Killing Whales, Why?

[chrissy]

Hi !

 

Been away for a bit. With the IWC meeting only weeks away

things seem to be hotting up. The "Whales Revenge" petition

seems to be gathering momentum, over 340.000 signatures and they are aiming for an ambitious 1 million !

 

See HERE

 

Chrissy

[chrissy]

The IWC is already underway with sub committee meetings the big event starts May 28th and the Meeting schedule is :

 

 

The Commission sub-groups will meet between Tuesday 22 and Thursday 24 May, with Friday 25 May being set aside for finalising reports. The following meetings will be held:

 

Working Group on Whale Killing Methods and Associated Welfare Issues;

Conservation Committee;

Infractions Sub-committee;

Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling Sub-committee;

Budgetary Sub-committee;

Finance and Administration Committee.

The Annual Commission Meeting will take place from Monday 28 to Thursday 31 May.

 

I always have a huge problem with "Whale Killing Methods" ( known in IWC diplospeak as WKM) being put in the same sentence as .."and Associated Welfare Issues". Someone who created this "topic" must have had a lurid sense of humour. After a whale has unwillingly participated in a lethal "scientific" experiment" what welfare issue remains??? Unless we have to consider the welfare issues for the consumers ( oops! "urban scientists")

considering the high levels of toxins in whale meat thanks to the continued fouling of the oceans.

 

Not being one to look at only one side of an issue there is an interesting article from the Beeb as to the fact that many anti whaling nations could do a lot more to save whales whale saving begins at home

 

And then the South Korean "over quota " of accidental catches ( for the

Japanese market??) See HERE

 

GREENPEACE HAVE JUST LAUNCHED A CYBER ACTION TO ENCOURAGE FOREIGN MINISTERS AT THE IWC TO VOTE AS THEIR ELECTORATE WISH AT THE IWC Please join in ACTION

 

 

 

Chrissy

[Michaelangelica]

Towns fight Japan's whalers

 

By Samantha Williams

 

May 26, 2007 12:00

Article from: The Daily Telegraph

 

NSW councils are stepping up the fight to save humpback whales under threat from the Japanese whalers that are due in southern seas later this year.

Thirteen communities from Byron Bay to Eden have laid their claim to the whales by adopting them in a "save a whale" campaign.

 

The campaign is part of the Humpback Whale Migration Icon Project to raise awareness of the threats facing the whale population after Japan last year announced it would expand its "scientific" whaling program to include the vulnerable species.

 

There are 50 whales in the program identified by markings on their body or flukes.

 

Wally Franklin from The Oceania Project, one of the groups co-ordinating adoptions, said the Japanese planned to kill 50 humpback whales this year as part of their "so-called science" experiment.

 

"Most of the whales they intend to harpoon are Australian born and they deserve to be looked after by us," Mr Franklin said.

 

"Some of them we have been watching for more than 13 years and from December on we may never get to see them."

 

He said the humpback population which migrated along the east coast of Australia was growing at a rate of about 10 per cent a year but needed time to recover.

 

About 9000 were expected to be seen this year, he said.

 

The Humpback Whale Migration Icon Project is a collaboration of Surfer for Cetaceans, The Oceania Project and International Fund for Animal Welfare. The Oceania Project - Caring for Whales, Dolphins and the Oceans

 

 

Whales

That's an interesting tale ... NSW councils are adopting whales in a campaign against Japanese whaling. / The Daily Telegraph

Also in NSW/ACT

 

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Towns fight Japan's whalers | The Daily Telegraph

 

Australia May Get Tough with Pirate Whal... - Care2 News Network

 

Sea Shepherd - Australia May Get Tough with Pirate Whalers

Australia May Get Tough with Pirate Whalers

 

All it will take is a vote to save the whales in the Southern Oceans.

 

If a Labour government is elected under the leadership of Kevin Rudd, Japan may find itself driven out of a large area of Antarctica where for 20 years they have been illegally slaughtering whales with impunity.

[Michaelangelica]

]US, Japan seek support for whale hunting by indigenous groups[/b]

 

by P. Parameswaran Sun May 27, 6:22 AM ET

 

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AFP) - The United States and Japan may be on opposite sides of the whaling debate but they have a common aim -- gaining support for whale hunting by their indigenous and coastal communities.

 

Ahead of annual talks of the

International Whaling Commission (IWC) starting in Anchorage this week, the United States, a strong opponent of commercial whaling, is nevertheless wooing members of the polarized 75-nation body to maintain bowhead whale hunting quotas for native Alaskan communities.

US, Japan seek support for whale hunting by indigenous groups - Yahoo! News

They won't give up will they!

[chrissy]

Hi

 

Thanks for those posts Michaelangelica. Have been out today joining in the Big Blue March for the whales ( took my dogs with me..they're small, fluffy and white ..and from animal rescue and "doped "them harpie seals for today..they've got the same big brown eyes).

 

Here's the latest ( continually updating vote prognosis at the IWC)

HERE

 

Chrissy

[Michaelangelica]

Hi

 

Here's the latest ( continually updating vote prognosis at the IWC)

HERE

 

Chrissy

Not much in it is there A knife edge.

Monaco gets a vote?

Some of the other countries on the anti list I have never heard of

You might like this article from care too

Whales injected with antibiotics

“There they are! I saw it! Oh my God, I see it! Gorgeous!,” said Stephanie Walter, 59, a schoolteacher from Davis who was peering at the whales through binoculars and standing with her husband, Denny, 59, along the shore.

 

She handed the binoculars to her husband. “Did you see? Just be patient and you will,” she told him.

 

By mid-afternoon, however, the whales had traveled 3Â 1/2 miles north of the bridge.

 

“That’s weird, ‘cuz they turned around!” said Kyle Alarcon, 9, or Oroville (Butte County), who said he was excited to see the whales because he had thought up some names for them, including “Runaway,” “Nemo,” “Squishy” and “Mickey.”

 

His mom, Marlene Alarcon, 40, told him “Once they get into deeper waters, it’ll be great.”

 

Walter has always read to her students the story of Humphrey the humpback whale — who got lost in Bay Area waters for 26 days in 1985 and became a media sensation. “Now I guess we have the wayward whale, version 2,” she said, laughing.

Gaets.com » Whales injected with antibiotics

One group trying to protect , care and medicate- another to kill

This on the IWC meeting from the BBC

Since the commercial whaling moratorium went into effect in 1986, more than 29,000 whales have been killed under objection and special permit whaling.

 

The Japanese government issues special permits, as it is able to do under the whaling convention, allowing hunting for scientific research; Norway and Iceland use an International Whaling Commission (IWC) regulation allowing exemptions from the moratorium.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Moving the whaling debate forward

Our Oz whale whatchin season has just started First whale sited Souther Oz 4 days ago

First whales of the season sighted in Warrnambool

 

Last Update: Thursday, May 24, 2007. 4:20pm AEST

 

By Kirsty Bradmore and Jarrod Watt

 

It's a winter tradition in Warrnambool: who will be the first to spot the southern right whales as they swim up from the chill of the Southern Ocean to the relatively balmy waters of the Great Australian Bight? This year bragging rights belong to Mandy Watson and her crew, who are monitoring Logan's Beach, the traditional nursery for southern right whales after they give birth.

 

"We've had a couple of sightings. We've had confirmed sightings of whales at Logan's Beach this week

First whales of the season sighted in Warrnambool. 24 May 2007. ABC South West Vic. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

This is interesting too (from care news)

Beluga Whales need help to survive - Care2 News Network

The number of Cook Inlet beluga whales has plummeted nearly 60 percent in the past 15 years. Currently, only about 300 of the white whales are still alive. They are the unfortunate victims of human interference through hunting, industrial pollution, boat traffic, and the simple over-development of their habitat.

(I have attached some photos of them)

https://secure2.convio.net/toc/site/Advocacy?JServSessionIdr009=okoj2rfsa2.app7b&id=353

Beluga whales in West Greenland waters are too few in number to continue with present harvesting levels, according to a newly published assessment by the North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO). Present harvests are several times the sustainable yield, and, if continued, will likely lead to extinction of these white whales "within 20 years," warns a scientific committee of the commission.

(A 2002 report; Does no-one listen?)

West Greenland Beluga Whales at Risk of Extinction

Sign the petition HERE:-

Take Action: Tell the Bush Administration to Protect the Last 300 Beluga Whales in Alaska's Cook Inlet!

 

Today is crunch time 28/05/07 IWC meets in Alaska

I wonder how many little, Pacific-Ocean-islands & land-locked countries Japan has bribed this year?

The "scientific" whaling of Japan is a lie; we all know that.

Australian scientists have shown this. They have also shown you can research whales without killing them.

How can Japan etc continue to be so barefaced about it and continue to dissemble in spite of world condemnation is beyond me.

Why do they do it?

Australia has gunboats protecting sharks and fish from Indonesian poachers; so why not more gunboats in the S. Ocean, as Australian opposition leader Kevin Rudd, has suggested?

How can Japan hunt in Antarctic waters?

I thought Antarctica was held in trust by us all.

Some UN gunships needed?

 

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that three Australian girls "have raised $12,000 through donations, auctions and car washes to make the trip, and gathered 40,000 signatures under the name 'Teens Against Whaling.' Whale-watching towns...many of which have now 'adopted' individual humpback whales, are wondering which of their mascots will end up as sushi."

Oi Oi Oi !

 

An interesting article about the science of whales. what we don't know and their possible role in the ecosystem

Greater Paramus News and Lifestyle Magazine - Disappearance of great whales would create a huge ecological void

 

When a whale dies and sinks to the bottom of the ocean (which most do), it becomes a rare and extraordinary feast for sea-floor inhabitants. Nutrients in the deep ocean are scarce. A fresh, dead whale is a food parcel without parallel: Many tons of protein-and fat-rich tissue and bone, all in one gigantic helping.

 

"Whale falls are similar to the collapse of a big tree in the forest versus a fallen twig," said Craig Smith, a professor of oceanography at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. "A fresh detrital whale has emergent properties related to size and quality. It is so large and so energy-dense that it creates special circumstances that persist over a long period."

 

THE Australian Government can stop Japan killing any more whales in the Southern Ocean by taking legal action, according to an independent panel of Australia?s leading international law experts, commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare. . .

. . ,.

The panel concluded that Japan�s rapidly expanding �scientific� whaling program breaches the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Antarctic Treaty System and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) and the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling.

Australia can stop Japan whaling

[chrissy]

As the IWC cranks into action in Anchorage, Greenpeace have made a concise opeining statement which adresses not only the activities of the whaling nations and their supporters but all other threats to the continued survival of the great cetaceans see HERE

 

It all comes down to the vote split in the end.....................

Which at last count looked like THIS scroll down to see individual

country "loyalties"

Chrissy

[chrissy]

A fellow CPDN cruncher posted this yesterday which is good news if

you're anti whaling

quote

wanted to be the first to share with you some fantastic news. Japan’s fourth largest fisheries company, Kyokuyo, has pledged to stop its sale of whale meat in Japan. Its decision follows a campaign led by Humane Society International (HSI), the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

 

In April, the coalition of environmental and animal welfare groups called on American company True World Foods, which partnered with Kyokuyo to distribute sushi in the United States, to persuade Kyokuyo to stop selling whale products. According to Kyokuyo, it has ceased production of whale products and is in the process of selling off its remaining stockpile.

 

unquote

 

And as the IWC is more or less finishing and has been bogged down

more on commercial whaling than all the other issues ( such as bycatch

and the nearing extinction of certain whlae species at least Japan didn't

get their coastal whaling bid approved.Yippee!

Here's a link

to the Greenpeace team blog in Anchorage .There are lots of reports which give not only reports of what happened but the "feel" of the meeting from day one onwards. You need to scroll left and right at the top to find the different articles.

 

Just before the IWC I sent an email to the Min of Fisheries in Antgua & Barbuda ( also to some other Japanese paid "buddies") this was the most memorable response, basically whaling is going to end poverty..(my original email is at the end:

QUOTE

Dear Christine:

 

Thank you for your letter of concern. I appreciate the concerns which you have articulated but urge you to appreciate that in life, seldom are issues either "black" or "white" or "right" or "wrong". To assist you in appreciating better Antigua & Barbuda's position, I offer the following.

Antigua and Barbuda supports the principles of the sustainable use of all living marine resources and the proper management of ocean and land based resources through the best scientific information available which naturally will guide policy decisions.

From available information and factual data, and contrary to popular propaganda, it is the "developed" nations which contributed to the decline in certain whale stocks through their insatiable quest for blubber to drive the industrial period and their scant disregard for the impact that their indiscriminate actions would have had in the long run on this marine resource. Those countries which subscribe to the aforementioned principle should not be held accountable through any slight of hand vis-a-vis these issues.

 

It is always advisable to evaluate objectively all sides of an issue.

Further,in the current climate of globalization and its attendant adverse impact on developing nations, food security and poverty reduction are real issues with which governments have to contend. Hence, the importance of fisheries generally to the sustainable development of livelihoods and its increased contribution to GDP cannot and ought not be underscored.Respect for cultural diversity and practices are equally important issues which are at the top of the agenda.

 

If we continue to fuel the unfortunate polarization which has crippled the advancement of the IWC, then the poor will continue to get poorer and the rich will continue to laugh all the way to off-shore and on-shore banks as they creatively manipulate special interest lobby groups to advance their slippery agenda.

 

 

Sincerely.

Sen. Massiah

Minister - Marine Resources

 

 

Christine Wolff writes:

 

> Many of your countries are famous for their beautiful scenery and in

> many cases opportunities for whale

>

> and dolphin watching. Please this IWC vote to protect our worlds'

> whales and not continue Japanese, Icelandic

>

> and Norwegian butchery in the so called name of "science". Please

> don't put the blood of all our whales on your hands.

>

>

>

> Thank you

>

> Christine Wolff

>

> The Netherlands

>

 

 

unquote

 

Chrissy

[Michaelangelica]

This is a creative protest.

Artist collects 30,000 origami whales for exhibit

Associated Press

Article Last Updated: 06/01/2007 12:55:28 PM AKDT

 

Besides the International Whaling Conference, Anchorage this week hosted an exhibit of paper whales. California artist Peggy Oki displayed a curtain of 30,000 origami whales in an exhibit in the lobby of the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.

 

The exhibit was five feet high and 400 feet long. Oki used the occasion of the International Whaling Commission meeting to display her work. She says the 30,000 number reflects the whales killed since a 1986, moratorium on commercial whaling went into effect.

KTVA - Artist collects 30,000 origami whales for exhibit

 

I get an email from Japanese Times (online).

Rarely, if ever, are whales mentioned.

[Michaelangelica]

From the Japanese Times I had to go searching

whale meat is full of mercury ttoo!

 

That victory will be short lived. Six new anti-whaling nations have since signed up, while Japan has reportedly managed to recruit just one: Laos. The word on Monday was that several poorer pro-whaling nations had failed to appear.

 

Delegates in the past have, according to conservationists, been known to arrive at the last minute clutching the $ 10,000 IWC membership fee in cash, paid for by Japan.

 

"We'll be keeping an eye on the corridors for people carrying brown envelopes," said Leah Garces of the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

 

Whoever turns up, a return to commercial whaling, which needs a 75 percent IWC majority, is as far away as ever, thus much of the focus this year is on whether frustrated Japan Fisheries Agency bureaucrats will harpoon one of the conference's key votes: the aboriginal whaling quota.

 

Alaskan aborigines, for example, are allowed to kill about 50 bowhead whales for "non-commercial" purposes. Japan may use that as leverage to secure rights for its own "traditional" coastal whaling, or attempt to trade off numbers from its annual "scientific program" in return for a coastal quota.

 

In the meantime, the trigger fingers of Japan's whaling fleet are again growing itchy. Whatever happens in Anchorage, they will be out this year to hunt 50 humpbacks and 50 fin whales, along with almost 1,000 minke, Bryde's, sei and sperm whales.

 

The humpback is classed by most environmentalists as one of the planet's more imperiled species — but not by Japan.

 

"We don't see it as endangered," said Joji Morishita, Tokyo's alternate IWC commissioner.

Uniformly standard suits

 

Morishita spends much of his time here surrounded by a buzzing hive of Western reporters, patiently explaining in flawless English that Japan is not the Darth Vader of the marine world. "It is not true that we want free, uncontrolled whaling," he said last weekend. "We would like to have managed, controlled whaling, with quotas and enforcement."

 

"Whales eat a lot of fish," argues Yasukazu Hamada, a lawmaker in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party who is one of the country's leading whaling lobbyists. "We have to return balance to the oceans by cutting down their numbers."

 

Hamada and others of a like mind believe that Japan has compromised by staying in the International Whaling Commission and by adhering -- at least officially -- to its 1986 commercial whaling moratorium, while spending billions of yen a year collecting scientific data on the oceans.

Thanks in part to this, whales are now among the most researched animals in the world, which ironically makes it easier for prowhalers to argue that hunting can restart with minimal risk to stocks. And some conservationists support them.

 

"It is quite clear that there is minimal risk to whale stocks from hunting," says Tetsu Sato, professor of ecology and environmental sciences at Nagano University.

 

"We have a method and a system to sustainably manage wildlife and resources -- so why don't we try it?"

Siege mentality fuels 'sustainability' claims | The Japan Times Online

 

Japanese people eat a lot of fish.

So . . .?

 

Eminent Australian scientists took two days to dismiss 90% of Japaneses whale research as useless; & dismissed 99% ,that could not be found out by non-lethal methods

[Michaelangelica]

Opinion

Time to end loophole 'scientific' whaling

31 July 2007

by Donald R. Rothwell

Cosmos Online

Time to end loophole 'scientific' whaling

Legal loophole: Japan has added humpbacks to it's annual quota for the first time. The taking of these whales is bound to provoke an angry response from many Australians who take great joy from seeing them return each year to local waters.

Sign up to the Cosmos weekly newsletter

Advertisement

 

Related articles

 

* Japan defiant over humpback hunt

* South Atlantic whale sanctuary bid foiled

* Iceland resumes commercial whaling

 

 

The International Whaling Commission has become increasingly dysfunctional. Australia and New Zealand should now use international law to prosecute Japan for 'scientific whaling'.

 

The next few months may prove to be pivotal in breaking the continuing impasse which exists over Japan's 'scientific whaling' program. Long the subject of international controversy, and recently the focus of immense public interest during the Australian summer when Japanese whalers are in the Southern Ocean, both the international and national debate has reached the stage where it appears something has got to give.

 

The controversy over Japan's scientific whaling program has its foundation in. . .

. . .

In the coming 2007/08 season, Japan proposes to take up to 935 minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales. In sum, this will be more than double the total number of whales Japan has previously taken on its annual whaling voyages to the Southern Ocean.

Time to end loophole 'scientific' whaling | COSMOS magazine

[freeztar]

Iceland has decided to stop it's commercial whaling due to low demand.

More here:

Iceland stops whale-hunting quotas after low demand | Science | Reuters

[chrissy]

Hi Guys ,

Long time no post. but I only post when I feel fit!!!

 

Such good news Iceland calls a halt!

here and

here

 

But it's not a stop ...... they are waiting for the whale meat market to improve:( ...so the fight is not over yet!!!!!!!!

 

Chrissy

 

"No...no... keep fighting for us please:) ....."

[freeztar]

More news:

Local News | Gray whale shot, killed in rogue tribal hunt | Seattle Times Newspaper

 

It's kind of crazy that nations get away with much worse than this without even a slap on the wrist.

[chrissy]

I always have a problem with the indigenous whaling issue. It seems to be "romantically" presented as little guys in canoes with their simple harpoons going out to fight "the big guy" to bring home a meal for the village. This is quite frankly just not on these days. It's usually engine powered boats, automatic harpoons and the village is not even close to hunger let alone starvation. So guys leave our whales alone!!!

 

Anybody who has read my posts will know of my disgust not only for the Japanes ILLEGAL whale hunt in sanctuary areas ( and anywhere else for that matter)but also the cruel dolphin drives involving live flensing of "flipper".

 

That the Japanese again flout their "scientific" quotas , again with endangerd fin and now humpbacks included plus they have the audacity to tell the australians NOT TO GET "EMOTIONAL beggers belief. The Humand Society was I thought preparing a legal case against Japanese "scientific" whaling but I don't know if this is going to go anywhere. Anybody else have any info?

 

The cetaceans have it hard enough with ocean fouling, contamination , decreasing fish and krill stocks so I will work my fingers and voice to the bone

to try and get Japan to BACK OFF!!! IWC in Chile next year ( not that I have great faith in the IWC but we're stuck with it for the time being). Previous posts were I think correct in that Australia & NZ should go tougher on the Japanese daring to whale in a sanctuary on their doorstep.

 

Chrissy

whaling in a sanctuary????"

[chrissy]

On the subject of gray whales seems there are many less than was previously thought

 

and not a cetacean but even the hammerhead shark is facing extinction, another nice Asian practice ( China more than any other) SHARK FINNING !!=they drown - another activity high on my "hit list" , read this and see who else is on the list...sadly

 

Chrissy

[Hill]

read this and see who else is on the list...sadly

 

Chrissy

 

There is more here on the extinction of the Yangtze River Dolphin, or baiji.

ScienceDaily: Rare Dolphin Driven To Extinction By Human Activities, Scientists Fear

The fact that one has supposedly been sighted recently probably only delays the inevitable. There is no captive population.

 

Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer, Hubei Province, China). This photo is of Qiqi, the only captive Yang tze River dolphin, also called Baiji, which died in the Centre in July 2002. (Credit: Courtesy of the Research Centre for Aquatic Biodiversity and Resource Conservation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Copyright Chinese Academy of Science)