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.

  The next Japanese whale kill...   Japan is launching a five-month expedition to kill about 400 whales in Antarctic waters, an announcement likely to draw fire from nations opposed to whale hunting, including the United States.

The agency said the hunt is part of its research into minke whale migration patterns, population trends and diet. The data will be compiled in a final report Japan expects to submit to the International Whaling Commission in 2005, Fisheries Agency official Takanori Nagatomo said.

Fisheries Agency officials say the hunt allows them to collect data for measuring the impact of whale herds on global fisheries stocks. The research costs the country about $37 million a year, part of which is paid through the sale of the meat to wholesalers.

Nations opposed to whaling, including the United States, Britain and Australia, say the program is commercial whaling in disguise, because most of the whale meat ends up in restaurants.

In September, Japanese ships returned from the northwest Pacific Ocean with 194 whales, including 100 minke, 50 Bryde's, five sperm whales and 39 sei, declared an endangered species in 1976. In April, another fleet of ships returned from the Antarctic, bringing back 440 minke whales. Japan recently attempted to down list Bryde's and some minke stocks at the CITES meeting but failed.     Associated Press

  400+ tons of whale meat into wholesale markets...   Sales of some 409 tons of whale meat from Japan's research whaling in the North Pacific began in November in wholesale markets nationwide, according to a statement released by the Tokyo-based Institute of Cetacean Research. The meat is from 100 minke whales, 50 Bryde's whales, 39 sei whales and five sperm whales caught as part of what Japan calls its research program from July to October, the statement said. In addition, the frozen meat of 50 other minke whales caught in inshore waters will be distributed to the markets after obtaining permission from the Fisheries Agency, the institute said.

The Japanese government permitted catching whales in inshore waters for research purposes for the first time this fiscal year.     Kyodo News

  Whale meat back on japanese school lunch menus...   Children at public elementary schools in Ikeda will be fed whale meat with their school lunches for the first time in 23 years, education officials said Saturday. If children show a liking for it, whale meat will remain on the menu throughout the 2003 academic year that runs from April 1 next year to March 31, 2004.     Mainichi Shimbum

  Pollution blamed for cancer in beluga whales...   Over a quarter of all the deaths of endangered adult beluga whales in Canada's Saint Lawrence Estuary are caused by cancer, local researchers have found. Such high rates of cancer are unprecedented in wild animals, apart from fish. Industrial pollution is the most likely cause, the veterinary pathologists claim.

Beluga whales live entirely in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. There are approximately 70,000 worldwide and about 650 of these live in a small region of the St Lawrence Estuary in Quebec. Between 1983 and 1999, 263 dead whales were reported and Daniel Martineau of the University of Montreal and his team conducted were able to conduct 100 autopsies.

He found that cancer, particularly cancer of the digestive tract, was the cause of death of 18 per cent of juvenile belugas and 27 per cent of the adults. "Cancer in wildlife is not very well studied but such a percentage has never been observed among wild animals anywhere else in the world," he says. "In dolphins and terrestrial animals, the figure is closer to two per cent." The cancers found in Saint Lawrence beluga represent about 40 per cent of all cancers ever reported in cetaceans worldwide, he says.

The autopsies revealed evidence for a high level of exposure to carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Most PAHs in the St Lawrence Estuary region originate from an aluminum plant upstream, Martineau says. The belugas are exposed because they dig around in contaminated sediments, and eat invertebrates that live in these sediments.

Martineau also found high levels of PCBs, another carcinogen, in the adult Lawrence Estuary belugas, as well as heavy metals, which weaken the immune system. People living in the region suffer higher rates of lung, urinary and digestive cancers than those living elsewhere in Quebec and Canada.

Martineau says the aluminum company should pay for research into the effects of PAHs on the whales' health. A spokesman for Alcan Aluminum plant says it has been working hard to slash its PAH output. They claim they've reduced their PAH emissions by 82%, and new technology introduced last year will reduce it by another 35%. They say, however, that it is impossible to link the PAH from the plant to the cancers. Their spokesman says pollutants can enter the St. Lawrence Estuary, open to the Atlantic Ocean, from anywhere.

But tackling the existing pollution in the estuary would create its own problems, warns a spokeswoman for the WWF: "Most of what remains is in sediments, and cleaning that up could be just as harmful. You would end up re-suspending a lot of the matter that is now staying put, impacting on a variety of species."    

  Iceland whales & conservationists angry over end to whale hunt ban...   From environmental activists to old whalers eager to resume their trade, Iceland's announcement that it will start whaling again has upset the whole country.

While tour operators and conservationists state that the decision will do enormous damage to Iceland as a tourist and whale-watching destination, whalers are angry they will have to wait at least four years before going hunting again. Iceland announced in October that it would resume whaling, a day after the International Whaling Commission readmitted the country as a full member on condition it would not begin commercial whaling until after 2006. The government has not decided whether it will begin whaling for scientific purposes before then.

The decision might have been expected to please Icelandic whalers, but Kristjan Loftsson, chief executive of the whaling company Hvalur in Reykjavik, is far from happy. Hvalur has kept its ships and stations ready to go whaling ever since Iceland stopped whaling years ago.

According to Loftsson, Iceland could have begun whaling last year when it first applied for readmission to the global body, which regulates the ban on whaling. Iceland stormed out of the whaling commission 10 years ago in anger over the moratorium. He claims the International Whaling Commission has no authority to ban a whaling nation from joining it.

On the other side of the country, in the village of Husavik, much of the local tourist industry is centered around the whale-watching tour operator North Sailing. The government's decision has cast gloom over the enterprise. "If they really go ahead with it and begin whaling, we might as well close down right away," said North Sailing's marketing director Heimir Hardarson. "We know from experience in Norway that whaling and whale-watching can't exist together. The whales simply go away."

Whale-watching operators argue that their business is more profitable than whaling ever was. The Icelandic tourist industry has demanded that the government survey how whaling may affect Icelandic interests in tourism and export markets.

More than one third of tourists to Iceland went whale watching last summer. Whale-watching operators estimate the direct value of their business in Iceland at $8 million a year, while whaling yielded only $3-4 million a year before the ban in 1989.

But Arni Mathiesen, Iceland's Fisheries Minister, dismissed the whale-watching company's comments as "pure nonsense propaganda". "Whaling is inevitable," Mathiesen said. "The whales affect the fish stocks in our ecosystem, and there is no other way to do research on them apart from by hunting them for scientific purposes." Mathiesen said whale stocks had increased and commercial whaling would ensure a more balanced exploitation of marine life.

Iceland was allowed to hunt 60 whales a year for scientific purposes from 1986 until 1989, when all whaling was banned.

The country succeeded in joining the International Whaling Commission this year when the Swedish delegation voted to reaccept their Nordic neighbor. The Swedes said later they had voted by mistake. The mistake was a dramatic one, as the vote was extremely tight -- of the commission's 50 members, 19 voted in favor and 18 against. The remainder were either absent or ineligible to vote.

Several key players, such as Britain and the United States, opposed Iceland's membership.     WDCS

  Host of tv show injured by a captive dolphin sues...   Nancy Glass, who was the host of the TV magazine shows "Inside Edition" and "American Journal" in the 1990s, said she suffered a neck injury and hearing loss three summers ago during a swim with a bottlenose dolphin at Dolphin Encounters in Nassau.

During a visit to Nassau's Blue Lagoon Island Glass, her daughter and other tourists were told that while they romped with the dolphins, they could instruct them to do tricks. Glass raised her hands. One of the 500-pound dolphins leapt and came up short, smashing down on her head. The impact shoved Glass underwater and briefly trapped her beneath the dolphin, the lawsuit said. Her hearing has never recovered and she still experiences discomfort.

Now she is suing the Dolphin Encounters resort in Nassau, its Florida affiliate and the Philadelphia travel agency that arranged the trip, claiming no one warned her of the potential danger.

The Dolphin Encounters swimming lagoon lies near the tip of a three-mile-long island, reachable only by boat. For $75, visitors can stand on an underwater platform and touch and feed the animals. For $145, guests ages 6 and up can jump in and swim with them.     State News

  Outrage over Barrier Reef oil survey...   Parts of the Great Barrier Reef are being investigated for commercial oil potential in an Australian Federal Government-endorsed study.

While the Government insists it will not allow drilling in or next to the reef, its geological authority, Geoscience Australia (GA), has ordered scientific data on most parts of the marine park, which may contain commercial oil deposits. The head of GA's petroleum marine division, Trevor Powell, told a Senate estimates hearing the satellite data was ordered as part of GA's new environmental approach. Dr Powell said the data on oil "seeps" was needed to investigate the effect of oil on reef growth.

But an extensive report prepared by GA on the petroleum deposits within and next to the marine park appears to contradict his explanation. The report, released after an order from the Senate, shows that GA has systematically assessed the commercial oil and gas potential of every basin around the Barrier Reef, although drilling is prohibited in the marine park.

Democrats Leader Andrew Bartlett said the documents showed the GA's secret agenda was to explore for oil in and around the marine park. "It's simply disgraceful that this has not only been hidden from the public but it has been denied when questions were asked," Senator Bartlett said.

The GA report also canvasses the oil potential of the Maryborough Basin off south-east Queensland, which, it notes, "underlies sensitive whale migration routes during part of the year".     Sun Herald

  Northern bottlenose whales given endangered status...   The Canadian Scotian Shelf population of the Northern Bottlenose Whales, has been given endangered species status on the Canadian list of 'Species at Risk'. This follows scientific assessments completed this week by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).

The estimated population of these whales totals about 130 individuals. They are largely found in an underwater canyon in the Atlantic Ocean known as "the Gully", off the coast of Nova Scotia. Research has shown that these whales are isolated from others of their kind and they are at the southwestern limit of the species range. Dr. Hal Whitehead, who has been leading the research, believes that the uplisting to Endangered should help greatly in trying to protect the population, which is threatened by oil and gas exploration in and around its prime habitat near Sable Island, and entanglement in fishing gear.     COSEWIC

  Possible change to dolphin-safe label threatens depleted populations...   US NGOs are calling on the US Government to heed warnings about depleted dolphin populations as the deadline looms for a government decision on weakening the familiar dolphin-safe label on canned tuna.

The Secretary of Commerce has until the end of the year to determine whether the tuna fishery in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean is having a significant adverse impact on dolphin populations. If, as expected, the finding is "no significant adverse impact," the Commerce Department will weaken the dolphin-safe label. The new definition will be broadened to include tuna caught by fishing methods that include chasing and encircling dolphins.

The Humane Society of the United States warns, "A no significant adverse impact finding would be contrary to the scientific evidence presented in the report by the government's own scientists."

In the mid-1990s, Mexico threatened action against the United States on the grounds that the U.S. dolphin-protection laws violate the free trade rules of the World Trade Organization. Clinton administration officials backed the Mexican government and advocated not only for opening U.S. markets to Mexico's dolphin deadly tuna but also for changing the definition of dolphin safe to allow tuna caught by methods that harm dolphins to be sold under the dolphin-safe label. A lengthy legislative and legal battle ensued, with dolphins receiving a temporary reprieve as the Commerce Department developed a study of dolphin populations to comply with a Congressional mandate.

Scientists completed that report this summer but the Commerce Department has yet to release it, undoubtedly because it demonstrates ongoing concern about dolphin populations.

Earth Island Institute obtained the report and released it late yesterday. Primary results of the report show:

• Northeastern offshore spotted dolphins are at 20% and eastern spinner dolphins at 35% of their pre-fishery levels
• One model predicts recovery in 78 years for northeastern offshore spotted dolphins and in 65 years for eastern spinner dolphins. A second model, equally supported by the data, predicts that neither stock would recover in 200 years.

The tuna fishery is cited as one of the major reasons for this lack of recovery in dolphin populations. The tuna fishery is responsible for deaths caused by separating calves from mothers and stress resulting from chasing and encircling dolphins.     HSUS

  3,000 dolphins killed by fishing...   About 3,000 dolphins are still being killed each year by tuna fishing fleets in the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico and Central America, a government report says. The report estimates about 6 million dolphins were killed in this fashion in the eastern tropical Pacific since the 1950s, and that while the annual death toll has dropped significantly in recent years, the dolphin's recovery remains in doubt. The report was prepared in August by the Southwest Fisheries Science Center of the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"Despite considerable scientific effort by fishery scientists, there is little evidence of recovery, and concerns remain that the practice of chasing and encircling dolphins somehow is adversely affecting the ability of these depleted stocks to recover," the report says.

An environmental group, Earth Island Institute of San Francisco, obtained the report and provided it to The Associated Press on Wednesday. The report has not yet been released publicly by the Commerce Department.

The group said in a statement that it believes the Bush administration doesn't want to publicly release the report because that would undermine the government's attempt to help Mexico and other countries label their tuna as "dolphin-safe." Commerce Secretary Evans has until Dec. 31, a deadline set by Congress, to review the report along with public comments and other supporting documents. He is required to conduct scientific research and then decide whether the large nets used by the tuna fleets are significantly harming the depleted dolphin populations in the eastern tropical Pacific.

Mexican authorities maintain that their tuna catches do not pose a threat to dolphins.

In recent years, canning and processing industries in the U.S., Canada and many European countries have said that they won't market tuna unless it is caught in a way that doesn't harm dolphins.     AP

  General election in Greenland raises concern for whales...   As the final outcome of Greenland's general elections are awaited, conservation groups are already expressing concern about how the new administration will address the many problems with Greenland's use of its diminishing wildlife, including heavily hunted populations of whales, belugas and birds.

One international group, PROACT, is bracing itself to launch an international protest campaign against Greenland's abysmal hunting laws if the new government does not demonstrate a strong commitment to good conservation practices. In the run up to the election, the outgoing Home Rule Government presented a revision of legislation that would extend hunting seasons for already decimated eider ducks and guillemots - making them the longest killing seasons for many years.     WDCS, PROACT

  Oil spill affects dolphins off spain...   A dead dolphin covered with fuel oil was taken away by environment workers at the beach of Nemina in the north-western Spanish province of Galicia December 1, 2002 two weeks after the tanker sank.

The 26-year-old Bahamas-flagged vessel Prestige took some 70,000 tons of fuel oil to the bottom of the Atlantic when it finally broke up on November 19.

The thick oil has washed up on beaches and rocks over a 400-kilometer stretch of the Galician coast, coating seabirds and endangering shellfish stocks vital to the local economy. Spain's western beaches are known as the "Coast of Death" because of its long history of shipwrecks.     WDCS

  Northern bottlenose whales threatened by underwater noise...   Northern bottlenose whales are being threatened by underwater racket, says a scientific panel. The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) has upgraded the whale's status from threatened to the more serious endangered.

About 130 of the whales live in an Atlantic canyon off the coast of Nova Scotia. This species, also known as beaked whales for their distinctive snouts, have been known to swim alongside boats. Like all whales, they are extremely sensitive to noise and rely on sonar for food gathering and social interaction.

And while there's little scientific data on how noise pollution affects the deep-diving whales in Canada, their relatives have turned up dead elsewhere. Several beaked whales that beached in 2000 in the Bahamas are believed to have suffered ear hemorrhages from nearby military sonar tests. And a U.S. judge halted scientific seismic activity in the Gulf of California in September when two beaked whales beached in the area.

Off the coast of Nova Scotia, the northern bottlenose lives in an area known as the Gully. It has been off limits to oil and gas exploration for the last five years as the federal government ponders making it a protected space. But it's surrounded by licensed areas where oil and gas companies are free to search for ocean-floor deposits using seismic exploration. Boats trail long lines that blast air guns, sending sound waves that bounce back off the ocean floor. Seismic patterns are used to map geological formations under the surface, offering clues about what lies beneath. Exploration activity is most intense in summer, with blasts going off every 10 seconds for hours at a time. They can be heard thousands of kilometers away. That, along with ocean liners and other ship traffic makes the sea an increasingly noisy place.

It's believed the population of the whale has held steady over the last decade. Adults measure about seven meters in length and can weigh up to three tons.     AP

  Endangered orcas threatened by proposed pipeline...   Scientists raised serious concerns about the impact of the proposed Georgia Strait Pipeline on local orca and harbor porpoise populations at the GSX Pipeline Crossing Pre-Hearing Technical Marine Conference. Scientists suspect that the noise generated by the ongoing operation of the pipeline could have a devastating impact on the endangered population of southern resident killer whales.

"The pipeline is likely to be noisy enough for it to be hard for the orcas to find enough already scarce food to survive - this might be a matter of life or death for them," said David Bain, Professor at the University of Washington.

The southern resident population of killer whale was listed as endangered by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) in 2001. This population is small (78 animals in 2001) and has declined by 20% from 1995-2001.

"No additional threats to the killer whale population are acceptable," said Sabine Jessen, Conservation Director of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - British Columbia Chapter (CPAWS-BC). "We are very concerned that this pipeline poses additional pressure on the whales that are significant enough to drive them towards extinction."

The Southern Strait of Georgia was one of five sites recently announced by Prime Minister Jean Chretien that will become new national marine conservation areas (NMCAs). Administered by Parks Canada, NMCAs are intended to provide protection in perpetuity to important marine areas in Canada's ocean waters. NMCAs are a type of zoned marine protected area, which includes both fully protected core areas and multiple use areas.     CPAWS

  3 orca babies in Puget Sound...   Three baby orcas, born sometime this fall, are welcome additions to a population of killer whales that has seen too many deaths in recent years. The number of whales in the three pods that frequent these waters dipped below 80 last year, but now is up to 82.

What's important for long-term recovery is that the whales make it to sexual maturity, which happens during their teens, and then are able to successfully create babies of their own, scientists say.

The first few weeks of life are the major hurdle to survival, though the local whales seem to be dying at an unusually high frequency up to their sixth birthday, per Ken Balcomb of the Whale Center said. The new whales seem healthy so far.

The potential causes for the orcas' decline are many, including shortages of food and accumulation of toxic chemicals including polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, that reduce immune resistance and successful reproduction.     Seattle Post Intelligencer

  Tracking humpbacks...   Scientists have wondered for years where humpback whales disappear to after they mate in the warm waters off Brazil's Atlantic coast in the spring, and show up three months later in Antarctica.

Now they're finding out. An international research team has tagged eight of the endangered mammals with transmitters and says it is already learning startling information about whales and how they travel more than 2,000 miles every year.

Scientists hope that what they learn about the whales' migration and feeding patterns could help establish a whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic - a proposal whaling nations have stubbornly resisted. Showing the migration routes can justify the scientific need to protect them.

Experts from the United States, Denmark, and Brazil took part in the Whale Satellite Tracking Project, which followed a pod of humpbacks off the Brazilian coast in early November, springtime in the Southern Hemisphere.

The project marks the first time whales have been monitored that way in tropical seas. Researchers were also surprised when they listened to a humpback singing to a male calf. The adult sang deep, steady tones while the calf sounded squeaky and off-key, but the young whale seemed to change his song as the "dialogue" went on.

"We've never heard this anywhere before," said Sheila Simao, who studies whale acoustics. "Was the male teaching the calf? Do calves have their own language? This is very important and the basis for further study."

The transmitters, which turn off when the whale submerges to prolong battery life, will last about six months. The team will return next year to tag more humpbacks, and the project will expand to include other species, including the minke and the little-studied Bryde's whale. "If we can define certain areas as sensitive, we can recommend they be protected in a South Atlantic sanctuary from Brazil to Africa and down to the Antarctic," Andriolo said.

Brazil, a former whaling power, twice proposed a no-whaling zone in the South Atlantic, but the International Whaling Commission voted down the idea in 2000 and 2001.     The Boston Globe

  Ocean conservancy petitions to protect North Atlantic right whale habitat...   The National Marine Fisheries Service last week said it would consider a petition by the Ocean Conservancy to expand "critical habitat" in New England waters and off the southeastern coast, where North Atlantic right whales live.

More critical habitat would not guarantee tighter restrictions for fishermen, shippers or others who share the waters with whales, though some fear that would result.

NMFS spokesman George Liles said the agency could make changes if it approves the petition. The NMFS is accepting public comment on the petition and must make its decision by July.

Only 300 to 350 North Atlantic right whales remain, and five died this year. Ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements are common causes of whale deaths.

Under the Ocean Conservancy petition, new critical habitat areas would connect existing areas in Cape Cod Bay and the Great South Channel off the New England coast. Other critical habitat is proposed about 10 miles north and 110 miles east of Provincetown.

Off the coast of Georgia and Florida, where the whales breed, the plan would add roughly 2,700 square nautical miles to the whale habitat.

Recent research shows the whales move in a broader area than first thought, said Nina Young of the Ocean Conservancy.

Many of the areas already have restrictions under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but critical habitat restrictions under the Endangered Species Act would be harder to abandon, Young said.

Possible restrictions include closing fishing areas when the whales are nearby, reduced ship speeds and the use of special fishing gear that breaks if a whale is caught.     AP

  Southern right whales making a comeback...   Southern right whales are making a comeback. South African scientists said that an annual count had revealed the biggest number yet in the survey's 32-year history of the huge whales, which can grow to 56 feet and weigh 70 tons.

Scientists from the University of Pretoria's Mammal Research Institute spotted 845 right whales during a seven-day aerial survey of South Africa's south coast last month, 169 - or 20 percent - more than last year. There are more (now) than there have been for 150 years. They have been protected since 1935 and are now believed to number in the thousands. About 3,000 are estimated to be found off South Africa during the calving season.     Reuters

  California offshore oil drilling ban upheld...   A federal appeals court has upheld a ruling halting oil and natural gas exploration off the central California coast, saying the area can't be drilled or explored until the California Coastal Commission approves the plan.

The unanimous decision Monday by a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals blocks any attempt to build the first new oil platforms off California's coast since 1994. No drilling to explore for oil deposits has been conducted since 1989. The proposed developments were off the coastline of San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Oil exploration off California's coast has been an explosive issue since 1969, when a massive oil spill soiled the Santa Barbara and Ventura county coast. Offshore rigs account for roughly 20 percent of the state's petroleum production.

California sued to block the exploration days after President Clinton's interior secretary, Bruce Babbitt, extended petroleum companies' offshore leases for 10 years in 1999 as they were set to expire. The lawsuit contended that Babbitt's decision was subject to review by the state under a federal law giving California authority to determine whether offshore drilling in federal waters is consistent with the state's coastal protection plans. Under the Coastal Zone Management Act, amended in 1990, Congress gave states a say in any activity affecting coastal communities, the appeals court said.

The governor appoints four of the 12 members of the California Coastal Commission. If Governor Davis has his way, the commission would scuttle new exploration. Davis has pledged to lobby the commission to reject the deal if the court's ruling ultimately is upheld.

This year, the Bush administration announced plans to protect Florida's coast by spending $120 million to buy oil and gas rights in the Everglades and $115 million to pay oil companies to stop drilling plans in the Gulf of Mexico. The administration has rejected requests from Davis to extend the same protections to the Golden State.

Oil companies have paid $1.25 billion for the 40 leases, each covering about a nine square-mile expanse of ocean. The leases were issued between 1968 and 1984. Four of them expired in 1999.

According to federal estimates, the oil at stake could be enough to run California's refineries for two years and fuel five months worth of the state's natural gas demands buried within the leases.     AP