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.

International Whaling Commission (IWC) News
Plenary Session July 19-22, 2004

 U.S. Scolds Japan, Iceland for Whale Hunting ...  U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans on June 22 announced he certified to President Bush that Icelandic nationals are hunting whales in a manner that diminishes the effectiveness of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conservation program.

The United States officially condemned Iceland and Japan for their ongoing whale hunts. Both nations contend the hunts are necessary for scientific research, but U.S. officials say that excuse is baseless and the hunts are undermining international whale conservation efforts program. Evans kept Japan certified for its annual whale harvest.

"The lethal research whaling conducted by both Iceland and Japan is unnecessary for the management of whales, and we urge them to use non-lethal research methods," said U.S. Commerce Secretary Donald Evans.

Iceland, Japan and Norway are the only three nations engaged in whaling. Both Iceland and Japan hunt whales under an exemption to the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows whaling for scientific research.

Critics see the whale hunts by Japan and Iceland as poorly disguised commercial whaling. They note both governments fund their whaling programs and the meat is sold in supermarkets and restaurants in both countries. Japan and Iceland say that under the terms of the IWC scientific whaling provision, all the meat of the animals killed for research must be utilized, not discarded.

Norway objected to the IWC moratorium and is not held to its terms.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the resumption of whaling by Iceland last year, along with the whale hunts by Japan and Norway, has brought whaling to an all-time high since the moratorium was adopted in 1986.

The U.S. Commerce Department listed Iceland and Japan under the Pelly Amendment, a 1967 measure developed to impose economic and political pressure on governments and fishing fleets that do not respect international conservation efforts. The Pelly Amendment to the U.S. Fishermen's Protective Act of 1967 requires the Secretary of Commerce to certify to the President that "nationals of a foreign country... are conducting fishing operations in a manner or under circumstances which diminish the effectiveness of an international fishery conservation program." In this case, the management of whale stocks by the IWC is being compromised by the actions of Iceland and Japan. The United States and a majority of IWC member countries have stressed that lethal research on whales is not necessary. The scientific data claimed to be necessary can be obtained by non-lethal means.

When Iceland announced its return to whaling in August 2003 after a 14-year hiatus, 23 nations, including the United States, officially protested the decision.

Iceland killed 36 minke whales last year and announced in June that it plans to kill 25 whales this year. It has already killed five minke whales this year. Iceland says the killings are necessary for its study of local marine ecosystems, a claim disputed by many scientists and many member governments of the IWC.

The Pelly Amendment allows the U.S. government to subject listed countries to trade sanctions, but the Bush administration stopped short of exerting economic pressures on either nation.

"We will use all diplomatic channels to request both countries to end their respective lethal research whaling activities," Evans said. U.S. delegations attending bilateral meetings with Iceland regarding whaling issues will raise U.S. concerns and seek ways to halt these actions, according to the Commerce Department. In addition, the U.S. Departments of Commerce and State will keep these situations under close review and will continue to work through bilateral relationships to urge Iceland to cease the whale hunts.

Japan was most recently certified under the Pelly Amendment in 2000 for the expansion of its lethal research whaling program in the North Pacific. That Pelly certification remains active, but Evans said the United States has remained concerned about changes in the scale and nature of Japan's North Pacific whaling activities. Japan added Bryde's and sperm whales to its research harvest in 2000, and sei whales in 2002.     Yahoo On Line

 Greenpeace Sends Ship to Iceland ...  Sei, Bryde's, minke, and sperm whales are protected under the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act - sei and sperm whales are on the U.S. endangered species list.

Japan, under the banner of scientific research, is hunting 150 minkes, 50 Bryde's, 50 sei, and 10 sperm whales in the North Pacific this year. Japan has repeatedly stated its desire to resume commercial whaling and Iceland has indicated it intends to resume the practice in 2006.

But there are signs that domestic support for the move in Iceland may be dwindling. IFAW reports that demand for whale meat in Iceland appears to be weak. Of the 35 tons of meat landed last year 23 tons are still unsold. And there is additional economic pressure, as whale watching attracts some 72,000 tourists to Iceland each year and is worth more than $14 million to the nation's economy.

In early July, Greenpeace sailed one of its ships into the Icelandic port of Isafjordur to protest the whale hunt and highlight how the decision is undermining the nation's economic potential for ecotourism.

"The Icelandic Government has a golden opportunity to chose living whales and ecotourism over whaling," said Greenpeace International ocean campaigner Frode Pleym. "The [government] should make the obvious wise decision and cancel the entire program."     Environment News Service (ENS)

 Japan Proposes Leaving IWC...   After nearly two decades of bitter dispute between pro- and anti-whale hunting nations Japan will present a plan to break with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and form its own pro-whaling organization.

Whaling supporters in Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) are threatening to sabotage the commission's annual meeting in the Italian resort of Sorrento by luring the IWC members that still support commercial hunting into an alternative alliance with pro-whaling nations, including Norway and Iceland.

The plans are outlined in a paper, which the LDP lobby group has handed to the BBC and which describes the IWC as "totally dysfunctional".

The move follows years of tension between Japan and the IWC, which imposed a moratorium on commercial whale hunting in 1986 in an attempt to prevent the extinction of a number of endangered species. Debate about conservation versus hunting at IWC annual meetings since has grown increasingly heated.

Discussion about whale hunting in Japan is tinged with nationalism, with the LDP and the fishing industry often claiming that anti-whaling countries are condemning a culture and tradition they know little about.

In one exchange at the 2001 IWC conference, a Japanese fisheries agency official, Masuyuki Komatsu, said Westerners were "too sentimental" about whales and called minke whales the "cockroaches of the sea" because they eat other fish stocks. Tokyo has continued to challenge the 1986 moratorium by engaging in what it controversially calls "scientific whaling", designed to monitor fish stocks and migration patterns, despite opposition from its allies and environmental groups.

Junko Sakurai, the spokeswoman on whaling for Greenpeace Japan, said: "A new lobby group within the LDP has been working hard since late last year to make whale meat more commercially available. They have set up a working group to achieve this aim".     Yahoo Whale News On Line

 Japan Attempts to By Off the Whaling Ban at the International Whaling Commission Meeting...  Japan continues to attempt to undermine the commercial whaling ban that has been in place for almost 20 years. There are, yet again, concerns that Japan has "bought" enough votes to overturn an international ban on hunting.

The annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), in Sorrento, Italy, promises to be among the most contentious ever. The build-up has been dominated by fears that Japan may finally be able to secure a majority of countries prepared to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling, in effect since 1986.

The IWC comprises 55 members, though not all of them vote, and Japan may need as few as 23 votes to carry the day. Last year, its resolution on hunting minke whales drew 19 votes in favor.

Although a simple majority would not overturn the moratorium - three-quarters of members must support the move for this to happen - it would strip the ban of its credibility and could enable Japan to undermine the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, which protects Antarctica. Japan kills more than 600 whales a year in the name of scientific research at present, using an IWC loophole.

Before every meeting, Japan seeks to persuade countries, in return for aid money, to join the IWC and vote against the ban. Since 2000, at least nine nations have been recruited, including Mongolia, Morocco, Gabon, Benin and Grenada. New members this year include Ivory Coast, which is believed to support Japan, Mauritania and Tuvalu.     The Independent

 Greenland's Hunting Threatens Rare Whales...  This year, Greenland intends to kill three times more narwhals and belugas than recommended by experts, threatening the survival of rare whale populations. This is just one of a catalogue of problems in Greenland threatening the conservation of whales and dolphins highlighted in a new report by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

The Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) is meeting July 19-23 [2004] in Italy to consider the sustainability of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling quotas. WDCS is calling on the IWC to consider its concerns about Greenland's whaling activities, and whether its quota of 19 fin whales and 187 minke whales annually continues to be justified.

For many years, the IWC has allowed Greenland's Inuit population to hunt whales for subsistence needs. WDCS's analysis of 14 years of data shows that not only is Greenland ignoring scientific advice that its whale hunts may not be sustainable, but that whale products intended to meet local subsistence needs are widely commercialized. The report documents a catalogue of concerns and abuses of IWC regulations including:

• Despite Greenland's claim that it needs more whale meat to meet its subsistence needs, Greenland radio reported in 2002 that Greenland is "floating in whale meat" and seeking to export minke whale meat to Norway.
• Hunters sell up to 40% of fin whale products to a company that markets them throughout Greenland and Denmark.
• Between 1996 and 2002, 92% of minke whales killed in East Greenland were female.
• Minke whales shot with insufficiently powerful rifles take an average of over 30 minutes to die.

Sue Fisher, WDCS's whaling expert, said "Greenland's requests to the IWC for ever-increasing subsistence whaling quotas must now be considered in the context of the unsustainability of its hunts and its serious lack of domestic regulation."

WDCS believes that Greenland cannot justify the numbers of whales hunted, wasted and traded in the name of 'subsistence'. It must be called to account for its poor conservation and welfare record, before an entire population of whales pays the ultimate price - extinction.     WDCS

 Environmentalists Threaten to Sue U.S. Navy Over Sonar and Whale Deaths...  In mid-July environmental and animal rights groups threatened to sue the Navy unless it takes new steps to protect whales and other species from loud waves of sonar designed to detect enemy submarines.

In a letter to Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, the groups said dozens of whales off the coast of Washington, Puerto Rico, the Canary Islands, Portugal, and other locations have beached themselves during Navy maneuvers, sometimes hemorrhaging blood through their eyes and ears.

"We understand that the Navy's central mission is defending our nation, and we recognize its critical importance in protecting and preserving the quality of our lives," the letter said. "We nevertheless believe, and we hope the Navy agrees, that this mission can and must be served through practices consistent with our nation's environmental laws and, more fundamentally, with the conservation of our natural resources."

The letters, signed by representatives of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Ocean Futures Society, International Fund for Animal Welfare, and Humane Society of the United States, called on the Navy to identify low-risk areas for routine training, establish safety zones around transmit vessels, and reduce the strength of the sonar signals.

A Navy spokesman, Lt. Mike Kafka, said officials would carefully review the letter and that the Navy remains "committed to protecting our nation and our natural resources while operating within the law." The sonar, known as mid-frequency sonar, has been used since World War II to help identify enemy submarines and mines, Kafka said.

A study published in the science journal Nature last year said it appeared that whales and other marine mammals could be killed or harmed by the sonar. Scientists have theorized that when animals get frightened by the sound, they surface too quickly, causing nitrogen in the blood to transform into gas, which can block blood vessels and cause bleeding in vital organs.

The letter to the Navy followed a bizarre incident July 3 in which roughly 200 melon-headed whales herded together near the coast of Hanalei Bay in Hawaii. One beached itself and died a few days later. Environmentalists suspect the whales, which resemble dolphins and usually inhabit only deep water, were driven ashore by the booming sounds.

The Navy agreed to halt the testing during the July 3 herding, but said the whales began gathering a full hour before the Navy began using mid-frequency sonar in exercises 20 miles from the shore.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is working with the Navy to determine whether the sonar was a factor. Other possible explanations could include a predator, searching for food, or a loud noise unrelated to the sonar, NOAA spokeswoman Connie Barclay said.

In October, a federal judge scuttled the Navy's plans to experiment with low-frequency sonar throughout the majority of the world's oceans, confining it to areas with few marine mammals and endangered species.

The order did not preclude the Navy from using the low-frequency system during wartime, and acknowledged that the Navy must be allowed to train with it beforehand in various oceanic conditions. The Navy is appealing the ruling.     Associated Press

 Hawaiian Whale Stranding Revives Sonar Theory...  U.S. Navy Wants to Expand the Program

In early July, off Hanalei Bay on the Hawaiian island of Kauai as many as 200 melon-headed whales, a small and sociable species that usually stays in deep waters, were swimming in a tight circle as close as 100 feet from the beach, showing clear signs of stress.

To keep the animals from beaching, the locals kept a vigil all day and through the night, until a flotilla of kayaks and outrigger canoes could be assembled to herd the animals back out to sea. So far, only one young whale has been found dead.

But among increasingly worried whale advocates and researchers, the event set off immediate alarm bells: Melon-headed whales are not known to beach themselves, and nothing like this mass stranding close call has occurred in Hawaii for 150 years.

Attention quickly focused on the Navy and its use of active sonar -- a wall of sound sent out to find underwater objects that can reach the decibel levels of a jet engine. Sonar has been implicated in several recent mass whale strandings around the world, and the latest research has strengthened the association and suggested that the number of incidents may be far greater than anyone realized. The most recent study found that over the past 40 years, mass strandings of the most noise-sensitive whales off Japan occurred repeatedly in the waters near a U.S.-run naval base, but were unknown in comparable areas elsewhere.

Several hours after the Hanalei Bay episode began, locals learned that a six-ship Navy fleet 20 miles out to sea had begun a sonar exercise the morning that the melon-headed whales headed toward shore. Officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it is too early to conclusively link sonar to the near-stranding, but they said their top priority is to learn more about the Navy exercise.

Unless a different and convincing explanation can be found, the Hawaii incident is destined to become the newest case in a high-stakes battle between environmentalists and the military over a technology that has been a staple of Navy operations for decades. Marine mammal advocates say it has become increasingly apparent that sonar can lead to death for whales, porpoises and other sea creatures, and something must be done to limit its toll. But the military says that to protect the nation, it needs to use more sonar, not less.

Navy spokesman Jon Yoshishige in Hawaii said that the fleet does not believe that its sonar had anything to do with the unusual drive to shore of the melon-headed whales. He said Navy records initially showed that sonar was not turned on until about 8.30 a.m. on July 3 -- an hour after the first reports of whales in Hanalei Bay -- but that a full investigation is underway. He also said the fact that only melon-headed whales were affected suggests that sonar was not the cause, as sonar-induced strandings typically involve a number of species.

Joel Reynolds, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council, which sued the Navy over its plans for a new global sonar system, called the Navy response "consistent with what we've seen in previous instances of strandings close to naval sonar activity -- they say, 'We had nothing to do with it.' Hopefully, a real investigation will determine if that's true or not."

The latest incident could hardly have come at a worse time for the military. A series of congressionally mandated conferences has been underway for months, under the auspices of the Marine Mammal Commission, to assess the effects of sonar and other underwater noise on whales, porpoises and dolphins. The group is expected to make recommendations to NOAA and Congress next year.

This fall, the Navy intends to unveil plans for its first underwater sonar testing range. The so-far-unpublicized proposal would establish a 10-to-20-square-mile range in the shallow waters off the Carolinas for sophisticated and intensive sonar training. The Navy says it needs the range to train sailors in detecting a new generation of inexpensive and "quiet" diesel submarines that several nations have acquired and that could be deployed to threaten the coastline.

The Navy, working with information and advice from NOAA, is just finishing an environmental impact assessment for the testing range. Details of the plan and its possible implications for sea creatures remain sketchy, but the waters off the Carolinas are known to be on the migratory routes of several species of whales.

The military has already been forced by a federal judge to limit deployment of a different sonar project -- a $350 million cutting-edge, low-frequency sonar system it wants to deploy worldwide. The judge concluded last year that the government had not properly considered environmental effects before allowing the Navy to use the new sonar. That led to an agreement between the Navy and environmental groups to restrict the sonar to a limited section of the Pacific Ocean off east Asia, but the Navy has appealed several aspects of the decision.

With these major new projects underway, the Navy suddenly has to deal with a problem involving old but still evolving technology that, until recently, was not seen as an environmental threat. Only after the stranding of 17 whales in the Bahamas during a sonar exercise in 2000 did the Navy acknowledge -- a year later -- that its traditional, mid-frequency sonar could be lethal to marine mammals. In 2002, a Spanish-American naval exercise off the Canary Islands had to be stopped after it, too, touched off the stranding and deaths of beaked whales, a deep-diving and generally reclusive animal.

With interest and research growing, new reports strongly suggest that traditional sonar has caused many more mass strandings than previously believed. A database of known beaked whale strandings and naval maneuvers put together by James Mead of the Smithsonian Institution marine mammal program has found an overlap of "between 100 and 200 cases" in the past four decades. He said the overlap does not prove sonar caused the strandings, but "the association certainly is quite impressive."

Just this month, Robert L. Brownell Jr. of NOAA in California presented a paper at the International Whaling Commission that examined beaked whale strandings since 1960 near a U.S. naval base in Japan. He found evidence of at least 10 mass strandings -- involving between two and 13 animals -- in the waters near the naval base at Yokosuka. For comparison, Brownell examined records for the coast of New Zealand and other areas off Japan and found no indication of mass strandings in either locale.

"The co-occurrence of the mass strandings and the U.S. Navy activity in this region strongly suggests" a relationship, Brownell concluded.

Although the Navy has used "active" sonar -- whereby ships send out sound to bounce off underwater objects -- since World War II, the power of that mid-frequency sonar has increased over the years. The apparent link between this type of sonar and major whale strandings is a relatively new discovery, and it has put the Navy on the defensive. Several hours into the recent Hawaii incident, NOAA officials asked the Navy to stop its sonar exercise -- which included two U.S. and four Japanese ships -- and the commanders complied.

Navy officials say the service is the primary environmental steward of the world's oceans, funding 70 percent of marine mammal research in the United States and almost 50 percent worldwide. Officials also say that the number of sonar-related incidents is small, though worrisome.

Rear Adm. Steven Tomaszeski, the Navy's chief oceanographer and for 30 years a Navy combat officer, said the seamen involved in the Bahamas stranding in 2000, for instance, "told us they felt really terrible about what happened to the whales. But, the truth is, we just didn't properly consider that they might be there."

"We actually know more about the surface of the moon than we know about our oceans," he continued. "We don't really know where many of the whales are, and we don't know too much about how a whale's ear works. Some would say that if you don't know, then don't take chances and let's keep our acoustic energy out of the water. It's the precautionary principle. But in good conscience, I couldn't send a fleet out to sea without sonar. It's the best anti-submarine defense by far."

To be effective, however, the sonar systems need trained sonar operators, and Tomaszeski said that requires on-the-water experience. Training maneuvers occur regularly around the world, he said, and a sonar training exercise brought the Navy into contact with whales in the Bahamas in 2000, the Canary Islands in 2002 and, apparently, off Hawaii this month.

Whale advocates and environmentalists say they fully understand that sonar has to be used without restraint in times of war. The training exercises, they say, are needlessly harmful.

Environmentalists familiar with the plan for a shallow-water sonar testing range say the Navy should expect opposition to the proposal. According to Donald Schregardus, deputy assistant secretary of the Navy for the environment, planning began about four years ago. He said the Navy wants to install underwater microphones and sensors to create a facility where sailors can better train to use sonar.

He said the Navy is working with federal environmental officials to study which animals inhabit or migrate through the area and at what times and densities, and to assess the likelihood of disturbing marine mammals.

"We want to improve underwater training and detection, Schregardus said. "And we want to take that knowledge and information and establish a range on the West Coast, too.     The Washington Post

ACS is very actively following the issues involving sound problems in the ocean. Please see essays on Sound on the website under the Issues Section)

 Scientists Listen to Whale Hearing Via 'Third Ear'...   Scientists have long studied haunting whale songs, but now they are investigating what the whales make of ocean noises to determine whether freighters, military sonars and oil drilling are harming the giant mammals.

"We actually know very little about the way whales perceive sound and use sound," said Michael Noad, the scientist at the University of Queensland who heads the U.S.-navy funded study. The Australian study is being funded by the U.S. Office of Naval Research and is focusing on the meaning of whale songs and how whales react to other noises. The study is taking place off Peregian Beach of Australia's tropical eastern state Queensland, in a "commercial shipping highway" used by migrating humpback whales.

Scientists and green groups have voiced concern over the impact on whales and other sea mammals of sounds generated by shipping, the military and oil rigs, Noad said.

U.S. officials linked a mass stranding and the death of several whale species in the Bahamas in March 2000 to the use of a navy mid-frequency sonar system. There are numerous other incidents in which the U.S. Navy was using sonar that appeared to affect whales in the area.

Marine scientists have long believed that humpback whale songs depend on the animals' migratory paths, with populations inhabiting different oceans singing quite distinct songs. Whale songs run seven to 15 minutes and contain themes, like verses in human songs. Scientists say some are "love songs," sung by male whales to attract females during the mating season.

Noad said until scientists learn more about the hearing system and sound perception of whales, they would not be able to understand how man-made marine noises impact on whales. "There is plenty of behavioral evidence that whales do avoid, to greater or lesser extent, loud industrial sounds in the ocean," Noad said.

"If you did stick a very loud sound source in the middle of a breeding ground of sensitive whales, it almost certainly would have a deleterious effect on those animals," he said.

The whale study involves placing suction cups on whales to try and measure what they hear. "The suction tags have a hydrophone which acts like another ear stuck on the side of the whales, allowing us to hear what they hear, as well as sensing their movements and what depth they go to," said Noad.

The study will also measure ambient ocean noise, particularly surf noise, as scientists believe whales may use sound to help them navigate during migration and will playback whale songs to measure whale reactions.     Reuters

 NOAA Stalling on Whale Watching Rules...  The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration is sitting on two sets of rules to protect whales from the growing threat of death and harassment from whale watching expeditions, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).

Fatal collisions with ships have become a leading threat to whale survival. According to NOAA figures, whale watch boats are the second known leading cause of ship strikes of whales, second only to ship strikes by the U.S. Navy. Examples of whale watch incidents include:

• On October 10, 2001, a whale-watch vessel injured a humpback whale approximately 5 nautical miles northwest of Stellwagen Bank, MA. An abrasion 1.5 feet long by 1 inch wide was seen anterior to the whale's dorsal fin;
• A minke whale killed in Barnstable, MA on September 12, 1998 when a whale-watching vessel traveling 25 knots struck the animal. According to reports, the whale swam under the bow of the boat, an impact was felt, and the whale surfaced with a deep gash. Shortly after the hit, the whale's carcass was spotted.
• A whale-watch catamaran traveling 17 knots injured a humpback whale in Maui, HI on February 13, 2001.

"It is ironic that expeditions to appreciate wildlife may be damaging that wildlife," said New England PEER Director Kyla Bennett, a former federal biologist. "Safeguards are needed to curb the desire by some operators to let their clients closely encounter whales at the risk or harassing or harming them."

With the exception of the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale, there are no mandatory rules about how close whale watch boats may approach whales. Two efforts to codify these guidelines into enforceable rules have not moved beyond the proposal stage, despite growing evidence of harmful human-whale interactions. On January 4, 2000, NOAA placed a detailed proposal in the Federal Register that included -

• Speed limits within a two-mile zone around a sighted whale;
• * Rules enforced with penalties for operators violating whale watch restrictions, such as a minimum approach buffer, similar to the 500 feet clearance afforded to right whales, and;
  * Special permits or certifications for whale watch vessel operators.

Two years later, on January 30, 2002, NOAA also proposed rules to prevent harassment of whales by humans on personal watercraft, kayaks and jumping off vessels to swim with whales. To date, however, neither of these proposals has been finalized.

"It is time for NOAA to stop proposing and start acting," stated Bennett, who noted that just last month NOAA also proposed speed limits, no-shipping areas and designated shipping lanes in the Atlantic Ocean to protect endangered right whales. "Voluntary guidelines are no substitute for enforceable rules."     Marmam

 United Kingdom Seas in Crisis...  An urgent call for legal protection for UK seas and the wildlife they host has been made to mark United Nations World Oceans Day (June 8).

Wildlife and Countryside Link, an alliance of leading conservation groups, said pollution, noise and disturbance from offshore industry, fishing and recreation is threatening marine wildlife including whales, dolphins, seabirds, cold water corals and maerl beds.

More than 40,000 species - 50 per cent of the UK's plants and animals - live in British seas yet national species protection laws extend just 12 nautical miles from the coast. There is currently no adequate system to safeguard the full range of nationally and internationally important, vulnerable and sensitive marine areas.

Stuart Singleton-White, head of the Link Campaign for Marine Legislation said: "The neglect of our seas by government has been woeful. The oceans are our last living wilderness but are being exploited and damaged almost beyond repair. There has been enough talking about what should be done. Action must replace words now and legislation must be introduced in the next session of Parliament to save our seas before it is too late."

Wildlife and Countryside Link is urging government to adopt a number of measures to improve marine protection, including:

• A co-coordinated approach and overall vision for UK waters, including an ecosystem-based approach to managing the marine environment;
• Improved, properly enforced marine legislation, including the designation of protected areas and better species protection;
• A planning system to enable strategic and integrated - rather than piecemeal - management of activities at sea; and
• A new system for managing inshore fisheries.

The campaign is supported by almost 300 MPs who have signed Early Day Motion number 171 calling for improved marine protection.

Their move follows a call from members of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee who said in their Marine Environment report in March that there was "a pressing need to update and streamline the legislative and institutional framework governing marine environmental protection."

As part of their campaign to introduce legislation, Wildlife and Countryside Link is meeting top civil servants and lobbying politicians, co-coordinating campaign events across the UK, and working to raise public awareness and support for better marine protection.

In the United States, both the Pew Commission and the National Commission on the Oceans released studies this spring calling for urgent focus on ocean health worldwide.     WDCS

 Whale Watching Replaces Whale Hunting in Mediterranean ...  Whale watching is a new way for communities who once hunted the world's largest animals to earn a living, say the environmentalists who helped to set up the biggest whale sanctuary in the Mediterranean.

Whales and other sea mammals in the Mediterranean prompted the Romans to give what is now known as the Italian Riviera the name of Costa Balenae, or Whales' coast. The glamorous resort of Portofino takes its name from the Latin Portus Delphinii, Dolphin's port.

Modern civilization, with its whale hunting, fishing, ship traffic and pollution drove sea mammals away from the coast and took some species to the brink of extinction.

"It's crucial to protect whales because they, as top predators, are at the top of the food chain in the oceans," said marine biologist Guglielmi. "By protecting whales and dolphins we can protect the whole environment they are living in."

Commercial whaling, together with irresponsible fishing, presents the biggest threat to sea mammals, killing thousands with unacceptable cruelty, conservationists say.

Three major whaling nations Norway, Japan and Iceland say the stocks of some whales, especially the small minke whale, have recovered and are plentiful enough for catching.

They harpoon whales despite a ban on commercial whaling imposed by the International Whaling Committee (IWC) nearly 20 years ago. Norway says the whales damage fish stocks, while Japan and Iceland say they hunt them for scientific purposes.

Environmentalists say about 20,000 whales have been harpooned since the moratorium came into effect in 1986 and more than 1,000 would be hunted down this year.

They are also concerned that the three major whaling nations appear to be gaining support in the IWC, the only global body devoted to whales, and that this month's IWC meeting could move toward lifting the ban on whale hunting.

Smaller sea mammals fall prey to fishing, often illegal.

"I once saw dolphins, with heavy weights tied to their tail fins to suffocate them. They were like sea stalagmites," recalled Enzo Maiorca, a 73-year-old former Italian free-diving champion now dedicated to the protection of sea mammals.

Ecologists believe whale-watching, popular in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, not only educates people but can be an alternative way to earn money, providing jobs in villages which traditionally worked in fishing and whaling.

"A live whale is worth much more than a dead whale," said Guglielmi. "We are starting a whale-watching tradition."

One tourist boat, which carries about 200 people, can earn up to 250,000 euros ($303,800) in the summer season taking curious holiday-makers to track the whales. The tourist trips, which in turn increase sea traffic, should be organized according to strict rules to keep disruption to animals to a minimum, says the WWF, a conservation body.

In 1999, after a decade of lobbying by environmental groups, Italy, France and Monaco signed a treaty establishing the Whale Sanctuary off the Italian and French Rivieras. With its 84,000 square km area and about 1,243 miles of the coastline, it is the biggest protected area in the Mediterranean and the first to include international waters. Environmentalists who helped to set it up say its ecosystem is unique and offers perfect temperature and nourishment conditions for whales. A combination of deep water down to 9,842 feet close to the coast and strong currents that bring nutrients from the sea bottom attract whales and other sea mammals.

Up to 3,500 whales come relatively close to the coast to feed during the summer, and scientists believe the Mediterranean whales stay in the region in winter, moving into the open sea. The sanctuary gives scientists a chance to study whales in their natural environment and to educate people about them. It also helps protect sea mammals from threats including fishing, shipping traffic and pollution.

In one of Italy's worst ecological disasters, the Cyprus-registered tanker Haven sank in April 1991, leaking more than 14,000 tons of oil into the bay of Genoa. This is dwarfed by the 635,000 tons of oil spilled every year in the Mediterranean, which accounts for some 25 percent of global oil traffic, mostly by tankers discharging waste oil to avoid costly and lengthy rinsing in ports, environmentalists say.

Whale protection groups have urged authorities to use new satellite technology, which can detect ships discharging oil at sea, and impose heavy fines.

Sea tourism, growing every year in the Mediterranean, is also bad news for whales, which risk collisions with fast boats. If ships and boats were equipped with special echo sounders allowing for horizontal as well as vertical search, many sea mammals could be spared, environmentalists say.     Story by Svetlana Kovalyova

 Cold Waters May Be a Factor in Whale Strandings...  An analysis of data collected over more than 80 years has revealed that a disproportionate number of cetaceans beach themselves on the beaches of southeast Australia every 10 to 12 years. The stranding events appear to be triggered by a climate phenomenon called the zonal westerly winds.

"Strandings were thought to be pretty random events - or suspected of being linked to climate events like El Niño - but nothing had been demonstrated. We have shown a clear pattern," says Mark Hindell of the Antarctic Wildlife Research Unit at the University of Tasmania in Hobart.

Tasmania is one of the world's hotspots for cetacean strandings. Common dolphins, sperm whales and long-finned pilot whales are three of the species that most commonly beach themselves.

Hindell's team analyzed data on all cetacean strandings in Tasmania from 1920 to 2002. In peak stranding years, there were about 10 times as many stranding events as in trough years. During the last peak, in 1992, there were 29 stranding events. When the team looked at stranding data from the state of Victoria, in southern mainland Australia, they found the same pattern.

Then they looked for a possible environmental explanation. They noticed that the occurrence of stranding events correlated with variations in summer sea-surface temperature and sea-level air pressure off Tasmania, which are indicators of shifts in the movement of zonal westerly winds across the Australian continent.

Roughly every 10 years, these winds cause severe storms and a rise in the amount of cold sub-Antarctic water that moves north to the Tasmanian coast, Hindell says.

Many whale species stick to this colder water, as it is richer in nutrients. So as the colder water gets closer to the coast, so too do the whales and dolphins, he says.

Although this does not explain precisely what causes the whales to strand, knowing about these regular peaks in beachings should help whale rescue groups prepare by stepping up community training in how to deal with a stranded whale, or even by patrolling beaches during maximum danger periods.

"Information that can help with better preparing volunteers would be very useful," says Ron Ling, president of the Organization for the Rescue and Research of Cetaceans in Australia, based in Sydney.     New Scientist