ACS Conservation Committee Report

ACS Conservation Reports are selected summaries of current news articles on whales, dolphins, porpoises, and their environment. These reports are offered to you under the fair use provisions of U.S. copyright law.

  IWC approves bowhead quota for Alaska natives; US denies quid pro quo on Japanese coastal whaling...   The International Whaling Commission has agreed to extend U.S. and Russian quotas for bowhead whales, allowing Alaska Natives and the native people of Chukotka, Russia, to hunt 280 bowheads over the next five years. The action came Oct. 14 at a special meeting of the commission. The quota was the main reason for the Cambridge meeting after requests to continue subsistence whaling were rejected at the commission's annual meeting in Japan in May. The quota allows for an annual average harvest of 51 bowheads for the United States and five for Russia.

Japan led a push last May to ban the hunting of bowhead whales by Eskimo subsistence hunters. The decision, made at the commission's annual meeting, was widely seen as retribution for U.S. opposition to Japanese-led efforts to lift a 1986 ban on commercial whaling. It was the first time since the 1970s aboriginal hunting quotas had been denied. Chris Yates, spokesman for the U.S. delegation to the IWC, said his office has talked with delegates from every commission member country to gain their support. Monday's vote was unanimous. What changed, Yates said, was that the U.S. delegation for the first time softened its stance on Japan's request to resume minke whaling off its coast. For more than a decade, Japan has sought a quota for four traditional coastal whaling communities. The United States has been among the nations blocking it, and the proposal failed again Monday despite U.S. support.

Yates said the United States did not change its stance on commercial whaling so much as its stance on how Japan's proposed quota might be used. Before the U.S. delegation would support any new whaling venture, Japan will have to prove that the whales are being taken for subsistence purposes and not for commercial sale. In addition, he said, the commission's scientific committee will have to find the minke stocks off Japan's coast large enough to support a harvest. Currently the scientific committee has stated they do not have a reliable population count, therefore cannot state that harvest can be supported.     Associated Press

  Iceland joins IWC by voting for itself...   At a 'special meeting' of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) held in Cambridge on Monday 14 February, Iceland joined the Commission, but with a 'reservation' exempting it from the moratorium on commercial whaling.

Following a defeat at the hands of Japan of the USA and Russia's application for a bowhead quota - for their aboriginal whalers - at the 54th IWC meeting in May 2002, the USA called for a special meeting to be convened to reconsider the quota application. This meeting, with a single agenda item and scheduled to last only two hours, was held in Cambridge on Monday, 14 October.

Following its failed attempts at the last two annual meetings to join the Commission, Iceland predictably attended this meeting. Even before the agenda was adopted, Iceland claimed to be a member with full voting rights - having submitted a document of accession to the treaty that established the IWC just the previous week. The likelihood of concluding the meeting in two hours soon evaporated, with debate on Iceland's status raging until well into the afternoon when it finally claimed victory after a series of procedural votes and successful challenges to the Chairman's rulings.

Although the UK and other countries protested at a loophole that was created, Antigua and Barbuda proposed additional language that would effectively require hunters to increase their quota if the Scientific Committee advised that higher quotas could be sustainable. The US Inuit met this inference with a thumbs-up and the US Commissioner announced that he was happy to accept the amendments - despite the implications it has for the bowhead and other hunts.     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS)

  Norway increases whaling quota despite falling short again...   Norwegian authorities have set the minke whale quota for next year to 711 animals, even though whalers could not meet this year's quota of 671 and have fallen short of their quotas in three out of the last four years.

This summer, Norway's export of whale products resumed with one shipment of 8 tons of whale products to Iceland. A second shipment from Norway, containing 17 tons of blubber, arrived in Iceland last week.     High North Alliance, WDCS

  Norway kills 634 whales, admits to dumping majority of blubber...   Norway's whalers killed 634 whales out of a quota of 671 in 2002, the biggest catch since the nation resumed commercial whaling in 1993 under a legal objection lodged against the IWC's moratorium.

892 tons of minke whale meat will be sold onto the domestic market, but only 63 tons of blubber will be kept. There is no market for blubber in Norway and this year's haul will be added to a frozen stockpile in anticipation of export to Japan, or perhaps Iceland - to which exports resumed earlier this year.

Norway agreed last year to permit exports of whale meat to Japan, but concerns that Norwegian whale meat contains high levels of toxic industrial chemicals has prevented the exports from proceeding.

Reuters reports "about 200-300 tons of blubber is stacked away in freezers around Norway, waiting to be exported to Japan". Previous estimates placed the stockpile at 1000 tons, but much has apparently been burned, leaving only blubber less than two years old in storage.

Per Rolandsen from the fisheries interest group, Norsk Raafisklag confirms, "Most of the blubber is dumped in the sea off Norway". This violates Norway's commitments under the 1992 OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic, which prohibits the deliberate disposal of waste at sea.

The 634 whales caught this summer could have yielded as many as 1000 tons of blubber. If only 63 tons have been stored, many hundreds of tons may have been illegally dumped at sea in recent months.

The hunting season was originally scheduled from mid-May to end-August, but was extended until September 20 in the North Sea area, since the 34 whaling boats off Norway's coast had failed to fill their quota.     Reuters, WDCS

  Keiko finds new home in Norway...   After weeks of searching, supporters of Keiko found a winter home for him in October. The 6-ton orca showed up in Norway's Skaalvik fjord in early September after swimming 870 miles following his release from a netted bay off Iceland in July.

The Free Willy/Keiko Foundation and Norwegian authorities studied many sites before settling on Taknes Bay, to the delight of people in nearby Halsa, the main village on the fjord. Keiko will not be penned in. The bay has deep water, plenty of fish and there's a good chance Keiko will encounter wild killer whales there.

Upon his arrival in Norway, Keiko let fans swim with him, pet him, even climb on his back, until he was so overrun that Norwegian authorities imposed a ban on approaching the whale.

At least one aquarium, Miami Seaquarium, expressed an interest in capturing Keiko, but U.S. and Norwegian authorities rejected the request.

The foundation and other supporters continue to hope the whale may join orcas in the wild.     Associated Press

  Whales and dolphins under threat as CITES meetings begin...   The 12th meeting of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) takes place next week in Santiago, Chile and the world's whales and dolphins are under increased threat from Japan and others intent on down listing certain cetacean species to allow limited trade.

In a proposal put forward for the meeting, Japan will try once again to lift the ban on commercial trade in whale products, a proposal which would allow international sales of whale meat and blubber to resume. In contrast, Georgia is proposing a ban on international commercial trade in the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin, thus removing a serious threat to the continued survival of that population.

In spite of the continuing international ban on commercial whaling, Japan is proposing a partial "down listing" of two whale species: the Northern Hemisphere, minke whales and Western Pacific Bryde's whales, at this CITES meeting; hoping to gain resumption of international commercial trade in whale products. One of the worst of the proposals' many substantive flaws is that they clearly attempt to bypass the moratorium on commercial whaling implemented by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986. Japan is effectively proposing that any Party to CITES that is also a signatory to the International Whaling Commission's founding treaty can establish some token national enforcement measures (for which no standards are set) and start setting its own whaling and trade quotas. If the proposals are adopted, Parties could simply bypass the IWC and manage everything themselves. And they can do it after only three months time - despite the fact that commercial whaling remains banned by the IWC.     WDCS

  U.S. to oppose Japan on lifting whale-trade bans...   The United States will oppose Japan's call for lifting bans on the international trade of minke and Bryde's whales at a global wildlife conservation meeting in November in Chile, a U.S. official said recently.

The U.S. will support Mexico's position that the bans should not be lifted before the International Whaling Commission establishes a new system to assess whale stocks and is concerned that lifting the bans may allow poachers to sell whale meat on the market, the official said.

The Japanese Fisheries Agency announced in June that Japan will call for lifting international bans on commercial trading in minke whales caught in the Northern Hemisphere and Bryde's whales caught in the North Pacific at the November meeting of the signatory countries to the Washington Treaty. The agency said it does not consider minke and Bryde's whales to be endangered species and they therefore should be allowed to be commercially traded under certain conditions.

The Washington Treaty, formally known as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, is intended to ensure that international trade in wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.     WDCS

  Switzerland supports lifting of ban on whale meat trade...   The Swiss government recently stated they supported lifting the CITES ban on the whale meat trade. Swiss and International NGOs are requesting the Swiss delegation give their full support to ensuring that whales remain listed in Appendix I and are guaranteed maximum protection. Such a stance would also comply with the wishes of the Swiss Federal Council. When Switzerland became a member of the IWC, the Swiss Federal Council declared that Switzerland was adding its weight to the group of states that represented the interests of nature and environmental protection within the IWC, and not the commercial interests of the whaling nations.     ASMS

  European parliament supports continued CITES ban on international trade in whale products...   The European Parliament has adopted a groundbreaking resolution about international trade in endangered species that calls for the continued protection of whales from trade. The Parliament notes the damage caused to wild species by overexploitation through international trade and the role of CITES in controlling international commercial trade in endangered species. It draws attention to the worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling decreed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which is recognized by CITES as the authoritative body to regulate whaling and urges CITES Parties to oppose the transfer of Minke and Bryde's Whales from CITES Appendix I to Appendix II. Furthermore it notes that ACCOBAMS (the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area under the Convention on Migratory Species) has recommended that the Black Sea Bottlenose Dolphin should be listed on CITES Appendix I, and calls on Parties to CITES to support the transfer of the Black Sea Bottlenose Dolphin from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I.

The Resolution will now be forwarded by the EU President to the EU Council and Commission - the European bodies that decide the position of the European Union on proposals to CITES - and to the Parties to CITES, and the CITES Secretariat.     WDCS

  US federal court blocks Navy from deploying SURTASS Low Frequency Sonar...   A federal court granted a request by environmental groups to block the Navy from deploying a new high-intensity sonar system that scientists believe poses a threat to entire populations of whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals. In a 58-page decision granting a preliminary injunction, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth LaPorte found that the National Marine Fisheries Service issued the Navy a permit that likely violates a number of federal laws, including the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA), the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

Scheduled for immediate deployment, the sonar system, known as Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar (or "SURTASS LFA"), relies on extremely loud, low frequency sound to detect submarines at great distances. According to the Navy's own studies, the LFA system generates sounds capable of reaching 140 decibels more than 300 miles away. Scientists claim that, during testing off the California coast, noise from a single LFA system was detected across the breadth of the North Pacific Ocean.

"Today's decision is a crucial step to protect our oceans and, in particular, whales and other marine mammals that depend on hearing for their very survival," said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of the Marine Mammals Protection Project at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), the lead plaintiff in the case. "Deployment of LFA over 75 percent of the world's oceans - more than 14 million square miles in the first year alone - threatens marine life on a staggering and unprecedented geographic scale, not just the 'small number of marine mammals' that the law allows, but countless marine mammals around the world."

Over the last few years, scientists have been increasingly alarmed about undersea noise pollution from high-intensity sonar systems. There are two types of sonar: passive and active. Passive sonar listens for ambient noises in the water. Active sonar sends out a signal and waits for a response. Scientists are particularly concerned about active sonar, which has the potential to harm and even kill whales and other marine mammals.

The mass stranding of multiple whale species in the Bahamas in March 2000 and the simultaneous disappearance of the region's entire population of beaked whales intensified these concerns. A federal investigation identified testing of a U.S. Navy mid-frequency active sonar system as the cause. Just a few weeks ago, in late September, new mass strandings occurred in the Canary Islands as a result of military sonar, and in the Gulf of California as the likely result of an acoustic geophysical survey using extremely loud air guns.

"From a scientific point of view, there is very little question that, given the right set of circumstances, active sonar can kill marine life," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States, one of the co plaintiffs. "The frightening thing about LFA is that we're flying blind, because the Navy has never seriously applied the lessons from previous strandings to its LFA system."

In today's decision, Judge LaPorte found that the "plaintiffs have shown that they are likely to prevail on establishing violations of the MMPA, NEPA, the ESA and the APA. They have also shown the possibility, indeed probability, for irreparable injury, particularly under the liberal standard applicable under these statutes. It is undisputed that marine mammals, many of whom depend on sensitive hearing for essential activities like finding food and mates and avoiding predators, and some of whom are endangered species, will at a minimum be harassed by the extremely loud and far traveling LFA sonar."

"The court properly found that the decision to authorize and deploy the LFA system cannot be justified under federal law," said Andrew Sabey, a partner with the international firm of Morrison & Foerster, which is representing the plaintiffs NRDC, the Humane Society, the League for Coastal Protection, the Cetacean Society International, and the Ocean Futures Society and its president, Jean-Michel Cousteau. "The ocean is a precious resource shared by all the world's peoples," said Cousteau. "The LFA permit is nothing less than a license to kill, and we are enormously grateful to the court for protecting our children's heritage."     NRDC Press Release

  "Whale Radar" tested in Spain...   A possible life saving "whale radar" is being tested in a busy Spanish sea-lane. The Spanish sea-lane in question sees at least 10 whales each year killed by whale/ship collisions. It is hoped that this possible life-saving device, which uses sophisticated acoustic buoys, will spot whales and warn ship captains of their position.

The sea surrounding the Canary Islands, 100 kilometers off the northwest coast of Africa, is home to 27 species of whales and dolphins. This includes a resident population of 300 to 350 sperm whales. Although they can descend to depths of 3,000ft, like all whales they have to come to the surface to breathe - sometimes in the path of ships. On average more than 120 ships service the ports of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, and Santa Cruz, Tenerife, each day.

Dr Michel Andre spent 10 years developing the Whale Anti-Collision System (WACS). He plans to create a safety corridor for endangered sperm whales in waters between the Spanish islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

Post mortems conducted on two beached sperm whales killed in a 1996 collision revealed an inner ear problem, which stopped them hearing the low-frequency sounds of ships' engines. Dr Andre believes the animals are suffering irreversible hearing loss due to man-made marine noise. As a result, their echolocation systems were desensitized leaving them "blind" to approaching ships. Experiments suggest alarms or bleepers on ships designed to alert whales have been largely ineffective and may even damage whales' hearing even further. Therefore, instead of warning whales of ships in their vicinity, WACS alerts shipping to the presence of whales.     Orange Today

  NATO Exercise Blamed in Mass Whale Beaching...   Preliminary scientific tests on dead whales point to undersea noise from naval maneuvers by Spain and other NATO countries as the likely cause of the mass stranding of 15 whales in the Canary Islands, a scientist said in mid-October. The tests, commissioned by the regional government of Spain's Canary Islands, are strengthening suspicions that powerful sonar equipment used in these and other naval exercises may interfere with the sound waves emitted by the species known as the beaked whale, which they use to locate food. "This would be the seventh time there is a coincidence ... between NATO exercises and the stranding of beaked whales" since 1985, said Michel Andre, a veterinary scientist leading the tests.

Nine Cuvier's beaked whales were found dead on Sept. 24-25 after they washed up on the Canary Islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Six more beached whales were released back into the sea while another two were spotted floating lifeless off the coast.

At the same time, 10 NATO countries - Germany, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Britain, Turkey, and the United States - were conducting a multinational exercise known as Neo Tapon 2002. The maneuvers are meant to practice securing the strategic Strait of Gibraltar, 900 kilometers (550 miles) northeast of the islands, according to the Spanish Defense Ministry. Defense Minister Federico Trillo, responding to a question in the Senate from a Canary legislator, said the ministry was investigating the beachings. He added that there were no plans to suspend the annual exercise.

Andre, a veterinary researcher at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, stressed that the findings did not establish a direct relationship between sonar from the NATO vessels and the stranding. However, he added that after preliminary tests "the only cause which we cannot rule out ... is acoustic impact."

The researcher said autopsies on the dead whales found brain damage consistent with impacts from military sonar signals. The tests also demonstrated the whales were otherwise "healthy and in good shape" before their deaths. A second set of tests focusing on the inner ears, expected to take a few weeks, is expected to establish the cause of the beaching with greater certainty, he said.

The Cuvier's beaked whale is a toothed cetacean found around the world, usually in groups of up to 25 family members. Adults range from five to eight meters (17 to 26 feet) in length. Beachings of beaked whale groups coinciding with military exercises have previously occurred in the Bahamas, Greece, and one other time in the same Canary Islands, according to Andre.

After the story broke, more than 1,000 people demonstrated in front of a Spanish government building, demanding that the waters around the islands be declared a whale sanctuary off limits to military maneuvers, according to Spanish press reports. Richard Page of the environmental group Greenpeace said military exercises are just another environmental threat - along with oil drilling, shipping, and industrial pollution - that "are pushing animals out of their preferred feeding and breeding places."     Associated Press

  ocean map project halted over concern for whales...   A federal judge ordered the National Science Foundation in mid-October to stop firing sound blasts into the Gulf of California because it harms whales. Magistrate Judge James Larson sided with conservationists who said sound blasts used to map the ocean floor have disrupted marine life in the ocean between Baja California and mainland Mexico. Larson ordered such aspects of a $1.6 million research project undertaken by the foundation to end immediately.

The Center for Biological Diversity asked the court to stop the research, saying two dead whales found on the Mexican coast last month likely beached themselves because of noise from air guns aboard the government vessel.

Government lawyers argued environmentalists had proven no connection between the beached whales and noise from the air guns. James Coda, assistant U.S. attorney for Northern California, said the government may appeal.

The concern arose after American biologists on vacation found two beaked whales Sept. 25 on the shore of San Jose Island in the gulf, which separates Mexico's state of Baja California from the rest of the country.

"When we heard they were using high-intensity sounds offshore (for the mapping), I think all our heads clicked onto the possibility that this could have been caused by the research," the biologist, Jay Barlow, a National Marine Fisheries Service scientist in San Diego, said Tuesday. He said some scientists suspect intense underwater sounds such as a warship's sonar may confuse beaked whales, which emit sound waves to search for food.

The National Science Foundation owns the vessel from which the researchers are sending out the sound signals, and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University is operating the ship. Lamont-Doherty officials said they have taken additional steps to limit the impact of the work, including reducing the intensity of the sound signals, restricting the research area, limiting operations to daylight and enlisting Mexican researchers to monitor marine mammal activity. "It's not like we went into this with mindless unconcern about the safety of wildlife," Suplee said. "This was of paramount concern to the researchers even before the ship left. We respect marine mammals as much as anyone else."

The Center for Biological Diversity also questioned whether the project has the permits required by the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. The National Science Foundation said the researchers had the necessary permits.

"We asked them to suspend the research project until they have complied with all applicable law and demonstrated that the project poses no further risk to any of the marine life of the Gulf of California," said Brendan Cummings, an attorney for the center.

Mexican President Vicente Fox has declared all of his nation's waters a preserve for whales. Of the 81 known species of whales, 39 are found in Mexican waters, and some breed off the Baja California peninsula.     Monterey Herald

footnote: On October 28, a U.S. Federal judge agreed with environmentalists and ordered the National Science Foundation to stop using sound blasts to map the ocean floor because it is disrupting marine life in the ocean between Baja California and the mainland of Mexico. The U.S. attorney said the government may appeal.

  Japanese residents protest purchase of killer whales for aquarium...   Aichi Prefecture residents will filed a lawsuit with the Nagoya District Court in October seeking the suspension of the planned purchase of two killer whales by the Port of Nagoya Public Aquarium. According to the plaintiffs, members of Ombudsman Aichi, the Nagoya Port Authority, which operates the aquarium, has earmarked 350 million yen in the current fiscal year budget to purchase the killer whales, or orcas, from a Russian agent.     Kyodo News

  California Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary increased...   Fish and Game Commission late yesterday decided to boost protection for the waters of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary, off the Coast of Central California. This marks a tremendous victory for activists, and for the Channel Islands and their spectacular array of marine life, including rare birds, fish, whales, dolphins and seals.

The decision establishes a new network of fully protected marine reserves within the state waters of this Sanctuary. Extractive activities ranging from sport fishing to diving for sea urchins will be prohibited in a system of "no-take" zones (and carefully limited within one conservation area) that comprise the protected network. These badly needed protections will allow the diverse marine life of the Channel Islands to recover and flourish.

This important decision protects only the waters around the Channel Islands controlled by the State of California, but does not yet protect those surrounding waters controlled by the federal government.     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS)

  High concentrates of PCBs found in Monterey Bay Killer Whales...   A toxic chemical which may devastate the development of young whale calves has been found in high concentrations in the blubber of a Monterey Bay killer whale, according to researchers whose work will soon be featured in a National Geographic television special.

The whales, at the top of the local food chain, are seeing high levels of toxins accumulating in their fat. The toxins are passed on as they dine on sea lions, dolphins and even other species of whales that constitute their diet. The accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, has been well documented in whales whose habitats range from the Pacific Northwest to the Alaskan coast.

The transient orca population of Monterey Bay showed some of the highest levels of PCBs recorded, according to Nancy Black and Richard Ternullo, marine biologists with Monterey Bay Whale Watch.

They collected biopsy samples from 12 of the approximately 125 transient killer whales that migrate from Southern California to waters between Northern California and Washington. The sample contains a bit of skin for genetic analysis, and blubber, which is tested for organic pollutants.

"The general trend has been that the contaminant levels increase as you go south," said Gina Ylitalo, a research chemist with the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.

She found that transient male whales had four to 20 times greater levels of PCBs and DDT than transient whales in Alaska or British Colombia.     Monterey Herald

  Cipro found in dolphins off California...   Bacteria resistant to one of the most powerful antibiotics on the market has been found in the blowholes of dolphins swimming off the Southern California coast. Navy researchers are unsure how the bacteria, which is resistant to ciprofloxacin, commonly known as Cipro, found its way into the Pacific Ocean and whether runoff was the cause. The bacteria could simply occur naturally in the ocean, which has approximately 500 million bacteria in a single teaspoon.

Navy researchers presented their findings Friday at the 42nd annual Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, which is being held in San Diego.

The U.S. Navy runs a marine mammal study program off the San Diego coastline. From 1988 to 2001, researchers routinely swabbed the blowholes of its bottlenose dolphins with the intent of studying which germs affect them. Only recently did researchers decide to examine whether the germs where resistant to drugs. Although the bacterium was present, it was unlikely to affect the health of the dolphins, according to researchers.     Associated Press

  Inuit eat blubber despite Arctic pollution...   A report from a recent Conference on Arctic pollution has confirmed that levels of industrial toxins are mounting in Inuit diets, but indigenous people of the Arctic will continue to stick to their traditional of marine mammals despite the health implications. "We realize that the wildlife we very much rely on is being contaminated and affecting our bodies," said Duane Smith, president of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC) in Canada. "But at this time it is still more nutritious to eat them." The Inuit have hunted marine mammals for thousands of years but climate change and man-made toxins now threaten their health and livelihood.

Marine species like whales and seals are part of the 150,000-strong Inuit's diet and livelihood. The Inuit in Canada and Greenland have the world's highest exposure to several persistent organic pollutants (POPs) and mercury because of their high intake of fatty tissues such as the blubber of marine mammals.

New research has revealed that high intake of marine mammals leads to higher levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are mixtures of chemicals and potentially cancer causing. The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Program (AMAP), a unit of the inter-governmental Arctic Council, found the Inuit had a higher mortality rate from cancer than other indigenous populations scattered throughout the Arctic.

"It is alarming and our people are scared," said Smith of the ICC, which represents the Inuit across the Arctic region.

Governments in the Arctics pledged at the foreign ministers' conference in Saariselka, a town 160 miles north of the Arctic Circle, to lobby for the ban on or restriction of pollutants that travel to the sensitive region.

Scientists told governments they feared the mercury levels in some Arctic indigenous people were high enough to affect children's development, possibly through breast-feeding. "But the benefits outweigh the risks so breast feeding should continue," AMAP Chairman Helgi Jensson said.

Signs of climate change are increasingly apparent in the Arctic, which is already suffering from a thinning ozone layer.

The reduction of the permanent ice was also affecting food resources because it was harder to hunt and animals were changing behavior, particularly polar bears. Salmon were also appearing more in the Arctic, threatening other species.

"What we are facing is very serious," Canadian Foreign Minister Bill Graham told Reuters. "The Arctic is the dumping ground for the rest of the world...it is definitely having a serious effect on the food chain."     Reuters

  Mexico, fishermen fight over reserve...   Catches are good for the shrimp-laden boats plying the upper Gulf of California because they're fishing in a nationally protected marine reserve. The fishermen are fighting an effort to expand the protection in an area Jacques Cousteau called "the world's aquarium."

The battle has affected U.S. tourists, including hundreds who were prevented from returning to the United States when fishermen blocked a highway that connects Arizona with the sleepy Mexican port of Puerto Penasco, known among tourists as Rocky Point.

The fishermen formed human chains across the highway after Mexican President Vincente Fox sent in the Navy to oust shrimping vessels from the northernmost section of the Gulf of California.

Declared a national park and U.N. biosphere reserve nearly a decade ago, the million-acre reserve cuts a glistening blue swath through one of North America's driest deserts, separating Baja California from mainland Mexico.

It is a key breeding ground for the rest of the Gulf, also known as the Sea of Cortez. While better known as a wintering ground for whales, its most endangered resident is the vaquita, the world's smallest porpoise and a species on the brink of extinction. With less than 600 of the four-foot vaquitas remaining, "this is our last chance to save this species," said Mexico's Environment Secretary, Victor Lichtinger.

That's where the estimated 500 shrimp boats come in: Their huge trawler nets scrape the bottom of the Gulf clean of marine life, dredging up dozens of species on which vaquitas depend. They keep a few commercially valuable species and throw the rest away to die. Gill nets used by about 1,000 small-scale fishermen - who are still allowed in the reserve - kill between 30 to 80 vaquitas a year, environmentalists estimate. "Trawling the ocean floor has just completely destroyed this ecosystem," said Peggy Turk, director of the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans in Puerto Penasco, which sits just outside the reserve.

Like many of Mexico's national parks, the area - which makes up 6 percent of the Gulf - had little protection in practice, environmentalists say.

Fishermen say that new regulations, which limit the size of nets allowed in the reserve, threaten their livelihoods. Most sell the shrimp to U.S. companies.

While they lifted their one-day blockade when angry motorists began yelling at them, fishermen have threatened to force their way back into the reserve, currently guarded by the Mexican navy.

"They can't come in here and take away the work we've been doing for 50, 60, 70 years from one day to the next," said fisherman Alberto Rocha.

The government news agency Notimex reported late Tuesday that Jose Luis Luna, local representative for Lichtinger's office, had announced a compromise that would let some 130 local boats seek shrimp while avoiding the main vaquita breeding grounds.

Fishermen from outside the area would be banned and those allowed would have to use specially inspected low-impact nets to curtail damage to the ocean floor.

Environmentalists, however, said there still would be harm. "Our opinion is that they should respect all of the reserve, which will benefit fishermen in the future," said Olegario Morales of the Intercultural Center for the Study of Deserts and Oceans.

"Definitely, there will be an impact," he added. "As much as they want to diminish the activity, the impact is going to be real."     Whale News

  New Canadian National Parks increase marine protected areas...   Five marine conservation areas are included in the huge area of new national parks created in Canada. Prime Minister Jean Chretien recently announced a plan to increase the size of Canada's park system by almost 50%. The national government will work with the provinces, territories, aboriginal and rural communities, industry, environmental groups and others to complete the plan. Seven of the parks will be in British Columbia's Gulf Islands. Included in the marine conservation areas will be in Gwaii Haanas off British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands and in the southern Strait of Georgia, the home range of the resident killer whales.