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Whale carcass closes Windward beaches
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Staff Writer

Beaches from Bellows Air Force Station to Waimanalo Beach Park were closed yesterday as about a dozen sharks fed off the carcass of a dead humpback whale that had washed ashore on the military base.

A whale carcass washed up on the beach at Bellows Air Force Base in Waimanalo yesterday morning. The beach was closed to swimmers after sharks were seen in the area.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu AdvertiserCapt. Kevin Allen, with the city lifeguards, said the Windward beaches may remain off limits today.

"Because the carcass has been attacked by sharks over the past couple of days, its blood and its smell is in the water," Allen said. "So we would like people to be aware that there may be sharks in the water."

The whale carcass was spotted about 10:30 a.m. by fishermen, Allen said. Sharks 6- to 12-feet long surrounded the whale, and bite marks could be seen on the decomposing, white body.

Dozens of people watched from a distance, mostly to avoid the overpowering stench. Despite the lifeguards' warnings, people at Waimanalo Beach Park were swimming, understanding that they were taking a chance.

Evelyn Burton and her son Michael went for a swim but stayed close to shore. Burton said her family had planned to spend the day at Bellows but was turned away and later she learned it was because of the dead whale.

Burton said she couldn't resist the ocean, but she said she was cautious. "But it was scary when a body surfer bumped into me," she said.

Kris Tine said parents of a local basketball team lined the beach as their children swam. The group began arriving at the beach at 10 a.m. and came out when instructed to, but by 2 p.m. they had decided to take a chance and let the children in the water even though a shark had been spotted earlier.

The city provided a front-end loader and several dump trucks to remove the whale. The work was completed about 9 p.m. last night.

$3.3 million whale study launched
February 18, 2004, The Associated Press and The Maui News

Hundreds of researchers from 10 Pacific Rim nations will take part in a $3.3 million project to study the humpback whale population, federal marine officials announced Tuesday.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the three-year project called ''Structure of Populations, Level of Abundance and Status of Humpbacks'' - or SPLASH - will be the most comprehensive study ever of the endangered mammals. Five research groups focused on the waters around Maui County are participating in the study, which will involve taking tissue samples as well as photographic identification of each animal in an effort to determine the extent to which humpback whales from different areas of the Pacific may be intermingling.

Richard Spinrad, assistant administrator of NOAA's National Ocean Service, said the study will provide information to better protect the whales in their habitat and rebuild their population. ''Somebody described to me (that) SPLASH is a big whale study,'' he said. ''It's a study of big whales, but it's also the biggest and the most ambitious research study ever taken for the North Pacific population of humpback whales.

''It is unprecedented in terms of international cooperation and in terms of geographic scope.''
Lou Herman, whose Dolphin Institute has been conducting research on marine mammals around Maui County since 1975, said two graduate students on his research team have been specially trained in taking biopsies from humpbacks, a procedure that will be an essential element of SPLASH.

Herman's group will be a major participant, conducting sampling around Maui County, Oahu and Kauai, he said. The data will allow researchers to determine the extent to which whale populations in different areas of the Pacific are interacting with each other, or if they are at all.

There are populations that frequent different areas of the Pacific, including the Central Pacific habitat that runs from Hawaii to Alaska. By comparing DNA collected from animals from different areas, the study can determine whether there has been interbreeding among the different populations, a factor that can affect the successful recovery of the species, Herman said.

But the research can also get more personal. He said researchers frequently see several males apparently competing for a female, but don't know if one dominant male is the only one mating successfully.

"We can't tell what's going on because nobody's seen a mating taking place. We see a number of males competing, but we don't know which actually had a successful mating," he said.

Those are issues of concern to the population, since the amount of mating among different animals affects the diversity of the gene pool. "These are big questions, which would be impossible to answer without DNA sampling," Herman said.

The study will also help to establish the size of the population and even basic questions about the mix of genders and the health of the individual animals examined.

Hundreds of researchers from the United States, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Canada, Philippines, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala will be involved in the project along with eight Hawaii research groups.

Besides The Dolphin Institute, Maui County research participants include the Center for Whale Studies, headed by Mark and Debbie Ferrari, the Hawai'i Whale Research Foundation led by Dan Salden, the Whale Trust headed by Meagan Jones, and a Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary group headed by David Mattila, the sanctuary's science and rescue coordinator.

Other Hawaii research groups participating are the Hawai'i Marine Mammal Consortium on the Big Island, Marine Mammal Research Consultants on Kauai and the Oceanwide Science Institute on Oahu. Only permitted research teams are included in the SPLASH project.

The effort will record data on humpbacks found throughout the Pacific, from the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea, along the coasts off Russia and Japan, south to Costa Rica, around the Central Pacific and Hawaiian waters and west to Mexico and the U.S. Pacific coast.

''I have no doubts that in just a few short years, our understanding of the life cycles, biogeographics of these magnificent marine mammals will expand exponentially,'' Spinrad said.

The humpback whale was listed as an endangered species in 1973. Scientists estimate that the pre-whaling population of the North Pacific whales was about 15,000, but their numbers have dwindled to about 7,000.

Samuel Pooley, acting regional administrator of NOAA Fisheries Pacific Islands, said the study will help give an updated and more accurate population estimate and help determine whether their numbers are rising or decreasing. He also hopes to learn more about potential impacts of humans and marine debris on the whale population. Spinrad said the announcement was made in Hawaii because it is ''both physically and historically at the center of humpback whale research.''

Naomi McIntosh, Hawaii sanctuary director, said the study project is modeled after a smaller research program set up by Mattila that sought to assess the health of the humpback population in the North Atlantic. With Mattila now providing his expertise in Hawaii, she said, "We've been working on pulling this effort together with our partners since last year."

While the focus is on the North Pacific population, she said researchers in the South Pacific, including from the Philippines and in Nicaragua, will participate as well to seek to determine if there is a possibility of humpbacks from the southern and northern oceans mixing

"There's nothing to keep them from swimming across the equator or meeting in different seasons," she said. "One of the interesting questions, because the population in the North Pacific was decimated by whaling, we would have thought there would be a poor genetic line. But we've found that the DNA of the North Pacific population is very diverse, which says that mixing of the northern and southern populations is a possibility."

"We will be assessing the health of the population, and assisting in their recovery," Herman said.

Mattila said the research in Hawaii will be focused on the winter months, when thousands of whales come to the islands.

The whales migrate from summer feeding grounds off Alaska, spending their winters mating and calving in the Hawaiian Island chain's warm, shallow coastal waters. An estimated 5,000 humpback whales, or about two-thirds of the North Pacific stock, make the trip each year.

Adult humpbacks grow to a size of up to 45 feet and weigh 25 to 40 tons. Their life span is unknown, but is believed to be about 40 to 60 years.

No sign of whales struck by boat
Maui News, February 13, 2004

Marine officials say there are still no signs of the whale mother and her calf who were allegedly hit by a speeding boat Sunday in waters off of Puamana. The baby humpback was injured in the incident, according to initial information on the collision.

"There haven't been any further sightings. So no one's out there looking for (the calf)," said Delores Clark, public affairs officer for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NOAA is still investigating the incident and getting confirmation of what happened, she said

According to Hank Janpol of Pukalani, a boat collided with the two whales Sunday afternoon off Puamana beach in Lahaina. Janpol was on his kayak, about a couple hundred yards offshore, when he yelled to the boat operator to slow down.

The humpback whale is an endangered species protected by law. In the water, federal law prohibits people from approaching humpback whales closer than 100 yards.

Police said a brown-and-white 22-foot MerCruiser with a blue bimini top allegedly collided with a whale calf. The boat operator, a 52-year-old Makawao man, was with another male and two women; no one in the boat was injured, police said.

John Reghi, assistant special agent in charge at NOAA's office for law enforcement on Oahu, said he couldn't give exact numbers, but he did say there have been cases of boats approaching whales too closely reported this year that are being investigated.

Reghi said on the average there are 60 cases of alleged marine-mammal rule violations that are investigated in the state each year, 45 to 50 of which are related to humpback whales. The rest are alleged violations involving animals such as spinner dolphins and monk seals.

Reghi said violations have remained level over the last couple of years and that he hasn't seen a marked increase.

Jeff Walters, co-manager of the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, said boaters should be extra careful during whale season when traveling a mile or less from shore.

"That's where the moms and calves are hanging out," he said. "That's where boaters need to be extra careful."

Walters said calves tend to breach every three to five minutes, so they will appear on the surface frequently. Adult whales, including mothers, may need to breathe once in 20 minutes, he said.

Waters added that the calves don't have a big spout to watch out for. And although the calves are small compared with their parents, "it's still a massive object to hit. It's not good for a boat and not good for a calf."

Walters said the calves are around 12 feet long and about 2,000 pounds.

While in Hawaiian waters, the calves and mothers are here for a vacation and to gain some weight, experts said.

"Eat and sleep and a little bit of play, I guess," explained Allan Ligon, a research associate with the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

Ligon said the whales don't actually sleep, but they are getting some rest and "trying to get fattened up so it they can make it back to Alaska."
Ligon said it's almost the peak of whale season.

"It'll probably pick up a little bit more at the end of February," he said.

Witnesses: Boat Could Have Avoided Whale Collision
Source Says Boat's First Mate Was Cooking During Accident
February 12, 2004, KITV News

KITV 4 News has uncovered new information about what happened aboard a whale-watching boat Christmas Day, when it struck a whale, killing a little boy.

Passengers who interviewed by the Coast Guard told KITV the accident could have been avoided and said a key crewmember was busy cooking food at the time of the accident.

The Coast Guard has yet to complete its probe, but investigative reporter Keoki Kerr has the results of a KITV 4 News investigation.

Home video shows the American Dream colliding with a humpback whale Christmas Day. Ryker Hamilton's father fell on the boat's deck with Ryker, 3, in his arms. Ryker hit his head on the railing and later died.

The company has said the whale "suddenly appeared." However, passengers that day disagree.

"For them to say that the whale came out of nowhere is a total fabrication," Indiana visitor John Skeens said.

Skeens was the first person to spot the whale. He said the whale never went back underwater, as the boat continued at full-speed for roughly 20 seconds. That was enough time for him to walk from one side of the boat to the other. The captain announced over the audio system that whales were ahead, Skeens said.

"And I said, 'We're going to hit this whale.' Because it looked like we were just heading right at it," Skeens said.

"This was a freak accident that was caused by nature, that we did, in my opinion, an outstanding job of responding to," Dream Cruises President Mike Watson said.

A tour boat captain who used to work at Dream Cruises as a lifeguard and manager said the captain should have been more cautious.

"If he would have done what he was supposed to have done by just stopping and making sure. This wouldn't have happened," Kimo Field said.

KITV 4 News has learned that Dream Cruises employees have told the Coast Guard that Capt. Monroe Wightman's view was obscured by as many as a dozen passengers on the deck, immediately in front of him. When the bow, or front, of the American Dream is crowded with people, former employee Kylie Kohagura said, "You can barely see anything."

Watson maintains the captain could see fine that day.

"He wouldn't operate under conditions under which he couldn't see where he was going, certainly not on a whale watch," Watson said. A former employee said Wightman should have put the crew on alert once he saw the whale, sending his first officer as a spotter.

"Send him out to take a look. Have spotters. There are so many things that could have been done. Not just keep going," Field said. However, sources tell KITV 4 News that the first officer was in the rear of the vessel, cooking chicken on a grill at the time of the accident.

While some other whale-watching companies assign employees specific spotting duties once they see whales, ex-employees of Dream Cruises say that's not the case.

"Nobody was actually assigned to that. We were just basically told 'If you see something, let me know,'" Kohagura said. "This was what amounts to a catastrophic slip and fall accident by a dad and his son. It's irrelevant what other companies do," Watson said.

The Coast Guard could take months to finish its investigation of the accident.

Hawai'i receives ocean health grant
Honolulu Advertiser, February 12, 2004

Hawai'i is one of four states chosen to receive more than $1 million a year from the federal government to study how ocean environmental issues affect public health, University of Hawai'i oceanographer Ed Laws said.

Laws said yesterday the concept is to link scientists and oceanographers like him with doctors from the UH John A. Burns School of Medicine. Together, they can help find ways to make sure ocean waters are safe for swimmers and develop a cheap and easy test for ciguatera, one of the most common kinds of fish poison, he said.

"This is certainly a coup for the University of Hawai'i," said Laws, one of the people who worked on the grant application to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a part of the National Institutes of Health.

The grant will establish four Centers for Oceans and Human Health. Laws said the UH groups just received word they had been selected; he was not told where the other sites will be.

The director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Dr. Kenneth Olden, is in Honolulu this week for a conference and town meeting to ask people in the community about their top priorities for environmental health concerns.

Olden declined to discuss the details of the ocean health initiative because the selection of the four states has yet to be announced. He did say that they will share some $6 million annually.

"What we're trying to do is untangle the relationship between human health and the ocean," Olden said.

One project for the new centers to tackle is the link between mercury in some fish and certain health risks, he said. He also sees the ocean as having the potential to help develop new drugs that could treat cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and a host of other illnesses.

Laws said researchers plan to study water-quality monitoring to help find an effective way to determine if sewage has contaminated beaches. State and federal experts disagree on which are the best kinds of bacteria to test for as an indicator of water quality.

Another goal of the oceans project would be to develop an inexpensive, easy-to-use test that fishers could use to see if their catch was safe to eat.

Laws said ciguatera poisoning is a widespread problem in the tropics. Fish consume an organism that produces the toxin, the poison is retained in the fish and people who eat the fish then get sick, he said. "When people go to the store and buy a fish, they'd like to know if it's safe to eat," he said.

Kealia Pond officials mount effort to cut midge population
Maui News, February 10, 2004

After a two-year reprieve, the pesky, swarming midges at Kealia Pond National Wildlife Refuge are back. But this time, workers at the sanctuary have a new weapon in their toolbox to help reduce their numbers, and control efforts are scheduled to begin this week.

The recent heavy rains that filled Kealia Pond also brought about a gradual increase in the number of spotted-winged midges, a chronic problem that has plagued neighboring condominium dwellers for the last decade.

Refuge Manager Glynnis Nakai said yesterday that a compound known as s-methoprene, which interferes with the insect's maturing process, will be spread in pellet form across more than 100 acres of open water in the pond.

"Although we won't be able to totally eliminate the midges, we believe we can reduce the nuisance to our neighbors," Nakai said.

Nakai said refuge staff members have been monitoring the midges since mid-December. The small gnat-like creatures swarm at night and at dawn and dusk during winter and early spring. The midges are attracted to light and are tiny enough to fly through window screens, making them a major nuisance to nearby condominium residents who have repeatedly urged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to do something to control the bugs.

Research conducted at the refuge in 2001 pointed to the effectiveness of s-methoprene, Nakai said. The chemical, which is contained in a product called Strike pellets, is an "insect growth inhibitor" that mimics an insect juvenile hormone and prevents the larvae from emerging as adult flying insects, she said.

The chemical is slowly released from the pellets for approximately 21 to 28 days after field application.

Since the spotted-winged midges' life cycle is two to 2 1/2 weeks, one application targets about two generations of midges. With fewer midges emerging as adults, fewer eggs will be produced for the next generation.

The pellets will be applied by a spreader on a boat. The vegetation and edges of the main pond will not be treated to protect endangered and migratory birds, with special attention given to Hawaiian coots that are in different stages of nesting — laying eggs, incubating and some with broods.

Nakai said the larvae and emerging adults will continue to be monitored and, if necessary, the pond will be treated a second time.

Maui leads way in glass recycling
Honolulu Advertiser, February 9, 2004

A state law requires that government road paving projects in Hawai'i use recycled glass when possible, but only Maui County uses most of its recycled glass in road construction.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said he could not get a firm figure on the amount of glass being used in O'ahu roads. The problem is that the department combines recycled materials in its statistics, so both recycled glass and recycled asphalt pavement are included in its figures for "glassphalt," and most of it is old pavement.

"The mix of glassphalt in road construction material ... came out to about 20 to 25 percent," he said.

In 2000, 125,332 tons of material were used in O'ahu highway projects. Of that amount, 20,850 tons consisted of recycled materials. Last year, 21,884 tons of material were used, and 3,636 was a combination of recycled glass and recycled pavement, according to figures provided by Ishikawa.

Figures from the state recycling office suggest that only about a sixth of the glassphalt comes from glass. They show that 696 tons of recycled glass were used in O'ahu road construction in 2003.

That represents less than 10 percent of the 7,756 tons of glass collected on O'ahu during 2003. An additional 2,657 tons were used as fill on construction projects. The majority, 4,403 tons, was shipped to the Mainland to be converted back into glass products.

On Maui — the state champion in using recycled glass in road construction — some 95 percent of the glass collected by Aloha Glass Recycling ends up in roads. In 2003, 1,185 tons of glass, out of a total of 1,208 tons collected, was used in paving material. The remainder was used as sandblasting grit and for water filtration.

The Big Island used virtually all of its 1,585 tons of recycled glass as landscaping material. And on Kaua'i, most of the 643 tons collected was used for fill in pipe trenches, under houses and behind retaining walls. Some was also used for roads and sandblasting, but distinct categories of use were not broken down.

Statewide, glass recycling by the counties has been fairly stable, between 11,000 and 14,000 tons the past six years.

Recyclers say their biggest problem is an uneven flow of glass into recycling projects. Tom Reed of Maui's Aloha Glass Recycling said he sometimes must store hundreds of tons of glass before it is used.

Ahihi-Kinau rangers funded by HTA grant
February 16, 2004, Maui News

Two on-site rangers will be hired to patrol the Ahihi-Kinau and La Perouse Bay areas as part of a $460,000 grant from the Hawaii Tourism Authority to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Beginning this summer, the rangers will be hired for three years to monitor the Ahihi-Kinau Natural Area Reserve and La Perouse Bay, or Keoneoio, which have been overrun in recent years by tourists and kayak tour companies.

According to a DLNR news release, the rangers will provide information and education about the Ahihi-Kinau/Keoneoio coast to help people understand how to respect the resources and avoid damage to the reef, land and historic features.

The rangers also will patrol the area to watch for illegal or harmful activities such as vandalism, littering and the harassing or poaching of marine wildlife.

While the rangers will not serve as law enforcement officers, they will increase awareness among visitors and notify conservation officers of significant illegal activities.

The hiring of rangers is just one of several things in store for the South Maui coastal area.

A cultural resource management plan, which will include an archaeological survey, will be developed for Ahihi-Kinau and Keoneoio. It will include a blueprint for preservation of known archaeological sites and for surveys to find undiscovered sites.

The state also has applied for permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to install and maintain boundary buoys in reserve waters. The buoys are intended to keep out motorized watercraft, which are not allowed in Ahihi-Kinau waters. In addition to contributing to the problem of illegal fishing, the watercraft pose a threat to swimmers, snorkelers and scuba divers in the area.

The money came from the Tourism Authority's new Natural Environment Program. It provides $356,726 to DLNR for the Ahihi-Kinau/Keoneoio resource protection plan, the rangers, upkeep of portable toilets already on the site and signage.

"This grant will allow us to implement and expedite needed management activities that will sustain the health of the resources and allow positive experiences for residents and visitors to the area," said Peter Young, DLNR chairman.

An additional $103,274 will go to the Hawai'i Wildlife Fund/Friends of Keoneoio, through DLNR, for an education outreach program for Maui visitors, called "Think Island." The campaign will include general presentations to visitors in hotels on Maui's outdoor environment and historic places and provide a presence in the area. The funds will also be used to build a visitor kiosk.

The Tourism Authority has been working with Hawaii's various environmental groups and organizations, including DLNR, the Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and Hawaii Ecotourism Association.

"HTA's vision is to enhance Hawaii's tourism product so that it not only attracts visitors but also protects the natural resources for our residents," said Rex Johnson, the authority's president and chief executive officer.

Johnson said the preservation effort includes "an assessment of the cultural and environmental resources at this site as well as the development of educational and protective measures that will prevent negative impacts on the resource in the future."

Statewide Kaho'olawe meetings start next week
Honolulu Advertiser, February 19, 2004

The draft for a five-year strategic plan for Kaho'olawe calls for increased fund raising to support the island's trust fund, creation of a Kihei information center on Maui, establishing an on-island manager and developing a procedure to transfer the reserve to a future Native Hawaiian sovereign entity.

The Kaho'olawe Island Reserve Commission plan will be presented in a statewide series of workshops starting Wednesday.

Stanton Enomoto, the commission's acting executive director, said yesterday that commissioners are hoping the public will help shape a working document called Draft Strategic Plan: 2004-2008 (Hanau hou he 'ula o Kaho'olawe — Rebirth of a Sacred Island).

Enomoto said the commission is trying to decide what its priorities should be, given the scope of its task and "the condition of the island and its surrounding waters, and the limitations of safety and money."

The commission is preparing to take control of the former Target Island following a 10-year, $400 million cleanup of unexploded ordnance.

The priorities established in the final plan will provide the direction to fulfill the commission's mission, Enomoto said, which is to provide for meaningful, safe use of Kaho'olawe for cultural practices and restoring the island and its waters.

Among the plan's action items are:

To develop and maintain infrastructure, "including on-island and intra-island transportation, energy, communication, water, sanitation and Kihei information center."

To increase the commission's $30 million trust fund by raising money through partnerships and grants.

To develop an extensive volunteer base to help with restoration of cultural and natural resources.

To develop and distribute educational materials about the island.

To develop cultural orientation protocols to reinforce and re-establish the sacred geography of the island.

To conduct an assessment of cultural sites, including stabilization needs, access and cultural use.

To expand the scope of environmental restoration.

To develop "an enforcement network" to protect the island and its waters from illegal, inappropriate and unsafe uses.

To establish an on-island resident manager program.

To develop a plan for the transition of the reserve to a future Native Hawaiian sovereign entity.

Those wishing to participate in the workshops may obtain a copy of the draft plan from the commission's Web site at www.kahoolawe.hawaii.gov or by calling the commission on Maui at (808) 243-5020, faxing (808) 243-5885, or e-mailing administrator@kirc.hawaii.gov.
The Maui KIRC workshop will be Feb. 27, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Maui Waena Middle School cafeteria, 795 Onehe'e St., Kahului

Alaska village wants panel to approve whale hunt
The Associated Press, February 19, 2004

A village on Alaska's Arctic Coast wants a share of the whaling harvest. Point Lay, a community of 260 at the edge of the Chukchi Sea, has asked the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission for permission to take one bowhead whale every spring. It would be the first time villagers landed a whale in nearly 70 years, according to local elders.

At their annual meeting this week in Barrow, Eskimo whaling captains on the commission will decide whether to share their limited catch of bowhead whales with Point Lay.

Although the village receives gifts of muktuk and meat from friends and relatives in other whaling communities, a quota of its own would be a boon to Point Lay, Mayor Julius Rexford said. Even if the hunt weren't successful every year, it would reactivate an age-old tradition.

"We're praying and hoping the commission accepts our request," Rexford told the Anchorage Daily News.

Eskimos in skin boats have hunted bowheads for thousands of years in the Bering and Chukchi seas. The whales grow to 60 feet long and more than 100 tons and were also targeted by commercial whalers in the 19th and 20th centuries.

But the traditional harvest slammed to a halt in 1977 when the International Whaling Commission, fearing that bowheads were on the verge of extinction, banned the subsistence hunt.

Whaling communities were outraged. Rather than defy the ban as some counseled, however, the villages formed the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission and encouraged federal agencies to expand their bowhead studies.

A year later, and armed with new research that documented more bowheads than previously thought, whalers won back their subsistence hunt.

When whaling resumed in 1978, traditional whaling communities were allowed to kill 18 bowheads a year. As the whale population has rebounded, the Alaska harvest has grown to 51, split among 10 Alaska communities from St. Lawrence Island to the Canada border.

But for reasons of location, size and history, Point Lay is not among them.

The community originally formed on a long barrier island, which provided a reliable harvest of the smaller, white beluga whales. But Point Lay sits on an indented stretch of coastline that puts it farther from the path of migrating bowheads than other whaling villages, according to the Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs.

Whale on the Menu as Japan Renews Call for Hunting
February 19, 2004, Reuters

Scores of Japanese tucked into a feast of fried whale and whale kebabs Tuesday, renewing Tokyo's calls to lift a ban on hunting the giant mammals as they said eating whale was a proud national tradition.

"Whale is nutritious but expensive, I wish it were cheaper," said Mitsuko Yamamoto, biting into a whale cutlet sandwich.
"People overseas say whales are cute, but cows and pigs look cute to me too. It's a cultural difference."

Japan believes endangered whales should be protected but that others, such as the minke, are in no danger of dying out and hunting within limits should be allowed.

"There are lots of whales. Why is whaling no good?" Masayuki Komatsu, a senior Fisheries Agency official, told Reuters. "If you don't eat whale, your take of fish goes down, and you have to produce more beef, chicken and pork," he added. "Environmentally, this is very unsound."

Japan's die-hard pro-whaling stance has left it increasingly at odds with world opinion, even within the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a group originally set up to manage whaling.

Tokyo was angered by last year's move to establish an IWC conservation commission and has said it might consider quitting.

Government pamphlets laud the health benefits of whale, citing its high protein levels - which made it a crucial food source for the country after its defeat in World War II.

But with prices high and supplies low following Japan's adoption of a 1986 IWC moratorium on commercial whaling, it has become a pricey gourmet food. Japan still takes several hundred whales each year in what it calls scientific research whaling.

"I really like whale bacon, and if there's any red meat available in the stores I'll buy it right away," said Mimi Nishitani, a 41-year-old store clerk.

"I think it's fine to whale, just not irresponsibly." Japanese officials have repeatedly said they would prefer to work within the framework of the IWC, the only world body devoted specifically to whales, but that Tokyo's position has become more difficult as the organization has swung toward conservation.

"It's a bit unfair, because the nations that tell us not to whale don't it eat themselves," said retiree Hisao Koide.

Komatsu, at the Fisheries Agency, said Japan's decision on the group was likely by late June. "The possibility of quitting still remains," he said

Consumption of whale meat linked to disruption in children's brain development
February 16, 2004, Environmental Investigation Agency

A scientific study released last week revealed the harmful effects of exposure to mercury on brain development in children due to consumption of whale meat and some fish. This renews concerns that the Japanese Government continues to sell whale, dolphin and porpoise meat, which the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has shown, contains levels of mercury in excess of their own health guidelines.

The study, carried out in the Danish Faroe Islands over a 14-year period, suggested that post-natal exposure to methylmercury can cause children to suffer developmental problems, and disruption is exacerbated by continued consumption of mercury-containing products. It also supported concerns that damage caused by pre-natal exposure to methylmercury may be irreversible.

People living in the Faroe Islands are exposed to high levels of mercury and methylmercury through their seafood-rich diet, which includes pilot whale meat. Around 1000-1500 long-finned pilot whales and other dolphins are killed each year and the meat distributed around the island. As top predators, pilot whales accumulate high levels of mercury and other pollutants in their flesh and blubber.

In Japan, many people are exposed to high levels of mercury and methylmercury through consumption of whale, dolphin and porpoise (cetacean) products. Over a three-year period, EIA purchased and tested 72 cetacean products sold in Japanese supermarkets and found that over half the products contained levels of mercury or methylmercury that exceeded Japanese Government guidelines for human consumption. Mercury levels in these products can be 10 to 100 times higher than levels typically found in large migratory fish.

Although the Government of Japan has released a health advisory, warning pregnant women to limit consumption of certain cetacean species, this advisory does not cover all the species available on the market that typically carry high pollutant burdens. The recent scientific findings support calls from Japanese consumer groups to extend the advisory to consumers other than pregnant women. The Government of the Faroe Islands has also issued health advisories, warning people to severely restrict their consumption of pilot whale products.

Mia Strickland, EIA Cetacean Campaigner, stated: "These recent findings should drive governments in those countries which still consume whale, dolphin and porpoise products to take immediate action to protect their consumers, particularly children, from brain damage caused by exposure to mercury".

Blood boils over dolphin slaughter
The Australian Times, February 07, 2004

IN the 400 years that they have been hunting, the fishermen of Taiji have never found a clean way to slaughter a dolphin.

As guns are strictly controlled in Japan, the hunters use sharp hooks to drag the trapped mammals from the sea and long knives to cut their arteries.

The dolphins thrash in pain as they bleed to death, emitting audible whistles and cries. The shallow waters of the lagoon in which they are trapped turn red with blood.

This is the way that it has always been done in Taiji, and for four centuries the world paid little attention. But this obscure spot on the southernmost tip of central Japan has recently become the site of a remarkable confrontation.

Environmentalists from around the world have denounced the slaughter. Some activists have tried to obstruct the killing. The fishermen have been defiant, and there have been scuffles and arrests.

To the people of Taiji, the foreigners are racist hypocrites interfering with a legitimate business rooted in centuries of tradition.

To the activists, the annual dolphin hunt is a barbaric anachronism verging on murder. For a country in which face-to-face confrontation is almost taboo, the atmosphere in Taiji is profoundly tense.

Taiji was once famous for its whaling industry, curtailed by a 1987 ban. Now between October and March the dolphin boats go out at least every second day. And for the past two weeks Richard and Helene O'Barry, US dolphin activists representing the French group One Voice have been watching them.

They describe how the boats converge on schools of dolphins and lower metal poles into the water which are then beaten with sticks.

The noise creates a wall of sound that drives the dolphins into the lagoon. Its entrance is sealed off with nets and the dolphins driven on to the shore the following dawn by the revving of outboard motors. They are killed, butchered and sold for their meat. When Mr O'Barry and members of the environmental group Sea Shepherd filmed the slaughter last October, images of churning, bloody seas were published around the world. Since then, the hunters and environmentalists have been at war.

The hunt is legal and dolphins are not endangered. Why, then, should they not be killed for food? To people such as Mr O'Barry, 61, a former navy diver and seal trainer, the answer is simple. "Dolphins are not fish," he says. "They are intelligent marine mammals with large brains, highly complex communication skills and a social structure. What is going on here is nothing short of genocide."

That dolphins possess great intelligence is clear, but whether it approaches that of human beings is another question. "How many people in developed countries eat beef or pork, without knowing how it has been slaughtered?" asks Yoshihiro Kogai, of the Taiji fishing co-operative.

"In this village, we have only been able to survive by hunting whales and dolphins," Mr Kogai says. "We owe so much to them."

The hostility between the two sides is unbridgeable. The O'Barrys accuse the fishermen of menacing them with throat-cutting gestures. The fishermen are still furious about two activists cutting their nets last October, for which they were convicted and deported.

Asked if dolphin hunting will survive in Taiji, local fisherman Seko replies: "It depends on the Japanese Government. They're not always very strong in resisting pressure from overseas."

If dolphin hunting were banned, a magnificent creature would be saved from a bloody death - but in Taiji, at least, the sense of loss would be immeasurable.

Aquarium officials call for regulation after right whale death
Associated Press, February 18, 2004

The death of a pregnant North Atlantic right whale, apparently by ship strike, has an official at the New England Aquarium calling for better regulations to protect the endangered animals.

The body of an 80-ton female nicknamed "Stumpy" was discovered off the coast of Virginia the first week of February. It was the second right whale death attributed to ship strike in six months.

Scott Kraus, the vice president of research at the New England Aquarium, said any death in a population estimated at 325 is a step closer to extinction.

Current rules don´t go nearly far enough, he said, because they merely alert ships the whales are nearby, but don´t require them to take steps to avoid them. "(Ship strikes) probably are preventable," he said. "If you could prevent the deaths of two whales per year, you could stop the decline."

A necropsy on Stumpy showed the whale had major bruising and broken bones indicative of a ship strike, said Michael Moore, a veterinarian at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Another whale was found dead in the first week of October off the coast of Nova Scotia after suffering a broken jaw and massive injuries in the chest area, Moore said.

Sea lion found along Merced County road (65 miles inland, CA)
Feb. 09, 2004, Associated Press

Authorities tried to determine Monday how a sea lion turned up in the San Joaquin Valley -- some 65 miles from the ocean.

The 300-pound animal was reported ``crawling in the middle of the road'' in Merced County northeast of Los Banos at about 7:00 a.m., said California Highway Patrol officer Scott Jobinger.

A county road was closed for a time Monday while authorities waited for marine biologists and animal control officers, Jobinger said.

The animal basked in the sun on the back of a CHP patrol car.

``We're just trying to find out where this sea lion came from. It doesn't appear to be injured. It just appears to be out on a stroll in the Central Valley for some reason,'' Jobinger said. ``We're thinking maybe somebody dropped it, but there are also a lot of canals in that area.''

Jobinger hypothesized that the animal could have swam up a river from the ocean and made its way to Los Banos via a canal, explaining that the nearest waterway that empties into the ocean cuts through San Joaquin County.

Sea turtles could go extinct unless key migratory routes protected.
14 February 2004, Nature

Protecting the ocean routes used by turtles and other endangered species is vital if marine life is to be conserved, a group of marine biologists argued at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle on Thursday.

Evidence for these offshore highways has emerged over the past few years, as data roll in from experiments to tag and track creatures such as turtles and dolphins. The studies show that the sea's largest animals follow well-swum paths, and are often caught by boats fishing for smaller species in the same areas.

The extent of the problem is revealed in an analysis of the effect of fisheries on protected species of turtles, due to published next month1. More than 200,000 loggerhead and 50,000 leatherback turtles are estimated to have been caught by accident in 2000, and both species could be extinct by the middle of the century.

"We know where these highways are," says Larry Crowder of Duke University, an author on the fisheries paper and one of the researchers behind the conservation proposal. "The only question is whether we can act in time."

One route follows the edge of the Gulf Stream as it run along the eastern coast of the United States. Others include paths to areas far from land where cold, nutrient-rich water is pulled upwards by surface currents. The arrival of the nutrients prompts a growth in plankton, attracting larger marine animals.

Protecting these highways would be difficult, the researchers admit. The paths, which have been revealed by placing satellite communication devices on the back of migrating turtles and the fins of dolphins, are not precisely fixed in the water. And some cover vast distances - one bluefin tuna route crosses the entire Atlantic.

"There are challenges galore," admits Elliott Norse, president of the Marine Conservation Biology Institute in Redmond, Washington, who is also backing the conservation plan. He says that the problem of shifting routes can be solved by constantly tracking the movement of turtles and dolphins, and comparing data on ocean currents and temperature. By predicting where the animals will go, argues Norse, we can adjust fishing practices to reduce the number caught.

The researchers say that strategies such as this should also help the fishing industry to continue to work near these routes, and stress that conservation need not mean banning fishing. For example, turtles spend 90% of their time in the top 40 metres of the ocean, so boats that fish at deeper levels need not stop work when turtles are present.

But who would enforce the new highway regulations? Norse says that the United Nations has the power to protect areas beyond national waters and adds that there is a precedent for it doing so. Whale hunting is banned in the Indian Ocean, for example, and boats are not allowed to take swordfish from parts of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Similar rules could be put in place for turtles, he says.

Longline fishing is taking a terrible toll on sea turtles in the Pacific.
BBC News, February 13, 2004

Loggerhead and leatherback turtles have an annual 40-60% chance of meeting a longline hook, and thousands are dying as a result, Dr Larry Crowder says.

The Duke University researcher told a Seattle conference that urgent action was needed to prevent these creatures from disappearing from the ocean. The US marine ecologist says tracking technology reveals that turtles use the same areas as fisheries vessels.

Dr Crowder made his comments at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science here in Washington State. He says the impact of longlines on turtle populations has emerged from research he and colleagues have just submitted for publication in the journal Ecology Letters.

Although turtles clearly lose large numbers because of habitat loss, egg poaching and predation at their nesting sites, he says the idea that so many are also being killed at sea in fishing gear is quite shocking.

"In the year 2000, longline fishermen from 40 nations set at least 1.4 billion hooks on longlines that average about 40 miles long," he said. "That's 3.8m hooks per night that are set globally."

Although not every encounter with a hook results in death, the losses are nevertheless substantial. The latest estimate suggests that globally loggerheads (Caretta caretta) are being killed at a rate of about 200,000 a year. In leatherbacks (Dermochelys coricea), the number is about 50,000.

In the Pacific, where the animals are critically endangered, these losses are especially serious.

"More loggerheads and leatherbacks are estimated to be killed in the longline fishery alone than nest annually in the Pacific," Dr Crowder said.

New tracking and remote-sensing technologies are revealing new information about where marine organisms congregate and how this brings them into conflict with the fishing industry.

"If you think about these turtles being homogeneously distributed in the largest ocean in the world, it is impossible to imagine they would ever run into a hook. The answer to that is they aren't homogeneously distributed - they're in very particular places," Dr Crowder said. "If you saw Finding Nemo, it is a cartoon characterisation but not a bad one, in the sense that organisms like sea turtles orient themselves to 'highways'.

"Unfortunately these habitats, these highways, are also locations where there is intensive fishing."

Indonesia to Protect Top Nesting Site for Critically Endangered Turtles Says World Wildlife Fund
FEBRUARY 16, 2004, World Wildlife Fund

The most important nesting site in the Pacific for the critically endangered leatherback marine turtle will be protected, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) said today. A pledge to create a crucial marine protected area in the north coast of Papua to include this site was announced by the government of Indonesia during the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity.

With only 10 important remaining nesting sites in the Pacific, leatherback turtles face catastrophic population declines. Slaughter of turtles and unsustainable collection of their eggs, habitat degradation, as well as accidental catch by longline hooks and drowning due to entanglement in fishing nets are the main threats to the species. According to WWF, the leatherback turtle population in the Pacific has dropped from 90,000 nesting females in the 1980s to approximately 3,000 today. At least 25 percent of the remaining population in the Pacific comes ashore annually to lay their eggs on the Indonesian beach of Jamursba-Medi, making it clearly the top on the list for protection.

"We applaud the commitment of the Indonesian Government to strengthen protection for leatherback turtles and the Pacific marine environment more generally. However, we would like to see more tangible commitments to protect this vulnerable species beyond one nesting beach," said Tom Dillon, director of WWF's Species Conservation Program. "Altering harmful fishing practices is a huge regional challenge."

WWF stressed that, with this commitment and other protection measures recently adopted, the Indonesian government has recognized the need to protect and restore the sea turtle populations in the country's waters. The Indonesian government has also called on fishing nations and the fishing industry to find solutions to reduce the accidental catch of turtles by hooks or nets.

According to WWF, improvements in fishing gears and techniques can dramatically reduce the number of turtles that die in nets and on hooks. For example, proven technologies such as turtle excluder devices (TEDS) in trawl nets, can significantly reduce the accidental catch of turtles and their deaths by drowning in nets in many parts of the world. Also, exciting recent research in the north Atlantic indicates that changes in hooks and baits can significantly reduce the number of turtles killed by longline fishing each year.

"This new research is already boosting efforts by conservationists, fishermen, and government leaders to help coastal communities fish smarter," said Kim Davis, deputy director of the WWF-US Marine Conservation Program. "WWF is taking new technologies to the field to improve use of longline fishing gear and techniques, country by country, to reverse the decline of the most vulnerable marine turtles along their migratory routes. Both improved fishing practices and nesting beach protection -- of the sort that Indonesia just announced -- are critical to the future of marine turtles. We commend Indonesia in this positive step forward to protect a marine environment critical to both animals and humans."

Global warming threatens coral reefs
16 February 2004, Nature

The world's coral reefs could be badly damaged by global warming unless drastic intervention measures are introduced, marine experts have warned.

Tens of millions of people rely on reefs to protect their homes from erosion and to support the fish that they eat. The underwater landscapes harbour about 25% of marine species and generate some $30 billion each year through fishing and tourism.

The experts' warning comes in a report, published by the non-profit Pew Center on Global Climate Change, that sums up the potential impact of global warming on coral reefs over the next century. It was released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Seattle.

Almost 15% of the world's reefs are already beyond repair thanks to global warming, the report says. Another 30% may be lost over the next 30 years, estimates Richard Aronson of Dauphin Island Sea Lab in Alabama, one of the report's authors.

Experts at the meeting urged governments and conservationists to act now to stem the tide of damage. As well as curbing greenhouse gas emissions, the authors recommend introducing ecosystem management plans that will cut the impact of fishing and pollution.

Some countries are already implementing reef conservation programmes. In Australia, for example, a law banning fishing on 30% of the Great Barrier Reef is expected to come into effect this year. The government has also backed a measure to compensate fishermen for lost revenues.
Experts at the meeting explained how tiny sea anemone-like polyps build coral reefs by secreting brittle, limestone skeletons. Algae support the polyps by converting sunlight and carbon dioxide into sugars that feed them; the polyps, in turn, ooze waste products that nurture the algae.

The report says that global warming is harming coral reefs in at least three ways. Changes of just 1 or 2 °C can stifle the life-giving algae. Spiralling levels of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, dissolve in sea water, creating an acidic cocktail that stops polyps oozing their skeleton. And warmer water makes the reef more vulnerable to other threats, such as overfishing, diseases and pollutants that drain into coastal waters.

"Global warming is tearing the heart out of coral reefs," says Terry Done of the Australian Institute of Marine Science in Townsville.

Marine biologists first noticed the widespread death of coral during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1997-98, global warming intensified higher ocean temperatures caused by El Niño and wiped out some 16% of the world's reefs. Dying coral loses the healthy green-brown glow conferred by algae and pales to become white, a process called bleaching.

Warming waters are also nudging coral reefs north and south into previously cool waters, such as the shorelines of Florida and Texas. But because reefs take years to build up, this 'coral creep' cannot compensate for larger losses in the tropics, experts say.

Action to save oceans backed: Poll finds Americans in favor of treaties, ready to eat less seafood
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER, February 16, 2004

Most Americans favor international treaties to rescue the ailing oceans and say they are willing to eat less of certain kinds of seafood threatened by overfishing, a national poll released yesterday in Seattle showed.

Just under half of Americans questioned in the poll support regulations restricting coastal development and -- despite what scientists say -- only one-third believe their own actions have a large impact on oceans and coastal areas.

The poll of 2,400 Americans was released by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world's largest scientific society, whose five-day annual conference concludes here today.

The findings come as a national study commission prepares to report that people's actions are dragging down the oceans' health and that the government must revamp its confused approach to protecting America's seas.

They were released in conjunction with the AAAS' first town hall meeting to engage the public in science issues, this one focusing on what should be done to buoy Puget Sound's flagging health.

"If we want healthy seafood, we need healthy ecosystems. It's that simple," said Oregon State University marine scientist Jane Lubchenco in a news briefing. "We have taken that bounty for granted and now face unanticipated challenges."

The time to act is now, said Usha Varanasi, director of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center, a government lab in Seattle run by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

"We need to act as we get information, and we must not put the burden on scientists to be completely certain before we take action," Varanasi said in her address at the meeting. "The policy-makers need to be brave enough to make decisions."

The U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy was authorized by Congress and appointed by President Bush to explore the health of America's seas. It is composed mostly of scientists, business people and former government officials, and its report is due out in the next several weeks.

It follows the release last spring of the privately financed Pew Oceans Commission report, which decried the state of America's seas as "in crisis."
While the upcoming U.S. commission's report differs some in emphasis and recommendations, it largely will track the findings of the earlier document about the health of the oceans, say its architects.

From both panels, "the message is that we are faced with a serious situation, and we need to move on finding solutions," said Lubchenco, of the Pew panel.

Coastal development, scientists say, harms the oceans in a number of ways, including shunting tainted water into nearshore areas when rain washes oil, animal feces and many other pollutants off streets and other hard surfaces. Automobile exhaust and scrapings of toxic copper from brakes find their way into nearby waterways and ultimately the ocean.

Even development far inland can have this effect. A "dead zone" the size of New Jersey has developed in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of pollutants washed down the Mississippi River from as far north as Canada.

"When it comes to oceans, what happens on land is as important as what happens in oceans," Lubchenco said.

"We're losing coastal habitats at a frantic pace."

Scientists last year reported that 90 percent of the large fishes of the sea, such as tuna, swordfish and halibut, have been taken since World War II by industrial fishing fleets. In the AAAS poll, 72 percent of those questioned agreed that protecting oceans is best done globally, such as through treaties governing fish and oil-drilling practices.

Sixty percent said they were willing to eat less of certain kinds of fish to help improve ocean health. Fifty-six percent agreed the government should spend money on research to reduce pollution. Those numbers dropped to 47 percent in favor of government regulation restricting use of the seashore and 46 percent supporting local efforts to reduce business and economic development of coastal areas.

In Puget Sound, vast stretches of shoreline that nourishes small fish crucial to the food chain have been destroyed by bulkheads and other erosion-protection measures. The destruction affects three-quarters of Snohomish County's shoreline and two-thirds of King's.

"It's gone, and it needs to be restored -- a huge, complex endeavor on par with restoring Chesapeake Bay and the Florida Everglades," said Jeff Koenings, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife director.

Fully 79 percent of those polled agreed that man-made stresses "may well be leading to long-term damage and serious problems."
"A large majority of the public is deeply troubled by the environmental changes facing our oceans and coastal areas," said Alan Leshner, chief executive of AAAS.

The AAAS poll was conducted by Porter Novelli, an international public-relations firm. The 2,400 respondents, part of a consumer-research consumer-mail panel, were weighted to be representative of the U.S. population. However, Porter Novelli representatives were unable to say late yesterday what the margin of error is.

Often, such research seeks to be 95 percent certain it is within 2 to 4 percentage points of the results that would be produced by polling the entire population.

Fish farms still ravage the sea
Sustainable aquaculture takes one step forward, two steps back.
17 February 2004

Fish farms are in danger of losing any ground they may have gained over the past few years to becoming a sustainable industry, according to Rebecca Goldburg, a senior scientist with Environmental Defense in New York.

While aquaculture is proving less wasteful now than in the late 1990s, it is using up more resources than ever before. And recent US policies could be set to make things worse.

Environmental Defense is concerned about the sustainability of aquaculture primarily because farmed fish are frequently fed on meal made from wild-caught fish. In 2000, Goldburg co-authored a paper revealing that 1.9 kilograms of wild fish were on average required to produce every 1 kg of fish farmed in 19971.

Goldburg has now recalculated these figures with more recent data, and has come up with some good news. In 2001, each kilo of farmed fish consumed only 1.36 kg of wild-caught fish.

This increase in efficiency is due in large part to an expansion of freshwater aquaculture in China, says Goldburg. Fish farmers there tend to raise carp or tilapia, which are vegetarians, and so don't consume any wild fish stocks.

Efforts are also being made to coax carnivorous fish, such as salmon, into eating feed based on vegetable protein2. "They're going to have to figure out how to use less fishmeal in the long run," says Claude Boyd, an expert on aquaculture at Auburn University in Alabama.

But it's not all good news. The expansion of aquaculture has meant that the total catch going towards fish food has continued to increase, from 10 million tonnes in 1997 to 12 million tonnes in 2001. As aquaculture continues to boom, it will exact a growing toll on species such as sardines and herring, Goldburg says.

The situation could be made worse by a new policy from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which aims to promote offshore farming of species such as red snapper and cod. By growing these fish in cages held almost 5 kilometres off the coast, NOAA wants to expand the worth of the US aquaculture industry from $1 billion to $5 billion per year.

The problem is that these fish are carnivores, which could reverse the trend to use feed containing a lower proportion of fishmeal. "An explosion in growing carnivorous fish can easily override these efficiency gains," says Goldburg.