Endangered Species // Current

Endangered - The Aussie Bloke

A national survey of 500 Australians by McCrindle Research has found the hard-drinking, straight-talking Aussie male is under... more

EclecticBadger
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Japan's whaling fleet sets out for Antarctic

The main ship in Japan's whaling fleet set out for the Antarctic on Monday for its first hunt in the region since limping... more

jefftego
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A cheaper plan to stop poachers

While I would also support giving poachers a taste of their own medicine, by catching them only to let them loose in a quarantined... more

Jlarson
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Japan will not hunt humpback whales this year

The whaling fleet is scheduled to put to sea in a matter of days and has set a target of 850 minke whales and 50 fin whales,... more

jefftego
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Re-growing Paradise

Jack Ewing was once a cattle farmer and hunter and is now a successful author and conservationist. Over the last thirty years,... more

RoamResponsibly
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Whaling target proves protests are working

Opponents of Japanese whaling are pointing to a reported cut in the coming Antarctic season's quota as evidence that the struggling industry is in retreat.

The Antarctic minke whale quota this summer will be reduced from 850 to 700, according to the respected Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

The federal Environment Minister, Peter Garrett, said that if the report was accurate, the change would be the first reduction in the target since 1987.

"But the Government's objective remains: bringing an end to all commercial whaling, including whaling in the name of science," he said yesterday.

The whales campaign co-ordinator for Greenpeace International, Sara Holden, said: "We are seeing the beginning of the end of whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary."

The Asahi report cited opposition from Australia and other countries, protests in the Southern Ocean and a slump in domestic consumption of whale meat among reasons for the cut. Japan sets its own quota for "scientific research" under International Whaling Commission rules.

Last season Japan told the commission it had taken 551 whales, fewer than it expected, because of "relentless interference" from environmentalists and Australia's official surveillance of the fleet.

This year it apparently still plans to take 50 fin whales. Commission scientists heard that the whalers had trouble finding the fins last season. Processing the giant animals was also difficult.

The fleet is expected to depart for the Antarctic within days, but without the usual fanfare. A traditional public farewell is not expected, according to a Greenpeace whales campaigner, Reece Turner.

He said the industry was also troubled by the announcement that a high-profile whale meat shop in Tokyo would close in 2010 because of financial problems. And for the first time, the fleet would not be 100 per cent Japanese-crewed because of resignations of former crewman.

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So if opposition is starting to work, what else can be done to quickly bring an end to the whale hunts?Opponents of Japanese whaling are pointing to a reported cut in the coming Antarctic season's quota as evidence that the... more

jefftego
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5 days ago

Save the whales, but only when national security isn't at stake

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision today ruled that the Navy does not have to consider the effect of sonar on whales when... more

jefftego
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6 days ago

Supreme Court Chooses Navy Training over Risk to Whales

The U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that national security trumps environmental rules, lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of... more

jefftego
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6 days ago

Sea Shepherd ready to clash with Japanese whalers

The Australian Government is calling for restraint as Japanese whalers and protesters prepare for a confrontation in the Southern... more

jefftego
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2 responses

7 days ago

The Real Price of Farmed Salmon

Salmon aquaculture is devastating the world's oceans and an international coalition of scientists, Canadian First Nations and tourism operators have called for a global moratorium.

"We've seen a regional collapse of all sea life in the 20 years since the salmon farms moved in," said Chief Bob Chamberlin of the Kwicksutaineuk Ah-kwa-mish Canadian First Nation in the province of British Columbia on Canada's west coast.

Scientific studies have linked sharp declines in wild salmon populations in British Columbia to disease and parasites originating in open-ocean salmon farms. Millions of non-native salmon have escaped ocean net-pens in Chile and have become an invasive species, transforming the ecology of local river systems.

There is little debate that salmon aquaculture is both unsustainable and environmentally destructive. Three or more kilogrammes of wild fish is needed to produce one kilo of farmed salmon. The ocean bottoms under and around the open-ocean net pens are usually devoid of any life, buried under the excrement of up to a million salmon overhead.

"Salmon farm 'shadows' can extend three or four kilometres depending on the current," said Wolfram Heise, director of the marine conservation programme at the Fundación Pumalin (Pumalin Project), a private conservation initiative in Chile.

These shadows are dead zones where there is nothing but mud and faeces along the bottom of the ocean. "Oxygen levels in the water are so depleted it sometimes forces the farms to move to new locations," Heise told IPS from Puerto Varas, located 1,000 kilometres south of Santiago.

Like land-based factory farms where far too many animals are being raised in confined quarters, heavy doses of antibiotic drugs and hormones are fed to the fish. Despite this, a potent virus swept through Chile's salmon farms last year and has cut production in half. Unable to stem the outbreak, the farms simply moved to new locations hundreds of kilometres away, abandoning their local employees and the contaminated waters and seabed.

On Canada's west coast scientists have connected the decline in wild salmon stocks to the region's 100-plus salmon farms. After publishing their research in the prestigious journal Science, marine biologists warned that one wild salmon species will be extinct by 2011 because of infestations of parasites that originate in salmon farms. More than 80 percent of the annual pink salmon in the Broughton Archipelago, 300 kms north of the city of Vancouver, has been killed by these parasites since 2001.

North America's northwest coast is home to several species of wild salmon that remain one of the natural wonders of the world and are a key part of the coastal ecosystem. After spending two or more years feeding in the open ocean, they return to their natal streams and rivers to spawn and die. Many species, including eagles, bears and wolves, feed on the dying or dead salmon. They also bring large quantities of salmon carcasses into forests, which decay, enriching the soil and feed many plants, including the region's giant red cedars and sitka spruce trees.Salmon aquaculture is devastating the world's oceans and an international coalition of scientists, Canadian First Nations and... more

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7 days ago

Australia unlikely to monitor Japanese whaling

Australia's government is unlikely to send ships to monitor Japanese whaling in the Antarctic this season, lawmakers said Tuesday, after clashes with activists last year led to a diplomatic protest from Tokyo.

Canberra last year sent a customs and fisheries icebreaker to shadow anti-whaling activists and the Japanese fleet, gathering photo evidence of the yearly research hunt for a possible international legal case against Tokyo.

But after high-seas clashes between the whalers and activists in the frigid Southern Ocean, the brief detention of activists on a whale hunting ship and diplomatic protests from Japan, Environment Minister Peter Garrett would not promise a repeat.

"The Japanese whaling fleet is expected to launch within the next month, yet still the government refuses to take any active steps to prevent this annual slaughter," Australian Greens Senator Rachel Siewert told reporters.

Despite the moratorium on whaling, Japan is allowed an annual "scientific" hunt, arguing whaling is a cherished tradition and the hunt is necessary to study whales.

Japan's whaling fleet will leave for the Antarctic within weeks and intends to cull 850 minke and 50 fin whales in the Southern Ocean this season, Australian lawmakers said. Japan has yet to confirm the hunt target.

"I urge Minister Garrett to take action before we have to sit by and once again watch our endangered whale population slaughtered under the guise of Japanese "scientific research,"" Siewert said.

Seven out of the 13 great whale species are classed as endangered or vulnerable by environment group WWF, including fin whales. Japan last year retreated on a plan to hunt endangered humpback whales after international protests.

Garrett said this week Australia's center-left government had been clear about its opposition to Japanese scientific whaling and recently named an ambassador for whale conservation.

"Everything that we said that we would do in order to engage on this issue we have done and we'll continue strong diplomatic engagement in the mean time," Garrett said.

Environment watchdog Greenpeace has also decided not to send an anti-whaling ship south this year amid expectations Japan may send a coastguard ship with the fleet to ward off activists.

The hardline Sea Shepherd conservation group, which led last year's campaign, launching stinkbombs and boarding a Japanese ship, said it would again disrupt the hunt and hoped to double its protest fleet this year to two ships.

"I don't care if they send the whole Japanese navy down there. We're not going to be intimidated," Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said. Watson, in claims rejected by the Japanese, last year claimed to have been shot at from a whaler.Australia's government is unlikely to send ships to monitor Japanese whaling in the Antarctic this season, lawmakers said... more