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.

  Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) at Risk... The House of Representatives passed version of the Department of Defense Authorization Bill for fiscal year 2004 includes dangerous broad exemptions from the MMPA. The Senate passed version, which the American Cetacean Society supports, contains no exemptions from the MMPA. Please express your concern for marine mammals ...[ MORE ]

The MMPA is the United State' keystone law for the protection of whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals, sea lions, polar bears, and walrus. Enacted in 1972, and amended most recently in 1994, this act is designed to mitigate human impacts on marine mammals. Its goal is to protect these species "commensurate with sound polices of resource management" in order "to maintain the health and stability of the marine ecosystem."    

  Iceland resumes whaling... Less than a year after 'voting itself' back into the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Icelandic whalers defied International opinion again and, in August, slaughtered nine minke whales, claiming the kills are for scientific purposes. ...[ MORE ]     Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

  Solomon Island dolphin captures continue... Several nations involved in the chaos and controversy surrounding the Solomon Islands dolphins, dozens of whom still remain penned in the war-torn country, appear to be responding favorably to international pressure. The jury is still out, however, on where the Solomon Islands government stands in regard to these captured animals. A news release from the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) reported that at least ten more bottlenose dolphins were caught at the end of August.

Mexico, which permitted the Parque Nizuc dolphin facility in Cancun to import 28 dolphins from the Solomon Islands in July, has pledged not to allow the importation of any more dolphins still held captive off the South Pacific island. However two dolphins have recently died at Parque Nizuc. One dolphin had been imported from the Solomon Islands, the second was already captive at the facility and is from local waters.

Back in the Solomon Islands, where a four-year-old civil war forced the country to call in Australian and New Zealand peacekeeping forces, Australia has been actively trying to improve the situation for the dolphins still held in pens in Honiara and on Gavutu Island. Australian officials have issued diplomatic requests to interested export markets, such as Taiwan, Japan and Thailand, to refrain from trading in Solomon Islands dolphins.

Dozens of dolphins are still being kept in shallow overcrowded sea pens off the Solomons. Several have already died; food is scarce and a recent report states that many of the dolphins are lying on the surface motionless. The Solomons government has apparently agreed to allow an international team of dolphin experts to inspect the makeshift facilities in Honiara and Gavutu Island; some have suggested the experts be accompanied by protective guard, since other interested parties, including the media, have reportedly not received a warm welcome from those watching over the pens.

If you would like to help speak for the dolphins, you can find a sample letter and contact information [ here ].     hsus.org, wdcs.org, terradaily.com, scoop.co.nz

  Great news for whales! U.S. Navy's high-intensity sonar system barred in Federal Court...   On August 26, 2003, A U.S. Federal judge ruled that the U.S. Navy's plan to deploy a new high-intensity sonar system violates numerous federal environmental laws and could endanger whales, porpoises and fish. In a 73-page opinion, U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte barred the Navy's planned around-the-world deployment and ordered the Navy to reduce the system's potential harm to marine mammals and fish by negotiating limits on its use with conservation groups who had sued over its deployment.

The sonar system, known as Surveillance Towed Array Sensor System Low Frequency Active sonar (or LFA), relies on extremely loud, low-frequency sound to detect submarines at great distances. According to the Navy's own studies, LFA generates sounds up to 140 decibels even more than 300 miles away from the sonar source. Many scientists believe that blasting such intense sounds over large expanses of the ocean could harm entire populations of whales, porpoises and fish. During testing off the California coast, noise from a single LFA system was detected across the breadth of the North Pacific Ocean.

"Today's ruling is a reprieve not just for whales, porpoises, and fish, but ultimately for all of us who depend for our survival on healthy oceans," said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of the Marine Mammal Protection Project at NRDC, the lead plaintiff and counsel in the case. "The decision recognizes that both national security and environmental protection are essential. It recognizes that during peacetime, even the military must comply with our environmental laws, and it rejects the blank-check permit that would have allowed the Navy to operate LFA sonar virtually anywhere in the world."

In her ruling (www.cand.uscourts.gov/), Judge Laporte found that a permit issued to the Navy by the National Marine Fisheries Service to deploy LFA sonar violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because it did not adequately assess or take steps to mitigate the risks posed by the system to marine mammals and fish.

Judge Laporte found that, "endangered species, including whales, listed salmon and sea turtles will be in LFA sonar's path. There is little margin for error without threatening their survival...Absent an injunction, the marine environment that supports the existence of these species will be irreparably harmed."

In October, Judge Laporte granted a request by conservation groups for a temporary injunction to restrict deployment under the permit. Today's ruling orders the Navy to negotiate with NRDC and its co-plaintiffs on terms of a permanent injunction that would limit where, when and how the Navy can use LFA for testing and training. The injunction wouldn't prevent the Navy from using the system during war or "heightened threat conditions," as determined by the military.

Scientists have been increasingly alarmed in recent years about undersea noise pollution from high-intensity active sonar systems, which have been shown to harm and even kill whales and other marine life.

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. Last September, 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.

Most recently, more than a dozen harbor porpoises were found dead on the beach near the San Juan Islands soon after the Navy tested mid-frequency active sonar in the Haro Strait in May. Videotape shows a pod of orca whales in the foreground behaving erratically as the Shoup, a U.S. Navy vessel, emits loud sonar blasts. Recent tests on one of the harbor porpoises revealed injuries consistent with acoustic trauma.

"The science is clear - intense active sonar can kill whales, porpoises and fish," said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society of the United States, one of the co-plaintiffs. "The Navy must find ways to test and train with the LFA system that do not needlessly damage marine life."

"The public has a strong interesting in minimizing, as much as possible, any disruption or injury to these creatures from exposure to the extremely loud and far-traveling naval sonar system," Judge Laporte wrote in her opinion. "Public concern has been heightened by incidents where exposure to another kind of Navy sonar has led to lethal strandings of whales on the beach, as in the Bahamas in 2000."

"The court properly ruled that the permit to deploy the LFA system violates 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 marine environment is an invaluable resource that we all must share," said Jean-Michel Cousteau. "I am very pleased that good sense has prevailed. The court has taken an extremely valuable step to protect a part of our life support system from destruction."     National Resources Defense Council

  Sperm whale saved by retired guide and vacationing fishermen... A dramatic rescue in the Sea of Cortez illustrates the dangers that indiscriminate fishing devices such as drift gill-nets can pose for whales and other marine species. ACS has long been an advocate of banning gillnets.

A 35-foot female sperm whale and her calf were found "wrapped like a cigar three times" in a monofilament net in the Sea of Cortez, 30 miles beyond San Carlos, Mexico, off the Sonora coast. The calf, pressed tightly against her mother, had already perished and its carcass had begun to deteriorate. Three sport fishermen from Tucson placed a call for help out on VHF radio, which was answered by a retired fishing and diving guide. At great risk to himself, the guide, Mark Ward, jumped in with a mask and snorkel and cut the cow free. Initially the whale did not protest his efforts, but he ended up also becoming entangled. If not for a fluke unraveling of the net, he could have very easily lost his life during the rescue.

The drift gill-net, a controversial type of fishing gear resembles nets used on volleyball or tennis courts, only much wider and with much larger mesh. They have weights to keep the lower portions down and floats to keep them upright. Then can measure up to three miles, and because of the indiscriminate and destructive nature - they're commonly referred to as "curtains of death" -- their use has diminished in many parts of the world. Commercial fisherman have been trying for the last several years to get inside Mexico's 50-mile buffer zone -- a zone intended to protect important fisheries in the Sea of Cortez, which is less than 100 miles wide, and along coastal areas. Mexico recently issued 201 "experimental permits" to fish for sharks inside the buffer zone. This drift gill-net was as part of what is calls a limited shark fishery (even though scientists say sharks are overfished). Five long strands of the net had worked their way "just like dental floss" between the teeth and gums on the sperm whale's lower jaw, and around the jaw itself. Dangling beneath the jaw was at least one of the weights attached to the net.     Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2003, from "Recasting the Debate" by Pete Thomas