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.

  Iceland moves toward resumption of whaling...   Having rejoined the International Whaling Commission (IWC) last year with a reservation against the moratorium on commercial whaling, Iceland has moved closer to restarting a so-called 'scientific whaling' operation.

Iceland has not hunted whales since 1989 when it left the IWC in protest at the whaling ban. When it rejoined the IWC in October 2002 it stated that it would not resume commercial whaling (under its reservation) until 2006. However, under an unfortunate loophole in IWC rules, it could follow Japan's example and start scientific whaling at any time.

Stefan Asmundsson, Iceland's new IWC commissioner has stated that Iceland will submit a plan for scientific whaling to this year's IWC meeting - suggesting that the whaling vessels could be operational very soon.

Environmental groups and tour operators warn that a resumption of whaling will put an unfavorable spotlight on Iceland as a tourist destination and, in particular, would seriously harm Iceland's growing whale watching industry.

Asmundsson said Iceland was investigating whether there would be a market for the whale products it harvests, noting that scientific whaling would be very expensive if the part of the catch not earmarked for research labs could not be sold. Iceland is already imports whale meat and blubber from Norway, and the most likely destination of Icelandic whale meat is Japan who refuses Norway's whales as too contaminated. It is not clear yet which species Iceland intends to hunt or whether their products will meet the same roadblocks in Japan.

Several IWC members have formally protested against Iceland's decision to rejoin the IWC with a reservation against the whaling moratorium and at least two have protested its actual membership.     WDCS and Reuters

  Japan urges whale 'pest' cull...   Rampant whales are devastating Japan's fisheries and should be culled as pests, the official in charge of the country's controversial whaling program said in early March.

Joji Morishita said the protected marine mammals were devouring at least as much as Japan's entire fishing fleet could catch and they should be slaughtered, just as plague-proportion kangaroo and deer populations were targeted in Australia.

"Some people are saying Japan should go out of the International Whaling Commission (which banned commercial whaling in 1986) and others say we should use other tools available to us to retaliate against other countries," he said at a United Nations fisheries summit in Rome. Asked if those tools might include trade sanctions, Mr. Morishita laughingly replied: "I don't think we have any good tools like the United States, where you can threaten people with weapons. "

"(But) the very general public thinks, why are we buying this huge amount of grain or beef from countries that are opposing whaling?"

Japanese whalers killed 440 minke whales in Antarctic waters last year, and in Japanese waters killed five sperm whales, 150 minkes, 39 Sei whales and 50 Bryde's whales.

The animals caught off Japan's coast were slaughtered so scientists could examine their stomach contents before selling the lucrative meat. But the meat from the sperm whales was so contaminated with mercury that it was banned from sale.

"Our estimation indicates they are eating at least a comparable amount, and sometimes much more than our fishermen are taking," said Mr. Morishita, the deputy director of the Far Seas Fisheries division of Japan's Fisheries Agency. He added that the fishing catch in Japanese waters had almost halved in the past 15 years, and that Japan's fishing fleet had decreased.

"We know that whales have increased, and there's a missing half of our fish stocks somewhere," he said. "That might be a result of environmental changes or totally different reasons, but we cannot just ignore the impact of allowing mammal predation in our fishing operations."

"We're not saying we should harvest all the whales, or that fisherman should prevail, but we need a balance," he said.

"We know in other countries deer and other animals are oftentimes culled when there are too many and if they are competing with agriculture or forestry or human activities." Mr. Morishita said Australia was hypocritical for opposing whaling when it allowed its own farmers to slaughter kangaroos. "They are sold - I bought kangaroo jerky at Sydney airport."    The Australian

A large majority of leading scientists around the world dispute the theory that too many whales are impacting the world's fisheries. Whale populations are far below their historic levels when fish populations were plentiful. - ACS

  China increases protection of Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin...   China has been building a UN-backed zone to protect and showcase endangered Chinese white dolphins (Sousa chinensis), also known as Chinese White Dolphins, and preserve marine bio-diversity in offshore waters near Shantou City, south China's Guangdong Province.

Reports from sources at the Marine Affairs and Fishery Bureau of Nan'ao County, Guangdong, say the protection zone will be located between the sea waters of Dongshan Island of neighboring Fujian Province and Nan'ao Island of Guangdong, where more than 1,300 kinds of marine life breed because of the subtropical climate and the nutrient rich seawaters.

Indo-Pacific hump-backed dolphins, or "giant pandas of the sea" as they are known on the Chinese mainland, are found in shallow, coastal waters of southern China. They feed on fish, shrimp, and cuttlefish. The dolphins living around China's Pearl River Estuary have a unique color -- dark gray at birth but fading to pink in later life as the dolphin's blood gets nearer its body surface.

The population is slowly in decline, as fewer dolphins survive long enough to mate and reproduce. The dolphins are under top state protection in China as current population estimates are as low as between several hundred and 1,000.

Sources report that the project, which has just won financial support of $517,000 from the UN Environment Program, will be finished in four years. To ensure the construction success, major officials in charge of marine affairs and fishery from five cities of Guangdong and Fujian provinces gathered on Nan'ao Island recently and vowed to cooperate closely. A range of activities will also be organized to help the project, including educating local fishermen on protecting the living habitat of Chinese white dolphins and stepping up publicity to improve awareness among children of protecting the endangered dolphin species.     People's Daily (China)

  Humpback population in Australia growing...   Humpback whale populations are climbing by 11 per cent a year, despite a huge growth in the whale-watching business. The whales, one of Queensland, Australia's biggest tourism attractions, are being seen in increasing numbers as populations in the southern hemisphere continue their recovery from whaling. The whales are increasing at a rate estimated at just over 11 per cent a year, according to a new report.

The Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service report also found there were no signs that commercial whale watching was affecting the recovery process.

Nearly 4000 humpbacks visited Queensland in the July-August birthing season in 1998. There were more than 5000 last year and whale-watchers predict 10,000 of the Antarctic visitors for 2010.

The report's author, conservation scientist Liz Vang, said the Australian population of humpbacks had responded particularly strongly to the outlawing of commercial whaling in the 1960s. The combined impact of international, national and state conservation legislation had contributed to a very healthy recovery in the Group V (Australian east coast) humpback whale population, she said. "There are no indications that the introduction of commercial whale-watching in Queensland in 1989, as managed by the QPWS, has caused any change in the rate of recovery of this species." It is believed that as few as 500 humpbacks took part in the east coast migration when whaling ceased, down from 34,000 in the 1930s.

Although humpbacks commonly follow a migratory corridor within 5km of the coast, scientists believe there could be other routes to their Coral Sea breeding grounds, particularly along a chain of undersea mountains off the southern Queensland coast.

"QPWS enjoys a close working relationship with the whale-watch operators, which is critical to the successful management of whale-watching," Mr. Wells said. Boats must remain at least 100m from whales, although the inquisitive mammals often swim closer.

Mr. Wells said Queensland Transport had also provided jet-skiers with educational material reminding them of the "no-go" zones after an incident in July when dozens of jet-skiers harassed whales in the Moreton Bay area.

QPWS rangers monitored tour companies and private boat operators to ensure they kept to the regulated distances and did not try to attract whales, swim with them or touch them.     The Courier Mail, Brisbane

  Federal government approves funds for orca study...   A federal spending bill approved in late February contains $750,000 to study what has been killing Puget Sound orcas, the first federal money allocated by Congress for killer-whale field studies since the 1970s.

Researchers say they are thrilled but could use much more. Scientists have struggled in recent years to find money just to count the orcas.

Linda Jones, who manages regional studies for the Fisheries Service, said a top question for researchers is why the whales contain such high levels of toxic chemicals. Another big issue concerns the genetics of the whales and how they are related to other orca populations.     The Seattle Times

The Puget Sound Chapter of ACS has been actively involved in the support for studying and protecting the orcas in this area. - ACS

  Russia sets up first nature reserve for gray whales...   The first Russian national marine wildlife reserve is to be established on the Sakhalin Shelf in 2004. This area is inhabited by a small population of gray whales, which are on the brink of extinction. Amirkhan Amirkhanov, the head of the Russian Natural Resources Ministry's Department for Highly Protected Natural Areas and Preserving Biodiversity, made the announcement in early March. According to Amirkhanov, since 2000 the region has been subject to industrial extraction of oil by a floating platform. In recent years the negative impact this has had on the environment, including drilling waste being disposed of at sea and an increase in noise and ultrasonic rays, has caused the gray whale population to fall. Amirkhanov said that the whales cannot get enough to eat in such conditions and suffer from exhaustion.

Amirkhanov said that the Natural Resources Ministry is currently carrying out an environmental evaluation of the Sakhalin 1 project. It calls for minimizing the environmental damage from oil extraction and moving the drilling platform out of the limits of the gray whales' summer feeding grounds, as well as placing it as far as possible from the boundaries of the 'water pasture'. It is also planned to move the pipeline leading from the platform to the shore at least 12 nautical miles to the south. According to Amirkhanov, this is being done so that the pipeline will not run through the basin where the gray whales gather to feed.     Rosbal

ACS sent a letter in 2002 protesting the Sakhalin 1 project

  Transient killer whales leave Hood Canal after 2 months...   A group of transient killer whales, which feed mainly on marine mammals, has ended its two-month stay in Hood Canal (Washington State), after feeding on the harbor seal population, consuming hundreds of the local population. The highly unusual visit ended March 3 when the 11 orcas headed north.

The orcas arrived for their extended stay Jan. 3, intriguing both residents and visitors to Hood Canal, who lined the shores to see the whales and occasionally watch them herd, capture and consume harbor seals near the mouths of several Hood Canal rivers.

The transient whales, which roam the marine waters from Alaska to Mexico in small groups, rarely stay in one area so long, said John Calambokidis, a marine mammal researcher with Cascadia Research of Olympia.

The harbor seal population in Hood Canal, which numbered roughly 1,500 animals in the 1970s, was estimated at approximately 1,000 prior to the whales' arrival, Calambokidis said.

The average killer whale probably needs one or two seals a day to meet its metabolic needs, according to Steve Jeffries, a marine mammal biologist with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. That means the killer whales could have taken at least 600 harbor seals. State Fish and Wildlife will conduct a Hood Canal harbor seal survey soon to determine what effect the whales had, said Rocky Beach, program manager for the agency's wildlife diversity project.

The Whidbey Island-based Orca Network logged 130 transient whale sightings in January and February via telephone or the Internet, said co-founder Susan Berta.     The Olympian

  Hundreds of dolphins die in Britain...   The rotting carcasses of hundreds of dolphins killed in fishing nets are washing up on Britain's beaches each year, an investigation has revealed.

French fishermen admitted the mammals were getting trapped in their nets during pair trawling, a process in which a giant net up to half a mile wide is slung between two trawlers. Scientists estimate that as many as 50 dolphins can die in a single haul.

Pair trawling in the north-east Atlantic results in the dead animals being washed up on the south-west coast of England and Ireland, as well as northern and western parts of France.

A total of 187 dolphin and porpoise carcasses were found in Devon and Cornwall between January 1 and early March, the Devon Wildlife Trust said. Campaigners fear hundreds more are being killed but drifting out to sea and going unnoticed.

During the investigation for BBC1's Countryfile Program, former trawlerman, Nathalie Cabrel, said: "It's a problem when you catch a dolphin, so often you cut open the stomach so that it sinks and doesn't float on to the beach so that no one knows."     The Scotsman/Reuters

  Fiji declares new whale sanctuary...   Fiji's decision to declare its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as a whale sanctuary is a major victory for whale preservation and a boost for the proposed South Pacific Whale Sanctuary. It is the ninth Pacific nation to either declare their EEZ a whale sanctuary or announce their intention to do so. A network of whale sanctuaries now covers over 11 million sq km in the Pacific. The other countries and territories included New Zealand, Australia, New Caledonia, Cook Islands, Papua New Guinea, Niue, Samoa and French Polynesia.

Recent surveys have shown that some humpback whales have at last returned to their breeding areas in Fijian waters where New Zealand scientist Bill Dawbin recorded over a thousand whales forty-five years ago. The protection afforded to them by a sanctuary will secure the future for this critically endangered population.

Other species of great whales that breed in Fijian waters would also benefit, including sperm whales, many of which probably visited New Zealand, and particularly Kaikoura, from time to time.

Fiji's Minister for Commerce, Business Development and Investment, Tomasi Vuetilovoni, said in announcing the sanctuary that Fiji's Cabinet hoped it would boost Fiji's tourism appeal.     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society website