt the much smaller beluga and narwhal whales for subsistence.
"It is very important. It brings back our culture that was taken away by whalers," said Kovic, whose grandfather was an American whaler who settled in Canada's Arctic.
But conservationists like Watson worry that reviving the Inuit hunt will set a dangerous precedent. Whaling nations such as Japan and Norway could use similar arguments about protecting cultural heritage as a pretext to increase whale hunting.
Date: Thu, 30 April, 1998
160,000-plus sign Anti-Whaling Petition
Wellington, NZPA - A World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) petition to try to stop "scientific" whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary has 161,000 signatures so far.
WWF New Zealand conservation director Simon Towle said in a statement that the petition would be presented to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Oman by New Zealand's IWC commissioner Jim McLay.
"We are absolutely thrilled by the number of signatures," Mr Towle said.
"The support, encouragement and depth of feeling for the cause by New Zealanders is incredible."
People from throughout the world had signed the petition, including New Zealand celebrities Sir Peter Blake, Lucy Lawless and Sam Neill.
Date: Mon, 04 May, 1998
Norway duty free shop skirts whale meat export ban
OSLO, (Reuters) - Whale "beef" and sausages are openly on sale in a duty-free shop at Oslo airport despite
Norway's self-imposed ban on exports of whale meat.
Norway, which resumed commercial whaling in 1993 in defiance of a worldwide moratorium, has constantly insisted that whaling is part of deep-rooted coastal traditions and that it has no plans for exports.
Yet whale sausages and meat were on sale on Monday at a shop in the departure lounge at Oslo airport. Dried "whale beef" in slices sells for 450 crowns ($60) per kilo.
Officials at the Norwegian Fisheries Ministry, which has turned down whalers' requests to export minke whale products ranging from meat and blubber to skeletons for museums, said they were unaware of the airport sales.
"Our policy is to turn down every request for export permits," Halvard Johansen, a director of the Fisheries
Ministry with responsibility for whaling, told Reuters. "We have not granted any export licences."
In any case it is illegal to import whale meat into many countries. Owners of the shop at Oslo airport could not be immediately contacted for comment.
Norwegian whalers began their 1998 hunt at the weekend, with a quota of 671 minke whales.
($ - 7.3888 crowns)
Date: Mon, 04 May, 1998
Norway's Annual Whale Hunt Begins
By DOUG MELLGREN - Associated Press Writer
OSLO, Norway (AP) -- Whaling crews have begun their yearly hunt, quietly putting to sea to avoid the anti-whaling protests that have marked the start of earlier seasons.
Government officials said that this year's hunt quota is 671 minke whales divided among about 50 boats and that the season opened Sunday and lasts into July.
"We can say that the first boat has already left and that no whales have been taken yet. That is all," Per Olav Rolandsen, of the Norwegian Fish Sales Cooperative, said by telephone from the Lofoten Islands above the Arctic Circle, the center of Norway's whaling industry.
Norway sparked outrage from many governments and animal activists when it resumed its commercial whale hunt in 1993, in the face of a 1986 ban by the International Whaling Commission.
Minke, the smallest of the baleen whales, can be up to 30 feet long.
IWC scientists acknowledged last year that the minke whale population is large enough that the Norwegian hunt does not endanger their survival, while most other whale species are still considered close to extinction.
Opponents say the estimates are uncertain, that whales should never be hunted and that harpooning is a cruel hunting method.
Others, including many governments, say Norway should respect the ban in the spirit of international cooperation even though it is not legally binding.
In previous years, activists chained themselves to whaling boats, tried to burn or sink the vessels and pursued them in the ocean.
Only one whaling boat was sabotaged last year, and that was before the season began.
Date: Tue, 05 May, 1998
Oslo airport shop halts duty free whale meat sales
Oslo, (Reuters) - A shop selling whale meat duty free to travellers at Oslo airport halted sales on Tuesday after criticisms that it was violating Norway's self-imposed ban on whale exports.
A spokesman for the Salmon House shop said the sales -- of dried whale "beef" and sausages -- had begun in recent months due to a misunderstanding of Norwegian export rules.
Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993 in defiance of a worldwide moratorium but the government says it will not allow whale exports. Oslo justifies whaling as part of domestic coastal traditions.
The Salmon House shop also sells other Norwegian delicacies like smoked salmon, dried cod, elk and reindeer meat.
Norwegian whalers began their 1998 hunt at the weekend, with a quota of 671 minke whales.
Date: Thu, 7 May, 1998
Makah's Congressmen Skeptical of Tribal Whaling Bid
Rep. Norm Dicks urges "less controversial alternatives"
The efforts by the U.S. government to secure permission for a Washington state Indian tribe to revive the practice of hunting the California gray whale have become increasingly controversial over the past year. Now, Congressman Norm Dicks, the representative for the Makah's district, has advised the tribe not to go whaling this fall.
In a recent letter, Congressman Dicks (D-WA) advises Makah chairman Bender Johnson that to continue to insist on a tribal right to kill whales in the waters of Neah Bay, Washington, "may not be a prudent course to pursue" and warns of "strong opposition displayed by the environmental community" and the likelihood of "a strong outcry from the general public." Dicks advises Johnson to "weigh the benefits of pursuing whaling against the consequences...and give consideration to pursuing other alternatives that will benefit the Tribe's economic and social interests, that are a great deal less controversial."
In a conversation with Mike Bagley, Dicks' Environmental Specialist, Sea Shepherd Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu learned that the Congressman has always opposed the hunt but has tried to be diplomatic in respect to his relations with the tribe. "From speaking with Congressman Dicks' aide, the fact that a Neah Bay Congressman is skeptical about the hunt is clear evidence that the region's tax-paying, voting constituents are making their concerns known," Kundu said.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has commitments from 22 private vessels to intervene between the Makah hunters and the whales should the hunt commence.
"We're adding to that number daily," said Captain Paul Watson, President of Sea Shepherd. "If they try for a whale, we'll have everything out there from zodiacs to large private yachts, under the banner of the WHALE GUARDIANS NETWORK, Sea Shepherd's whaling watchdog group in Washington. We suggest the Makah to listen to their Congressman."
Dicks is the sixth of Washington's 9-member Congressional delegation to go on record as opposing the Makah whale hunt. Last October, 44 members of Congress urged the International Whaling Commission to deny the Makah's request.
"Hopefully, the Makah will get the message that the people of the United States do not want to see any new whale hunts in our coastal waters," said Watson.
Sea Shepherd at (310) 301-7325; fax (310) 574-3161
Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu (360) 658-6252
Website: https://SeaShepherd.org
Date: Fri, 8 May, 1998
Brazil to propose South Atlantic whale sanctuary
BRASILIA, (Reuters) - Brazil will propose the creation of a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic at a meeting next week of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the country's Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
"With the proposal to create a South Atlantic sanctuary, the idea is to guarantee the protection of various species of large whales in the mating areas and stimulate scientific research," the ministry said in a statement.
Brazil, which banned whaling in 1987, receives large numbers of whales, including Antarctic whales, and has turned their visits to its vast coastline into a tourist attraction.
The IWC was due to meet between May 11 and 20 in Oman, the statement said.
Date: Mon, 11 May, 1998
Whalers 'Hid the Toll of Pacific Whale Catches'
by Nick Nuttall - London TIMES Environment Correspondant
JAPANESE and former Soviet Union whalers killed many thousands more of their quarry than official figures claim, scientists said yesterday.
A meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Muscat, the capital of Oman, was told that 70,000 sperm whales were slaughtered illegally by the Soviet deep-sea fleet in the Pacific between 1949 and 1971.
Russian scientists admitted that they had been sworn to secrecy by the KGB and Soviet officials. The extra kills were hidden by so-called double booking.
Toshio Kasuya, a former fisheries scientist for the Japanese Government, alleged that his country's fleet had killed large numbers of pregnant sperm whales in the Pacific in defiance of IWC rules. He claimed that Japanese whalers, who were allowed to take pregnant female sperm whales caught accidentally, had actually targeted them. Up to 40 per cent of the catch were pregnant females, rather than the 11 per cent officially claimed.
A proposal from Michael Canny, the Irish whaling commissioner, calls for a global sanctuary in return for a limited approval of coastal whaling in a nation's waters.
But Allan Thornton, of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, said:
"These extraordinary revelations prove commercial whale-hunting cannot be controlled. The whaling industry has deliberately lied about the numbers of whales killed."
Britain is leading opposition to the Irish move, backed by the United States and Australia.
Date: Tue, 12 May, 1998
WWF Calls for Protection of Whales
GENEVA (May 12) XINHUA - Over 18,000 whales have been killed since 1985 despite the international efforts to conserve them, according to a new report released Tuesday by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
The report, Great Whales in the Wild, is in preparation for this year's meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to be held in Oman on May 16-20.
The report claimed that most of the 18,000 whales were killed by Russia, Japan and Norway although the international moratorium on whaling came into effect in 1985-1986.
"Today, six out of the eleven great whales species are considered to be endangered or vulnerable," said the WWF report.
The northern right whale is now the most endangered of the large whales, with no evidence of recovery.
The blue whale, the largest mammal to have ever lived on earth, shows no recovery at all in the Southern Hemisphere, with around 500 left.
"The IWC must regain control over the management of whaling," said Elizabeth Kemf, co-author of the report. "Other urgent priority actions that can help save the whales include a strict ban on international trade in whale meat, creation of more whale sanctuaries and marine protected areas, significant reduction of marine pollution and making the existing Southern Ocean Whale Sancturary safer for the whales."
Date: Tue, 12 May, 1998
Illegal Whale Trade Evidence Found
By RAY LILLEY - Associated Press Writer
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- Taking surreptitious samples from sushi restaurants and supermarket freezers, two sleuthing New Zealand scientists have uncovered strong evidence of an international black market in whale meat in Japan and South Korea.
Tests conducted by the Auckland University researchers revealed that a wide variety of whale meat is still on sale, despite a 12-year-old international moratorium on whale hunting.
A piece of meat from a Japanese fish market, for example, was found to be from a type of humpback whale found only in Mexican coastal waters.
"How can a Mexican whale turn up on a Japanese dinner plate? There is no evidence Mexican whales ever migrate into Japanese waters," said one of the scientists, Gina Lento.
The scientists also found southern hemisphere sei whale, Bryde's whale, North Pacific minke, fin and blue whale meat on sale in Japanese markets, up to 30 years after they were protected from hunting.
Japan is the only country exempted from the 1986 International Whaling Commission moratorium on whale hunting, but is restricted to hunting only for research. Meat from the whales killed for this purpose often is sold at fish markets, however.
Norway also holds an annual hunt, in defiance of the moratorium.
South Korea has no research hunting permits, and whale meat can be sold legally in markets only if caught accidentally on the coast along with legal fish.
The scientists' work bolsters claims by conservation groups, independent researchers and some governments that there is a growing international trade in illegal whale meat.
Their report, delivered to the Whaling Commission's scientific committee last week, will go to the full commission in Oman this week.
The report says there is a "surprising diversity" of whale meat in commercial markets, some of which is of questionable legality.
"The evidence is strongly circumstantial at present, the smoking gun, if you will," Lento told The Associated Press. "We are moving toward a forensic approach that will provide the bullet in the body and the hand that pulled the trigger."
An officials in Japan criticized the findings, while a counterpart in South Korea denied that illegal whale meet was sold there.
Yoo Min-sok, with South Korea's Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, acknowledged that about 100 whales were caught accidentally last year and sold on the local market. But he said there were no reports of an illegal whale harvest.
The "report is not worth our serious attention, and we regret that a report that is scientifically groundless was presented," said Masatsugo Nagano, an official with the Japanese ministry in charge of whaling.
However, Yasuo Takase, director of fisheries for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, conceded that there have been some cases of illegal sales of whale meat in Japan but said such cases were rare.
In the past four years, Lento and colleague Scott Baker have made two trips a year to Japan and South Korea. They hired local investigators posing as buyers to obtain samples.
Using a portable laboratory, the scientists used DNA testing and a whale DNA database to identify the types of whale meat being sold in the two countries.
They also used DNA profiling to identify whether separate samples came from the same whale.
"If we find samples from two countries are the same, that will be direct evidence of smuggling," Lento said.
In a similar case in California, fish and game officials recently used a newly developed technique for typing deer DNA to show that 200 pounds of venison from a man's freezer came from more deer than the hunting limit allows. The technique, among other things, can determine whether meat is from a male or female, and how many deer it came from.
Further work is needed to show whether whale meat being sold in Japan, South Korea and other markets actually comes from areas of the globe where whaling is banned, Lento said.
"We don't have direct, definitive proof. But our DNA evidence suggests there are some very sticky questions ahead," she said.
Lento and Baker are supported by grants from the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the Auckland University Research Council. In addition to providing their findings to the Whaling Commission, they publish their results in academic journals.
Date: Thu, 14 May, 1998
Centre for Marine Conservation Announces...
WASHINGTON, May 14 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) announced a four-pronged plan for the 33 member-nations attending the upcoming 50th Anniversary meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).
CMC is calling on the IWC to strengthen and expand the international regime to protect and recover the world's threatened and endangered whales. The IWC meeting is in Muscat, Oman and runs from May 16-20.
Roger E. McManus, president of CMC said, "For 25 years CMC has been working to protect the world's whales -- they are not saved yet. There is still much to be done and so we are calling for the adoption of our four point plan. Despite the IWC's efforts and its adoption more than ten years ago, of a moratorium on commercial whaling, most populations of baleen whales have not recovered to even half of their pre-whaling-era size." Nevertheless, McManus noted, "If the IWC did not exist the status of these whales would be considerably worse. CMC will continue to attend the IWC meetings and monitor its actions to ensure that these magnificent whales are fully protected."
The CMC action plan calls upon nations acting collectively through the IWC, and individually to protect and recover whale populations by:
- Maintaining the current moratorium on commercial whaling; -- Ending all "research whaling" by Japan by closing the loopholes in the International Convention on Regulation of Whaling that allow nations to continue commercial whaling under the guise of scientific research;
- Expanding the commercial whaling moratorium to include all toothed whales such as the beaked whales, bottlenose whales, killer whales, and pilot whales which are currently killed in coastal "small-type" whaling; ("small-type" is the technical term for small-scale coastal whaling).
- Identifying and protecting important whale breeding and feeding habitats, such as the calving lagoons for Pacific gray whales located in Baja, California and threatened by a proposed salt processing facility to be built by Mitsubishi Corp.
Nina Young, CMC's research scientist for marine mammals said, "Habitat protection is critical to the recovery of these threatened and endangered whales. Nations must take action to protect these habitats. Joint efforts by the IWC, United States and Mexico provide an excellent example of how collective action can lead to effective whale conservation. These parties adopted protective measures and the gray whale recovered. Mexico's efforts to protect its calving and breeding habitat contributed significantly to the conservation of this whale species, but development of this habitat still threatens the gray whale's existence." Lori Williams, CMC's vice president for programs who is attending the IWC meeting in Muscat as a non-governmental organization observer said, "It is vitally important that the IWC extend the moratorium to other whale species such as beaked whales and pilot whales that are currently being killed in 'small-type' coastal whaling operations. If the IWC is to prevent the overexploitation of these whale species, it must recognize and include these whales under the moratorium and pursue conservation and management measures."
The Center for Marine Conservation began its efforts to end worldwide whale killing in 1976 by establishing the Whale Protection Fund (WPF). Using scientific data and raising public awareness has been key to CMC's campaign against commercial whaling. The sperm whale's recovery is among CMC's success stories. More than ten years after the IWC stopped setting quotas for sperm whales (due, in part, to the findings of WPF-sponsored scientists) sperm whale populations have rebounded to nearly 982,300 animals -- approximately 70 percent of its pre-whaling population size.
CMC's public awareness campaign, scientific data and monographs, and its commissioner guides contributed to the IWC establishing a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986 and maintaining that moratorium every year since its initial review in 1990. The IWC will discuss topics such as the moratorium on commercial whaling, scientific/research whaling, "small-type" whaling, and Norway's
commercial whaling in contravention of IWC recommendations.
Date: Fri, 15 May, 1998
Greenland whaling quota seen unchallenged at IWC
COPENHAGEN, (Reuters) - Greenland's whale catch quota of slightly over 200 per year is unlikely to be a hot topic at the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) annual meeting, Denmark's Ritzau news agency reported on Thursday.
The IWC meeting will be held in Oman from May 16-20.
"The Danish-Greenland delegation does not expect Greenland to be a topic for debate this year," the agency said.
Greenland is an autonomous province under the Danish crown. Its annual catch quota -- set under special rules for indigenous peoples -- was set for many years ahead at last year's IWC meeting.
The whaling season is currently in full swing in the Arctic waters around Greenland and Norway.
The independently fixed Norwegian catch quota of 671 whales this year was well below one percent of the North Atlantic whale population, Ritzau quoted a Danish delegation member as saying.
Denmark had no objections to the whaling activities of Norway, the delegation member said. Norway sets its own catch quota in defiance of an international moratorium.
Denmark was positive about an Irish proposal to limit whaling for scientific purposes while allowing commercial
catches only inside a 200 nautical mile offshore limit, it said.
Date: Sat, 16 May, 1998
Environment group opens international whaling meet
MUSCAT, (Reuters) - The International Whaling Commission (IWC) opened its 50th annual meeting in Oman on
Saturday amid calls by an animal rights group for the use of sanctions to enforce an international moratorium on whaling.
Campaign Whale said in a report issued in London that an existing ban had so far failed to stop Norway and Japan from reaping huge profits from the slaughter of the protected mammals.
"The UK government must take the lead and press for greater enforcement of the whaling ban," it said. "It is time to end this obscene industry once and for all."
The official Omani News Agency (ONA) quoted IWC Chairman Michael Canny, in his opening session remarks, as saying that the five-day meeting in Muscat provided an opportunity to review the commission's failures and successes over the past half century.
Omani officials said 300 delegates from 33 countries would discuss the world's whale population and international
violations of the moratorium.
The failure to stop Norway and Japan from hunting whales will also be discussed at the meeting, the IWC said.
Campaign Whale said Ireland had proposed to the IWC that countries should be allowed to carry out whale hunting within coastal waters of up to 200 miles (320 km) offshore.
Andy Ottaway, campaign director of Campaign Whale, said the plan would give Norway, Japan and others "licence to slaughter more whales than ever."
The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society agreed, calling the Irish proposal a "smokescreen" that would legitimise whaling.
Norwegian whalers began this year's hunting season a week ago, with the highest quota since the country ignored the IWC moratorium and resumed commercial catches in 1993. They will harpoon 671 minke whales in the northwest Atlantic, up from 580
last year.
Norway and Japan together are expected to kill over 1,200 whales this year, the group said.
The price of whale meat in Norway means a dead whale is worth about $6,000: a total of $4 million between the 36 whaling boats that are licensed for this year, it estimated.
A raft of other non-government organisations, including the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF), is pressuring both Japan and Norway to abide by IWC rules.
Japan has harpooned more than 3,600 minke whales for "scientific purposes" since the moratorium was declared in
1985-86, the Swiss-based WWF reported recently.
Denmark's Ritzau news agency on Thursday said that Greenland's whale catch quota of slightly over 200 per year was unlikely to be a hot topic at the meeting.
"The Danish-Greenland delegation does not expect Greenland to be a topic for debate this year," Ritzau said. Greenland is an autonomous province under the Danish crown. Its annual catch quota, set under special rules for indigenous peoples, was set
for many years ahead at last year's IWC meeting.
The whaling season is currently in full swing in the Arctic waters around Greenland and Norway.
Date: Sat, 16 May, 1998
Commerical Whaling Eyed by Group
By SAEED AL-NAHDI
MUSCAT, Oman (AP) -- The International Whaling Commission opened its 50th annual meeting Saturday in Oman, hoping to solve an issue that has deeply divided the organization -- whether to allow commercial whaling.
During his opening speech, IWC Chairman Michael Canny said the organization was going through "a critical period" that required its members to resolve their differences by keeping an open mind and working toward compromise.
"The thrust of the organization has changed over the years from a time when most members were native whalers to a point where the majority of the members are more concerned with the conservation of whales," Canny said.
During the five-day meeting, Ireland is expected to present a proposal aimed at breaking the longstanding deadlock between whaling and non-whaling nations over whale protection. Under the plan, commercial whaling would be allowed in coastal waters but banned elsewhere.
In 1986, the commission banned commercial whaling worldwide, but traditional hunters were allowed to continue killing whales for subsistence.
Pro-whaling nations, including Norway and Japan, have welcomed the plan to allow commercial whaling. But anti-hunting members, including the United States and Australia, are firmly against it.
Ireland, which does not seek to hunt whales itself, fears the conflict could cause the 39-nation organization to collapse.
Pro-whaling nations complain that the IWC, set up in 1948 to manage whale hunts, has become an organization devoted to preventing the hunts. They argue that some types of whales are so plentiful they can be hunted for profit.
But organizations like the U.S.-based Humane Society International disagree, saying a return to commercial whaling would "devastate" the whale population.
The society, which is attending the Oman conference, issued a statement, saying the commission should encourage more countries to set up whale sanctuaries as others have done, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Brazil.
Despite the commission's moratorium, whales are still being hunted. The World Wildlife Fund said in a report issued last week that more than 18,000 whales have been killed since the moratorium on whaling took effect 12 years ago.
Continued whaling, both legal and illegal, and an increase in other threats continue to account for whale deaths despite the moratorium, said the WWF report.
Other threats include drowning in fishing nets, collision with ships, noise pollution and harassment by tour boats, according to the WWF.
Six of the world's eleven species of great whale are classified as endangered or vulnerable.
Date: Fri, 21 May, 1998
Return to Factory Ship Whaling One Step Closer
Sydney, - The return to a kind of whaling that brought some whale populations to the brink of extinction moved a step closer at the final day of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Oman.
Japan secured a proposal for studies which would prepare the way for factory whaling of the little known Bryde's whales in the North Pacific. Bryde's whale meat is currently on sale in Japan and Korea but both countries deny these whales are caught in their waters.
"These proposed studies are totally unnecessary because they assume that we need to kill whales. The IWC should be supporting studies which provide greater knowledge and understanding of whale populations and how to better conserve them." said Greenpeace Australia campaigner, Denise Boyd.
In an alarming development it was rumoured that Japan wants to form a breakaway whaling organisation with Russia, China and South Korea.
"If these reports are true and Russia starts whaling again we could see a return to the days of factory ship whaling when tens of thousands of whales are killed annually,' said Ms Boyd.
The proposed new body, to carry out whaling in the Northwestern Pacific, would completely undermine the authority of the International Whaling Commission. Although news of its formation has been reported in the Japanese media, Japan has refused to give details to the Commission.
In a surprise move, the Australian Government offered to host the International Whaling Commission in the year 2000. Greenpeace sees this as a great opportunity to ensure the ideal protection for whales - a global whale sanctuary.
"In 1997 the Australian Government pledged to lead the international community toward a global sanctuary for whales, so the year 2000 should now be the target," said Ms Boyd.
"Greenpeace believes the IWC should greet the new millennium by shifting its focus towards international whale conservation, and leave the commercial killing of whales behind as a relic of the 20th century," said Boyd.
For further information contact Denise Boyd 02 9261 4666 or 04111 79478.
Date: Fri, 22 May, 1998
Norway's Annual Whale Slaughter Begins Again
Don't Buy Norway's Goods Or Services Until Norway Stops Whaling
(& tell your supplier just why you wont buy)
For more information on Norwegian whaling, and how to protest, go to: http://members.aol.com/breachenv/home.htm ('Read & React - Hall Of Shame')
DON'T GET ANGRY - GET EVEN
NORWEGIAN PRODUCTS STINK! - OF WHALE'S BLOOD
Newspaper: Fiskeribladet Journalist: Roy Hardbakk Date: 22/05/98 Translator: Siri Martinsen
Comments:
Good Start In The South - Bad Weather In The North
"This was a great start to the season. In 3 days in the North Sea we caught 10 minke whales. Now we believe we will cath our quota of 40 animals. It may be tough, but we will be happy to catch half our quota", says Jan Olsen from the 51 foot whaling vessel, "Villduen" from Fredrikstad. Up to now 35 whales, 24 in the North Sea, have been taken ... The weather has been good in the south, but the opposite in the north... Not all vessels have left to hunt yet, this is due to the limited subsidies for inspectors. "Well payed sleeping", it is claimed by a whaler... The first whale caught by "Villduen" was ca. 1800 kilos, and a total of 10 tons was delivered to Lista Fishexport A/S. This is the only recipient of whale meat in the south of Norway. Petter Kjżlleberg, manager of the company, does not think he will have problems selling the meat... The prize for whale meat is approximately 30 NOK per kilo... The next vessel on its way from the North Sea is "Fiskebank" which will deliver to a recipient in Normżre ... "We are very happy that Petter Kjżlleberg started receiving whale meat again", says Jan Olsen from "Villduen"...
Newspaper: Nordlys Journalist: Gunnar GrytÅšs Date: 19/05/98 Translator: Siri Martinsen
Comments:
30 Minke Whales Shot
25-30 minke whales are shot after two weeks of hunting. The vessel with the best results have caught nine animals in the North Sea. This catch will now be delivered in South-Norway... The 35 vessels that participate in the hunting have a quota of 671 animals in the North Sea, Jan Mayen, the Norwegian coast and the Barents Sea. The conditions until now have been best in the North Sea... For the following days the weather forecast predicts bad weather. Nevertheless the number of animals caught will increase as many vessels start their hunting this week. Not until the beginning of June, will all the boats be whaling.
Newspaper: Nordlys Journalist: NTB Date: 18-05-98 Translator: Sonja Krag
Will Bastesen Be Allowed To Export Whale Meat?
The Ministry of Fisheries is having trouble finding legal grounds to forbid Steinar Bastesen to sell whale products to Iceland. The result may be that Norway may have to change its restrictive approach to the ban on whale exports. In october last year the member of parliament and ex-whaler Steinar Bastesen applied to the Ministry of Fisheries to export 100 tons of whale blubber to Iceland. The Icelandic Jonson chain wanted to sell the blubber from their numerous supermarkets, and have recieved an import license to Iceland. Previous applications to export from Norway have been denied, but now the situation is new as it is the first time that there exists an import lisence. To forbid such an export may be in contradiction to obligations Norway has to EFTA and WTO. The Ministry of Fisheries has asked the Ministry of Foriegn Affairs for legal assistance. All correspondence is being held confidencial... Steinar Bastesen says he is willing to follow this case through the legal system...
Newspaper: Fiskeribladet Journalist: Dag Eivind GangÅšs Date: 14-05-98 Translator: Sonja Krag
Comments:
First Whale Of The Year Taken
On Monday the first whale, and at present only whale, of the year was shot. It was taken in the Varanger area and weighed about 1 500 kilos. Until now only four vessels have left port, one on Monday and two others on Tuesday. The main fleet will probably not leave until after 17th May (Norways independence day). The reason for the delay is probably the new system of inspectors onboard the vessels. The costs of having inspectors onboard are only granted for 6-7 weeks. Beyond that time, the whalers must cover the costs themselves. Thus most of the vessels will wait until they are reasonably sure that they will catch their quota within the limited/subsidised time. This years quota is for 671 animals, but the number of vessels the quota is to be shared amongst will not be publicised due to the new security precautions. For the same reason the Norwegian Raw Fish Organisation does not wish to reveal which boat took the first whale.
Newspaper: Nordlys Journalist: Gunnar GrytÅšs Date: 02/05/98 Translator: Anton Krag
Comments:
Secrecy Surounds Whaling Vessels And Recipients
The whaling vessel Senet from Żstfold is the only one of 35 to receive threats of actions during this years whaling. For security reasons all lists of names of whaling vessels and recipients are kept secret ... There are 22 recipients accepting whale meat and blubber this year ... The Norwegian Raw Fish Organisation does not think it will be a problem to sell the ca. 900 tons of whale meat this year ... The Ministry of Fisheries will spend over 1,2 million NOK to get rid of the "blubber mountain" of 420 tons ... This consists of 3 NOK a kilo in subsidies in order to use the blubber to produce whale oil and other products for the local market...
Newspaper: Fiskeribladet Journalist: Harald Berg Date: 17-04-98 Translator: Sonja Krag
Comments:
More Expensive Whale Meat
"Unless one finds a solution to the blubber problem, my advice to the Norwegian Raw Fish Organisation is that meat and blubber are kept apart when the price of whale products, within the next days, are decided. In any case I expect a minimum price for whale meat of 30 NOK per kilo", says Jan Kristiansen from the Norwegian Small Type Whaling Organisation, after the whale meeting with the Ministry of Fisheries recently. During this meeting a number of aspects of whaling were discussed. "The whalers were able to forward their views, and we have a specific impression that the authorities listened to our arguments and are working to find solutions. Our most important objection is that this meeting should have been held a long time ago and not in the last minute", says Kristiansen. The meeting made clear that the proposed quotas were not final. There may be changes as some of the vessels with quotas may for some reason not participate. From the whalers side, it was pointed out that almost half the vessels have had their quotas reduced, whilst others, eg. the two vessels going to jan Mayen, have recieved a quota of 33 animals each...
Information courtesy of:
NOAH - for dyrs rettigheter
Osterhausgate 12, 0183 Oslo
NORWAY
David Smith
Campaign Director
Breach Marine Protection UK
Tel/Fax: +44 1405 769375 email: BreachEnv@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/breachenv/home.htm
Popular Resolution on Abolition of Inhumane Commercial Slaughter of Whales - Sign-On Petition: http://members.aol.com/breachenv/popreslt.htm
Rapid Env. Disaster - Response. & Rescue (R.E.'D.R.Res) Hotline: 0973 898282
http://members.aol.com/breachenv/redrres.htm
Date: Thurs, 28 May, 1998
Makahs Say Animal Rights Group is Lying about Whale Meat Deal
by Paul Shukovsky P-I Reporter
Makah tribal officials, who are working to resurrect traditional whale hunting this fall after a lapse of seven decades, yesterday accused an animal rights group of a "malicious lie" in an attempt to discredit the tribe.
The Makah, who hunted whales for thousands of years from their home on the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula, have faced fierce opposition in their efforts to renew their culture through the whaling tradition. Among the opponents is Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has scuttled whaling vessels and vandalized whaling equipment around the world in an attempt to stop marine mammal hunts.
Sea Shepherd recently accused Makah representatives of negotiating with businesses in Japan for the
sale of whale meat. The Makah have signed an agreement with the U.S. pledging not to sell whale meat.
"To continue to allege or insinuate that the Makahs are secretly trying to sell whale meat is a malicious lie", said tribal chairman Ben Johnson.
"Sea Shepherd and other anti-whaling groups, it seems to us, are trying to incite their supporters into contributing millions of dollars into their coffers by attacking us and our culture. It's time for this to stop."
Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, in a meeting with law enforcement officials earlier this month,
repeated the allegation about Makah representatives being in Japan to negotiate the sale of meat. But Makah tribal Councilman Keith Johnson said yesterday he was recently in Japan to develop markets for Makah-caught black cod, halibut and sea urchin.
Councilman Johnson said he was furious when he heard the Sea Shepherd allegation.
"There was never any consideration of sale of whale meat or any other mammal meat. The subject was never mentioned by me or anyone else in our discussions with the Japanese."
Fred Lane, executive director of the American Indian Trade Development Council headquartered in Seattle, was on the trip with Johnson and confirmed his account.
Watson yesterday said his information came from a tribal member he refused to identify. Watson said the sale of whale meat was discussed at a tribal council meeting and was reflected in council minutes. But when asked if he had reviewed the minutes, Watson said,
"I haven't seen them."
(Copyright 1998 © Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Date: Thu, 04 Jun, 1998
"Mermaid-like" Mammal under Close Watch in Gulf Waters
by Luke Phillips
DUBAI, (AFP) - The dugong, an endangered marine mammal believed to be at the origin of the legend of mermaids, is being closely monitored in southern Gulf waters, environmentalists said Thursday.
"The dugong is a flagship species in terms of our marine environment", said the Abu Dhabi-based Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency (ERWDA).
"The dugong population is in worldwide decline but we feel that our study will help its survival in the Gulf", it said.
Coinciding with the UN's declaration that the theme for UN World Environment Day on Friday is "Save Our Seas", ERWDA is carrying out a survey on the dugong helped by leading expert Tony Preen of Australia.
Preen already carried out a first such survey in the UAE in 1986.
He will assist ERWDA in designing a long-term research programme on the dugong that involves seasonal monitoring of the sea creature over the next three to five years.
"We will try to follow as closely as possible Preen's 1986 survey, as this gives us a second data point. There have been no other follow-up surveys outside Australia," said the director of ERWDA's marine environmental research centre, Walter Pearson.
The dugong, known unflatteringly in the Gulf as "baqr al-bahr" or sea cow, can reach up to three metres (10 feet) in length and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) in weight. The mammal is part of the sea folklore in the UAE, a desert country rich in seafaring tradition. Dugong bones have been discovered in tombs dating back to 2700 B.C. near Abu Dhabi.
It is the only marine mammal to live off vegetation, feeding exclusively on sea-grass.
The dugong, found in parts of the Indian and Pacific oceans, has seen its numbers decimated by fishermen hunting it for its meat and oils which are considered delicacies in some countries.
Preen's first survey estimated the population of dugong in the Arabian Gulf at around 7,000. Half of the number were in the waters of the UAE, whose leader President Sheikh Zayed ibn Sultan al-Nahayan is a keen environmentalist and where hunting of the mammal is banned.
"The population resident in the shallow waters of the western UAE is believed to be one of the largest surviving populations anywhere in the world", said ERWDA.
However, the animals' migratory nature makes it difficult to number them accurately.
"Ideally the survey would be a regional study. The mapping of the number and distribution of the dugong should really involve all Arabian Gulf countries, as the dugong does not respect boundaries", explained Pearson.
A long-term goal of ERWDA is to establish a marine-protected area in the UAE.
"This would offer us more accurate scientific information on the dugong, sea-grass beds and also turtles in the area," he said.
Pearson said the threat to the dugong worldwide comes not only from over-hunting but also from the scarcity of sea-grass beds, which also provide essential food and nursery areas for turtles.
"The situation in the UAE is quite positive", said Pearson.
"Our preliminary surveys exceeded our expectations and reveal that sea-grass beds here are seven to 10 metres (22-33 feet) deep."
(Copyright 1998 © Agence France-Presse)
Date: Tue, 9th Jun, 1998
Keiko Update - June 1998
from Dave Phillips - Earth Island Institute
Dear Friends,
After more than a year of negotiations, we have just succeeded in reaching a formal agreement with the Icelandic government to allow the relocation of Keiko back to his native waters.
Today (Tuesday, June 9), Icelandic Prime Minister David Oddsson gave the final "Yes", enabling the Free Willy - Keiko Foundation to proceed with this historic venture. The Foundation had to overcome strong opposition from pro-whaling Ministries within the Icelandic government.
Approving the return of Keiko is a great credit to the leadership and courage of Prime Minister Oddsson.
The Foundationn's preparations for the transport of Keiko are now in high gear. The sea pen (about the size of a football field) is in the final stages of construction. It will then be disassembled and air-freighted to Iceland for re-assembly over the next 60 days. Anchoring, testing, and "seasoning" of the pen will take several additional months. If all goes according to schedule, the relocation could take place as early as September.
Keiko's health continues to be excellent. He tested negative for all the various viruses that Icelandic vets were concerned about. He got a clean bill of health from a federal veterinary panel and passed a full battery of tests administered by the Foundation. Keiko is eating live fish regularly, and his conditioning and training are proceeding extremely well.
For all those who have followed Keiko's plight, this is a huge step forward. He is well on his way to being the first captive orca whale ever relocated back to his home waters. In the sea pen, we will have an exciting opportunity to see how he adapts to an ocean environment. The pen will be in close proximity to wild orca pods, hopefully including his original family group.
Thanks to all our colleagues around the world who helped to make this possible. I will keep you posted on the next steps.
Best,
Dave Phillips
Free Willy - Keiko Foundation
Dave Phillips - Earth Island Institute
300 Broadway #28 San Francisco CA 94133
Tel: (O) 415-788-3666 X145 Fax: 415-788-7324
Date: Wed, 10 Jun, 1998
Marine Sanctuary Creatures Need More Help
The San Francisco Chronicle
by: Alex Barnum, Chronicle Staff Writer
THE YEAR OF THE OCEAN
Refuges On a Slippery Slope - Marine sanctuary creatures need more help, scientists
It was billed as the oceanic equivalent of the National Park system. Twenty-six years ago, Congress authorized the creation of marine sanctuaries to protect underwater regions and marine life that are as breathtaking as anything the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone or Yosemite have to offer. But as President Clinton and policy makers gather this week in Monterey to discuss the fate of the oceans, environmentalists and marine scientists say that the areas are sanctuaries in name only and that protections for marine life must be greatly strengthened. Oil drilling and mining are banned in the sanctuaries, but fishing is prohibited in only 36 square miles of the system's 18,000 square miles of open water.
To environmentalists, that is the equivalent of allowing hunting in 99 percent of national parks. High on advocates' agenda when the Monterey conference opens tomorrow is a proposal to set aside 20 percent of the sanctuary system as true refuges, where fish and other marine creatures would be safe from fishing nets and lines. With a third of America's harvested species threatened by overfishing, there is a growing consensus among environmentalists and marine scientists that creating these refuges is critical to restoring depleted fish populations and protecting ocean habitat. A group of 1,600 scientists has signed a "call to action," urging that fully 20 percent of the world's oceans be protected in refuges by the year 2020.
Currently, less than a quarter of 1 percent of the ocean has such protection. "Marine reserves are absolutely essential," said Jane Lubchenco, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University and a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. "They are simply our best hedge against what could happen with our fisheries." Created by Congress in 1972 -- 100 years after the creation of the National Park system -- the sanctuary system is administered by the Commerce Department. Its largest unit is the Monterey Bay sanctuary, an area the size of Connecticut, which was added to the system in 1992.
Supporters of the refuge concept concede that research on marine reserves is scant, largely because they have not been around very long. What scientific studies there are, however, show that "no-take" refuges provide major benefits for fish populations. In a study conducted in Puget Sound in Washington comparing a marine reserve with a fished area adjacent to it, researchers found that rockfish were much more plentiful and that egg production was much higher inside the reserve. "The information that does exist says unequivocally that (refuges) are very powerful for increasing populations," said Lubchenco.
"What is uncertain is how much of that is exported to neighboring areas." Scientists also argue that marine reserves would serve as an ideal place in which scientists can study marine ecosystems that are relatively free of the effects of the presence of humans. But the ambitious proposal is certain to create new friction with fishing groups. Indeed, even some groups that have been traditionally allied with environmentalists question whether the science justifies the proposal. "You don't just go out and dedicate 20 percent" of an area as a reserve, said Zeke Grader, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations.
"We won't know until we have some real scientists look at this, instead of advocates." One thing that environmentalists and fishing groups agree on is that California's system of marine reserves, while one of the largest in the nation, serves as a poor model. In California, there are more than 104 so-called marine protected areas. But the system is a confusing, fragmented patchwork of overlapping jurisdictions, each with a different set of regulations. Also, all types of marine harvest are prohibited in only four of the areas. "The problem is that we have an ad hoc system," said Wendy Pulling, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who has been working to reform the system.
"Some of these areas, while they're called 'protected,' aren't protected at all." To make sense of this hodgepodge, Assemblyman Kevin Shelley, D-San Francisco, has introduced a bill in the state Legislature, called the Sea Life Conservation Act, that would consolidate the current fragmented system. It also would authorize the Fish and Game Department to create a broader network of sea life reserves, including areas where the taking of any marine species would be prohibited. The bill has passed in the Assembly and awaits action in the Senate. "It's an interconnected ecosystem, and to have all these independent reserves makes no sense to me," Shelley said.
"It's all one ocean out there."
MONTEREY BAY NATIONAL MARINE SANCTUARY
The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, the largest of its kind in the country, comprises 5,000 square miles of ocean from San Simeon to San Francisco. Yet only a tiny fraction of that area is protected from all types of fishing and harvesting.
Protected areas:
- Pacific Grove Marine Gardens Fish Refuge -- No taking of shellfish and crab.
- Hopkins Marine Life Refuge -- No taking of any marine species.
- Carmel Bay Ecological Reserve -- No commercial fishing.
- Point Lobos Ecological Reserve -- No taking of any marine species.
- Big Creek Ecological Reserve -- No taking of any marine species.
Other restrictions: No harm or harassment of marine mammals, such as seals, California sea lions and sea otters. No gill-net fishing for halibut in Monterey Bay in less than 180 feet. No gill-net fishing for ling cod and rockfish in less than 600n feet.
STEVE KEARSLEY/The Chronicle
Date: Sun, 14 Jun, 1998
Many Work To Save Mekong Dolphins
By DENIS D. GRAY - Associated Press Writer
KAMPI, Cambodia (AP) -- Once upon a time, a beautiful maiden forced by her parents to marry a slimy python leapt into the Mekong River. But her suicide bid failed. She was transformed into a dolphin.
Only the aging still relate this legend, and only they remember the days when thousands of these creatures with a square, human-like face and perpetual smile plied Cambodia's waters.
Today, this remote riverside village is one of the only places along the 4,200-kilometer (2,600-mile) Mekong where one still sees the aquatic mammals, emerging from deep pools before sunset to play and hunt along the water's surface.
Although systematic surveys have yet to be conducted, experts believe no more than 100 of the Irrawaddy dolphins survive in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
Diminishing in numbers everywhere, this dolphin species inhabits coastal and freshwater areas ranging from northern Australia to the Bay of Bengal. The luish-grey animals grow to 2.75 meters (9 feet), living in groups of four to eight.
"The fate of the dolphin is very symbolic of the whole problem of large-scale development of the Mekong," says Ian Baird, a Canadian who runs a grassroots project in southern Laos that promotes sustainable fishing.
There are scattered reports of killings by drunk soldiers, fishermen angry the dolphins gobbled up too many fish in their area and superstitious villagers who regard them as evil water ghosts.
During the mid-1970s, hundreds were slaughtered in Cambodia's Great Lake by the ultra-radical Khmer Rouge, who extracted oil from their skins, according to fisheries expert Touch Sieng Thana, who says just two were spotted earlier this year in the lake.
But traditionally the dolphin was neither hunted nor its meat eaten. Some Cambodians believe they'll never catch another fish if they touch the animal. In Laos, fisherfolk tell of dolphins saving humans from the jaws of crocodiles.
Dolphins have genearlly fallen victim to perils depleting one of the world's most bio-diverse river systems: use of explosives, electric shock, poison and gillnets for fishing, growing pollution and construction of dams.
Choosing these enchanting, snub-nosed animals as a "flagship species," Baird, a Japanese conservation group and the Australia-based Community Aid Abroad hope to preserve both the dolphin and the Mekong's more than 1,000 other species.
"Villagers know fish will soon disappear if explosives and electric shock continue to be used. But they don't know what to do," says Phong Choun, country director for the private Australian group, which works with 11 riverside villages to husband local resources.
While admittedly difficult to stop the chief culprits -- the powerful military -- Phong Choun says his organization is helping villagers formulate local regulations. Caught a second time for illegal fishing methods, the guilty in one community are fined 50,000 riels (dlrs 14) multiplied their body weight in kilograms.
"Save the dolphin" t-shirts have been distributed along with cartoons illustrating how the creatures can become entangled in nets or injured by propellers. Saving the Mekong's bounty is discussed in classrooms and village meetings.
Baird, who is advising the Cambodia project, began a similar one five years ago among the islands and spectacular Khone Falls near the Laos-Cambodia frontier. Now, he says, some fishermen are close to tears when a dolphin accidentally perishes.
"It's very indicative that the villagers want the survival of the dolphin," he says. "They see them as friends, and want them to be there for their children."
Meanwhile, a group of Japanese businessmen, academics and wildlife experts are raising funds for a dolphin research centre in this community 180 kilometers (112 miles) northeast of the capital Phnom Penh.
Katsutoshi Shintani, member of the Human-Animal Bond for the 21st Century, said foreign researchers would come for limited stays but the center will be run by Cambodians.
HAB21 was started by banker Keiichi Iwashige, who remembered watching dolphins as a youth off his native island of Kagoshima in southern Japan -- before pollution drove them away.
Iwashige's group, which focuses on the plight of the dolphin and other species in Japan, visited Kampi last December and hopes to begin construction by year's end, Shintani said.
"The dolphins are a kind of symbol," he said. "If we can live together with dolphins it signifies that there can exist a cleaner, better environment in our world."
Date: Wed, 17 Jun, 1998
Whaling ship to unload 100 minke whales in Japan
SENDAI, June 17 (Kyodo) -- A whaling ship belonging to a government-run institute Wednesday entered a port in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, northeastern Japan, planning to unload the meat of 100 minke whales Thursday, institute officials said.
The 7,569-ton Nisshin Maru of the Institute of Cetacean Research, affiliated with the Fisheries Agency, will land 300 tons of meat from minke whales caught in the northwestern Atlantic.
The meat will be stored in freezers in Ishinomaki until around November when it will be distributed to other parts of Japan for consumption.
Most whales caught during such so-called "research whaling" have so far been landed in Tokyo, but this time the minke whales will be unloaded in Ishinomaki in response to requests to the agency from local municipality officials.
Ishinomaki and the neighboring town of Oshika used to prosper as major whaling bases.
Japan has conducted what it calls research whaling in the northwestern Atlantic since 1994 based on an agreement with the International Whaling Commission. The country has also conducted whaling in the Antarctic Ocean since 1987.
Date: Wed, 23 Jun, 1998
Marine biologist blames sonar tests for whale deaths
By Bernard Pellegrin of AFP
Athens, June 23 AFP - Two years after 13 whales suddenly washed up dead on the west coast of the Peloponnese, a Greek marine biologist trying to solve the mystery believes they were felled by ultra-secret Nato sonar tests.
The Atlantic Alliance has so far held Alexandros Frantzis at bay, insisting his conclusions were "premature".
But it nonetheless organised an informal conference last week on the consequences of underwater sonar testing marine mammals at the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation's marine research centre in Spezia, Italy.
Frantzis' findings were published in May by the prestigious science review Nature as part of his wider contention that underwater sound pollution, as he calls it, is posing a serious threat to cetaceans.
It all started on May 12, 1996 when residents in the region of Kiparissia found a dying whale lying limp on the sandy beach. Heading up the coast, they gradually found 11 more in the same state over a 40km stretch of beach.
A few days later, a 13th whale was found dead on a nearby island called Zakinthos.
Frantzis, who worked at the zoologoy department at the University of Athens, was notified, and started his search for clues as to what killed these cetaceans, in this case cuvier's whales that measure about 5 to 6m long.
He quickly ruled out any virus since "autopsies showed that these animals were in good health". The next possibility, an underwater tremor, was crossed off when regional seismologists said they had recorded nothing.
"That was when I thought of military manoeuvres," said the young researcher.
"There have only been seven cases of mass wash-ups like this in the world since 1967 and according to a British scientist who wrote on the subject, three of them occurred in the Canaries in the 1980s during offshore military manoeuvres there."
He next poked into records by the Greek Navy hydrographic service and found that a warning had been issued at the time to navigators that a vessel identified only as the NRV Alliance "was going to carry out tests on a noise detection system".
A few months later, chance led Frantzis to an internet site frequented by "cetologists".
"There, I read that Americans had perfected a technique called LFAS (low frequency active sonar), and immediately thought of the tests the Greek Navy had warned about."
Around the same time he discovered that the mysterious "NRV" in fact stood for Nato Research Vessel.
The Greek biologist called the Nato marine research centre in Spezia to report his findings and asked Nato to disclose any information it had on the 13 dead whales.
"The official answer came in early December 1997," he said. "Nato told me this information was a classified defence secret". The letter added: "Our scientists find your conclusions premature".
In May, Frantzis went ahead and published his findings in Nature, conceding he had no direct proof that Nato bore any responsibility in the affair but insisting that the "coincidences" he uncovered made any other explanation "improbable".
"Two weeks after my article was published, Nato said it would take a new look at its low frequency active sonar tests and would organise a meeting of scientists on the subject in June," he said. Frantzis said for personal reasons he could not attend. But he sees the incident in Kiparissia as part of a bigger picture.
"The real problem is sound pollution in the oceans and its consequences on marine mammals," he said.
Included in this are underground explosions to search for oil and the sharp underwater sound emitted by huge modern ice breakers.
"These sonorous nuisances can upset the reproduction of big whales that, once disoriented, can no longer find each other," he said.
"They can also threaten whales' ability to nourish themselves since once their hearing is hurt, they can no longer dive down deep to the areas where they traditionally find food."
Date: Wed, 23 Jun, 1998
Baby whale dies in aquarium
CHICAGO, June 23 (UPI) -- A baby beluga whale, the first born at the John G. Shedd Aquarium's $41 million Oceanarium, died 7 1/2 hours after its birth.
The calf was extremely weak early today and had difficulty swimming to the surface of the 35-foot-deep salt water tank to breathe.
Aquarium spokeswoman Amy Ritter said, "Unfortunately beluga whales and dolphins in general do tend to have unsuccessful births."
The whale was born Monday night to Mauyak, a 16-year-old beluga brought in from Tacoma, Wash., for the aquarium's breeding program.
The mother whale was pregnant for 14- to 16-months.
An aquarium spokeswoman said whales have a high mortality rate in the ocean as well as in captivitiy.
Animal rights activists have long criticized the aquarium for keeping sea mammals such as whales and dolphins at Shedd's seven-year-old indoor Oceanarium.
Date: Mon, 29 Jun, 1998
5th North Pacific Research Program Completed with New Findings on Minke Whale Population
Japan's 5th whale research program in the northwestern Pacific was completed, gaining additional information to shed light on the stock structure and feeding habit of the minke whale in that area, according to the Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) the organization entrusted with the conduct of this research by the Government of Japan.
The fleet, which left Yokosuka Port on May 1, 1998, collected planned samples of 100 minke whales, about one month in advance of its original schedule, helped largely by favorable weather.
Nisshin-Maru, the research mothership, returned to Ishinomaki, northern Japan, on June 17, while three sampling boats entered the Shimonoseki Port, western Japan, two days later.
The research program has been conducted since 1994, with the primary objective to clarify the structure of stock (i.e. breeding school) of minke whales in the area, which is a key factor to ensure sound stock management of whales after commercial whaling is resumed under the regime of the International Whaling Commission.
The research catch program has been aimed to cover the area north of 35 degrees north and west of
170 degrees east of the northwestern Pacific, not including the foreign exclusive economic zones. This year the research effort was concentrated in the area 145-155 degrees east, where no adequate number of samples have yet been acquired.
As a result of this year's research, it was found that a substantial number of minke whales live in the
targeted area, and, combined with the results of the past research, it has become increasingly probable that an identical stock is distributed extensively in the northwestern Pacific, the ICR said.
Based on the research in previous years, it has been generally believed that the minke whale in the
area feeds mainly on Pacific saury during summer, but this and last year's research showed that anchovy constituted their main feed in May-June.
It is expected that such findings on the minke whale's feeding habit will help clarify the issue of the
impact of the minke whale's feeding habit on coastal fisheries in Japan, which is causing a rising concern among fishermen.
Date: Fri, 03 Jul, 1998
Whales Unique Attraction
Kaikoura (The Press) -- The excited call on the marine radio alerts the Whale Watch crews: "Old Droopy Flukes is back."
The call sends a buzz around the crews aboard Whale Watch boats and on shore at Kaikoura alike.
"Droopy Flukes", with his distinctive drooped tail fluke, is a 16m-long sperm whale, readily identified by his signature tail when he flicks it aloft before sliding down into the sea.
The big male is a constant caller to the ocean feeding grounds off Kaikoura. There are many other visiting whales
which are as well known to the crews by their distinctive markings.
Whales can be found in Kaikoura all year round. Species like the blue whale and the humpback can travel great distances a year in their migrations.
The fish and squid-filled waters of Kaikoura form part of the whales' great migratory route. Ocean currents from the north-east and south mix together to produce a feeding area which attracts many species to its rich supplies.
While residing in Kaikoura they feed, relax, and play, growing in size and social status until the next leg of their life journey.
Scientists call the Kaikoura Canyon the area from the shore where the seabed plunges down up to 2000m and stretches out many kilometres north and south of Kaikoura.
Whale Watch has carried tourists on its boats to whale watch off the Kaikoura coast for 10 years. The company has a database of information on whales and their movement and on sea and weather conditions. Marine researchers use this information to help expand their knowledge of this environment and of the many ocean mammals which swim through it.
Whale Watch has become a base for researchers who have begun detailed studies of the ocean and its food supply to gain better understanding of what attracts the whales back to these waters.
Whale Watch chief executive Wally Stone says such research is vital for the company's business.
There is agreement, both nationally and internationally, that Kaikoura's unique marine experience in one of the world's last unspoiled natural wilderness, must be preserved. The company clearly understands that if there are no whales there simply will be no business.
In the past year Whale Watch Kaikoura has carried nearly 60,000 visitors, from children to grandparents. Some overseas tourists say it is like nothing else they have done.
During the winter, Whale Watch makes three trips a day by specially designed 44-seater vessels.
For further information phone the Whale Watch Booking Freephone, 0800 655 121. Booking is essential.
Date: Mon, 06 Jul, 1998
Dolphins frolic near the jumbos
By: Chris Davis - Marine Park
South China Morning Post -- Flipping and flapping its way through the murky waters that surround Chek Lap Kok, the Chinese white dolphin looks remarkably like an out-of- control inflatable toy. It is, in fact, a Pacific humpbacked dolphin.
The vivid pink colouring of Hong Kong's dolphin (sousa chinensis) makes the local variety unique - a feature, experts suspect, may result from a lack of pigmentation.
Living with the polluted effects of a major infrastructure project, and in constant danger of being sliced by the
propellers of ships, the dolphin is only just surviving. One hopeful sign is the new marine park sandwiched between the airport platform and an aviation fuel receiving facility.
However, even this project has its critics. Environmental groups, the World Wildlife Fund among others, say the
park is not big enough and badly situated.
Ironically, it was the life-threatening airport project that started people thinking about this little understood species. To find out more, the Swire Institute for Marine Science and the University of Hong Kong carried out research for the Government.
That work led to several recommendations, one calling for the Government to join forces with Guangdong authorities to draw up an action plan to protect dolphins across the Pearl River estuary.
The Airport Authority itself commissioned a study under dolphin expert Bernd Wursig of Texas A and M
University's Institute of Marine Life Science. From that, the idea to establish the 12-km-square marine park at Sha Chau took hold. The park, located by the airport's fuel receiving facility, has a buffer zone where limits are put on fishing and trawling. The pipeline building project (to link the loading facility with the airport proper) had already set dolphin lovers worrying. But Timothy Peirson-Smith, technical director at Environmental Resources Management, said extensive measures were taken during the construction of the pipeline to preserve the seabed and minimise any disturbance of the dolphins.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 06 Jul, 1998
Company Accused Of Feeding Dolphins
By: The Associated Press
Sun-Sentinel - Ft. Lauderdale -- A boat-rental company, two crew members and a boat's owner face five
federal counts of harassing wild dolphins by attempting to feed the marine mammals.
The charges, filed Thursday, appear to be among the first since the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972, prohibiting feeding dolphins.
"This case is an example of a commercial tourist-oriented business actively engaged in unlawfully feeding wild
dolphins," said Gene Proulx, special agent in charge with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
"We intend to continue to vigorously address all such violations."
Boat operator Thomas Rainelli, crew member Chanti Hance, Hathaway's Boat Rentals Inc. and boat owner Tropical Parasail Inc. are charged.
Each of the five charges carries a $1,000 fine. The group has 30 days to pay the $5,000 collectively, seek to have the assessment modified - or request a hearing before an administrative law judge.
Mike Malausky, manager of Hathaway's Boat Rentals, Inc., would not comment on the charges.
The purpose of the law is that feeding alters the dolphins' natural behavior.
Instead of hunting for live fish, the dolphins get used food handouts.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 09 Jul, 1998
Japan facing clash over Pacific tuna fishing
By: Michael Field - Agence France-Presse
AUCKLAND, (AFP) - Australia and New Zealand Thursday seemed set for a showdown with Japan after Tokyo ignored an international convention to mount an experimental programme to fish for lucrative southern bluefin tuna.
Australia and New Zealand have already made diplomatic protests to Japanese ambassadors and Canberra has closed its ports to a fleet of at least 65 Japanese tuna boats, with Wellington expected to follow suit soon.
The issue recalls the serious tensions in 1990 when South Pacific nations launched an international campaign to ban driftnet fishing. Japan has also upset the nations of this region by engaging in "scientific whaling" south of here.
Southern bluefin tuna are large, fast swimming, pelagic fish found throughout the southern hemisphere mainly in waters between 30 and 50 degrees south. The only known breeding area is in the Indian Ocean, south of Java, Indonesia.
They live up to 40 years, reach a weight of 200 kilograms (440 pounds), and measure more than two metres (six feet) in length. By the time they reach Tokyo fish markets they can be worth 100 US dollars a kilogram.
Australian government studies say the stock is severely depleted and down to around two to five percent of its original population, warning it will be reduced to zero by 2020.
Under the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna signed by Australia, Japan and New Zealand, all three agreed to control its fishing.
For the last 10 years the commission has set a quota of 11,750 tonnes with Japan allowed to fish 6,065 tonnes, Australia 5,265 tonnes and New Zealand 420 tonnes.
Earlier this year Japan tried to nearly double its quota, creating an impasse in the commission.
Japan then sought to win permission to fish an experimental effort of 1,400 tonnes to clarify stock size, and said it would go ahead from Friday despite lack of agreement from Australia and New Zealand.
Acting Foreign Minister Simon Upton on Wednesday called in Japan's Ambassador to New Zealand, Jun Kawashima, to
protest but the environmental group Greenpeace said his action was "pathetic".
"Because Japan is really flouting the southern bluefin tuna convention one thing is to take them to the International Court," Greenpeace executive director Di Paton said.
A ban on long-liner vessels from ports and New Zealand's exclusive economic zone, as imposed in Australia, was another option.
"They're fishing in our waters for a critically endangered species."
Catching the bluefin tuna was like "fishing for Siberian tigers or white rhinoceros, it's that endangered".
An earlier Greenpeace study said outside the commission, Indonesia, South Korea and Taiwan were "operating
without restraint, wreaking untold havoc on the tuna and birds alike.
"No government is willing to call a halt to the tuna fishery, despite the bluefins threatened status and the high levels of seabird slaughter in the fishery."
In Canberra, Federal Resources Minister Warwick Parer called in Japan's ambassador to Australia Yukio Satoh to warn that Tokyo was breaching international law if it went ahead with plans to conduct an experimental tuna fishing programme.
Bluefin tuna fishing is also controversial for its heavy accidental bird kill and Thursday the Royal New
Zealand Forest and Bird Protection Society condemned Japan's decision saying it could kill thousands of albatross and petrel.
Spokesman Barry Weeber said the lines used by Japanese tuna vessels were more than 100 kilometres (62 miles) long and contained over 3,000 hooks on which birds could get trapped.
"The carnage is driving a number of albatross species towards extinction. The four species of wandering albatross are articularly vulnerable and populations have declined over the last 20-30 yearsdue to long-line tuna fishing."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 11 Jul, 1998
Tremont birthday celebration starts today
By: Catherine Ivey - Bangor Daily News Bangor, ME
TREMONT -- In 1848, the residents of this once bustling whaling and lumber hub broke away from the town of Mount Desert and formed their own. Today, 150 years later, residents say they're glad the early settlers did.
"When you drive down from Ellsworth and you see the island, goose pimples stick out on your back and it makes you realize where home is," said Stan Reed whose family has lived in Tremont for eight generations. Reed, who founded the Tremont Historical Society, said it's no coincidence that he has lived away from the town for only two years -- when he served in World War II. "It's a good place to live and to raise a family," he said.
Today kicks off a weeklong commemoration of the town's sesquicentennial which will feature races, games, a historic house tour and an evening of remembrances from some of the town's more senior members. It also marks the onset of a week which organizers hope will infuse residents with pride in their town's roots and people.
"We wanted to highlight the history of Tremont," explained organizer Floy Ervin, who along with her husband, Spencer, has been the driving force behind many of the week's events. "It's a different history than the rest of the island because of its shipbuilding, lumber and trade history," she said.
Before Tremont was incorporated 150 years ago, it was part of the town of Mount Desert, which encompassed the entire island. But long traveling distances in the days of horse and wagon made it difficult for people to take part in town meetings and government. Residents formed what was briefly called Mansel, then renamed Tremont.
During the late 1800s, locals say, the town flourished as shipbuilders built boats along the harbor and whalers used the port to dry out whale blubber for its oil. The population exceeded today's, and at one point the town had 21 schools.
Today, the town is much changed. Two of its mountains, for example, are no longer within its boundaries -- they became the property of Southwest Harbor when it was carved out of Tremont on Feb. 21, 1905. Instead of whalers and builders, Tremont's docks today bustle with lobstermen and sea urchin divers.
Organizers say they hope the celebration makes people more interested in their roots. "The goal was not just only to celebrate 150 years, but to make people more aware of their town," said Janet Patton.
Today's activities take place at the Tremont Community Center. Scheduled is a 4-mile footrace beginning at 7 a.m., a children's fun run at 9:30 a.m., and an arts and crafts show from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are also available for a tour of eight historic homes. A carnival with games will run from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
The festivities continue on Monday with a performance by Flash in the Pan Steel Band at 7 p.m. and a block dance. State Sen. Jill Goldthwait will hold an informal discussion of issues at 6 p.m. Scheduled for the rest of the week: Tuesday, an evening visit from six windjammer ships from Rockland and a concert; Wednesday, a book sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Bass Harbor Library; Thursday, an evening discussion at 7 p.m. by longtime residents of Tremont's earlier days; and Friday, a reading of Ruth Moore writings at 7 p.m.. The celebration wraps up next Saturday with an antique car show from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and a parade starting at 2 p.m.
For information, call 244-4195.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 14 Jul, 1998
Whale Hunt Draws Fire In Canada; Inuit say it's tradition; activists call it slaughter
TORONTO (AP) -- Equipped with an explosive-tipped harpoon, two dozen Inuit in the Canadian Arctic plan to set sail this week on a mission to kill a bowhead whale. Far more than a whale's life is at stake.
If the hunters succeed, as expected, they will be heroes in their Baffin Island hometown of Pangnirtung, where the last bowhead whale hunt occurred in the 1940s.
The feat will be celebrated across a vast region that is proudly preparing for Inuit self-government next April as the new territory of Nunavut.
But to many marine biologists and animal-rights activists, a successful hunt will mean the needless killing of a threatened species. They view the bowhead as victim of a misguided, politically motivated effort to revive an Inuit tradition that should have been laid to rest.
Paul Watson, who heads an anti-whaling group called the Sea Shepherd Society, denounced the hunt as "outlaw whaling" because the bowhead around Baffin Island are considered endangered.
"There's a genuine desire to revive traditional cultures," he said. "Unfortunately, in the native communities, reviving culture often means having to kill something."
The Inuit organizing the hunt make no apologies.
Eric Joamie, a leader of the Pangnirtung hunters association, said the hunters seek to carry on a centuries-old tradition that is fundamental to the identity of the Inuits, formerly known as Eskimos.
"Our ancestors were involved in harvesting any kind of animals they were able to come across, for their survival," he said.
"It is our right, part of our culture, to harvest any animal within Nunavut, regardless of any regulations."
Bowhead whales in the region were killed by the thousands -- almost to the point of extinction -- during the heyday of commercial whaling in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The industry fizzled as whale products lost value, and only a handful of bowhead were killed by Inuit over the ensuing decades as Canadian authorities imposed tight restrictions.
Bowhead whales, which can weigh up to 100 tons and measure 60 feet long, live in two distinct groups.
The bowhead population around Alaska is believed to number about 7,500, while in the eastern Arctic around Nunavut the estimate is about 700.
Stu Innes, an expert with Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, believes the eastern Arctic bowhead population is robust enough for periodic hunts by the Inuit.
"These people have a cultural right to be first in line to hunt this animal," Innes said.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 14 Jul, 1998
Vancouver Aquarium Announces World's First All-Whale Radio Set To Go On Air
VANCOUVER, July 14 /CNW/ - ORCA FM, the world's first all whale radio station will go live, Wednesday, July 22, 1998 at 11:00 am PDT.
ORCA FM will broadcast live whale calls collected by an underwater microphone near Robson Bight, an area off northeastern Vancouver Island, British Columbia,Canada. Robson Bight and adjacent waters of Johnstone Strait are recognized internationally as the best location in the world to find killer whales in the wild. The ORCA FM radio station is located in the vicinity of the 'rubbing
beaches' where whales often congregate to rub on smooth pebbles.
The radio station is CJKW 88.5 FM and will broadcast over a 15 km range. The underwater broadcast will be received at nearby Alert Bay and then transmitted via a high quality audio land-line to the Vancouver Aquarium's Cetacean Acoustic Lab. This live signal will be played for the public in the killer whale underwater viewing gallery as part of a new exhibit focusing on killer whales and their dialects. Future plans for ORCA FM include live audio broadcast on the Internet.
ORCA FM will be an important tool in promoting better understanding and conservation of wild killer whales in
British Columbia. The thousands of whale watchers who go annually to the Robson Bight area and the almost one million annual visitors to the Vancouver Aquarium will experience the underwater acoustic world of killer whales. Improved understanding and awareness of the whales and the pressures we place on their habitat will ultimately help generate the public support needed to protect and conserve killer whales and their environment.
ORCA FM LAUNCH
Wednesday, July 22nd - 11:00 am PDT
Vancouver Aquarium
Stanley Park, Vancouver
British Columbia, Canada
(Copyright Canada News-Wire)
Date: Wed, 22 Jul, 1998
Canada Bowhead Hunt Goes Smoothly
From: High North Alliance/Norway
For the first time since 1945, the Inuit of Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, Canada, have taken a bowhead whale, says Director of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, Daniel Pike, to the High North Web News.
"The hunt was completely legal and closely monitored by Canadian Fishery Officers," adds Pike.
The bowhead was taken early yesterday morning using a harpoon and shoulder gun in Cumberland Sound in the vicinity of Pangnirtung, and was landed at the old whaling camp at Kekerten Island in Cumberland Sound. The whale was flensed yesterday and today. The maktaq and meat will be taken to nearby Pangnirtung for packaging and will be distributed widely to other communities in Nunavut, the Inuit homeland in Canada's Eastern Arctic.
This harvest was from the Davis Strait/Baffin Bay group of bowhead which is considered as a separate stock from the Foxe Basin/Hudson Strait group (from which one animal was harvested in 1996). The International Whaling Commission's Scientific Committee report of the 1998 meeting gives an estimate of 350 animals of the Davis Strait/Baffin Bay group. "Analyses by scientists at Department of Fisheries and Oceans indicated that the harvest of one animal in 1997-8 from the Davis Strait/Baffin Bay stock would not compromise conservation requirements and indeed would allow for continued increase in population size," says advisor at the Fisheries Research Branch, Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Howard Powles, to the High North Web News.
There have been very low levels of harvest for subsistence from the Davis Strait/Baffin Bay stock over the years, estimated at one animal every 10-15 years from 1919 to 1981.
"In a study of traditional knowledge of bowhead in this region, Inuit hunters indicate that bowhead numbers have been increasing over their lifetimes, despite the harvests at the low levels indicated," says Powles.
The Arctic population of bowheads was severly depleted by European and American whalers who whaled in this area until about 1920. In 1994, the Inuit of the Eastern Arctic landed one bowhead illegally, but it was in 1996 in Repulse Bay that they landed their first bowhead in decades with government approval.
The hunt of 1996 was not without its problems, however. After the whale had been killed, it sank, and it was not until two days later, when the carcass rose to the surface, that the whalers could claim their catch.
"We learned from the bad things and used the good things," said Ben Kovic, chairman of the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board, to Reuters this April. "The hunt will be much stricter this time around."
In 1991, the Inuvialuit of Western Arctic Canada resumed the ancient whaling traditions and took one bowhead whale, their first for 60 years. A second bowhead was landed in 1996.
The revival of the Canadian Inuit bowhead hunt comes as a result of the land claims process, and the assumption of management responsibilities from the federal government. The Canadian indigenous peoples have a constitutional right to harvest marine animals for subsistence, social and ceremonial purposes subject only to conservation requirements. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans has to determine whether a harvest would be prejudicial to conservation and if not, the harvest must be allowed.
Throughout history, the bowhead hunt has played a vital role in the Inuit diet and culture.
"It is very important. It brings back our culture that was taken away by whalers," said Kovic to Reuters in April.
Canada left the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1982, and has indicated repeatedly that it will not rejoin.
"The Inuit see the IWC as an obstacle, not an aid, to effective management of whale stocks," wrote Rosemarie Kuptana, president of the Inuit Tapirisat, in a letter to the Canadian government in 1994. She added that the IWC "has come to be dominated by the protectionist anti-hunting sentiment, and it has lost any hope of instituting a rational or scientific whale management regime."
Canada fulfills its international obligations under the UN Law of the Sea to "work through the appropriate international organisations for the conservation, management, and study of cetaceans" by being an observer to the IWC and the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, and by working with the Scientific Committees of the two organisations.
In 1996, the US threatened to impose economic sanctions on Canada because of the bowhead hunt. But in 1997, President Clinton made it clear that sanctions would not be imposed. Canada also informed the US that if sanctions were imposed, it would make a formal complaint to the WTO/GATT, since sanctions would be in violation of GATT.
In response to the latest hunt, animal rights groups will again demand that the US impose sanctions, initiating the so-called "certification process" and requiring Clinton to explain once again why sanctions cannot actually be imposed.
In both 1996 and 1998, the IWC adopted non-binding resolutions urging Canada to refrain from any whaling without IWC permission, and to rejoin the IWC.
In addition to Canada, two other countries which are not members of the IWC are catching "great" whales. Indonesia catches sperm and Bryde's whales, while in the Philippines Bryde's whales are caught, although this is illegal under Philippine law.
Date: Wed, 22 Jul, 1998
Virtual Rainbow Warrior ready for launch
By: Alan Crawford - The Scotsman
WHAT do you give the environmentalist with everything? Forget the entrenching tool and instead keep a weather eye open for the Virtual Rainbow Warrior, a CD-ROM exploring the 25-year history of Greenpeace.
Named after the environmental group's flagship, the CD, due out in time for Christmas, features a scale model of the ship, designed from original plans and built in virtual reality modelling language (VRML).
Visitors to the virtual ship can stand on an interactive bridge and access 67 film clips and 180 photographs along with sundry audio clips and text describing the direct action campaigning tactics of the world's most famous green group.
Rod Munday, a designer with Knowhaus, the company responsible for producing the Virtual Rainbow Warrior, said: "If they had a new whaling campaign, you can just click and you're on the bridge of the Rainbow Warrior, then a whale will appear and splash down into the water."
"Or, a few years ago there was a big campaign about Antarctica. One of the problems was to get across just what Antarctica was like. Now we can sail the Rainbow Warrior into Antarctica so you can get a real sense of what it's like and get a strong campaign point across. As a way of presenting information, the potential is enormous."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 24 Jul, 1998
Rules Aim To Keep Protesters Away Whaling Confrontation Shapes UpBy: Paul Shukovsky P-I Reporter
When the Makah Tribe resumes hunting whales this fall after a seven-decade hiatus, the U.S. Coast Guard plans to make sure that protesting animal rights activists stay at least 500 yards away from the armed hunters.
The resumption of the hunt has sparked intense opposition from the activists, some of whom have vowed to put themselves between the whalers and the whale.
Given the passionate feelings on both sides of the controversy and the high seas that sweep the coast during the fall, the potential for accidents and violence has law enforcement officials worried.
The Coast Guard's proposed new rules call for a 500-yard perimeter around the Makah whaling canoe and chase boats engaged in the hunt. Other vessels would have to stay outside the perimeter at all times during the hunt, under the terms of the proposed regulation published Wednesday in the Federal Register.
The regulation was greeted yesterday as a positive step by Makah leaders. "I think it's great that we are going to have the assistance of the Coast Guard in ensuring the safety of our whaling crew while exercising our treaty rights," said Keith Johnson, president of the tribal Whaling Commission.
Whaling has been a backbone of the Makah's culture and spirituality for centuries.
But animal rights activist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society criticized the proposed new Coast Guard rules as "illegal" and said if they are put into effect, he will ignore them.
Watson, whose 171-foot ship, Sea Shepherd, was anchored off Neah Bay yesterday after a trip from the East Coast,
said: "We didn't come 7,000 miles to sit on the sidelines. We are not going to sit there and watch them kill these whales without interfering or at least documenting (videotaping) it."
Sea Shepherd will take up a legal challenge to try to keep the regulation from being adopted, Watson said. "We have 45 days to put in a protest." He said a Seattle attorney has begun working on the case and that Sea Shepherd has been in contact with U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Whidbey Island - a strong opponent of Makah whaling - for help in blocking the rules.
"We go by all Coast Guard regulations," Watson said. "But I don't think this is a legitimate regulation. I think it is politically motivated."
The Coast Guard wants to establish the buffer because "it balances the need for public safety and the First Amendment rights of protest groups," according to a prepared statement.
"The uncertain reactions of a pursued or wounded whale and the inherent dangers in firing a hunting rifle from a pitching and rolling small boat could potentially endanger life and property if persons and vessels are not excluded from the immediate vicinity of a hunt.
In addition, the Department of Interior has examined the Makah Indian Tribe's Treaty right to hunt whales and informed the Coast Guard that physical interference with the hunt is inconsistent with federal law.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 25 Jul, 1998
Sailors give whales the right of way
By: Nick Nuttall, Environment Correspondent - The Times of London
THE last 300 whales of a species that swims off the east coast of the United States will be protected from collisions with ships - their biggest killer - by a landmark agreement adopted at the International Maritime Organisation in London yesterday.
The mandatory ship reporting system will guide vessels by satellite through the home waters of the northern rights whales. All vessels over 300 tons entering waters off Cape Cod and parts of Florida and Georgia will have to register their name, direction and speed with the nearest Coast Guard and whale tracking station. The vessel will receive information via a satellite link on the location of any whales in the area.
The agreement will protect the whales' most important feeding and breeding areas. Commander Bruce Russell, a member of the US delegation and a consultant to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said: "The greatest threat to the recovery of the population is posed by the direct physical impact of ships."
Since 1991, about 15 northern right whales have been killed by ships, accounting for more than half their deaths.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 26 Jul, 1998
Nasa Team To Hunt For Alaska Shipwreck
By: David Perlman - San Francisco Chronicle
NASA scientists are preparing to hunt for a shipwrecked whaling fleet lost more than a century ago in the icy seas of Alaska by using the same techniques that flashed computer signals across 170 million miles of space to steer the Sojourner rover's historic mission on Mars a year ago.
The dramatic space agency quest involves the Coast Guard's powerful icebreaker Polar Star; a tiny underwater robot vehicle called Phantom XL made in San Leandro, Calif.; a team of computer scientists called the Intelligent Mechanisms Group at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.; and a Santa Clara, Calif., university student eager to share the adventure with the rest of the world via the Internet.
The project isn't merely a fresh demonstration of NASA's high technology. It is also a prelude to an effort by space scientists next year to search for signs of life using remote-controlled underwater robots in the extreme heat of volcanic vents that erupt beneath the sea off Antarctica -- the kind of life that might one day await discovery on the moons of distant planets.
The hulks of the 32 ships in the whaling fleet out of New Bedford, Mass., have been strewn across the bottom of the Chukchi Sea since 1871, when a violent storm trapped them in ice off a desolate promontory aptly named Icy Cape, west of Barrow. Miraculously, not a single life was lost, for seven other vessels escaped the ice and rescued the trapped crews. The remaining fleet then sailed safely to Hawaii.
Jeremy Bates, 21, an underwater archaeology senior at Santa Clara, encountered Jeff Ota, a research engineer at Ames who was seeking a venture to test the technology of robotic vehicles for undersea research -- a key element of NASA's new focus on "astrobiology".
The result of that meeting was the "Jeremy Project," with Ota as the project leader and Bates focusing on the effort to locate the whaling fleet.
The expedition will begin this week when the Coast Guard's Polar Star sails for Alaska. In early August, Ota, Bates and their colleagues will carry the underwater robot Phantom XL to the ship by helicopter from Point Barrow.
The Phantom XL, manufactured by Deep Ocean Engineering Inc. of San Leandro, is only 43 inches long, weighs 100 pounds and can cruise along the ocean bottom at 2 knots. It carries stereoscopic video cameras developed by NASA, and its course will be controlled using the same computer software that navigated the Sojourner robot on Mars during the space agency's spectacularly successful Pathfinder mission last July.
Unlike the mission controllers of the Mars venture, whose signals were transmitted through space by radio, the Phantom XL's computer crew will send their signals through water to the robot and receive its images via 550 feet of communication cable.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 30 Jul, 1998
Landlubber finds his way to the sick bay on epic Arctic voyage
By: Jonathan Ledgard - The Scotsman
THE North Pacific! The great unwritten ink blot on the map of the world! You could slip Belgium in here and it would sink without a trace, a blip on a radar screen. I'm on the deck of the US coast guard icebreaker Polar Star looking at the big dipper. The ship is gliding over the luminous water the colour of a blue-grey vein. The stars look like a fistful of silver buttoned
into nothingness.
The Polar Star has come a long way; it has much further to go. I am on board as a journalist to report on joint NASA and National Science Foundation missions. This story comes to you courtesy of the wizards at NASA. They are sitting in the cabin next door trying to configure cutting edge technology that allows for remote down linking of images and video. If you are reading this it worked. If not, well, you won't know.
We left Seattle last Friday on a sapphire evening and steamed north through Puget Sound past gleaming skyscrapers, coffee houses, fish markets. The Olympic mountains guarded the western sky like a great flensed shark's jaw, Mount Baker rose majestically snowcapped in the east, suspended above the San Juan Islands as if by will of a shaman.
We have been steaming steadily since. We will pick up the ship's helicopters in Kodiak Island and most of the scientists in Nome. From there we will head up through the Bering Straits and out into the ice for a rendezvous with the Canadian icebreaker Des Grosliers, which has become Sheba's floating laboratory.
Sheba - an acronym for Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic -is one of the most ambitious and potentially important science expeditions of recent years. Sea ice has a strong feedback mechanism into global weather systems. Sheba hopes to determine the
effects of pollution on the formation of sea ice and to more accurately predict and plan for global warming.
But for the moment I'm not thinking about Sheba - I'm thinking about spotting whales (I haven't seen any yet). It
should feel foreign, living toe to toe with these US sailors. It doesn't. I do not know what to make of this. Either I've gone native, or Americans are a transparent culture. Naturally, I believe it's the latter. My theory is that Americans (to their credit and detriment) don't have their hidden sides like say, Russians. The only awkwardness I feel on board is not of nationality but of uniform.
They feed you incessantly on the Polar Star. No sooner have you recovered from breakfast than you are sitting down to lunch. I eat too much, I sleep too much, but in truth there isn't much else to do. I write, I chat with the crew, I climb high above the bridge and watch the ocean coming towards me. I read. Andrei Makine's beautifully realised Once Upon the River of Love has taken me to the taiga of eastern Siberia.
Indeed my book selection for this six-week trip has a decidedly Russian feel. Pushkin, Turgenev, and the master before whom all writers must bow -Dostoevsky. In addition are unread back copies of the New Yorker and a book called The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger, which traces the last days of a crew whose boat sank without trace in the sea off New England. I keep this one in my bunk so that I can remind myself during a bad storm that it could be worse.
Exercise is a problem. I managed only about ten minutes in the ship gym - a cramped accordion of treadmills and weights squeezed in a sweaty metal box near the engines -before being overcome with nausea. Pushing weights is the problem. When the ship rises, the weights rise unbidden; when the ship descends they peg you down like a wounded bird. I decided to take on the deck instead. Fresh air a sea breeze. The sun was shining. I began circling the heli-deck. Ten yards into the wind, ten yards back. Working up a sweat. The Polar Star caught a wave, rolled, and sent me flying, shredding my knees on the abrasive deck.
On the way down to sick bay I rapped my head on a hatch, leaving a bloodied dent in the centre of my forehead. "Are you a Hindu then?" asked one crewman. "It's just, like, you've got one of them spots."
Far worse was on its way. Late on Saturday night a fire spread from the ship's incinerator. Crewmen billowing smoke traipsed the decks like spectres. The fire was contained easily enough but later that night came another accident; this one with serious lasting consequences. A boiler door exploded in the face of a crewman. Fragments of his skull washed up his sinuses, his right eye socket was
cracked, and his chin was fractured in several places. The ship's doctor was unable to discern whether the skull was fractured (it was) or whether there was any internal bleeding (not yet) and called for an emergency Medivac.
On Sunday morning a Canadian armed forces search and rescue helicopter - a battered old yellow Chinook - appeared out of the empty sky. The pilot circled the ship several times trying to determine the dimensions of the Polar Star's heli-pad (too small), and the pitch of the ship in the big swell (too acute). On the fourth pass he came in slowly, and hung with his blades chopping breathtakingly close to the ship. The stretcher was winched down, loaded, then winched up. It swept away, a metal wasp vanishing into the grey horizon.
For all the sloth, shipping north is exciting. Tracing every salty mile under the keel of the ship has a physical integrity that flying lacks. And if time slips away through your hands, so what? Let time be patient for once. Time is always pushing itself in unannounced on the simple pleasures of life. We're sailing towards the Arctic, to nowhere, to a placeless realm beyond the Chuckchi sea. In this captivity is a certain liberty.
lThis is the first of a series of articles tracing Jonathan Ledgard's Arctic journey.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul, 1998
Whales Talk Saturday On Discovery
By: Ron Miller - Buffalo News
Some whales routinely "talk" to each other over distances of 1,000 miles -- the equivalent of one human in San Francisco talking to another in Seattle without using a telephone or any other kind of communications device.
That's just one of the fascinating revelations in "Science of Whales," a new documentary by Palo Alto, Calif., film
producers Bou Boudart and Elizabeth O'Connell, which premieres at 9 p.m. Saturday on cable's Discovery Channel.
Their film updates us on the latest research involving the use of sound by various species of whales, a blossoming area for study, especially since the U.S. Navy has declassified certain top secret anti-submarine sonar techniques and made them available to
scientists for research on marine life.
The mark of any good science documentary is that it clearly and simply explains complicated things while holding your attention with intriguing visual images. The Boudart-O'Connell film does that masterfully. No matter how much you think you already know about whales, you're bound to learn something new from their film -- enjoying every minute of it.
If the filmmakers couldn't find suitable footage to explain something, they turn to computer animation techniques to do it. But there are plenty of stunning real-life visuals anyway -- such as the courtship behavoir of whales and even a touching sequence
showing one whale reacting to the imminent death of another.
At the heart of "Science of Whales" is the notion that we're only beginning to penetrate the mysterious use of sound by whales. Some, such as the blue whales, use their low frequency sounds the way submarines use sonar -- to guide themselves around obstacles in the deep and to locate prey. The powerful sounds of blue whales can be detected at distances of up to 12,000 miles in the dense
underwater environment.
One group of researchers at the Orca Lab in Puget Sound has charted the individual sounds made by killer whales and charted how each orca interfaces with the others in its own pod. Tracking their movements, scientists have discovered that some wait at "listening posts" to identify visiting orcas by their sounds, then escort the newcomers into their home territory in a most collegial manner.
We also get to watch the incredible "cooperative lunge feeding" of whales on schools of small fish. By using sound waves and blowing air bubbles, the whales frighten the fish into a defensive group, herd them toward the surface of the sea, then lunge through the mass, swallowing water and fish in great gulps.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 02 Aug, 1998
Va. fossil reveals new species
The Baltimore Sun
Paleontology: Remains of marine vertebrate prove to be ancient baleen whale.
CARMEL CHURCH, Va. - Nestled inside a quarry in rural Caroline County is perhaps one of the world's densest graveyards for prehistoric whales.
The site's unusual deposit of ancient marine vertebrates dominated the thoughts of scientists as they removed a 40-foot whale fossil a couple of years ago. But only later did the ancient whale's peculiarity become apparent.
Dr. Nicholas C. Fraser, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, was comparing the whale fossil to others from the same period 14 million years ago when the size difference struck him.
"The others were very tiny, miniature," Fraser said.
What Fraser and his associates had pulled from a slope near Carmel Church was a new species of ancient baleen whale - and likely a long- awaited answer to some mysteries of whale evolution. "We think it's a very important find," Fraser said. "And there's no question it's a new species and a new genus."
The scientists, including Dr. Lauck Ward, the museum's curator of invertebrate paleontology, will circulate their findings before sending them to a scholarly journal, probably next year.
"It's so obviously a new thing, the fossils speak for themselves," Fraser said,
adding, "It shouldn't cause any controversy, but it should cause a lot of interest. Some people are going to be quite surprised at what we found. But I think they'll accept it."
The Caroline site, privately owned and inaccessible to the public, was originally identified by Ward about eight years ago. As Ward searched for shells and mollusks dating to the Middle Miocene period, he uncovered the startling conglomeration of marine fossils.
Digging has uncovered fragments of bony fish, manatees, sea turtles and crocodiles jumbled together with thousands of shark teeth.
"It's without question unusual to find such a preponderance of such different bones, big massive ones and tiny delicate ones," Fraser said.
The National Geographic Society gave the Virginia Museum of Natural History a grant of nearly $26,000 to explain the dense deposit.
Twenty-five miles north of Richmond, the quarry lies east of the coastline of the ancient sea that once covered eastern Virginia. The carcasses of whales and other marine vertebrates fell to the ocean bottom near the prehistoric shoreline. Over time, the remains were buried by river sediment.
The discovery of baby whale fossils has convinced Fraser that the site was a calving ground. But there's evidence that predators fed there, too.
Many whale bones bear characteristic bite marks. The abundance of shark teeth indicates that sharks hunted there, leaving behind their easily replaceable teeth.
As serious excavation got under way, the large baleen whale was first pinpointed in the early 1990s. It took several years of intermittent work to nearly finish its removal.
"It's huge, massive," Fraser said. "It's battered, but pretty complete."
The field work was followed by research showing that the fossil is about 15 feet longer than the biggest previously known baleen whale from the same Miocene age.
Baleen whales - humpbacks, gray whales - lack teeth, unlike toothed whales such as the sperm whale. Baleen whales communicate over hundreds of miles with low-frequency sounds.
Many questions persist about the relationship between baleen whales and toothed whales. The scientists believe the Caroline site will help shed light on how early baleen whales started to evolve into their modern-day descendants.
"This site is going to yield a lot of information," Fraser said. But he wasn't free to elaborate on how it would further understanding of whale evolution, deferring to the sponsor, the National Geographic Society.
Inside the curve of the L-shaped, sloping site, a wooden shelter protects the place where digging has found what's believed to be an ancient killer dolphin. Nearby lies the site of a prehistoric baby whale.
Perhaps every 10 feet lies a whale skeleton. In all, the scientists expect to find well over 20. The
site is so rich that excavation often demands cutting through some fossils to reach others.
(Copyright 1998 @ The Baltimore Sun Company)
Date: Sun, 02 Aug, 1998
Arctic search is set for fateful New Bedford whaling fleet
By: Paul Edward Parker Journal Staff Writer
William Earle was right. From the moment the Emily Morgan and the northern whaling fleet passed through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean, they were doomed to icy graves.
By the middle of September, jagged mountains of ice would close in around the whalers, snapping masts, crushing wooden hulls and thrusting the tallships out of the sea like children's toys.
To this day, New Bedford still knows it as the Arctic Disaster of 1871, the deathblow to whaling in the Whaling City.
Now, Jeremy Bates is setting off to hunt for those ships that once hunted the great beasts of the deep.
Bates, 21, is the principal researcher directing a National Aeronautics and Space Administration mission to find the lost fleet of
1871. Originally from Massachusetts, he is a student at Santa Clara University in California.
NASA will use the search mission to see whether three-dimensional mapping technology from the Pathfinder mission to Mars will work for undersea exploration.
"Mainly our goal is just to map them," Bates said in a telephone interview. Maps made using the Pathfinder video system will be compared with ones available from conventional side-scan sonar imaging, which creates pictures from the echo pattern of sound waves.
Bates said the mission also hopes to collect small artifacts from the whaling fleet, so Alaska can use them as evidence to claim legal jurisdiction over the wrecks.
Bates will travel to Barrow, on Alaska's north coast, on Aug. 10. From there, he will fly by helicopter to the
Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star. The ship sailed for the Arctic Ocean from Seattle about a week ago. The are set to rendezvous Aug. 12 and conduct Bates's research until Aug. 30.
THE MISSION is a stroke of luck for Bates. His neighbors this past year were engineering students. As their senior
project, they were refurbishing a TROV, a robotically controlled underwater sled. Their project adviser was Jeff Ota, an engineer at NASA's Ames Research Center in California. Bates hooked up with Ota at a barbecue, and the mission was born.
The TROV, which weighs about 100 pounds and is about the size of a giant cooler, is fitted with thrusters for propulsion, lights and the video system. It will explore water up to 50-feet deep in the area where the fleet is thought to have gone down, based on ship's log entries more than a century old.
If the system proves seaworthy, NASA will use it next year to study underwater hydrothermal vents in Antarctica as part of astrobiology research, Ota said. "We're looking for life in extreme environments," Ota said. Knowing what it might look like and where it might hide will help scientists when they explore underground oceans that might exist on Mars or Europa, one of Jupiter's moons.
While the sunken fleet is a reserch boon for Bates and NASA, its loss marked the end of the glory days of whaling in New Bedford. The industry would gasp on for several more decades before dying completely, buoyed briefly by turn-of-the-century Victorian fashion, whose wasp-waisted figures demanded whalebone corsets.
Economic forces more powerful than wind and wave had driven the whaling fleet so far north, into such treacherous waters, in 1871. As petroleum had become more widely available in the 1860s, whale oil prices fell. That meant captains needed to catch more and more whales to make a profit for their ship owners. As the slaughter increased, whale populations declined, even vanished, in more hospitable southern seas.
So it was that the summer of 1871 that the whaling fleet pushed northeastward in the Arctic Ocean toward Point
Barrow.
Normally, pounding gales, spring weather, warm ocean currents and offshore winds clear the winter pack ice from the Alaska coast by August. But, a few times each century, atmospheric conditions create the opposite effect. Such was the case in 1871, when a stationary high parked over northeast Siberia, turning the winds around.
AS THE WHALERS sailed along the coast, they did not know the elements were conspiring against them. Soon, they found ice closing in around them on three sides, forcing them in closer to shore as they tried to escape to the south. Seven of the ships made
it, but 32 others were cut off in their retreat by a lobe of ice that virtually touched the shore, blocking the deep channels the whalers needed.
Over the next two weeks, the ice slowly closed in around the ships, shrinking the area of open water. As four of the ships were wrecked - crushed by huge blocks of ice or picked up and tossed on their sides - the captains realized their prospects were bleak.
They emptied the lightest ship of all its cargo, hoping it would float high enough to pass through the shallow waters to find the seven southern ships that had escaped. It was to no avail, and the ship ran aground.
More than 1,200 people - mostly whalemen, but a few women and children - were trapped. They had a three-month supply of food and firewood and no heavy clothing.
"An attempt to pass the winter here would be suicidal," Henry Pease Jr., captain of the Champion, wrote in a letter to would-be rescuers. "Looking our deplorable situation squarely in the face, we feel convinced that to save the lives of our crews a speedy abandonment of our ships is necessary."
IN A LAST desperate act, the captains fitted out their whaleboats for extended ocean travel. Whaleboats were long rowboats, usually fitted with a removable and simple sail. When lookouts sighted whales, crews would be lowered from the whaling ships in the whaleboats to chase after their quarry, slay the beasts and tow them back to the ship.
Because they were so much smaller, the whaleboats could travel through the shallow water that stopped the large
ships. To make them seaworthy in the rough and icy Arctic waters, their sidewalls were extended, the open boats were covered and their bottoms
reinforced to avoid being worn through when dragged over impassable patches of ice.
Loaded with whatever provisions could be carried, a small exodus headed south. After crossing some 70 miles of ocean, the small boats found the seven ships that had escaped. Despite leaky boats and heavy seas, not one life was lost in the rescue mission.
But the whaling season was a disaster. Of 40 boats that sailed to the Arctic that summer, only 7 returned. (One was lost in an unrelated incident.)
The seven rescue ships, though they made it safely to Honolulu with the refugees, lost their catch, and had to throw much of their equipment overboard to make room for passengers. It would be 20 years before Congress compensated those ship owners, paying them about $140 a passenger.
Whaling did not make much of a return to New Beford. Few of the ships that were lost were ever replaced. Instead,
insurance settlements were invested in land-based businesses, especially area textile mills.
The New Bedford Whaling Museum and Mystic Seaport assisted in gathering information for this story.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 02 Aug, 1998
Supporters have oceans of fun at whale-watch benefit
By: Dana Bisbee - Boston Herald
It was a whale of a time at a party Thursday night for 140 people and two dozen of the Earth's largest creatures.
"It's like they're having a party," said Ann Guyer Healy about the humpback whales breaching the ocean right beside the boat. "They're saying, `We're here, you're here, let's have fun.' "
Fun and funds were the purpose of a benefit whale watch cruise led by Dr. Roger Payne, founder of the Whale Conservation Institute in Lincoln and famed for recording the humpback whale's song.
Cape Ann Whale Watch's ship, the Daunty Fleet, headed out of Gloucester's Rose Wharf at 6 p.m. for the cruise 13 miles offshore to Stellwagen Bank, a national sanctuary for the sea's wildlife.
"This is the perfect night for looking for whales," Payne said at the voyage's start. "There's no wind, the sea is calm, and this is the time of day they feed."
The whales seemed to think the day was perfect as well. There are 1,100 identified humpbacks in New England waters, and the appearance of two dozen of them at a single time was unprecedented.
"That just doesn't happen," said whale biologist Kim Marshall, the institute's director of ocean programs.
"I've been going on whale watches for 10 years in different parts of the world and have never seen this many whales," said Susan Sliski, who volunteers with husband Alan aboard the institute's research vessel, Odyssey.
While Payne's whale studies are ongoing around the world, the cruise was a benefit for a wider research goal.
For six years, Payne has been developing his Global Ecotox Project, a plan to measure the pollutants in all the world's ocean.
The results will provide a baseline by which future scientists can measure the rise and fall of toxins.
"Nobody has ever created a baseline of all the oceans," Payne said.
"We're trying to provide that necessity by taking samples all along the equator, which is the least polluted part of the sea.
"This is the International Year of the Ocean, so we want to start it this year."
Meanwhile, whales with names like Cascade, Reaper, Tear, Churn and Vader - the names are inspired by patterns on their tailfins - swam close to Daunty Fleet and went about their whale business, seeming to play by rolling around and breaching.
Cascade shot full length out of the water and came down in a huge splash that brought a scream of awe from even the
professional whale watchers like Marshall.
WBOS-FM's morning host Robin Young watched the whales with 24 of her listeners. In an ongoing program she calls "The Field Trip," Young had offered the excursion to her drive-time audience.
Kim Cloutier and Lou Villa of Quincy, both scuba divers, were among the 24 listeners who faxed requests to Young and were chosen for the trip.
"This is our first whale watch," Villa said, "which is funny because we used to live in Gloucester."
Watchers included Sliski's children, David, 9, and Aaron, 3, and her niece, Natalie MacColman, 11, of Canby, Oregon.
Natalie has won a spot on "AmeriTrek," an Oregon-based school-year project that will send student representatives on a trip around the continental United States to report their experiences on AmeriTrek's Web site.
She proved her observation skills by being the first person aboard Daunty Fleet to spot a whale.
Voyagers included Iain Kerr, captain of the Odyssey and vice president and CEO of the Whale Conservation Institute, senior scientist Vicky Rowntree, WhaleNet's Mike Williamson, naturalist Cynde Bierman, institute chairman Tom Tilas and trustee Mary Dearborn.
Information on the research and future whale watches is at 800- 96WHALE.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 02 Aug, 1998
Sailors sunk by the whales with a grudge REVENGE
By: Paul Sieveking - The Daily Telegraph London
Strange But True: ON JUNE 1, the whaling boat Bolga was off Norway's northern tip, about 425 miles north of the Arctic Circle, when it harpooned a minke whale, which can grow up to 30ft in length. The wounded whale rammed the 53ft-long boat, snapping its mast and sending two crewmen from the crow's nest crashing into the icy waters.
Benn Viggo Nilson was unhurt but Bjoern Johansen suffered cracked ribs. The damaged boat had to withdraw from the whale hunt and the prey escaped. Norway resumed commercial whaling about five years ago, despite a ban imposed by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.
Whales do seem capable of harbouring a grudge. On June 9, 1988, Canadian Mike Birch, one of the leaders in the Carlsberg single- handed transatlantic yacht race, hit two whales with his 60ft trimaran about 1,000 miles off Land's End. The boat was holed and began taking in water, but he managed to reach the Azores.
Five days later, David Sellings from Eastbourne, who was in the same race and in the same general area in his 25ft sloop Hyccup, was surrounded by whales, who stayed with him for three days before they attacked the boat (his home for six years) and sank it.
"When they smashed the rudder I immediately put out a Mayday call," he said.
"I went inside to get my possessions and the next thing I heard was an almighty crash as the biggest one smashed into me. Within a minute the boat was going down. I stood on the bow two feet above the waves as I struggled to get my dinghy inflated. Within minutes of the yacht sinking, the whales had all disappeared."
Sellings was picked up by a freighter seven hours later.
While experts maintain that whales do not attack boats, it happened again a year later on June 15, 1989, when the 40ft fibreglass yacht Siborney was sunk by whales 1,200 miles off the Pacific coast of America. William and Simone Butler were picked up from their dinghy 66 days later, 30 miles off the coast of Costa Rica.
A New Zealand fisherman took the wildest ride of his life after spearing a 10ft-long striped marlin in a fishing contest on April 19 last year.
Chris Browne was aqua-planing at speeds of up to 11mph for 90 minutes before the big game fish was reeled in near the Hen and Chicken Islands off the northern coast.
Browne said it was "a spur of the moment" decision to spear the 295lb marlin, which at times dived to depths of 60ft. He wasn't wearing breathing gear but managed to keep his head above water, hanging on to a 50ft rubber cord attached to the spear, which stretched to as much as 150ft during the tow. He was three miles out to sea before the marlin turned and made for the shore.
"At one stage I was very dubious whether I could handle it," he said.
"I was very lucky, really. I just hung on and once I realised he was starting to tire, I knew I had him."
At 54, Browne is one of New Zealand's most experienced skindivers. He had been towed by kingfish before, but while marlin had been speared, none had been reeled in.
Although the catch was thought to be a world record for a spear-fisher, Browne did not win the contest because the rules required each contestant to spear nine fish and to weigh the biggest; besides, the marlin was too big for the judges' scales.
On May 28 this year, a young Scottish holidaymaker in Rockingham, south of Perth in Western Australia, did not have Browne's good fortune.
Angling from a pier, he hooked a giant fish, which pulled his rod into the water. He dived in and grabbed the rod. Witnesses believe he then became entangled in the line and was dragged through the waves to his death.
Paul Sieveking is editor of Fortean Times
(Copyright 1998 (c) The Telegraph plc, London)
Date: Sun, 02 Aug, 1998
Whale hunters
The Evening Post
What: Our World: Humpback Whale
IN ANOTHER of the BBC Wildlife series, Our World features the largest predator on earth - the humpback whale.
It is a commonly held belief that humpbacks feed on microscopic plankton like their relatives the baleen whales. But the humpback hunt fish and devour them in quantities even commercial fishing trawlers find hard to rival.
Until recently it was unclear how humpbacks hunted fish so successfully. They have an underwater communication and sonar system that enables them to detect shoals of fish kilometres away. As the whales approach the shoals they work as a team, herding the fish into tight balls by "screaming" at them and by flicking their enormous and powerful tails, sending shock waves through the water. Then they devour the fish in gigantic mouthfuls.
The humpback is the only great whale known to roam through the oceans of the world. In summer they feed in the rich Arctic or Antarctic waters and in winter raise their young in the tropics. New satellite tracking techniques reveal humpbacks
travel on extraordinary journeys across oceans.
The social lives of humpbacks are also explored. Males sing to each other as a dominance display using song as land animals might use horns or antlers. These males further compete for females with streams of bubbles, jaw clapping, tail lashes and even
high-speed collisions.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 04 Aug, 1998
Dolphin feeding dangers Kindness may kill, boaters told
By: Associated Press
SAVANNAH -- Wildlife officials say people are endangering dolphins on the Georgia coast by feeding them. Even if it's meant to be kind, feeding teaches dolphins to override the natural caution that keeps them clear of boats and personal watercraft that can injure them and people who might harm them, said Barb Zoodsma, a marine biologist with the state Coastal Resources Division.
There's also a potential problem with fishermen, if dolphins learn to eat bait instead of live fish they catch themselves, she said.
"It's not a real big problem now, but what we will end up with are lazy dolphins looking for handouts -- either from people or the bait in crab traps," Zoodsma said.
"People just don't understand the consequences. I've even seen commercial fishermen feeding dolphins," she said.
Feeding dolphins is a temptation because the intelligent, curious mammals come close to boats and seem to smile at the passengers, said Joe Dobbs, a charter captain. He said he makes 20 to 25 trips a month to take sightseers out to view dolphins and other wildlife.
The first thing he tells his passengers is that it is against the law to feed dolphins.
"Sure, some of them are disappointed when I tell them . . . but most people understand," Dobbs said.
Each year, biologists find one or two dead dolphins along the Georgia coast with rope
marks on their bodies, indicating they got too close to a boat and were entangled.
"The dolphins don't know that not everyone will have food for them," Zoodsma said, citing one recent case near Savannah where people were drinking and tried to shoot dolphins.
Feeding dolphins is a violation of the National Marine Mammal Protection Act and can result in fines of up to $5,000.
Zoodsma cautioned that dolphins also can be dangerous to humans. They can weigh up to 500 pounds, have very sharp teeth and can jump high out of the water.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 05 Aug, 1998
Environment: Islands in the way
It ranks alongside the Great Barrier Reef and the Grand Canyon, yet oil companies are being allowed to explore the area. Jay Griffiths on the growing threat to St Kilda.
The seas around the almost legendary Scottish islands of St Kilda, just 100 miles west of the mainland, are up to 1,800 feet deep. Down there are some 200 species of fish, sea urchins, deep-water squid and star fish. Submerged mountains rise sheer from the sea bed. Here in Britain's last ocean wilderness are 21 species of whales and dolphins, including the very rare blue whale.
Above the surface, the cliffs of the four islands and needle "stacs" of the St Kilda archipelago rise 1,000 feet out of the ocean, their crags so high they make their own cloud. Gales rage here for 100 days a year. The islands are famous for the communities of people who lived here for centuries in the harshest imaginable conditions before being finally evacuated in 1932, but also for their seabirds.
The world's largest gannetry is here and there are many thousands of puffins, razorbills, guillemots and great skuas. One outcrop looks like a cube of chalk from a distance. Close-up, you see this "white rock" is actually black rock covered in hundreds of thousands of gannets.
St Kilda is Britain's only natural World Heritage site, ranking it with the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands. But, says Greenpeace, it is under threat. Almost the last act of the Tory government was to issue licences to oil companies to explore 22,000 square miles of the seabed, including the St Kilda area last year and Labour has followed the same policies.
Now Greenpeace, trying to highlight the dangers of such proposed exploration, has applied to the UN Education, Culture and Science Organisation (Unesco) for St Kilda to be put on an "in danger" list of World Heritage Sites. They say the nearest exploration and potential production area is just 38 miles away, and that oil drilling would lead to heavy traffic in oil tankers, with risks of spills.
Furthermore, in the initial exploratory stages, seismic assessment of the area will take place, using airguns or gas "exploders" which bounce sound off the sea floor and help detect oil. This, argues Greenpeace, could drive much of the wildlife out of
their accustomed water-roamings, interrupting their usual behaviour patterns and feeding habits.
But Greenpeace also argues that the whole philosophy of seeking new oilfields is unwise and outdated, for fossil fuels are the worst single contributor to climate change. The proposals for oil exploration in the Atlantic were mooted years before the potentially disastrous effects of climate change were properly understood; now that they are known, it says, all efforts should go into alternative energy sources; wind-power, wave-power and solar-power.
In Stornoway, on the Isle of Lewis, many welcome any development which would bring work to a fragile economy. Social worker Alan Monks says: "Ideally, there would be jobs created, but in alternative energy sources."
"Yes," says Jean, who works in tourism, "but when? The oil is in the pipeline, now."
"What is needed," counters Monks, "is a political decision to start developing alternative energy at the same time as oil."
Tricia O'Reilly, spokesperson for the oil companies via the trade organisation called the UK Offshore Operators Association, says: "Oil and gas have a role until other sources of energy are found. The alternatives aren't viable for a modern industrialised society."
Of the Atlantic Frontier and the area around St Kilda, she says: "the industry is taking steps to ensure that the impacts of its effects are minimised. Oil spills amount to 0.0001 per cent of total production." She adds that the oil industry funds research programmes into the marine environment with the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC).
The National Trust for Scotland administers the island and allows day tourists and a few work parties and campers to stay on the main island each year. It says it shares the concerns expressed by Greenpeace about the threat from the oil: "Any oil pollution near St Kilda would have a devastating effect on the landscape, the seascape and the remarkable birdlife."
While shy of making a strong objection to the explorations, it says regulations concerning drilling activity should be tightened and greater safety measures put in place. "The vagaries of the weather and sea currents mean that no area can be truly regarded as safe." Stuart Murray, the NTS warden based on St Kilda is pragmatic.
"It's good that people such as Greenpeace raise public awareness of these issues. In an ideal world, such developments wouldn't happen; but it's not an ideal world. If there's oil, it will be drilled. The important thing is to keep a tight grip on the way they develop an area."
Scottish Natural Heritage, who lease St Kilda from the Scottish National Trust, think that the future exploration is far enough away from St Kilda not to worry about. "We have no concerns for birdlife on St Kilda," says a spokesman. But he admits that seismic explorations may disturb sea-life.
The Government seems to see its role as one of assisting the oil industry to implement its plans - with as little fuss as possible. A letter from John Battle, minister of state for science, energy and industry to Richard Page MP, concerning the Atlantic Frontier, sent last August, talks of a "strategy agreed with industry and other government departments . . . to avoid media opportunities for Greenpeace."
Peter Melchett, executive director of Greenpeace, who recently visited St Kilda, says: "If people in this country heard that the Great Barrier Reef was under threat, or the Grand Canyon, there'd be an outcry."
"Yet here in the UK, an equivalent World Heritage Site is under threat from government and oil companies. St Kilda is part of our universal heritage, it belongs to everyone in the world. It is unique and terribly fragile in the face of oil. Since the British Government cares so little for it, we are asking the UN to save it."
Mae MacLeod, one of just a handful of surviving ex-St Kildans, says when she heard of a potential threat to the islands from oil developments, she was, "very put out about it. I really hope Greenpeace succeeds in putting up a big protest against it. If these people who were intending to do this would only go and see the island for themselves. You can't find another island like it."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 06 Aug, 1998
Not Everyone In Iceland Is Looking Forward To The Return Of Keiko
PORTLAND (AP) -- The planned repatriation of Keiko is causing a stir in Iceland, where debate is growing over whether the movie star whale will help tourism or hurt the country's lucrative fishing industry. Iceland agreed in June to allow the Free Willy Keiko Foundation to relocate its famous charge from the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport to a netted enclosure anchored in a sheltered cove in the Westmann Islands, a volcanic archipelago six miles off the country's south coast.
The move, scheduled for September, is the next step in a plan to determine whether the long-captive whale -- star of the film "Free Willy" -- can be trained to fend for himself in the North Atlantic.
Keiko, who is 19 or 20 years old, was captured off Iceland at age 2. Previous inquiries into the possibility of returning him to Iceland met a chilly response.
Some feared the whale's return would inflame the debate over whaling, which has not been allowed in Iceland since 1989.
The government has not ruled out the possibility that it could resume. Others said the once sickly whale could introduce harmful pathogens into Iceland's waters, threatening the nation's fisheries.
U.S. and Icelandic veterinarians have since examined the whale and pronounced him germ-free.
But when David Phillips, the foundation's founder, traveled to Iceland last November, he got a different reception from David Oddsson, the popular prime minister of the prosperous independent republic.
Oddsson asked his environment, fisheries, justice and foreign affairs ministries to study the issue of repatriating Keiko and to report back if they found good reasons to bar the whale.
"There is no reason to say no to it," Oddsson told The Oregonian from his office in Reykjavik.
But the government seal of approval has angered some who see Keiko as a symbolic threat to the livelihood of the 5,000 members of Sjomannasamband Islands, the national fishermen's union.
Saevar Gunnarsson, 54, said through an interpreter that whale populations are growing, endangering stocks of cod, haddock, herring, capelin, redfish and other species that supply Iceland's fisheries, the country's No. 1 industry.
Iceland has not commercially hunted whales since 1986, when the International Whaling Commission declared a moratorium on whaling until research could establish accurate counts, quotas and guidelines.
Icelanders continued to kill whales for "scientific purposes" until 1989. Since then, the debate over resumption of whaling has raged as four massive black steel whaling vessels sit idle in Reykjavik's harbor.
Gunnarsson and others say they are eager to resume whaling, not only to profit from whale oil and meat, but to ensure strong fish stocks.
He said the industry would be satisfied with 300 to 350 whales a year.
But others welcome the whale. One poll showed 54 percent of Icelanders in favor of allowing Keiko's return.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 06 Aug, 1998
NAFTA case threatens environment
By: Lana Pollack - The Detroit News
Canada's sovereignty is being challenged again. This time it's not Quebec separatists but an American company claiming Ottawa lacks the authority to implement its own laws. A recent article in Toronto's Globe and Mail highlighted the Virginia-based Ethyl Corp.'s challenge to a new Canadian ban on a gasoline additive already outlawed in the United States.
The Globe and Mail story reports that Ethyl, the only North American manufacturer of methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl (MMT), is suing the Canadian government for prohibiting the import of this octane-enhancer. Canada's ban was prompted because MMT elevates environmental hazards by causing catalytic converters to malfunction. For its part, Ethyl argues that North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provisions supersede Canadian environmental concerns and therefore banning MMT amounts to an illegal expropriation of Ethyl's Sarnia, Ontario, plant where the product receives its final mixing.
The Ethyl Corp. shocked Canada when it took its restraint of trade complaint not to the U.S. or Canadian governments, but directly to a NAFTA panel, which ruled that under the trade agreement foreign corporations can directly challenge the laws of another nation. The MMT controversy will be settled in a hearing that will not be open to public scrutiny. The NAFTA panel's decision will be final and cannot be appealed to any court of law.
Ethyl has so far rejected Canadian settlement offers, and it appears as though the company is counting on winning its case. This is causing Canadian free trade defenders to blush a deep crimson, as warnings that NAFTA would vastly expand the power of corporations -- at the expense of a government's ability to protect public health and the environment -- appear distressingly true.
According to the July 10 Globe and Mail story, a loss to Ethyl Corp. at the three-member NAFTA panel "could cost (Canadian) taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars." One trade consultant who helped negotiate NAFTA says, "if this claim were to stand, it would impose a major constraint on the sovereignty of a country in pursuing environmental and other regulations. That's why people are so edgy."
Challenges to national sovereignty by foreign business interests are more than just a Canadian aggravation. In the early 1990s, the United States faced a similar challenge when the Mexican government, representing the Pacific tuna industry, successfully challenged a U.S. policy requiring labeling of tuna that met dolphin-free standards. Widespread concern about dolphins drowning in tuna nets had caused the United States to adopt a policy that would inform American consumers of canned tuna had been caught without killing dolphins.
But the international panel under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that heard the case prohibited the U.S. dolphin-free labeling policy and ruled that informing U.S. consumers of which canned tuna was "dolphin-free" would constitute a restraint of trade. (These provisions under GATT have been expanded and generally incorporated into its successor agreement, the World Trade Organization, or WTO.) Apparently consumer information is inconsistent with free trade.
To all this I am prepared, like other environmental advocates, to offer an ungracious but well-deserved, "I told you so." A careful reading of NAFTA and the more global WTO shows the potential for loss of environmental sovereignty whenever the protections of one country are greater than those of another treaty member.
I don't oppose free trade agreements that are fair and protective of our standards of safety, hygiene and resource management. But like many other environmental advocates, I do oppose NAFTA and elements of WTO because they compromise our capacity to protect Americans' health and environment.
It seems reasonable that environmental and public health protections should not be ignored, even as our federal government pursues trade agreements that assist businesses operating in a global economy and benefit poor Americans buying low-cost imports. It seems reasonable that trade agreements should not be made without a full disclosure of the loss of any sovereign rights necessary to maintain environmental protections consistent with American values.
American do not want to be surprised with the news that they have ceded environmental protections to foreign governments or to private corporations, domestic or foreign. And I suspect that Canadians want and expect no less for themselves.
Lana Pollack is president of the Michigan Environmental Council. Write letters to The Detroit News, Editorial Page, 615 W. Lafayette, Detroit, Mich. 48226, or fax us at (313) 222-6417, or send an e-mail to letters@detnews.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 08 Aug, 1998
QLD: Humpback whale last seen heading out to sea
BRISBANE, (AAP) - A young humpback whale that swam up the Brisbane River close to the city centre last night had turned around and was last spotted heading out to sea.
A Queensland government environment officer said today the eight-metre mammal, believed to be a young adult, was spotted around 11pm (AEST) close to the Story Bridge and Brisbane's CBD.
The whale was heard breathing and appeared to be in no distress.
But after spending the night in the river, the whale turned around and headed out into Moreton Bay under the watchful eye of marine park officers and sightseers.
"We last sighted it in the bay swimming east out to sea around 12.30pm," Environment Department manager of Moreton Bay marine park, Leigh Harris said.
"We lost sight of it in rough seas whipped up by 30-40 knot winds and returned to the mouth of the river just to check that it hadn't come back, but there have been no further sightings.
"Our vessels are still on standby just it case it changes its mind and returns."
Humpback whales are often seen in Moreton Bay on their annual migration to the warmer waters around Hervey Bay.
The whales are sometimes spotted near the mouth of the Brisbane River, but rarely travel further inland.
Date: Sun, 09 Aug, 1998
Antiques; Eldred's sale yields Shanghai surprise
By: Frances Mcqueeney-Jones Mascolo - Boston Herald
Some 400 sea captains, in the 18th to 20th centuries, called Dennis home. Another 300 came from Hyannis, and hundreds more lived in Brewster. Other Cape towns sent men to sea as well, and these sailors brought back many exquisite examples of Oriental export art and furniture. Much of it remained in their Cape families, until now.
Eldred's July 30 sale in East Dennis included nearly 600 lots of Oriental export art, plus fine marine art. The star of the show was a mid-19th century oil-on-canvas view of the Shanghai riverfront and buildings along the Bund that fell just below estimate at $28,600. The painting, bought by a dealer, was unsigned but is thought to be by the same artist who painted a similar scene illustrated in The Chater Collection by James Orange.
A splendid oversize English Liverpool creamware jug with a transfer decoration of Newburyport Capt. Moses Brown's The Merrimack on one side, and Masonic decorations on the other was of great interest and sold for $15,400 against its estimated $9,000 to $11,000. The successful bidder was a Massachusetts dealer.
A 48-inch figurehead of a black-haired woman wearing a green dress and white shawl, holding a rose, brought $13,750. Had it had original paint, the price would have been considerably higher.
An oil on canvas of the American clipper ship Hotspur by William Pierce Stubbs, consigned by a collector, sold to another collector for $13,200, double the low estimate.
Another Stubbs portrait of a catboat approaching a harbor realized $8,525, also above the estimate. A watercolor of an American clipper ship and a British bark in an Oriental harbor, signed "J.W. Pierce 1869," brought $1,870. The picture was bought in 1951 at an auction held by Robert C. Eldred Sr.
Two lots of scrimshaw were of interest: a pair of large whale's teeth with engraved whaleships surrounded by engraved flowers with inlaid mother-of-pearl centers brought $9,900 from a collector. A dealer bought a sperm whale's tooth engraved with a whaling scene and signed "S. Eaton at sea Feb. 4, 1832" for $9,900.
Around the region
Eldred's sale of fine and decorative art is Thursday and Friday at 10 a.m. in East Dennis. Jewelry, ceramics, glass, paintings, rugs and furniture will go on the block.
"Best ever!" said auctioneer Ronald Bourgeault of his Aug. 1-2 sale in Manchester, N.H., that grossed $4.6 million. The undisputed star of the day was a lot of seven watercolor portraits of the Jones family by Joseph H. Davis that sold for $222,500 to Stonington, Conn., dealer Marguerite Riordan.
Davis, a New Hampshire painter, worked only between 1833-37. His work is highly desirable and to find a group of seven portraits of the same family is considered a treasure. Davis' 1937 portrait of Charles H. Dockum was also considered a find; it sold for $9,587.50.
A Dunlap-school (N.H.) Federal figured maple candlestand was hotly contested and blasted past its estimated $4,500 to $6,500 to $27,600. It also went to Riordan, as did a Connecticut Queen Anne carved cherry flat-top highboy that sold for $26,400.
Washington, D.C., dealer Guy Bush paid $23,000, nearly five times the estimate, for a New York Hepplewhite sideboard made in the school of William Whitehead.
A stunning New Hampshire Sheraton mahogany and flame birch server, thought to have been made in Portsmouth,
brought $34,500 from a telephone bidder. A pair of Portsmouth Queen Anne walnut sidechairs sold to dealer G.W. Samaha, who was also successful on a highly contested New England schoolgirl decorated bird's eye maple workbox that sold for $7,675.50.
Two Massachusetts Chippendale pieces brought impressive prices. A walnut bonnet-top highboy from Salem or Marblehead fetched $58,650, and a stunning carved mahogany blockfront bonnet-top linen press sold to Southbury, Conn., dealer Wayne Pratt for $85,000.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 10 Aug, 1998
Keiko's Journey Home to Iceland set for Sept. 9
PRNewswire
Media Credentials Necessary to Cover 'Free Willy' Star's Move
WHAT: Media are invited to cover Keiko the killer whale's historic journey home to his native Icelandic waters. Barring unforeseen issues with the aircraft or weather, the star of "Free Willy" will travel in a custom-built transport container filled with cold water from Newport, Oregon, to the Westman Islands in Iceland aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane.
WHEN: September 9, 1998 -- Keiko departs from Newport, Oregon.
September 10 -- Keiko arrives in Iceland and will be placed in his floating pen in the Westman Islands.
The Free Willy Keiko Foundation has submitted a request to the Air Force to use a C-17 cargo plane to transport Keiko.
The foundation is awaiting final approval from the Air Force. The C-17 is the only plane that can fly Keiko directly to the Westman Islands without stopping to refuel.
Such a non-stop flight is essential to ensure the safest and quickest trip for Keiko.
WHERE: Newport, Oregon, and Westman Islands, Iceland.
To facilitate the media's visit in Iceland, blocks of rooms have been reserved in Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik, and guesthouses are available in the Westman Islands. Rooms are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
For details and to reserve accommodations, call Samvinn-Travel in Reykjavik at 354-569-1070, e-mail: iceland@samvinn.is or fax 354-552-7796.
CREDENTIALS: Foundation-issued credentials are required to cover Keiko's departure from Newport and his arrival in the Westman Islands. To obtain credentials, visit the foundation's pressroom at http://www.keiko.org or call Jennifer Loyd at 541-867-3540. The deadline for obtaining credentials is August 26, two weeks before departure.
Details on covering Keiko's move are posted at http://www.keiko.org
SPONSOR: United Parcel Service is a major partner in Keiko's journey home, providing logistical support, including ground transportation, and financial support. UPS airlifted Keiko from Mexico City to Newport more than two years ago.
CONTACT: U.S. and international media, Diane Hammond, 541-867-3546, or dianeh@pioneer.net or Iceland media, Hallur Hallson, 354-552-2121, or cell phone, 354-896-9898, or hallur@tv.is both of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.
SOURCE Free Willy Keiko Foundation (Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 14 Aug, 1998
Skipper makes rare blue whale sighting
Christchurch -- One of the world's biggest creatures has been seen off Lyttelton Heads.
Grant Robinson of Lyttelton, skipper of the sailing boat Fox II, saw an enormous whale about three weeks ago, but it has only just been identified as a blue whale from computer-enhanced photographs. He saw the whale from about 50 metres away.
"I've seen dozens of whales, but never anything as big as this. It was huge. If we'd been alongside it would have dwarfed the boat."
The Fox II is about 17 metres long.
"I thought it was a sperm whale. We tried to catch up but it was just too fast for us."
Mr Robinson phoned Marine Watch coordinator Jim Lilley, who went to Sumner Head.
"We saw it from the shore, but there was no suggestion it was in trouble," Mr Lilley said.
He said Mr Robinson had given a course for the whale's direction which suggested it was heading for the beach at South Shore.
"The behaviour suggested to me it was a sperm whale. We went into a potential rescue situation, but by the time we got to Sumner heads it had changed course."
He said the whale was about 400 metres off Sumner Head. Department of Conservation officer Martin Rutledge said he could not recall any sightings of blue whales off Canterbury. They were not often seen around New Zealand.
The world population was probably around 12,000. Numbers seemed to be increasing in some areas, but it was still considered endangered, Mr Rutledge said.
Nine strandings have been recorded on the New Zealand coast. Canterbury Museum's giant blue whale skeleton was from a whale washed up at Okarito on the West Coast in 1908.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug, 1998
Entire Southern Hemisphere could become whale sanctuary
By Stephen Spencer, Diplomatic Correspondent
CANBERRA, (AAP) - The entire southern hemisphere could become a whale sanctuary under a plan to be put to next week's South Pacific Forum.
Australia and New Zealand will use the forum in Pohnpei, the capital of Micronesia, to seek support for a South Pacific whale sanctuary, to complement existing sanctuaries in the Southern and Indian Oceans.
"Australia and New Zealand have thought that such a declaration under the IWC (International Whaling Convention) would be an appropriate step," a foreign affairs official told reporters.
"It would complement the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary, the Indian Ocean whale sanctuary and there is also a proposal in the IWC by Brazil for establishment of a South Atlantic whale sanctuary."
"What we've been talking to Pacific island governments about is the establishment of a South Pacific whale sanctuary which would effectively make the whole of the southern hemisphere a sanctuary."
The Solomon Islands, the only island state to be a member of the IWC, has in the past backed Japan's opposition to whale sanctuaries and its continued hunting of Minke whales for "scientific" purposes.
Australian officials admitted the South Pacific whale sanctuary was likely to be strongly opposed by Japan, which is a major aid donor to South Pacific nations.
"Japan's attitude is of course well known," one official said.
"Japan opposes any whale sanctuaries, it opposes the establishment of the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary.
"But we've also made clear to Japan that it is not whaling in the South Pacific and in that sense it doesn't affect its interest in the South Pacific in any way."
But the officials said the sanctuary would continue to allow nations such as Fiji the right to continue the traditional use of whale products which typically come from dolphins and beached whales.
Date: Mon, 17 Aug, 1998
Norwegian whalers fall under quota in 1998 hunt
OSLO, (Reuters) - Norwegian whale hunters will fall short of their allowed quota by almost 50 animals when the season ends at midnight on Monday, the Norwegian Fisherman's Sales Organisation said.
The 35 boats in this year's hunt have caught 624 minke whales out of a permitted 671 -- the highest quota since the country resumed commercial whaling in 1993 in defiance of an International Whaling Commission moratorium.
"The last boats will stop at midnight tonight. If they are lucky there could be one or two more caught," Per Rolandsen, adviser at the organisation, told Reuters.
"We are under the quota primarily because of difficult catching conditions such as bad weather, but I think most boats that took part are pleased," he said.
Bad weather largely affected the North Sea where 138 whales were caught against a quota of 178. Whaling boats require calm waters to detect minke whales, which surface to breathe for only around four seconds before diving.
In northern areas, the controversial hunt was temporarily suspended in early July as whalers hauled in animals faster than the meat could be processed.
Authorities this year extended the hunting season in northern areas off the Finnmark coast and in the Barents Sea by two weeks from the original deadline of July 31 because of delays.
The permitted catch has risen from 293 in 1993 to 580 in 1997, when 503 whales were actually taken. Following an international ban on the export of whale meat and products, each year's catch is sold and eaten domestically.
Prices for the meat, which is sold at auction, varied between a guaranteed minimum of 23 crowns ($3.00) per kg and just over 40 crowns.
"On average for the entire season prices have been around 30 crowns per kilo, which is about level with last year," he said. ($ - 7.67 crowns)
Date: Tue, 18 Aug, 1998
SA: Shot dolphins died slow and painful deaths
By Sherrill Nixon and Sam Lienert
ADELAIDE, (AAP) - Two dolphins shot in Adelaide's Port River had died slow and painful deaths before being washed ashore, in what animal experts today labelled a disgrace and a loss to science.
An autopsy conducted last night revealed the dolphins - a 30-year-old female named HiLo by observers and a six-year-old male known as Monica (it was named before they knew its sex) - had been hit in the head and body with shotgun pellets.
The two bottle-nosed dolphins were found washed up in the Barker Inlet, in Adelaide's north western suburbs, three days apart in late July.
They were well known to marine scientists from the Australian Dolphin Research Foundation (ADRF), who had spent thousands of hours observing the population of 20-plus dolphins in the Port Adelaide estuary.
SA Museum curator of mammals Catherine Kemper, who helped perform the autopsies, said the dolphins had clearly suffered as the wounds had time to heal before they died - hence the delay in the autopsies because no visible signs of injury were obvious.
Dr Kemper said the male dolphin had developed pleural pneumonia after one of the pellets entered his lung, leaving him to die a slow death which the RSPCA estimated took up to four weeks.
About 30 pellets were found in Monica, while about 10 were found in HiLo, who was also found to have suffered a heart condition.
ADRF marine biologist Mike Bossley said the death of HiLo was particularly tragic because she was nursing an 18-month-old calf, who could find it difficult to survive without its mother.
"When something like this happens, it's hard to know (why). It's not like there's an obvious motive," Dr Bossley told AAP.
"The two sorts of categories of culprits might be just hoons who go out with a gun and just shoot anything that moves, or people who go out fishing and see them (the dolphins) as competition.
"It's disappointing ... it's a real loss, they were friends of mine I guess in a way, and I miss them a lot."
RSPCA spokeswoman Sabine Kloss called for a change to the laws to increase the penalty for people who hurt and kill animals, and appealed to the public to provide any information about who was responsible for the dolphin shootings.
"It's an absolute disgrace to think that somebody has shot these animals at close range when they were probably coming around their boat, or coming around near land, being curious and naturally playing," she said.
A police spokesman said there was no police investigation being conducted and the ADRF was looking into the offence.
Date: Sat, 22 Aug, 1998
Whale Slaughter Returning to the U.S.A. on Oct 1, 1998
Sea Shepherd Ships Will Sail to Washington State to Save Gentle Giants
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has learned that the Makah Tribe of Western Washington state will begin hunting for gray whales on October 1, 1998.
"The tribe will kill one 'ceremonial' gray whale during the first five days of the hunt," reports Captain Paul Watson, president of Sea Shepherd.
"Following the butchering and distribution of the first whale, tribal whalers will proceed to harpoon and shoot as many as nine more whales in order land five animals before November."
"Already, this hunt has degenerated into a travesty of the Makah's claim of 'cultural' revival," adds Sea Shepherd's Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu.
"The tribal whaling commission claims they're doing it to revitalize Makah traditions, yet now they're looking to recruit an Alaskan Eskimo whaling captain, the Makah's boats are equipped with Evinrude outboards, and their hunters wear camouflage military gear while conducting .50-caliber gunnery drills. There have been no traditional ritual preparations whatsoever -- which was allegedly the whole point. Any "traditional" aspect was lost the moment the tribe smelled the prospect of selling whale meat in Asia."
Makah hunters had asked the United States Coast Guard to exclude media and protesters from the killing grounds inside the Olympic Marine Sanctuary. The Coast Guard has declined the request and elected to take a neutral position. Sea Shepherd's local Whale Guardians Network will be on location during the October hunt.
The Sea Shepherds have maintained a vigil around Neah Bay since 1994, when the hunt was first announced, and have made repeated offers to debate the Makah's hunt plans in a public forum, which the tribe has ignored.
"Since this hunt impacts the entire Northwest region, the Makah Whaling Commission's silence is cavalier," said Kundu.
"We'll be on-hand to remind the Makah that U.S. citizens, other native Americans, and members of Canada's First Nations people will not permit whales to be killed in Washington waters."
Sea Shepherd will initially have two vessels on site at the start of the hunt, with a number of additional vessels scheduled to join the flotilla later. Background information about the Makah hunt, prior and current footage and photographs are available from Sea Shepherd's northwest coordinator or through the main office in Marina del Rey, California. Interviews with Sea Shepherd staff, Makah elders, whale-watching operators or regional legislators can be coordinated through the Sea Shepherd offices.
A limited number of spaces on board Sea Shepherd vessels are available for journalists.
Contact: Sea Shepherd at (310) 301-7325; fax (310) 574-3161
Pacific Northwest Coordinator Michael Kundu (360) 658-6252
Website: http://www.SeaShepherd.org
Date: Sat, 22 Aug, 1998
Locke to Deploy National Guard for Makah Days
By: Hal Spencer - The Associated Press
Hundreds of Washington National Guard troops will be deployed next weekend to back up state and local police at the Makah Days tribal festival at Neah Bay, Gov. Gary Locke said yesterday.
The governor's "state of emergency" deployment follows fears that tension stemming from the Makah Tribe's planned whale hunt this fall could erupt into trouble from anti-whaling protesters who might attend the annual festival, Locke said.
The announcement drew a protest from anti-whaling groups, whose spokesmen called Locke's decision a provocative over-reaction and waste of money.
"We don't believe there will be violence," Locke said after meeting with state and local authorities, who, he said, had information to suggest there could be trouble at the festival.
But "we believe it would be prudent" to deploy the Washington National Guard, he added. In the event of trouble, the state would be hard-pressed to send additional help because of the remote location of the Makah Reservation, about four hours by car from Seattle, much of it on a two-lane highway.
Locke declined to say how much deployment of the Guard might cost and how many troops would be called, saying it was too early to tell. But Greg Barlow, adjutant general of the Washington Military Department, said the number of troops would be in the hundreds and cost should be under $1 million.
Barlow said the troops will remain in the background unless there is trouble or a need to help state and local authorities with traffic and crowd control.
The governor's spokesman, Keith Love, said no decisions have yet been made about whether to deploy the National Guard for the start of the whale hunt in October.
"If law enforcement officials and the Makah Tribe come to us in October as they did this time and ask us to bring out the Guard, we will consider it at that time," Love said.
"But we will not make that decision now."
Also activated under Locke's "State of Emergency Proclamation" was the State Emergency Operations Center at Camp Murray, which would coordinate any response to an emergency at the festival.
"We're scared for what will happen," said Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson, who along with Clallam County Sheriff Joe Hawe and the Washington State Patrol had asked for help from the Guard.
They fear violence stemming from opposition to the planned October gray whale hunt, in which tribal members will travel in traditional canoes and powerboats, and use harpoons and a powerful .50-caliber rifle to kill a gray whales. But Wayne Pacelle, senior vice president of the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C., said fear of trouble a month before the hunt was without foundation.
"It seems very clear that vast resources are going to be spent on a conflict that is unlikely to arise. This isn't even the hunt here. This seems again to demonstrate that the Makah whale hunt is simply not in the public interest. Whales are being killed and tax dollars are being wasted in a hunt that need not go on for any subsistence or cultural purpose," he said.
Will Anderson, a spokesman for the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, said the governor was "contributing unnecessarily to a state of hysteria when prudence would say save taxpayers' their money because nobody is going to be out there" protesting.
But Locke, at a news conference, said that in an abundance of caution, it was prudent to ensure that if trouble arose, the tribe and civilian authorities had the backup necessary to handle it.
To questions from reporters, he also said authorities had information to suggest there could be conflict, but he refused to elaborate.
The governor said there was fear that the much-publicized conflict between the tribe and anti-whaling groups could draw individuals not connected to the groups but looking for trouble.
The Clallam County sheriff's office has heard reports that as many as 20,000 demonstrators might descend on the tiny fishing village in the northwest corner of the state during the three-day festival that starts Friday. That would be double the usual crowd at the festival, now in its 74th year, tribal officials said.
The festival features traditional songs, dances and native foods.
A task force of law-enforcement agencies - including tribal police, the U.S. Coast Guard and the Washington State Patrol - could have as many as 200 security and support personnel at Neah Bay.
(Copyright 1998 © as published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Date: Mon, 24 Aug, 1998
SA: Orphaned dolphin died from broken heart
By Sam Lienert
ADELAIDE, Aug 24 AAP - An orphaned dolphin calf whose mother was fatally shot in Adelaide's Port River last month may have died from a broken heart at the weekend.
An autopsy today revealed no physical injuries that could have caused the death of 18-month-old Miki, whose carcass was found by two fishermen.
RSPCA spokeswoman Sabine Kloss said the baby bottle-nosed dolphin "lost the will to live" after its mother's death in late July and appeared to have lost its appetite due to the stress.
"She was a bit thin, which meant she wasn't eating properly, but she did still have a layer of blubber," Ms Kloss said.
"She was not getting enough to eat, she was just picking. Animals when they are stressed don't eat; that may have allowed her to get run down."
The 30-year-old mother dolphin, Eleanor Rigby, nicknamed HiLo, and a seven-year-old male named Monica died slow and painful deaths after being shot in the head and body with shotgun pellets.
Ms Kloss said the death of Miki came as a heartbreaking disappointment, but not as a surprise because it had spent its whole life within 10 metres of its mother.
Marine scientist Mike Bossley, from the Australian Dolphin Research Foundation, said Miki could have been unable to feed itself or "it could have died of a broken heart".
"We are learning from this how a community of people must care for a community of dolphins that live with it," said Dr Bossley, who named the calf after his teenage daughter.
"I can't walk 10 minutes down the street without somebody talking to me about it."
Dr Bossley said the deaths had highlighted the unique nature of a group of about 30 dolphins living in the Adelaide area.
"As far as I know, Adelaide is the only city right around the world that has dolphins right in the middle of it," Dr Bossley said.
"People travel huge distances to go to places like Monkey Mia, which is 1,000km north of Perth, to see dolphins, but we have a community right here."
Police are investigating the shootings and will interview a man tomorrow believed to have witnessed the incident.
A reward scheme was started on the week, opened by Senator Amanda Vanstone with a $500 contribution.
Date: Tue, 25 Aug, 1998
SA: Hunt for dolphin killer continues
ADELAIDE, (AAP) - Three people who witnessed shooting incidents were today questioned by National Parks and Wildlife officers investigating the recent killing of two dolphins in Adelaide's Port River.
RSPCA spokeswoman Sabine Kloss said two of the informants came forward through the Crimestoppers hotline while another witness phoned the RSPCA directly.
Ms Kloss said police were pleased with the high level of response to the appeal for public help but no identifying information had been provided yet.
"Nothing that specifically links any person or persons with the shooting of the two dolphins has come out yet," Ms Kloss said.
She said the RSPCA was meeting with police and other wildlife groups tomorrow to pool information about the shootings and also to plan strategies to protect the remaining dolphins in the river.
"There is a two-phase attack - to continue the search, which has not been downscaled at all, and to work out what has to be done to prevent similar incidents happening in the future," Ms Kloss said.
She said a public education program would be held, including the construction of signs and the distribution of brochures to local residents advising of the value of dolphins to the area.
A reward scheme has begun for information leading to an arrest and the state government yesterday contributed $1,000 towards it.
Environment Minister Dorothy Kotz said the killing of such inoffensive creatures was totally unacceptable.
"We would hope that enough people are outraged over this act to ensure that this sort of thing does not happen again," Mrs Kotz said.
The shooting of the two dolphins is also believed to have caused a third death, with an 18-month-old calf, Miki, dying at the weekend due to the stress of losing her mother.
An autopsy yesterday found Miki's thymus gland - which helps fight disease - had disappeared, indicating she was severely stressed.
This caused Miki to contract a minor lung infection which claimed her life.
Under the National Parks and Wildlife Act the maximum penalty for killing a protected animal is a $30,000 fine or up to two years jail.
Date: Wed, 26 Aug, 1998
Revealed: Japan's bid to scuttle whale sanctuary
By Stephen Spencer, Diplomatic Correspondent
POHNPEI, Micronesia, (AAP) - Japan launched a major diplomatic offensive to wreck plans for a South Pacific whale sanctuary by arguing that whales would devastate the region's fish stocks if they were not killed, a leaked diplomatic cable today revealed.
The 29th South Pacific Forum in the Federated States of Micronesia yesterday endorsed proposals for the sanctuary, but only after a last-minute bid by Palau to give Japan the right to veto the sanctuary was rejected.
Palau's move infuriated Forum delegates who were in no doubt the veto plan was inspired by Japan, the biggest aid donor to island nations.
This was confirmed by the release of a cable which Japan sent to the South Pacific Forum Secretariat to be passed on to Forum members.
"Such new sanctuary, as well as the existing whale sanctuaries, also causes excessive and unnecessary protection of cetaceans, which would heavily damage appropriate balance of marine ecosystem and could be destructive for fisheries activities in the region," the cable said.
"Whales including blue whales, fin whales and bryde's whales consume large amounts of marine living resources than fisheries production."
The cable claimed whales consumed 107 million metric tonnes of marine resources in the southern hemisphere, compared with only 2.7 million tonnes taken by humans.
"Permanent ban for whaling or excessive protection of cetaceans would further decrease the food availability for our future generations," it said.
Australian officials were scathing about Japan's claim.
They pointed out that whales largely eat krill and not the tuna and other major fish resources harvested commercially in the South Pacific.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer denounced Palau's proposal.
He told the meeting it was not appropriate for the Forum in the 1990s to be giving control of its affairs to outside powers.
Other delegates said the proposal was inviting a return to colonialism, and could for example mean allowing the region's tough anti-nuclear stance to be vetoed by France, another dialogue partner.
Mr Downer also pointed out that Palau, while a member of the South Pacific Forum, is actually situated in the northern hemisphere, and its waters would therefore not be covered by the proposed sanctuary.
However Japan still came close to scoring a major diplomatic coup over Australia, when New Zealand, which was co-sponsoring the whale sanctuary with Australia, suggested the proposal be deferred until next year's Forum as a compromise.
This would have effectively killed off the plan and infuriated Australian delegates who were concerned any delay would be reported as another Forum disaster for Australia after last year's bitter split over greenhouse gases.
However intense lobbying over lunch by Mr Downer and other members of his delegation resulted in New Zealand recommitting to the sanctuary and Palau dropping its veto proposal.
The Forum then unanimously endorsed the whale sanctuary, but in a slight compromise to Palau, offered to discuss the proposal with the dialogue partners.
The support of the Forum will greatly strengthen Australia and New Zealand's plan to have the sanctuary endorsed by the International Whaling Commission.
The South Pacific sanctuary would then be linked with sanctuaries in the Southern and Indian Oceans and another planned for the South Atlantic, turning the entire southern hemisphere into a sanctuary for whales.
Date: Thu, 27 Aug, 1998
Seeing Blue Watchers Report Larger Number Of Blue Whales Off S.F. Coast
By: Michael Mccabe, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer
In the gray seas five miles east of the Farallon Islands, a spout suddenly blew out of the water like a translucent oil gusher, followed immediately by a surfacing field of blue. Something very big and very hungry was back. "Blue whale at 11 o'clock!" Captain Mick Menigoz announced over the public address system to 35 whale seekers aboard the New Superfish last week. "And humpbacks straight ahead." Few of the nature lovers on the Oceanic Society expedition out of Fort Mason Center had seen so many whales at one time. And practically nobody had ever seen a blue whale, the world's largest living animal.
Blue whales were spotted off San Francisco for the first time this season just within the past two weeks. The whales, which return annually to Northern California waters, seem particularly easy to find this year, a sign to many experts that their numbers are increasing and that they are healthy. The same may be said for humpback whales, which have been spotted feeding unusually close to shore, so near at times that surfers off Pacifica have gotten up-close and personal. For nature lovers, it is rare privilege: Blue and humpback whales are on the endangered species list. On one trip last week, Oceanic Society expedition leader David Wimpfheimer tallied seven to nine blue whales and 18 to 20 humpbacks, along with 25 bird species and nearly 30 dolphins, porpoises and sea lions.
The whales are expected to hang around the general area until November. Then they head back to the waters off Mexico and Costa Rica, some at top speed, to breed. The crowd on board the 62-foot New Superfish screamed with delight as at least three humpbacks were seen "lunge-feeding," thrusting through schools of fish, mouths agape. Some rolled to the surface, others breached -- leaping almost completely out of the water. Whales can gulp up to a ton of food and water at a time, then close their mouths, squeezing out water and trapping food behind baleen plates hanging from their upper jaws.
The waters of the Farallones are among the most nutrient rich in the world and are a vital feeding habitat in the summer and fall for a variety of marine life, ranging from microscopic plankton to giant blue whales. "The whales are looking numerous and healthy, and that is a wonderful sign," said Wimpfheimer, scanning the seas with his binoculars. "In February, in the Sea of Cortez off Baja, we saw a blue whale that was so thin its backbone was clearly sticking out. But the blues here today are nice and smooth and look well-fed." The reason, experts surmise, is that El Nino, which warmed the seas, has retreated.
Strong northwesterly winds have restarted the upwelling process, which brings colder nutrient-rich water to the surface and with it the krill the blue whales feed on. "Upwelling is not at all that common a phenomena," Wimpfheimer said. "It only occurs in four or five other places in the world, on the western edges of continents. This is what brings the whales back again and again." Other fish -- anchovies and sardines -- are attracted to the krill and plankton and become food for the humpbacks, which is why the whales are believed to be feeding so close to the shore in recent weeks. Blue whales, however, feed almost entirely on the krill, small shrimplike animals that are part of the plankton.
They stay farther out to sea -- surfers and beachcombers are not likely to see these creatures. Blue whales can grow to 100 feet in length. They are twice as big as humpbacks. Their hearts are said to be as large as a Volkswagen Beetle, their aortas big enough for a man to swim in, Wimpfheimer said. "If it's huge, if it looks like an island, if it seems to go on forever, that's a blue," said Oceanic Society naturalist Susan Sherman. More than 1,000 blue whales have been identified off the coast of California, said John Calambokidis, principal investigator of blue and humpback whales at Cascadia Research based in Olympia, Wash.
Calambokidis identifies blues by studying subtle pigmentation differences on the sides of the behemoths when they surface. Based on these identifications, he estimates that there are about 2,000 blue whales migrating from Costa Rica and Mexico on up to California, Oregon and Washington -- the largest concentration of blue whales in the world. "Blues are migrating to California more in recent years, and in the last 20 years the number of blues seen off California is dramatically higher," Calambokidis said. Most humpbacks migrate up the coast from Baja California and from as far south as Panama.
They are individually identified mainly through close observation of the color patterns on their flukes. Researchers have identified about 900 as regular visitors to California waters. "We do have good evidence that their population is expanding, also," Calambokidis said. "After years of being hunted, their population is slowly recovering. But it might take another hundred years before they fully recover to what their population was before the commercial whaling era -- numbering in the several thousands at minimum."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug, 1998
He's Almost Free Willy
Keiko the Killer Whale headed for Iceland
Washington - The Air Force said yesterday it will fly Keiko, the celebrated killer whale star of the movie "Free Willy," from Oregon to Iceland Sept. 9 in a major first step toward returning him to the open ocean.
The 10,000-pound whale will be placed in a custom traveling tank aboard a C-17 military cargo plane and flown non-stop from Newport, Ore., to the Westman Islands where a specially built floating pen is waiting for him.
The expected cost of the move, nearly $300,000, will be borne by the private Free Willy Keiko Foundation based in the Pacific Northwest.
The 20-year-old whale starred in the hit 1993 movie, but has spent most of his life in captivity, much of it in a cramped tank in an amusement park in Mexico City.
Keiko has gained about a ton and added 36 inches to his girth since arriving in January, 1996, at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, severely underweight from a decade in the overly warm Mexican amusement park.
While he is still learning to hunt and kill live prey, officials say he is healthy enough to continue rehabilitation efforts in the floating bay pen off Iceland, not far from where he was captured in 1979 when he was one or two years old.
Officials say it may be months or years before they know whether Keiko can finally be released back into the chilly North Atlantic.
For the flight, he will be lifted from his 2-million-gallon Newport pool and lowered into a custom-built water-filled container for loading onto the C-17, the only plane capable of flying nonstop from Newport directly to the Westman Islands.
Keiko, in his 35,000-pound transport container, will land on a 3,900-foot airstrip adjacent to his bay pen.
The flight will be paid for by the foundation, which has been bankrolled by Warner Bros., the Hollywood studio that released "Free Willy" in 1993, and cellular telephone magnate Craig McCaw, among others.
Hundreds of people lined the streets of Newport when Keiko arrived two years ago from Mexico, and he instantly became the aquarium's star attraction, doubling its attendance.
(Copyright © Newsday Inc., 1998)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug, 1998
Native American tribe wins OK to kill sea beasts
The Baltimore Sun
After comeback, gray whale to be focus of hunt again
SEATTLE -- Safe from the whalers who hunted it nearly to extinction, the gray whale has staged a remarkable comeback, with a herd of 21,000 now plying the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Canada as it migrates along the West Coast twice each year.
With that in mind, a small Native American tribe in northwest Washington has won permission to launch the first whaling expedition in the lower 48 states in 70 years. In October, members of the Makah tribe, historic whalers of the Pacific Northwest, will launch a stream of canoes out of Neah Bay, prepared to hunt and kill the first of up to five gray whales a year.
But anti-whaling groups around the world have pledged to block the hunt, which they say could lead to a major increase in global whaling and threaten humankind's harmonious relationship with the mammoth sea beasts that traverse one of the world's most populated shorelines.
And the Makah whale hunt, authorized under a compromise agreement with the panel that administers the 11-year-old international ban on commercial whaling, looms as one of the biggest environmental conflicts of the next decade.
This weekend, up to 20,000 people are expected to descend on the tiny community of Neah Bay for the Makah's annual cultural celebration, some of them protesters aiming to discourage the hunt.
The Sea Shepherd Society, one of the groups planning to demonstrate against the hunt, is amassing a flotilla of boats, a helicopter and a submarine, preparing to deploy them between the whales and the tribe's canoes and to videotape the hunt as it progresses. And the organization plans to paint its submarine to resemble a killer whale and broadcast into the water the sounds of killer whales attacking gray whales -- hoping that will scare off the herd before it ever reaches the waters near Neah Bay.
The Makah sought to conduct the hunt purely by traditional means, with harpoons. But for humanitarian reasons, the whaling commission insisted that the whale, once harpooned, must be finished off quickly with an automatic rifle.
The Coast Guard has imposed a 500-foot restriction zone around the Makah canoes, apparently fearful that the 50-caliber machine guns the tribesmen will use could endanger nearby protesters. But conservation groups say the limit will prevent them from filming the death of the whale.
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said the group is concerned not only about the five whales a year to be taken by the Makah, but also by the fact that the hunt has been authorized as a means of reviving the tribe's cultural heritage.
Previous exemptions for aboriginal whaling were granted solely for purposes of subsistence, he said.
"That will mean that Japan and Norway, Iceland and Russia will then go to the {commission} and claim cultural necessity," Watson said.
"I'm not sending two ships and a submarine here to stop five whales from an aboriginal hunt. My opposition is Oslo, Tokyo and Reykjavik."
Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission, said he expects that once people understand the purpose and manner of the hunt, controversy will disappear.
"We want people to know we're not this horrible, barbaric people," he said. "The first whale will be the toughest."
(Copyright 1998 @ The Baltimore Sun Company)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug, 1998
Lawsuit Seeks To Protect Harbor Porpoises From Nets Groups Hope Move Jump-Starts Action
By: Scott Harper, Staff Writer - The Virginian-Pilot and The Ledger-Star, Norfolk, VA
Animal and environmental groups are suing the federal government for not doing enough to protect harbor porpoises. The shy, winter residents along the Virginia and North Carolina coasts are dying too often after becoming entangled in fishing nets, threatening their Atlantic population, the groups charge.
The Center for Marine Conservation and the Humane Society filed a lawsuit last Friday in federal court in Washington. It asks a judge to force the National Marine Fisheries Service to finish a protection plan that the service was supposed to have enacted more than a year ago.
A hearing has not been scheduled yet.
The NMFS "has waited too long to save thousands of porpoises," said John Grady, senior vice president for wildlife and habitat protection at the Humane Society. "They must immediately publish an effective plan to stop the porpoise slaughter."
Andy Rosenberg, deputy director of the fisheries service, said Thursday that several safeguards already are being used after years of study. They include closed fishing areas and special nets that emit a pinging sound to keep porpoises away.
"Yes, we haven't filed a plan," Rosenberg said,
"but we've implemented a fairly large number of protections since we started looking at this issue" in 1994.
Over the past seven years, environmentalists say, an average of 1,700 harbor porpoises have drowned annually after running into gill nets dragged by commercial fishing boats. Nylon twine wraps around their chubby, 5-foot-long bodies and keeps the porpoises from getting back to the surface for air.
The vast majority of harbor porpoises are killed this way in the Gulf of Maine and other New England waters, according to scientists and government experts. The number of dead porpoises in the mid- Atlantic is much lower.
The record count in Virginia, for example, is 43, in 1994. Three porpoises have died this year and 12 last year, said Mark Swingle, director of the Virginia Marine Science Museum Stranding Team, based in Virginia Beach.
Swingle said most porpoises that wash ashore dead show signs of a struggle with gill nets - a cut here, a scrape there - but evidence can be sketchy.
Also known as puffing pigs, because of their loud blowing sound when they surface, harbor porpoises are the shy cousins of bottlenose dolphins.
Smaller and fatter than their flirtatious cousins, harbor porpoises do not ride in the bow waves of ships, as dolphins do. They prefer to swim alone or in small groups, quietly chasing squid and herring in shallow inland waters and estuaries.
Nina Young, a marine mammals expert with the Center for Marine Conservation, said the biggest problem nowadays is with New England fishermen who travel south to the mid-Atlantic in search of dogfish and monkfish.
They deploy larger gill nets than mid-Atlantic watermen, leave their nets in the water longer and often will ensnare porpoises that happen to be wandering by, Young said.
She wants the government to force New England fishermen to use the same gear and techniques as those used by mid-Atlantic watermen.
With an estimated population of 54,300, the harbor porpoise was proposed in 1993 to become a "threatened" species under the Endangered Species Act. But that drive has stalled, too - more motivation for the lawsuit, Young said.
"We don't want them to drag their feet any longer," she said.
Rosenberg said the fisheries service has delayed action on the threatened-species status because it thought enough safeguards could be added through other channels, such as completing a protection plan.
"We'll be calling for some additional measures," he said. "We're still moving on this."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug, 1998
Makah Fear Anti-Whaling Violence
By: Paul Shukovsky - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
Troops On Guard At Tribal Festival
National Guard troops bearing automatic weapons stood guard yesterday at the Makah tribal center, which has taken on the look of an armed camp in preparation for this weekend's tribal festival.
Makah Chairman Ben Johnson Jr. stood outside his office taking a deep drag from a cigarette as a seemingly endless caravan of troops rolled into the tribal government compound accompanied by large numbers of local, state and federal police.
The extraordinary gathering of security personnel has been mobilized for the annual Makah Days festival to deal with possibly violent confrontations between the Makah and those who oppose tribal plans to hunt gray whale this fall.
Johnson acknowledged that watching his quiet reservation at the remote Northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula being occupied by hundreds of soldiers with automatic weapons was disquieting.
"But this will let them know we mean business," said Johnson who wants to send a message to people who would disrupt Makah Days or the coming whale hunt. The tribe concurred with the Clallam County sheriff's request that Gov. Gary Locke call the National Guard.
The festival, an annual event, is getting special attention this year because of the tribe's plan to resume gray whale hunting sometime after Sept. 30 after a 70-year hiatus. For thousands of years the whale hunt was a subsistence mainstay of the Makah.
The whale hunt is opposed by animal-rights groups around the world, whale-watchers and even some members of the tribe.
It is unclear whether the annual festival of Indian song, dance and traditional foods beginning today will attract demonstrators. The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an animal rights group and vociferous opponent of the hunt, says it will not be here to protest, according to its founder Paul Watson.
Watson yesterday called the security preparations "hysterical."
The Makah - whose 1855 treaty specifically grants them whaling rights - began moving to resume the hunts after gray whales were taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994. An international commission, at the behest of U.S. officials, last year cleared the tribe to take no more than five whales per year.
The potential for violence led the Clallam County Sheriff's Department last December to convene a task force of police that includes the FBI, Washington State Patrol, U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Marshal, National Park Service, and the Makah Tribal Police.
And Locke this week issued an emergency order calling up the National Guard. Yesterday, as an FBI SWAT team hunkered down at a nearby federal facility and an unknown number of soldiers gathered out of sight in the woods at an old logging yard, leaders of the combined security forces gathered at the tribal government compound to iron out details of the operation.
"We are ready to deal with any problem that might arise," said Clallam County Undersheriff Joe Martin as a specially constructed bus designed to transport prisoners rolled past.
Martin said that even if all the preparations for this weekend turn out to be unnecessary, "it is excellent training to prepare for the hunt, to get the bugs out for when it really happens."
National Guard Maj. Phil Logan agreed that if nothing happens, "we will have had the opportunity to train." Asked how many troops were on the reservation, Logan said: "the exact number will be an operational security issue and I can't tell you." But sources said the number is around 800 people.
Greg Barlow, adjutant general of the Washington Military Department, has said the number of troops would be in the hundreds and cost should be under $1 million.
Animal rights activist Watson yesterday criticized the security arrangements, noting the cost to taxpayers.
He said Sea Shepherd will not show up this weekend to demonstrate at Makah Days. Watson, who along with other activists have vowed to ignore a Coast Guard exclusion zone around the tribal whaling canoe this fall, said "we are too busy moving our equipment and getting ready for when they will actually be killing whales this fall."
At the Makah marina yesterday, Makah port officials were armed with a resolution from the tribal council denying mooring privileges to anti-whaling forces. The resolution cited death threats received by the tribe as a result of its whaling plans.
Tribal Whaling Commission Chairman Keith Johnson gestured toward the assembled security force yesterday and said: "This is our celebration and we hoped all of this would have been avoided. All of this occurred because of intelligence that there would be (thousands) of anti-whaling demonstrators. We don't anticipate that happening. But we are prepared to protect the safety of our people by limiting access to the reservation."
The Makah stopped whaling in the 1920s after New England commercial whaling - mostly for oil once used in lamps - decimated the gray-whale population in the eastern Pacific, reducing it from an estimated 30,000 to about 4,000 animals.
The population now is estimated at about 22,500, said research biologist Doug DeMaster.
Gray whales can measure up to 50 feet long and weigh more than 35 tons. Protocols for the hunt require that meat from each catch be distributed for use before another whale is taken. Makah tradition says there is a use for every bone.
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or paulshukovsky@seattle-pi.com
This report includes material from The Associated Press.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 28 Aug, 1998
Makah Days: Food, Festivities, Conflict?
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
Officials Geared For Trouble Over Whalehunting Plans
NEAH BAY - For weeks now, youngsters here have been working to perfect the steps of traditional Makah dances and build up their strength for intertribal war-canoe races - highlights of Makah Days.
The three-day end-of-August celebration draws thousands every year to this remote patch of Northwest coastal paradise about 200 miles west of Seattle on the northwesternmost tip of the Olympic Peninsula.
"It's a way to reacquaint ourselves with friends and neighbors with food and festivities, sharing our dances and songs," says Keith Johnson, president of the tribe's whaling commission.
The festival is getting special attention this year because of the tribe's plan to resume gray whale hunting this fall after a 70-year hiatus. For thousands of years, the whale hunt was a subsistence mainstay of the Makah.
"We'll be like I-5," said Ben Johnson Jr., tribal chairman, who expects a big turnout in this bare-bones coastal town of about 2,000 people.
The whale hunt - to take place sometime after Oct. 1 - is opposed by animal-rights groups around the world, whale-watchers and even some Makah.
When law enforcement sources suggested thousands of protesters could descend on this remote reservation community during Makah Days, Gov. Gary Locke called on the Washington National Guard to help the task force already formed by area law enforcement to cope with any whaling-related friction.
Major anti-whaling groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, have said they plan no demonstrations during Makah Days, and criticized the security measures as overkill and a waste of tax dollars.
Locke sought to ensure that authorities would be on hand. It takes at least four hours to reach the reservation from Seattle by road. The nearest airstrip is at Port Angeles, about 50 miles east on winding Washington 112.
"I am very comfortable that we have the resources now to respond to any situation ... that is less than catastrophic," said Clallam County Sheriff Joe Hawe in Port Angeles, a leader of the task force that includes tribal police, the Washington State Patrol, the Coast Guard, the U.S. Marshals Service and more.
Hawe described this weekend as "a training period to be ready for the whale hunt."
The Guard are being housed at a former air base just west of town that also serves as Makah tribal headquarters.
The tribe is concerned about huge numbers overwhelming this small community, which is strung along the bay with a Coast Guard station at its eastern edge and Cape Flattery, overlooking the surrounding marine sanctuary, to the west.
"We can only hold so many people," Keith Johnson said. The Makah plan to erect a toll site just east of town to collect a $5-per-car fee and keep tabs on the size of the crowd.
In deploying the Guard last week, Locke cited concerns that conflict over whaling could draw individuals, not necessarily affiliated with groups, who are looking for trouble.
Some area residents are concerned whale watchers who revere the huge, intelligent animals, and there were plans for waterfront gatherings in Port Angeles this weekend to dramatize that concern, Hawe said.
Some others harbor long-simmering resentment against the Makah and other tribes over hunting and fishing rights and other issues.
Members of California-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an offshoot of Greenpeace that specializes in "interventions" to save whales from hunters, declined to specify their weekend plans. Group founder Paul Watson hinted he would be in the area to deliver anti-whaling remarks Sunday in nearby Victoria, B.C.
Watson contends the Makah hunt is being used by countries seeking an end to the 1986 International Whaling Commission ban on commercial whaling.
"I have nothing against anybody in Neah Bay at all," Watson said from the group's 95-foot former Coast Guard vessel Sirenian, which reached Seattle's Ballard locks on Wednesday.
Greenpeace is one of several major environmental groups - along with the National Audubon Society and the Wilderness Society - that is not taking a position against the Makah.
"We're not going to oppose the Makah hunt because we think the real threat is commercial whaling," said Greenpeace spokesman Jerry Leap in Washington, D.C., who noted that subsistence whale hunts by other aboriginal peoples have not prompted lifting of the IWC ban.
Makah whaling has also been challenged in federal court. Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-Langley) sued last year, contending the government should have prepared an environmental impact statement before supporting the tribe's bid to resume the hunt.
Both sides are pressing for a ruling from a federal judge in Tacoma before Oct. 1, the start date for the tribe's two-month fall whaling season.
The Makah stopped whaling in the 1920s after New England commercial whaling - mostly for oil once used in lamps - decimated the gray whale population in the eastern Pacific, reducing it from an estimated 30,000 to about 4,000 animals.
The population now is estimated at about 22,500, said research biologist Doug DeMaster at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's marine mammal laboratory in Seattle.
The Makah - whose 1855 treaty specifically grants them whaling rights - began moving to resume the hunts after gray whales were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994.
After a recent three-hour practice run in their 32-foot canoe, the Hummingbird, members of the seven-man whaling crew agreed they are not likely to take four whales this year - that they may not even take one. But sometime this fall, when the whales are migrating south, they will try.
Gray whales can measure up to 50 feet long and weigh more than 35 tons. Protocols for the hunt require that meat from each catch be distributed for use before another whale is taken. Makah tradition says there is a use for every bone.
(Copyright 1998 © As Published in The News Tribune Tacoma, WA)
Date: Sat, 29 Aug, 1998
8 Canoes Of People Welcomed At Annual Makah Days Festivities
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
State National Guard, Other Agencies On Hand In Case Of Conflict Over Tribe's Choice To Resume Whaling (Pierce County Edition)
8 Canoes Join Makah Days Celebration In Neah Bay (Thurston County Edition)
NEAH BAY - Eight canoes swept across the bay Friday and then paused offshore in the sunshine as, one by one, they were welcomed to the annual Makah Days festival by tribal officials, drummers and singers.
"We're tired and we're hungry," visitors called from hand-hewn canoes as they requested permission to come ashore.
Indeed, five of the canoes had set out Thursday from Vancouver Island.
They surely came to the right place for warm food and welcome. Salmon was barbecuing on a driftwood fire at the Makah Senior Center at the heart of the festivities along the waterfront as the canoes were pulled ashore.
The main street has been roped off for the three-day festival, and scores of vendors' stalls line the street, offering food - halibut, fish and chips, fry bread, Indian tacos - as well as jewelry, blankets, T-shirts and crafts.
In addition to the usual crowd of visitors from area tribes and communities, the 74th annual Makah Days has drawn hundreds of law enforcement and military personnel, braced for possible conflict over the Makah tribe's plans to resume traditional gray whale hunting sometime after Oct. 1.
The Makah whalers, in their canoe, the Hummingbird, escorted the visitors' canoes into the bay Friday. But there was no sign of protest, and a few uniformed officers from various agencies - the Clallam County sheriff's office, Makah tribal police, the Washington State Patrol, FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs and more - mingled with the rest of the celebrators, along with dozens of reporters and photographers.
Members of the Washington National Guard - deployed by Gov. Gary Locke for the weekend in case of trouble at this remote location five hours from Seattle - were staying beyond town at the former air base that serves as tribal headquarters, and at an encampment in the woods.
For those on base, the biggest problems Friday were boredom and mosquitoes.
"I've got netting inside the building," said Mike Dampf, of Kirkland, with the Air National Guard.
Two small helicopters sat on the grounds and a larger one waited in a field across the road as a group from the forest camp pulled a 5,000-gallon water truck up to a hydrant to fill up.
"Morale is good," said Sgt. Vernon Scriber of Moses Lake. "We're a little bored."
He brought company from home - a little Elmo doll that belongs to his 3-year-old grandson - newly decked out in a whale T-shirt made by another member of the company.
"I'm starting to talk to Elmo," said Scriber with a chuckle.
He noted that the doll's T-shirt had a pro-whaling and an anti-whaling side - "to be politically correct," he said.
The Guard personnel said they appreciated being useful, though much of their time since settling in had been spent at routine tasks like truck maintenance.
"What do we do for fun? We sleep," said specialist Kyle Hussey of Ephrata.
Asked if mosquitoes were a problem in the forest camp, specialist Noah Hogge, also of Ephrata, grinned.
"Eat a few MRE's and they won't come near you," he said, referring to the Army's "meals ready to eat."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 29 Aug, 1998
COA researchers want to reoutfit 'The Rock'
Bangor Daily News Bangor, ME
BAR HARBOR -- Allied Whale, the marine mammal research group at the College of the Atlantic, needs help in reoutfitting a research initiative on Mount Desert Rock.
Scientists and students plan to resume observation of the great whales that inhabit the Gulf of Maine from a research station on "The Rock," home to the most remote lighthouse station on the Eastern seaboard. It's a lonely, windswept outcrop of granite 26 miles off the coast of Mount Desert Island.
The research station needs equipment and supplies.
Donations of used furniture or supplies will help.
"The Rock" has proven to be an ideal research platform from which to conduct studies of the behavior and ecology of fin and humpback whales.
Items needed include kerosene or oil lamps and wicks, a kerosene heater, propane lights, a small propane kitchen stove, a propane refrigerator, heavy-duty gasoline or water jugs, and kitchen supplies (but not electric appliances).
For information on the whale research effort at Mount Desert Rock, call or leave a message at 288-5644. Items may be dropped off at the administration building at the College of the Atlantic, or members of Allied Whale can pick up donations.
© Copyright 1998 Scoop, Inc. Duplication and distribution restricted.
Article No. BNGR334414
Date: Sat, 29 Aug, 1998
Metcalf Threatens To Sue Over Whaling Coast Guard Plan To Bar Protests In Makah Hunt Targeted
By: The Associated Press
U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf is threatening to sue the Coast Guard if it refuses to withdraw its proposal to keep protesters and others at least 1,500 feet away from Makah Indian Tribe whale hunts this fall.
"It is essential that the Coast Guard reconsiders its misguided proposal," Metcalf, R-Wash., said in a prepared statement.
"If there is going to be gray whale hunting off the coast of Washington state, our citizens have a right to see and document this horrible event."
The proposed exclusionary zone around the Makah whale hunt would violate the National Environmental Policy Act, Metcalf said.
Metcalf already is among plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed last May in U.S. District Court to try to stop the whale hunt. If the Coast Guard refuses to withdraw its plan, the agency would be added to the already existing lawsuit as a defendant, Metcalf spokeswoman Lesley Dalton said yesterday.
Other defendants in the lawsuit include the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Service, whose decision authorized the whale hunt. The hunt is the first of its kind in a formally designated National Marine Sanctuary, the lawsuit contends.
"I believe the Coast Guard's proposal violates their own regulations and prevents citizens from exercising their constitutional rights," Metcalf said.
"The Coast Guard did not permit an adequate public opinion period for this proposal, and I only hope that they will now listen to the will of the people before we are forced to take any further action."
The Coast Guard will consider Metcalf's statement after the public comment period ends Sept. 8, Lt. Chris Woodley said yesterday. He would not say whether the threatened lawsuit would affect the Coast Guard's decision.
"It's not a done deal yet," Woodley said. "This is a proposed regulation."
Last night at the Makah Reservation in Neah Bay, the tribe celebrated the first day of its annual festival of song, dance and food. Feared disruptions by animal-rights activists opposing Makah plans to resume whaling this fall did not materialize.
Hundreds of National Guard troops and dozens of federal, state and local law enforcement officials were kept out of sight on a remote part of the reservation while the celebration got under way.
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky contributed to this report.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 29 Aug, 1998
Freeing "Willy" Won't Set Trend
By: The Associated Press
Whale Handlers Have Criticized Keiko's Planned Move, Saying It Puts The Animal At Risk.
When "Free Willy" star Keiko is put into a sea pen in Iceland after two decades in concrete tanks, animal rights groups hope it will set an example that will lead to freedom for other captive whales.
But don't bet on it.
Whale handlers at aquariums across the nation have criticized Keiko's planned move, saying it puts the whale at risk and is only a feel-good exercise for the people involved.
"In movies you can always have a happy ending, but in real life you never know how it's going to turn out," said Arthur Hertz, owner of the Miami Seaquarium, which has rejected demands that it release its killer whale, Lolita.
"I just hope this doesn't turn into a tragedy for Keiko."
Critics of the experiment say that Keiko, after being fed by hand for years, isn't skilled at catching fish, and has no experience interacting with other orcas. The sea could also prove a shock to the whale's system.
Keiko's saga began several years ago, when schoolchildren inspired by the movie "Free Willy" helped raise money to bring the ailing whale from a cramped Mexico City amusement park to a spacious tank at the Oregon Coast Aquarium with the intent someday to set him free.
Keiko is to be moved Sept. 9 to a sea pen in Iceland for his eventual return to the open ocean. It's the first time anyone has tried to reintroduce a captive killer whale to the wild.
"If Keiko succeeds in returning to the ocean, it gives us a new opportunity to promote our case," said Paul Spong, a whale researcher from Hanson Island, British Columbia.
"I think eventually more people will find it objectionable to watch these orcas perform tricks."
Brad Andrews, vice president of zoological operations for Sea World, disputed the notion that the only happy orca is one that's living in the wild. Twenty of the 23 captive orcas in the United States are at Sea World's four parks.
"They are very cognizant animals, and quite frankly I think they do enjoy performing," Andrews said.
"If they didn't, they wouldn't do it."
Jeff Jouett, spokesman for Marine World in Vallejo, Calif., made a similar observation about his park's killer whale, Vigga.
"Her energy seems to pick up whenever people come into the stadium" to watch her perform, Jouett said. "She is healthy and happy and much loved."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 1998
UPS Donates Logistics Expertise, Funding for Keiko's Journey Home
ATLANTA, Aug. 30 /PRNewsire/ -- It's been nearly three years since UPS helped move Keiko, the then ailing orca whale star of "Free Willy," from Mexico to the cold waters of Oregon. Now, UPS will once again partner with the Free Willy Keiko Foundation and the Oregon Coast Aquarium to bring Keiko home to Iceland.
UPS, the world's largest express carrier and package distribution company, will provide logistical support, including ground transportation, when Keiko is moved from the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Ore., to his new home in Vestmanneayjar, off the southern coast of Iceland.
UPS, which airlifted Keiko from Mexico City to Newport in 1996, also will provide significant financial support to help the foundation fly Keiko aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo plane. The C-17 is the only plane in the world with the heavy payload and short runway capabilities necessary for this mission.
After Keiko is removed by crane from his pool in Newport, UPS will transport Keiko in his custom-built container, filled with ice cold water, to the Newport Municipal Airport, where he will be loaded onto the cargo plane. Once in Iceland, UPS will provide ground transportation from the airport to a barge that will carry Keiko to his floating sea pen in Vestmanneayjar in the Westman Islands.
"We are pleased to have the leadership and transportation expertise of UPS as Keiko makes his historic journey home," said Bob Ratliffe, executive vice president of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.
"The children of the world can be rest assured that their beloved orca whale is in the most capable hands."
"Keiko is undoubtedly the most unique package UPS has ever delivered, and we are committed to help guarantee his safe journey home," said Jim Kelly, UPS chairman and CEO. "We're very proud to be a part of this historic event."
For more information on Keiko's move to Iceland, visit the UPS Web site at Keiko's homepage will enable his fans to track his journey home.
The Free Willy Keiko Foundation, a private, nonprofit organization founded in 1994, has been working to move Keiko to a natural environment in the North Atlantic. The foundation scouted 5,000 miles of eastern North Atlantic coastline, including Iceland, looking for appropriate sites for Keiko's floating pen. In June, Iceland's government agreed to host Keiko. The whale's pen was assembled in a sheltered bay in Vestmanneayjar in the Westman Islands.
UPS is the world's largest package delivery company, serving more than 200 countries and territories and delivering an average 12 million packages per day. UPS revenues for 1997 were US$22.5 billion on a volume of 3.04 billion packages and documents. Headquartered in Atlanta, the company has been named by Fortune magazine as the most admired company in the transportation industry for 15 consecutive years. UPS employs 326,000 people worldwide.
Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 1998
Rare species swims against the flow
By: Carmen Van Kerckhove - South China Morning Post
QIQI swims in circles around his pool, sometimes playfully rolling over on his back to swim belly-up. The pool is only 15 metres in diameter, a far cry from the 6,000km-long Yangtze River that is Qiqi's natural habitat.
But Qiqi, the only captive baiji dolphin in the world, has grown used to the cramped conditions, having spent the last 18 years in this indoor pool at Wuhan's Institute for Hydrobiology.
Indeed, Qiqi may count himself lucky to be alive.
Other dolphins in the Yangtze cheat death on a daily basis by dodging boat propellers, fishermen's hooks and even dynamite used for construction projects. Their food supply is growing increasingly scarce as fish are killed off by fishermen and toxic emissions from riverside factories.
Estimates on the number of baiji dolphins range between 10 and 300.
One of five species of freshwater dolphins, baijis are the most endangered marine mammal in the world and their struggle to survive has been made harder by floods along the Yangtze.
The only baiji reserves - one in Shishou, the other in Honghu - have been severely damaged by the raging river, eliminating the dolphins' only safe havens.
"The first two floors of our office building are under water and all our equipment has been destroyed," said Zhang Hong, a spokesman for the Tianzhou reserve at Shishou. "We have to row to work and climb in through the third-floor window."
Although the river may be overflowing, the reserve's funds have all but dried up.
However, Zhang Xianfeng, vice-director of the River Dolphin Research Department at the Institute of Hydrobiology, said the fast- flowing flood crests could affect the dolphins but because the river flowed in a zig-zag pattern, the baijis found it easy to find calmer waters.
If they survive nature's floods it will be human malice which kills them off.
Although the Government has banned the use of harmful fishing methods such as rolling hooks and net mazes, and outlawed the killing of dolphins, such laws have been largely ignored.
Another threat is the controversial Three Gorges Dam project.
The baijis feed mostly inside pools where the river moves at a slower pace, but after the completion of the dam much of their feeding ground will be wiped out as the water flows at a much greater velocity downstream because most of its sediment has hit the dam wall.
Baijis, which are highly sensitive to changes in temperature, will also feel the effects of the cooler river water which will come from the bottom of the reservoir.
Their only hope remains the reserves at Shishou and Honghu, the only two sanctuaries officially recognised by the mainland Ministry of Agriculture.
The "natural reserve" at Honghu is nothing more than a 100km stretch of the river which is home to a large number of baijis.
It is a comfortable environment for the dolphins as far as food supply goes, but it is not much safer than other parts of the river.
The reserve's staff carry out educational work in the area aimed at raising public awareness of the dangers facing the dolphin. But without proper laws, they are powerless to stop river traffic, pollution or the construction of new factories in the area.
The reserve at Shishou is more promising, situated in an oxbow on the Yangtze and is large enough to accommodate a breeding population of baijis in a semi-natural environment. Today it is home to nine finless porpoises - another endangered species - but, because of failed attempts to catch the mammal, not a single baiji.
The Institute of Hydrobiology launched its first effort in 1985 to catch the dolphin, but in the dozen years of work that followed only three were captured - and they died soon afterwards.
The challenges of capturing baijis are numerous.
The dolphins are hard to spot because of poor visibility in the Yangtze's murky waters, and are difficult to catch with the limited technical resources available.
The cost of the effort is also considerable. Each three-month expedition requires two large boats, 20 small fishing boats, 70 people and at least 300,000 yuan (HK$280,000).
Not surprisingly, the programme was disbanded early last year.
Asked if any attempts had been made to find a mate for Qiqi, Mr Zhang laughed and said: "You mean a girlfriend? Yes, we've tried, but we weren't able to find him a suitable mate."
Time is running out for Qiqi. He is already 20 years old, equivalent to about 60 years in human terms. Since efforts to capture dolphins have been abandoned, it is almost certain that he will pass on without having any offspring.
And as economic development places the Yangtze's environment under increasing strain, it is sadly inevitable the baijis will soon join myriad species in extinction.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 1998
Makah Welcome Visitors At Annual Celebration
NEAH BAY -- Drums and song echoed along the waterfront Saturday as crowds gathered to watch traditional tribal dances and canoe races at the height of the annual Makah Days celebration.
Skies were gray but spirits were bright for the festival's second day, which began with a parade of Makah Days royalty and floats put together by local organizations and visitors from as far south as Coos Bay, Ore., and as far north as Anchorage.
Then came the ceremonial raising of a tribal banner and the Stars and Stripes. Makah Days marks the first raising of the U.S. flag here in 1917, and the conferring of U.S. citizenship on the Makah people in 1924.
"We were here first, but that's what happens, I guess," tribal chairman Ben Johnson, Jr. said of the citizenship matter. Voting rights came in 1926.
A couple thousand people thronged Front Street, which was closed off to cars for the occasion. Children in traditional costumes -- beaded buckskin and red-and-black Northwest Indian designs -- danced on a wooden stage above the beach until the canoe races began. Traditional dances by adults were set for evening.
"It's going great," said Makah Whaling Commission president Keith Johnson.
This year's Makah Days is garnering unusual attention due to concerns about possible confrontations over the tribe's plan to resume gray whale hunting this fall after a 70-year hiatus, forced by the decimation of the whale population by New England whalers.
Some environmental and animal-rights groups vehemently oppose those plans, and Gov. Gary Locke enlisted the National Guard to ensure order at the reservation after a joint law enforcement task force asked the tribe to request the guard's presence. Guard personnel were housed outside the community, available should the need arise.
Johnson said it was not clear how many visitors had come to the festival in this remote community of about 1,800 people at the most northwestern point of the contiguous 48 states.
Last year's crowd was estimated between 5,000 and 7,000.
If the visitor count reaches 8,000, Johnson said, the tribal council would consider whether to close the road into town. But such a high count seemed unlikely Saturday.
There were no protesters here Friday or Saturday, though a small rally was held Saturday at Port Angeles, about 50 miles east.
But the strong law enforcement presence, and dozens of reporters, apparently also discouraged some invited guests.
Anti-whaling tribal elder Alberta Thompson, who helped raise the tribal flag Saturday, said a friend of hers in Port Townsend "said she wasn't going to be here to be watched by the National Guard." Thompson, 74, was packing to leave Sunday for a whale-activist gathering in Australia.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 1998
Pilots, Boaters Help Watch For Whales In Trouble
By: Michael Luo Associated Press
Officials At The Five-Year-Old Marine Preserve Off Cape Cod Are Still Learning About Their Vast, Crowded Waters.
Flying due east in the morning haze, the view out the cockpit window is of a yellowish-blue sky, framed on the right by the long snaking arm of Cape Cod and below by the dark greenish-blue of the Atlantic Ocean.
"Destination is . . . Stellwagen," pilot Gary Banks radios Boston.
Banks and copilot Oscar Orringer are beginning their three-hour morning patrol over Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary.
For Banks and Orringer, the patrol is just a good excuse to go flying - and maybe lend a helping hand to some enormous mammals.
But for officials at Stellwagen, it is a crucial part of their efforts to better manage the 842 square miles between Cape Ann and Cape Cod designated five years ago as a national oceanic treasure.
Since early August, Stellwagen officials have begun receiving regular reports about boating and whale activity in the sanctuary from pilots doing fly-overs in private planes, as well as from observers on boats going out on the bank. Officials hope to turn the flights and boat launches into regular patrols on weekends, when the sanctuary is busiest.
Prime viewing grounds
Stellwagen Bank is widely considered to be one of the top 10 whale-watching spots in the world. More than 800,000 people come to Stellwagen every year to see mostly humpback, fin, minke and, occasionally, northern right whales that use the sanctuary as a
feeding ground.
Whale watchers typically plop down $24 apiece to pile onto crowded, commercial whale-watching boats and stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other whale enthusiasts craning to catch a glimpse of the majestic sea creatures.
But sanctuary manager Brad Barr worries about the proliferation of boats in the sanctuary. Stellwagen functions as an important traffic corridor for boats heading to and from the North Shore, Boston and the South Shore.
Add in the whale watchers and the large number of smaller, private vessels that often jockey with commercial boats for position around whales, and there could soon be too many, Barr says.
So observers meticulously log every vessel they sight in their patrols. The sanctuary is fairly busy this particular morning with tuna-fishing boats, scallopers and sports fishermen, as well as whale watchers. Orringer dutifully jots them all down for future study.
Barr says there is no scientific consensus on how many is too many. But there is some indication of a problem already. In the last two months, there have been at least six incidents of whales getting entangled in fishing gear. Earlier this month, a humpback whale collided with a high-speed, double-hulled catamaran operated by Boston Harbor Cruises.
Scientists are hard-pressed to pinpoint precise whale population figures for Stellwagen. The whales that frequent the preserve are part of larger populations that traverse the Gulf of Maine, a basin of cold water that extends north to Nova Scotia and south to Cape Cod.
For example, an estimated 900 humpbacks populate the Gulf of Maine, but scientists are unsure how many make regular stops in Stellwagen. Over 100 different humpbacks have been sighted in the sanctuary this year.
The sanctuary is also home to a wealth of other marine life, including Atlantic white-sided dolphins, harbor seals, bluefin tuna, herring, cod, flounder, lobster and scallops. The area also attracts a number of sea-bird species, including loons, gulls and terns.
The bird's-eye view from the plane, skimming at a 120-mile-per- hour clip 1,000 feet above the water, is
effective for getting a broad snapshot of activity in the sanctuary. Although the sanctuary has been in operation for five years, limited staffing has prevented sanctuary officials from understanding fully what goes on in their preserve. They hope the patrols will change that.
The air and boat patrols also give sanctuary officials an increased presence in the bank, helping them make sure boaters maintain safe distances from whales and follow sanctuary regulations.
Both Banks and Orringer are members of the Coast Guard Auxiliary, the civilian and volunteer arm of the Coast Guard.
The Coast Guard has flown occasional survey flights over Stellwagen since the sanctuary's inception five years ago. Each flight in a Coast Guard helicopter or airplane, however, costs taxpayers thousands of dollars.
Results worth the price In contrast, a typical flight in an auxiliarist's private plane costs the government less than $30 for fuel
reimbursement. The Coast Guard began delegating the flights to the auxiliary a month ago.
Banks and Orringer are flying a plane on loan from the South Shore Flying Club. They pay $36 per hour out of their own pockets for its use.
"We've got some whales in here," Banks says suddenly. He veers sharply to the right to get a closer look.
"You can see the vultures gathering," he says, referring to the swarm of commercial and private boats congregating.
Upon closer look, however, it turns out to be a false alarm - no whales there after all.
Banks expertly rights the plane and resumes his original heading, toward Cape Ann. Prior to joining the auxiliary, Banks logged more than 17,000 hours in jet airliners for American Airlines and fighter aircraft in the Air Force.
The calm of this flight contrasts with the 15 combat missions Banks flew over Vietnam 20 years ago.
After more than an hour-and-a-half of uneventful flying, Orringer spots two humpbacks - barely visible just below
the water's surface. Their white flippers glistening in the sun give them away.
They later spot four more in the vicinity. And just before they turn home, three others.
The plane sways ominously as it approaches the airstrip but bumps safely to a stop in front of the main hangar at
Marshfield Airport.
Mission accomplished.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 30 Aug, 1998
Anti-whaling activists vow to block tribal hunt.
By: Kim Murphy - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Pacific Northwest Indians get permission to kill up to five gray whales a year.
For the better part of this century, the gray whale's lumbering migration from Alaska to Mexico has been a veritable timetable of the Pacific, unimpeded save for detours around a few whale-watching boats and an occasional wrong turn into San Francisco Bay.
Safe from the whalers who hunted it nearly to extinction, the gray whale has staged a remarkable comeback, with a herd of 21,000 now plying the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington and Canada twice each year.
With that in mind, a small American Indian tribe in northwest Washington has won permission to launch the first whaling expedition in the lower 48 states in 70 years. In October, members of the Makah tribe, historic whalers of the Pacific Northwest, will launch a stream of canoes out of Neah Bay, prepared to hunt and kill the first of up to five gray whales a year.
Authorized under a compromise agreement with the International Whaling Commission, which administers the international ban on commercial whaling in effect since 1987, the Makah whale hunt looms as one of the biggest environmental conflicts of the coming decade.
But anti-whaling groups around the world have pledged to block the hunt, which they say could lead to a major increase in global whaling and threaten humankind's harmonious relationship with the mammoth sea beasts that traverse one of the world's most populated shorelines.
Leading opponents of the hunt, including the Sea Shepherd Society, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society and the Humane Society of the United States, say they plan no demonstrations now but will definitely have a presence when the hunt begins in October.
Sea Shepherd is amassing a flotilla of boats, a helicopter and a submarine in Seattle, preparing to deploy them between the whales and the tribe's canoes and to videotape the hunt as it progresses. And the organization plans to paint its submarine to resemble a killer whale and broadcast into the water the sounds of killer whales attacking gray whales.
The Makah sought to conduct the hunt purely by traditional means, with harpoons. But for humanitarian reasons, the whaling commission insisted that the whale, once harpooned, must be finished off quickly with an automatic rifle.
The Coast Guard has imposed a 500-foot restriction zone around the Makah canoes, apparently fearful that the 50-caliber machine guns the tribesmen will use could endanger nearby protesters. But conservation groups complain the limit will prevent them from filming the death of the whale.
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said the group is concerned not only about the five whales a year to be taken by the Makah but also by the fact that the hunt has been authorized as a means of reviving the tribe's cultural heritage. Previous exemptions for aboriginal whaling were granted solely for purposes of subsistence, he said.
"That will mean that Japan and Norway, Iceland and Russia will then go to the (commission) and claim cultural necessity," Watson said. "I'm not sending two ships and a submarine here to stop five whales from an aboriginal hunt. My opposition is Oslo, Tokyo and Reykjavik."
The Makah's petition to resume whaling was backed by the U.S. government, based on an 1865 treaty under which the tribe ceded thousands of acres in exchange for a small reservation and the right to continue hunting whales, a tribal tradition over thousands of years.
Since the whales virtually disappeared in the 1920s, the tribe has languished, supported primarily by logging and a dwindling salmon fishery. Tribal leaders believe the hunt will give the tribe a renewed sense of purpose and pride, in addition to feeding the tribe's 2,300 members, 1,400 of whom still live on the reservation.
"There are whaling families . . . that have been passing on dances and songs and rituals that help men and women become sound and self-assured, but those things didn't have the edge as time went on," said Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission.
"My father wasn't on a hunt. But he knew the value of this training, adapted to cleansing one's spirit, focusing one's mind, and having direction," Johnson said.
"It's a link to the past, and it validates us, who we are as a people and a culture."
Johnson said he expected that once people understand the purpose and manner of the hunt, the controversy will disappear.
"We want people to know we're not this horrible, barbaric people," he said. "The first whale will be the toughest."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 01 Sep, 1998
Makah Guarding an Expensive Call
This past weekend's Makah Days festival was spared the feared, but only rumored, visit from anti-whaling protesters, leaving the more than 800 lurking police, soldiers and FBI agents with little to do. The only things marring the annual cultural celebration were the intrusive horde of news media and the litigious rantings of U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, a political Capt. Ahab in search of a great white election issue.
Opponents of the tribe's gray whale hunt slated for this fall had announced plans to stage protest demonstrations and even interfere with the October hunt, the first in 70 years. Among opponents of the hunt are the Humane Society, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. None had announced plans to protest during Makah Days.
Nonetheless, rumors of such protests concerned tribal leaders and were enough to convince Gov. Gary Locke to send in 800 National Guard troops to join Makah Tribal Police, the State Patrol, Clallam County Sheriff's Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the FBI - all tucked away in a remote part of the reservation at Neah Bay. The cost of the National Guard posting alone is estimated at about $1 million in tax dollars.
While there's plenty of room to question the efficacy of the intelligence gathering done on behalf of the governor's office and plenty of embarrassment to go around when hundreds of uniformed, armed and bristling troops are left with little to do but drool over the aroma of alder-smoked salmon, it's hard to criticize the governor too harshly. Such harsh criticism is saved for a time when protesters do show up and the confrontation does turn ugly and the state was too unprepared to prevent or quell the violence.
But when the October hunt takes place, the armed-camp approach applied last weekend should be abandoned in favor of the sufficient seamanship, skills and experience of the U.S. Coast Guard. The hunt itself will, of course, take place at sea - the Coast Guard's "turf" as it were. The Coast Guard has broad and deep experience enforcing both safe navigation and the laws of the land at sea (including armed narcotics interdiction).
Metcalf, meanwhile, has threatened to sue the Coast Guard if it follows through on plans to keep protesters and other spectators at least 1,500 feet away from Makah whaling vessels during the hunt. "If there is going to be gray whale hunting off the coast of Washington state," the congressman declares, "our citizens have a right to see and document this horrible event."
Would Metcalf argue too, then, that opponents of deer hunting have some vested right to snuggle up to hunters on public lands to "see and document" what they view as the "horrible event" of a deer being gunned down?
Metcalf already is party to a lawsuit against the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Marine Fisheries Services over the whale hunt. If the Coast Guard refuses to drop its 1,500-feet restriction (which it should not) its name will merely be added to those of the defendants in that suit.
Emotions run high. Opinions are tightly held. But peace and civility must prevail. Those who would threaten violence against humans in protest of violence against animals should re-examine their scale of values. Peace and civility will be preserved not by the guns of hundreds of troops but by the disciplined minds of leaders on both sides.
(Copyright 1998 © Seattle Post-Intelligencer)
Date: Tue, 01 Sep, 1998
Almost Free At Last Real Willy The Killer Whale May Leave Captivity -- If He's Ready
By: Jill Butkus; Special To The Hartford Courant
A team of experts in the Pacific Northwest is about to take the next big step in its mission to free the real Willy.
Keiko, star of the movie that launched the "Free Willy" franchise, has spent most of his 20 or 21 years in captivity, moving from concrete tank to concrete tank.
For the past 2 1/2 years researchers at Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport, Ore., have worked day and night to wean the whale off a generally sedate life, and its diet of dead fish, in hopes of reintroducing him to the wild.
He is the first captive killer whale to be rehabilitated with a goal of eventual release.
"We are setting history," said Nolan Harvey, director of animal care at Free Willy/Keiko Foundation.
Next Wednesday, Keiko will embark on a 10-hour trip to the same area of the North Atlantic where he was captured as a calf in 1979.
That afternoon, a crane will lift the 10,000-pound whale from a special pool at the aquarium, Keiko's home since Jan. 7, 1996.
Trainers will weigh Keiko as part of a general physical before directing the crane to gently swing him over to a flatbed UPS truck carrying the "Willy Wagon," a specially designed fiberglass and steel frame box measuring 28 1/2 feet long by 7 feet wide and 8 1/2 feet deep.
At Newport Municipal Airport, a U.S. Air Force C-17 will be fueled and waiting. The cargo plane will be able to
fly directly to Vestmannaeyjar Airport in Iceland without having to stop to refuel, making the trip as quick and safe as possible for Keiko.
Keiko will travel in the "Willy Wagon" in 30 inches of water cooled by bags of ice. There will be no room for him to swim or float freely. Rather, a support structure will suspend Keiko in the water, which will serve only to keep Keiko moist and cool. Trainers will also periodically rub a moisturizing ointment on Keiko, and the plane will be maintained at 45 degrees to ensure Keiko's comfort.
Keiko is no stranger to air transport. Throughout his captivity, he has endured four transports, each culminating in some concrete tank -- often shallow and brimming with stale, warm water.
This trip, Keiko's fifth, carries a different fate -- a natural environment, with a cool ocean lapping across his black-and-white body.
After the journey, trainers will carefully lower Keiko into the waters of Klettsvik, a cliff-protected bay of Iceland's Vestmannaeyjar Islands (pronounced ves-man-YAR).
A Dangerous Trip
The transport may sound difficult if not downright dangerous to the whale, but the procedures have been perfected since the 1970s, when marine mammal transports began.
"We have it down to an art," said Harvey, who has been involved with almost 100 marine mammal transports.
"It is a safe and humane procedure and the whales usually end up doing better than the staff."
Keiko's longtime veterinarian, Dr. Lanny Cornell, expects him to sleep through the flight and to be well rested when he arrives at his North Atlantic baypen, a giant floating structure with mesh walls.
Keiko's pen will protect him while he becomes reacquainted with an environment he hasn't experienced since his capture.
Researchers estimate Keiko was 1 or 2 years old when captured in 1979 and taken to an aquarium in Iceland.
Marineland in Ontario, Canada, bought the whale in 1982, then sold him to Reino Aventura, an amusement park in Mexico City, where Warner Bros. filmed him for its 1993 box office hit "Free Willy."
The movie brought him to the attention of millions of viewers, who rallied around Keiko when word got out that his health was declining and he needed to be moved. Warner Bros. and the film's producers began raising money to find Keiko better quarters and
better care, and soon donations topped $4 million.
In early '96, under the coordination of the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation, Keiko was moved to Oregon Coast Aquarium, and his rehabilitation began.
Tracy Karmuza, a 22-year-old animal care specialist for the foundation who is originally from Waterbury, is one of 10 people training Keiko for his return to the North Atlantic.
"We expect Keiko to adapt to the baypen easily. He adjusted to the Oregon facility fairly quickly," Karmuza said. "A completely new structure and new surrounding will provide him with so much stimuli."
The baypen is 60 percent larger than his tank at the aquarium. It is 250 feet long by 100 feet wide and more than 25 feet deep, encompassing about 3.2 million gallons of water. Including the anchoring system, netting and lift, it weighs 180,000 pounds.
It has mesh walls, which will allow Keiko to communicate with the wild North Atlantic orcas. "We are hoping wild killer whales will come up to the baypen to check Keiko out," said Harvey.
The only interaction Keiko has had with other marine mammals since his capture has been with one Pacific orca
in his Canadian tank and with dolphins in his Mexican tank.
Since arriving in Oregon, Keiko's only socialization has been with his human trainers from the Free Willy/Keiko Foundation. "We're his only contact, his only interaction," said Karmuza.
Fun With Keiko
Karmuza said there is usually someone in the tank with Keiko at all times.
"We do sessions with him. We play with him. We work with him in the water," said Karmuza. "We are constantly forming a relationship with Keiko."
Although Karmuza and her fellow trainers have bonded with the whale, they know their relationships are not enough for Keiko. Killer whales' lives revolve around relationships with other orcas, especially their family.
Families, called subpods, stay together for life and are headed by a matriarch. Her calves and their calves. Bulls mate outside the subpod and never know their offspring; they are loving uncles to their sisters' calves.
Keiko has been learning the skills he needs to survive as a killer whale, but his release will depend mainly on a subpod accepting him into its family and Keiko learning to depend on them rather than on his trainers.
Last August, the foundation began teaching Keiko to catch and eat live fish, a skill Keiko lost in captivity because of a daily 100-pound ration of frozen fish being dumped into his tank. The foundation includes live-fish sessions in Keiko's current training schedule. Currently, at least half of Keiko's diet is live fish.
Each day, Keiko can expect to have anywhere from three to eight training sessions, including live fish-hunting,
high-energy cardiovascular workand interaction with his trainers.
"We vary the days so he doesn't get into a pattern," said Karmuza. "We have to keep our energy up for him; otherwise, why would he want to work for us?" A daily training regimen without variation would hinder Keiko's adaptation to the wild.
The tank discourages routines and patterns and was built to stimulate Keiko. The currents generated in the tank
are changed regularly to discourage swimming in just one direction. Trainers use balls and other devices to keep Keiko alert.
The foundation concedes that Keiko may never go free.
"We rely on Keiko to let us know when he's ready for the next step," said Karmuza. "All of us are fully dedicated to caring for Keiko for the rest of his life if he's never ready to be released."
Harvey added: "To provide Keiko with the best life possible is our moral obligation. Even if he's never released, at least he'll be back in his own environment."
(Copyright @ The Hartford Courant 1998)
Date: Tue, 01 Sep, 1998
Gray Whale Litigation Update
Provided by Breach Marine Protection
The following is a brief summary of the developments in the lawsuit brought against the U.S. Government to stop the slaughter of California Gray Whales by the Makah Tribe.
- The case was transferred from Washington, D.C. to the Western District of Washington in Tacoma. The new judge, Franklin Burgess, is a Clinton appointee.
- The Makah's motion to intervene as a defendant has been granted.
- The Washington court ruled against the plaintiffs in regard to their attempts to gain access to unredacted copies of several records contained in the Administrative Record. The Defandant's had redacted certain passages from 10-12 records claiming that they either were irrelevant to the Makah issue or were privileged. Plaintiff's had credible evidence suggesting that many of the redacted passages were directly relevant to the Makah case and had asked the court to compel the release of these documents. Though the court ruled against plaintiffs on this issue, Meyer & Glitzenstein has asked the court in a more recent filing to, at least, examine the records in camera to determine if they should be released.
- Meyer & Glitzenstein has filed a motion to compel to gain access to approximately 60 documents that the government withheld when responding to a FOIA request on this issue submitted by The Fund for Animals. These records were also withheld from the Administrative Record provided to the court. The court has not yet ruled on this motion.
- Briefing in the case has been completed. It is anticipated that the court will set a hearing date soon.
- The U.S. Coast Guard has published a proposed rule to establish a regulated navigation area and exclusionary zone to protect the Makah whalers and to hinder the efforts of media and activists to monitor and document the Makah's whaling activities. The proposed rule violates several federal laws including the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Marine Sanctuaries Act, and is inconsistent with the rights guaranteed all citizens under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Meyer & Glitzenstein submitted comments on behalf of the plaintiffs on August 28 advising the Coast Guard of its failure to comply with the NEPA and threatening to sue if the Coast Guard does not subject the proposed rule to NEPA review. The Progressive Animal Welfare Society has also hired attorneys who are prepared to challenge the proposed rule, if finalized. The deadline for comments on the proposed rule is September 8, 1998.
- Though the Coast Guard's proposed rule is clearly illegal, it actually benefits the existing litigation by substantiating plaintiffs claims that wounded gray whales and the Makah whaling strategy poses a public safety threat. This also substantiates claims made in the litigation that the government failed to adequately evaluate several issues, including the public safety issue, in the Environmental Assessment prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service on the Makah whaling issue. The proposed rule also provides clear and compelling evidence about the significant controversy associated with the Makah whaling plans.
As you can see, there has not been a great deal of activity in this case. It is expected that there will be more activity in this case during the next month. Additional updates will be provided as new developments occur.
Anyone wishing to make a contribution, towards the legal costs of this lawsuit or in any other way, should contact any of the below:
Breach Marine Protection
email: BreachEnv@aol.com
D.J. Schubert
email: Schubertaz@aol.com
Meyer & Glitzenstein
email: JRLovvorn@aol.com
Date: Thu, 03 Sep, 1998
Whale Hunt - But For Science Armed Biologist Takes Only Photos And Tissue Samples And Tags Grays
By: Paul Shukovsky - Seattle P-I Reporter
Sometimes people don't understand what's happening when they see Pat Gearin take aim with a crossbow and let fly an arrow into the flank of a gray whale.
But Gearin is not a hunter. He's a biologist working for the National Marine Fisheries Service in cooperation with the Makah Tribe here. Plying the Strait of Juan de Fuca, he fires modified arrows to both tag whales and take tissue biopsies the size of a junior-size Tootsie Roll.
To a whale, "it's like a mosquito bite," Gearin said.
To a casual observer, Gearin's motives might appear far different.
He recalled how he and his colleagues once fired an arrow carrying an identification tag into a whale just offshore along state Route 112. A passing motorist saw the shot, became outraged and "started cursing us out," Gearin said.
The 11-year-old joint research and conservation program with Makah Tribal Fisheries biologists isn't solely about whales. Since 1994, Gearin and his colleagues have been studying the feeding habits and counting endangered Steller's sea lions in Makah fishing territory. More than a thousand sea lions can be seen lazing on the rocky outcrops and sea stacks at the far northwest tip of the state.
Innovations by Gearin have also saved harbor porpoises, which were once commonly caught in fishing nets. The solution: Adapt the electronic pingers used to warn people that a truck is backing for use on nets to warn porpoises to steer clear. Now tribal fishery regulations require pingers on nets.
Last spring, Fisheries Service biologists began studying whether hungry harbor seals and sea lions harm the already shaky Lake Ozette sockeye salmon run.
All these tasks are typical for a marine biologist. But now Gearin is facing a new role as part biologist, part game warden. This fall when the Makah resume their traditional whale hunt after a seven-decade hiatus, Gearin will observe the kill and perform a post-mortem exam as the representative of the U.S. government and the International Whaling Commission.
The hunt, which has sparked cries of outrage from animal rights activists, will require someone who knows the ways of the whale and also the culture and customs of the Makah. That's why Gearin has the job.
Even though the government supports the right of the Makah to hunt whales, Gearin says he will be a neutral, scientific observer.
While eight Makah hunters will stalk the whale in a dugout canoe and strike first with a handmade harpoon, the coup de grace will be delivered with a .50-caliber, armor-piercing military rifle. Gearin will observe the hunt from a chase boat.
"Our role is to monitor the (whale) harvest to ensure it is efficient and humane," Gearin said. "We would all like to see a quick, humane kill."
He said he is confident that the .50-caliber rifle will accomplish that goal. Fisheries Service biologists witnessed the test of the weapon on a dead whale and determined that a shot in the right location would kill the animal instantly, he said.
After the whale is towed to the beach, Gearin will examine and measure it, collect the stomach contents to see what it has been eating, and estimate its age by examining ear bones.
He also will take tissue samples to test for the presence of pollutants such as the pesticide DDT, or PCBs, an oily compound formerly used as an electrical coolant.
From Gearin's previous work with gray whales, he concludes that "the whales look pretty clean" of pollutants.
The biopsy program started just last year when three whales were struck with the special arrows, which are designed to pop out instantly. No whales have been sampled so far this year because they have yet to return to Washington waters on their migration from the Bering Sea to Baja California, he said last week.
In recent weeks, Gearin and Fisheries Service biologist Merrill Gosho have spotted about 30 whales hugging the shores of Vancouver Island about 14 miles away across the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
But when the whales return to U.S. waters and he resumes taking biopsies, Gearin wants people to know it doesn't hurt the huge animals.
When struck by an arrow, the whales "are startled for a moment, submerge," then go about their business like nothing has happened, he said.
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at 206-448-8072 or paulshukovsky@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 03 Sep, 1998
Trial landing for Free Willy whale goes smoothly
By Bernard Scudder
REYKJAVIK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Plans to return the world's most famous killer whale to his native Icelandic waters were on track on Thursday after a successful trial run of his landing.
Keiko, star of the "Free Willy" movies, is to be moved on September 9 from an aquarium in Oregon in the United States to a large, floating sea-pen in a secluded bay in Iceland's Westman Islands, arriving at 0900 GMT on September 10. A practice landing by a United States Air Force C-17A Globemaster III to an airstrip on the Westman Islands, seven miles (11 kms) off Iceland's southern coast, was postponed for two days this week due to strong winds.
But on Thursday the aircraft managed a successful journey to the Westmans, said a spokesman for U.S.-manned Iceland Defence Force which is based at Keflavik, southwest Iceland.
"The point of the exercise was to establish whether the C-17A could actually land on the small airstrip in the Westman Islands," the spokesman told Reuters.
On touchdown, the C-17A caused minor damage to the surface of the Westman Islands runway which has never taken a plane of that size before. Repair work is underway.
Following the successful trial, the plane was to leave Iceland for Newport, Oregon, to meet its five tonne passenger.
For the flight to Iceland Keiklo will be lifted from his two million gallon pool and lowered into a custom built water filled container for loading onto the C17, the only plane capable of flying non-stop from Newport to Iceland.
The flight is being paid for by the Free Willy Foundation which has been bankrolled by Warner Bros, the Hollywood studio that released the first "Free Willy" film in 1993, and cellular telephone magnate Craig McCaw among others.
The foundation has campaigned for four years for the release of Keiko who was caught in Icelandic waters as a baby and has spent all but two of his 20 years in captivity.
He was the star attraction of a Mexico City amusement park until he shot to fame in the 1993 film in which a boy befriends a killer whale in a theme park and helps him escape.
Hallur Hallsson, Icelandic spokesman for the Free Willy Foundation, said there was a contingency plan to land at the Keflavik base if weather conditions forced a change in plan.
"But the plan is still to take Keiko straight to his new home," Hallsson told Reuters. Weather will be the big unknown in the Keiko touchdown plans. The Westman Islands are prone to strong Atlantic gales, although the sea pen where Keiko will be kept in a bay named Klettavik is sheltered by cliffs.
The U.S. Air Force will be monitoring wind conditions in the Westman Islands before taking off from Newport.
"The plane will leave on schedule unless the weather in Iceland is very bad, although of course we won't be taking any risks," Hallsson said. "But the long-term forecast is looking good and we're optimistic it will all go smoothly."
Some Icelanders are surprised at the flurry of media interest with up to 200 foreign journalists expected to be on hand to watch Keiko's home-coming.
Jon K. Gunnarsson, one of the team involved in capturing Keiko off Iceland 18 years ago, expressed his surprise at the media spotlight in a letter to a local newspaper.
"Keiko could yield enough meat to make 60,000 meatballs, which could feed many mouths in our hungry world," he wrote.
Date: Thu, 03 Sep, 1998
Animal groups disgusted with new dolphin-swim law
By Barbara Hagenbaugh
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After years of pleading by animal welfare groups, the U.S. Agriculture Department Friday will issue rules to protect dolphins at popular tourist attractions that give people an opportunity to swim with the mammals.
But animal organizations, including the influential Humane Society of the United States, said the rules are weak, and questioned why it took the Agriculture Department 3-1/2 years from its first proposal to make the regulations law.
"I am livid," said Dr. Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the Humane Society, after reading the final rule.
Rose said the USDA made very few changes to its original proposals and the department's agency that developed the rules, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, was favoring business bottom lines.
"Their mandate is to protect animals, not to protect business and not to protect people," Rose said of APHIS.
Humane Society members, fed up with how long the process was taking, have been sending letters to the Agriculture Department for months, asking it to put rules in place.
The regulations, received by Reuters Thursday, govern "swim-with-the-dolphin" programs, including the size of the tanks, how many people on staff need to monitor the swims and how long each day the dolphins can interact with humans.
There are currently six registered dolphin-swim programs in the United States, the USDA said, but animal welfare groups said the unofficial number is much higher. Tourists pay more than $100 per half hour to "fulfill a fantasy," one dolphin- swim worker said.
USDA officials were not available to comment on the rules or the delay in making them official, but Michael Dunn, a USDA assistant secretary, said in a statement:
"These new regulations will help us ensure the safety and well-being of marine mammals used in swim-with-the-dolphin programs ... We believe it is in the best interests of the animals to add such regulations."
The Agriculture Department first issued its proposals on Jan. 23, 1995, and received 22 comments from industry, animal groups, government agencies and members of the public.
The USDA mostly stuck to its initial ideas, including the more controversial items, such as the rule that limits the people-to-dolphin ratio at 3-to-1 and another that states dolphins can only spend two hours interacting with people per day, with a 10-hour rest period every 24 hours.
Animal welfare groups argued that that is too much time and too many people for the dolphins' safety.
They also said the size of the pools permitted by the USDA is too small and that the regulations do not give the dolphins enough space to retreat if they do not want to be around humans. The rule that veterinarians only have to inspect the dolphins "at least once a month" is also dangerous, they said.
The Agriculture Department, however, said that stricter requirements were not necessary and would pose an unnecessary burden on swim-with-dolphin businesses.
"Standards more restrictive than those set forth in this rule would require significant increases in expenses and record keeping, without a commensurate increase in the well-being of program animals," the department said in the final rule.
The animal welfare groups said the Agriculture Department had not collected information on the impact of human contact on the dolphins. They also questioned if the Agriculture Department will keep a close eye on the dolphin-swim businesses.
"The (APHIS) record of enforcement has been poor in the past," Mark Berman of the San Francisco-based conservation organization Earth Island Institute said.
"They can write all the rules they want, but if they do not enforce them, they are worthless."
But John McNamara, who books dolphin-swims in the Florida Keys for Dolphin World, said the industry is "self-regulated."
"Everybody seems to be caring about the dolphins and their well-being," he said.
"If any one is abusing the dolphins, the word will get out."
Date: Sat, 05 Sep, 1998
Battle looms as Indians renew whale huntBy: Giles Whittell - The Times of London
Neah Bay is a four-hour drive from Seattle, but it might as well be in a different century. Here, on the extreme northwest tip of the continental United States, dark cliffs plunge into the Pacific and stinking elephant seals barely tolerate the intrusion of a lonely lighthouse on their favourite rock.
The seals are safe, but the California grey whales that graze on kelp beneath the cliffs are not. From October 1, an Indian tribe that has inhabited Neah Bay for at least 4,000 years plans to go after the whales with ancient harpoons, modern rifles and the backing of the US Government.
It will be the first whale hunt here in 70 years, and as environmentalists assemble a flotilla to oppose it, a full-scale maritime showdown looms. On the Indians' side there will be one, possibly two, crews of carefully chosen men trained this summer in basic whaling techniques off the north coast of Alaska, paddling in dugout cedar canoes with the honour of their tribe at stake.
Arrayed against them will be a British-built submarine painted to resemble a killer whale, a helicopter, two large vessels and more than 20 smaller ones piloted by protesters who claim the hunt will undermine an international whaling ban in order to put whale meat on Tokyo's menus. In the middle, a US Coast Guard cutter will attempt to keep the warring sides apart.
The Makah tribe, which numbers 18,000, has attracted sympathy as well as anger by holding the Government to an 1855 treaty allowing it to continue whaling in return for its ancestral lands. Elders proudly recall their grandfathers' tales of epic whale hunts in outrigger canoes at the mercy of the Northern Pacific. The Makah were the leading whalers of the American continent, they claim, famous for diving into the Gulf of Alaska's icy waters to sew whales' mouths shut and prevent them sinking on the long tow home. The tribe stopped whaling in the 1920s, when grey and humpback whales had been hunted to the brink of extinction.
It now claims resuming traditional whaling will revive its ancient culture.
But two years ago a trial run went badly wrong. A baby grey whale caught and killed by fishing nets baffled the locals. Tribal leaders reportedly needed the help of a visiting Eskimo to butcher the animal, and much of its meat was later seen in the town dump.
At last year's International Whaling Commission meeting in Monaco, the Makah argued that subsistence whaling would not hurt stocks of California greys, which have nearly doubled to 22,000 since 1986, and won exemption from the world whaling moratorium. Despite objections from most non-whaling nations, though not from Britain, the exemption allows the killing of up to four whales a year.
In a "humane" variation on traditional techniques, the Makah plan to station two men at the prow of each canoe, one with an old-fashioned harpoon on the end of a rope, the other with a specially built .50-calibre rifle to shorten the beast's suffering. In tests on a beached whale, one of the rifle's giant bullets left an 8in crater in the skull.
But Paul Watson, captain of the environmental ship Sea Shepherd III , believes he has an answer to the wide-bore gun: an "electronic curtain" of recorded underwater hunting cries uttered by killer whales, the California grey's chief natural predator. He said: "We hope to keep all grey whales at least 30 miles from the whaling boats." As back-up, a mini-sub bought from the Norwegian Navy was being camouflaged as a killer whale this week in a Seattle dry dock. He has accused Japan of secretly backing the Makah to set a precedent for its own "cultural" whaling.
"This is the loophole the Japanese and Norwegians will use to destroy the international whaling moratorium," he said. But the tribal whalers are ready to play dirty, too. "If (Watson) rams our boats," one said, "we'll ram his."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 05 Sep, 1998
Whaling Wall
The Times of London
What would happen if the peoples of every nation were licensed to practise their ancestral habits? Danes would take boat trips to Scotland to rape and pillage. Londoners would create traffic havoc by driving sheep across Tower Bridge. And President Clinton would be expected to exercise droit de seigneur over all internees. The world would mill in a state of social tumult similar to that which will be seen in microcosm next month when, in an extreme northwestern outpost of the United States, members of the Makah nation take to the seas for a whaling expedition amid flotillas of irate conservationists.
The history of the Makah tribe, now numbering some 18,000 members and mainly confined to the remote Neah Bay area of Washington State, is steeped in epic tales of whale hunts. Whale flesh was once a staple of Makah diet and, when their tribal lands were expropriated in 1855, elders signed a treaty with the Government providing for the continuance of ancestral customs. Shortly afterwards, however, finding commercial sealing more lucrative, they almost abandoned whaling. And since then, as cetacean populations dropped to dangerous levels, America became a signatory to the 1946 International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW).
The ICRW still allocates a whaling quota to indigenous communities whose subsistence or culture depend on it. Russian Inuits can kill 140 grey whale a year. But the British Government, along with most other signatories to the ICRW, does not consider the Makah to hold a valid claim. More than 70 years have elapsed since their last whale hunt. Only a handful of elders can recall it, and even fewer can remember traditional recipes for whale meat. When a whale drowned accidentally in Makah nets a few years ago, most of the flesh was dumped.
The grey whale, which the Makah are now intending to hunt, was almost extinct by the end of last century. Its removal from the endangered species list five years ago bears testament to rigorous conservation efforts. Yet the future of this cetacean is still insecure. Of the three lagoons off the Mexican coast where it gives birth, two are already disrupted by the Mitsubishi company's industrial-scale salt production and the third is now threatened. The whale's migratory routes up the West Coast are imperilled by heavy shipping, oil exploration and seismic testing.
The Makah people appear willing to adapt to the modern world when it suits them. Next month, rifles and motorised boats rather than traditional techniques will be used to hunt the grey whale. The US Government should capitalise on this willingness by encouraging their plans to invest in aquaculture. This sidestepping of the ICRW sets a dangerous precedent, without compelling justification for doing so.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 06 Sep, 1998
Coalition crackdown on dolphin killers
By Toni Jupe
ADELAIDE, (AAP) - The shooting of two dolphins in Adelaide's Port River has prompted the federal coalition to plan a crackdown on dolphin killings, including fines of up to $5.5 million and jail sentences.
People killing or injuring dolphins in commonwealth waters would face up to two years in jail and fines of up to $110,000 under the plan revealed today by Environment Minister Robert Hill.
And actions that had a significant impact on a threatened species of dolphin, whether in state or commonwealth waters, would attract fines of up to $550,000 for an individual and $5.5 million for a company.
Currently, the penalty for killing or injuring dolphins is a fine of up to $100,000, with no sentencing provisions.
On the eve of National Threatened Species Day tomorrow, Senator Hill said a loophole in current laws would also be closed by banning the capture of dolphins for live display.
Speaking at the seaside suburb of Glenelg, Senator Hill said public outrage at recent shootings of dolphins in Adelaide's Port River made it clear South Australians wanted all dolphins in local waters protected.
However, the proposed new laws, which only cover activities in commonwealth waters, from three nautical miles off the coast, would not affect the Port River common and bottle-nosed dolphins.
Those dolphins, whose species are not considered endangered, are covered by state laws only.
But Senator Hill said the government would review the conservation status of all dolphin species in Australian waters and nominate those which were vulnerable or endangered for listing under the Bonn Convention, an international agreement about
protected species.
However, Australian Greens senator Bob Brown said Senator Hill should use his powers to extend the planned penalties to all Australian waters, both commonwealth and state.
Date: Sun, 06 Sep, 1998
Homecoming For Keiko - Back To Iceland And Uncharted Waters
By: Edie Lau Sacramento Bee Staff Writer
Keiko the movie-star whale is going home to the Atlantic Ocean this week, and some credit for that must go to Humphrey the wayward whale.
It was Humphrey, a humpback whale that got lost in the Sacramento River Delta but lived to find the sea, that inspired biologist Ken Balcomb to suggest returning Keiko to nature.
Balcomb, founder of the Center for Whale Research in Washington, believed that Humphrey would die from the 25-day ordeal in 1985. But three times afterward, Balcomb saw the whale alive. "That was the first time I said I better not discount these animals' abilities to survive," he said.
Humphrey's situation wasn't anything like Keiko's, of course. The humpback was a wild animal. Keiko, star of the movie "Free Willy," has lived in marine parks for 20 years -- nearly all his life.
In fact, nothing in history compares to Keiko's impending move to the sea. Humans have little experience with freeing captive marine mammals, and none whatsoever with killer whales -- much less one that's been tamed for decades.
"In a sense, it's going to be a great big experiment," said Terrie Williams, a biology professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz.>br>
"You can't point to one study and say, 'This is how you do it.' "
Keiko's owners know this well. "There's really no telling (what will happen)," acknowledged Bob Ratliffe,
executive vice president of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.
"Is his family going to find him? Will he care? We just don't know."
On Wednesday, the 5-ton orca will be moved from his pool at the Oregon Coast Aquarium into a water-filled transport container and placed aboard an Air Force cargo plane for an eight-hour flight to Iceland, where he was captured.
There, in a harbor off the island of Heimaey, a new custom-built sea pen is ready for the whale celebrity. In the floating pen with mesh sides and bottom, Keiko can swim in tides and currents, share space with small marine animals that happen by, and possibly communicate with passing wild orcas.
If he does well -- if he learns to feed himself fully on live fish, if he establishes rapport with local killer whales, if he's healthy and fit -- then perhaps Keiko will be released.
"If science and his behavior tell us that we can do it, we'll do it," Ratliffe said.
"That's still up in the air."
Wild killer whales have a complex social structure, which suggests that reintroducing Keiko to his kind will be tricky, said John Heyning, curator of mammals at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.
"You can imagine . . . if you were raised by wolves and all of a sudden put back into human society -- that's kind of the analogy," Heyning said.
"It doesn't mean it won't be successful, but it's not as easy as people think."
Ratliffe said a staff of 10 will stay indefinitely in Iceland, available if Keiko must remain in the pen
with human support. "As long as Keiko lives there, they'll be there," he said.
The campaign to return Keiko to the sea dates to 1993. That summer, the orca appeared in the movie "Free Willy," a tale of a boy's quest to free a trained whale belonging to unscrupulous park owners.
While the movie whale triumphantly leaped a rock jetty to reach the open ocean, the public learned that the real-life whale was sick, skinny and stuck in tepid water in a cramped tank in a Mexico City amusement park.
Enter Balcomb, who grew up in Carmichael and studied marine mammal biology at UC Davis. Balcomb suggested rehabilitating Keiko, then returning him to Iceland. The idea took hold. The Mexico City park donated the whale to the newly formed Free Willy Keiko Foundation, which built a $7.3 million pen for him at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. In 2 1/2 years there, Keiko has gained 1,900
muscular pounds.
If Humphrey gave Balcomb confidence that Keiko can make it, a dolphin called Bahama Mama reinforced it. Balcomb met Bahama Mama while studying wild dolphins in the Bahamas. From her sea pen, where she lived as part of a "swim with the dolphins" program, she would "chat" with passing wild dolphins.
One day in the mid-1990s, the dolphin escaped her pen at high tide. Balcomb said about six months later, he saw Bahama Mama -- recognizable by a scar on her dorsal fin -- hanging out with other female dolphins and their babies.
For every anecdote about survival in the wild, however, is a horror story. Take the case of Buck and Luther. The two dolphins had been trained by the U.S. Navy, given into the custody of a civilian handler, and released without authorization in the spring of 1996.
Separately, the beleaguered dolphins showed up off the Florida Keys, begging boaters for food. Both animals were returned to captivity.
Is there a right way to free captive animals?
While not enough work has been done to say definitively, Randall Wells, a wildlife conservationist with the Chicago Zoological Society, has demonstrated a successful method -- at least for young male bottlenose dolphins.
In one of the only carefully controlled scientific studies on the subject, Wells captured two dolphins in Florida's Tampa Bay in 1988 with the intent of later returning them to the wild. For two years, Misha and Echo lived at UC Santa Cruz, where the late Kenneth Norris studied echolocation in the pair.
In 1990, the dolphins returned to Tampa Bay. For about a month, they acclimated to the sea in a pen, perfecting their ability to catch live fish and seeing humans less and less. Then researchers let them go.
Since then, the animals have been sighted scores of times, thriving with separate groups of wild dolphins.
Wells cautioned that the results cannot be generalized to all bottlenose dolphins -- whose social structures vary from region to region -- let alone to all marine mammals.
However it is accomplished, Wells said that above all, a release must not upset the wild population. "Can you just plug an animal into that, have it fit into the society, not have it disrupt the organization?" he said.
"From a conservation point of view, that's what's important."
Doug DeMaster, director of the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle, holds a similar view. Speaking personally, not for his agency, DeMaster said he is concerned about the risk of Keiko exposing local orcas to disease.
Keiko has been tested for a broad range of viruses and bacteria -- probably more than any other killer whale ever -- but DeMaster views even a slight risk as too much.
Others who question the value of returning Keiko to the wild say the money devoted to the whale would be better spent on endangered species or habitat preservation.
"It's a fine thing, save the dolphin, save the whales," said Dana Carnegie, a spokeswoman for Dolphin Research Center in Florida, which uses dolphins in public displays.
"If they don't have a healthy ocean, why bother?"
The Free Willy Keiko Foundation has spent more than $10 million on Keiko so far. Most went toward the pen in Oregon. The flight to Iceland costs $400,000, including the special transport container. The sea pen in Iceland cost $1 million.
Ratliffe, the foundation executive vice president, said the effort is about more than Keiko. It's about teaching children -- many of whom have donated to the Keiko campaign -- that "adults do keep their promises, that dreams do come true," he said.
It's also about respecting other intelligent animals.
"How do we treat these animals with brains as large as ours?" he asked rhetorically.
"What message do we send to children about how marine mammals should be treated?"
Williams, the biology professor at UC Santa Cruz, visited Keiko briefly two years ago to measure the animal's aerobic capacity (based upon how long he could hold his breath). Like most everyone else, she wishes the whale well. But she is dubious
that the good will toward Keiko will spread to other marine mammals.
"I think people become enthralled with the individual. That's great, it's kind of an emotionally satisfying thing for the person," Williams said.
"I have a concern about marine mammals in general, just what I see happening with whole populations. It's hard. I wish I could write a book and a movie about all of them."
On the Internet For more information on Keiko and what awaits him in Iceland, point your browser at this Internet
address: http://keiko.vestmannaeyjar.is
Although the trainers admit they don't know what the future holds for Keiko, they hope they will one day be able to
open the door of the sea pen and let him go free.
Keiko's home since his capture:
- 1979 North Atlantic: Captured off the coast of Iceland and held at an Icelandic aquarium for three years.
- 1982 Ontario: airlifted to Marineland in Niagra Falls, Ontario; trained to perform.
- 1985 Mexico City: bought by Reino Aventura amusement park. Kept in a small pool, he developed a virus which caused warty growths on his tail and fins; underweight and listless, his dosal fin drooped over.
- 1996 Newport, Ore.: Flown in cargo plane to Oregon Coast Aquarium and nursed back to health. 5. 1998 Iceland:
Planned move to a protected cove on Vestmannaeyjar Island.
Keiko's journey to Iceland * Keiko's new home near Heimaey in the Westmann Islands.
At the aquarium At 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, Keiko will swim into his medical pool and onto the smae canvas sling used for the trip to Oregon. A crane will lift Keiko in his sling and place him inside a tranport box made of fiberglass, steel and plywood.
To the airport The crane will load the box onto a United Parcel Service flatbed truck, which will drive Keiko to Newport Municipal Airport. There, Keiko will be rolled with freight-loading equipment off the flatbed and into a U.S. Cargo Air Force C-17 cargo plane.
On the plane For the approximately nine-hour flight, veterinarians will keep Keiko's fresh water tank at about 45 degrees. If the water gets too warm, they will add ice chips. Four veterinarians will monitor his condition throughout the flight. The flight Twice during the flight, a KC-10 tanker aircraft will refuel the C-17 in air; once just an hour after takeoff and a second time somewhere over the East Coast.
In Iceland Keiko is scheduled to arrive in Iceland at 9 a.m. Grenwich mean time Thursday. He'll be driven about
a mile to a barge, and lifted onto the barge by crane. Trainers estimate the whale will be in the sea by noon. The new accommodations Keiko will live in a floating pen in a cove off the southwest coast of Iceland.
100 ft. wide 250 ft. long 24 ft. deep
Observation area Medical pool Dive locker, refrigerator and food preparation area Clear plastic platform
High-density polyethylene pipe, 1 inch think and 30 inches in diameter, filled with foam Polypropylene netting.
Floating pen The enclosed 3.2-million-gallon pen, the largest of its kind, will be anchored to the cove and accessible by boat. Keiko is 21 feet long and weighs about 10,000 pounds.
Living in a pool Keiko has lived in three pools, each bigger than the last. Reino Aventura Park in Mexico City Newport Oregon Coast Aquarium Floating penoff coast of Iceland.
Sources: Free Willy Keko foundation; Oregon Coast Aquarium, Warner Brothers, Salem Statesman Journal
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 06 Sep, 1998
'Free Willy' a real-life mission for former Springs resident
By: Jodi Garber; The Gazette
On Wednesday, Air Academy High School graduate Brian O'Neill will take part in a historic eight-hour flight that will culminate in a real-life effort to free Willy.
Keiko, a 10,000-pound killer whale, portrayed Willy in the 1993 surprise hit movie "Free Willy" about a boy who befriended a captive whale, then helped to set him free from his cruel owners.
The movie's popularity led to the discovery that Keiko, confined in a too-warm and too-small tank in a Mexico City amusement park, was in poor health.
Through a worldwide effort to save Keiko and return him to the wild, O'Neill and nine other animal-care specialists from the Oregon Coast Aquarium will hop a plane headed for Iceland in the first attempt to free Keiko.
"Nobody's ever done this before, so we don't know what will happen," O'Neill said in a recent phone interview from his Newport, Ore., home.
O'Neill, 35, has devoted the past three years to Keiko. The team and the whale will fly in a Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo plane.
Three years ago, O'Neill, a 1985 Colorado State University graduate, joined the 10-member team set up to nurse Keiko back to health. The team also had the task of getting him ready to return to the wild so he eventually could be released.
Keiko has been taught to hunt live fish. Occasionally, he catches his daily ration, about 140 pounds.
The team's goal is to stop all human contact with Keiko, although the whale's health will be monitored for a while in Iceland.
"The most important stuff we've been working on lately has been what's called husbandry, which is basically to be hands-on with him where we can take a blood sample and do other health monitoring," O'Neill said.
No one knows how long reintroducing Keiko to the wild will take.
"I'll stay with the project as long as it lasts," O'Neill said. "It's kind of fun. It could be a year; it could be five."
In Iceland, Keiko will be kept in a bay pen - a framework with netting that sits in a bay in the North Atlantic. Keiko will remain there until the team deems the whale ready for release.
"It's like being in a tank, but there are no solid sides; you can see through it," O'Neill said.
The animal-care team hopes Keiko and wild animals will interact while the whale is in the bay pen.
During the wait, O'Neill and the rest of the team will be conducting research consisting of attaching devices to whales to monitor how deep and fast they swim and how quickly their hearts beat.
It will be the first time such tests have been done on killer whales in the wild. Team members will compare the results with similar tests done on Keiko in captivity.
"If we ever do release Keiko, we would be monitoring him," O'Neill said. "So we want to try to make longer-lasting monitors."
Keiko will continue to receive lots of attention while in his holding pen in Iceland, but nobody knows how the
animal will react if and when he is finally released. The fact is, Keiko has spent most of his 20 years with humans.
The humans working with Keiko will feel a loss if that netting is ever removed and Keiko swims away for good. Sometimes killer whales migrate; it depends on what their pod, or group of whales, does.
"You always grow somewhat attached to the animals," O'Neill said.
"I try to look at them as just another animal, but you never get away from that. They're always special."
Saying goodbye to other animals has been hard, but O'Neill thinks this goodbye may be particularly difficult.
"Because I have been working with a solitary animal for such a long time, it is definitely a different situation where I am more attached to him," he said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. (Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 07 Sep, 1998
Setting Whale Free Is Complicated
By Jeff Barnard - Associated Press Writer
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) -- In the movie "Free Willy," the killer whale leaps to freedom over a harbor breakwater with the help of an ancient Haida Indian prayer and a young boy named Jesse.
For Keiko, the killer whale who played Willy, a real life bid for freedom and a chance to rejoin his pod off Iceland is a lot more complicated.
On Wednesday, he will be lifted by a crane, driven by a United Parcel Service truck and flown by a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster cargo plane before arriving Thursday in the Vestmann Islands off Iceland, where a floating sea pen as big as a football field awaits him.
Throughout the $2 million journey to Iceland, Keiko will be lying in a specially built watertight box to keep him wet and comfortable.
"We've planned for every possible contingency -- if somebody has a heart attack, if the whale doesn't feel good, or if we have to land in Toledo," says Jeff Foster, director of field operations and research for the Free Willy Keiko Foundation.
"We have the world's attention. We're not taking any shortcuts."
All the preparations will be for naught, however, if Keiko doesn't follow the hand signal to swim into his medical pool for the crane hookup, so trainers have been working with him.
They've already switched him temporarily from feeding on live fish to dead fish so he won't be distracted any more than he already is. He's nearing the end of a sexually charged period equivalent to the rut for a bull elk.
"He's like a teen-age boy," Foster says.
"His mind is in the gutter."
Keiko has sensed that something is up for some time. He has noticed handlers bleaching the medical pool and construction of special scaffolding where reporters and photographers will watch the start of his journey.
"He seems to know something's going on," says trainer Karen McRae.
"I don't think he knows what."
Wednesday afternoon, a trainer will signal Keiko to swim into the medical pool. Handlers will lock watertight gates into place and drop the water level to 4 feet. Six trainers will get into the pool with Keiko and position the nylon stretcher. One will fit a
strap under Keiko's chin and gently tow him into the stretcher, where he will roll around a little to get comfortable.
In the stretcher, Keiko will be weighed, both for his medical history and for the plane ride.
Then the crane will lift Keiko over the wall of his tank and lower him into the watertight box, which measures 28 feet long, 8 feet wide and 9 feet high. The box is fiberglass with a steel framework.
U.S. Highway 101 will be closed to traffic while Keiko is driven on the back of a flatbed truck to the local airport, where the box will be rolled into the C-17's 88-foot-long cargo bay. It has space for 102 troops and 170,000 pounds of cargo -- more than enough room to handle a 21-foot-long whale weighing 10,000 pounds.
The C-17 was chosen because it is the only plane in the world that can carry a payload like Keiko and land on a short, rough runway, like the one in the Vestmanns.
The box will have 18 inches of freshwater in it to keep Keiko wet until the C-17 reaches cruising altitude. Any more could create dangerous weight shifts during takeoff, despite built-in baffles to keep the water from splashing around too much. They can't use seawater, because the salt would cause corrosion in the plane.
Once the plane levels off, the trainers will pump in an extra 1,628 gallons of water from a separate tank to float Keiko just off the bottom of the tank.
During the eight-hour flight, trainers will rub diaper-rash lotion around Keiko's blow hole, on his back and his floppy dorsal fin to ease dryness.
The plane will be refueled twice in the air to avoid the stress of multiple takeoffs and landings.
After landing, Keiko will be trucked to the sea pen, where his training will resume.
His trainers will live in a youth hostel and have committed to staying with Keiko as long as he needs them, even if he is never ready for freedom.
"By the second summer, we should know whether he will be releasable or not," Foster says.
"It's not as easy as jumping over the breakwater and swimming off."
Date: Wed, 09 Sep, 1998
Marineland dolphin seriously ill
Napier, - Cassana, one of Napier Marineland's famous dolphins is seriously ill.
The 14-year-old dolphin became lethargic last week, she stopped performing and refused food.Napier, Sept 9 - Cassana, one of Napier Marineland's famous dolphins is seriously ill.
The 14-year-old dolphin became lethargic last week, she stopped performing and refused food.
Results of blood tests returned late last night showed Cassana has liver and kidneys problems.
Marineland manager Gary McDonald said there were now "serious concerns" for the dolphin's health as today she did not look any better and was still refusing food.
Cassana's pool would be partly drained tonight and the dolphin would be put on a stretcher and force-fed in an attempt to keep up her liquids, he said.
She was already showing signs of dehydration and was being treated by a local vet with injections of antibiotics.
Cassana is one of Marineland's youngest dolphins and battled a mystery virus last year but recovered to full health.
Date: Wed, 09 Sep, 1998
Scientists say whales not cause of salmon woes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska, (Reuters) - Fish-eating beluga whales appear to be blameless in the recent sockeye salmon
disasters that have struck southwestern Alaska's Bristol Bay region, scientists from the National Marine Fisheries Service said.
The scientists found that there has been no dramatic increase in the number of Bristol Bay beluga whales, and there
appears to be no correlation between beluga population and harvest failures, contrary to some fishermen's accusations that whale predation has caused two years of poor salmon fishing.
"There's got to be more to the story than just belugas," said Brian Fadely, a Juneau-based marine biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service.
This summer's harvest of sockeye salmon from Bristol Bay was about 10 million fish, half of the amount forecast by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game before the season started.
Studies show that the number of Bristol Bay belugas has remained fairly stable since the 1950s at 1,500, despite widely fluctuating sockeye salmon runs during the past 40 years, according to results released this week by the agency.
To have caused the salmon shortfall that befell Bristol Bay this summer, 50,000 belugas would have had to eat 10 million adult sockeye salmon, the studies said.
Date: Thu, 10 Sep, 1998
Keiko Touches Down in Iceland; Flight Smooth and On Time
WESTMAN ISLANDS, Iceland - Keiko the killer whale and his accompanying crew arrived safely and in good spirits in Iceland, landing at Vestmannaeyjar Airport at 9:55 a.m. Greenwich Standard Time.
A soft touchdown culminated a nine-hour non-stop flight from Newport, Ore., with two mid-air refuelings for the U.S. Air Force C-17 plane. Free Willy Keiko crews immediately began the process of unloading Keiko for the final leg of the journey from the airport to his sea pen.
Keiko was pronounced to be in excellent condition and comfortable throughout the flight, accompanied by an entourage including three veterinarians and five foundation staff trainers.
In approximately two hours, Keiko will be lowered in his new floating pen in a sheltered area off the Westman Islands. The pen is 250 feet long by 100 feet wide and more than 25 feet deep, and can hold roughly 3.2 million gallons of water - the largest net pen ever built for a marine mammal. Weighing 180,000 pounds, it is 60 percent larger than his Newport, Ore., pool. The pen's mesh sides will allow Keiko to see the rest of the bay and acoustically interact with his environment. A walkway surrounds the pen and supports two small buildings, which include a medical pool, food preparation area, dive locker and generator room.
Keiko's quality of life will be enriched in the natural environment, where for the first time, he will be exposed to the sights and sounds of other killer whales and marine mammals. Pods of killer whales regularly are seen in the Westman Islands at least six months out of every year. Keiko will be closely attended by the same staff who cared for him in Oregon.
The Free Willy Keiko Foundation has been working to move Keiko to a natural environment in the North Atlantic. The foundation scouted 5,000 miles of eastern North Atlantic coastline, including Iceland, looking for appropriate sites for Keiko's floating pen. In June, Iceland's government agreed to host Keiko. The whale's pen, which was airlifted to Iceland in June, has been assembled in a sheltered bay in the Westman Islands.
Date: Sat, 12 Sep, 1998
Keiko's trainers brace for harsh Icelandic winter
Heimaey, Iceland, (AP) - When 160kmh winds begin to howl and daylight dwindles to three hours a day, Free Willy star Keiko won't be the only one enduring a harsh Icelandic winter.
Ten trainers are committed to shuttling between the United States and Iceland for at least the next two years as they try to prepare the famous whale for its eventual release into the open ocean.
The trainers, all part of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation's experimental project, will live in Iceland for 42-day stints broken up by 28-day breaks.
"They are ready for the long haul," said Nolan Harvey, 41, who is Keiko's chief trainer.
It's not just the prospect of a lengthy stay in Iceland that is daunting, but the conditions that the team members will face on Keiko's 75m-long sea pen that's anchored in a bay surrounded by volcanic cliffs.
The sea pen will have two small houses that sleep a total of four trainers. Harvey said he had little doubt that some team members would be forced to stay on the pen overnight when winter storms churn up the bay and make boat travel back to the island impossible.
"The weather in Iceland can change drastically in an hour," he said. "When that happens, we are prepared to hunker down for the night."
The bunk houses have a few amenities, including a high-tech toilet that burns human waste, some food supplies, a coffeemaker and even a videotape player.
Still, Harvey said he and the other team members were prepared for some unpleasant nights on a storm-tossed sea pen.
"These are basically single, young people who are looking at this as the chance of a lifetime," he said.
One of them is Stephen Claussen, 31, who sees himself as part of a grand experiment in which the Free Willy organisation will show the world that it is possible to return captive animals to the wild.
"I think Keiko will become an ambassador for the entire ocean," Claussen said.
A former employee of the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Washington, Claussen said moving to Iceland had taken some
adjustment.
"You go to a grocery store, and you don't see 37 brands of peanut butter the way you do in the US," he said. "But I think it's going to be fun."
When they're not out on the sea pen, Claussen and the other trainers will be living together in a six-bedroom house in town that once was a youth hostel.
Harvey, the trainers' boss, already has made a few of his own personal sacrifices for the Keiko cause.
He and the chief spokeswoman for the Free Willy foundation, Diane Hammond, got married on August 7, and Harvey left for Iceland the next day to begin making final preparations for Keiko's move to the Vestmann Islands.
Hammond was not able to join her new husband until last week, and they were together for Keiko's much ballyhooed arrival this past week.
The two will end up spending most of their time apart, however, because Hammond has a seven-year-old daughter from her first marriage in Oregon and doesn't want to move the girl to Iceland.
Harvey and Hammond are philosophical about their long-distance marriage. They met around the time Keiko was brought to Oregon in January 1996 to prepare him for his move to a sea pen, and both now say their dedication to that cause will help them overcome periods of separation.
"If we both weren't working for Keiko and didn't believe in this, I'm not sure we would be able to maintain our close relationship," Hammond said.
Date: Sun, 13 Sep, 1998
Rare whale washed up on Wellington-area beach
Wellington, Sept 13 - The massive body of a rare shepherd's beak whale was found on a beach in the Wellington area today. The five-metre-long, two-tonne mammal was found washed ashore at Oteranga Bay.
It is one of the fewer than 30 that have been found worldwide and the first in the Wellington area.
Two others have been found in the past in New Zealand, at Wanganui and Nelson.
The shepherd's beak whale, distinguished by its long dolphin-like snout, was cut up so it could be removed for study at the Museum of New Zealand in the capital.
The tide would have washed the carcass away had it been left on the beach.
The museum has two other specimens of the shepherd's beak whale. Whale curator Anton Van Helden said there would be worldwide interest in the extremely rare mammal.
Date: Mon, 14 Sep, 1998
Oslo rejects plea to sell whale blubber to Iceland
Oslo, (Reuters) - Norway turned down an application to export whale blubber to Iceland on Monday, saying the time was "not quite right" to resume the controversial international trade in whale products.
The Fisheries Ministry said it had rejected an application by Bastesen Fishing Corp AS to export up to 100 tonnes of minke whale blubber to Nordic neighbour Iceland.
Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993, defying a worldwide moratorium banning the practice. Oslo justifies whaling as part of domestic coastal traditions.
Bowing to international sensitivity over the issue, it operates unilateral controls of exports of whale meat and products. Norway has not issued a single export licence for whale products since regulations were introduced five years ago.
Steinar Bastesen, owner of Bastesen Fishing Corp and the only member of parliament for the Coastal Party which champions the rights of fishing communities, said the decision was "over cautious".
He had waited almost a year for a reply to his application, which was filed on October 24, 1997.
"I do not accept this. The ministry has no judicial justification to turn down exports and it is on judicial grounds that I will take this further," Bastesen told the NTB news agency.
Norwegian whalers caught 624 minke whales this season, which ended in mid-August, out of a record quota of 671.
Spokesman Halvard Johansen at the Fisheries Ministery said Norway continued to campaign for the rights of whalers and to get minke whales removed from the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
"We are working in different organisations to make whaling a normal activity in the fisheries as we believe it should be, but the time is not quite right to export whale products yet," Johansen told Reuters.
"We also believe there is no scientific basis for the listing of minke whales on CITES. There are hundreds of thousands of minke whales in the world's oceans and this just reduces respect for such a convention.
Johansen said Norway was also compiling a DNA register of all whales caught in Norwegian waters, a move aimed at stopping smuggling of whale products and identifying Norwegian products in the future.
Date: Mon, 15 Sep, 1998
NSW: Humpback whales in Sydney Harbour
SYDNEY, (AAP) - Two humpback whales paid a spring visit to Sydney Harbour this morning, midway through their long trek to Antarctic waters.
New South Wales Environment Minister Pam Allan said the mother and calf were spotted by a National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) ranger on a jetcat around 8am (AEST).
The whales were on their way from breeding grounds off Queensland to Antarctica to feed.
The best vantage points to see the whales would be between Vaucluse and Cape Banks, Ms Allan said.
NPWS officers are keeping an eye on the whales as they move around South Head.
Anyone on the harbour was urged to keep at least 200m from the whales.
Date: Wed, 17 Sep, 1998
Days of capturing whales, dolphins for display is over: Young
Wellington, - National list MP Annabel Young wants to see an end to whales and dolphins being held in captivity for live displays.
Miss Young said today she was seeking the support of her caucus to introduce a member's bill that would amend the Marine Mammals Act making it illegal to capture cetaceans and hold them in captivity.
She said it was inevitable that the three dolphins held at Napier's Marineland would be the last dolphins on live display in New Zealand.
However, she said her bill would ensure Marineland could continue to look after the three dolphins in its care.
"The public should continue to have the right to enjoy the dolphins that are already in captivity," she said in a statement.
"Napier should make the decisions about the future of these dolphins."
Marineland had four performing dolphins until the death last weekend of 14-year-old Cassana.
Napier Mayor Alan Dick said earlier Cassana's death signalled the 33-year-old marine zoo's days were numbered and a planned National Aquarium on Napier's Marine Parade should go ahead as soon as possible.
Napier City Council decided some time ago that the dolphins would not be replaced and Marineland would soon no longer be a viable tourist attraction.
"Dolphins in captivity is now a no-no," he said.
"If another animal dies it could all be over."
Miss Young said she wanted the law amended to reflect the change in public attitudes towards the capture and holding of cetaceans.
Date: Mon, 21 Sep, 1998
Judge OKs Makah Whaling Plan
By Peggy Andersen - Associated Press Writer
SEATTLE (AP) -- A Makah Indian plan to resume whaling off the coast of Washington state can proceed this fall, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Animal-rights groups, coastal tour-boat operators, kayakers and whale buff U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, R-Wash., had challenged the plan saying Commerce Department agencies failed to consider the environmental impact it might have.
But U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess denied their request for summary judgment and for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked the hunt.
The Makah plan to go whaling after Oct. 1 during the fall migration of gray whales from Alaska to Southern California. Another hunt likely would follow in the spring.
The Makah can take a maximum of five whales annually through 2002.
"We're very happy," Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission, said of the 16-page ruling by U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess of Tacoma.
"We disagree with the court's conclusions," said plaintiffs lawyer, Jon Lovvorn in Washington, D.C. No decision had been made on whether to appeal the ruling.
"We still have a lot of environmental concerns," Lovvorn said.
"We would hope the tribe would take these concerns into account."
The plaintiffs contend whaling in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary -- which extends for miles off the Makah reservation at Neah Bay, the northwesternmost tip of the Lower 48 -- will harm a small resident gray-whale population, could jeopardize
whale-watchers and kayakers, and may prompt similar hunts by others with whaling cultures.
Date: Wed, 23 Sep, 1998
Makah Cultural Whaling
You and I both know where we stand on this issue, or you wouldn't be reading this. This is not an abstract environmental issue being debated by scientists and politicians thousands of miles away. This slaughter will happen in Washington state waters! Once whales are killed here, the status of the U.S. as a whale-protecting nation will be fatally compromised. Global whaling will begin again in late 1998 because the United States -- now a whale-killing nation -- cannot oppose other countries if they, too, decide to kill whales. You know what that means for the Gray whales, which now number only in the thousands: They will become extinct in our lifetime. Once again, the great Blue whale, the Humpback and Orca will be slaughtered without mercy -- for sushi.
The Federal government is subsidizing this hunt with hundreds of thousands of dollars. The Coast Guard is being used to support it. The Makah Nation is devoting its own considerable reserves to the effort of breaching the last legal defenses for marine mammals in the U.S.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society made a commitment to the defense of these creatures over 20 years ago, and we will keep that commitment. We have established the Whale Guardians Network so that citizens can help protect the whales from hunting initiatives that are now proliferating in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. and Canada.
It is no longer enough to keep talking about saving whales. We need to act now. This is happening in your state. The only people who can stop this are the people who really care.
I'm sorry to be blunt, but this is simply what the situation is. The time has come. Sea Shepherd is going to be on the water with every vessel we have. We need you to keep our ships running. And these whales need you. You can help in two ways: Through your donation of time, and your donation of money to keep our ships on the scene.
We don't send out millions of generic "direct mail" solicitations that seek to use an issue in order to raise funds -- if you've been following the news, you know this is a project we are deeply committed to. Please carefully read the information in this letter to find out how you can directly assist. If you can help in any way, please answer the questions completely and return it as soon as possible (preferably via FAX). If you can think of something else you can do that we didn't cover on the form, please call us and let us know.
The clock is ticking. Time is running out. We need you now.
For the Whales,
Lisa Distefano
Expedition Leader
Gray Whale Protection Campaign
The Story Behind The Makah Tribe's Whale Hunt Plan
In May of 1994, Dave Sones, Fisheries Director for the Makah Indian Tribe of Western Washington state, won a five-year battle to remove the Western Pacific Gray whale from the U.S. endangered species list. (In pressing for the de-listing of the Gray whale, the Makah's lobbyists asserted that this move was "aimed not at allowing the hunting of gray whales but so that research money can be shifted to other species in need of monitoring, such as salmon or marine birds.") The Makah are the only Native American tribe to have reserved the right of killing whales by treaty.
On May 2, 1995, the Makah signed an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to construct a new breakwater and improvements to their marina. The environmental impact study they submitted listed fishing, tourism, and whale watching as the reasons for the improvements. Three days later, after five state and federal agencies committed to funding the new marina complex, the Makah informed the Department of Commerce of their intention to hunt whales.
There are several problems with the Makah proposal, other than the prospect of whales once again being killed within the waters of the continental United States.
First, no Makah has hunted a whale since 1926 and no living person can teach traditional whaling methods. (The Makah have purchased and propose to use military .50-caliber assault rifles - the same weaponry mounted in attack helicopters). Second, the Makah's intention to land five whales per year means they may strike and mortally wound up to 20 whales in the effort to land five. Finally, the Makah's bid has opened the door to whaling by every Indian band on the coast of British Columbia (the B.C.-based World Council of Whalers received $20,000 in startup money from Norway and Japan in 1996), over a dozen of whom have expressed their intention to press for rights to kill Gray whales, Orcas, and Humpbacks as an extension of their fishing treaties should the Makah receive final authorization from the International Whaling Commission and U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service. If the U.S. succeeds in allowing the Makah to kill whales, it will effectively undermine the integrity of the United States' whale protection stance in the IWC.
The Real Motive
The prospect of commercial whaling and the millions of dollars to be made from the black market trade in whale meat in Korea, Taiwan, and Japan is more than likely to overcome assurances of "local consumption only" and "ceremonial use" by the Makah, who have already established a lucrative sea urchin and sea cucumber trade with the Japanese. The crucial passage in the formal proposal of the Makah to the U.S. State Department and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is the explicit statement that "...We have a right...to harvest whales not only for ceremonial and subsistence purposes but also for commercial purposes." (Tribal council chairman Hubert Markishtum, May 5, 1995). On May 25, 1995, a Seattle Times columnist reported that Makah fisheries manager Dave Sones told him "the tribe hopes in the future to do some commercial whaling. There are markets overseas for the meat and oil.... The value of a Gray whale is estimated at a half-million dollars."
Getting Around The Law
The Makah have said they do not believe they need the authorization of the International Whaling Commission to resume whaling, but have sought that permission as a courtesy to the U.S. government. In 1996, concerted international opposition at the IWC denied them that permission and turned back their bid to breach the global ban on non-subsistence whale hunting.
In October 1997, the Makah tribe again approached the International Whaling Commission with a request to kill Gray whales, and despite broad opposition and criticism from the majority of other nations present, the United States managed to employ a deceptive strategy - "trading" five Bowhead whales from their Alaskan Eskimo quota for four Gray whales from the Russian government, who receive a quota of 120 Gray whales per year for Russian Chukchi Eskimos. The quota trade did nothing to qualify the Makah tribe to hunt whales, as they cannot demonstrate a "subsistence need" under the rules of the IWC. But through this "horse trading" the United States has proclaimed the Makah may now kill Gray whales. The Makah anticipate killing their first whale in the fall of 1998.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believes that the conditions that allowed the Makah a subsistence whaling clause in a 1855 treaty do not pertain more than 140 years later. The Makah must not be allowed to strike or kill a California Gray whale, and we will do everything possible to protect the Gray whales from Makah riflemen.
The Makah Cannot Legally Hunt Whales Because -The whaling clause in the their 1855 treaty is superseded by the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
-They do NOT have a "subsistence need" for whale meat
-They do NOT have an "unbroken tradition" of whaling
-There is no such thing as a "cultural whaling need" -- if the U.S. administration and the Makah succeed in establishing such a precedent, no whale will be safe within 200 miles of any coastline in the world.
To Protest The Makah Whaling Proposal
write to:
William Daley
Secretary of Commerce
1315 East West Hwy.
Silver Springs, MD 20190-3232
Phone: 202-482-6076
Mary Beth West
Deputy Asst. Secretary for Oceans & Environmental Affairs Department of State 2201 C. Street NW
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: 202-647-2396
Fax: 202-647-0217
Makah Tribal Council
P.O. Box 115
Neah Bay, WA 98357
Phone: 360-645-2788
The Hon. Jim Buck
House of Representatives
406 John L. O'Brien Bldg.
Olympia, WA 98504-0600
The Hon. Slade Gorton
U.S. Senate
Washington DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-3441
The Hon. Patricia Murray
U.S. Senate
Washington DC 20510
Phone: 202-224-2621
Fax: 202-224-0238
And Most Importantly:
Write to the President, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and your Congressional representative. Advise them that you expect the United States to stand firm to maintain the moratorium on whaling - whether its violators are the governments of Japan, Norway, or Canada, or U.S. native tribes.
President Bill Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
Washington D.C. 20500
Phone: (202) 456-1111
Fax: (202) 456-2461
Will Daley, Administrator NOAA
Herbert C. Hoover Bldg., Room 5128
14th & Constitution Ave., NW
Washington D.C. 20230
Phone: (202) 482-2112
Fax: (202) 482-2741
To determine the names & telephone numbers of your Representative, call (202) 224-3121.
WHALE GUARDIAN NETWORK
SEA SHEPHERD CONSERVATION SOCIETY
P.O Box 628
Venice, CA 90294
Fax: (310) 574-3161
e-mail: seashepherd@seashepherd.org
Web Site: http://www.seashepherd.org
Tel: 310-301-SEAL(7325)
Canada: 604-688-7325
Fax: 310-574-3161
PREVENT THE KILLING OF GRAY WHALES IN WASHINGTON!
Date: Sat, 26 Sep, 1998
NSW: NPWS whalewatching after sightings in Harbour
By Miranda Korzy
SYDNEY, (AAP) - Migrating whales and a pod of more than 200 dolphins were sighted off the New South Wales coast today in a pre-Olympic surveillance run by the National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS).
The sightings came during the final stages of the Sydney Harbour Regatta for Olympic Sailing Classes, which includes some ocean races.
Environment Minister Pam Allan said the pod of Common Dolphins was now about 12km east of Garie Beach, in the Royal National Park south of Sydney, and were not likely to move ashore.
"Aerial tracking conducted by the NPWS from 7.30am toay as part of a test strategy for the Sydney Olympics discovered the dolphins circling schools of fish over an area of about 500 metres squared," Ms Allan said in a statement.
The NPWS air crew also spotted two whales believed to be humpbacks, one 10km east of Garie Beach and the other 15km east of Gosford, on the central coast.
The minister issued an alert to boats around the Sydney coastline to be aware of migrating dolphins and whales near the state's coastline. A spokesman for the minister said the NPWS surveillance today and from 6.30am tomorrow involved three aircraft as well as land-based observers.
The 2000 Olympic sailing races held in Sydney Harbour and outside its heads would occur during the annual whale migration returning along the NSW coast from northern Queensland to Antarctica, he said.
During these migrations in recent years whales, which could weigh more than 20 tonnes, had entered the harbour for up to an hour.
The most recent sighting was on September 14 when a NPWS officer travelling on the Jetcat saw two humpbacks whales in the harbour.
NPWS surveillance would be carried out during the Games and if whales were then sighted near race courses the service would notify SOCOG and competitors.
If necessary, they would suggest rearranging the race schedule.
"If a boat hits a whale it's not the animal that comes to grief," the spokesman said.
"We're not under any circumstances in a position to move the animals along."
A SOCOG spokesman said whales were just another variable to be considered in race planning.
"We take advice from National Parks so whatever they say to us we do," he said.
Date: Thu, 01 Oct, 1998
The Great American Whale Hunt
by Richard Blow; MOTHER JONES - the Foundation for National Progress
As a Washington state Indian tribe prepares to revive a whale-hunting tradition, multiculturists and environmentalists fight over whether it's more important to save whales or Indian culture, and a 30-year global trend against killing whales will likely end. The reasons? A quest for cultural identity, the allure of foreign money, and political friends in high places.
During the summer of 1996, in Neah Bay, off the northwesternmost tip of the United States, a member of the Makah Indian tribe named Dan Greene hauled in a baby gray whale that he said had drowned in one of his fishing nets. Greene towed the 15-foot whale to a local beach, where Makah families poured out of their homes to take a look.
It was a fortuitous time to catch the whale, since the Makah, at the urging of Greene and a handful of others, were planning to start hunting them. Or, more accurately, restart hunting them, since the Makah had whaled up until the early 20th century, stopping after commercial fishing had made the whales all but extinct. Now they have decided to start again, and a few of the tribe's more enthusiastic members wanted to use this opportunity to practice eating their catch.
There was just one problem: None of the Makah knew what to do with a dead whale. Eventually, an Eskimo visiting from Alaska showed the men how to peel back the whale's skin and blubber before carving the meat beneath. Soon enough, a hefty package of whale meat was given to every member of the tribe who wanted it. Depending on whom you ask, the meat was either eagerly consumed or discreetly discarded in the town dump.
Now the Makah are preparing to send a canoe of eight men into the bay this October to hunt the Pacific gray whale during its fall migration. One hunter will carry a gun that shoots massive, .50-caliber bullets and will put the harpooned whale out of its suffering. Tracking the Makah's every move will likely be a swarm of media helicopters, a flotilla of protesters, and an even larger phalanx of law enforcement and government officials trying to ensure that whales are the only ones that get hurt. Away from the desolate bay, the hunt, which is being challenged in court by a Washington state congressman, also raises questions about whether it will lead to an erosion of international bans on whaling, and about the White House's curious role in supporting—and funding—it. This year the government gave the Makah $75,000 in aid for the hunt, adding up to a total of $335,000 over the past three years.
All this from a tribe that wants to whale but doesn't even know how.
The road to Neah Bay, Washington, five hours west of Seattle, is filled with wicked curves and abrupt turns and ends at the reservation, which is dominated by wooded cliffs, a long beach, and a seemingly peaceful bay. With a population of about 2,000, the town of Neah Bay is dominated by prefab homes and trailers. Unemployment on the reservation hovers around 55 percent. Drugs and alcohol are also nagging problems, along with the kind of juvenile petty crimes that afflict any small town where tedium can mutate into violence. But conditions are not as bleak as they are on many Indian reservations. There is no abject poverty. There are Federal Express deliveries, two cafés, two small motels, a modern supermarket, and a roadside espresso stand.
It's estimated that the Makah have lived in Neah Bay for at least 4,000 years, but Alberta Thompson, a Makah elder, says simply that the Makah have been there "forever." Thompson is 74, and these days she feels her age. Arthritis has settled into her joints, and when she walks she steps gingerly, like a woman on a ledge. She wears glasses and is almost blind in one eye. Thompson is one of the few Makah—perhaps the only one—willing to speak out against the whale hunt. "I have been harassed time and time again," she says, criticized by fellow Makah in the press and pressured not to talk to outsiders.
For most of their existence, the Makah hunted whales. They used the meat for food, the blubber for oil, and the bones to make tools. The last Makah whale hunt, according to a 1974 book by Ruth Kirk and Richard D. Daugherty, titled Hunters of the Whale, took place in 1910. But others say 1926, and the date will probably remain uncertain, since there are no Makah alive who can remember it, and written documentation of Makah history is scant.
In 1994, the tribe's petition to remove the gray whale from the endangered species list was finally accepted by the government, after the Makah pointed out that while there were only 12,000 gray whales in the world when the animal was placed on the list in 1969, the whale population had since grown to more than 22,000. By 1995, the Makah Tribal Council, the tribe's five-member ruling body, informed the U.S. government that the Makah intended to start hunting again.
The tribal council pointed to an 1855 treaty in which the Makah ceded thousands of acres of land to the United States but explicitly retained the right to whale—the only American Indian tribe to possess that right. "We had our treaty," says John McCarty, the former executive director of the tribe's whaling commission. "And our treaty gives us the right to whale." Noting that whale meat is a delicacy in Japan, Greene told tribal leaders, according to Thompson, that a single gray whale could be sold to the Japanese for $500,000, a substantial amount of money for the small tribe.
"Selling the whale was a thought," concedes McCarty. "And I'll be honest with you. Selling the whale could be very, very advantageous to the tribe." Thompson says the whale hunt was Greene's idea: "He decided that we should go whaling because there would be money in it." Greene did not return phone calls for this story.
So the Makah told the U.S. government of their plans to hunt. And, surprisingly, they found an ally.
The fight to save the whales is supposed to be one of environmentalism's great successes, and it has become such a cliché you can't even find it on bumper stickers anymore. But the battle over whaling has really never been won, and has certainly never ended. As whale populations have started to rebound, whaling nations have argued that modern hunting can be more scientific, that whale "takes" could be managed and sustainable.
This line of reasoning leaves whaling opponents with a more philosophical argument: The whale is a higher form of animal, too intelligent and communicative to kill. That also doesn't wash with the whalers, who respond that whales are like any other animal, and opposition to hunting them is an example of Western cultural imperialism. Is killing a whale so much worse than fattening, drugging, and confining a calf in a stall so that restaurants can offer a tender piece of veal? Such arguments have anti-whalers on the defensive. "Things are deteriorating," says Gerry Leape, legislative director for Greenpeace.
The organization at the center of the worldwide fight over whaling is the International Whaling Commission, founded by whaling nations in 1949 to manage the "harvesting" of whales. It didn't work: The world's whale population shrank until several whale species were nearly extinct. As the populations dwindled, the number and influence of anti-whaling nations within the IWC grew, and its emphasis shifted from whale hunting to whale preservation.
The United States has long been one of commercial whaling's most ardent and eloquent foes; it was largely because of U.S. pressure that the IWC passed a worldwide commercial whaling moratorium in 1986. It was a huge victory for environmentalists, but an incomplete one. The moratorium, for one thing, didn't end all whaling. Norway exploits a provision that allows it to kill hundreds of minke whales annually. Japan also kills several hundred whales a year, feeding a booming demand from upscale restaurants for whale meat by classifying certain hunts as "scientific whaling."
The only other exceptions granted were for "aboriginal subsistence," which exempted specific aboriginal peoples, such as Alaskan Eskimos and Siberian Chuktchis, who have a history of eating whale meat and a clear need for the food. Even to environmentalists who hated the thought of any whales being killed, the logic was hard to refute: These aboriginal communities couldn't take enough whales to harm whale populations, and they needed the meat to survive.
At the turn of the century, the Makah would surely have met the IWC criteria for an aboriginal whaling quota. But at the moment, they clearly do not. First, the Makah have survived for most of this century without whale meat. Second, the traditional IWC definition of aboriginal subsistence whaling requires that a community have a "continuing" tradition of hunting and eating whales. The Makah have had at least a 70-year period without such activity. Surely, they don't qualify for the exemption.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a branch of the Commerce Department, helps set U.S. policy toward whaling and represents the United States with the IWC. For decades, it has been sympathetic to anti-whaling groups, working closely and sharing information with their representatives at annual meetings.
Yet NOAA was receptive to the Makah's request—with just one qualification. "We made it very clear from the very beginning of their discussions that we could never support any proposal that had a commercial element," says D. James Baker, the head of NOAA. The Makah agreed to the stipulation: They would not hunt whales in order to sell the meat—though they insist they have the right to do so, and might revisit the prospect in the future.
With the profit motive moot, the Makah's stated rationale for the hunt shifted to historic preservation. Explains Makah tribal chair Ben Johnson, "The whale hunt will not only bring the community together, but it enriches our culture."
Once the Makah agreed not to sell the meat, Baker granted the tribe $200,000 in NOAA funds to help establish a whaling commission and prepare for the hunt. And, in the summer of 1996, Baker traveled to Aberdeen, Scotland, to argue at the IWC meeting that the Makah should be allotted an annual whale quota on the basis of subsistence need and cultural survival.
IWC meetings are usually contentious, but that year's meeting was reportedly feistier than most. If the Makah had a subsistence need, opponents said, then so did aboriginal peoples around the world who also had not whaled for decades. Already, representatives from Canadian tribes were proclaiming that they intended to follow the Makah's lead. The United States, environmentalists pointed out, was broadening the definition of aboriginal subsistence whaling in a way that could undermine the whale-hunting moratorium.
The IWC's dryly written meeting report speaks volumes about the extent of opposition to the United States' plea:
"France… asked how subsistence requirements could arise after 70 years of non-whaling.… The Netherlands expressed concern at the widening of the scope of whaling activities…. The People's Republic of China…regretted that the request was not completely in accordance with the IWC definition of aboriginal subsistence…. Oman asked why the Makah, who had survived without whaling for 70 years, could not continue to survive without whaling…. Australia questioned whether IWC nutritional subsistence criteria had been met…. Chile expressed its doubts…. The People's Republic of China and New Zealand had similar concerns on continuity and need, a position shared by Mexico…."
Japan, however, "commended the USA's presentation and expressed understanding of the welfare of the Makah." Meanwhile, the reported coziness between the Makah and the Japanese delegation aroused the suspicions of the anti-whaling groups—Sea Shepherd, PAWS—that believed the Japanese had either put the Makah up to the hunt, or were covertly backing them.
After all, in 1996, the year of that conference, Japan and Norway had kicked in at least $20,000, according to the Seattle Times, to help start a pro-whaling group, the World Council of Whalers, just across the strait from Neah Bay in British Columbia. Even if the Japanese couldn't immediately buy the Makah's whale meat, the hunt was one more assault on the whaling moratorium.
Opposition to the U.S. was so vehement that Baker withdrew the Makah proposal, announcing that he would bring it up at the next IWC meeting, in Monaco in 1997.
Why had NOAA decided to support the Makah hunt in the first place? Whaling, Baker says, "has always been a part of their culture." Even though they haven't whaled for more than 70 years? "They have occasionally come upon stranded whales and have had no problems dealing with those, butchering them, and sharing them with various members of the tribe," Baker insists, incorrectly. In any case, is the memory of the whale in a tribe's artistic culture enough to satisfy IWC requirements for aboriginal subsistence whaling, including the criteria for continuing nutritional need? Baker says yes.
What is clear is that the Makah's treaty right allowing them to whale put the government in an awkward position, torn between an international moratorium and a historical treaty. Which took precedence? NOAA didn't want to test either one. Challenge the whaling moratorium, and the agency would ignite international fury, not to mention the wrath of domestic environmental groups. But contest the Makah's treaty, and it would risk a political firestorm from all American Indians, all of whom live under similar treaties with the federal government. Says one source close to the U.S. delegation at the time, "One hundred percent of the U.S. decision to back these guys was based on the U.S. not wanting to be in court."
The issue was sensitive enough for Baker to seek a sign-off from the White House—specifically, according to several sources, the Council on Environmental Quality in the office of the president. Elliot Diringer, spokesman for the council, confirms that "the vice president was kept apprised." According to Diringer, "The way things generally work is that agencies proceed and keep us advised of what they're doing, and if somebody feels a course adjustment is needed, they let it be known."
So Baker proceeded with what became NOAA's strategy: the argument that, in fact, there is no conflict between the Makah's treaty right and the moratorium on whaling because the Makah are a legitimate candidate for the aboriginal subsistence exemption.
At the IWC meeting in Monaco in 1997, the U.S. tried again, this time succeeding. In a "fact sheet" handed out by NOAA, the agency presented its case: "Subsistence hunting includes far more than physical survival. It is a way of life that includes historical practices and is the cultural 'glue' that holds the Tribe together." That definition surprised many who were present.
"If you set a precedent that changes the standard for the meaning of aboriginal whaling so that it becomes simply a cultural need, where do you draw the line?" asks one American observer. "Somebody tells me that Japanese whaling is not cultural? Bullshit. Of course it is. This [precedent] was what the whalers wanted."
Under pressure from the American delegation, the IWC accepted a secretly negotiated plan under which the Makah would be allotted a kill of up to four whales a year, out of nine attempts.
When the Makah heard the news, McCarty says, the tribe erupted in celebration. "People stopped all their work, they got in their cars, honking their horns like someone got married. It was like winning the Super Bowl."
This is a fight that has shattered traditional political alignments. Liberals in Washington state have been quiet about the Makah hunt, perhaps finding it uncomfortable to criticize an Indian tribe that claims to be fighting for its cultural survival. Greenpeace says it opposes the hunt but doesn't have the resources to do anything about it. A spokesman for the Sierra Club says, in the tortured language of politics, "At this point, the Sierra Club has decided to take a position of not opposing the whaling rights of the Makah tribe."
But the Makah are still exposed to attacks from one of their longtime foes, Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-Wash.), who has filed suit in the District Court of Washington, D.C., to stop the hunt, challenging that NOAA's new policy violates the government's own environmental laws.
Metcalf, however, is an unlikely environmentalist—he's a supporter of the "property rights" movement and receives low ratings from green groups in Washington, D.C. And Metcalf does have a long history of opposing American Indian rights. "The United States government," Metcalf says, "[is] biased in favor of giving Indians special rights. I just disagree with that."
His beliefs can be traced to his childhood. Metcalf's father was a commercial fisherman who bought land on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound, east of Neah Bay, just before the Depression hit, and then had to work 18-hour days to keep it. Metcalf grew up and became a public school teacher with some ardently conservative—some would say far-right—beliefs (he has, for example, written a book calling for the abolition of the Federal Reserve).
Metcalf, 70, and his wife of 50 years, Norma, built their house on his father's land, using trees from the property. Pulling into the driveway of that home, which they have converted into a bed-and-breakfast, it's easy to pass right by the congressman. Dressed in a blue button-down shirt, jeans, and cowboy boots, he is bent over, hoeing a row of corn. Lanky and white-haired, Metcalf ambles over and offers a dirty hand through the car window.
Elected to Congress in 1994, he was the oldest member of the Republican freshman class of '94, and among its most conservative. In 1996 he retained his seat by a narrow margin, and this year he's running against a bona fide political celebrity: Democrat Margarethe Cammermeyer, a former officer expelled from the Army for being a lesbian whose story became a TV movie starring Glenn Close. Cammermeyer's Hollywood connections—Close and Barbra Streisand have thrown fundraising bashes for her—are helping her amass a campaign war chest likely to top $1 million.
Metcalf's aides admit that they hope the Makah issue can peel away some Democratic voters disaffected by her noncommittal stance. According to her press secretary, J.R. Baker, Cammermeyer "really hasn't taken a position" on the hunt. "It's a hot-button issue, and we're trying to stay away from hot-button issues," Baker explains, pointing out that the Makah aren't even in Metcalf's district.
Asked why he's fighting the Makah, Metcalf tells a story of how once, as a young man, while fishing with his father, they drifted among a pod of orcas. (Later, while doing a news database search, I found the same story, almost verbatim, in several other articles.)
Walking along the beach, Metcalf talks about the fishing he loves when, without warning, he bends down and plunges his arms into the wet sand up to the elbows. Burrowing with his hands, he throws chunks of sand behind him, like a kid building a sand castle. Finally he reaches out, holding up a shrimp, 5 or 6 inches long, with one short pincer and one long one waving frantically. Couldn't eat them, he says, though the flesh makes good bait. He then gives the shrimp a yank with both hands and tears it in half to show its pulpy meat. Without breaking his stride, he tosses the two halves onto the beach; the top half continues to squirm on the sand as he strolls away.
"The whaling would certainly relieve the boredom of a few young Makah people," Metcalf says. Even if his suit fails, he believes the Makah will face a backlash. "In the long run, the tribe will lose."
On one wall of the Makah Cultural and Research Center sits a small glass case that contains whaling tools—hooks and rope—and a plaque describing how the Makah used to hunt whales. The Makah men, "noted for their ability as fishermen and hunters," are even "more noted for their exploits as whale hunters."
In the past, young men underwent special rituals to purify themselves, and would then set out in long cedar canoes. "Whale hunting utilized almost every technical skill possessed by the Makah." When a whale was sighted, the bowman would stand and throw a 16-foot-long harpoon, hooked with two barbs at the end so that it could not exit the whale's flesh without causing great gashes. Attached to each harpoon was a rope connected to a sealskin bag, a flotation device to track the whale and make it harder for the animal to dive. Once the animal died, a Makah would dive into the water and sew its mouth shut, so that it would not fill with water and sink before it was towed back to land.
Today, hunting methods are different. The .50-caliber gun was the suggestion of a veterinarian advising the Makah on how to be as humane as possible.
"The bullet is from the tip of your thumb to the end of your fingernail, and if you've got a big thumb, it's as round as your thumb," says McCarty.
"One time there was a beached whale and he wasn't very old, like 23, 26 feet, only a day or two after he died. A really fresh one. And we shot the whale with this big gun, and we'd dig into the whale and see what happened. There were a couple bullets we couldn't find and a couple shattered bones and the one [bullet] in the skull [made] a big cavity that was 8 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The veterinarian said that would either stun or kill the whale immediately."
Of course, the Makah don't want to resuscitate all of their heritage. Nowhere at the Cultural and Research Center does it mention, for example, that the same 1855 treaty that preserved the tribe's right to whale also prevented them from owning slaves, which they had up until that time. It's easy to romanticize the story of their ancestors conquering the whale, of primitive man slaying the wild beast.
McCarty's 27-year-old son, Micah, will be among the eight hunters, and he says that, to prepare, he has been canoeing several hours a day for months and participating in rituals he won't describe to an outsider. He grew up living on and off the reservation, attending high school in Olympia, Washington.
"I never felt that my soul could be happy participating in that arena," he says.
"I couldn't see myself going to work knowing that my earnings will go to an establishment that is trying to destroy our culture."
At 19, Micah returned to Neah Bay and has lived there ever since, designing tattoos and carving Indian-themed gifts. Yet even on the reservation, about as removed from American society as any culture existing on American soil can be, he feels the need to resist the "white man's" world and believes that the whale hunt, somehow, will help keep it all at bay.
"Bringing this whale back into the culture," he says, "will save us from being swallowed up."
The MoJo Wire and MOTHER JONES are projects of the Foundation for National Progress, a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization, founded in 1975 to educate and empower people to work toward progressive change.
Date: Mon, 05 Oct, 1998
Native American Whaling Rights Comes Under Attack
By Estelle Debates
SEATTLE - For the first time in seven decades, the Makah Indian tribe of Washington State will conduct a whale hunt. The tribe voluntarily discontinued hunting in the 1920s because of the wholesale decimation of the gray whales by commercial whalers. The Makah decision to reinitiate the whale hunt is aimed at fighting to restore a part of their culture that was taken from them and restore pride among their youth.
Their plans have sparked controversy. Articles and letters appear almost daily in Seattle papers. Moreover, the Makah are facing an international array of opposition. Two radical animal rights groups and rightist bourgeois politicians - in particular, Washington Congressman Jack Metcalf -have joined forces to try to stop the Makah's whaling expedition set for October or November, including through physical intimidation.
The Makah, who once occupied 700,000 acres of what is now known as the Olympic Peninsula, whaled for nearly 2,000 years off the coast of Washington state. In 1855, following a smallpox epidemic that killed nearly two-thirds of their population and facing the growing settler encroachment backed by U.S. military power, they accepted a treaty with the United States government. The treaty left the tribe with only 28,000 acres in a reservation at Neah Bay, in exchange for a specific guarantee of the right to continue whaling.
The gray whale was removed from the endangered species list in 1994. Today's population is estimated at 22,000 and growing. After four years of legal proceedings, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) ruled last year that the Makah can kill four gray whales a year. The Makah plan to hunt the whales in an ocean-going traditional dugout canoe, throwing a harpoon into the whale and then shooting it with a high-powered rifle to kill it quickly. They will tow it to shore to use for food and oil.
Campaign against treaty rights
Both Republican and Democratic politicians have opposed the Makah's right to whaling. Congressman Metcalf, a Republican, is promoting a lawsuit against several government agencies seeking to block the whale hunt on supposedly environmental grounds. Metcalf claims that treaty rights are "special privileges denied to all other citizens" and should be eliminated. On September 21 a federal judge ruled in favor of the Makah's right to whale.
In 1984 Metcalf attacked Indian fishing rights in Washington State. In 1996 he introduced a bill to make it more difficult for Indian nations to petition for federal recognition. Last year, he personally delivered a bipartisan letter signed by himself and 43 other congressmen to the IWC meeting in Monaco opposing the Makah request to hunt gray whales.
In league with Metcalf's rightist crusade are the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS). Sea Shepherd has vowed it will prevent the Makah from hunting the whales. They back up their threats with a 172-foot, steel-clad ocean-going ship and a 27-foot submarine. Earlier this summer, they provocatively sailed these ships into Neah Bay onto the Makah reservation. The group says it opposes the hunt because "aboriginal whaling are being used as a tool for commercial interests to reopen commercial whaling."
PAWS is widely disseminating a brochure that claims the Makah culture "has survived and revived without whaling.... Well-connected to the City of Port Angeles and boasting a new 7.8 million dollar marina, a world-class tribal museum, lighted tennis courts, schools, Federal Express and other amenities, the Makah of Neah Bay have ample access to the modern conveniences of life."
Unemployment is as high as 75 percent much of the year on the Makah reservation. The major industry, fishing, has disappeared and the only cannery in town has shut down. And most of the housing for the 2,000 residents consists of trailers and small houses.
PAWS echoes the lie that Japanese and Norwegian whaling businesses are behind the Makah's decision to hunt. The Makah have declared that they will not sell whale meat, although that, too, would be protected by the 1855 treaty. PAWS plans to organize people to "witness" the whale hunt.
Another group, "In the Path of Giants," has declared that they will "impede the whalers from leaving the harbor." 'This is connection to our tribal culturé'
In response to this opposition, the Makah have continued to make their preparations for the hunt and to publicly explain their position.
In a special article in the Seattle Times entitled "The Makah Manifesto," Keith Johnson, the president of the Makah Whaling Commission, publicly responded to these attacks, calling them "distortions, exaggerations and outright falsehoods." He explained that 85 percent of the tribe voting in an opinion poll favored whaling and answered forthrightly many of the issues raised by the animal rights groups.
"We are committed to this because it is our connection to our tribal culture and because it is a treaty right - not because we see the prospect of money," he said.
Responding to those who believe it could open up the door to renewed commercial whaling, Johnson replied,
"This is nonsense. If there are other indigenous people who have a legitimate whaling culture and whaling tradition, then they should be allowed to whale just as we do. The rest is all hype."
"To us the implication that our culture is inferior if we believe in whaling is demeaning and racist," he told the Militant.
This stance was echoed by many Indians attending the Makah Days Festival the last weekend in August. Many attending wore "I support Makah whaling" stickers. The theme was "Back to Tradition," a slogan not lost on anybody, including Sid Smith, a Makah and Alaska Airline mechanic.
"I want to continue the tradition before we die out," he explained.
"Whaling is a right we should exercise, otherwise we will lose it."
Prior to the festival, several Makah received death threats, including Ben Johnson, chairman of the Makah Tribal Council. One caller threatened, "For every whale that dies, a Makah will die." In response to a request from the County Sheriff's office, which feared anti-whaling protests at the Festival, Governor Gary Locke mobilized hundreds of National Guardsman during the event. The Festival successfully proceeded without any protests materializing.
The Coast Guard, which has a base at Neah Bay, has also proposed establishing a 500-yard "exclusion zone" around the Makah whale hunters. This is supported by the Makah in order to prevent anyone from interfering with the hunt or being put into danger by it. Metcalf and the animal rights groups oppose the exclusion zone.
In Seattle, animal rights groups are organizing opposition to the hunt. They are planning a "Seattle Rally for the Gray Whales" on September 26, which includes a march through downtown Seattle. They have also been conducting public meetings to get out their position and gather more supporters.
At one such meeting hosted by Common Ground, a "New Age" publication, leaders of Sea Shepherd and PAWS expressed paternalistic contempt for the Makah. Several times, they said that they "support the Makah's treaty rights - but not their exercise of those rights." They also considered the Makah "pawns" who are like "children." They even accused the Makah of "not knowing their real culture."
Scott Breen, Socialist Workers candidate for state senate in the 37th District, spoke from the floor, saying, "I unreservedly support the right of the Makah, guaranteed by treaty to hunt gray whales. This right needs to be respected, supported, and defended."
He said that attacks on Native rights "are occurring across the capitalist world. They are racist campaigns accusing indigenous people of having 'special rights'."
"These right-wing attacks are aimed at reversing gains that indigenous people have won through decades of struggle and dividing and weakening the working class as a whole. They seek to foster resentment, portraying them as a threat to the jobs and rights of other workers - or as a threat to nature and the environment. They are being made scapegoats for the economic and social crisis created by capitalism."
The arguments of Breen and his supporters had an impact on several of the 15 people who attended the meeting. Some thanked the socialists for expressing these views; one person, an immigrant from Greece, said he agreed with the socialist position.
Date: Wed, 07 Oct, 1998
Tribe Women Working To Revive Spirit Of 'Old Ones'
By: Paul Shukovsky - Seattle P-I Reporter
Any day now, Marcy Parker will send her sons to sea in a dugout canoe to slay a 40-ton whale.
While the whalers in this fishing village at the tip of the Pacific Northwest train for their first hunt in more than seven decades, the Makah women are preparing with sacred songs, dances and prayer.
Their churches are their homes, their prayers age-old chants. On Sunday, Parker sat on the front stoop of the home of her whaling- captain son, Eric, where the women of her family gathered to pray.
The danger of the hunt is a constant worry for Parker and the other tribal women. "In the worst case scenario, I could lose all three of my sons," she said.
Her son Jason will be aboard the canoe, too. His job is to plunge into the frigid Pacific Ocean and sew shut the jaws of the leviathan so that it will not sink after it's slain. Her third son may be on a chase boat videotaping the historic event. In Eric's house Sunday, wives, sisters, mothers, grandmothers, and great-great aunts met while youngsters milled about their feet playing and soaking up the cultural legacy of their ancestors.
"We're trying to get back into the old spirit - how things were done in the past - to revive that feeling" of spirituality and community, Parker said.
When the "Old Ones" prepared to whale, a man would sneak out of the smokehouse home at night to bathe and pray. Upon returning, he would sprinkle ash from the fire on his face so people would think he had slept inside all night. That same secrecy is alive today at Neah Bay. Parker is circumspect about discussing rituals: "Just like the male rituals, they are secret."
Among those who came on Sunday were family matriarch and tribal elder Helma Ward and Eric's wife, Rachel, who like the wives of the Makah whaling captains of old, has a special role. Ward sighs when she thinks how times have changed at Neah Bay during her 80 years here.
"It's not like we used to be. If we all lived in one house, we would be like one family. But we are all in separate houses," Ward said.
Now her people eat frozen pizza, drive pickup trucks and rent movies at the general store. But when Ward speaks of the return to whaling her old eyes sparkle like the little girl she was when her tribe last killed a whale and feasted on its meat and blubber.
"We don't have to be exactly like the Old Ones," Ward said.
"We can still save our ways. That is exactly what the whale hunt is about."
Ward provided a small glimpse into the ways of Makah women. Her great, great-nephew Eric, the whaling captain, will bathe in secret places, fast and pray to prepare for the hunt, Ward said. His wife, Rachel, "has got to go with him and pray with him every so often."
Perhaps the biggest challenge for a whaling captain's wife is to lie motionless while her husband is at sea. "The whale asks the woman not to move," Ward said.
"If you are at home and busy, then the whale is going to thrash around out there, and they won't be able to catch them. Rachel can't move except to use a chamber pot." Some one will feed her; someone will be there all day long until they get back. She will be well taken care of.
"She's afraid, but we are not going to let her be too afraid," Ward said.
"We've been together saying our prayers."
The women chant to the whale "that the boys will be safe and nothing will happen to them out there."
Parker, who is a member of the tribal council, reflected on her deeply held belief that whaling will be the glue that more tightly binds Makah families. Out of the adversity and danger of the hunt, families will rally around each other, she says. The community, fragmented by unemployment, poverty, drugs and alcohol, will coalesce.
As she speaks while sitting on the front stoop of her son's home, she greets a relative, Jill, who walks up the driveway carrying a bag full of thin strips of cedar to be crafted into headbands for the whalers. A quiet woman, Jill identifies herself only as Helma's granddaughter.
"I usually just kind of hibernate," Jill said. But the hunt has awakened her from her solitude.
"It has brought people together. We need to support each other. Some of us tend to be loners and not talk to each other. We women need to be the backbone. We have been for a long time. The backbone is there to be supportive."
Her grandmother Helma says Makah women have always projected dignity through quiet strength.
"We can't do a lot the men can do, and they can't do what we can do. But in the long run, we still run them just by talking to them."
Even here on the remote edge of the continent, the pressures of modern life have scattered families. Some tribal members leave for military service or school and return only to visit.
"There are people who have gone off res," Parker said.
"But in their hearts, they know who they are. People who have been living in Seattle or Tacoma have been coming home for the weekend because of the hunt. We are going to be one, big, happy family. For the good times, for the bad times, for the birth of a baby. No one will have to be invited. They will just know they are welcome."
In the house, the women talk among themselves "not only of our fear."
"It is the joy we will feel once we've gotten the whale," Parker said.
"We go in there as a family. It's our sons, grandsons, husbands, brothers, nephews and cousins. We get together and bring our family closer together."
"Now all the little cousins and grandkids are getting together. And it's building up. Strong. The way it's supposed to be. It is like fingers on the hands."
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky can be reached at:
Tel: 206-448-8072 or Email: paulshukovsky@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 07 Oct, 1998
Readers Stir Whale Hunt's 'Tar Pit Of Complexities'
By: Susan Paynter - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Columnist
Readers view the deadly ceremonial collision of whales and Indians near Neah Bay much the way witnesses see the same accident and draw different conclusions.
Readers came away from Monday's column on the Makah tribal whale hunt with starkly opposing notions of what it said, colored by their own understanding or anger. Basically, the column held that the tribe's yearning to hunt whales may be understandable based on tradition and a sore need for pride. But beware, it warned. The aftermath is apt to be sickening and disastrous.
-- "The Makah have been offered an alternative to the hunt," e- mailed Mary DeWald of Monroe.
She cited the proposal of whale researchers Steph Dutton and Heidi Tiura to help the tribe establish a whale-watching enterprise, free of charge, if they would agree not to kill whales.
"It seems to me the Makah hunters have a rush of testosterone and can see no further," DeWald wrote.
-- "Your article is the first that asks what happens after (the hunt)," wrote Tiura and Dutton themselves.
"No one will come here for eco-tours if they (the Makah) kill a whale."
-- "People forget it also used to be a time-honored tradition for cowboys to shoot Indians," a woman caller said.
"As we became more enlightened, it became not OK to take out other animals that have obvious intelligence. And I'm telling you, from the looks of the figures about who's an alcoholic and who can't read and the amount they're not putting back into even their own little nations, it looks to me if as if the whales appear to be more suited to living on the planet at this time than the indians..."
-- "The Makah have been oppressed by the people of our culture since before the signing of the treaty ... which gives them our legal permission to do what, for thousands of years, they never needed our permission to do," wrote Tony Smith.
"Then the people of our culture wanted to `civilize' them and, for the last few hundred years, they now deal with poverty, drug abuse, depression and alcoholism. ... This hunt is bringing the pride back to the people. It is teaching the children what it means to be Makah, to be part of a tribe..."
-- But the next woman caller, who did not leave her name, disagreed:
"I have to say that enough is enough. We are now almost in the 21st century, and if the Makah are not willing to live in this time period, then that's just too bad!"
"No one is responsible anymore for their alcoholism, their inability or unwillingness to adjust to the world the way it is, except them. They are going to have to live within the laws of this country or go to another planet. The real `beasts' are those on land trying to kill innocent living things for no good reason at all."
-- Cat Saunders was one of several readers on the side of the whales who also sympathizes with the complexities of the issues involved.
So was Helen Engle, longtime director of the National Audubon Society board of directors. Engle has worked since 1971 to "save the whales" - ever since Secretary of State Ralph Munro, as an aide to Gov. Dan Evans, "led the pack," she said.
But Engle has also worked on task forces and coalitions for tribal sovereignty.
"The gray whale hunting issue is a tar pit of complexities," Engle wrote.
"You made some very good points for consideration - both for us settlers and for the conscientious tribal people. May there be no bloodshed among the terrestrials."
-- There are only two exceptions - "scientific whaling" and "aboriginal subsistence" - to the International Whaling Commission's worldwide moratorium on whale hunting, wrote Mike Christensen.
"The latter exempts specific aboriginal people such as Alaskan Eskimos that have a history of eating whale meat, a clear need for the food, and a `continuing' tradition of hunting and eating whales. Clearly, the Makah tribe does not qualify."
-- And, from Michael Vidor, came this:
"The Makah quoted in your paper say they feel the presence of their ancestors. My suspicion is that, if these latter-day whale hunters ever did meet up with their ancestors, they would hear them say:
"What you're doing isn't a real whale hunt. You don't even need the food. A true Indian lives in harmony with nature, and natures includes people. And if you should kill a whale and sadden decent people all over the world, that whale's ghost will haunt this tribe forever..."
Susan Paynter's column appears Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Call her at 206-448-8392 or send e-mail to: susanpaynter@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 07 Oct, 1998
QLD: Whale kill sighting rare but event not unusual
BRISBANE, Oct 7 AAP - The killing of a humpback whale calf by two pods of killer whales off south-east Queensland yesterday afternoon was not an unusual event, only rare for people to have witnessed it, a marine expert said today.
A group of whale watchers reported seeing the killer whales, also known as orcas, separate a calf from its mother and kill it as a group of humpbacks on their annual southern migration rounded Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island.
Dr Peter Hale, executive director of the Centre for Conservation Biology at the University of Queensland, said killer whales hunted all kinds of animals, including seals and dolphins.
He said great white sharks and orcas often followed migrating humpbacks from the cold waters near Antarctica north to the warmer waters off the Queensland coast during autumn and back again in the spring.
Last year, whale watchers at Byron Bay in northern New South Wales saw adult humpbacks being pursued by a pod of killer whales but the humpbacks escaped, Dr Hale said.
Last century, a pod of killer whales led by an adult male of the species known as "Old Tom" used to round up humpbacks and herd them into Twofold Bay, near Eden on the south Coast of New South Wales.
Whalers with harpoons would kill the humpbacks and the killer whales would feast on the humpbacks' lips and tongues, Dr Hale said.
But he could not recall when the killing of a humpback by killer whales had actually been witnessed in Queensland.
"It's quite an occasion to see them off south-east Queensland," he said.
"Orcas usually singled out the old, sick and very young humpbacks which were less able to take evasive action," he said.
Such an event occurred yesterday.
"It just happened to occur during the day in calm weather where people could see it off Point Lookout on North Stradbroke Island," Dr Hale said.
Date: Thu, 08 Oct, 1998
Whale Hunt Represents A Revival For Makah
By: Leslie Brown; The News Tribune Tacoma, WA
Whaling Is The Cultural And Spiritual Renewal For Tribe's Traditions
NEAH BAY - Shortly before she died, Michelle Black's grandmother told her
the gray whales would return some day.
They were hunted to near extinction. They moved farther and farther from the rugged shore where the Makah Indians made their home. They were put on the Endangered Species List.
Now, as the tribe prepares for its first hunt in more than 70 years, Black senses her grandmother's presence. She believes her grandmother would approve of the hunt, made possible today because of the gray whale's biological resurgence. And Black is comforted, she said, by all that is happening.
"I felt really lost when my grandma died," said Black, a 25-year-old mother of four.
"She taught me everything I know."
Her eyes misty with tears, she added, "I feel she's with us."
In the world of sound bites, this hunt is about a cultural revival, a spiritual renewal for a tribe that has fought to maintain its traditions. But for many Makah, it goes even deeper than that.
The preparation for the whale hunt has pulled families together, Black said. It's given many of them a new-found focus, a reason to discuss their past and recall lost relatives.
Men who weren't particularly interested in tribal culture have slipped out before dawn to bathe with the whalers. Children, like Black's 7-year-old son, say they want to grow up to be whalers. Black says she herself has experienced a kind of personal transformation.
After her grandmother's death, Black stopped participating in the tribe's traditional dances. But during Makah Days this summer, she again danced with the tribe, as did her children. And she heard herself saying to her children what her grandmother used to say to her when Black's upturned arms started to droop:
"Keep your wings up. What, are they broken?"
The hunt has brought international attention to the tribe, much of it not very flattering. A flotilla of protesters sits in the Pacific Ocean just beyond Neah Bay's breakwater. On one of their boats, a huge banner admonishes the tribe to "evolve beyond whaling."
Activists who believe the hunt is inhumane and illegal say there are ways for the tribe to rekindle its whaling tradition without killing one of the animals. Whale-watching outfits in Canada, for instance, have told tribal council members they would help the tribe establish viable whale-watching enterprises.
Some of the tribal members, however, are deeply offended by what they see as cultural paternalism.
"I've never seen our culture so misrepresented before," said Janine Bowechop, executive director of the Makah Cultural and Research Center.
"They've tried to say what whaling means to us and what it means today. And we can speak for ourselves."
According to tribal literature, the whale offered more than sustenance to the sea-faring people. The first Makah men brave enough to hunt whale became the tribe's first chiefs and ultimately shaped the tribe's hierarchy and culture.
The whalers fasted and prayed before beginning one of the dangerous hunts. They separated from their wives for months, bathed in secret prayer ponds and flogged themselves with stinging nettles. And while the men were gone, their wives would lie quiet in the longhouses, praying that the whale, too, would be docile and still.
In 1855, as the tribe negotiated a treaty with the U.S. government, one of the chiefs told federal officials what
was most important to him and his people.
"I want the sea," said Tse-Kaw-Wootl. "That is my country."
Today, the symbol of the whale is everywhere in Neah Bay. It adorns the walls of the high school. A nearly life-size cutout of a gray whale is taped to one side of the community hall. Huge weathered whale bones sit in some tribal members' front yards.
But even in this tight-knit community, some shake their heads at this effort to revive a tradition that has lain dormant for several generations. At 98, Isabelle Ides is the oldest member of the tribe today. She and her sister, Ruth Clapanhoo, 96, are the only two members who still speak the language fluently.
As they sat side by side in Ides' home, they sparred playfully, breaking into the native Makah language as they answered a reporter's questions.
"I don't know who's going to eat the whale because we don't eat the whale now," Ides said.
"But I'll tell you one thing: Whale tastes better than bologna and wieners," Clapanhoo retorted.
Ides shook her head and frowned.
"Nobody's going to fuss with the whale like the other people who are gone now. It's easier to go to the store and buy things. No one knows how to cook it anymore."
Ides remembers the days when her tribe hunted whales. She remembers the sealskin floats, or buoys, that were
attached to the whalers' harpoons, devices used to slow the injured animals down. She remembers her father, a whaler himself, telling her the paddlers used sign language with each other as they approached the whale so the creature wouldn't hear them.
"That's why I'm sick of this whale business. They're not doing it the way it was," she said.
The two sisters said they're frustrated by the army of reporters roaming their town, by the publicity and the commotion the hunt has created. Their brows furrowed, the women said they also feel sick about the protesters, men and women who say they'll do whatever is necessary to protect the whales.
"I'm afraid," Clapanhoo said. "I'm afraid for what might happen."
Ides nodded. "Yes, I'm afraid, too."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 09 Oct, 1998
International Crew Aims To Save A Whale A Boatload Of Idealism Waits
By: Mike Barber - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
Anne Wingenfeld saved every penny, gave up her apartment and took a leave from her job as a high school music teacher in Germany to join Sea Shepherd III for four months as a volunteer.
The 26-year-old's view of the world while on duty in the ship's steamy galley is through a porthole, where she can catch glimpses of Neah Bay, home of the Makah Indian tribe.
Also aboard is Daniel Vairo, a 23-year-old who used to rescue wounded seals in Brazil. Vairo took a year leave from studies at the California Maritime Academy to join the Sea Shepherd.
He came aboard on Sept. 22 with Iddo Perez, 20, of Israel, whose environmental passions were galvanized by the writings of Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and skipper of the boat.
And though he's more than twice their age, Ben Zuckerman, a tenured UCLA professor of physics and astronomy, shares their concerns, along with a more developed conviction that environmental controversies like those over whaling are only side issues to a larger problem - human overpopulation.
Because he is good at astronomy, Zuckerman jokes that he is good at staying up at night on the late watch.
The four are among a dozen volunteers who have come together to don the black crew shirts of the Los Angeles-based Sea Shepherd.
Armed with various degrees of experience, pragmatism and idealism, they've pledged several months of their lives to work aboard the 50- year-old former Norwegian fishing trawler.
Many aboard ship say they were moved to sign up as volunteers by Watson's writings, his combative brand of environmentalism and his personal magnetism.
As they wait aboard ship, anchored off Neah Bay's breakwater, the crewmates talk of their plans to protest, and stop if they can, the Makah Indian tribe's return to whale hunting after a hiatus of more than 70 years.
While the volunteers may not know much about the Makah, their passion to protect the gray whales comes from a conviction that killing them is simply wrong.
"What the Makah are doing, I can not see into their eyes. I can only speak for the whales," Vairo said.
The Makah also know little of those aboard the Sea Shepherd. Keith Johnson, head of the Makah whaling commission, has never met the protesters aboard the big turquoise ship.
"All I know is that they follow the lead of Paul Watson and other animal rights people," Johnson said.
"They have never met us. They should seek to understand before they seek to be understood."
Out on the ship, life is a mixture of tedium and tension. In the galley, Wingenfeld tends a pot of spicy, hot vegetable and tofu soup that the crew and visitors have dined on.
Aside from eating and sleeping, crew members stand watch, work on the ship and monitor radio transmissions for any sign that the hunt has begun. And then there are the reporters coming aboard, asking questions.
"It was difficult to leave my job and my apartment to do this, but now I'm happy here," said Wingenfeld, who put her job as a music teacher on hold. "It was important for me to do this because I worked for several years in some German sea protection organizations." It was there that she read and saw video tapes about Watson and the Sea Shepherd.
Vairo, who worked on several conservation and animal-rights campaigns in his homeland of Brazil, adjusted quickly to ship life. He said he became an activist at 18, after helping save wounded seals and sea lions.
But even that work was heartbreaking: "I was tired of seeing those I had helped with bullets in their head and dying, return to shore," he said.
Perez, of Israel, said joining the Sea Shepherd became a dream. "I've been working to save my money just for this," he said.
As for its mission, Perez said, "Whales are kind of special. I feel about them more than I do for other creatures of the sea."
The Sea Shepherd and its 95-foot sister ship, Sirenian, represent the largest protest group at Neah Bay, though many other environmental groups from around the world object to the hunt.
However, some groups such as National Audubon Society, Wilderness Society and Greenpeace, which Watson helped found, have not taken a position against the Makah, considering it to be an indigenous hunt.
For the last week, life aboard Sea Shepherd has resembled something of a high-stakes poker game, with protesters waiting for the tribe to make a move.
"I've learned not to let . . . frustration bother me," said Ian McElhinney, 34, as he stood watch last week in the bridge.
The Sea Shepherd's chief weapons seem to be its binoculars and video cameras. If nothing else, the crew hopes to record the taking of the Makah's first whale for the world to see.
"I've been working to do this for the last two years," says McElhinney, of Melbourne, Australia, who has been active in environmental causes for several years.
To afford airfare to the United States, McElhinney said, he saved his money while working on a Melbourne riverboat.
Trained as an electrical technician, McElhinney said, he gave that up to pursue environmental concerns. "I felt I was on the wrong path. I gave up the security of what is considered a 'real' job. But I think this is a real job - to make a commitment to give of myself to land and sea issues."
The crew's inexperience was evident last week when they took about 20 minutes to weigh anchor, creating some good-natured exasperation in the ship's chief engineer, Simon Clark.
The Sea Shepherd's 50-year-old log books record that it once took five engineers, two oilers and two electricians to keep the 180-foot ship running.
Today, all seven roles are filled by Clark, a 43-year-old Scottish veteran of North Sea fishing and one of the crew's few paid members - albeit in "Peace Corps wages."
"Now it's just me . . . and me . . . and me," said Clark, who also pilots the ship when Watson is away. He's also ship doctor, Clark says half-jokingly, a cap placed backward on his head. Its logo "Ram Speed" commemorates some of the vessel's past actions against what its sponsors considered illegal fishing.
Obvious parallels between Clark and the original Star Trek television series' fictional chief engineer, "Scotty," aren't lost on the crew - amplified by a photo showing Star Trek star William Shatner with Watson at a fund-raiser.
To keep the trawler running, some of the crew swear Clark has been heard to shout "She's giving all she can, captain" and "She'll tear herself apart."
"I've been called Scotty a few times," Clark said grinning, "but that's fantasy. This is real."
For generations, Clark said, his family were fishermen. But he said he gave it up when he saw the devastation of the oceans that he was party to.
"There was nothing left but destruction. Everyone was killing, killing, killing for the bigger fish," he said. "If we don't stop these things, there won't be nothing left."
"We have to let the public know exactly what's happening to the world," he said matter-of-factly, "because they don't know. And if they don't know, they can't do anything about it."
Lisa Distefano, 35, a North Carolinian who is often Sea Shepherd's spokeswoman in Watson's absence, said Sea Shepherd was not in Neah Bay to break the law.
"We are here because this has implications globally, and we want to draw global attention" primarily by filming the hunt, she said.
Distefano can be acerbic, scoffing at Makah claims of tradition and treaty rights. She sees bitter irony in that "a violent tradition (of whale hunting) that is centered in the past seems to have more relevance and importance than the peaceful traditions (like whale watching) that have evolved."
Dressed in the black crew shirt, but also in black military jungle pants and military boots, Distefano said the volunteers are the organization's spirit.
"They are soldiers," Distefano said, fighting for whales that Watson calls "old souls that took millions of years to evolve."
Distefano said Watson has been a hero to her since she was 13 years old.
"I've wanted to make a difference since I was a little girl."
She said she studied business in part to bring those skills to the conservation cause, and helped reorganize the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's corporate structure. The Sea Shepherd flagship and its small flotilla are prepared to wait as long as the Makah can, she said.
"We can go around the globe on a tank of gas, so we'll be here as long as we need to be."
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or michaelbarber@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 09 Oct, 1998
The United States continues to be against whale harvesting
The Washington Times
The observations in the Oct. 6 editorial "Whale of a dispute," regarding the harvesting of five gray whales by the Makah Indian tribe in Washington state, were well-taken. Not only is this species not endangered, but by honoring its 1855 treaty obligation to the Makahs, which permits such harvests, the United States also is recognizing the cultural heritage and dietary requirements of these people. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) specifically recognized these native needs at its 49th annual meeting in 1997 when it permitted the pending harvest.
As to those who oppose the harvest, in 1997, an independent survey in the United States indicated that 71 percent of those polled would be in favor of a harvest of non-endangered whales if it was for the purpose of human consumption, not only for native
populations, but for all people throughout the world who have traditionally taken whales for food. It also should be recognized that those who oppose the Makah harvest also oppose the consumptive use of any renewable wildlife or marine resource regardless of management concerns, dietary needs or cultural heritage.
The excessive whale harvest of the 19th century had nothing to do with the human need for food, but with the commercial demand for whale oil. Today, the Scientific Committee of the IWC has found that there are several populations of whales that could be harvested for food without any adverse impact on population levels. The same people who oppose the Makah harvest have successfully lobbied the IWC to oppose similar permission for managed harvests of whales as food for any island and coastal nations throughout the world.
Unfortunately, the United States is one of those nations that continually ignore the same historical dietary and cultural needs for non-native people who desire to have limited harvests of non-endangered whale species for human food consumption. Such cultural imperialism should be unacceptable in today's world.
STEPHEN S. BOYNTON
Vice President and General Counsel
Henke & Associates, Washington
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 11 Oct, 1998
Whale of a dilemma for ecological activists
South China Morning Post
PROGRESSIVE people in Vancouver tend to be proud of the fact that their city gave the world Greenpeace. Activists are also keen to support any cause that might help native groups preserve their traditional ways. So what do you do when the natives decide to start killing whales?
The Makah tribe on the tip of Washington state's Olympic peninsula recently announced it would resume hunting grey whales after 70 years.
Makah natives have been re-learning the tribal customs they say were once the centre of traditional culture.
Eight chosen hunters have been preparing spiritually for the hunt through fasting and meditation. They have also been practising paddling a traditional 10-metre whaling canoe and throwing harpoons.
But not everything will be done the old way. A shooter is to complete the task by firing a bullet into the whale's brain from a .50-calibre rifle that looks more like a bazooka.
Grey whales were hunted almost to extinction until declared an endangered species in 1937. They have thrived under protection, and now number an estimated 20,000.
But the very idea of killing the gentle giant of the sea horrifies some. Leading the protest is Paul Watson, a founder of Greenpeace. Watson's Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is patrolling the water off Makah territory to disrupt the hunt. Among its tactics is a submarine painted to look like and broadcast the call of a killer whale, a natural enemy of the greys.
Watson knows the real struggle will be on shore, for public opinion. He says he supports natives in general, but also the rights of the whales.
"These are incredibly intelligent creatures. One day I believe we will develop the ability to communicate with them. They're incredibly sensitive creatures; they've got strong family bonds. Who are human beings to go interfering with these bonds?"
Emotions have been running high since the season opened on October 1. When the Makah's practising harpoonist suddenly quit, the name of his replacement was kept secret to avoid death threats.
A few ecological activists have sounded almost gleeful in predicting an aggressive response to attack from the animal known to old whalers as the "devil fish".
If the Makah sense public animosity, they at least have the comfort of knowing that Greenpeace itself has come down on their side.
"We're still trying to stop Japan and Norway which killed 1,000 whales last year," said Catherine Stewart, "but we are not opposed to subsistence hunting by native people."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 11 Oct, 1998
Makah Hunt Is About Spiritual Nourishment
By: Solveig Torvik - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Columnist
By the time you read this, the Makah may have killed their first whale in 70 years.
Clinging precariously to life on the rugged edge of the nation's northwesternmost corner, the Makah caused a worldwide uproar by reviving their whale hunt.
It isn't as if they're starving for food. But a case can be made that they're starving for the spiritual nourishment provided by whale meat.
I see it as a desperate, sad act, an unconscious cry for help by a people in mortal fear of vanishing. A variation on that cry echoes on nearly every Indian reservation in America, where astronomical rates of suicide, alcoholism and joblessness are the norm.
In that sense, the Makah whale hunt is emblematic of the whole sorry history of our relationship with the continent's first inhabitants. It should command our attention to how dysfunctionally they live among us today, 500 years after we first met.
How is it, we have to ask ourselves, that one of the state's respected Indian tribes became so desperate as to look for salvation in killing whales?
Few are arguing about whether the tribe has a legal right to kill whales; their treaty with the United States explicitly gives them that right, and the treaty must be upheld. The argument is about whether the Makah have an ethical or moral right to kill a whale in this day and age, when they can exist on tuna from a can.
It seems a futile gesture, this effort to swim upstream against the flow of history. But Makah tribal leaders have said they decided to kill whales because they want their young people to know what it means to be Makah and to be proud of it. They hope to instill self- respect, self-discipline and appreciation of traditional, spiritual values among youngsters who too often lack them. They hope it will bring back their communal bond as a people. They think it will help turn the next generation away from the hopelessness that has become all too synonymous with being Indian.
But their pleas for understanding largely have fallen on deaf ears. They have been vilified and ridiculed by people who give every indication that they are more concerned with animal welfare than with human welfare.
Animal rights protesters say the hunt will have consequences far beyond the Makah reservation. It sets a precedent that will imperil the existence of whales everywhere, they argue, unconvincingly. So, self-righteously, they battle the Makah for what they describe as a larger, more important moral principle than that of the Makah's well-being: the well-being of whales.
There is no room in the protesters' religion for the Makah to practice theirs.
Their protest would be better spent on the Norwegians and Japanese, two rich nations that have no need of whale meat to succor either the body or the spirit. They kill far more whales (minkes, which like the grays the Makah hunt, are not endangered) with far less justification than the Makah ever will.
You don't have to be an animal-rights-uber-alles adherent to dislike slaughtering whales. I regard it as an abhorrent, unnecessary exercise in cruelty to wild animals. (And I, unlike most Makah, have dined on whale meat.)
It's a serious stretch of values for non-Indians to see the world as the Makah do. Most people find it hard to understand what the Makah hope to gain from the hunt other than a reputation for cruelty. Whales are sentient, wild beings; they don't die easily.
This newspaper's editorial page, for example, has stated the view that the tribe should rest on its undeniable legal right to kill whales and simply forgo it - a right to be more honored in the breach than observance, if you will.
But that's easy for us to say; we don't regard the whale as a sacrament, a sacred gift from the creator to sustain us. In any case, it's not our call: the Makah alone have to bear the responsibility for this decision, whatever its eventual outcome. It's obvious that it was not a decision they made lightly or without serious provocation.
Social scientists sometimes use the word "anomie" to describe what happens to native people overwhelmed by another culture. Webster's New World Dictionary defines anomie as "lack of purpose, identity, or ethical values in a person or in a society; rootlessness."
Anomie is a response to being cut loose from one's cultural moorings and personal identity, according to some of the people who study such things. If anomie is indeed a factor at play here, does it follow that the Makah have to kill a whale to be made whole, to reclaim pride in their identity? I submit that no one can answer that question but the Makah themselves.
The Makah have presented us with a prickly dilemma, one where fundamental human values sharply clash. Sometimes the long tentacles of history wrap themselves around our throats and squeeze hard. This is one of those times.
Americans don't like to dwell on it, but there's no escaping the fact that two acts of bona fide original sin attended the birth of this nation. One of them was the decision to enslave black people. We're still paying for the negative effects of slavery on our society. We're striving - with mixed success - to make amends and to undo its damage with social policies.
But how do we undo the damage done to the native peoples whose land we usurped? Their land and their identities were indivisible. Their land - and their relationship to nature - was their religion. It defined their place in the order of things and told them who they were.
How do we make amends for that?
The tribe wants to remain Makah. To them, that means being whale hunters.
By what right do we presume to tell them that they are somebody else now?
Solveig Torvik is an editorial writer and a member of the Post- Intelligencer Editorial Board. E-mail: solveigtorvik@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct, 1998
Eaton; Tusk Could Lure Whale Of An Offer
By: Cathy Mong Dayton Daily News
* Solid ivory, the 80-inch tooth from a narwhal whale could fetch up to $20,000.
To Rob Bailey, it was a magical remnant of a mystical unicorn and one heck of a sword for make-believe play in his mother's Brookville Hardware store.
The child pestered his older brother with the 80-inch-long spear, so Martha Bailey Horner, now 79, suspended the conversation piece on the store's loft.
It wasn't until Eaton auctioneer John Kramer spotted it on a basement beam in Bailey Horner's 1830
farmhouse that the family learned it is solid ivory and once adorned an Arctic-dwelling narwhal whale.
The 11-pound tusk will be auctioned Oct. 21 at the Preble County Fairgrounds in Eaton, along with other contents of the brick house and post-and-beam barn. Similar tusks, which resemble spiral walking sticks, bring up to $20,000.
Rob Bailey, 54, of Brookville, and brother Bill, 47, of Indianapolis, had no idea the tusk was valuable.
"We didn't think it was worth a dime," Bill Bailey said.
Horner, who has lived on the farm since 1964, has moved to the Villas of Brookhaven retirement center and will auction the property at 11742 Wolf Creek Pike - deeded by James Madison in 1813 - at 10 a.m. today.
What she knows of the narwhal tusk is fresh in Horner's agile memory. She rewinds to the Great Depression, when her Uncle Lester Garland, then owner of Brookville Hardware, selected the tusk and animal trophies as payment from game hunter and taxidermist Abner Rhoads.
"'I need a washer and double tubs and I don't have any money,'" Horner said Rhoads told her uncle.
"Uncle Les took a truck out to Abner's. ... Mr. Rhoads got his tubs and washer and the trade was complete."
In 1968, when Horner sold the hardware store, the tusk was brought to the farm.
I looked at it and thought, "My Lord, what am I going to do with this?" he said, and leaned it in the corner of a corn crib.
When the basement was fixed up, Horner retrieved the tusk and attached it to a beam, where Kramer found it.
Janet Chestnut, who researched the tusk for the upcoming auction, said because of the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, which prohibits sale of any part of a marine mammal, she had to document that its ownership predated 1972.
She said the narwhal's tusk was once thought to come from unicorns and possess supernatural qualities.
The endangered whale, the only species to have such a tusk, is still hunted legally by Alaskan Aleuts, Indians and Eskimos for native handcrafts or for subsistence. It is estimated there are between 20,000 and 45,000 narwhals in existence.
For information, call Kramer & Kramer Auctioneers at 937-456-1101.
Contact Cathy Mong by e-mail at catherine_mong@coxohio.com or telephone her at (937) 225-2353.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct, 1998
Passamaquoddy past on display State museum lends 5,000-year-old artifacts to Indian Township school
By: Diana Graettinger Of The Bangor Daily News Staff
INDIAN TOWNSHIP -- Passamaquoddy youth interested in the history of their people need only look in their back yards to find traces of their roots. Some of those artifacts, including arrowheads and tools dating back thousands of years, are on display at their Indian Township Grammar School.
Two displays are housed in glass cases at the school, called Motahkmiqewi in Passamaqoddy. The first includes items from the glacial age 14,000 years ago to the arrival of Europeans 400 years ago. The second display contains artifacts found in an area north of Princeton, between Long and Lewey lakes, known as The Narrows, during a 1990 archaeological dig. The site has been identified as a 5,000-year-old Passamaquoddy village.
Donald Soctomah, project director, talked about the importance of displaying the tribe's archaeological history at the school.
"We wanted to let the kids see this every day. If you give someone a drum, they are going to learn how to play it. It's the same with the artifacts. If they keep seeing the artifacts, our history is going to stay in their minds," he said.
Standing in front of the first display, located in the cafeteria, Dawn Rachael Fitch-Doyle, tribal archaeologist, pointed out the artifacts found in and around Peter Dana Point at the Indian Township reservation. The collection was assembled by the Maine State Museum in Augusta and is on loan to the school.
She pointed out a long, narrow stone that was from the glacial period.
"That is a fluted point, and it is really, really rare. It is honed on each side so it could be attached to a spear," Fitch-Doyle said.
Some of the artifacts, Soctomah said, have been traced to other tribes and demonstrate the trade that took place between tribes.
"In the late ceramic period, a lot of the chert {a type of rock} came from Nova Scotia or Labrador," Fitch-Doyle said.
"It is a different kind of stone that was traded."
After the glacial epoch, Fitch-Doyle pointed out, came the Archaic Period, 6,000 to 9,000 years ago, and the introduction of the gouge that was used to hollow out canoes. Hide scrapers and arrowheads of that period were used for hunting.
The collection also covers the late Archaic Period when the tribe became less dependent on game and turned to fishing.
"People had to survive, so we turned to the ocean," Soctomah said.
Three artifacts, Fitch-Doyle said, are believed to have been early forms of fishing weights. The display also contains evidence of the European arrival 400 years ago, with copper coins, pieces of broken pipes used to smoke tobacco, and musket flints.
A second glass-enclosed display located in the library contains artifacts found by Indian Township students working at a dig organized by archaeologists from the Maine State Museum during the summer of 1990. The village they discovered dates back 5,000 years.
During the 1990 dig, the Passamaquoddy worked closely with archaeologist Steven L. Cox of the Maine State Museum, and Fitch-Doyle had nothing but praise for him.
"He had a general compassion and interest with the Passamaquoddy. I think sometimes archaeologists get a bad name. People think they are gravediggers, but he wasn't like that at all. If he thought there was any chance of us coming upon a burial ground, he would stop and ask us our feelings," she said.
Students working on the site that summer dug with trowels in 1-meter squares, carefully recording the exact position of every artifact they found.
"The main goal in 1990 was to train tribal members in the art of archaeology," Soctomah said.
The archaeology field school was a joint project of the tribe, the state museum and the University of Maine at Machias. Called Project Wolaku, the effort was funded by grants from the National Park Service and the Maine Historic Preservation Commission.
Kathy Lola, one of the Indian Township students who worked at the site, said it was a difficult dig because of the water.
"It was very wet; we had to use pumps to pump out the site. ... We had to take {a lot} of the material out of the water to be sifted," she said.
Many of the tools that have been found were discovered at the Indian Township site, including large spear points and the narrow drills that were made by flaking pieces of stone into shape with rock or antler hammers. Other tools, such as the semicircular knives called "ulus," after the Inuit term for knives, and a variety of abrading stones also were found.
The tools at the site represented a variety of activities. The spear points were used for hunting and the ground knives for butchering and processing animals, including hides. The woodworking tools were used not only to cut down trees, but to make dugout canoes, bowls, sharpened posts for house frames, and many other wooden implements. Plummets were used as net or line weights for fishing. Other artifacts found at the site were fragments of a barbed point, made of swordfish bone, perhaps also used for fishing.
More than 18,000 tiny fragments of heat-shattered animal bones, including otter and muskrat, were found at the site. These bones tell archaeologists not only what the Passamaquoddy hunted and ate, but also provide clues about the seasons people occupied the village. The fragments indicate muskrats were trapped in the fall, the time archaeologists believe the Passamaquoddy occupied the village.
Finding the village was important, and archaeologists believe other Passamaquoddy villages were covered by water after dams were built in the area. Today the dams on the Grand Fall Flowage and St. Croix River are operated by the Georgia-Pacific Corp.
Soctomah said the tribe hopes Georgia-Pacific will provide financial assistance to recapture some of the flooded archaeological sites and protect others that are eroding.
"The archaeological sites are probably some of the most endangered historic spots in the whole state because there are so few archaeological sites, and every time there is development, we lose another site," he said.
Although the two displays at the elementary school are filled with artifacts, thousands more items are still in boxes. The tribe would like to create a museum along the strip on Route 1. Fitch-Doyle said they intend to share some of the collection with the museum at Pleasant Point.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct, 1998
Attempt to save whales in US may bring jail time
By Tom Banse
NEAH BAY, Wash. (Reuters) - The leaders of the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society thought they had the ideal non-violent solution to prevent Makah Indian hunters from killing any gray whales this fall.
But now federal and state officials warn that planned efforts to frighten whales away from from Indian harpoons may bring fines or jail time for environmentalists.
Sometime in the coming weeks, Makah tribal members will set out on the Pacific Ocean in a dugout canoe to revive an ancient whale hunt after a 70-year hiatus.
Tribal elders describe whaling as a central tradition of the small band. But the assertion of a treaty right in the name of restoring culture has drawn an international flotilla of protest ships.
Anti-whaling groups plan to shadow the tribal hunting party while broadcasting underwater the sounds of killer whales attacking to scare gray whales away. The Sea Shepherd team is also ready to deploy a two-person submarine painted like the gray whale's enemy, the orca.
But these tricks may constitute a federal crime.
"It is a violation of federal law to harass marine mammals," warned Brian Gorman, spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle.
Gorman said the maximum penalty for harassing whales is a $20,000 fine or a year in jail.
On board a patrol cutter painted an intimidating black, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said he fears he will be singled out for prosecution because the government backs the Makah whalers. Watson claimed whale-watchers routinely get away with riding their boats practically on the backs of whales.
"They're not going after anyone else for harassing whales," Watson said.
"So if they go after us that's selective prosecution. I think it's totally absurd that they're saying my playing music in the water is the equivalent of putting a harpoon in a whale."
Watson noted he also plans to play whale mating sounds underwater to lure gray whales out of harm's way. He joked that too, could get him in trouble.
"Because I'm using mating sounds of gray whales, I mean they might as well charge me with sexual harassment," Watson said.
"That's how ridiculous this whole thing is getting."
Federal officials are taking everything to do with the confrontation on the high seas quite seriously. Fisheries spokesman Gorman said decisions about enforcing the harassment laws will be taken on a case-by-case basis.
If federal charges don't materialize, the Sea Shepherds could still face state prosecution. Washington state, like many others, has a law protecting hunters from animal rights protests.
Date: Mon, 12 Oct, 1998
Sea Shepherd Volunteers Say They're There To Protect Whales
By: The Associated Press
NEAH BAY - The young volunteers aboard the Sea Shepherd have no shortage of advice for the Makah Indian Nation:
Move on from a "dead culture." Don't be dupes of big-money interests. Turn your remote reservation into a tourist mecca. Make baskets.
Just don't kill whales.
"We're out here to protect the whales," says Lisa Distefano, 35, of Greenville, N.C., expedition leader for this campaign of the Los Angeles-based Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
Two of the organization's ships - the 180-foot Sea Shepherd and 95-foot Sirenian - are in Washington protesting the Makah's first gray-whale hunt in over 70 years. They are joined by a half-dozen inflatable craft belonging to Canadian whale-watching operations and a few other volunteer vessels.
The Makah won't let them dock at the reservation on the tip of the Olympic Peninsula, so the protesters anchor just outside the marina, keeping a watch for any sign the hunt may be beginning.
They believe the hunt signifies the resumption of commercial global whaling and that the tribe and the U.S. government are being manipulated by power brokers in Japan, Norway and elsewhere.
"This isn't belief. This is reality," says Distefano, who characterizes the Coast Guard cutters charged with keeping the peace as "gunboats."
She fumes that the government is helping the Makah "retain a dead culture" rather than to celebrate the whales as "living landmarks" and turning the Makah's spectacular homeland into a "premiere tourist center."
The Sea Shepherd group's two boats are manned by a full-time crew of 19 to 23 people, Distefano said.
But the heart of the campaign is its volunteers, an ever-changing lineup of conservation and animal-rights activists following Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, a crusader who has taken on the role of policing the seas.
Iddo Perez, 20, of Israel, saved his earnings from renovation and painting jobs to spend four months on the Sea Shepherd, a light blue vessel covered with paintings of whales and seals.
"I head the captain speak in a documentary and I thought, 'These people are really doing something,'" he said.
Allowing whaling in the United States will send a signal to whaling interests after 20 years in which the
United States "has been a major player in support of whales," Perez said.
Matahil Lawson, 21, of Tofino, B.C., belongs to central Canada's Ojibway Indian tribe. He lives on Wickaninnish Island off the west coast of Vancouver Island, which is visible here on clear days across the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Last spring, Lawson spent eight hours in a wetsuit helping free a gray whale from 200 feet of line and a 150-pound crab pot.
While the Makah's ancient whaling tradition is "something to be proud of, it doesn't need to be done again to prove to themselves who they are," Lawson said.
"The Makah are far from their traditions - most natives are," he said.
"I don't see anything ceremonial about blowing a whale out of the water from a speedboat."
The Makahs plan to harpoon a whale from a traditional 32-foot canoe, though they have agreed to finish the animal with a 50-caliber rifle - an attempt to ensure a quick and humane kill.
It is not clear when the hunt will begin. The fall migration extends into December, and the Sea Shepherd volunteers say they may stay until January.
The group does not oppose subsistence whaling by Alaska's Inuit people but considers the Makah hunt "cultural" whaling. The Makah and the government have agreed to a plan that bars commercial sale of edible whale parts.
Arctic whalers "have an unbroken tradition of whaling for food," says Dave Nickarz, 26, of Winnipeg, Manitoba.
"In the Arctic, it's more of a necessity."
The Makah have hunted whale for at least 2,000 years. They stopped in the 1920s, when the great fall and spring whale migrations nearly disappeared after decades of industrial whaling.
They moved to resume whaling in 1994, after the gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species List. Last year, the International Whaling Commission approved a U.S.-Russian agreement allocating 20 whales to the Makah through 2002 - a maximum of five per year.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 12 Oct, 1998
Whaling Disaster Revisited - Teams Pinpoint 1871 Wreckage In Chukchi Sea
By: Maureen Clark - The Associated Press
Scientists may have found remnants of one of the greatest shipping calamities in history, buried deep in the muck and mud on the floor of the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska. The murky images recorded by a remotely operated camera during a late-summer expedition show the outlines of at least two ships that sank more than a century ago.
Their bows, decks and the ribs of their hulls are just barely discernible beneath a thick layer of silt, 60 feet below the surface. It's not the Titanic and there are no riches. But the find is thought to represent part of the world's finest collection of 19th century whaling ships. And the discovery may advance the cause of science. Already, it has given NASA engineers a chance to test technology from the Mars pathfinder mission under water.
Biologists hope to examine some of the rare species of marine plants growing on the vessels. The story of how 31 whaling ships wound up at the bottom of the sea is the stuff of legend.
It was in late August of 1871 that a fierce wind bore down, blowing the Arctic ice pack toward shore. The wooden ships were trapped, imprisoned in a jumble of churning ice that crushed some of the boats. The captains of the fleet waited several weeks for a wind from offshore to free them, but it never came. Faced with the prospect of being marooned in the Arctic during winter with only enough food for a few months, the whaling captains abandoned 32 ships and their cargo.
All 1,219 men, women and children climbed into small boats and made it safely to seven rescue ships that were free of the ice. The disaster came at a time when whales had been hunted to near extinction and the whaling industry was winding down.
The $1.5 million loss of the vessels and their cargo dealt a mortal blow to the New Bedford whaling industry.
"Although insurance money was recouped, it was not reinvested in whaling. It was invested in textile mills or other capital ventures," said Anne Brengle, director of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
A salvage crew managed to retrieve one of the vessels and take it back to San Francisco in the summer of 1872. But the remaining ships were lost.
Natives stripped the wood from some of the vessels and burned others. Some of the ships were crushed by the sea ice. Still others were thought to have sunk in water deep enough to escape the grinding action of the ice.
This past summer, a team of scientists from NASA, the Navy, the U.S. Minerals Management Service and Santa Clara University decided to include a search for the wreckage of the fleet as part of an undersea research expedition. The trip was made aboard the Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star, which was traveling to the Arctic Ocean on a regular training run. It was the first scientific survey of the wreckage site since the ships were lost 127 years ago and the researchers weren't sure what they would find.
It was possible that there would be little more than scattered wood and debris, said Michele Hope, regional archaeologist for the U.S. Minerals Management Service in Anchorage. She was pleased with what they found.
"Basically, we think we found two shipwrecks, since we know which wrecks went down and we knew what to look for," Hope said.
"A team of divers went down and verified that it was timber, that it was a ship."
There are no plans to recover any of the ships.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 16 Oct, 1998
Killer whales threaten Alaskan ecosystem
By: Paul Recer Associated Press
Killer whales that normally hunt seals and sea lions are feeding on sea otters and creating an ecological crisis along the Aleutian Islands of western Alaska.
Researchers say that the sudden loss of thousands of sea otters is allowing a boom in the population of sea urchins, and these animals, in turn, are stripping the undersea kelp forest, laying bare vast areas that once were lush with the marine plant.
The whole coastal ecosystem in western Alaska is affected, says James Estes, a marine ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Estes said the research demonstrates how disrupting just one link in a food chain can threaten an entire ecological system.
"A wide array of species will be affected," he said.
"Coastal fish, mussels, marine birds and other predators in the system could all be impacted."
Estes is co-author of a study appearing today in the journal Science.
"The otters are down about 90% in the areas that we studied, while the sea urchins have increased by about tenfold," Estes said.
Undersea beds of kelp, a sea plant that towers from the ocean floor and can grow in dense groves, has been reduced by 90% in some areas. This, Estes said, could have a serious effect on fish and other animals.
"The kelp beds serve as a nursery for small fish and other animals," Estes said. "A lot of species depend on the kelp beds for their survival."
Normally, the western Alaskan waters hold a delicate balance of life, with sea lions and seals feeding on fish and the killer whales preying on the sea lions and seals. Independent of that, sea urchins graze on the kelp beds while sea otters feed on the urchins. This keeps the urchin population in check and allows the kelp beds to thrive, providing a home to hundreds of species.
But starting in the late 1980s, the sea lion and seal population crashed and is now about a 10th of normal, Estes said.
Deprived of their normal food, killer whales turned to the sea otter. The otter is much smaller than the sea lions and seals, so killer whales must eat more to get nourishment.
Estes said he and his colleagues estimate that a single killer whale will have to eat 1,825 otters a year to get its required nourishment. At that rate, Estes said, it would take just four killer whales feeding only on sea otters to cause a crash of the sea otter population throughout most of the Aleutian Island chain.
The reason behind the decline in sea lions and seals is unclear, Estes said, but some researchers believe the animals could not get enough high-nutrition fish, their normal food. Overfishing has severely reduced the numbers of some fish species, he said.
(Associated Press © Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 16 Oct, 1998
Sea Shepherd Attempt To Hand Over Letter At Dock Is Rejected
NEAH BAY (AP) Things have become so strained between the Makah Indians and the whale-hunt protesters that even the simple delivery of a letter is cause for a shouting match.
The 95-foot protest boat Sirenian tried to deliver a letter to the Makah Tribal Council on Saturday, but the boat, operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was not permitted to moor at the tribe's marina.
"Put it in the mail!" tribal police Officer Eric Svenson called to Sea Shepherd members in an inflatable boat accompanying the Sirenian, as they tried to hand over the letter for council Chairman Ben Johnson Jr.
The two sides shouted at each other over the roar of the inflatable's outboard.
"What do they want? A confrontation? That's OK with us," yelled Sea Shepherd member Peter Brown.
"If I come ashore and get arrested, then can I deliver the letter?" Brown asked.
Svenson told him to mail it, or land at Snow Creek, 3 miles east, and approach the reservation on shore.
No one was arrested, and after 20 minutes, Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson finally read the letter over the Sirenian's public-address system. At one point, Watson was interrupted by the blast of a fishing boat's horn, which prompted a burst of applause from the tribe's supporters.
On Monday, a letter from Watson to Johnson was accepted at the marina. In it, Watson offered to leave the area if the tribe could provide him with proof the hunt was legal.
The tribe hand-delivered a response on Thursday, telling Watson their hunt is supported by the U.S. government and the courts.
"It is time for your organization to stand down and leave us alone," Johnson said.
Any future dialogue should be conducted through the tribe's attorneys, council members told reporters.
(Associated Press © Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 18 Oct, 1998
A Waiting Game For The Media
By: Peggy Andersen, Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY Two weeks after a rumor brought reporters flocking here to cover the first Makah Indian Nation whale hunt in more than 70 years, many are still here and still waiting.
"Every day I think I'm going to leave, and every day I stay," says freelance writer Robert Sullivan, who published an article about the hunt in the New York Times Magazine in August.
Sullivan, who has been in and out of this community doing research for over a year, feels documentation of the event is important.
"All of us are here for the first whale kill in ... four generations in the Lower 48," said photographer Alan Berner of The Seattle Times. "If it happens, I want to be here to cover it."
"As far as I know, we're committed here 'til they take a whale or say they're not going to," said photographer Grant Haller of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
It's not clear when the hunt will take place.
The Makah, whose 1855 treaty grants them the right to take whales, moved to resume the hunts when the gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994. The population was reduced to near extinction by 19th century commercial whaling.
The tribe's whaling crew has been working for more than a year, preparing to follow the dangerous course set by their forebears for thousands of years. The hunt will occur as the whales pass this point of land on their 6,000-mile migration between Alaska and Mexico. The trek peaks later in the fall, but the weather worsens as well. The whales head north again in March and April.
The Makah are in no hurry.
"We've waited 70 years what's a few more days?" said Wayne Johnson of the tribal whaling crew.
"We'll go when the time is right," said crew member Donnie Swan.
So the media are settling in.
The impact of the few dozen on this town of about 2,000 people is tough to pin down. Most reporters are staying at the three local motels, all owned by whites, but their presence may be keeping some fall visitors away.
"We have seen a drop in tourism" this fall, said Gordy Bentler, who owns and operates the Cape Motel with his wife, Cheryl. "It's not really a negative thing just different."
People who come out here to get away from it all are not interested in running into the media, Cheryl says though in the long term she expects the attention may draw more visitors to this spectacular corner of the world.
At the Makah Maiden restaurant, proprietor Joddie Johnson says the media influx has been good for her business, often frequented by reporters. And on Tuesday, she said, two couples from Anacortes and San Diego stopped in for their first visits to the area, intrigued by reports about the whaling. Both asked her to point out the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessels, which have been at anchor here for weeks, hoping to disrupt the hunt.
Breakfast business at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Lodge 11481 "has picked up a little bit," says Arnie Hunter, lodge commander and vice president of the Makah Whaling Commission.
The VFW has started offering occasional lunches and dinners at its waterfront double-wide, prompting good-natured grumbling from volunteer chef Joan Carol Cook.
At Washburns General Store, the only mercantile in town, the media traffic has notable impact, said partner Greg Lovik.
"Any little thing in Neah Bay makes a difference," Lovik said.
"It's not as much as we'd hoped," he said, noting that the tribe is not allowing protesters from two Sea Shepherd Conservation Society to land at the downtown marina.
But he figures some people pass through because of the media attention.
"We've even had some people ask us what time they're going to kill the whale," he said, laughing.
"I tell them, 'noon tomorrow.'"
Reporters waiting out here are trying to learn patience.
Haller confesses to "a combination of boredom and nervousness."
P-I reporter Paul Shukovsky says being here "gives me a new perspective on time."
The three Seattle TV stations with network affiliations also have remained on site, though most are rotating personnel and KING-TV has cut back to just one cameraman.
"We're all in a waiting game," said KIRO-TV's Chris Legeros at the downtown marina as he and station photographer Scott Crueger went over their plans for the day.
"Every day they ask you if you've got any sense of when this is happening. And every day we say no."
The tribe has set down guidelines for a media boat that would be allowed within the 500-yard exclusionary zone the Coast Guard has offered to establish around the whaling canoe and the tribe's motorized chase boats mostly to prevent interference by protest vessels anchored offshore.
But Coast Guard protection is only an option. If the Makah feel there is more protection in secrecy, the Coast Guard will not be called, says Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission.
Reporters hope they and the "media boat" would be alerted in any event, but there are no guarantees.
"If they don't want us there, they'll find a way," Legeros said.
"It's their playing field."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 18 Oct, 1998
Sea Shepherd Attempt To Hand Over Letter At Dock Is Rejected
The Columbian
NEAH BAY (AP) Things have become so strained between the Makah Indians and the whale-hunt protesters that even the simple delivery of a letter is cause for a shouting match.
The 95-foot protest boat Sirenian tried to deliver a letter to the Makah Tribal Council on Saturday, but the boat, operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was not permitted to moor at the tribe's marina.
"Put it in the mail!" tribal police Officer Eric Svenson called to Sea Shepherd members in an inflatable boat accompanying the Sirenian, as they tried to hand over the letter for council Chairman Ben Johnson Jr.
The two sides shouted at each other over the roar of the inflatable's outboard.
"What do they want? A confrontation? That's OK with us," yelled Sea Shepherd member Peter Brown.
"If I come ashore and get arrested, then can I deliver the letter?" Brown asked.
Svenson told him to mail it, or land at Snow Creek, 3 miles east, and approach the reservation on shore.
No one was arrested, and after 20 minutes, Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson finally read the letter over the Sirenian's public-address system. At one point, Watson was interrupted by the blast of a fishing boat's horn, which prompted a burst of applause from the tribe's supporters.
On Monday, a letter from Watson to Johnson was accepted at the marina. In it, Watson offered to leave the area if the tribe could provide him with proof the hunt was legal.
The tribe hand-delivered a response on Thursday, telling Watson their hunt is supported by the U.S. government and the courts.
"It is time for your organization to stand down and leave us alone," Johnson said.
Any future dialogue should be conducted through the tribe's attorneys, council members told reporters.
(Associated Press © Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct, 1998
Humane Society of Canada charges that Federal Minister broke law over whale hunt
VANCOUVER, /CNW/ - Federal Fisheries and Oceans Minister David Anderson broke the law when he issued a licence to a U.S. group to kill gray whales in Canadian waters, The Humane Society of Canada charged today.
The licence granted by Anderson -- with no public consultation, and which his department refused to release to The Humane Society of Canada -- gives the Makah native band of Washington State permission to chase wounded gray whales into Canadian territory. The Makah have said they plan to use a .50 calibre anti-tank gun to kill any whales they target.
"And that is where David Anderson, and the federal government, have broken their own laws," said Michael O'Sullivan, Executive Director of The Humane Society of Canada.
"Fifty calibre guns, the last time I checked, were illegal in Canada. So what was David Anderson thinking when he gave a group of non-Canadians permission to use such a dangerous weapon in our country against these gentle marine mammals? We won't stand for it, and neither will Canadians," he said.
"To prevent the loss of any human or animal life, The Humane Society of Canada today made a formal complaint with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and with Immigration & Citizenship," said Al Hickey, The Humane Society of Canada's Western Regional Director.
The complaint which is being distributed to the media, states that Anderson violated a key section of the federal Immigration Act, which prohibits the admission into Canada persons who are likely to "commit one or more indictable offences punishable by way of indictment under any Act of Parliament." Transporting, possessing or using a .50 calibre anti-tank gun in Canada is an indictable offence under numerous sections of the Criminal Code, O'Sullivan said, adding that the RCMP have stated that they are very "concerned" about the use of the .50 calibre weapon.
Accompanied by Al Hickey, Western Regional Director for the organization, O'Sullivan will make The Humane Society of Canada's criminal complaint against Anderson and the Makah at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, 19 October 1998 at the RCMP "E" Division located at 657 West 37th Street, following which he will meet with the media outside the front entrance to the building.
He will then proceed to file a complaint with Immigration & Citizenship located at 1800, 1188 West Georgia Street and then finally deliver a copy of both complaints to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans located at 555 West Hastings Street.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Al Hickey in Vancouver at (604) 521-0272. Mr. Hickey has worked in animal protection for many years and for 17 years was the Chief Executive of the BCSPCA.
For the past 25 years, Michael O'Sullivan has worked on behalf of animals here in Canada and in over 70 countries and can be reached by calling toll free 1-800-641-KIND or cell (416) 876-9685.
This news release is being sent out by wire service worldwide to all major media in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.
(Copyright Canada News-Wire © 1998)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct, 1998
Death Of Rare Marine Mammal Goes Unreported
The death of a rare Irrawaddy dolphin in North Queensland has now gone unreported for over a week.
On Wednesday 7 October 1998, the Queensland Department of Environment and Heritage [QDEH] investigated the death of a dolphin on the banks of Thompson's Creek, on the western side of Repulse Bay.
After waiting 10 days, the coordinator of the Wildlife Preservation Society in Whitsunday, Ian Sutton rang QDEH to find out why a media statement had not been released:
"I was told that because a senior scientist with the department had determined that the animal had not drowned in a gill net, it was not an important matter. There would be no media release. However, there was no explanation given as to the real cause of death nor was evidence offered why it wasn't a net mortality.
"Apparently the animal had been dead for four or five days, so no autopsy had been carried out. I understand that photographs were taken though."
This is not the first time that QDEH has been reluctant to reveal information about marine mammal deaths. A butchered dugong at Midge Point, [3 September 1998] close to where the Irrawaddy was discovered, went unreported for 16 days. This animal is a suspected net mortality.
Last year, two Irrawaddy dolphins died in the same area, near the mouth of the O'Connell River [between Midge Point and Thompson's Creek]. Again it was some time before the deaths became public knowledge. The Proserpine Guardian eventually broke the story. One of these animals had rope marks consistent with entanglement.
"Every year, about this time, a disturbing number of marine mammals in our region have been dying mysteriously."
"We know some have been drowned in gill nets, but QDEH does not seem to have a good explanation for the other deaths." [This is also the peak period for offshore gill netting.]
"Many people in Whitsunday are deeply alarmed at this unfolding tragedy, and are not happy about the way in which the information flow has been handled. It seems very likely that unless immediate emergency steps are taken, Irrawaddy dolphins and Dugongs will disappear from our area.
"Not until there is a panel of independent experts involved in the determination of the causes of death - all with access to the photographic and forensic evidence, will this situation be clearly and transparently resolved. This matter is too important to be left to one person - no matter how well credentialed.
"The Department also needs to develop a closer working relationship with the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority. There has been some evidence of a lack of good communication between these two bodies of late.
"Not only has QDEH got to do the right thing; they have to been seen to be doing the right thing."
"The public has a right to know about the deaths of such animals officially listed as rare and protected under Queensland law!"
For more information contact:
Ian Sutton
phone: +61 7 4946 4170 mobile: +61 41 230 6816
fax: +61 7 4946 4170 E-mail: isutton@tpgi.com.au
Date: Mon, 19 Oct, 1998
Aussies Try To Save Beached Whales Dozens Die Despite Efforts Of Volunteers
By: Associated Press
Volunteers used trucks to haul stranded whales back to the sea Sunday, and surfers helped guide them into deeper waters.
Despite the rescue effort, however, 24 pilot whales died after a pod of whales hit trouble near Blackman's Bay on Australia's southern island of Tasmania.
Farther north in Orford, a pod of 60 pilot whales were stranded on a beach and most perished before they were found.
The drama began Saturday morning when 56 whales beached themselves at Marion Bay, adjacent to Blackman's Bay, and 21 whales died. Rescuers managed to get the rest out to sea, where the bulk of a mother pod of about 100 was circling.
Most were guided into deeper water where boats were used to turn any back that tried to return to shore.
Rangers also took a whale calf into deeper water and turned its head toward shore in the hope that its distress calls would attract others. Four adults came.
"I've never seen this technique used before, but it got at least four back out," Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service Director Max Kitchell said. "We learn something each time with these strandings."
But instead of heading to the safety of open sea, the reunited pod turned toward the narrow entrance of Blackman's Bay. Despite efforts to head them off, about 50 became trapped in shallow water.
Nine were stranded on a sandbar where three died and the rest were moved by truck to Eaglehawk Neck and released into the sea Sunday.
Hydraulic lifts lowered the adults on foam mattresses, where they were covered with sacks and strapped down. Five volunteers poured buckets of water over the whales during the 45-minute trip.
Once in the water at Eaglehawk Neck, the whales were placed in waist-high water to recover strength before being guided toward the open sea.
Then came the news from Orford, 12 miles north, that at least 60 more whales had beached themselves there. Kitchell said all but about 10 were dead by the time rangers reached them.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 19 Oct, 1998
Whales defy Tasmanian Rescue Mission
Many return to beach but fortunate few swim free
VOLUNTEERS in Tasmania return an exhausted pilot whale to the open sea yesterday after transporting it and five others for 45 minutes by lorry. The whales were taken from Blackman's Bay, where they were beached, to Eaglehawk Neck to be released.
Although the 36-hour rescue operation on Australia's southern island saved dozens of whales, 24 died at Blackman's Bay, and later most of a pod of 60 beached themselves and died farther north at Orford.
The first whales, the biggest of which was 23ft long, were found on Saturday morning at Marion Bay. Of the 56 that were beached, 21 died. Rescuers got the rest out to sea to join the large pod, and used boats to turn back any that tried to return to shore.
Rangers took a calf into deeper water and turned its head towards shore, hoping its distress calls would attract others.
"I've never seen this technique used before but it got at least four back out," the director of Tasmania's parks and wildlife service, Max Kitchell, said.
But instead of heading to safety, the reunited pod turned towards the narrow entrance of Blackman's Bay on Saturday night. Despite efforts to head them off, about 50 became trapped in shallow water.
More whales were later reported beached at Orford, 12 miles to the north. It was unclear whether they were from the same group.
(AP Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 21 Oct, 1998
Whale Protesters Are Told Not To Fire Ship's Cannon
By: Seattle Post-Intelligencer Staff And News Services
The Coast Guard made at least two visits yesterday to an anti- whaling group's ship after Makah Indians complained about firing of the vessel's cannon.
The cannon has been used as a signal device at least a dozen times since the 95-foot Sirenian and its companion boat, the 180-foot Sea Shepherd, arrived here late last month to protest Makah plans to resume gray whale hunts this fall, said Paul Watson, leader of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
The tribe's complaint was prompted by an incident Sunday, when the Sirenian fired the Civil War-replica cannon just outside the harbor when a motorboat carrying tribal whaling officials was nearby.
Also in the vicinity were a gray whale, the Sea Shepherd and a vessel searching for wreckage from a plane believed to have gone down in the area.
The Sirenian, which had been playing recorded killer-whale sounds over its public-address system and blowing its horn, fired no projectile from the cannon, but it made a loud noise and created billows of black smoke.
"This action is reckless and endangering the public safety of the persons in the area," tribal council Chairman Ben Johnson wrote in letters Monday seeking help from the Coast Guard and the Clallam County Sheriff's Department.
Yesterday morning, the Coast Guard delivered a sheriff's deputy to the Sirenian.
Sheriff's Deputy Joe Martin said the law at issue is a Class C felony that bars use of an explosive - or even a fake explosive - to threaten or intimidate. It carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct, 1998
Whale Hunt Conflict Serves Neither Whales Nor Their Hunters
By: Asta Bowen Seattle Post-Intelligencer Columnist
I went to the Makah nation because I wanted to see the end of the world. There's something irresistible about extremes, and Cape Flattery, at the far northwest corner of the lower 48 states, was an extreme to which I had to go.
There between the Olympic Mountains and the Pacific Ocean lay the modest fishing village of Neah Bay, which I visited, the ancient settlement of Ozette, which I did not, and a winding coastal trail out to the cape. Report from the end of the world: It's windy out there.
Now, five years later, the prevailing wind from the Makah nation is a roar of rhetoric. The tribe has decided to hunt whales again, after some 70 years, igniting a world-class controversy. The crux of the argument, according to Mother Jones Magazine, comes down to "multiculturalists and environmentalists" who can't agree "whether it's more important to save whales or Indian culture."
This should be a non-dilemma. Both whales and Indian culture are important; both should be preserved. With the gray whale recovered to a population of 20,000, if the Makah can meet their needs with the harvest of five whales per year approved by the International Whaling Commission, what is the problem?
One problem is that some folks couldn't care less about either whales or Indians, and would cheerfully sit back and watch the multiculturalists and environmentalists duke this one out - preferably to the death. It's one battle the reactionaries can't lose; between the whalers, the whales and the anti-whaling activists, someone else is bound to come out on the short end of the harpoon.
Another problem is that somewhere along the way to saving the whales, in the past few decades, the whales also saved us. In order to halt our extinction of these great species, we had to lose the image of the whale as mere commodity or enemy. As we got to know whales differently, roiling waters no longer meant a threat to old Jonah or even a light for our lamps; thanks to conservation campaigns like Save the Whales, we came to see marine mammals as kin: members of the living family of our blue planet.
Once we forged a bond with the whale - as blubbery and barnacled a relative as one could hope to find in the family tree - links to other wildlife were easy. The bear was kin, and so was wolf; sea otter and seal, whooping crane and (dare I say?) spotted owl were all valued members of the family, deserving of respect and worthy, when in danger, of saving. In this way the whale saved us too: from arrogance, from loneliness, from the destruction of self through the destruction of habitat. Now, when we picture the whale, it is as a friend: rising sociably to meet the tour boat, turning a lazy eye to the filmmaker, or, in a warm Baja lagoon, giving birth as we do.
This is the whale we do not want to die. This is the whale we do not want the Makah to kill. And if the hunters are, as they promise, "pure of heart," this whale is not in danger. But we find that difficult to believe.
Friends, there's a culture in trouble here, and it's not the Makah. There's a culture that cannot believe a tribe could be motivated by something other than financial greed. There is a culture that has learned to kill without reverence and consume without celebration. There is a culture so removed from the Earth, so completely symbolic, that it accepts the image of a whale and the reality of a whale as interchangeable: equally powerful, equally meaningful. In this society there are commentators who can, with a straight face, reduce "culture, values, (and) traditions" to "PR buzzwords." There are writers who assume that 55 percent unemployment can't be all that bad in a town with two motels, Federal Express and the all-important espresso bar.
There are people who think poverty must be abject and malnutrition fatal before subsistence becomes a "legitimate" issue.
We are, inevitably, products of our experience. As a young woman one generation removed from Iceland, I visited that windy end of the world and watched, one morning, as a whale disappeared from the dock of my cousin's village. The blubber was stripped and the meat sold in scores of neat plastic bags; the baleen, I remember, made coveted playthings for the kids. With the family cod boat full of fish, we didn't eat whale that night. If we had, I wouldn't have liked it. I wasn't hungry enough. I couldn't remember.
The Makah are hungry enough to remember. I wish them a pure heart, safe passage, and the grace to save the whale they must kill.
Asta Bowen is a free-lance writer and regular P-I contributor.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 23 Oct, 1998
The Resurrection of Commercial Whaling?
By: Kate O'Connell, Y. Leon Favreau, Stephen Loher, And, Daniel W. Dickover - Christian Science Monitor
Regarding the opinion piece "Pandora's Whale" (Oct. 15), the author's worries about the unraveling of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling are absolutely spot on. The group for which I work, the UK-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) has just come across information concerning the construction of a 1.7 ($2.89) billion whaling vessel, the Yu-shin-maru.
The manufacturer of the vessel, Kyodo Senpaku, stated to the Japanese press that it sees the vessel - due to start its whaling duties in November - as a "symbol of restarting commercial whaling." It is intriguing that the Japanese make such a large investment in their whaling industry at a time of economic recession. The only possible reason for such an investment is their belief that large- scale commercial whaling is about to reopen.
The consistent failure of the US to take strong action against Japanese and Norwegian whaling, coupled with the Makah whale hunt that has weakened the US position at the IWC, should be held directly responsible for this new Japanese whaling venture.
Kate O'Connell
Bath, England
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Date: Sat, 24 Oct, 1998
Group Objects To Tests That Could Harm Dolphins
By: Associated Press
An animal-rights group Friday objected to plans for anti-mine explosives tests that may harm dolphins and other marine creatures.
The Air Force is seeking a permit from the National Marine Fisheries Service for 10 underwater detonations that would "potentially disturb and harass" bottlenose and spotted dolphins. The tests would be conducted on the Panhandle beaches owned by Eglin.
It is illegal to harass marine mammals and the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida contends that other creatures, including sea turtles, would be at risk.
"These tests are too dangerous to be conducted as planned," foundation spokesman Nicolas Atwood said in a news release. "There has to be a better way."
Eglin spokeswoman Janet Tucker said the Air Force would minimize any chance of disturbing dolphins by testing only in daylight and at times of year when migratory patterns indicate the animals are not in the area.
Also, before each test biologists would patrol a half-mile stretch of beach by helicopter and call off the testing if they spot any dolphins or turtles, she said.
Although Eglin has conducted similar testing in deep water, these would be the first done in shallow water.
The Air Force and Navy want to test weapons designed to explode mines in surf zones. They would include tests to determine the feasibility of deploying one of the weapons from hovercraft.
The Air Force has estimated about 36 dolphins might be affected by noise from the explosions. Atwood said dolphins rely on hearing to navigate and find food.
The explosions would affect their hearing and inflict stress and possibly injury, he said, citing studies that show even sounds from ships and oil drilling can interfere with the behavior and migration of marine mammals.
The Fisheries Service is accepting public comment on the proposal through Nov. 12.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 24 Oct, 1998
QLD: Scientists agree to work together to manage whale
By Selina Day
BRISBANE, (AAP) - Humpback whale experts from around the world were meeting here this weekend to discuss long-term conservation management strategies for the gentle giants.
Stocks of the huge whales were still recovering from numbers in the low hundreds since the official end of harvesting in the southern hemisphere in 1963, scientists said.
The Australian and New Zealand Humpback Whale Research and Conservation Seminar has brought together some 40 senior marine scientists and conservation policy makers in a bid to reach a co-ordinated international approach to research, conservation and management of the whales.
Humpback expert Milani Chaloupka, from the Queensland environment and heritage department, said there were six different "stocks" of humpback whales.
The seminar is focusing on humpbacks identified as groups four and five - those which migrate from the Antarctic along the west coast of Australia and those which travel from Antarctica to the east coast and to New Zealand and Tonga.
Mr Chaloupka said very little was known about the psychology of these groups but there was very little interchange or breeding between them.
The remaining four stocks migrate from the Antarctic along the west and east coasts of Africa and South America.
Humpbacks, at between 12 to 15m, are one of the largest whales. They are classified in the "baleen" group, meaning they have no teeth but instead filter plankton in a sieve-like action. They very rarely became stranded and never mass strand.
Mr Chaloupka said humpbacks were very heavily harvested in the southern hemisphere in two major periods during the 20th century beginning in the early 1900s before humpback harvesting was replaced by that of blue whales.
Humpback whaling was reintroduced in 1949 and continued until 1963 when the International Whaling Commission became concerned about extinction and after worldwide community pressure.
"In those 13 or 14 years there was a dramatic reduction of all stocks, from about 10- to 15,000 group fives to about 300 to 400 by 1963," Mr Chaloupka said.
"They were almost driven to extinction by commercial whaling."
Conservation of the whales has meant stocks have recovered to number about 2,500.
"But that's a very slow recovery since 1963 - it's only a net increase over 35 years by about 2000 whales," Mr Chaloupka said.
"That is why we have to be extremely careful."
The first seminar of its kind, the humpback forum was conceived after Mr Chaloupka addressed an American Fisheries Congress last year about his beloved "long-lived marine animals".
New Zealand Department of Conservation manager of external relations Mike Donoghue heard the address and was convinced humpback experts in the south-west Pacific region should pool their expertise in a scientific forum.
The giant creatures began their annual southward migration in September and can be spotted off Australia's west and east coasts until November.
Date: Sun, 25 Oct, 1998
Tribal Hunt News
By: Kim Murphy - The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
As tribal whale hunt nears, outcry grows louder After 70-year interruption, Washington Indians get U.S. OK to kill five animals
The moon was low on the water that night, and the silvery barnacled back of the whale slid by the boat only for a moment before sinking back into the deep. You could smell him, though, the rank salt odor of bottom slime hanging on the wind.
The men in the canoe slipped their oars into the water and pressed forward. This time, he blew further in, and then further still. Soon, the whale was backed up against the beach, pulsing uncertainly in the kelp beds in 17 feet of water. "They say the gray whale can turn like a cat and attack like a dog," said Wayne Johnson. "We got stealth, though. . . . And we also have the .50-caliber."
In the end, the hunters backed away, leaving the whale to regain the deep and press on toward Mexico. But there's another one out there, and that's the one Johnson and the others think of now when they're bathing down in the river, praying in the sweat lodge, sleeping on a wild beach next to the canoe, imagining the electric charge of the whale's life climbing up the shaft of the harpoon and settling on the hunters like a carpet of glory.
"We're getting into our spiritual potential now, starting to fast, bathing in the creeks and the rivers and the ocean," explains Donnie Swan, 22, one of the younger members of the whaling crew. "Going out there, it's like paddling down and seeing my grandpa's reflection in the water. . . . It's a real touching feeling, real strong."
The midnight practice hunt, recounted on a recent afternoon, was but one of many oceangoing trials the Makah Indians will make in the coming days before finally lodging a harpoon in the back of a gray whale, marking the first legal whale hunt off the American mainland since the leviathans nearly disappeared from the oceans in the early part of the century.
The hunt, which could begin at any time, will not go unmarked. Someone recently mailed a photograph of Makah Whaling Commission Director Keith Johnson with red-inked blood flowing out of his eyes. Someone else telephoned and fired off a gun.
The blustery waters of the Strait of Juan de Fuca off Neah Bay are growing into an uneasy battlefield as a swelling flotilla of anti-whaling boats joins vessels from the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Marine Fisheries Service working to aid the hunt. Whale enthusiasts from as far away as Germany, Australia and Israel have traveled to Neah Bay for the showdown.
On this tiny reservation slung on a windy cape that marks the northwesternmost reach of the continental United States there is confusion and more than a little resentment about the growing international outcry over a tradition the Makahs have practiced, with 70 years' interruption, for about 15 centuries. It is a tradition whose renewal, they hope, will undo the effects of 150 years of forced assimilation, of land given up and of the modern-day ills of drugs, alcohol and a 50% unemployment rate.
The historic paintings and baskets of the Makah nearly all depict stark geometric arcs and lines around a black center, the dark eye of a whale. Songs, dances and stories recount the exploits of the Makahs who set out on wooden canoes and harpooned the mighty humpback whale. While commercial whaling has been banned in most parts of the world since the 1930s, the Makahs, who fall into a small exception granted to aboriginal hunters, are the only U.S. tribe with a recognized treaty right to hunt whales.
There is hardly a spot on the U.S. mainland so remote and so wildly lovely. By ferry and car, it is a four-hour trek from Seattle.
Rising over a small fishing marina, the town of 2,000 Makahs is little more than a general store, a VFW hall, a school, a cafe and several streets of makeshift housing.
In the years since whaling ebbed away, the Makahs have scratched out a living fishing and logging. But many of the hills now are cut bare, and stocks of salmon that once were plentiful have crashed all over the Pacific Northwest.
In the best of times, when the boats are out and the few tourists are trickling in, half the town has a job. In the winter, unemployment hits 75%.
Ted Noel, head of the tribal department of health, education and social services, operates a food bank that serves 500 people a month a quarter of the town's population. Now the food bank has opened up a large freezer for whale meat.
The aboriginal whaling quota of five animals per year was granted to the Makah by the U.S. government last year as part of the worldwide quota authorized by the International Whaling Commission. It doesn't assume the tribe unlike Eskimos in Arctic Alaska that hunt the bowhead whale needs the whales for subsistence.
Instead, the Makahs are seeking to whale on the basis of cultural subsistence the survival of their culture, its traditions and social structure. It is an exemption that opponents of the hunt view as particularly onerous, because they fear it could open a loophole for nations like Japan and Norway to effectively reopen commercial whaling disguised as aboriginal whaling.
A half-mile or so off the outer breakwater, an old fishing vessel equipped with a high-powered water cannon and a one-man submarine painted to look like a killer whale wait, with sailors using binoculars trained onshore for any sign that the Makah canoe and chase boats are heading to sea.
Two boats from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a Los Angeles -based anti-whaling group, have been joined by a third vessel sponsored by the Progressive Animal Welfare Society and a constantly changing armada of small cruise boats, whale-watching ships and inflatable dinghies bent on scaring away the whales before the Makahs can kill them.
The National Marine Fisheries Service plies the waters looking for signs that members of the annual 10,000-mile gray whale migrating community have appeared, in addition to the small local population of gray whales the Makahs have agreed not to pursue. The U.S. Coast Guard is enforcing a 500-foot perimeter rule around the Makah hunting boats in the hope that the mixture of rushing boats, screaming protesters, thrashing whales and .50-caliber guns does not become fatal.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 28 Oct, 1998
Tribal Cook Nurses Wounded Animals Back To Health
By: Peggy Andersen, Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY, Wash. Her tidy red house is filled with historic photographs of her people, the Makah, taken by whites who ventured to this remote spit of land in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Herbs and flowers hang suspended from the ceiling to dry, and hundreds of purple-gray seashells used to make jewelery are mounded on a sheet on the living-room floor for sorting.
This is the home of "ayit," a traditional tribal cook who asks to be identified only by her tribal name. Her white-world name, she says, "is nothing. I'm not proud of it."
Chosen long ago for the kitchen, ayit has learned her craft from elders in this community of 2,000 people.
"If they ask me, it's an honor to cook for people," she says, noting that in ancient times, poisoning was sometimes used against enemies. "People always knew where their food came from."
A message on her voice-mail system alerts her helpers that seals are in and she needs help preparing their meat. In addition to ensuring the tribe's whaling rights, the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay allows seal-hunting.
But ayit's work with animals goes beyond butchering and cooking, rendering oil and smoking meat. She could as easily be called on to care for a lost baby seal as to butcher an adult one.
Spring is the busy time, she says, with orphaned fawns and seals that need bottle-feeding every three hours or so. When an abandoned seal pup is reported, she arranges for a 72-hour watch, knowing that the adult caretaker may well only be out fishing.
"Nine times out of 10, the mom comes back," she says.
She shrugs at the role that could have her nursing a baby seal back to health only to find its 250-pound carcass at her door months later for rendering of the oil used here as a dip for potatoes and dried meat.
"That don't bother me," ayit says. It is all part of life.
And while she will have a role in butchering and preparing meat and oil from the Makah's first whale, she says she also "can rehab a whale on the beach keep him wet and get him back in the water."
She has two starved young bald eagles, five or six months old, in her backyard during this recent interview, being nursed back to health for eventual release.
These birds, destined for freedom, are not allowed human visitors, says ayit, who has a federal license for care of raptors hawks, eagles and owls.
But she leads a visitor to a quiet wooded lot near where the Sooes River spills into the sea the place she calls "the old folks home." The land was leased to the birds by the tribe, and ayit recalls two days of prayer by ministers of numerous faiths that made the site "a safe place."
Here in a spacious walk-in cage among the trees are three adult bald eagles unreleaseable birds named Shi-Shi, Whitey and Ab that have lost portions of a wing to gunshot wounds.
The 40-something grandmother, who asked not to be photographed, began caring for birds 14 years ago, when she found an injured eagle on the road. She earned her license 10 years ago.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 29 Oct, 1998
Whales Perish on New Zealand Beach
By Ray Lilley
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, (AP) - Conservation officials shot and killed dozens of stranded pilot whales today as part of a group of 288 whales that perished on a remote beach off the southern tip of New Zealand.
The whales were stranded on Stewart Island late Wednesday and most were dead by the time Department of Conservation officials reached them.
"The (42) surviving whales were so distressed it was better to put them out of their misery," said Southland conservation official Lou Sanson.
"This is one of the largest mass strandings in the world and was a distressing scene for the staff."
A hunting party found the long-finned pilot whales, also known as black whales, aground at remote Doughboy Bay. When department staff flew over the site at dawn only 60 whales were alive. Eighteen more had died by late morning.
"The judgment was made that all the whales were too far gone to save them," Sanson said.
The site was so remote that the carcasses were left on the beach to rot.
Experts remained puzzled as to why the whales blindly return to deadly shallows. Theories include that one whale is beached by accident while chasing food, then attracts the others in its pod with its distress cries.
On Oct. 17, 206 whales became stranded on the west coast of Australia's island state of Tasmania, and more than 100 of them died.
New Zealand recorded a larger stranding on Great Barrier Island near Auckland, last decade, when 450 were beached.
Sanson said extensive samples of whale tissue, liver tissue and teeth were removed from the whales today for investigation by marine scientists.
"We've lost the whales, but we intend to use the opportunity for scientific purposes," he said.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.
Date: Thu, 29 Oct, 1998
Harpoon in the moral underbelly
By: William Green; The Independent - London
In the name of tradition, a Native American tribe plans to hunt whales again. How does the liberal world react?
Seattle's trendy coffee-houses serve whipped latte to the cream of Nineties North America - a young, Internet-ready professional elite pre-programmed to respond correctly on all lifestyle issues. But this month something tougher than organic spinach is up for discussion. A nasty conflict of interest has broken out between two West Coast counter-cultural icons - the marine mammal and the Native American.
For the first time in 70 years, migrating grey whales off the Washington coast at Neah Bay are to be hunted and killed by a local Indian tribe, the Makah, under an ancient treaty right. For white, liberal Seattle, all this simply does not compute.
Ecology is a natural faith for Sierra Club types gazing from the decks of their condos over the glorious horizons of the Pacific NorthWest. Now they face a dilemma that their New-Age belief systems cannot resolve. On the one hand, there's this oppressed, non-white minority trying to restore pride to a unique culture through the revival of an ancestral tradition. On the other, there are these freaks going out in a canoe to harpoon the guiltless, gentle giants of the ocean, and butcher their bloody corpses on the beach. What to think?
These are troubled waters, and votes are still mostly floating on the issue. In the local media, debate has been raging all summer, for the facts in the case are not as simple as they appear. Under the Treaty of Neah Bay, signed with US federal authorities in 1855, the Makah negotiated the right to continue hunting grey whales, as they had always done. But by the Twenties, grey whales were almost extinct in the Pacific, and the tribe went after fur seals instead. When the seals were gone, they abandoned their canoes and spears, and began to live on government handouts. The treaty became an irrelevance.
Today, the Makah are trawlermen, working from a fine government- financed marina at their little settlement (pop 1500) on Cape Flattery. They chase tourist dollars as well. With federal help, they built a large museum to house the wealth of tribal artefacts recovered from an archaeological dig close by, and constructed a wooden eco-walkway on the cliff-edge of the Cape, with views of eagles and sea-otters. But Neah Bay is far from Seattle, and visitors are scarce outside the summer months. The Makah elders wanted something new to keep their young men busy and away from drink.
So last year, citing a "cultural need", and with US-government support, the Makah lobbied the International Whaling Commission for permission to hunt a "subsistence" quota of five grey whales a year. Whale numbers in the Pacific have been recovering. In 1994, with a population estimated in the tens of thousands, the grey whale was removed from the endangered species list. And whales are still hunted legally by Eskimo bands in the Arctic. So, under US-government pressure, the IWC brokered a deal for the Makah. In a bizarre asset- swap, five bowhead whales remaindered from an existing Alaskan Eskimo quota were traded by the Americans for five greys already reserved to the Russian government for its own Chukchi Eskimos in Kamchatka.
The Makah have paddled skilfully through the upswell of criticism. Early boasts about the terrific potential income from the sale of whalemeat proved counter-productive, and were withdrawn when the tribe retained the services of a good Seattle PR firm. In their place came press releases about warriors' dreams of fulfilling the legacy of their forefathers in carved canoes sanctified by immemorial rituals. Meantime, tribal elders travelled to enlist the support of Japan and Norway, both keen to open more "aboriginal loopholes" to undermine the whaling moratorium and legitimise the trade in whalemeat.
A delighted Japanese delegate noted: "There is no difference between cultural necessity for the Makah and cultural necessity for the Japanese."
The Makah have even managed to get the local law on their side. A federal judge upheld their treaty rights in court, the National Marine Fisheries Service offered technical assistance, and the Sierra Club itself elected to ignore the issue.
In August, the Seattle Times published the "Makah Manifesto", a defiant apologia by the head of the tribe's whaling commission, a teacher called Keith Johnson. He wrote: "I can tell you that all of the Makah whalers are deeply stirred by the prospect of whaling. We are undergoing a process of mental and physical toughening now. I feel the cultural connection to whaling in my blood. I feel it is honoring my blood to go whaling."
After much agonising, the Seattle Times published a supportive editorial of its own. "The hunt," it proclaimed, "embodies restrained stewardship after a species' triumphant comeback." Unfortunately for the would-be whalers, this has not been the end of the matter. Neah Bay may be remote, but it's not in the Arctic - and the Makah are hardly aboriginals in desperate need of whalemeat. Indeed, when a young whale killed in a fishing accident was brought to Neah Bay in 1996, most of it ended up in the town dump because no one knew how to cut it up.
Press and TV crews who have descended on Neah Bay since the beginning of October have been quick to detect a scent of inauthenticity about the Makah's preparations for the hunt. Some 300 animal welfare organisations worldwide have begged the Makah to desist from the whale hunt. Paul Watson, head of the radical Sea Shepherd organisation, has more aggressive plans. He is now patrolling offshore at Neah Bay with a small armada of protest vessels, including a mini-submarine painted black and white to resemble a killer whale and scare away passing cetaceans.
The Makah's encounter with the whales will be an odd spectacle. A hand- carved dugout canoe with eight men aboard will be paddled out to the Olympic Marine Sanctuary, where ordinary US citizens are forbidden to take or harm so much as a herring. The warriors will manoeuvre alongside a passing whale, and throw a harpoon in the prescribed ritual manner. Then one of several supporting powerboats will blast the creature with a .50 calibre anti-tank weapon (to relieve its suffering), before securing it with ropes.
Once ashore, the whale will be cut up and its meat stored in tribal freezers. "The whales know they journey to their destiny, and will only offer themselves to bless a people they have long been a part of," says one tribal spokesperson. In case the whales fail this bond of honour, the Makah have negotiated the right to strike up to 30 animals during their hunt, although only five whales are permitted to be dragged ashore.
Mindful that favourable public opinion might not survive close-up news footage of their operations, the Makah have enlisted the local coastguard to secure a 500 yard "safety zone" around the whale- killing grounds. On shore, the tribe's privacy is being respected thanks to squads of National Guardsmen, state troopers, US Marshals, Fish and Wildlife Agents, sheriff's deputies, tribal police and an FBI SWAT team. All this costs money.
In Seattle, it is only just beginning to dawn on people that their taxes will have paid for the whole charade - from the travel expenses of the IWC lobbyists to the electricity bill for storing several tons of frozen whale. But perhaps the tide of local opinion will only turn against the Makah when the foodies of the city realise that the tribe intend to cook and devour the whales they catch - all of them. And, as everyone knows, it cannot possibly be healthy for people to eat so much red meat.
(Copyright 1998 Newspaper Publishing PLC)
Date: Thu, 29 Oct, 1998
Indians From State And Canada To Join Makah Celebrations
By: The Associated Press
NEAH BAY - The Makah Indian tribe is welcoming 21 Washington state tribes as well as Indians from Canada's Vancouver Island this weekend to celebrate treaty rights - including the Makah whaling rights.
The Makah "wanted to thank all the tribes along the coast, all our relatives," for their support in the tribal fight for resumption of the Makah's ancient whaling tradition, Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission, said Wednesday.
"What greatness is this whale going to bring? Unity to all the tribes along the coast," Johnson said.
"It's a great time for Native Americans."
Word has gone out here to this community of 2,000 for contributions of fresh fish, smoked fish, kippered salmon, deer and elk, pies and fruit.
"When the tribe decides to put on a celebration of this magnitude, people really work together," he said.
The Makah have reason to celebrate.
The tribe has been cleared since Oct. 1 to begin its first whale hunt in more than 70 years - since commercial whaling decimated global whale populations and the gray-whale migrations all but stopped passing by this far left corner of the contiguous United States. The Makah moved to resume the hunts when the gray whale was taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994.
Saturday, the last day of the month, also marks the end of the period when any whale hunt here requires advance approval from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration office in Seattle.
The Makah plan, as their forebears did for centuries, to intercept whales as they head south from Alaska to Mexico. Under rules agreed to by the tribe and NOAA, they may only hunt migrating whales - not resident whales that ended last spring's northbound migration in the state's inland waters.
Starting Sunday, based on federal guidelines, "it is reasonable to say there's a migration on," Johnson said. Most resident whales do migrate, and are considered fair game when they are southbound in the open sea.
Starting Sunday, "we can safely say whales are migrating through our waters," he said.
The Makah plan to strike the whale first with a harpoon thrown from a 32-foot cedar canoe, followed by high-powered rifle fire from the canoe and motorized chase and support boats. A scientist from the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is part of NOAA, will monitor the hunt to ensure it is as efficient and humane as possible.
Two ships from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, one of at least two dozen animal-rights and conservation groups that oppose the hunt, have been anchored offshore here since late September to protest the whaling plan and possibly disrupt the hunt. The Coast Guard is standing by to ensure public safety during the hunt.
Solidarity is part of the motivation for the weekend bash, Johnson said.
"Our village people have been taunted by the Sea Shepherd. They been put under pressure by statements that aren't true. ... Our people have taken an awful lot," he said.
"We need to tell the world we're not standing alone here."
Anti-whaling groups contend the hunt is not legal. The tribe, the U.S. government and a federal judge contend that it is.
The opponents also contend the fall hunt on this remote reservation will reopen commercial whaling around the world, a contention disputed by the tribe and the government.
The Makah, guaranteed the right to whale by the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay, were allocated 20 whales through 2002 - a maximum of five per year - under a U.S.-Russian agreement given de facto approval last fall by the International Whaling Commission.
Nineteen Makah men are prepared to take part in the hunt, though not all are known to outsiders, Johnson told reporters.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 30 Oct, 1998
300 Pilot Whales Strand
By: Paul Chapman; The Daily Telegraph - London
International: Rescuers are helpless to save 300 beached pilot whales Survivors are put out of misery in one of the world's worst strandings, reports Paul Chapman in Wellington.
TONY BRIGGS, a New Zealand hunter (right), kneels among a school of pilot whales that died yesterday after becoming stranded on a remote beach.
He and a fellow hunter, Kevin Bashford, raised the alarm after finding almost 300 whales at Doughboy Bay on Stewart Island, southern New Zealand.
"When we got here, there was a lot of whale crying going on," said Mr Briggs. "They looked right at you and were squealing, as though they were asking what you were going to do. It was very, very sad."
There was nothing that the two men or officers from New Zealand's conservation department, who flew to the scene, could do to save the whales.
The island is sparsely populated, and there were no nearby residents to call on for help in saving and refloating the few that remained alive.
The officers were joined by staff from Project Jonah, who assist at whale strandings, and the agonising decision was taken to shoot the 40 or so survivors to end their suffering.
"The surviving whales were so distressed that it was better to put them out of their misery," said Lou Sanson, a conservation official.
After consulting mammal-rescue experts, "the judgment was made that all the whales were too far gone to save them". Mr Sanson added: "Our marine mammal specialists say this is one of the largest strandings recorded in the world."
One of the hunters, Mr Bashford said that he and Mr Briggs had been forced to abandon their initial attempts at refloating some of the whales. The creatures weigh up to three tons each. "We got hold of one of the smallest ones and we could hardly budge it," he said.
Andy Cox, another conservation officer, said the surviving whales were still thrashing about helplessly when he flew in, but they were wedged among dead whales embedded in the sand.
"It was impossible to save them," said Mr Cox. "They were packed tightly in on the high-tide line. I was overwhelmed with the inability to do anything for them.
"With this species, when a couple strand they put out distress calls and the rest follow them in. That's what had happened."
Kay Stark, a colleague, said: "It was quite distressing, whales piled on top of each other, with one live whale surrounded by dead mates. Not even any of the babies survived."
Mr Cox said the carcasses would be left to rot since they did not pose a danger to the public.
(Copyright 1998 (c) The Telegraph plc, London)
Date: Sun, 01 Nov, 1998
Makah Police Block Protesters' Entry
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
Caravan Not Allowed Into Town; Makahs, Other Tribes Mark Treaty Rights
NEAH BAY - Anti-whaling protesters clashed with tribal police on the lone road into town Saturday as the Makah Indian Nation welcomed tribes from around the region to celebrate treaty rights and resumption of the Makahs' whaling tradition.
There was also a flurry of activity at the downtown marina where two large protest vessels - barred by the Makahs - have been anchored for weeks but have made no attempt at landings.
The actions, the most intense activity by protesters since the Makah were cleared for their first whale hunt on Oct. 1, occurred shortly before hundreds of Makah and guests sat down to a meal in the high school gym.
A caravan of about 15 cars carrying about two dozen protesters came to a halt at a cemetery just east of town, where four tribal officers stood in the middle of Washington Route 112, about two miles inside the reservation boundary.
"Right now they're breaking the law," yelled Chuck Owens of Port Angeles, whose group Peninsula Citizens for Protection of the Whales helped organize the demonstration. "We want to use our highway."
Sign-toting protesters argued with police about access to the reservation. Tribal officers stood firm, occasionally placing a hand on the chest of demonstrators seeking to move forward.
"So now we're going to have police brutality," cried Pat Ryals of Port Angeles, who tried to march past the officers and was pulled back.
Owens urged the crowd to push through on foot, but there was little support for escalating the confrontation.
"We've made our point," said Constance Grothkopp of Sequim.
Tribal Police Chief Leonard Ahdunko said he intercepted the protesters on the road to avoid a fracas in town. Tribal attorney John Arum of Seattle, here for the weekend, said the tribe has the right to exclude unwanted visitors from tribal property.
"In this case, these people have no reason to be here. The tribe can deny them entry," he said.
"We were just going to drive into town and turn around," said Kris Maenz, 32, of Missoula, Mont., a member of the Sea Defense Alliance based in Williams, Ore.
"This is a lot more exciting."
One young protester - Jake Conroy, 22, of Seattle, a member of the Sea Defense Alliance - was handcuffed and briefly detained before being released as the crowd began to dissipate.
He had scrawled the word "whales" in the dust on a tribal police vehicle, below an existing handlettered message: "Save the inacents."
"Apparently that's a criminal offense here," Conroy said.
Members of the whaling crew spoke about their right to whale, a provision of the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay.
"You're evil - evil as hell!" cried protester Doryan Jarrell of Renton, who then burst into tears, saying she had not felt so strongly about anything since the Vietnam War.
Before the caravan arrived, two lone protesters from the small town of Beaver, near Forks, stood with signs alongside 112 just outside the reservation.
"I'm never going there again," said Sharon Fox, who believes as many protesters do that a Makah hunt - a hunt on U.S. soil - could open the door to the global commercial whaling that brought the grays and many other whales to the brink of extinction decades ago.
"They think they know what we're going to do," remarked tribal elder Helma Swan as Neah Bay residents gathered to watch protest boats in the harbor. "We don't know. ... We'd just like to have back what our grandfathers had."
The Makah, who moved to resume the hunts after grays were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994, have been granted 20 whales - with a maximum of five per year - through 2002 under a U.S.-Russian agreement given de facto approval last fall by the International Whaling Commission.
The Makah plan to intercept the whales' fall migration in a 32-foot cedar canoe that will be towed to the vicinity of the hunt if the whales are well offshore. A ceremonial harpoon throw will be followed by high-powered rifle fire from motorized chase and support boats in an attempt to ensure the kill is as quick and clean as possible.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 03 Nov, 1998
Whalers call for return of Commercial Industry
China Daily
TOKYO (Agencies via Xinhua) -- Japanese whalers, disputing opposition to whaling, say the number of animals is burgeoning and competing with local fishermen for their catch, a spokesman for the Japan Whale Research Centre said yesterday.
"According to annual research conducted under the supervision of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the number of minke and sperm whales in the northwestern Pacific region is increasing," the spokesman said.
The 40-nation IWC, which consists mostly of North American and European nations, turned down requests by Japan and other whaling countries for a return to commercial whaling, citing environmental reasons.
"There has been an increase in small- to medium-sized whales. And we are hearing many complaints from fishermen. Too many whales can harm fishermen,"said Nobuyuki Yagi of the government's Fisheries Agency.
The government agrees with the data, which indicates there are 25,000 minke whales and 100,000 sperm whales near Japan, Yagi said, adding there ought to be some whaling allowed to help the local fishermen.
"We are working hard to persuade the IWC. We hope commercial whaling can restart within five years," Yagi said.
The official at the research centre said fishermen in Japan's northeastern region expressed concerns, saying there were too many whales and they were eating Pacific saury and salmon.
"The whales are hungry, and they know where the fish are. They go to the same places the fishermen go," he said.
The IWC adopted an international moratorium on whale hunting in 1982, but Japan and other whaling nations have used a loophole to allow limited whaling on a so-called research basis.
The Japanese Government has been calling to restart commercial whaling for 10 years.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 03 Nov, 1998
Agencies Sorting Out Clash At Neah Bay
By: The Associated Press
'Quiltwork Of Jurisdictions' Complicates Investigation
NEAH BAY - A range of law-enforcement agencies Monday weighed their response to a weekend clash between anti-whaling protesters and members of the Makah Indian tribe.
The anti-whaling demonstration in the harbor Sunday cost protesters a $22,000 inflatable boat and rock-throwing damage to a larger vessel as the Makah lashed out at animal-rights activists who oppose the tribe's plan to renew ancient whaling traditions guaranteed by an 1855 treaty.
"There's a quiltwork of jurisdictions," said the FBI's Charlie Mandigo, assistant special agent in charge of the agency's Seattle office.
But basically four agencies are involved in sorting out the aftermath: the Clallam County sheriff's department for any violations by tribal juveniles or nontribal adults; tribal police for any misdemeanors by adult Makah; the Coast Guard for on-water problems; and the FBI, which is on hand to investigate any major crimes committed by tribal members.
The stage for the confrontation was set over the past month by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has had two vessels here since late September to protest and possibly disrupt the first Makah gray-whale hunt in more than 70 years.
At midday Sunday, the Sea Shepherd group's 95-foot Sirenian and 10 smaller vessels pulled into the marina. Those on board were waving signs and yelling slogans.
Neah Bay residents gathered to watch, yell insults, drum, chant and tell the protesters to go home. Occasionally a rock splashed into the water or bounced off an inflatable boat.
But tensions boiled over when Alberta Thompson, the tribe's most outspoken whaling critic, invited Sea Shepherd expedition leader Lisa Distefano to dinner.
Distefano leaped onto the dock from a Zodiac inflatable boat - violating a tribal ordinance that bars activists from landing here, according to tribal police.
Distefano and three comrades were arrested, the tribe seized the inflatable boat and a hail of rocks pounded the Sirenian. The protesters were turned over to the sheriff's department, which took their statements and let them go.
Authorities were still trying to sort out "who may have done what," Mandigo said from Seattle.
Investigators will look at both sides, considering "why one side put itself in that situation" and why the other reacted as it did, he said.
Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson said Monday he considers the Zodiac to have been stolen.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 03 Nov, 1998
Tempers Flare, Arrests Made Over Whale Hunt
By: The Associated Press
Neah Bay, Wash. - In a simmering dispute that ended with a scuffle and arrests, angry Makah Indians pelted a protest boat with rocks as the two sides bickered over a tribal plan to hunt gray whales.
Four protesters were arrested by tribal police following a confrontation that began when they stepped onto Makah land Sunday.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society official Lisa Distefano, group photographer Jan Cook of Seattle, and members Matahil Lawson of British Columbia and Ken Nichols of Hawaii were arrested on trespassing charges.
They were turned over to the Clallam County Sheriff's Department and released after making statements. It was unclear whether charges will be filed.
"It's a sad thing that's happened," said Ben Johnson, chairman of the Makah Tribal Council. "Sea Shepherd has been pushing buttons - people react. People can only take so much."
The Makah hope to kill a gray whale this fall, reviving a centuries-old whaling tradition. The tribe stopped whaling in the 1920s, after commercial whaling decimated the gray-whale population.
The Makah have received international sanction and federal support for a plan to take 20 whales through 2002, a maximum of five a year.
Sea Shepherd contends the hunt is illegal and will lead to wholesale commercial whaling on a global scale. The environmentalists have been anchored offshore here for over a month.
On Sunday, the protesters moved in closer to shore and yelled save-the-whale slogans to tribal members, who yelled at them to leave. A tribal ordinance bars the protesters and their vessels from the marina.
Young Makah pelted the 95-foot protest vessel Sirenian with rocks and chunks of concrete, shattering a window in the wheelhouse. A dockside clash that began when Distefano stepped ashore ended with the arrests and tribal seizure of a boat.
(Copyright Newsday Inc., 1998)
Date: Wed, 04 Nov, 1998
Tribal Foe Of Whaling In Hiding
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
She Leaves Reservation As Makahs Issue Hunt Permit
NEAH BAY - The Makah woman who has been the most vocal hometown critic of the tribe's plan to resume whaling has left this reservation community, concerned about her safety after violence erupted during a weekend anti-whaling demonstration.
Alberta Thompson, 74, "is in hiding. She's in a safe place," said Lisa Distefano, an official with the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has had two boats anchored in Neah Bay since late September to protest and possibly disrupt the first Makah gray-whale hunt in more than 70 years.
"Her life's in danger and obviously her tribe's not going to protect her, so we are," Distefano said.
"She's in protective custody with people who care about her."
Thompson's attorney, Helga Kahr of Seattle, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. Thompson did not respond to a message left on her answering machine in Neah Bay.
She was fired last summer from a part-time clerical job with the tribe for proselytizing against the hunt.
Thompson's departure occurred as tribal officials issued a 10-day whaling permit late Monday. It was not clear when a hunt would occur.
Tensions have been simmering for weeks as the tribe prepares to resume the centuries-old whaling tradition that long defined the Makah as a people. Sea Shepherd and other activist groups contend that the hunt is illegal and will spark a renewal of commercial whaling around the world.
Tuesday, the Makahs asked the Coast Guard for help "in maintaining order and public safety" at the marina in the heart of this community of 2,000. The tribe seeks emergency regulations imposing temporary restrictions on protests in area waters, suggesting a 100-yard buffer zone around marina facilities and a ban on use of loudspeakers "that could be used to incite confrontations."
The request is under consideration, Coast Guard spokesman Chris Haley said, adding that no response was likely for several days.
Makah officials indicated Monday that action was being considered against Thompson, whom some in the community blamed for setting off Sunday's fracas.
Tribal Police Chief Lionel Ahdunko was considering filing documents accusing Thompson of inciting a riot and interfering with government process.
Such papers would be reviewed by a tribal judge, who would determine whether charges were warranted and, if so, how to proceed. Potential penalties could range from fines to banishment - technically "exclusion."
In an interview with The Seattle Times published Tuesday, Kahr said that if tribal authorities want to issue a warrant, "they can discuss it with me."
"But I am not going to turn a 74-year-old grandmother over to those thugs. I saw what they did," she said, citing the blood streaming from the head of a protester arrested by tribal police Sunday and forced to the ground on a concrete boat launch.
She said she had advised Thompson to go to friends out of state for several days.
Tribal officials said Tuesday they had not been aware Thompson was leaving.
"I haven't heard about it. What she does is her business," said Ben Johnson Jr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council.
"We've said all along we feared for her safety and Sea Shepherd's safety."
Sunday's harbor demonstration began with yelling back and forth between Makah on the shore and Sea Shepherd's 95-foot vessel Sirenian and 10 other vessels.
Violence erupted when Thompson appeared and invited Distefano - on a motorized inflatable boat taking part in the protest - to join her for dinner.
A tribal ordinance bars protest vessels from docking at the marina, and when Distefano leaped to the dock, she was arrested by tribal police and the inflatable boat was dragged ashore and confiscated. Three other protesters - two of them pulled onshore with the boat - were also taken into custody. A hail of rocks pounded the Sirenian, which ignored Coast Guard advice to withdraw.
The four protesters were immediately turned over to the Clallam County Sheriff's Department, which took their statements and advised them they were free to go.
The disturbance - arrests of the protesters, the seizure of the boat and the hail of stone and chunks of concrete - is being investigated by county officials and the FBI.
Tribal officials said Tuesday they were chastised by outside agencies Monday for failing to call the sheriff's department for help.
"We did call," said Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission. Tribal police Chief Ahdunko called twice to report problems, he said.
"They should have been down there ... protecting the protesters who have First Amendment rights to protest in our harbor."
The waters belong to the state, and jurisdiction is a complicated maze.
In Port Angeles, 50 miles east, sheriff's department spokesman Jim Borte said he would check with dispatchers to determine when calls were placed Sunday by the Makah.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 04 Nov, 1998
Whales are also for hunting
By: Seth Zuckerman; San Francisco Examiner
Petrolia, Humboldt County - THE DRAMA unfolding at the tip of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, where the Makah Indians are preparing to hunt their first gray whale in 70 years, has developed into an elaborate circus, as the Sea Shepherd environmental navy prepares to interpose boats and bodies between the hunters and their quarry.
News articles portray the controversy as a battle among activists, the International Whaling Commission, federal regulators and tribal government. Others debate whether a 70-year lapse in hunting should disqualify the Makah from wielding a harpoon. But the heart of the issue runs much deeper: whether humans participate in the biosphere or are merely spectators at nature's peep show.
The essence of the opposition stems from the view: "Whales are for watching." But if we put a "do not touch" sign on whales, why not apply the same argument to salmon, wild mushrooms or blackberries?
The unavoidable fact is that humans do not photosynthesize, and thus our survival depends on eating other life forms, whether plant or animal. Fortunately, the planet provides a panoply of edible organisms, which is really no coincidence since our species evolved to subsist on the bounty of the land and sea.
The anti-whalers seem to have lost sight of this biological imperative, with "Save the Whales" stubbornly affixed to their minds the way old bumperstickers cling to cars.
Three decades ago, they succeeded in turning whales into an icon of concern for the creatures with whom we share the planet. Setting them entirely off-limits made sense when whales were still being treated like the buffalo herds of the last century. But now that some species have recovered, we must consider cetaceans in all their diversity instead of lumping them into a slogan.
The issue here is not the conservation of endangered species, which the gray whales no longer are. Twice slaughtered to the brink of extinction, gray whales numbered around 4,000 when industrial whaling ceased in 1946. Their habitat was intact, allowing their population to rebound rapidly. When the grays were removed from the threatened species roster in 1994, they numbered some 22,000.
It isn't just knee-jerk greens who treat whales as a generic category. Marine mammal bureaucrats arranged for the Makah to obtain their whaling license by trading unused Alaskan bowhead whale permits for Siberian gray whale permits that had gone begging. But the bowheads' population is not as robust as that of the grays. Only a globalist perspective could treat whales as a generic commodity to be traded like so many pork bellies - or defended regardless of the actual state of their population.
Instead, these times call for respectful guardians of place, as attentive to the particulars of the living world around them as the deer hunter is to the movement of branches in the understory a hundred feet away.
That approach would reveal that the much greater threat to the gray whales is not the Makah and their harpoons, but Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi and its plans to build a salt factory in Baja California, on the banks of the only undeveloped lagoon where the whales calve each winter. Indeed, if the Makah resume whaling, they may become powerful allies in the fight against the salt plant, protecting their interest in the health of the whole system which blesses them with whales.
When eight Makah whalers go to sea in their cedar canoe, they will aim to bring back meat to feed the village. They have left the door open to selling the meat, a possibility which some observers fear will open the floodgates of cetacean commerce.
It need not. Limits to hunting and fishing are set all the time, and it is the essence of sound fisheries management that has allowed some stocks, such as the fabled Copper River king and sockeye salmon, to continue to thrive.
If your food - be it grain-fed beef or packaged tofu - comes from the grocery store, it's easy to pronounce a species off-limits to human consumption. But for us as much as the Makah, their whaling offers an opportunity.
It can be a portal to a perception of ourselves as a player in the ecosystem, a part of the chain of being as much as we are in grizzly country. The way we handle this issue will signal whether we humans are to be members of the animal kingdom or couch potatoes tuned to Mutual of Omaha. Examiner contributor Seth Zuckerman, who is active in ecological restoration and sustainable forestry issues, is an environmental writer who lives in the Lost Coast area of Humboldt County.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 06 Nov, 1998
Makah Meet Conservationist
By: Peggy Andersen, Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY Conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau met with Makah tribal leaders to discuss their planned gray-whale hunt, characterizing it as one more obstacle the animals face on their already difficult 6,000-mile migration off the North American coast.
The whales face pollution, ships, fishing nets and "people who love whales to death," said Cousteau, eldest son of the late French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau, whose documentaries brought his love of the sea into living rooms around the world.
"They are going through hell," Jean-Michel Cousteau said Thursday of the whales. He plans to document their marine "obstacle course" in a one-hour television show.
that will note plans by Mitsubishi to build a salt mine near the only untouched whale birthing lagoon remaining off the coast of Mexico.
The Makah plans to return to their ancient whaling tradition will mean additional pressure, he said.
And yet, "the right of the Makah to preserve their culture is unquestionable," Cousteau said at a news conference here. "There is no excuse for even thinking about touching this culture."
The tribe stopped whaling in the 1920s, after commercial whaling decimated whale populations around the world. They moved to resume the hunts after the gray whale was taken off the Endangered Species List in 1994.
The tribe was cleared to hunt whales in October, provided the federal government agreed the whales' migration had begun. That condition ended this month, leaving the tribe free to stage its hunt when it sees fit but there has been no hunt yet.
Cousteau, who lives in Santa Barbara, Calif., said he would prefer "a kill without the kill" some kind of ritual hunt that did not end with the death of a whale. Choosing such a course would gain the Makah respect and support, he said, and perhaps financial assistance.
The Makah, whose 1855 treaty guarantees them whaling rights, said the meeting with Cousteau went well but that such an option does not interest them at this time.
"We give up everything and people are going to help us? I don't think so," said Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission.
Cousteau said he requested the meeting because he is "trying to understand their perspective for the film."
"I offer my opinion if the door is open to discussion," he said.
"If not, that's their privilege."
Cousteau added that he considers the pressure on the tribe "very unfair."
"These people were totally ignored all these years and there are very few of them," he said.
"Suddenly, the world is focusing on this issue. It's very hard on them."
Tensions have been high, with anti-whaling activists' boats anchored offshore for more than a month. On Sunday, four demonstrators were arrested after one landed on a dock here, prompting a rock-throwing melee by tribal members, who seized one of the protesters' runabout boats.
Cousteau said physical aggression is not acceptable. "I don't know who started it. That's not the point," he said.
"I'm not distancing myself from anybody. I'm just trying to do justice to the whole issue."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 07 Nov, 1998
Makah Opponent Of Whale Hunt Returns To Neah Bay
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
NEAH BAY - The Makah woman who has stood up against her tribe's planned whale hunt was back in town Friday after a departure that anti-whaling protesters attributed to concerns about her safety.
"I never said I was going away for good," Alberta Thompson said outside the post office in this remote community of about 2,000 people.
"I had a speaking engagement in California," said Thompson, 74, who left Neah Bay late Monday after violence erupted at a weekend anti-whaling demonstration in the downtown harbor.
Thompson said she was taken aback by media attention about her departure.
Tribal authorities are considering whether last Saturday's events warrant charges against Thompson - possibly interference with official functions or inciting to riot. Such charges could result in penalties ranging from fines to banishment - technically "exclusion," which includes forfeiture of tribal benefits.
Lisa Distefano, expedition leader for the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's two-ship contingent here, said Tuesday she believed Thompson's life was in danger and that the Makah elder had fled to be "with people who care about her."
Anti-whaling activists planned another demonstration today - a caravan of vehicles driving from Sekiu, 18 miles east, onto the 27,000-acre Makah reservation.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 08 Nov, 1998
Animal Advocate Troubles the Waters against Whalers
By Alex Tizon - Seattle Times
Neah Bay, Wash. - He sure doesn't look like a tough guy, this Paul Watson whom the Makah Indians have come to view as their enemy. He is 47, pudgy and gray-haired, with a Beatles haircut and a gap-toothed smile. He quotes Gandhi and Thoreau, and has a predilection for puffy-sleeved shirts.
You might mistake him for a pacifist if it weren't for his small navy.
For the past month, Watson's navy, which goes under the name of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, has patrolled the waters around the tribe's village on the Olympic Peninsula. The Makah plan to hunt a gray whale this fall, the first time in seven decades. Watson's single-minded goal is to protect the whale using whatever means necessary.
Not surprisingly, Watson is anathema around here, as popular as smallpox. Some tribe members have publicly called him anti-Indian, the Makah's Custer, a charge that flies in the face of his history.
For two decades, he has been an equal-opportunity activist, going to war against whalers and fishers of all races and nationalities, making a lot of people mad in the process, but also saving a few whales and fish.
"I'm not here to win popularity contests," he says.
"My job is to say things people don't want to hear and to do things people don't want to do. My job is to rock the boat, sometimes to sink the boat."
A major report released last week by the National Academy of Sciences warning of a collapse of global fish populations was to Watson an affirmation of his 22-year crusade to save marine life. He has been saying this all along. Maybe the most affirming part of the report was its call for "radical changes in attitudes and practice."
Watson has rammed and sunk whaling ships, cut illegal drift nets and stood toe-to-toe with club-wielding seal hunters. He has been beaten, arrested, jailed and called nasty names. Even many fellow conservationists don't like his tactics. Greenpeace co-founder Jim Bohland has called him "absolutely insane, out of his mind, an egomaniac pure and simple."
Born in Toronto and raised in the hinterlands of New Brunswick, Watson will tell you his activism began at age 6 when a trapper killed a beaver he was fond of. The following year, he and his five siblings destroyed all the trap lines in the area.
He left home at age 15, became a merchant marine seaman in Europe, joined the Canadian Coast Guard and eventually co-founded Greenpeace in 1971. He broke from Greenpeace six years later, calling his former colleagues the "Avon ladies of the environmental movement."
The same year, with money from the late Cleveland Amory, a renowned animal advocate, Watson formed Sea Shepherd, which quickly became known as the most militant of marine-conservation groups.
In Neah Bay, the presence of Watson's navy -a 180-foot flagship, a 95-foot former Coast Guard cutter, a submarine painted like an Orca, and two Zodiacs -has raised the stakes in the Makah Tribe's quest to resume whaling.
It has also put Watson in an awkward situation. A lifelong advocate of Native-American rights, he now finds himself at odds with a tribe whose general objective - cultural renewal - he normally would support.
In 1973, he spent time on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and eventually was bestowed honorary membership in the Lakota Sioux Tribe. During the occupation of Wounded Knee, he was a medic for the American Indian Movement.
But on the issue of whaling, he is uncompromising.
"It would be racist of me to treat the Makah any differently just because they're Indian," Watson says.
"We can't discriminate in our interventions."
Watson insists the Makah hunt is illegal because it hasn't been officially sanctioned by the International Whaling Commission. The U.S. government has sided with the Makah, and as such, Watson is the decided underdog in this fight, a role he's not unaccustomed to.
"I don't care what people think of me," he says. "We'll be judged by history."
Date: Sun, 08 Nov, 1998
Canada Will Not Protect Makah Whalers
By: The Associated Press
VICTORIA, B.C. - If Makah Indian whalers cross the line into Canadian waters, they will find no buffer zone between them and people protesting the hunt, Canadian Fisheries Minister David Anderson says.
He repeated that Makah whalers will be arrested if they try to hunt a gray whale in Canadian waters but will be allowed to kill a critically wounded whale if it swims across the Canada-U.S. boundary.
In Canadian waters, however, there will be no buffer zone between the Makah and protesters, as there is in U.S. waters, Anderson said Friday.
There is no legislation that would allow such a zone in Canada, federal Fisheries officer Larry Paike said.
"We are really hoping the whale doesn't come over here, but no one knows what the chances are," he said. "I am most worried about public safety."
The tribe was cleared to hunt whales in October, provided the U.S. government agreed the whales' migration had begun. That condition ended this month, leaving the tribe free to stage its hunt when it sees fit.
Anderson said he has sent a strong message to the Makah Tribal Council, through the U.S. government, that members will not be given permission to hunt a whale in Canadian waters, whatever historic rights might be argued.
"If a whale comes across the line, it's sanctuary," he said.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 08 Nov, 1998
A Whale Of A Time Gentle Giants Entertain Tourists In South Africa
By: Paul Harris, Associated Press
Jaci Negra gets some unusual guests at her seaside restaurant. They are longer than a bus, weigh more than a tank and eat three tons of food a day.
They are southern right whales, whose growing numbers in South African waters are making the resort of Hermanus one of the most popular spots in the world for whale watching.
Negra's restaurant, the Bientang Cave, is right on the shore beneath the bayside cliffs. Guests sit down to dinner just a stone's throw from the frolicking blue-black behemoths.
"Last year, we had a lot of calving and mating in front of the restaurant," she says, laughing.
"They make a lot of noise. You never get used to it."
Once a fishing village that played host to whaling ships in its tiny harbor, Hermanus is again becoming dominated by whales.
Each September since 1991, the town of 20,000 residents has held a Whale Festival. This year the festival, which ran from Sept. 24 to Oct. 4, attracted more than 100,000 visitors.
Tourists throng the cliffs around the town during the festival, all staring out to sea as if engaged in some sort of religious ritual.
As a whale suddenly breaks the surface, leaps gracefully into the air and comes crashing back into the water, people gasp and point at the huge splash.
"Look at that! Wow! They're showing off," exclaimed Jane Emory, 34, of Washington, D.C.
At the harbor museum, a microphone attached to a sonar buoy out in the ocean relays the eerie sounds of the whales calling to each other.
All of the whale watching is done from the cliffs. Tour boats are not allowed out to disturb the mammals, although that policy is under review.
In the town itself, businesses pick up the whale theme. From the Virtual Whale Internet Cafe to the Prince of Whales Coffee Shop, everyone is cashing in on Hermanus' biggest attraction.
Accommodations, however, are inexpensive in Hermanus. The Windsor Hotel charges $48 a night for a double room with seaside views of the whale-watching areas, and there are a number of bed-and-breakfast establishments with rates that range from $9 to $17 per person.
There is also a wide range of restaurants, and, not surprisingly, seafood is a specialty.
The Cape area of South Africa is famous for its oysters, but if you prefer fish, there are the local
favorites, such as klingklip and butterfish.
A typical local South African dish is bobotie, a layer of spiced mince covered with a lasagna like topping.
The staffs at all hotels and restaurants speak English.
The southern right whale was almost hunted to extinction in the early part of the 19th century as French, British and American whaling fleets plied the southern Atlantic from South African ports.
Dubbed the "right whale" to catch due to their high oil content and because they floated when dead, the slow-moving creatures were an easy target for harpoons.
Reduced to a population of about 300, the species was first protected in 1935. With some illegal whaling still being carried out until the early 1970s, however, their numbers are only now beginning to reach a healthy level again.
Out of a global population of more than 5,000, about 2,000 right whales visit South Africa's southern coast between June and November each year.
Fleeing the freezing winters around Antarctica, they come to breed and give birth in warmer water before heading back to their summer feeding grounds.
Peter Best, a whale specialist with the University of Pretoria's Mammal Research Institute, says the southern right whale population has been growing at 7 percent a year since the mid-1970s.
"We have more whales in our waters now than perhaps at any time since 1850," he says.
"It is a very encouraging thought."
Best heads a team of researchers monitoring the whales. With the population growing, their focus has changed from studying whale fertility to studying the effects of pollution.
Also, they are concerned about the increased number of collisions with boats and ships that comes with greater numbers of whales.
"They are doing well as a population, and so they will face an increasing interaction with humans as their numbers grow," he says.
But British zoologist Mark Cawardine, author of a book on whale watching who has come to Hermanus for the past eight years, says the whale numbers are still low.
In Walker Bay, where Hermanus lies, one could see 400 to 500 whales at a time two centuries ago, he says.
"Now, it is amazing if you see 40 to 50," he says.
"That is still a big difference."
Cawardine, who has traveled the world from Alaska to Mexico to study whales, believes whale watching is becoming one of the fastest- growing tourism industries in the world.
Last year, 6 million people worldwide went whale watching. In Iceland, which still hunted fin whales as late as 1989, there are now 13 different tour operators catering to 40,000 annual whale watchers.
"It is becoming big business," Cawardine says.
"Whale watching is in some areas more economically important now than whale hunting was in the past."
(Copyright 1998 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.)
Date: Sun, 08 Nov, 1998
Salmon Stakes
By: Christine Gregoire - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
In this part of the world, we are blessed with a great many assets worthy of preserving. Not far from the city, wild salmon still swim upstream in a natural cycle dating back eons. Streams and forests still provide essential habitat, not only for the wild salmon, but for countless other plants and animals as well.
But there are other things that we want to promote and preserve: a healthy economy capable of providing jobs for ourselves and our children; affordable homes; ample opportunities for outdoor recreation, and the preservation of our quality of life.
Being human, we sometimes forget that achieving one goal sometimes means doing damage on other fronts. Where plant and animal species are concerned, the threat may come less from a single devastating blow to the environment than from a thousand small, seemingly innocuous actions that together can spell doom for a species.
I'm reminded of a book in which Paul and Anne Ehrlich compared our situation to that of a workman prying rivets from the wing of an airplane. As one of the passengers boards the plane, she asks the workman why he is doing it. "We're going to sell the rivets and use the money to fund expansion of the airline," the workman replies. When the passenger questions the safety of that practice, the workman replies simply, "Well, the wings haven't fallen off yet."
While this analogy seems extreme in that it contemplates an airplane crash, the loss of species may be slow and more subtle, but nonetheless disastrous in the long run. So, I think the effort to preserve species is really about keeping as many rivets as we possibly can.
As Aldo Leopold said, "The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to keep all the pieces, every cog and wheel." And, while some may question preserving a snail darter or a gnat catcher, the salmon is key to our way of life in the Pacific Northwest and the purpose of the Endangered Species Act is to protect the whole.
Salmon symbolize the natural heritage, culture and beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Salmon are especially important to the Indian tribes of this state. These fish have always been vital to the Indian diet, religious life and economy. Yet despite the importance of these fish to our way of life, they are in real trouble of not surviving.
The Endangered Species Act is not a salmon management tool. Think of it as a crisis management tool.
Long term, salmon recovery and management will require business and government to address their needs for wildlife protection and economic development. The ultimate goal of the ESA is to return endangered species to the point where they no longer need the statute's protections.
To do so, the ESA has three basic missions:
- Identify species needing protection.
- Prevent harm to listed species.
- Prevent and punish the taking of listed species and destruction of their habitats.
Four sections of the ESA are important to mention:
Section 4 contains the process for the initial listing of endangered and threatened species, the designation of their critical habitat, and the development of recovery plans. The Commerce Department must define a salmon run as endangered if it determines that the run is in imminent danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion of its range. A salmon run is threatened if it is likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future.
In any listing decision, the Commerce Department must take into account state efforts to protect the salmon. But, as we saw in a recent court case in Oregon, existing state efforts must be tangible, mandatory and certain.
When the department decides to list a salmon run as threatened or endangered, it is also supposed to designate critical habitat. Critical habitat is the specific areas a species occupies at the time it is listed that contain physical or biological features essential to the conservation of the species.
The department is to use the best scientific data available. It may consider economic factors when designating critical habitat, but not when making the listing decision.
After listing a species, the department must develop a recovery plan for the conservation and survival of the species. Recovery plans must include site-specific management proposals, objective criteria to measure the species' progress, and estimate of the time and money needed to achieve the plan's goal. That's our challenge.
Section 7 requires that federal actions not jeopardize the continued existence of listed salmon. Every federal agency must do everything possible to protect a listed species. All of these agencies must ensure that federal actions do not jeopardize listed species. Because federal actions are broadly defined, Section 7 affects anyone seeking a federal permit. Under Section 10, the federal government may issue a permit allowing the incidental take of a listed species when it approves a habitat conservation plan. The plan must set forth actions designed to conserve the species. The federal government can approve the plan and issue the permit if it judges that the taking will not jeopardize the species by significantly reducing the likelihood of its survival and recovery in the wild.
Section 9 prohibits the taking of endangered species. You can take a species by killing an individual animal or by destroying habitat. The take prohibitions of Section 9 perhaps best illustrate the breadth of the ESA and how it may require us to change the way we do things.
The take prohibition of Section 9, as one writer put it, is "simple, unambiguous, and breathtaking in its reach and power." The ESA prohibits persons from taking any endangered species. A person can be just about any individual or collection of human beings. It includes businesses, government agencies, officials of those organizations, and, of course, individual private citizens.
The term take is defined broadly to include every conceivable way in which a person can take or attempt to take fish or wildlife. As an example, the angler who accidentally catches an endangered salmon or steelhead commits a take. Section 9's take prohibitions can be enforced by federal agencies that administer the ESA or by private citizens. Government agencies can be subject to the take prohibitions, by permitting or authorizing others to act, or sometimes by failing to act.
Two recent court cases illustrate how this can happen. A case in Massachusetts called Strahan v. Coxe concerned northern right whales, the most endangered of large whales. Environmental groups claimed that Massachusetts fisheries officials violated the ESA by issuing licenses and permits allowing gillnet and lobster pot fishing, which entangled the whales. The issue was whether Massachusetts, merely by licensing and permitting gillnet and lobster pot fishing, committed a take.
Massachusetts argued that licensing fishing gear does not cause a take any more than licensing drivers and cars causes crimes on the highways. The court responded that these were different situations because the fishery agency had licensed gillnets and lobster pots to be used specifically in a manner likely to result in the violation of federal law.
The court concluded Massachusetts' fishing regulations probably were a take because the ESA prohibits third parties from enabling someone else to take a listed animal. The Strahan case clarifies that state and local governments may violate the ESA by permitting or otherwise authorizing the acts of third parties that exact a taking.
Another case involving endangered and threatened sea turtles illustrates the other side of the coin. Governments may be liable not only for permitting some activity, they may also be liable for failing to prohibit or regulate activities where they have the authority to do so.
This story begins with female adult turtles who come ashore in the spring to deposit eggs. Months later, hatchlings break out of their shells and make a midnight dash toward the brightest light on the horizon.
On undeveloped beaches, the brightest light is the moon's reflection off the water. On a developed beach, the brightest light can be artificial and inland, pointing baby turtles in the wrong direction.
The plaintiffs in this case alleged that their local government violated the ESA by refusing to restrict inland artificial light. The court has not yet decided the ultimate question of whether the county committed a take. But the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals said under the ESA, the local government can be liable for failing to regulate if the plaintiffs can prove harm to the turtles.
The prospect of take violations give permitting agencies and officials reason to be more careful and circumspect in their permitting and regulatory decision-making, and that impacts all of us. Our Department of Ecology regulates activities that affect water quality and quantity, which are very important to salmon survival.
The department issues several kinds of permits under the federal Clean Water Act. With forest practices permits the Department of Natural Resources authorizes logging activities, which can affect salmon by raising the temperature and silt content of streams.
Washington's cities and counties develop comprehensive land use plans under the growth management act, and issue building, grading, shoreline and many other development-related permits. The list goes on and on.
The point is that listing will affect permitting and regulatory decision-making, which in turn affects all of us in our daily lives. Though the listing of Puget Sound Chinook will be one of the first to affect a heavily urbanized area, it is by no means the first salmon listing in the Northwest.
In 1992 Chinook salmon from the Columbia River Basin were listed. And we have since learned from our experiences on the Columbia River that the reach of the ESA is broad and complex. We have also learned there is a complex relationship between the ESA and the treaty fishing rights of Indian tribes.
Sometimes, treaty rights conflict with the ESA. Other times they may complement the ESA.
Salmon were so important to the Indian way of life that the continuation of tribal fishing was a central issue of the so-called Stevens' Treaties. In the mid-1850s Issac Stevens was dispatched by the federal government to negotiate treaties of cession with the Indians in the Pacific Northwest. The purpose was to clear title to Indian lands to make way for settlement of the territory.
In the treaties, the tribes conveyed their lands to the federal government, but reserved the "right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed grounds ... in common with the citizens of the territory." At the time, fish were plentiful and settlers were scarce. Nobody thought about threats to water quantity or quality. And little thought was given to sharing a resource that with each new season turned Pacific Northwest streams and rivers so black with salmon that you could literally fish with your bare hands.
As more and more settlers came, demand exceeded the supply, and salmon runs declined. Dams were built to power our factories and growing communities. Trees were cut, roads were paved, habitats were drastically altered and more and more they ultimately disappeared. Each year, fewer salmon were left alive to return to their spawning grounds and replenish their stocks.
The tribes responded to the decline in salmon and state efforts to regulate treaty fishing with a series of lawsuits. Among them was United States v. Washington, which resulted in the well-known and commonly referred to Boldt decision.
Largely affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court, the Boldt decision declared that the state must allow the treaty tribes to catch up to 50 percent of the "harvestable" surplus of salmon that pass through their usual and accustomed fishing grounds. In the simplest definition, harvestable surplus is the number of returning fish in a given run, minus the number that are needed to return to or "escape" to the spawning grounds to ensure perpetuation of the run. In the simplest situation, the harvestable surplus is determined and divided between treaty and non-treaty fishermen.
The ESA added a new dimension to treaty/non-treaty harvest sharing because many tribes contend the ESA does not apply to treaty fishing rights. They claim Congress did not clarify that intention when the ESA was enacted.
As a result, these tribes contend they are not prohibited by the ESA from harvesting and selling threatened or endangered salmon. They also argue they are entitled to take 50 percent of the strongest salmon runs that pass through their usual and accustomed fishing places.
Recently, the secretaries of commerce and the interior adopted an order to address the conflict. The order suggests that tribal fisheries are subject to the ESA, but should be restricted only after other activities that harm salmon are curtailed. Meanwhile, the states and tribes are pursuing judicial and non-judicial approaches to resolve these and other ESA issues.
The Boldt case is best known for its 50 percent harvest sharing decision. But there's another, less well-known part that warrants review.
The case also involved tribal claims for relief about alleged destruction or impairment of treaty right fishing due to logging, industrial pollution, and damage to usual and accustomed fishing places. The parties agreed to separate those claims for a later trial after they resolved the harvest sharing claim.
In 1980 the tribes presented this issue to U.S. District Judge William Orrick. He ruled that the treaties promised the tribes enough fish to provide them with a livelihood. If habitat-damaging activities jeopardized this right, the judge said those activities could be enjoined.
On the state's appeal, the Ninth Circuit Court vacated Orrick's decision because the question presented was too abstract. However, the court left the door open for the tribes to come back later with a concrete set of facts the court could analyze. Consequently, 28 years after the Boldt case was filed, we still don't have a definitive ruling on this issue although other courts are beginning to address it.
In Nez Perce Tribe v. Idaho Power Co., the tribe sought money damages for reductions in fish runs caused by the power company's dams on the Snake River. The federal court in Idaho rejected the claim for money damages, but said the tribe may have a right to protection from degradation of fish runs caused by discriminatory development that prevents fish from returning to the areas where Indians catch them. The court said states must take "reasonable" steps to preserve fish runs when development threatens them.
The recent shellfish case also gave us some guidance. The court ruled that the treaties specifically contemplated settlement, development of the waterfronts, and corresponding loss of shellfish beds. Furthermore, the court held that the shellfish right could not prevent private development of the waterfront.
In conclusion, I want to repeat the two principal missions of the ESA:
Number one: recover species to the point where they no longer need the protections of the act, and,
Number two, protect listed species from further harm while recovery efforts are under way.
Satisfying these missions will not be easy or inexpensive. To restore our salmon stocks to healthy, sustainable, harvestable levels, we'll need an active and comprehensive strategy.
A broad range of interests will need to work together. We'll need cooperative solutions for critical issues such as providing ample clean and cool water; a safe and productive environment for salmon to live in and providing adequate funding to achieve long-term protection and restoration.
I have not focused on the extraordinary efforts that will be required to develop and implement a recovery plan for Puget Sound Chinook. My intent was to give you a greater appreciation for the reach of this aspect of the ESA and a clear understanding that we will all have to make tough choices in the way we conduct our lives.
As I said before, cooperation is the key. The development of a plan for future success depends on our ability to cooperate between local and state governments, state and federal agencies, state to state, nation to nation, business and environmentalists, individuals and organized interests, and all of the above.
While we have different tasks ahead of us, we in Seattle and Washington will fare well because we have: excellent leadership, a cooperative spirit, and the common value of preserving our quality of life and wanting to pass it along to future generations.
The long-range benefits far outweigh the sacrifices. Salmon may be one of our greatest natural treasures. They have survived for two million years enduring floods, droughts, disease, volcanic eruptions and even ice ages. Nowhere is the circle of life more apparent, tenacious and poignant. And nowhere else would the loss of this life cycle be so all encompassing, ecologically disastrous and economically devastating.
The ESA can be an enemy or a friend. And litigation is not the answer. It represents time lost, money lost and thus salmon lost. Don't give to the courts what we know best how to solve.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 08 Nov, 1998
Gray Whale: 6,000-Mile Migration
By PEGGY ANDERSEN - Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) -- Grays are not the most charismatic of whales.
"Some people call them swimming rocks," says National Marine Fisheries Service biologist Pat Gearin, who tags them with transmitters and conducts other research here where the Strait of Juan de Fuca meets the Pacific. They don't offer the crowd-pleasing aerial displays of humpbacks, killer whales, belugas and some others. Grays mostly browse placidly in water 50 feet deep or less, often close to shore, stirring up sediment and straining out tiny edible organisms and small fish using vertical bony plates in their mouths. Occasionally they dive deeply enough to show their broad, graceful tails, called flukes.
Grays are black or gray with splotches - not as visibly individual as killer whales or orcas, whose vivid black-and-white markings make them as distinctive as pinto ponies. Identification of grays is based primarily on scars, patches of lighter or darker pigment and the patches of barnacles that mottle their skin. They don't sing like humpies, whose mysterious calls and whistles can be found on CDs and tapes at the record store, or use sound to echolocate like toothed whales. Scientists presume the grays' clicks and grunts are communication - the basic message being "whale here," says research biologist John Calambokidis at Cascadia Research in Olympia, who has studied marine mammals in Washington's inland waters since 1977.
And they don't form communal pods of related animals like orcas, a practice humans can relate to. Grays generally travel solo or in pairs made up of mother and calf. Occasionally, observers see two or three feeding in the same area, and groups of eight or 10 may be seen over a quarter mile during their migrations between Alaska and Mexico. Baleen whales, those that strain their food from the sea, generally don't have the "intricate social systems" of toothed whales, Calambokidis said.
But the low-profile grays are in the headlines now as the Makah Indians prepare to resume hunting them in small numbers - a maximum of five per year through 2002 - reviving a tradition that long defined the tribe on this remote point of land. The hunt poses risks to the hunters as well as the hunted. Stormy winter weather can be deadly here, and grays have a reputation for ferocity when attacked.
"That's certainly a reputation that whalers gave them over and above other whales - hence their nickname 'devil fish,'" Calambokidis said.
And grays have their defenders - people who simply like knowing the huge, graceful mammals share the planet, animal-rights activists whose ships have been anchored offshore here for weeks, human neighbors who have given names to so-called resident whales, and whale-watching-boat operators who worry they've taught the whales to trust boats that could now threaten them.
Scientists offer mixed assessments of the notion that grays are friendly and "solicit contact," as some would have it.
"Whales don't do that out here," Gearin says. Resident whales that browse in the strait - including 'Buddy,' who hangs out near Snow Creek 3 miles east - "are wild animals that are going about their business, which is getting something to eat."
Calambokidis agrees that most feeding residents stick around when boats approach because they're "just oblivious." But he believes a small percentage here do exhibit what could be termed "friendly behavior." And he reports an increase in such behavior among grays in the so-called birthing lagoons off Baja California.
"I don't think science has an explanation for it," he says. "It goes beyond curiosity."
Steve Boothe, who operates Snow Creek Charters, believes the whales are reaching out to their human neighbors.
"Until someone has looked into the whale's eye, they cannot understand," he says.
Bob Coster, commander of the Coast Guard station here for three years and a longtime hunter and wildlife observer, sees it differently.
"They're curious," he says. "I've had them roll up and look at me - I see an animal ... I really appreciate them, but if somebody wants to eat one, I don't have a problem with that either."
For thousands of years, the Makah hunted grays and humpback whales here at the end of the world, the extreme upper left corner of the Lower 48 states. The practice helped define the Makah as a fierce and formidable people, who had a use for every part of the whale. A central part of Makah life vanished with the end of tribal whaling in the 1920s, when commercial whaling for oil to light faraway cities brought the grays to the brink of extinction.
Toward the end, whaling ships focused on the so-called birthing lagoons off Mexico that mark the southern terminus of the grays' migration, where females and their calves bask in warm seas.
"I don't like to think about that," library assistant Laura Pereira said in a telephone interview from Massachusetts' New Bedford Whaling Museum.
The factory ships rendered blubber into oil on board, using lower-grade oil and some other body parts for fuel. Baleen - "an early precursor to plastic," Pereira says - was used to make corset stays, buggy whips and umbrella frames. The meat, for the most part, was left to rot.
By the 1920s, the gray-whale population had been reduced to about 4,000 animals from a peak estimated at about 23,000, federal officials say. The grays have been rebuilding their population in relative peace for more than 50 years. In 1994, their numbers estimated at more than 22,000, they were taken off the Endangered Species List.
Last fall, the Makah were cleared to again intercept the fall and spring migrations. Their first hunt is to take place sometime this fall from a cedar canoe, backed by motorized chase and support boats. A ceremonial harpoon strike is to be followed by high-powered rifle fire to ensure as humane a kill as possible.
Date: Sun, 08 Nov, 1998
Off Australia, Humpbacks Put On Good Show
By: Robyn Holland, Associated Press
As the humpback whale surfaces at the stern of the boat, Mimi Macpherson leans out over the bright blue water, tosses her hair and smiles broadly.
It's a perfect day aboard her 82-foot catamaran, Discovery One, with scores of tourists on board.
The weather is warm, the sea is calm and two awesome young humpbacks have spent an hour and a half playing next to the boat to the delight of the excited passengers, cameras and videocams in hand, experiencing their first close encounters with whales.
Macpherson has operated her whale-watch cruises in Queensland's Hervey Bay, 180 miles north of Brisbane, since 1989, when a marine park was established there.
As the younger sister of one of the world's most-famous models, Elle Macpherson, Mimi got an extraordinary amount of publicity when she started her business. She used it to her advantage and, using her business prowess, created a successful operation that recently won tourism-industry awards.
Discovery One, one of 15 whale-watch boats on Hervey Bay, takes out up to 270 people each day from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the whale-watch season. The cost of $44 for adults and $23 for children includes a buffet lunch.
There is a full bar and a children's corner, with toys, books and educational items.
"It was really a fluke - excuse the pun - the way I got into whale watching," Macpherson says.
"I was working for a charter boat company in Sydney Harbor, and its owners decided to take it up to Hervey Bay when the marine park was set up, so I just went with them."
"I started by scrubbing potatoes and cleaning the galley, then eventually, the boys let me put the sails up and I made a really good decky (deckhand). Then I did administration and marketing for them, and it just flowed from there. After two years, I had developed a well-rounded knowledge of the whole industry."
A total of 1,500 to 1,800 humpback whales migrate annually 3,100 miles in June from Antarctic waters to the warmer tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef, where they mate and give birth. From August to November, many of these whales are seen in Hervey Bay, where they rest before heading south again.
Experts believe the whales may choose Hervey Bay for its calm, shallow and warm waters, which helps give the calves time to develop a layer of protective blubber in readiness for colder waters.
Another theory is that the bay provides a haven for the whales, who are stressed after birthing and mating.
Luree LeFrancis, a naturalist and educator for the Pacific Whale Foundation based in Maui, Hawaii, spends the whale-watch season on Mimi's boat. She says the humpbacks are believed to be returning at an increasing rate of 4 to 5 percent a year.
"I think tourism, if it's done anything at all, has raised awareness of whales," LeFrancis says. "Whale watching is a big part of helping save the humpbacks."
The estimated population of humpbacks in Australian waters before large-scale commercial whaling began in the 19th century was 10,000. When whaling ceased in 1963, the species was under threat of extinction, with only a few hundred believed to remain. Now, the population is thought to be about 1,800.
LeFrancis says Hervey Bay is a unique whale-watching location.
"This is one of the best places I've ever come to watch whales doing different types of behaviors," she says.
"People can get a really neat close encounter with them here. It's the only place I've seen the humpback whales get really curious about the boats."
"In Hawaii, they tend to be more aggressive, and they're not as relaxed as they are here. They're on the surface more here because the water is only 66 feet deep, which is often the size of a whale."
Macpherson adds, "From a commercial point of view, we know this is the best location in the world for seeing whales."
Living in her sister's limelight has created opportunities for her, Macpherson says, but it's also worked against her at times.
"A lot of people think I've been given the boat just because Elle is rich - that I haven't worked for it, which is not true," she says.
"But it does help in one way to be Elle's sister because people feel like they know you," says Macpherson, who recently landed a guest role in the TV series Baywatch.
She says she never loses enthusiasm for her work.
"The people I meet are just as interesting as the whales," she says. "It's the people who make it special. I love being part of the experience with them."
(Copyright 1998 Phoenix Newspapers, Inc.)
Date: Mon, 09 Nov, 1998
Cousteau Stirs Reason Into Whale Protest
By: Columbian Editorial Writers
That a mess. Whether one agrees with the Makah decision to resume gray whale hunting or not, most would emphatically declare that the Sea Shepherd protesters are ineffective and should pack up and go home.
Thank goodness Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of famed ocean researcher Jacques Cousteau, has entered the debate with a voice of reason. Last week, speaking gently to tribal members on the shore of Neah Bay, Cousteau urged the Makahs not to resume the hunts that ended 70 years ago while he also offered to help the Makah pursue other ways to restore traditions and bring economic prosperity.
Though he failed to persuade tribal leaders to halt the hunt, Cousteau bridged a gap made uncrossable by Sea Shepherd protesters who have camped in the bay, waving their pirate flag bearing a skull and crossed monkey wrenches. The battle has become so bad that recent civil disobedience by protesters has brought out the worst in Makahs as well, resulting in their throwing rocks at the demonstrators and feuding among themselves. One elder who opposes the hunt has already left the community due to the unrest.
Tribal leaders said Cousteau's visit was a welcome relief from the verbal attacks of the anti-whalers who line their shore. Hopefully the Sea Shepherd crew heard his message, too. They should follow his example and begin acting more like peacemakers and less like schoolyard bullies in flannel.
But even if protesters don't change their tactics, Cousteau offered some needed insight on the debate for the rest of the state.
"In many ways," Cousteau said,
"it is very unfair the pressure that is being put on these people who have been totally ignored for years. There are so very few of them, and then suddenly the world focuses on this issue."
Humbling comments.
Most have learned about the life of Olympic Peninsula Makahs only because of a passion for gray whales. Now Washingtonians know what this economically depressed tribe looks like, how they worship and what they eat. Perhaps knowing the Makah may change people's minds about how they are treated.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 10 Nov, 1998
Conservation Groups Settle Harbor Porpoise Lawsuit
WASHINGTON /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) and The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) announced today that they have settled a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Aug. 21, charged that NMFS had failed in its legal responsibility to protect the Gulf of Maine harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) from death or injury due to incidental take in New England gillnet fisheries. The settlement agreement has been approved by the court.
In settling the lawsuit, NMFS conceded that it had failed to carry out its responsibilities to protect the harbor porpoise under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Under the terms of the settlement, the agency will issue a take reduction plan on Dec. 1 which will take effect on Jan. 1, 1999.
The plan will:
-- require fishermen to use "pinger" devices as early as December (a period of traditionally high harbor porpoise mortality). These devices attach to nets, using an electronic "pinging" sound to drive harbor porpoises away from gillnets;
-- specify certain areas that are closed to fishing to protect harbor porpoise; and -- provide data on harbor porpoise deaths to the public for the next two years in order to determine whether the plan is working to reduce harbor porpoise deaths.
NMFS also has agreed to make a decision by Jan. 4, 1999, whether to list the harbor porpoise as "threatened" under the ESA. If NMFS does not list the porpoise as threatened, the settlement agreement requires the agency, by Jan. 2000, to take another look at whether the mammal should be listed under the ESA.
"We believe that this settlement agreement will increase protection for the harbor porpoise and that it will ensure that NMFS finally does what it should have done without being sued," said Roger E. McManus, president of CMC.
"At the same time we are skeptical that the take reduction plan will be effective in reducing harbor porpoise deaths below the allowable level of 483 per year. If the plan doesn't work, we will go back to court to make sure that NMFS carries out its legal duty to protect harbor porpoises."
"The National Marine Fisheries Service was clearly in violation of deadlines for a take reduction plan, and the Humane Society of the United States is pleased they will publish one quickly," said Dr. John W. Grandy, HSUS senior vice president for wildlife programs.
"However, we remain concerned that NMFS may decide not to list the harbor porpoise as threatened. We still believe the harbor porpoies needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act."
The harbor porpoise is found in U.S. and Canadian Atlantic waters from Labrador to North Carolina. One of the smallest cetaceans (the mammalian order that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises), the shy and wary harbor porpoise is about five feet long and weighs just 120-140 pounds. The population of harbor porpoises is estimated at approximately 54,300. Under the MMPA, no more than 483 harbor porpoises can die from entanglement in fishing nets and other human causes if the species is to recover to stable levels. For the last seven years, however, an average of 1,700 harbor porpoises have died each year -- drowned when they are accidentally entangled in the gill nets of the fishing industry.
The Center for Marine Conservation (CMC) is the largest nonprofit organization dedicated solely to protecting ocean environments and conserving the global diversity of marine life. Through science-based advocacy, research and public education, CMC promotes informed citizen participation to reverse the degradation of our oceans. Established in 1972, CMC has 120,000 members. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., CMC has regional offices in California, Florida and Virginia.
The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest and most influential animal protection organization. With more than 6.5 million members and constituents across the U.S. and with programs in animal research issues, companion animals, farm animals, humane education, and wildlife and habitat protection. The HSUS touches on every issue affecting animals.
Date: Tue, 10 Nov, 1998
New 'Whale Kill' Cloaked as Science
By ANTHONY HOY; Rural Editor, Sydney Morning Herald
Japan has launched a concerted assault on Southern Ocean whale stocks with the dispatch from its main whaling port of an upgraded "scientific research" whaling fleet headed by a new $20 million chase ship.
Yushin Maru, Japan's first new whaling vessel launched in 26 years, is steaming at full power from the port of Shimonoseki towards the Antarctic's Ross Sea, to be in position in time to intercept the pods of whales completing their northern migration via Australia's coastline.
Owned jointly by three of Japan's largest fishing corporations - Maruha, Kyoku and Nippon Suisan - Yushin Maru spearheads an unabashed Japanese campaign to reopen the Antarctic whale sanctuary to commercial whaling.
Operating under a cloak of science, it will deliver an estimated 500 whales weighing in total around 2,000 tonnes and valued at more than $80 million to Tokyo's fish market in the spring of 1999.
According to the Japanese Government, the Yushin Maru is a "scientific vessel". But according to the Japanese press, the huge ship is "a symbol for the reopening of whaling" - a claim borne out by the emotional farewell by 500 flag-waving whaling industry workers and supporters as the ship powered out of Japanese waters.
Japan's "scientific" whaling program began in 1987, immediately it was forced by the United States to withdraw its objection to a 1985-86 moratorium on commercial whaling.
Australia's Minister for the Environment, Senator Hill, said: "We believe the killing of whales is unjustifiable.
"It is time the international community stopped talking about a moratorium on commercial whaling and instead adopted a permanent international ban on commercial whaling."
By 1996-97, according to official Japanese data, the catch of 1,995 tonnes from the Antarctic was wholesaled through Tokyo for 3.5 billion yen, with a retail value three times as high.
In Japan, DNA testing of whale meat on sale in fish markets has proved that some of this meat is not from minke whales taken as part of Japan's "scientific" catch and subsequently offered for human consumption but comes from entirely protected species.
An International Whaling Commission scientific review of Japan's Antarctic whaling research has concluded that the results of the whaling program are not required for management, that science is being used as an excuse to catch whales for the commercial market and that the program makes a mockery of science.
In February, Japan once again shrugged off attempts to bring its whaling under international control, claiming "a unique social and cultural significance not found in commercial whaling operations elsewhere, especially for a number of coastal towns".
By rejecting Irish proposals to allow Japan's coastal towns to start whaling on a limited scale while banning whaling on the high seas, Japan has signalled its true intentions and resolve to resume high seas industrial whaling using factory ships, according to conservationists.
Date: Wed, 11 Nov, 1998
Blue whale song may hold answers to noise questions
In 1970, a man named Bill Cummings recorded the loudest sustained sound produced by an animal on the planet. Originally, these sounds had been recorded by military installations in the 1950s, but Cummings was the first person to associate these particular sounds with the presence of a blue whale, Balaenoptera musculus.
The sounds contained extremely low frequencies -- so low that much of the sound was below the range of human hearing. However, Cummings was able to observe the sounds visually using a type of plot called a spectrogram. When reporting his findings, Cummings estimated that blue whales produce as much acoustic power as a Navy cruiser, and can sustain these sounds for more than thirty seconds.
He also predicted, rather wistfully, that "this finding is especially noteworthy because it is doubtful if these animals will survive man's overharvest."
Nearly thirty years later, the whales, and their sounds, are still out there.
And so are many questions. How do whales make these sounds? What are their purpose? Can they be used to estimate population sizes, or even identify individuals? And finally, can these sounds be used to evaluate the threat of human-produced noise?
Two projects at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography are attempting to answer some of these questions. One group, led by John Hildebrand, Mark McDonald and Art Teranishi, uses disposable underwater microphones, or hydrophones, to monitor the acoustic behavior of a group of approximately 100 or so blue whales that feed during the summer off the Channel Islands near Santa Barbara.
This group is analyzing blue whale sounds to determine the purpose of these calls, as well as evaluating the effects of man-made sounds, in particular noise produced by shipping, on blue whales. Since the establishment of this study, they have identified new sounds attributable to blue whales. The other project is led by Bill Kuperman, Gerald D'Spain and myself. We use advanced acoustic methods to track the motion of whales in three dimensions (direction, range and depth). Using many hydrophones deployed from the research platform FLIP, we have been able to detect animals up to almost three miles away.
We have even tracked the whales' motion while they are calling, and have learned that they hold a steady depth of 45 to 55 feet -- about one body length -- beneath the surface. From these calls we can also learn about the surrounding ocean environment. Loud, low-frequency sounds penetrate underneath the ocean floor. By using computer models we can determine what kind of sediment lies between the hydrophone and the whale.
Blue whale calls contain so much energy that we have been able to estimate sediment properties up to 200 feet beneath the ocean floor.
Once we have found the precise location of a whale, and have used information from the call to adjust our ocean model, we can remove the distortions and multiple reflections contained in the sound. What remains is an estimate of the actual sound coming from the animal, which may give us insight into how blue whales make these sounds, and whether each animal has a unique signature.
As our sophistication in using underwater sound has grown, so has our awareness of the threats sound can make to a whale's well-being. Before ships existed, blue whales in deep water could probably hear each other's calls over thousands of miles. But every year the amount of shipping traffic grows, increasing the background noise level until it is like steady, distant thunder.
Recently, both the Navy and Scripps have been accused of producing sounds that adversely affect whale behavior, although there is no evidence of this to date.
It is my hope that acoustic expertise at Scripps and other oceanographic institutions will continue to be used to learn more about the sounds and behavior of these magnificent animals. I hope the knowledge gained will ensure that Bill Cumming's prophecy of extinction will never become fact. Oceans Watch, written by Scripps scientists, appears the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 12 Nov, 1998
Whaling Standoff in Neah Bay
Conservationists are posted off Washington coast as the Makah tribe prepares to hunt.
The battle of two good things has come to an awkward impasse. The beleaguered people who are gladly reviving their history, their customs, and their spiritual practices are waiting. The dedicated people who are willing to risk their lives to protect internationally endangered mammals are waiting, too.
In Neah Bay, in the upper left-hand corner of the country, where the Strait of Juan de Fuca empties out into the Pacific Ocean, the Makah Indian tribe and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society are waiting for the first whale hunt in about 70 years. The conservationists have vowed to stop the hunt, which they claim is illegal, while the native Americans prepare to follow the Treaty of 1855, which preserved the tribe's right to hunt whales.
Paul Watson, founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, says the International Whaling Commission did not approve the hunt because the Makahs do not qualify as "aborigines whose traditional aboriginal subsistence and cultural needs have been recognized." The tribe stopped hunting whales in the 1920s, when, according to Mr. Watson, they voluntarily turned to seal hunting. But the Makahs argue that their tradition was broken only because no gray whales remained after East Coast hunters emptied the Pacific of them.
About 30 years ago, the damp, heavily forested land itself revealed secrets about the long-standing importance of whales to the tribe. A major archeological dig unearthed the remains of five long houses that had been buried in a mudslide 500 years ago.
"Here is hands-on evidence, a link to the past, that we were whalers. We had paddles, harpoon points, all of the stuff related to whaling," says Keith Johnson, president of Makah Whaling Commission. When the gray whale was removed from the United States Endangered Species List in 1994, the Makahs prepared to rekindle their customs.
Following the traditions, training requires spiritual bathing and use of medicines passed down from their families. Whalers' wives may follow the tradition of lying very still during parts of the hunt.
"The belief was that whatever she would do could affect the conduct or behavior of the whale," Mr. Johnson says.
But modern technology is not excluded. In addition to a harpoon, whalers plan to use a powerful .577 caliber sporting rifle.
Since late September, nothing much at all has moved in Neah Bay, a dingy town with a population of 916, five hours by ferry and car from Seattle. But the standoff clearly has the potential to become ugly.
On Nov. 1 Lisa Distefano, a leader of the Sea Shepherd group, jumped to the tribe's dock from an inflatable boat to meet with Alberta Thompson, a Makah elder who has objects to the hunt. Makah police arrested Ms. Distefano, and another Sea Shepherd member was injured in the scuffle. Watson says Makahs threw rocks at the conservationists and the police chief did not stop them. Tribal police also confiscated the inflatable boat, and Ms. Thompson went into hiding briefly.
The incident infuriated Watson.
"The Makahs are always talking about their treaty rights, but the fact is that the treaty is between the Makah and the US, and our treaty rights are being violated," he says from aboard one of the group's boats.
"The Makahs are not able to damage or destroy the property of US citizens. They attacked our people ... and they stole our property."
Watson warns that a Makah hunt could open floodgates for commercial whaling.
"If the precedent is set here, for cultural necessity, that means the Japanese, the Norwegians, and the Icelanders will all claim the same right of cultural necessity, and thousands of whales will be killed," he says.
"Our concern is really Oslo and Tokyo, not Neah Bay."
Johnson disagrees. "The Japanese have been trying to do this for 15 years, and they've hit roadblock after roadblock ... It will never happen because of the Makahs," he says.
"The US supported us because they are going to stand behind their word to defend and honor the treaty."
Even as the standoff continues, Johnson has noticed changes on the reservation, where about 55 percent of the people live below the poverty line.
"Our children and our tribe ... won't be lost in the computer world of the 21st century, because we have strong sense of who we are," he says.
"It's placing us on solid ground."
Offshore, Watson says his group is prepared to stay for the duration of gray whale migration, into December, waiting to interfere with the hunt.
"So far we've prevented it by just being here, patrolling the coastline," he says.
Date: Thu, 12 Nov, 1998
Trail of missteps leaves whalers out of the hunt
Seattle Times
NEAH BAY, Wash. -- The Makah had wanted to kill a whale by now, a big fat one, and butcher it on the beach amid a community celebration to cement their tribe's identity as the Lower 48's only whaling tribe.
Instead, six weeks after they declared that their hunt soon would be under way, the tribe still is declaring its hunt will . . . soon be under way. The inexplicable delay and a series of public-relations pratfalls have put the Makah on the defensive.
The crew's handcarved whaling canoe is parked on a boat trailer behind a fence in back of the tribal police station to deter vandalism.
An inflatable boat belonging to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, seized by tribal police during a confrontation with whaling protesters last week, is stashed next to it.
The two boats, high and dry and side by side, seem a fitting metaphor for the odd stalemate.
On the defensive
Instead of engaging its first whale in 70 years, the tribe has tangled only with its whaling opponents and the press. Instead of answering questions about the hunt, they are being grilled about arrests by tribal police of whaling protesters Nov. 1.
Tribal members are asked why their youngsters threw rocks at non-violent whaling protesters. And they are questioned about their police chief's fitness for duty.
Police Chief Lionel Ahdunko said last week that he planned to turn himself over to U.S. marshals in Seattle on Monday to confront allegations of lying about an accident in his patrol car in 1997.
After that accident, Ahdunko was fired as police chief of the Washoe Tribe in Nevada. He moved to Neah Bay and was hired by the Makah less than six months ago.
Tribal leaders also are criticized by some for their talk of banishing a 74-year-old grandmother from the tribe because of her active opposition to the hunt.
Alberta Johnson returned to the reservation Friday after leaving for several days at the urging of whaling protesters who said they were concerned for her safety.
None of this is what the tribe hoped to be talking about in the international media spotlight.
"The sad thing is we kind of lost the whaling part of it, and that's what everyone's here for," said tribal Chairman Ben Johnson.
Meanwhile, the hunt and hunters remain elusive. When the international media assemble at tribal headquarters for the daily hunt update these days, tribal leaders grimace. No one wants to answer the same question one more time: Why didn't the crew go out today?
"You are going to have to talk to our captain," Ben Johnson said in a weary voice one day when asked that question.
But whaling captain Eric Johnson, 31, was nowhere to be seen.
Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission and the most public voice for the tribe on the hunt, is distancing himself from it lately. Instead of saying brightly, ``We're ready to go!'' the way he used to, Johnson looks uncomfortable and passes the microphone. He wanted a whale killed long ago.
Many excuses
Every day, tribal leaders say the hunt could happen any minute. The tribe has a whaling crew, a whaling canoe and a whaling permit. But every day there's some reason why they don't go out: a dead radio battery, equipment failures on the support boat, bad weather. Often these reasons are offered by tribal leaders with a laugh, a wink and a nod.
The crew has been practicing just a handful of times since Sept. 29, when the canoe was put away.
There was controversy to deal with last month when the captain, Johnson, was paid $18 an hour to act as assistant manager of the Whaling Commission. Some community members feel payment is inappropriate. The payments stopped Monday.
The crew also was required to reach agreement with the federal government that the gray whale's southern migration was under way before going hunting. That restriction was lifted Nov. 1, when the migration generally is assumed to have started.
Now a key member of the team, Dan Greene, is out on a commercial fishing boat. Greene usually pilots the crew's high-speed chase boat, used to protect and assist the whalers in their hunt. He'll be fishing eight or nine more days.
"They could do it without me," Greene said last week. "But I would be really sad."
If the crew waits much longer, they may not even be able to paddle out to get their whale. Rough winter weather has been unusually slow to set in, but will come soon.
Keith Johnson of the Whaling Commission said the whalers had decided to take a step back and try to regain their focus.
"They said we lost our focus, they said we need to back up, see where this whole thing is headed, see what's going on. I don't blame them."
"There's a lot of pressure on us. It's hard to contend with sometimes. We are looking at how we can straighten out our canoe."
Date: Fri, 13 Nov, 1998
Fly-in Talks on Makah Options McCaw and Cousteau Aides Visit
By: Mike Barber Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
As fierce wind and rain swept across this remote village yesterday, further postponing the Makah's whale hunt, representatives of cellular phone billionaire Craig McCaw and environmentalist Jean- Michel Cousteau suddenly swooped in by helicopter.
Calling their impromptu visit a spur-of-the-moment decision, McCaw's spokesman, Robert Ratliffe, said he came to the reservation to find out whether there was a middle ground to save gray whales and Native American people.
Ratliffe and Cousteau representative Charles Vinnick entered into what they termed a "very gracious" fact-finding mission with the tribal council. Nothing was proposed or decided, they said. Afterward, Makah tribal representatives, who have never seen so many luminaries interested in their future, say the whale hunt is still on.
"We're going whaling; we're staying the course," said Keith Johnson, Makah tribal council treasurer. But he added,
"I personally liked the dialogue."
Ratliffe said his boss, McCaw, "empathizes very deeply with the Makah's situation," yet also "has a strong feeling about killing whales."
McCaw played a key role in the recent return of long-captive killer whale Keiko to his native waters off Iceland.
McCaw established himself as a technology pioneer by building McCaw Cellular into the nation's largest cell-phone company and selling it to AT&T in 1993 for $11.5 billion. He since has pursued a plan to circle the globe with hundreds of advanced broadband satellites capable of delivering vast amounts of digital data to any location, no matter how remote.
When it comes to the Makah, Ratliffe said,
"Craig's interest is one of trying to find some reasonable middle ground. Are there some alternatives that can be looked at to maintaining the culture (and its economy) short of taking the lives of innocent animals?"
The visit was about opening up a line of communication. No proposals, especially about financing or community development, were discussed, Ratliffe and Vinnick said.
McCaw and Cousteau have a history of working together. They joined forces to free Keiko, who was the star of the popular family movie "Free Willy." The orca was recently returned to his native waters in Iceland on a military cargo plane financed largely by McCaw. Cousteau sits on the board of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, while Ratliffe sits on the board of the Cousteau Institute.
Yesterday's meeting came a week after a visit by Cousteau, whose calm presence and respect for the tribe was in marked contrast to the polarizing presence of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has anchored two ships off Neah Bay. Its goal is to disrupt the whale hunt.
Cousteau hinted at the time that he might try to learn more about the tribe and its needs, noting that his organization has been successful in developing economic alternatives to whaling with other indigenous people around the globe.
Johnson said other people in the past have approached the tribal whaling commission and tribal council with ideas of abating the hunt in return for community development or cash infusions, but none have ever come to fruition.
"It was interesting to hear their perceptions," Johnson said.
"We will listen to everybody and anybody who is sincere."
P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or michaelbarber@seattle-pi.com
Date: Fri, 13 Nov, 1998
Makah, Meet Mccaw
By: Peggy Andersen, Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY - A jet helicopter descended fon Makah tribal headquarters, scattering seagulls and reporters and stirring up fresh speculation about the tribe's plan for a fall gray-whale hunt.
On board were representatives of cell-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, who played a key role in the recent return of long-captive killer whale Keiko to his native waters off Iceland, and of conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau, who visited the Makah last week and is a son of the late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau.
"We're just here to do some fact-finding, to see if there's any way we can be helpful," McCaw representative Bob Ratliffe said Thursday after a two-hour meeting behind closed doors with the five members of the Makah Tribal
Council.
"There was no quid pro quo" discussed, said Charles Vinnick, representing the California-based Jean-Michel Cousteau Institute.
"We are not here to broker a solution."
Asked if the discussion centered on the tribe's plan to resume its whaling tradition, Ratliffe asked, "Why else would you be out here?"
The Makah have whaled for centuries off this remote arrowhead of land northwesternmost point of the Lower 48 states but stopped in the 1920s, when global whale populations had been decimated by commercial whaling.
The tribe, whose right to whale is guaranteed by a unique clause in their 1855 treaty, moved to resume the hunts after gray whales were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994.
That treaty right is not for sale, Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission, told reporters after the meeting, though the tribe might consider holding it in abeyance for a period of time under the right circumstances. But there were no financial discussions here Thursday.
The visitors and the men they represent are clearly not pro-whaling. "If you look at both men's histories, taking animals is not something they're advocates of," Ratliffe said of McCaw and Cousteau.
McCaw is a member of the Cousteau institute's board, and Cousteau is on the board of the Free Willy Keiko Foundation, he said.
"We wanted to understand the issue better from their side," Vinnick said, reaffirming Cousteau's support for the tribe's treaty rights.
"Nor are we in any way associated with Sea Shepherd," added Ratliffe. McCaw's interest in the Makah hunt apparently was piqued by a letter this week from a member of the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
The Makah have made no changes in their plans, Johnson said after the visitors climbed back into the helicopter and left the reservation. "We're still going whaling we're staying the course," he said.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov, 1998
Defiant Whalers Rally to Lift Ban
Tokyo (AP) - Performers danced an imaginary hunt and a crowd of several thousand enthusiastically munched on whale meat lunches yesterday as Japan's dwindling whaling industry rallied for an end to the international ban on their trade.
The rally, supported by the industry and the Japanese Government, was held to coincide with the winding down of the whaling season around Japan's coasts and the recent departure of Japanese whaling ships for Antarctic waters.
Commercial whaling on the high seas has been banned since 1986, but a small fleet of Japanese ships continues to kill whales and dolphins along the nation's coasts, and hundreds of whales are hunted at sea each year in what the Government calls a research program.
Japan's whaling program has often been criticised because meat from the whales killed for research is sold on the open market, with proceeds going to the whaling industry.
But Japan has stubbornly ignored such opposition. To much fanfare, the sea-going whaling fleet got its first new ship in 26 years earlier this year, the 720-tonne Yushin Maru.
That there is still a market in Japan for whale was clear yesterday. Everything from smoked whale meat to whale whisker toys were snapped up by the 3,000 people who crowded into Tokyo's main sumo wrestling arena for the rally.
Masanao Arai, a whaling company employee who was running a whale meat stall, said:
"We don't tell you not to eat pigs. Don't tell us not to eat whales."
Japanese whaling advocates say there is no scientific basis for a ban on commercial whaling and cite data suggesting there could be 760,000 minke whales in Antarctic seas. Annual takes of a few thousand minkes would not pose a threat to their survival, they say.
Associated Press © 1998
Date: Tue, 17 Nov, 1998
Japan Whaling Fleet Departs For Sanctuary With New Ship
Complete with its first new dedicated whale killer ship in 26 years, Japan's whaling fleet has set sail for waters around Antarctica. The ships left on from their southwestern home port of Shimonoseki.
The new $US14 (ï½£8.5) million Yushin Maru, harpoon mounted on it's bow, is part of a fleet of five sent to the Southern Ocean for the 12th year in a row; despite calls by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for Japan to stop its whaling there. At the ship's launch in Tokyo on 15 October, its manufacturer Kyodo Senpaku, contractor to the Government of Japan, stated that the new ship is viewed as "a symbol of restarting of commercial whaling".
Japan is defying international opinion by killing whales in recognised whale sanctuary under the guise of 'research'. In April, the fleet returned with 438 minke whales, bringing the total caught in the name of science to 3767 since the Southern Ocean was declared a sanctuary by the IWC in 1994. In addition, Japan had caught 398 minkes in the North Pacific over the past five years.
The meat from the whales killed in the Antarctic Sanctuary will be sold in Japan as part of a $US50 million a year whale-meat market in the country. Some of the meat is used for school lunches to foster the taste for whale meat among young children, in the hope they will become paying consumers later.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov, 1998
Appeal Filed in Lawsuit to Stop the Killing of California Gray Whales
By: Business Wire Editors
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Fund for Animals, Congressman Jack Metcalf, Breach Marine Protection, and several other organizations and individuals today appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in their lawsuit to stop the Makah tribe from killing California gray whales off the coast of Neah Bay, Wash. The plaintiffs claim the U.S. Department of Commerce failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act when approving the tribe's whaling plan, and also that the whale hunt violates international and domestic law because the tribe has never been recognized by the International Whaling Commission as having a legitimate subsistence need to hunt whales.
On September 21, Judge Franklin D. Burgess of the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Wash., dismissed the case, ignoring the serious legal and scientific flaws in both the federal government's Environmental Assessment and the agencies' conclusion that the Makah tribe was authorized to hunt whales under international law. The court also failed to address the impact that whale hunting may have on summer resident whales, although Judge Burgess wrote that he was "troubled with the Environmental Assessment's somewhat nonchalant conclusion that new whales are likely to appear to take the places of those summer residents that might be killed."
Says Jonathan Lovvorn, attorney for the Washington, D.C. law firm Meyer and Glitzenstein, representing the plaintiffs,
"The court acknowledged that the Environmental Assessment was sketchy and conclusory, yet failed to hold the agencies responsible for the serious legal and scientific inadequacies in their decision to permit the slaughter of whales within a National Marine Sanctuary."
The tribe claims it has a long tradition of whaling, yet has not hunted whales since 1928. Although the tribe has been authorized to kill whales since October 1, no whales have been killed so far.
Adds Michael Markarian, campaign director of The Fund for Animals,
"Whaling may have been a tradition in the past, but there is nothing traditional about cruelly shooting these majestic creatures with high-powered rifles. This decision turns back the clock on whale recovery, and sets a dangerous precedent for other tribes and other countries that want to target whale populations for profit."
Date: Wed, 18 Nov, 1998
Whaling Opponents Appeal Dismissal
By Peggy Andersen
NEAH BAY, Washington (AP) б Opponents of the Makah Indian Tribe's planned gray-whale hunt moved to renew their court battle, appealing the dismissal of a lawsuit that challenges federal support for the hunt.
A notice of appeal was filed Wednesday in federal court by attorneys for U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf animal-rights and conservation groups, and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit dismissed in September by U.S. District Judge Franklin Burgess in Tacoma.
"We were expecting an appeal," said Denise Dailey, director of the Makah Whaling Commission. She said the tribe was confident Burgess's decision would be upheld, noting the Makah had "followed all the rules they laid down."
Some of those rules are challenged by the lawsuit, which questions whether the government complied with environmental law in supporting the hunt, and whether the United States properly interpreted an International Whaling Commission quota that has been allocated to the Makah.
The plaintiffs are not asking the courts to prohibit Makah whaling while the appeal is being considered by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said attorney Jonathan Lovvorn in Washington, D.C.
But they hope the Makah will decide not to hunt until the appeal is resolved б probably by next spring, he said.
Makah Whaling Commission president Keith Johnson indicated that is unlikely.
"We would hope they would leave us alone so we could effect a safe and humane hunt during this appeal process because we've already won in federal court," Johnson said.
Sea-going opponents of the hunt have maintained a presence in area waters since late September to protest and possibly disrupt any whaling by the Makah.
The tribe has been cleared to go whaling since Oct. 1 but still has not done so. Tribal officials have said the delay is caused by bad weather and equipment problems. Published reports indicate there also are disputes over tribal protocols.
The hunts traditionally occurred during the gray whales' spring and fall migrations between Alaska and Mexico. The fall migration peaks in December, when the winter storm season increases risks for the hunters.
Date: Wed, 18 Nov, 1998
Appeal Filed in Lawsuit to Stop the Killing of California Gray Whales
By: Business Editors
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Fund for Animals, Congressman Jack Metcalf, Breach Marine Protection, and several other organizations and individuals today appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in their lawsuit to stop the Makah tribe from killing California gray whales off the coast of Neah Bay, Wash. The plaintiffs claim the U.S. Department of Commerce failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act when approving the tribe's whaling plan, and also that the whale hunt violates international and domestic law because the tribe has never been recognized by the International Whaling commission as having a legitimate subsistence need to hunt whales.
On September 21, Judge Franklin D. Burgess of the U.S. District Court in Tacoma, Wash., dismissed the case, ignoring the serious legal and scientific flaws in both the federal government's Environmental Assessment and the agencies' conclusion that the Makah tribe was authorized to hunt whales under international law. The court also failed to address the impact that whale hunting may have on summer resident whales, although Judge Burgess wrote that he was "troubled with the Environmental Assessment's somewhat nonchalant conclusion that new whales are likely to appear to take the places of those summer residents that might be killed."
Says Jonathan Lovvorn, attorney for the Washington, D.C. law firm Meyer and Glitzenstein, representing the plaintiffs,
"The court acknowledged that the Environmental Assessment was sketchy and conclusory, yet failed to hold the agencies responsible for the serious legal and scientific inadequacies in their decision to permit the slaughter of whales within a National Marine sanctuary."
The tribe claims it has a long tradition of whaling, yet has not hunted whales since 1928. Although the tribe has been authorized to kill whales since October 1, no whales have been killed so far.
Adds Michael Markarian, campaign director of The Fund for Animals,
"Whaling may have been a tradition in the past, but there is nothing traditional about cruelly shooting these majestic creatures with high-powered rifles. This decision turns back the clock on whale recovery, and sets a dangerous precedent for other tribes and other countries that want to target whale populations for profit."
Date: Wed, 18 Nov, 1998
Key Figure In Whale Hunt Loses Makah Vote
By: The Associated Press
A key figure in the Makah Indian tribe's planned gray whale hunt was beaten soundly yesterday in her bid for nomination to a second term on the tribal council.
Marcy Parker, whose son Eric Johnson is captain of the tribe's whaling crew, placed third in a field of four for the nomination. She is currently vice chairman of the council.
Jerry Lucas, with 78 votes, and Debbie Wachendorf, with 46 votes, finished ahead of Parker, who drew 33 votes in the crowded tribal meeting. The top two vote-getters win places on the ballot. Parker could mount a write-in campaign.
Two of the five council members are up for election this year.
A total of 613 Makah are eligible to vote, but the turnout of about 185 people for yesterday's meeting was considered remarkable.
"I haven't seen the community hall this crowded in years," said John McCarty, a former director of the Makah Whaling Commission and a critic of the way the whale hunt is being conducted.
His son Micah McCarty, a former member of the whaling crew who had hoped to be captain, withdrew from the endeavor in October to go to college.
"This whale thing did do a lot for this community," said McCarty, who nominated Wachendorf. "Whether good or angry or not - it brought them together."
McCarty and some other tribal members have been unhappy about the makeup of the whaling crew and other aspects of the hunt, which could take place this fall.
The Makah traditionally conducted family whale hunts, but because it has been more than 70 years since the tribe last went whaling, the plan was for this first hunt to be a community hunt - to pool and share available knowledge.
"It started out that the 23 families would take the whale," McCarty told the Post-Intelligencer in a report published Monday.
"Then it got sidetracked to one family, Marcy and her family. It's not a tribal hunt - it's Marcy's hunt."
Just when the Makah will go hunting is anyone's guess. The tribe's hunt could have begun as early as Oct. 1. The U.S. government has sanctioned the hunt and established rules the tribe must follow.
The plan mandates when the tribe can hunt, how many animals it can take and how many may be harpooned in order to get their annual limit of up to five whales.
The Makah will be allowed to kill up to 20 gray whales through 2002. They may wound up to 33 in order to reach that quota.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society continues to monitor the tribe's activities. Its members, many of whom are volunteers, have said they will try to disrupt the hunt, or at the very least film or photograph it so that the rest of the world can see the killing of the mammals.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 19 Nov, 1998
Russia closes navy base that trains whales
MOSCOW (AP) - The cash-strapped Russian Navy has closed a Pacific base that trained whales for combat purposes and sent the last trainees to the Black Sea, officials said recently.
The base in the Far East at Vityaz Bay belonged to the Russian Pacific Fleet and was used to teach various kinds of whales to detect enemy divers and carry out other tasks.
Extensive efforts reportedly were made during the Soviet era to train whales and dolphins for military purposes, including attacking enemy ships with bombs strapped to the creatures.
The government closed the base earlier this month, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. The Russian military is cutting back because of the country's financial crisis and a lack of funds for the armed forces.
The last remaining five Beluga whales, called Bob, Bion, Mezon, Momon and Jerry, were flown to the Black Sea and turned over to a civilian research center studying sea mammals.
Date: Thu, 19 Nov, 1998
Sea Shepherd Pulls Out of Neah Bay
By PEGGY ANDERSEN -
Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY, Wash. (AP) -- The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has anchored two ships here for seven weeks to protest the Makah Indian Tribe's plan to hunt gray whales, agreed Wednesday to withdraw in exchange for a meeting with the tribe.
The decision was prompted by a meeting on a Coast Guard cutter between group leaders and U.S. Attorney Katrina Pflaumer.
"We were there to try to convince the Sea Shepherds that it was time to leave," Pflaumer said.
The tribe has agreed to meet with group leader Paul Watson and expedition leader Lisa Distefano on Monday, tribal Chairman Ben Johnson said.
Watson said his group would withdraw the 95-foot Sirenian and the 180-foot Sea Shepherd "as a show of good faith for the opening of talks." Both will be gone by Monday.
The tribe has been cleared to go whaling since Oct. 1. Tribal officials have said the delay is caused by bad weather and equipment problems. Published reports indicate there also are disputes over tribal protocols.
The Makah were guaranteed the right to whale under their 1855 treaty, but stopped in the 1920s when commercial whaling decimated global whaling populations. They moved to resume the hunts as a means of cultural renewal in 1995, after the gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species List. The government supported them before the International Whaling Commission.
Opponents contend the Makah have no need for whale meat and that the commission did not approve the hunt. They also contend that allowing Makah whaling will open the door to commercial whaling on a global scale.
Sea Shepherd and others believe the tribe should explore eco-tourism. In an October letter to the Makah, Watson offered to help the tribe develop a whale-watching industry as a "more positive course" in cultural evolution.
Date: Fri, 20 Nov, 1998
Your Voice: Wolf Clan Would Die If Members Refused Creator's Instructions To Hunt Whale
By: Trudy A. Mcquillen
The old ones call me tSai-Yuu-Kha. I come from the longhouse of Baa Doo Bi'ath and Ellis John McQuillen. I come from the nation of the Kwi-Dee-Chi-Aulth, called Makah by the U.S. government.
I have been called by the ancestors to write this letter, for it is the ancestors whom I honor. It is the ancestors who are the teachers and keepers of knowledge and wisdom. It is the ancestors who hold our songs, dances, stories and lives within their hands.
I stand before you this day with a heart that is full of pride, a heart that holds the teachings of the canoe. I stand before you this day, asking for a moment of your time. I stand before you humbly, asking for understanding and acceptance of who I am: the great-granddaughter of a whaler.
From the beginning of time, my family has hunted. We have a sacred relationship with the finned peoples, the four-legged, the winged, the plant and the rock peoples, and the two-legged peoples. It is the wolf who is our teacher. The Wolf Clan is the way of knowledge for family life. We have offered our songs, dances and lives to Creator and all of the peoples of this Earth.
We have entered into the most sacred of all agreements: For one people to survive, benefaction must occur. To ensure a safe and successful hunt, we have always prayed for an altruistic partner, for the hunted is more important than the hunter.
This brings about a cooperation set before all the peoples of this Earth, set before us by Creator. Without the cooperation and willingness of the hunted, we would fail. My family has been given specific instructions about our responsibilities for this life. To ignore the instructions of Creator is to bring about desolation and destruction to this world of ours. Since the beginning of time, my family has followed these instructions.
In the world of my family, all revolves around the whale. Our songs, our dances, our lives - all depend upon the whale. As a small child, I would sit at my grandfather's feet listening to the stories and songs that call the whale. As I grew older, I was taught the dances that call upon all the animal peoples to help us hunt the whale. As an adult, the canoe, the sacred vessel that carries us across the water, called to me.
As I travel the open waters of the Northwest, I learn more and more each journey. I learn to listen to the calling of the trees, rocks and water. The songs of the ancestors travel across the wind, searching for one who will listen and learn of the old ways.
I am who I am. I cannot change the essence of my being, any more than I can change the color of the water, the color of the sky or the color of the grass. I have been taught the ways of my ancestors: to give respect to our elders, to our children, to all that lives in this world. To try to be anyone other than a member of the First Nations Peoples would be a fruitless effort, for it is impossible for me. I cannot change the ways of my family, nor would I. It is a life that brings satisfaction and peace to my spirit, to my families, to my work and to my life.
Trudi A. McQuillen is a paraeducator at Rainier Elementary School in Thurston County.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Fri, 20 Nov, 1998
Sea Shepherd Boats Withdraw - But Fight Is Still On, Activist Says
By: Peggy Andersen, Associated Press Writer
NEAH BAY - Makah tribal officials intent on renewing a long-dormant whaling tradition say they're willing to sit down with anti-whaling activists if they withdraw their flagship vessels, but that there's little chance of compromise.
"I think we have to agree to disagree," Makah Whaling Commission president Keith Johnson said, in anticipation of a meeting Monday between the two sides.
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society leader Paul Watson said Thursday he would travel to the meeting in Port Angeles aboard the 180-foot Sea Shepherd III, anchored here since Sept. 30.
Another flagship the 95-foot Sirenian left the harbor Thursday afternoon, Seattle-bound.
The two anti-whaling ships have been here to protest the Makah's planned resumption of hunting for gray whales. The hunts stopped in the 1920s when commercial whaling decimated the whale population. The tribe moved to resume the hunts as a means of cultural renewal in 1995, after the gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species List.
The Makah whalers have been cleared to hunt since Oct. 1, but have not yet ventured out in their 32-foot cedar canoe except for practice.
Watson dispelled any notion that the retreat of the vessels meant the conservationists were surrendering their fight against whaling.
"We're simply removing our navy. The marines will stay," Watson said at a news conference aboard the Sea Shepherd.
The "marines" are shore-based observers, a small plane dubbed the "Sky Shepherd" and small boats operated by other protest groups and Canadian whale-watching operators from Vancouver Island.
The breakthrough ending Sea Shepherd's seven-week siege came Wednesday when U.S. Attorney Katrina Pflaumer of Seattle met with Watson in a Coast Guard cutter in the harbor here. Pflaumer said she intervened for safety reasons, citing the winter storm season.
Tribal officials seemed to interpret Watson's removal of anti-whaling vessels as a capitulation.
"If the intent is to save face and he goes, then that's OK," Johnson said Thursday.
"Let him have his dignity and leave," agreed Marcy Parker, vice chairman of the tribal council.
But Watson maintained the removal of the boats was temporary. Where the Sea Shepherd goes from Port Angeles depends on what happens at Monday's meeting, he said, noting they could return anytime protesters hear the Makah are going whaling.
Watson said he believes winter weather has "closed the window of opportunity" for the tribe to hunt during the fall gray whale migration to breeding grounds off Mexico.
Watson said Sea Shepherd "will certainly be back in the spring," if the tribe prepares to intercept the grays' northbound return to Alaska.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 23 Nov, 1998
Whalers, Sea Shepherd find no Common Ground
After meeting at the Makah Indian reservation at Neah Bay, Washington, on Monday, whale hunters and whale conservationists agreed, more or less amicably, that there was no room for compromise between positions which require killing whales and sparing whales, respectively.Sea Shepherd Conservation Society president Paul Watson was the primary spokesman for the delegation from Sea Shepherd at the meeting, and Makah Tribal Council chairman Ben Johnson, Jr., spoke for the tribe.
"We concluded by telling the Council that we're going to stay here watching over the whales until Mother Nature can take over for us to ensure their safety," said Watson.
Gale-force winds are now starting to buffet the Cape Flattery region, as is customary at this time of year. Small craft are avoiding the area, and any attempts at hunting Gray whales as the main migrating pods pass the peninsula en route to Baja, California, is unlikely.
"We bought them the time they need to pass by unharmed," said Watson.
Sea Shepherd, the Progressive Animal Welfare Society, the West Coast Anti-Whaling Society and Canadian whale watching companies have kept a flotilla of boats in Neah Bay since late September, drawing a media spotlight to the Makah's plans and effectively deterring the hunt.
The tribe complained that children were "terrified" by the presence of the Society's boat in the bay. Sea Shepherd International Director Lisa Distefano pointed out that this was due to rumors spread by the Makah's chief of police and defamatory newspaper ads against the Society taken out by the tribe.
"We are concerned by the real threats of violence, faked oil spills, and sabotage against us," said Distefano.
"There was more than one reason why we felt it was necessary to sit down and talk with the Makah in some reasonable fashion. We have safety concerns, and we want compensation for the vandalizing of our vessels."
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
P.O. Box 628
Venice, CA. 90294 USA
E-mail: seashepherd@seashepherd.org
Web Site: http://www.seashepherd.org
Tel: 310-301-SEAL(7325)
Canada: 604-688-7325 Fax: 310-574-3161
Date: Mon, 23 Nov, 1998
Japanese Whalers Stall Off Australia
TOKYO (AP) - A Japanese whaling ship on a government-led research mission is stalled off Australia's east coast after a fire broke out four days ago, officials said Monday.
No injuries were reported from the fire on the Nisshin Maru, currently drifting about 600 miles southeast of Brisbane, said Shimon Harima, a spokesman for Japan's Maritime Safety Agency.
The fire appeared to be under control, although the crew has not yet determined whether it has been completely extinguished, said Hitoshi Yamamoto, a spokesman of Kyodo Sempaku, the ship's operator.
The Nisshin Maru, carrying a crew of 111, was on its way to Antarctic seas for Japan's annual research whaling program. That program has often been criticized because meat from the whales killed for research is sold on the market, with proceeds going to the whaling industry.
Commercial whaling is banned throughout the world. Japan has continued with research in an effort to gather evidence that would persuade regulators to lift the ban.
Yamamoto said the crew believed the fire broke out in the factory section of the ship, part of which is directly above the engine room. The cause of the fire was not immediately known, he said.
The crew was airing out the engine room, which was believed undamaged by the fire, Yamamoto said.
The Nisshin Maru is the mother ship for a five-vessel whaling team.
After assessing the extent of damage from the fire, the operator will decide whether to send the Nisshin Maru back to Japan or have it towed to a nearby port for repairs, Yamamoto said.
Date: Tue, 24 Nov, 1998
Japan Whaling Fleet May Return Home After Fire
TOKYO, (Reuters) - Japan's controversial Southern Ocean whaling fleet of five ships may return home early because of a fire that disabled the only ship able to process the meat, a spokesman for the owners, Kyodo Senpaku, said on Tuesday.
The spokesman said the owners were considering a number of options because of the accident but it appeared there would be no further killing of whales this season.
"We will know these decisions for sure in a few days," he told Reuters.
The spokesman said the blaze started in the processing area of the whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru as it steamed down the east coast of Australia on its way to the Southern Ocean. No casualties were reported among the 115 crew on the 127-metre (415-foot) factory ship. Seventy-seven of the crew have transferred to other ships in the fleet.
The spokesman ruled out repairing the ship in Australia or New Zealand, saying it would most likely be towed to Japan.
"We've extinguished the fire. We have to see how the engine is and so on. I think it's likely to be ordered home, because it will take more time to repair the ship in a foreign port," he said.
The fleet, including a new whaler, was on its way to the Southern Ocean for the 12th year in a row, despite calls by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for Japan to stop its whaling there.
Japan stopped commercial whaling in compliance with an international moratorium, but since 1987 has carried out so-called "scientific whaling" in which whale meat finds its way on to the Japanese market after study of the dead mammals by scientists.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has said that last April the fleet returned with 438 minke whales, bringing the total caught in the name of science to 3,767 since the Southern Ocean was declared a sanctuary by the IWC in 1994.
Asked if the other four ships would go on with their hunt, the spokesman said there were two options.
"We could bring all four vessels home with the Nisshin Maru. Or we might leave two vessels there to keep on researching, and bring two others home. If the second option is chosen, the two vessels will conduct only 'counting' research," he said, where the number of whales and their location is documented without harpooning the mammals as a way of working out their movement and behaviour patterns.
But the spokesman said this was not the most valuable scientific research because it did not tell conclusively if the number of whales was increasing or not.
"If we could actually catch the whales, we can examine them biologically, and we can see how long they will live, the conditions of their pregnancies and so on," he added.
In a WWF statement earlier this month, the wildlife protection body said the inclusion in this year's fleet of a new whaler, the hi-tech Yushin Maru, showed Japan's "research whaling" had become more aggressive.
Environmentalists say the meat from the whales killed in the scientific whaling is part of a $50 million a year whale-meat market in Japan.
(Tokyo Newsroom +81 3 3432-8018 Email: tokyo.newsroom@reuters.com)
Copyright 1998 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved.
Date: Tue, 24 Nov, 1998
Whale Talks Cut Tension But Positions Hold Firm in Neah Bay
By: Rebekah Denn; Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
Sea Shepherd Leader Says He'll Move Boat Out Of Bay
A cordial face-to-face meeting between anti-whaling activists and the Makah Tribal Council yesterday relieved some tension but didn't sway either side's views on the tribe's planned gray whale hunt.
"We're staying the course. We're going to go whaling," said whaling commission President Keith Johnson before the meeting, expressing similar sentiments afterward.
And the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which has steadily opposed the hunt, is "not backing out of this at all," though it will leave Neah Bay, President Paul Watson said after the meeting.
It wasn't clear yesterday just when Watson would move his big blue 180-foot boat, Sea Shepherd III. The Sea Shepherd Society has had two boats anchored here since Sept. 30 to protest and possibly disrupt the tribe's planned first gray hale hunt in more than seven decades.
Watson had previously said he would move the Sea Shepherd III out of Neah Bay yesterday, if he could meet a long-held goal of meeting with the tribal council. But the boat remained in the harbor last night.
"We will be leaving. We'll choose the time when we leave . . ." Watson said after the meeting.
"We will pull (the boat) out when we are confident the whale will not be taken."
Stormy weather made it too rough for the Sea Shepherd III to head out yesterday in any event, Watson said.
But he implied it would leave soon, saying that the Sea Shepherd responsibilities "can very soon be taken over by Mother Nature" and that the weather was too poor for a whale hunt this season.
The society's smaller boat, the 95-foot black Sirenian, left the harbor for Port Angeles on Thursday after the groups agreed to meet. Though other protesters may remain in the area, the Sea Shepherd has been the leader.
Tribal attorney John Arum, who attended yesterday's meeting in the Neah Bay Coast Guard station, said Watson told the tribal council the Sea Shepherd III would leave yesterday or today.
"If he lives up to his word, he'll pull out. If he's a man of his word, he'll do that," said Ben
Johnson Jr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council.
Contrary to Watson's assertions, the window of opportunity to whale this season is by no means closed, Johnson said. Although there are plenty of stormy days coming, there will be clear days for whaling as well, Johnson said.
"The whale is in prime condition right now," he said, and the whaling canoe is "very seaworthy" and able to handle harsher weather than larger boats. The gray whales are migrating from the Bering Sea to Baja California in Mexico.
Despite their fundamental disagreement, both sides saw positive aspects from the meeting, a change from the protests and heated rhetoric of past months.
"I think it is a big step forward," said Sea Shepherd expedition leader Lisa Distefano.
"We were dealing with people, and not just the whalers vs. the conservationists. . . . We got to put a face to each other."
The tribal council was relieved to hear that Watson would stay out of the 500-yard zone the Coast Guard imposed around the whalers in case of a hunt, Johnson said.
And, he said, he was glad to be able to tell the Sea Shepherds that he felt they had moved from an anti-whaling stance to an anti-Indian stance that affected all tribes, not only the Makah.
Watson and DiStefano said the meeting had cleared up some "misunderstandings," including the tribe's fear that the group was motivated by racism and the Sea Shepherds' fear that the tribe was arranging to sell whale meat to Japan.
The meeting was arranged by U.S. Attorney Kate Pflaumer, who told The Associated Press last week that "the seas are getting rough, and we believe it's in everybody's best interest for the Sea Shepherds to step down."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Roe said from Seattle yesterday that she hadn't spoken with Watson after the meeting, but anticipated the Sea Shepherd III would leave Neah Bay shortly.
"He had indicated at the end of last week that he would leave (yesterday). He has always been a man of his word," she said. Though the storm may have delayed him yesterday, Roe said, "I would expect that Mr. Watson would leave quickly."
The tribe, which retained its whaling rights in its 1855 treaty, planned to resume whaling this year after a voluntary 70-year hiatus.
P-I reporter Rebekah Denn can be reached at 425-774-6625 or rebekahdenn@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 24 Nov, 1998
Makahs, Foes Shake Hands, But...
By: The Associated Press
NEAH BAY - Anti-whaling activists and Makah leaders both declared themselves pleased with their first meeting Monday, though no middle ground was found.
The tribe still plans to hunt whales; the protesters still oppose the hunt.
But "we shook hands" and met face to face as people, said Lisa Distefano, expedition leader for the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. "I think it's an important first step."
The Makah found the opponents of their hunt "are human ... they're just like anybody else," said Ben Johnson Jr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council. He said he respected them for "standing their ground."
"That's a long time they've been out in their ship," Johnson said.
Sea Shepherd has had two boats anchored in Neah Bay since Sept. 30 to protest and possibly disrupt the tribe's planned first gray whale hunt in more than 70 years.
The smaller vessel, the Sirenian, left Thursday in exchange for Monday's meeting, an arrangement worked out last week after intervention by U.S. Attorney Kate Pflaumer. The group's big boat - the Sea Shepherd III - was expected to leave Monday but stayed in the harbor awaiting better weather.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Wed, 25 Nov, 1998
Whale Fossil Discovered On The Washington Coast
By: Ellen Morris Bishop, Columbian Staff Writer
Toothless Wonder Appears To Be A Pivotal Branch Of Keiko's Family Tree
It was given the name Makah and was nature's first experiment in baleen whales. Instead of munching its food, the Makah whale strained its meals from seawater. It used a frill of baleen a tough, fibrous comb of keratin that hung
from the roof of its mouth as a filter. Its minimal teeth were not designed for capturing prey.
The roots of Keiko's family tree run deep in Washington's coastline. Whale fossils are abundant there, although paleontologists are not sure why. Now a Washington find might shed new light on the evolution of these largest marine mammals.
While whales with teeth, including killer whales, are the most abundant representatives of the whale family, the winners in size, the blue whales, are toothless baleen whales.
Until recently, the relationship between the two branches was murky.
The new fossil, found this spring by amateur paleontologist Jim Goedert of Gig Harbor, dates from the time 30 million years ago when the two branches split, said paleontologist Bruce Crowley of the University of Washington's Burke Museum.
"This may be a tooth-bearing baleen whale, and it's likely a whole new species and a new genus of whale," he said.
"It's really an exciting find."
The fossil is encased in rock. It will take Crowley at least a year of hard work to "prep" it out, carefully drilling, chiseling and brushing to free the ancient bone from its tomb.
"There's not too much showing now except a tooth," he said.
"But we know there's a skull and other bones as well."
The skull is about the size of a basketball. The entire animal was only slightly larger than the average modern dolphin, Crowley said.
Ironically, this pioneering whale is called the "Makah" whale.
Its name comes from the geologic formation where it was discovered, the Makah sandstones, Oligocene in age, not after the whaling Indian tribe.
Once the bones of the Makah whale are exhumed from rock, the skeleton will go on display at the Burke Museum.
The Makah whale will have company. The Burke Museum already has the fossil skeleton of a much larger baleen whale on display.
Known as the Pisht whale, for the Pisht formation where it was found, the fossil stretches more than 20 feet across the museum's floor. The eerie reddish-green light of the museum display leaves no question this was an animal from another age and different seas.
The Pisht whale is late Oligocene, perhaps 5 million years younger than the new-found Makah fossil. Both whales washed up on ancient Washington shores at a time when the Olympic Peninsula had just emerged from the sea and the Pacific Northwest's climate was much milder.
The family tree of whales extends to the Eocene period, about 40 million years ago, Crowley said. The earliest whales known, Protocetus, were aquatic animals with atrophied hind limbs and long snouts. The only sign of things to come is the location of the nostrils: They were on top of Protocetus' nose. While most species were the size of a German shepherd dog, a few were huge, reaching lengths up to 70 feet and estimated weights of five tons. (Fossil skeletons of Protocetus were exhibited in Europe in the early 19th century. These exhibits, scientists said, could have fueled sailors' stories of sea serpents.)
Baleen whales, including the California gray whales that the Makah tribe wants to hunt, developed fairly late in the history of whales. No one knows why.
The full development of baleen whales, including the 25-million-year-old Pisht whale already on display, may indicate that the change was more than a fluke, Crowley said. It may reflect a change in ocean ecology and the greater abundance of the plankton that the filter-feeding whales rely upon.
In fact, the Makah whale, with its combination of baleen and teeth, may provide a snapshot of that change, Crowley said.
Baleen and baleen whales
Baleen: A brushlike structure that grows as rows of plates suspended from the whale's palate. It is formed of keratin, essentially an outgrowth of the skin. Baleen grows as tough fibers embedded in a fleshy matrix. Baleen whales are filter feeders that gulp great quantities of water as they strain food animals (plankton, tiny shrimp, etc.) while expelling water through the baleen plates. Modern baleen whales have teeth as embryos.
Although many modern species of baleen whales produce sounds, they cannot use the sounds as a navigational or "echo-location" aid, says Lawrence Barnes, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles.
Baleen whales include humpback, fin whales, right whales and gray whales.
Toothed whales include sperm whales and all dolphins, porpoises and killer whales.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Thu, 26 Nov, 1998
Makahs Relieved At Departure Of Sea Shepherd
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
Meanwhile, Newspaper Ad Urges Tribe To Reconsider Whaling
NEAH BAY - The anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Conservation Society withdrew its big blue ship from the waters off this Makah Indian town Wednesday, ending an eight-week siege but not the group's opposition to the tribe's planned gray whale hunt.
The pre-dawn departure of the 180-foot Sea Shepherd III brought a sigh of relief from tribal leaders.
"I think this is going to calm everybody down," said Keith Johnson, president of the Makah Whaling Commission.
But the controversy quickly shifted to another front: an "open letter to every Makah" in Wednesday editions of the Peninsula Daily News of Port Angeles, 50 miles east.
The full-page ad, from a new group called People for Makah and Whales, urges tribal members to consider not whaling in exchange for the goodwill of "individuals and groups interested in contributing to projects that improve the quality of life and self-sufficiency of all Makah."
The ad says the tribe now has its greatest leverage since 1855, the year the Makah signed the treaty that ensured them whaling rights.
"The instant one whale is killed, however, your options are foreclosed," it says.
"They're trying to set people against each other," said tribal member Gary Ray after skimming the ad.
There have been no substantive offers as the tribe prepares for its first gray whale hunt in more than 70 years, and fewer are likely if the hunt is canceled, Johnson said.
"We're staying the course. We're going whaling because in the end, all we're going to have is our people and ... our culture," he said.
"Our treaty rights are not for sale," said Ben Johnson Jr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council, who joined Keith Johnson at an informal news conference.
They did agree there are circumstances under which the hunt might be held in abeyance. The community is struggling with unemployment nearing 70 percent, Ben Johnson noted.
A feeler 18 months ago, inquiring about whether the tribe would consider forgoing a whale hunt, included a contention that "money is no object." Council members at that time said tongue-in-cheek that for $350 million, they'd do some serious considering.
Ben White of Friday Harbor, the People for Makah and Whales organizer who placed the ad, said his overture "is not to be confused with 'money is no object.'
"It is a sincere offer," he said.
"A lot of people want to sit down with them."
The ad lists several possible projects, including a wind-generation power system, reforestation and purchase of land once owned by the tribe. Whale-watching and eco-tourism are not mentioned.
Some projects are under way already and could use financial support. Others - like the wind-generation system - are feasible but
need major start-up investment, Ben Johnson said.
The ad suggests the Makah put off a hunt till spring.
"They would lose absolutely nothing," White said.
"They could still go after the whale in the springtime."
White said he talks to - and has aligned himself with - cellular-phone billionaire Craig McCaw, who was instrumental in the $12 million endeavor to return movie-star killer whale Keiko to Iceland, and conservationist Jean-Michel Cousteau, son of late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau and a recent visitor to Neah Bay.
Both men have sought insight into the tribe's centuries-old whaling tradition and ways to help achieve a whale-saving resolution.
McCaw's representatives were consulted about Wednesday's ad but had no direct involvement, said aide Bob Ratliffe in Kirkland.
"We're interested in any creative ideas," Ratliffe said.
McCaw's organization would likely not get involved directly in economic development in Neah Bay but would "potentially consider underwriting ... solutions that would be lasting for the tribe," he said. "Mr. McCaw empathizes with the tribe's problems."
On the protest front, the Sea Shepherd III will stay in the San Juan Islands for a time, close enough to move back quickly if
there is word of a whale hunt this fall, group leader Paul Watson said from the 95-foot Sirenian, which left Neah Bay last week and is now in Seattle.
The Makah stopped hunting whales in the 1920s, when commercial whaling decimated global whale populations. The tribe moved to resume the hunts after the gray whale was removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 28 Nov, 1998
Makah Host Thanksgiving Dinner For Whoever Wants To Come
By: Peggy Andersen; Associated Press Writer
Tribe Had 5-Day Weekend, But Next Week Will Decide Whether To Hunt Whale
NEAH BAY - The Makah Tribe has a tradition of hospitality. According to local legend, the name "Makah" was bestowed by the neighboring Elwha tribes and means something like "generous hosts."
"Full bellies and good hosts," agrees Joe McGimpsey, a reflective, good-natured man who serves as spiritual leader for the Parker family.
So welcoming outsiders to the table this holiday weekend is considered simply good manners.
"That's what Thanksgiving is all about - the very first one was natives sharing what they have with their visitors," said Joddie Johnson, proprietor of the Makah Maiden restaurant, which was closed for business Thursday but open to her extended Ray family of two dozen or so and to visiting friends.
"Here we are in 1998 - the natives have lots of food, and there are strangers in our village," Johnson said, smiling. "It's second nature - if you're hungry, people will feed you."
Beebes' Cafe, the other restaurant here, also was transformed into a family banquet hall Thursday.
"We've been closed since noon," Beebes Clifford says to a late arrival. "Can I get you anything?"
Next door at the VFW Lodge, matriarch Helma Swan welcomes guests to her crowded family table, which includes son Arnie Hunter, vice president of the Makah Whaling Commission and the lodge commander, and whaler Darrell Markishtum.
Down the street and around the corner, the extended Greene family gets together in cozy cheer. At the Coast Guard station, Joyce and Tom Birdinground welcome friends and his colleagues from the Indian Health Service clinic to their family table.
Laughing children play games around the obstacle course posed by parents and friends at all the gatherings, as they do across the country.
Ben Johnson Jr., chairman of the Makah Tribal Council, jokes gruffly that Indians don't celebrate Thanksgiving. They clearly got the short end of the deal after helping the Pilgrims through those bad early years nearly 400 years ago.
But he was just kidding. There's a five-day weekend for tribal government, which employs more than 100 people in this remote community of 2,000. The tribe also provides every Makah household with a turkey, so nobody goes wanting. And more than one person - mostly those without households - pushed away from the table after a huge meal to say they were expected at yet another feast.
In addition to the ubiquitous television football that has become a Thanksgiving tradition everywhere, a pickup game of contact football at the local high school Wednesday drew a crowd on the field and off, with most spectators watching from cars and trucks as pounding rain added mud and puddles to the penalties of play.
Dinner here was like dinners across America - turkey with stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes and all the other traditional trimmings; pies of all kinds - pumpkin, apple, pecan, cranberry-apple, banana cream and more; and sweet concoctions like fruit salad drowned in whipped cream and tropical punches jazzed up with soft drinks and ice cream.
Families shared chores, hugs and conversation, watched eagles and herons and sea lions in the bay, and laughed about the weather. Thursday started with a rainbow that seemed to end at the tribe's mussel raft inside the breakwater, and then segued into a mishmash of sun breaks, rain and hail squalls and thunderstorms.
It was a good day to be indoors.
By early evening, the skies had half cleared and a half moon floated over the rain-washed streets, silent except for the lapping surf and the occasional sleepy carload of folks heading home.
After the weekend, the Makah are meeting with the council to consider their response to outsiders willing to compensate the tribe for not taking a gray whale.
"It's a really touchy thing we're talking about," Johnson said.
The Makahs' ancient whaling tradition is protected by their 1855 treaty, and treaty rights "are not for sale," he said.
But with 70 percent unemployment, "we need to talk to our people" about proposals - so far quite vague - to make it worth the tribe's while to hold whaling in abeyance for now.
Stormy weather likely will prevent any whaling this weekend, but Johnson said that "if it was flat calm," he'd advise waiting until after Monday's meeting.
"It's the future of the Makah tribe," he said.
"We have a lot of leverage right now."
Johnson refused to speculate on what the community might want to do.
"We'll have a better idea Monday," he said.
"If the majority want to whale, we go with it. We go with the majority."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 28 Nov, 1998
Makah Weigh Putting Off Whale Hunt For Economic Aid
The Makah Tribe will meet Monday to debate whether it should postpone its whale hunt in return for the promise of some badly needed economic aid.
Ben Johnson Jr., chair of the Makah Tribal Council, said the council needs to hear from tribal members on whether they should consider offers such as the one made Wednesday by a new anti-whaling group.
The offer, which appeared as an ad in a local newspaper, was made by People for Makah and Whales. It suggested that if the tribe postponed its hunt, it might receive aid for such projects as building a wind generation system in Neah Bay. Other offers have come in as well.
"We don't know which way our people want to go," Johnson said. "We need to find that answer
out."
The hunt was meant to reawaken a key part of the tribe's culture and history, as well as provide food. But Johnson noted that the reservation has a high unemployment rate and other serious economic needs, particularly a need for a larger medical clinic and one that could serve non-Indians as well as tribal members.
Johnson and council member Marcy Parker also expressed interest earlier this week in another People for
Makah and Whales suggestion, to buy back and return to the tribe land that the Makah had once owned.
Petroglyphs have been defaced on former Makah land that is now national forest land, Parker said, because there hasn't been money to station a forest ranger in the area.
The tribe would never give up its treaty right to whale, Johnson said, but it might consider an agreement to hold the right in abeyance for a time, much the way that the U.S. government pays farmers not to grow certain crops each year.
But if the majority of tribal members Monday want to go whaling rather than negotiate, the hunt will go as planned when the weather allows, Johnson said.
"It's hard to say what they'll say."
P-I reporter Rebekah Denn can be reached at 425-774-6625 or rebekahdenn@seattle-pi.com
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 29 Nov, 1998
Boaters urged to help protect Right Whales
By: Lawrence Dennis, Boating Editor, The Florida Times-Union
Boaters venturing offshore from Southeast Georgia and Northeast Florida are being warned and recruited to help preserve some of the largest living creatures remaining on Earth, the Northern Right Whales.
The mammoth mammals, at least the females, travel from their summer homes off the Canadian east coast to what's called the southeastern regional calving grounds each year.
The official season begins Tuesday and runs through March 31 in a area stretching from the Altamaha River north of Brunswick, Ga., to Sebastian Inlet, just south of Melbourne.
Marine biologists say the pregnant mother whales travel to these waters to have their calves and then nurture them before returning north.
Contrary to popular belief, it's now known that the whales often come to within a few hundred yards of shore.
"The Northern Right Whale stays near shore, so they're often seen right off the beach," said marine biologist Steve Schaeffer of the non-profit Marine Resources Center in Melbourne, which co-operates with the national Marine Fisheries Commission and marine interests in helping preserve the animals and educate the public on them.
As part of that effort, the MRC and St. Augustine Coast Guard Auxiliary Flotilla 14-7 will conduct a "Right Whale Watching Workshop" Dec. 9 at the St. Augustine Beach City Commissioners Auditorium near the St. Augustine Beach Pier on Florida A1A.
It will acquaint boaters, coastal residents and any others who are interested in the whales with their habits; to teach boaters how to navigate their craft if they spot one of the animals; and to enlist the public in the effort to plot whales' movements via a centralized network that helps alert mariners and avoid collisions at sea.
"The main thing we're concerned about is larger vessels, such as commercial shipping interests and
the military," Schaeffer said.
"There are only an estimated 300 Right Whales left, and the major known threat to them is collisions with large vessels."
That's where boaters and coastal residents come in.
The MRC collects sightings from the public and weaves them into a communications system that alerts commercial vessels and Navy ships at sea, port authorities and pilot associations to the presence and location of the whales.
"There were 131 sightings last year, and those involved an estimated 48 whales, five of which were calves," Schaeffer said.
"In 1996, there were 269 sightings involving 54 whales."
He said there was one death of a calf last year in the area, but that was determined to be a result of natural causes. It has been three years since a whale has been killed from a collision with a ship off Georgia or Florida.
The animals got their name from oldtime whalers, who considered them the "right" whales to hunt because of their high blubber content that caused them to float when killed.
For more information on the workshop, call Auxiliary Flotilla 14-7 at (904) 471-4851 or the MRC at (407) 504-4500 or (888) 979-4253.
Date: Sun, 29 Nov, 1998
Makah Whale Hunt Is All About Restoring Pride And Dignity
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
It occurs to me that such people as Paul Watson, Craig McCaw, Jean Michel Cousteau and all the others who are trying to dissuade the Makah from hunting whales just don't get it.
Yes, this is about culture, but more important, it is about survival with pride, honor, dignity and self-respect.
When you are born a part of the dominant culture, you do not see or feel the spirit of inferiority that pervades the conquered cultures. And because they do not aspire to the same goals or do not have the same aspirations for the accumulation of wealth that you do, it becomes easy to assume that they are not as worthy, i.e. lazy, dumb, unambitious, uneducated,
etc. How can they change that image?
It has to come from within and the first step to helping people help themselves is to restore their pride in
who they are.
The significance of whale hunting is so important a part of the Makah culture because they are whaling people who established their pride, their honor, their legends, their rituals and their survival around the hunts.
There has to be a better balance between the rights of men and women to survive with pride, dignity, honor and respect and the environmental concerns brought about by the very cultures that would now continue to believe that the spirit of inferiority and all the negative fallouts from such attitudes can be fixed by promising more material things. That's like saying I will give you more welfare so you can be proud again; the same formula was used 153 years ago.
As a Pacific American (native Hawaiian), I can point to the tremendous changes occurring among native
Hawaiians in the past 24 years since the double-hulled canoe Hokulca sailed from Hawaii to Tahiti, using only the ancient arts of navigation practiced by our ancestors more than a thousand years before Columbus discovered America. That single act restored the pride of Hawaiians and ushered in the cultural, political and business renaissance era of Hawaiians. The same can be done for the Makah.
Let them hunt whales, which they will do only when they are spiritually, mentally and physically in balance with themselves and with their environment. Alvin H. Pauole
Executive Director
Pacific American Foundation
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Sun, 29 Nov, 1998
'It's Our Right To Hunt The Whale'
Washington Indian Tribe's Plan Hits Sea Of Opposition
"Where did you go, you have been gone so long, did the whale pull you out to sea?" -- Makah love song
In the old days -- before the vigilante environmentalist and the litigious congressman and the phantom billionaires and the anti-tank weapon and the mini-submarine painted to look like an orca -- before all that, there were only the Makah, and the whales.
Things are more complicated now. But after 72 years of waiting, this struggling Indian tribe at the northwest tip of the Pacific Northwest wants to kill gray whales again.
Sometime in the next six months -- maybe tomorrow, maybe in April -- eight members of the Makah Nation
will climb into a 36-foot cedar dugout canoe. Accompanied by at least two backup powerboats and possibly a flotilla of protesters, they will paddle into an often unpacific Pacific Ocean and throw a harpoon into a creature that can reach 50 feet in length and weigh 35 tons.
At almost the same time the harpoon is thrown, a crew member armed with a retrofitted World War I .50-caliber anti-tank rifle will shoot the whale in the head. The weapon, designed by a Maryland veterinarian, is supposed to kill the animal almost instantly.
When the whale is dead, a crew member will dive into the water and sew the animal's mouth closed so it doesn't sink. The whale will then be towed to shore, butchered and distributed to the tribe's members.
That, at least, is the plan. The big remaining question is, Why?
"Why?" replied Makah whaling commission chairman Keith Johnson, rolling the question around on his tongue as if trying to decide whether to answer it or spit it out. "Why?"
"We are a whaling people, and always have been," he said during an interview in an abandoned
Air Force base building that serves as the tribal center. "We are physically grabbing our past. . . . I remember my grandfather telling me how he had stood on the tail of the whale that his father had hunted in 1907. My grandfather didn't go whaling, but he told his sons about it. My father never did, but now he is saying, 'Looks like I might be able to see it before I pass on.'
"After 70 years, this tribe has looked at the richness of its culture and its heritage and decided it must carry on, and reaffirm us as a people, as a whaling tribe. So why? Because it's who we are."
For hundreds of years, the Makah, which means "generous hosts," hunted gray whales and other marine mammals. In the 1880s and '90s, the tribe did a thriving business in selling seal pelts and whale oil. But commercial whalers eventually all but wiped out the gray whale, and the tribe had its last successful hunt in 1926.
Johnson points out that under an 1855 treaty with the U.S. government (which also required the Makah to end their practice of owning slaves), the tribe preserved its right to hunt whales, in return for giving up 700,000 acres of tribal land.
"Since they were going to give up the rights to all of this land," he said,
"they wanted to keep the sea, because that's where our riches come from . . . it's our right to hunt the whale."
Paul Watson demurs. Watson, who says a vision instructed him to dedicate his life to saving whales during a
1973 Lakota sweat lodge ceremony, is the founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Based in Venice, Calif., the private, non-profit group is considered to be on the hardened edge of the environmental movement.
"Unlike some other groups, our organization is not a protest organization," Watson said in a telephone interview from the 180-foot Sea Shepherd III, while it was anchored just outside the Makah marina. "What we do is intervene in illegal activities."
Led by Watson's group of eco-warriors, a pod of environmental organizations from around the world has been battling the Makah's whaling plans for the past five years. Along with the Sea Shepherd III, Watson's group has patrolled the waters off
the Makah reservation with a converted 95-foot Coast Guard cutter.
The group also has a 27-foot mini-submarine painted to look like an orca, or killer whale. The idea is that the sub will scare the gray whales away, since orcas sometimes hunt their cetaceous relatives.
"This is not 1855; people do not support the killing of whales," Watson said.
"The Makah hunt is not recognized by the International Whaling Commission and therefore is totally illegal, and we will do whatever we can to stop it."
The commission to which he refers was established in 1949 to try to get a handle on the rapacious whaling industry. When conservation methods failed, the IWC imposed a moratorium on all whale hunting in 1986. Exploiting a loophole that allows whaling for "scientific purposes," however, Japan and Norway have continued to whale. The commission also allows several
indigenous groups in the Caribbean, Alaska and Siberia to kill whales for subsistence purposes.
The Makah readily acknowledge they don't need gray whale meat to subsist. In fact, the meat of the gray whale, which was removed from the endangered species list in 1994, is said to taste pretty awful. But, they say, there are all kinds of subsistence.
"This is to feed our spirits," said tribal chairman Ben Johnson Jr.
The tribe's desire to hunt again is being backed by the U.S. government, which has spent more than $300,000 so far to help the Makah travel to various IWC meetings around the world and establish a whaling bureaucracy.
Last year, the Makah received a sort of vague permission from the IWC to hunt 20 gray whales over the next five years, as long as they don't attempt to sell any of their capture.
The most compelling argument against the Makah hunt may be that it will be used as an excuse by countries
itching to expand their whaling operations.
"The Japanese have already said, 'What's the difference between Makah cultural necessity and Japanese cultural necessity?' " Watson said. "This might be the means to overturn the global moratorium."
But other environmental groups say they have bigger fish to fry.
"We don't support killing of any whales," said Gerry Leap, a whale specialist for Greenpeace, "but contrary to some of our peers in the environmental community, who don't seem able for one reason or another to focus their attention on Japanese whalers in the Southern Ocean, or Norwegian whalers in the Atlantic, we don't oppose the subsistence whaling efforts, because it's the commercial whaling that is the real enemy. That's where we should be focusing our efforts."
Like politics, however, whaling makes for strange bedfellows. One of the Makah's most strident foes has been Republican U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf, who has often opposed the interests of environmental groups like Watson's.
"I guess you could say you normally wouldn't have a Republican being supported by Sea Shepherds," said Brad Marshall, an aide to the three-term congressman who represents much of the Puget Sound area north of Seattle, "but they came to us when they heard Jack was opposing the hunt."
Metcalf opposes it for several reasons, not the least of which are the fear that the hunt will scare away whales from the area and ruin his district's whale-watching industry, and the fact he doesn't care for the "preferential treatment Indians get from the federal government."
"He does have a problem with the tribe being given what appears to be preferential treatment in this
situation," Marshall said. "Nobody else would be able to hunt the whales."
Metcalf and the environmental groups have so far unsuccessfully pursued their cause in federal court, seeking a full environmental impact report and an injunction blocking the hunt until the report is done. A lawsuit to prevent the hunt was thrown out earlier this month, although the dismissal is being appealed.
Having failed with the stick approach, opponents are now trying the carrot. Two weeks ago, an aide to Seattle communications billionaire Craig McCaw helicoptered into the reservation to talk with tribal leaders about the hunt. McCaw helped finance the release of Keiko, the killer whale that starred in the "Free Willy" movie, and there was rampant speculation McCaw would offer the Makah big money to give up their whaling plans.
There has also been talk about Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates putting $350 million in a trust, from which the Makah could draw interest annually. And Wednesday, a shadowy group called "People for Makah and Whales" took out a full-page ad in the local newspaper. The ad promised to help the tribe with programs that range from a wind generation energy system to a documentary film, if they would give up the hunt.
There's no question the Makah could use some help. Decimated by an 1850s smallpox epidemic that killed 60 percent of the populace, the tribe of about 1,200 has tried and failed to find a stable economic base.
Located on a triangle of land flanked by the Pacific and the Strait of Juan de Fuca, most of the 44-square-mile reservation is the kind of breathtakingly beautiful forest that 164 inches of rain a year can produce. But its remoteness -- the last 60 miles of the only road into Neah Bay can take two hours to drive -- rules out any idea of building a casino.
Regional lumber mills are so overstocked they're not accepting any more timber. Fish prices are so low, the Makah say, it costs more in boat fuel to go out than they can catch in salmon or halibut. And, they say, a once-promising sea urchin
harvesting business was all but destroyed when sea otters were reintroduced into the area and gobbled up the product.
"We have close to 70 percent unemployment," said tribal chairman Ben Johnson Jr.
"Of course we would consider any reasonable, realistic proposal because we have to take care of our people. This is a hard place to live when you are not working. But all this talk so far is just smoke . . . we have yet to see real, solid money on the table."
Johnson acknowledged that even the vague offers present tribal leaders with a dilemma. Some Makah are opposed to the whale hunt and have pressured the council to use its current leverage to cut a deal with the environmental groups. But that would mean the tribe would have to backtrack on its insistence that the hunt is spiritually, and not economically, inspired.
The two sides met last Monday face to face for the first time in five years to try to ease tensions, and environmental leader Watson pulled his two big boats out of Makah waters. But the macaroni-and- cheese lunch at the local Coast Guard station resulted in no compromises.
Watson said the issue is moot anyway, since winter storms will keep the Makah from hunting until the whales begin their migration north from Baja California next spring.
"No whale is going to be killed this season," he said.
"They missed their window of opportunity. In the meantime there is a new tribal council coming in (an election is scheduled for Dec. 21), and they may be much more open to discussing this."
But tribal whaling chairman Keith Johnson said Watson is fooling himself.
"There is always a calm between storms," he said.
"The crew is training whenever they can, and they are ready. When it is time to go, we will go. We are going to go whaling, no matter what. Because that is who we are and what our people are."
"And in the end, all we are going to have is our people."
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Tue, 01 Dec, 1998
No Deal To Stop Hunt, Say Makah Aid Offer Rejected: `Rights Not For Sale'
By: Rebekah Denn; Seattle Post-Intelligencer Reporter
The Makah Tribe will not stop its planned gray whale hunt in return for a promise of economic aid, tribal leaders said last night.
"There will not be any deals that would stop us from whaling," said whaling commission president Keith Johnson after a three-hour closed meeting attended by about 200 tribal members.
Tribal members told the council that any discussion with outside groups offering deals would give the
false impression that they were willing to negotiate away their treaty right to hunt whales, he said.
The meeting was spurred in part by a full-page ad in the Peninsula Daily News last week placed by environmental advocate Ben White, organizer of a group called People for Makah and Whales.
White addressed the ad to "every Makah" and suggested that sparing the whale's life could provide for the tribe in a way that its death could not.
He said he was interested in exploring whatever projects the tribe would like to see in lieu of a whale hunt, with his group suggesting ideas such as a wind generation system for Neah Bay and buying back land that once belonged to the tribe.
White met with some members of the tribal council yesterday morning to discuss his offer, and said he was willing to return if the council wished.
But Johnson said after the meeting that "we will not be discussing anymore with Ben White."
Even earlier in the day, both sides had seemed doubtful that they could reach a middle ground.
White told the council that all offers from his side will be canceled once the tribe kills a whale. He had hoped that the council would hold off on a hunt until spring while it explored other options.
Killing even one whale will set a precedent, establishing a new category of whaling internationally, White said. His backers would not consider a deal where the tribe would hold its treaty right to kill other whales in abeyance after taking just one, he said.
Ben Johnson Jr., chairman of the tribal council, had called the community meeting, saying he wanted to hear from the people about what the council should do.
"People can change their minds overnight when you're talking dollars," he said before the meeting, and the council needed to know what the community wanted.
Marcy Parker, vice chairwoman of the tribal council, had said that all the money in the world wouldn't sway her from the hunt.
"Our treaty rights are not for sale, and my pride is not for sale," she said after the roughly hourlong meeting with White.
White said he wasn't trying to purchase or take away the treaty right, but wanted to offer options where the tribe might choose not to exercise its right.
White left Neah Bay shortly after the morning meeting, saying he would work toward a solution until
a whale is killed.
The Makah have been cleared to whale since Oct.1 but have not yet ventured out into the Pacific to intercept the gray-whale migration from Alaska to Mexico.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer Copyright 1998)
Date: Sat, 05 Dec, 1998
Embattled Makahs Put Identity First
The News Tribune, Tacoma, WA
It shouldn't be any surprise the Makah Tribe firmly said "no deal" this week to an offer of economic aid in return for suspending its planned whale hunt.
As tribal chairman Ben Johnson Jr. explained, "Money doesn't mean anything. It's culture."
To outsiders, the offer by a group called People for Makah and Whales may have seemed a reasonable way to end - at least for a while - the protracted dispute between the tribe and whaling foes. Even those sympathetic to the tribe's desire to restore its centuries-old tradition of whaling would have been glad for some compromise that would not only spare the whales but also help the tribe.
Although the Sea Shepherd and its sister ship have pulled out of Neah Bay and the anti-whaling protests have turned into perfunctory and routine Saturday afternoon performances, the tribe remains under considerable strain. Dangerous winter weather has set in, and the tribal whaling crew no longer is as finely honed as it was when it practiced last summer.
But even if its hunters never get near their quarry this year, the Makahs have made a point by refusing to even entertain a buyout. Although it is an impoverished, isolated tribe, more than anything else it treasures its identity as a people - and that identity is inextricably bound up with whaling.
As most Makahs see it, to trade their 140-year-old treaty right for cash or anything else would be to deny their heritage. That is a choice for the Makah to make, and it should be respected.
(Copyright 1998)
Date: Mon, 07 Dec, 1998
Inquest Hears About Whale Watch Boat Pontoons
Kaikoura, (NZPA) - Operators of a Kaikoura whale watching boat which capsized, drowning one person, today told a coroner's inquest they thought the boat could still operate if its pontoons went flat.
Dean Kennedy, skipper of Whale Watch Kaikoura boat Uruao, was giving evidence at an inquest into the death of a Taiwanese tourist after the boat capsized more than two years ago.
On March 2 1996, Taiwanese tourist Mai Huei Chen, 29, died and 26 other people were plunged into the sea after the Uruao capsized 5km from the shore near Kaikoura, 182km northeast of Christchurch, following the collapse of one its pontoons.
Whale Watch Kaikoura said it was not made aware by the manufacturer of the importance of the pontoons to the Uruao, which was larger than their other boats and had different design capabilities. Mr Kennedy said the company had operated smaller Naiad inflatable boats prior to purchasing the 12.6m Uruao and those were capable of operating with partially deflated pontoons.
Counsel for Whale Watch Kaikoura, John Upton, asked Mr Kennedy how his thinking was influenced by having witnessed some of the smaller boats coming home with partially deflated bags.
"We were under the impression that the Uruao would behave much the same and still maintain stability."
Mr Kennedy said that everyone in the company had the same understanding about the pontoons. They now knew that the boat was totally reliant on the pontoons for its stability.
He said the pontoons were thought to act as a soft side, doubling as fenders, as well as providing some buoyancy.
Earlier, Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigator Captain Timothy Burfoot criticised Whale Watch Kaikoura for not knowing enough about the vessel.
"In our report we point to the operators' responsibility for knowing the craft they are operating, that would include the stability characteristics of such a craft, the handling characteristics and so on -- it is their responsibility to ensure that the masters or skippers of such craft are also aware of those factors," Mr Burfoot said.
Mr Upton asked Capt Burfoot if the boat had a design flaw.
"If any of the pontoons are deflated, particularly those aft, then the stability is prejudiced ... doesn't that suggest that there is a design flaw so far as stability is concern -- if any one of those pontoons is out, the boat is at risk," Mr Upton said.
Capt Burfoot said he was not prepared to call it a design flaw. He said earlier the tear in one of the Uruao's pontoons had been present sometime before the accident, perhaps weeks.
A routine checking programme that Whale Watch carried out daily on all its vessels had failed to pick up the flaw.
Coroner David Crerar, from Rangiora in North Canterbury, heard from five of 18 witnesses on the first day of the inquest which is expected to last up to five days.
Date: Tue, 08 Dec, 1998
Greenpeace Ends Japanese Whaling Protest
Sydney, - Greenpeace ended a 28-hour protest which had prevented two Japanese whaling ships from leaving the South Pacific port of Noumea in New Caledonia. Shortly after 9am (11am NZT) the last of four activists who had chained themselves to the Kyo Maru No.1 and the whaling factory ship Nisshin Maru climbed down from their protest perches.
"Greenpeace has taken the decision to stand down," Greenpeace campaigner Peter Pueschel said in a statement from Noumea.
"We appreciate the French government is under pressure to remove us, but our argument is not with France. Our argument is with Japanese scientific whaling," Pueschel said.
Just before dawn on Monday the Greenpeace activists raided the ships, unfurled a "Stop Killing Whales" banner, and chained themselves to the anchor, harpoon and mooring lines. Greenpeace divers later chained the propeller of the factory ship.
Greenpeace had demanded that Japan call off its current whaling season, but on Tuesday the environmental group said it was happy to have delayed the whaling.
"The action to delay the fleet has been successful. Greenpeace has escalated the global debate on the sham of scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary," Pueschel said.
"Every hour that our activists remained chained to the Japanese catcher vessel and its harpoon was an hour that the harpoon would not kill whales in the Southern Ocean," he said.
Japan's whaling in the Southern Ocean was disrupted last month when fire extensively damaged the 7575-tonne factory ship Nisshin Maru, which is expected to return to Japan for repairs in December.
The vessel, mother ship for Japan's five vessel whaling fleet, was towed to New Caledonia for emergency repairs after catching fire on November 19 off the east coast of Australia.
The Japan Fisheries Agency has said the factory ship will resume whaling in January or February, but added it may be forced to scale down its "scientific research whaling".
Japan catches whales for research purposes in an Antarctic sanctuary set up in 1994 by the International Whaling Commission, to which Japan belongs. Last April, the fleet returned with 438 minke whales, representing an estimated 1700 tonnes of meat.
Greenpeace says it is not "scientific whaling" as meat from last year's expedition fetched some $US50 million ($NZ97 million) on the open market in Japan.
Date: Tue, 08 Dec, 1998
Whale Watch Defends Itself from Criticism
Kaikoura, (NZPA) - Whale Watch chief executive Wally Stone has defended his company after criticism of its boating knowledge at an inquest into the death of a tourist.
Kaikoura coroner David Crerar is holding an inquest into the death of Taiwanese woman Mai Huei Chen, 29, on March 2, 1996.
Ms Chen died and 26 other people were plunged into the sea after the Uruao capsized 5km from the shore near Kaikoura , on the northeast coast of the South Island, following the collapse of one its pontoons.
Transport Accident Investigation Commission investigator Captain Timothy Burfoot earlier told the inquest that any prudent mariner should have been aware of the importance of the pontoons on the 12.6m Naiad boat Uruao.
Mr Stone was today asked by the attorney for Whale Watch, John Upton, about his understanding of the significance of the pontoon. He said the boat's aluminium structure was no different to that of a normal dinghy, except that it had a pontoon system of "life jacket" arrangement which went around the entire boat.
"It ensured (Whale Watch) used a vessel capable of performing in adverse conditions, that had the ability to provide a comfortable ride," Mr Stone said.
"The airbags cushioning the ride of the boat on top of the surface giving added stability when everyone goes on to one side."
Mr Upton also asked Mr Stone what the company would have done if there was any doubt about the boat not being able to remain stable without its pontoons.
"We would have changed it immediately (the type of pontoon or boat) because you are talking about a small bit of tube."
"The chances of puncturing are extremely high. The reality is at some stage it will deflate and so if there was any question that the boat would not stay up without that pontoon we would have changed it immediately."
Mr Stone said the suggestion by Capt Burfoot that the company was not aware of the importance of the pontoons was "unbelievable".
"The reason I believe it was an unbelievable statement is that the boat, to get into operation, had to go through a number of experts."
"It continued to be serviced and surveyed by marine experts and thousands of people had been carried on the boat, including top marine people and engineers and so if that statement was true, how did it pass so many people?"
Date: Fri, 11 Dec, 1998
Clickometer to help save Porpoises
BRITISH MARINE biologists have invented a porpoise detector to track the movements of the UK's smallest marine mammals.
The ground-breaking underwater acoustic device, known as POD, sits on the seabed and picks up the clicks that porpoises and their dolphin cousins emit, as a form of sonar, to detect fish.
Scientists working with The Wildlife Trusts hope it will provide information about porpoises which is essential for the mammals' protection.
The harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena, is becoming a seriously threatened species around the coasts of Britain. Once a familiar sight, they have virtually vanished from the English Channel and the southern North Sea.
Accidental catches in commercial fishing gear are responsible for many deaths, with the Celtic Shelf hake fishery off southern Ireland alone thought to be responsible for killing 2,000 porpoises a year.
Accurate information about porpoise concentrations has so far been unavailable as they are difficult to observe. But the detector, the idea of Dr Nick Tregenza of the Cornwall Wildlife Trust, can pick up the activity of porpoises up to 500 metres away. It consists of a hydrophone attached to a small battery-powered computer inside a plastic block, which sits on the seabed for nearly four days at a time, at depths of up to 150m.
This week it was being used by the West Wales Wildlife Trust, which has a good concentration of porpoises in Cardigan Bay.
"We've already discovered that they hunt mainly at night," said Mick Baines, a marine biologist working with the trust.
"We need to understand the ecology of the porpoise so we can manage threats such as entanglements in fishing nets. If we can identify high-risk areas we can manage the fishery."
(Copyright1998 © Newspaper Publishing PLC)
Date: Fri, 11 Dec, 1998
Shell And WWF Save Whale From Extinction
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
Thanks to Shell New Zealand, New Zealand's rare Southern Right Whale has been saved from extinction, World Wide Fund Acting Chief Executive, Paul Bowe, said today.
Speaking at a Shell-sponsored public lecture in Wellington, Mr Bowe, said scientists who have recently returned from the sub- Antarctic Auckland Islands saw more whales on this trip than ever before - with up to 165 in a single day and probably 250 in total.
"Not only were the whales in abundance, we've managed to collect enough photos and genetic samples to determine the population's lineage. Our shore-based operations have allowed us to learn a great deal about the whales' behaviour."
Whale Researcher Nathalie Patenaude, who wintered over on the Islands for 10 weeks, said the expedition was incredibly successful and as a result, scientists should be able to determine the size of the Southern Right Whale population in a matter of months.
"We will also be able to match genetic samples against data from Southern Right Whales found in the waters of Africa, Argentina and Australia."
Ms Patenaude said very little was known about the Southern Right Whale population, which used to inhabit New Zealand waters in tens of thousands before extensive commercial whaling almost wiped out the species.
Recently, scientists have been concerned about the mysterious disease that killed over 60% of the New Zealand sea lion population on the Auckland Islands six months ago.
Somehow, the disease had no effect on the Southern Right Whales, Ms Patenaude said.
Ms Patenaude, who works from Auckland University, acknowledged the support of the Department of Conservation in organising the expeditions.
Shell New Zealand Managing Director John Fletcher said Shell was delighted that this winter's expedition had proven to be so invaluable, and it would continue to support the venture.
"It is difficult and expensive to monitor the progress of these huge mammals which appear only once a year in such a remote location, but Shell feels it is vital to ensure the survival of such a beautiful species."
Mr Fletcher said Shell was pleased that its support had enabled Ms Patenaude and her team to be able to spend the entire winter in the Auckland Islands for the first time.
Mr Bowe said the expedition's results were promising, and could be used by WWF-NZ to gain leverage in obtaining further protection for endangered species in Sub-Antarctic waters.
"The impact of continuing international whaling - some of it illegal - has been devastating, and it's time for us to put it right."
This year's expedition, supported financially by Shell New Zealand through the World Wide Fund for Nature New Zealand (WWF NZ), was the fourth annual scientific study of the Whales.
MEDIA STATEMENT FROM SHELL NEW ZEALAND
For further information, please contact: Antonius Papaspiropoulos
Corporate Communications Manager
Shell New Zealand
Tel: 0-4-498-0380 Mob: 021 459-868
Aimee Driscoll
Communications Advisor
Shell New Zealand
Tel: 04-498-0149 Mob: 021-422-570
RELEASED VIA MEDIACOM MD345-493/GLS/EML 11 DECEMBER 1998
Date: Sat, 12 Dec, 1998
New Makah Captain applies for fourth Whaling Permit
By: Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
Makah Whaling Captain To Pick Up Training Pace
NEAH BAY - The Makah Tribe's new whaling captain said Friday he will step up the pace of practice runs and other preparations for the tribe's first gray whale hunt in decades.
Wayne Johnson said his first official act was to apply for a 10-day whaling permit, the fourth issued by the tribe since it was cleared to whale Oct. 1.
"The canoe will be more active than it has been," said Johnson, 45, who plans practice paddles in Strait of Juan de Fuca and in the Pacific, just west of Neah Bay. The eight-man crew also will make practice approaches to grays in the strait, though the hunt-management plan worked out with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration restricts the hunt to ocean waters.
The crew is now better organized and fully equipped with wetsuits, two-way radios and other gear, Johnson said.
The Makah Whaling Commission chose Johnson over three other candidates for the unpaid post on a vote Thursday night. He succeeds Eric Johnson, a young father who resigned as captain due to family concerns.
After a morning news conference, Wayne Johnson asked his sister, Yvonne Burkett, if she would serve as his cook after the whale is taken. In that role, she would oversee the butchering of the huge mammal on one of the Makah beaches.
The Makahs have not set out to intercept the southbound gray whale migration since they've been cleared to whale, in part because the migration is later than usual this year.
Whaling-crew members will be working this weekend with weapons expert Dr. Allen Ingling of Lanham, Md., a University of Maryland veterinarian.
Ingling, who also has worked with Alaska's Inuit people on tools for their bowhead whale hunts, has brought modified bullets for two high-powered rifles the Makahs intend to use.
The tribe's whaling plan calls for a ceremonial harpoon strike from a 32-foot cedar canoe, followed by rifle fire from motorized chase boats.
The goal is a quick, humane kill, and Ingling is trying to ensure that. A clean shot just behind the blowhole should sever the spinal cord and kill the whale instantly, he says.
This weekend, the Makahs will test their .50-caliber rifle - a 30-pound, single-shot, shoulder-held version of an anti-tank weapon - and a bolt-action .577 rifle, characterized as an elephant gun, that can fire three rounds without reloading.
Ingling and the crew will test-fire new round-tipped bullets into a 20-foot-long water-filled tank to determine their accuracy.
They previously tried pointed bullets, which tended to tumble.
"A tumbling bullet loses energy immediately," Ingling said.
"It also does not follow a true path; it tends to follow the path of least resistance."
The new rounds, developed by Jim Schmidt of Arizona Ammunition in Phoenix, also pack more power than commercially available bullets, Ingling said.
Schmidt became interested in the Makah project and is not charging for his experimentation in developing the rounds, which will cost the Makahs $6 each, he said.
A-Square Co. of Kentucky, which custom-makes .577s, has offered to move the Makah project to the head of the line if the tribe needs an additional rifle.
Ingling is to present a paper on humane kills when the International Whaling Commission meets in the spring.
At its Thursday meeting, the whaling commission also decided to consider candidates for a new job with the responsibility of coordinating whaling operations among the crew, the commission and the tribal council.
The commission also plans to hire a community liaison - a sort of go-between to smooth communications with the community and interested outside parties, said Keith Johnson, president of the whaling commission, who groused that he got only one vote in the balloting for whaling captain.
Wayne, Eric and Keith Johnson are not directly related. Five families took the name Johnson in the 19th century when white administrators, who found the Makah language difficult, insisted tribal members adopt European names.
The Makahs are guaranteed the right to whale by their 1855 treaty. The hunts stopped in the 1920s after commercial whaling decimated global whale populations.
The tribe moved to resume the hunts after gray whales were removed from the Endangered Species List in 1994. The U.S. government supported the Makahs before the International Whaling Commission and has defended the hunt in court.
Anti-whaling groups fear the tribal hunt will lead to a renewal of commercial whaling. They also contend the hunt has not been sanctioned by the IWC. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit challenging the U.S. role in the hunt, and the plaintiffs have appealed the ruling to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
(Copyright © 1998)
Date: Sat, 19 Dec, 1998
Gray Whale Migration to Mexico Overdue
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) -- Missing: about 24,000 gray whales.
They were supposed to have shown up by now along the Oregon coast on their annual migration from the Bering Sea near Alaska to their calving lagoons on Mexico's Baja Peninsula, but as of this week not one has been sighted.
It is the latest date on record for the start of the migration.
"In the past, the whales have begun to show up around the first week of December, certainly by the 10th," said Bruce Mate, an Oregon State University professor and marine mammal specialist.
"We've never seen a migration this late."
For the first time since 1981, OSU researchers are planning to do an actual head count as the whales pass near the shore.
From a perch in the tower of the Yaquina Head lighthouse, OSU search assistant Amy Poff has been watching for them since late November.
Mate's team even flew up and down the coast in search of the whales, but found none.
He is getting calls from scientists in other Pacific states reporting the same thing.
Despite decades of studying the whales, Mates says he cannot explain the phenomenon.
"We had El Nino last year, but we don't know if that affected these animals," Mate said.
"They're bottom feeders and there could be some change in the quantity or quality of food they'd normally find in the summer months in the Bering Sea. We don't know."
The late migration could have consequences for pregnant whales, who normally reach the warm, calm Baja California lagoons in time to give birth there.
"We don't know whether the survival of calves is any different if they are born in the lagoons or in the open sea," Mates said.
"The data just isn't there."
Copyright 1998 Associated Press
Date: Sat, 19 Dec, 1998
Missing: about 24,000 gray whales
The Associated Press
NEWPORT, Ore. (AP) -- They were supposed to have shown up by now along the Oregon coast on their annual migration from the Bering Sea near Alaska to their calving lagoons on Mexico's Baja Peninsula, but as of this week not one has been sighted.
It is the latest date on record for the start of the migration.
"In the past, the whales have begun to show up around the first week of December, certainly by the 10th," said Bruce Mate, an Oregon State University professor and marine mammal specialist.
"We've never seen a migration this late."
For the first time since 1981, OSU researchers are planning to do an actual head count as the whales pass near the shore.
From a perch in the tower of the Yaquina Head lighthouse, OSU search assistant Amy Poff has been watching for them since late November.
Mate's team even flew up and down the coast in search of the whales, but found none.
He is getting calls from scientists in other Pacific states reporting the same thing.
Despite decades of studying the whales, Mates says he cannot explain the phenomenon.
"We had El Nino last year, but we don't know if that affected these animals," Mate said.
"They're bottom feeders and there could be some change in the quantity or quality of food they'd normally find in the summer months in the Bering Sea. We don't know."
The late migration could have consequences for pregnant whales, who normally reach the warm, calm Baja California lagoons in time to give birth there.
"We don't know whether the survival of calves is any different if they are born in the lagoons or in the open sea," Mates said.
"The data just isn't there."
Date: Tue, 22 Dec, 1998
Himalayan Whale Fossil Discovered
A Whale of a Discovery Himalayan Fossil Dates Whales Way Back
WASHINGTON (AP) - Paleontologists digging in the Himalayan foothills have found a fossilized jawbone and teeth that suggest whales originated 3.5 million years earlier than scientists had thought.
The new whale species, named Himalayecetus subathuensis, is about 53.5 million years old, scientists from the University of Roorkee in India and the University of Michigan reported Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
That makes Himalayecetus the oldest-known whale, 3.5 million years older than a species found in Pakistan that had been tagged the most ancient, the scientists reported.
The new fossils were found in a shallow, oyster-bearing marine deposit in the vicinity of the Tethys Sea, an early sea that once separated the Indian subcontinent from the rest of Asia.
Previous fossils have suggested that the first whales to evolve were amphibious, resting and reproducing on land and dipping into the Tethys Sea or freshwater rivers to feed on fish, the researchers wrote Monday.
The new species supports that theory, both because of the fossils' location and because the teeth contained heavy deposits of oxygen isotopes characteristic of land respiration and ingestion of marine water, they wrote.
Discovered by: Timothy Huang - Taipei, Taiwan - Republic of China
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.
Date: Tue, 27 Dec, 1998
Six Pilot Whales Beached On King Island In Bass Strait
Regular International
Melbourne, (AAP) - Six pilot whales had beached on King Island in Bass Strait, Tasmanian police said today.
A police officer and veterinary surgeon were on hand to assess their plight, Sergeant Geoff Fletcher said.
Director of Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Max Kitchell said a rescue bid may be mounted later in the day.
"We have greater success in getting pilot whales back out to sea than sperm whales," Mr Kitchell said.
Pilot whales were smaller, although they could still weigh up to seven tonnes, he said.
Date: Thu, 29 Dec, 1998
Makah Waiting to Begin the Hunt
By Peggy Andersen; The Associated Press
Waiting to Begin the Hunt
Whale-Hunting Skill for Makah: Patience
NEAH BAY, Wash., -- The Makah Indian tribe has waited more than 70 years to return to the Pacific to hunt gray whales. For some, the last three months have been among the longest.
No one here has ever hunted the whale. There is much to learn, and time has taken away the teachers. One lesson is clear already: Some things cannot be rushed.
Dozens of reporters stampeded here in late September, responding to a report that the tribe's first whale hunt in decades was under way. The hunts had stopped in the 1920s, when commercial whalers brought the world whale population to the brink of extinction.
But since Oct. 1, when the tribe was officially cleared to hunt, the Makah have yet to venture into the Pacific to search for a whale. Foul weather, inexperience, mechanical problems, disagreements over procedures all manner of obstacles have conspired to keep harpoon away from target.
Remembering Long-Ago Rituals
Most of the reporters are gone, along with protesters and their ships. The Makah, meanwhile, are still trying to recreate a store of lost knowledge.
Some Makah elders remember tasting whale meat as children. Some of the women were taught how to prepare the meat, how to render the oil. Some of the men know how to fashion whaling canoes from tall red cedar.
But so much time has passed, there is no one still alive who knows how to whale. And hunting the whale especially in small boats, especially in winter seas, especially gray whales is dangerous.
But if any people have whaling in their genes, it is the Makah.
"They are the ones who could find the way to resurrect it", said Ed Claplanhoo, a member of the Makah Whaling Commission and former tribal chairman.
Thunderbird Brought Whale to Makah
Whaling remains a vital part of tribal tradition. The story is still told of how the thunderbird brought the whale to the Makah one hungry year long ago. The image of the whale in the Makah colors of black and red decorate the school, local homes, costumes and baskets. Huge weathered whale skulls and bones adorn front yards in this community of 2,000 of them among the tribe enrolled members.
The pending hunt goes against tradition: a communal, tribal hunt, pooling the available knowledge.
A commission hunt, some say without enthusiasm.
Traditionally, whaling families mounted their own hunts, with their own secret preparations and sacred songs. Some aspects of this pooling business have not gone well, but lessons are learned, ruffled feelings smoothed the process continues.
Seventeen Men Wait for Hunt
At this point, there is a pool of 17 men to fill out the eight-man whaling crew. They've been chosen from the 23 families with a representative on the tribe's whaling commission.
There is one canoe - the 32-foot red-and-black Hummingbird and two motorized support boats. Another canoe is being built a longer, broader craft in the whaling tradition, its silky golden surface glimmering in the shadows.
When the hunt takes place, the plan is to follow a ceremonial harpoon strike from the canoe with high-powered rifle fire from the support boats, trying for a quick, humane kill.
"We need to get out there", says Wayne Johnson, the whaling captain chosen earlier this month. We need to get it done.
That would mean facing the open sea and the gray whale, a usually placid marine mammal up to 45 feet long.
Whales Taking Their Time
The southbound migration by 23,000 whales is late this year. Scientists believe warmer temperatures could be a factor.
The delay means the grays will come during the winter storm season, a dangerous time that can bring weeks of 25-foot swells and howling winds. The crew has most of the equipment it needs, including radios and wetsuits.
Claplanhoo believes the whaling crew should wait until the new canoe is ready, a date that has been postponed several times. Some now say January, some April.
The tribe is allotted a maximum of five whales a year, through, and some say that is designed to provide one whale to each of the old villages.
But at this point, all attention is on the first whale.
One Whale as a Symbol
I only need one, says Claplanhoo, who wonders if anyone has need for more in these modern times.
Meat can be had at Washburn's General Store, but most Makah supplement their diets with foods harvested from their rich land and sea - deer, elk, grouse, berries, roots, salmon, halibut, seal and shellfish.
For centuries, whale was a central part of Makah diet, as whaling was a central part of Makah life and culture.
Some of those who remember it miss it. Some who don’t remember it would like to know what they are missing. Many believe a return to traditional foods would restore health to a community where diabetes and other problems are linked to the modern American diet.
After the first hunt, then we'll see, said Marcy Parker, Makah tribal council vice chairman.
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press.
Date: Fri, 30 Dec, 1998
Hopes High Most Stranded Whales Will Be Saved
Wellington, [New Zealand] Dec 30 - Conditions overnight would be crucial for the survival of a pod of long-finned pilot whales which stranded on Farewell Spit today, the Department of Conservation said.
Twenty-eight whales stranded on the spit, at the top of the South Island's west coast, about midday today. Five of the whales had already died when rescuers reached them about 1.40pm.
However, around 55 volunteers and 10 Department of Conservation staff kept the other 23 whales alive, and by tonight's high tide had managed to shepherd them back into the ocean.
"We're confident we've been able to refloat the whales, but there's still a strong possibility that some or all of them will strand again overnight," DOC spokesman Peter Lawless told NZPA.
"They've moved about 800m off shore, and we've got four boats with them. However, they really have to be about 3-4km offshore before we can be confident that they'll be all right."
A plane would fly over Farewell Spit at first light to check if the whales had restranded, and plans were in place to mobilise volunteers if that were the case, Mr Lawless said.
One of the whale rescuers was Green Party co-leader Rod Donald, holidaying at nearby Pakawau, who volunteered to help "like any good conservationist would".
"I'm very impressed with the dedication of the DOC staff, who worked well beyond the call of duty to try and save the creatures," Mr Donald told NZPA.
"It's also an indication of how conservation-minded New Zealanders are, that they'll drop everything to help."
Date: Fri, 30 Dec, 1998
Lifeboat to Dolphin's Rescue
Whangarei, [New Zealand] -- A dolphin needed the services of a surf lifesaving club's inflatable boat yesterday when it stranded at the Waipu River mouth in Northland and had to be taken by boat out to sea.
Department of Conservation (DOC) officer Glen Coulston said the young 1.5-metre common dolphin had stranded on the incoming tide at the entrance of the river at about 6am. He said the dolphin's life had been saved by the quick-thinking of a passerby who rang DOC, as well as several members of the public.
DOC shorebird officer Jeannie Preddy was also at the scene and Mr Coulston said he gave instructions on the cellphone while making the trip from Sandy Bay to Waipu Cove, 50km south-east of Whangarei. He said the group held the dolphin in the water to help it regain its balance.
"When they've been lying on the beach for a couple of hours they tend to lose their sense of direction and swim in circles."
Mr Coulston said at about midday they ascertained the dolphin could swim straight and called the Waipu Cove Surf Lifesaving Club.
The club's inflatable rescue boat was used to take the dolphin over the two-metre swell out to sea.
"Being fairly weak there was no way it could swim out by itself."
Once they placed it in the sea the dolphin took about five minutes to reorient itself, then swam off.
Mr Coulston was happy with the result, as he said sometimes the department did not get reports of strandings until it was too late.
Date: Sat, 31 Dec, 1998
Pod Stuck on Farewell Spit, NZ
Nelson, NZ -- Department of Conservation staff at Farewell Spit today launched their second attempt within 12 hours to save 20 pilot whales beached since yesterday afternoon.
Last night's rescue attempt by DOC staff and 60 members of the public failed to encourage the whales into deeper water. The pod was spotted again at first light today, beached just 500m from its original position, 1km offshore on the east side of the spit, 8km from its base.
Twenty-eight whales beached themselves early yesterday afternoon. Five died almost immediately; another three were found dead this morning.
DOC's Golden Bay area manager Peter Lawless predicted last night that the rescued whales would probably beach themselves again. He said this morning the whales were dopey and disoriented and had barely moved from where they were refloated last night.
"They had not regained their sense of balance", he said.
Mr Lawless said rescuers would try walking the whales out on the outgoing tide and into deeper water today. He said more volunteers were not needed, as there were only 20 whales and enough people at the beach. The site is remote and can be reached only by four-wheel drive vehicles or boats.
DOC Nelson-Marlborough conservator Neil Clifton said the key would be whether the whales could stay upright and not drown. If the rescue failed a decision on shooting the whales would be made this afternoon.
It is likely the carcasses would be buried on the beach near the rescue scene, above the high tide mark.
Strandings of pilot whales have become almost an annual event in Golden Bay, with most occurring near Farewell Spit in the summer months.
The largest rescue in the bay was in 1991 when 325 pilot whales were rescued near the spit.
Large sperm whales have also stranded in the bay.
|
