Full Text Of News Articles

Kaua'i surfer escapes shark attack
By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Bruce Orth was sitting on his surfboard in 4- to 8-foot surf at Kalihiwai Bay yesterday when a shark came up and bit the left side of the board.

"I just started pounding him," said Orth, 51, of Kilauea. "I think I got two good punches in. I was just trying to push him off."

Fellow surfer Wayne Smith, 49, also of Kilauea, said the gray shark appeared to be about 2 feet longer than Orth's 8-foot board.

"He let out this yell — kind of a scream. The shark was between me and him. The view I had, it looked like it had him by the arm or shoulder," Smith said. It did not, and Orth was not injured.

The attack lasted just seconds, then the shark let go and disappeared. Both men said it was big and gray, but could not be sure of the species.

Orth thinks it could have been a tiger shark. He said the bite mark left an impression about 12 inches across.

Lifeguard Kalani Vierra of the county's Ocean Safety Bureau said the water at the bay was a little murky but not at all muddy, with onshore winds and choppy conditions. The county posted signs warning beachgoers to stay out of the water until further notice.

"They're out there, I know that, (but) I'm a lot more scared of riding a bicycle in highway traffic than surfing," Orth said.

The attack took place about nine miles from the Tunnels surf break near Ha'ena Beach Park, where 13-year-old surfer Bethany Hamilton lost an arm to a 14-foot tiger shark Oct. 31.

Longliners set to resume fishing
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

When longline swordfish fishing returns to Hawai'i next month after more than four years, it's hoped that the impact on sea turtles will be minimal.

Longline fishers will return to fewer fishing days, federal observers on board at all times and strict limits on the number of turtles that can be snagged alive or dead — 16 in the case of leather-back turtles, 17 for loggerhead turtles.

Once that cap has been reached, swordfish fishing for the entire fleet will be halted immediately for the remainder of the year.

The impact of these changes on the returning fleet remains unclear. News yesterday that swordfish fishing in California waters will soon be banned and the state's dozen-boat longline swordfish fleet could be headed to Hawai'i has further clouded the issue.

The main complaint against longline fishers, who use miles of monofilament and hooks that reach depths of 50 to 1,000 feet, is that the hooks snare turtles and sometimes birds in addition to fish.

After swordfish fishing was banned in Hawaiian waters in 1999, Hawai'i longline fisher Minh Dang converted all eight of his boats to tuna fishing. Now he says he'd like to return to catching swordfish.

But he says he can't know if it will be economically feasible because, as yet, nobody knows how many boats will be fishing here for swordfish. While some will return to catching swordfish, others will stay with tuna fishing.

The total number of "set" days for all swordfish fishing here will be restricted to 2,120 sets a year (a set equals one day's fishing per boat). That figure represents roughly half the average number of annual sets all swordfish boats used before 1999.

But since Dang doesn't know how many boats will be dividing up the 2,120 sets, he can't know how many "sets" his boats will get. So he isn't sure what he'll do.

For now, longliners are happy but cautious, environmentalists are upset and the federal agency that oversees the Hawai'i fishing region says it has put together a good plan.

"We won," said Scott Barrows, general manager of the Hawai'i Longline Association. "And we did it by taking the high road. We had a problem and we wanted to solve it. To do that you've got to work with people."

Barrows said his group has worked with federal officials to come up with a workable solution to the turtle dilemma. In addition to the limits and severe penalties, that solution involves using circular hooks and a type of bait that reduces turtle bycatch by 60 percent to 90 percent.

"There are a lot of people who are worried about turtles — and rightly so," Barrows said.

But Paul Achitoff, managing attorney for the Hawai'i office of Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental public interest law firm, says the timing of the California ruling, which takes effect April 12, and the reinstating of swordfish fishing in Hawai'i on April 1 is no coincidence.

"It appears to be part of a coordinated effort to simply move the swordfish longline vessels from California back to Hawai'i," he said. "Many of those vessels were fishing out of Honolulu until swordfish longline fishing was banned. ... So, they relocated to California.

"Basically, they're just saying: 'OK, guys, you can't fish here anymore but you can go back where you started.'"

Achitoff says the outcome will be a negative for endangered sea turtles.

Paul Dalzell, senior scientist with the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, a federal agency that oversees the management of the Pacific region, sees things differently.

Because of rigid limits on interaction with turtles and strict caps on the number of fishing days allowed, fishers will be forced to take turtle safety seriously, said Dalzell. They will also be aware of the risks involved.

"It's a gamble," he said. "We could open up the fishery, and they could all go out and get in two weeks or a month of fishing, and that's it."

It's a necessary gamble, added Dalzell, because it gives fishers a strong incentive to minimize contact with sea turtles.

Whale Foundation protests super ferry
Pacific Business News, March 9, 2004

The Pacific Whale Foundation, a nonprofit group that also runs whale-watching tours, is protesting the introduction of high-speed super ferries to Hawaiian waters.

"At first glance, the ferry might sound like a great idea for the people of Maui, but we really want the public to think about the environmental issues," said Greg Kaufman, president of the foundation. "Scientific studies of ship/whale collisions have shown that vessels over 240 feet in length and traveling at speeds over 14 knots (about 16 miles per hour) are most likely to kill or mortally injure whales."

The foundation's protest demonstration Monday afternoon near Kahului Harbor on Maui coincided with the exhibit of The Spirit of Ontario I. The catamaran ferry is similar to the ones Hawaii Superferry plans to use for daily service between Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the Big Island beginning in 2006.

Kaufman says he is concerned because the new ferry vessels are 340 feet long and will travel up to 45 miles per hour, much faster than the recommended 15 knots or less during whale season from December through April.

"Studies by [University of Hawaii] researchers show that this is one of the most whale-dense areas in Hawaii," said Alison Roberts, a marine specialist at the foundation. "There is also a high percentage of calves around the island of Maui."

Both Kaufman and Roberts applaud some of the ferry operator's ideas to reduce the likelihood of whale collisions, but would like a commitment to reduce their speed during winter months.

Other concerns raised by the foundation include the potential for spreading invasive species among the major Hawaiian Islands.

"Vehicles moving from one island to another are more likely to spread problems such as the coqui frogs or miconia," Roberts said. "The ferry will also make it easier for drugs, stolen cars and illegal contraband to be easily moved among the islands."

The foundation is launching a new petition and letter-writing campaign about the super ferry issue at pacificwhale.org.

Kaua‘i monk seals ‘wired' for tracking
By PAUL C. CURTIS - TGI Associate Editor

That manmade thing glued to the back of that endangered Hawaiian monk seal doesn't appear to bother him.

Researchers know he's a him because they netted and sedated the critter, glued the satellite-tracking device to his fur, took blood and tissue samples for his annual physical examination, then returned him to the wild.

Because the placement of the temporary, rectangular box affixed to the back of the seal known to researchers as TT40 hasn't appeared to have altered his behavior, researchers aren't worried that the box might cramp his style.

"We're here to help ensure the survival of these animals," said Charles Littnan, foraging ecologist for the protected species division of the National Marine Fisheries Service.

If it appeared the boxes disrupted or impaired normal seal activity, they would be removed, he indicated.

Littnan, Brad Ryan, Dr. Bob Braun and Dr. Bud Antonellis installed the tracking devices on four monk seals, two on Kaua‘i and two on O‘ahu, as part of a project to study and monitor the health of the endangered species.

Braun is the project's primary researcher.

The satellite-tracking devices allow researchers to see where the seals feed, what they eat, where they go, and where they might come into contact with stream or river runoff that may give them fatal diseases, Littnan explained.

So far, there has been no differences in behaviors or survivability between seals equipped with the tracking devices and those without the devices, he said.

The instruments transmit data for around six months, and sometimes longer. They come off the seals either as a result of the seals rolling around on shore, or during their annual "catastrophic molt" when they shed their fur, said Littnan.

Researchers know based on information provided that the adult male seen near Salt Pond Beach Park is TT40, the number on the seal's fin tag, because he hangs out on the Westside or South Shore, he said.

TT40 is healthy. "He's still hauling out normally" to rest, Littnan said. "He's not interested in humans."

Humpback Whales Resurging
Boat Collisions Are on the Rise
By Rita Beamish
Special to The Washington Post
Saturday, March 6, 2004; Page A03

HONOLULU -- No question about it, the humpback whales are flexing their fins. Where once they were scarce, they now are abundant, so much so that whale-watching captains can guarantee tourists will see the 45-ton mammals during a two-hour cruise.

A recent spate of encounters with boats, however, one of them linked to a child's death on a whale-watching cruise, is raising new concern about the whales' profusion. The worry is not that there are too many of them -- whale watching, after all, is a $17 million business in Hawaii, and the humpback species is still listed as "endangered" -- but that their proliferation makes the once rare boat collisions more likely.
This winter, the National Marine Fisheries Service has logged three whale-and-boat interactions, in addition to Coast Guard reports of a calf bumping an anchored cutter and another boat just last week. That compares with only 22 such encounters reported between 1975 and 2003, with 14 of those occurring since 1995, according to a report last year from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Although the number of encounters is still small, especially given the thousands of boats and whales in the water, the study said many more go unreported, partly because boat operators fear citations for violating a federal 100-yard limit on approaching whales. Fines for first-time offenses can reach $3,000 for commercial boats and $800 for non-commercial offenders.

Concern was heightened in December when a 3-year-old boy died after striking his head while on a tour boat that encountered a whale; the case still is being investigated. In subsequent weeks, a whale hit a fishing boat off Maui, and a recreational boat crashed into a whale that surfaced in front of it. The whales appeared uninjured, investigators found, but in the past humpbacks have been spotted with big gouges of torn flesh, the presumed result of collisions. In 2001, a whale breached right up onto a stationary catamaran, then slid back into the water and swam off.

Even the most alert captain cannot always avoid whales, said Jim Coon, a tour boat owner and chairman of the humpback whale marine sanctuary advisory council. "Whales will pop up regularly inside the 100-yard circle," he said. "You don't know it's there and it jumps up a few boat lengths away." Authorities and boaters alike are looking for ways to ensure that whales and vessels, be they fishing, shipping or recreational boats, can safely share the near-shore Hawaii waters where most North Pacific humpbacks come to breed between December and May.

"We have a lot of boats running around and there are a lot of whales, and they're not running into each other very often," said Terry O'Halloran, a member of the advisory council. "But this is an issue that we've got to pay attention to. . . . The problem isn't going to go away, so we need to get a handle on it now."

Thanks to the 1966 international whaling ban, the endangered humpback is rebounding by an estimated 7 percent a year, a success story for a species that once was on the way to extinction. Joe Mobley, a whale expert at the University of Hawaii at West Oahu, said the population dipped a bit between 2000 and 2003, however, to an estimated 3,600 whales in Hawaiian waters. This year, the numbers appear to be up again, observers say, prompting greater concern about near misses.

"We don't believe that every incident that happens on the water is reported. There are probably lots more that we don't know about. Close encounters, those might be happening on a daily basis," said Naomi McIntosh, sanctuary manager. The naturally skittish whales themselves seem more comfortable around humans lately, even swimming up to boats to touch them, Mobley said. "Ten years ago nothing like this happened. The population is getting bigger, and secondly they're habituating to humans," he said. "They're tolerating us."

Collisions became a top priority for the sanctuary's advisory council even before this winter's incidents. In September, the council hosted a workshop with scientists, boaters and tourism representatives to work on prevention strategies. Their recommendations lean mostly to educational and public awareness outreach, a call for comprehensive reporting of incidents, and a campaign against boat speeding.

Paul Newman, a federal fisheries enforcement officer, said lower speeds would lessen the chance of collision. "My big heartache right now is that even though these are sanctuary waters, there is no speed limit," he said.

Last month, the state and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration urged boaters to keep speeds below 15 knots during whale season. NOAA guidelines also call on boat captains to idle their motor if a whale approaches, and refrain from getting between a mother and her calf or approaching a whale head-on.

Industry efforts are underway to promote more specific measures. The Pacific Whale Foundation on Maui has enlisted several local whale-watching companies to voluntarily follow "best practices," including slower speeds at varying distances from whales.

Several companies recently started logging all whale incidents for a new data base aimed at providing information to avoid collisions, said Anne Rillero of the Pacific Whale Foundation.

A greater risk than collision, however, is the hazard whales face from discarded fishing gear and nets, said David Mattila, science and rescue coordinator for the sanctuary. He said that 14 percent of the whales in Hawaiian waters have scarring from entanglements.

The overall condition and behavior of the North Pacific humpbacks, and the potential human impact on them, will be examined in a unique multi-agency $3.3 million study launched last month by Mattila and 100 other researchers. They hope to penetrate the mystery around the whales' migratory and mating practices and get an estimate of their numbers.

In the meantime, they anticipate more encounters like the one that surprised Coast Guard Lt. j.g. Mathew Fine last week. He looked over the side of the cutter Kittiwake to see a calf rubbing against the side, as if it were the whale's mother. Watching the calf, Fine said, "was a once in a lifetime opportunity." It eventually swam away when the boat started its noisy onboard pumps.

Monk seal on Maui seen begging for food
Advertiser Staff

MA'ALAEA, Maui — A Hawaiian monk seal reportedly has been begging for food in Ma'alaea Harbor in recent days, and wildlife officials yesterday issued a reminder that feeding or harassing such animals is against state and federal law.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the National Marine Fisheries Service also warned that feeding seals is harmful to the animals and dangerous to people.

Witnesses say the seal has been swimming up to people on shore and following them as they walk along the dock.

Joe Fell-McDonald found himself face to face with the seal while working at the stern of a whale-research vessel.

"I turned around and there he was," Fell-McDonald told state officials. "He seemed to be saying, 'Where's my food?' After a brief staring contest, he swam to the next boat, then on to the next and so on, always acting as if he was looking for food or something."

Officials said the Ma'alaea situation appears similar to one that arose at Nawiliwili Harbor on Kaua'i in October. The seal, known as K07 or "Lucky," was reportedly fed by various harbor users and was repeatedly spotted begging for handouts.

The seal was found dead on the beach near Kapa'a in late January. A necropsy revealed no obvious cause of death, though laboratory test results are pending.

Changing the natural behavior of the seal by feeding it may decrease its ability to survive on its own, according to research.

If you see an injured seal, call NOAA Fisheries at (888) 256-9840.

More whales mean more close encounters
A humpback bumped against a Coast Guard ship on Wednesday
By Diana Leone

The crew of the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Kittiwake had to persuade a 12-foot-long, several-ton humpback whale to leave its boat alone Wednesday a half-mile outside Honolulu Harbor.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Comm. Todd Offutt said a whale calf started rubbing against the ship's hull about 8 a.m., prompting the crew to contact scientists at the National Marine Fisheries Service for advice, "because at some point they were going to have to get under way."

Fisheries Service officials arrived about 10 a.m. and shooed the whale away with a noise-making water pump, he said. But "when they came back to the same mooring buoy" last night, the whale was there again," Offutt said.

Though less dangerous than three incidents this winter where boats encountered whales, Wednesday's incident shows the increasing need for Hawaii boaters to watch out for humpbacks, said David Mattila, science and rescue coordinator for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary.

A fishing boat in the same area also reported a young whale rubbing against its hull on Wednesday, which may or may not have been the same calf, Offutt said.

Federal rules require boaters to stay 100 yards away from humpback whales in Hawaii waters -- and not to move the boat if a whale comes closer unless it is an emergency.

More than 6,000 humpback whales winter in Hawaii, generally between December and May. Scientists believe the numbers are increasing as the endangered species recovers, raising the odds for more whale-boat encounters.

"Young animals are often more curious about objects in their environment," Mattila said of the whale that tried to make friends with the Coast Guard boat. "I've seen animals do that around icebergs and floating buckets."

However, if the youngster was born this winter, its situation may be more serious, Mattila said.

"It could be a calf separated from its mother."

A warning was issued to mariners to watch out for a young whale outside Honolulu Harbor, Mattila said, and researchers will be keeping an eye out for any further sightings.

Three other whale-boat encounters this winter include:

Three-year-old Ryker David-Lee Hamilton, of Norfolk, Va., died after his head struck a ship's railing on Christmas morning during a whale-watching tour off Oahu on the ship American Dream. Coast Guard and Fisheries Service investigations of the accident are pending, and neither agency would confirm whether it has determined that a whale hit the vessel.

A man was knocked unconscious Jan. 5 when his 18-foot fishing boat collided with a humpback off Kahului Harbor. He regained consciousness, brought his boat into the harbor and was treated for cuts on his head.

A second whale-ship collision was reported Feb. 8 off Puamana in West Maui.

Both nonfatal incidents remain under investigation by the Fisheries Service but not the Coast Guard.

Adult humpbacks normally measure up to 45 feet long and 45 tons, bigger by far than most recreational boats in Hawaii waters.

The best thing a boat can do in humpback waters is to go slow, said Christine Gabriele, a wildlife biologist studying whales off the Big Island.

A U.S. Marine Mammal Commission study indicates that vessel-whale collisions are much less likely to occur when vessels are traveling 17.25 mph or less. The study's findings also suggest that when collisions do occur at lower speeds, the damage to the vessel and the whale is usually much less serious.

Only 22 whale-ship collisions have been reported to the Fisheries Service between 1975 and 2003, said spokeswoman Delores Clark.

Usually, it is the boat's fault.

"There's a 1-in-10 million shot that a whale comes zooming out of nowhere and hits the boat," said Reg White, vice president of Paradise Cruise whale-watching tours.

A report on whale-ship collisions will be released later this year and used to focus educational efforts for the 2005 season, said Jeff Walters, sanctuary co-manager.

In the meantime the Maui-based Pacific Whale Foundation is leading a whale-watching industry attempt to gather more data about near misses.

When enough data are collected on boat type, sea conditions, speed and other factors, "we hope to come up with a predictability model," said foundation President Greg Kaufman.

An industry group meeting next week on Maui also has drafted recommendations for how boats should be operated in the vicinity of whales.

Though there is a lot of tug and barge traffic among the Hawaiian Islands, their normal speed is 8 to 10 mph -- slow enough for whales to get out of the way, said Jack Laufer, a Matson Navigation Co. controller.

Based on recommendations from the sanctuary, Matson is routing its faster ships outside sanctuary waters that contain more whales, Laufer said.

Useful numbers and a workshop:

To report a whale problem, call NOAA Fisheries at 800-853-1964.

To report a whale entangled in fishing gear or stranded on a beach, call 800-256-9840.

Workshop: Boaters and others interested in preventing boat-whale collisions are invited to a workshop on Maui Wednesday, sponsored by the Pacific Whale Foundation. The 6 p.m. meeting will discuss draft "Best Practices Guidelines" for operating boats and watercraft when whales are present and review a new whale-encounter reporting system. The meeting will be at the Ocean Science Discovery Center at the Harbor Shops in Maalaea. For more information, call Irene Bowie at 244-8385.

Lab under fire after latest dolphin death
By Beverly Creamer
Advertiser Staff Writer

An animal-rights activist group is calling for closure of the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory after the death Monday night of the last of three captive dolphins used for research into cognitive intelligence.

Phoenix was the second of three captive dolphins at Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory to die recently.

"I would like to see the Dolphin Institute leave Hawai'i," said Cathy Goeggel, director of Animal Rights Hawai'i. "I don't want to see them having any more animals under their control. Their track record is abysmal."

Hiapo, a 20-year-old Atlantic bottlenose dolphin captured as a calf in the Gulf of Mexico, died Monday night of unknown causes. Two others have died in the past four months: Akeakamai died in November and Phoenix last month. Both were 27 and died of cancer. A dolphin's typical life span is 35 or more years.

Questions about the latest death were being referred by the laboratory to University of Hawai'i spokesman Jim Manke, who said Hiapo had a physical as recently as Feb. 19 that pronounced him in "excellent health."

The death was "kind of a mystery," Manke said, and "a surprise to everybody." Initial tissue samples from a necropsy have shown nothing significant and samples have been sent to the Mainland for further analysis.

Manke had no information about the future of the institute or whether it would seek new animals. There have been indications during the past few years that the facility may move to Maui, and expand on land owned by the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation near Kihei.

The lab has been investigated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to Manke. "Over the years they've been in and out of the lab for various reasons," he said. "Typically, if there are problems, they'll do a citation, then problems get corrected."

The facility has been under fire from animal-rights activists for more than two decades, but attention was heightened in 1977 after the unauthorized release of two dolphins by lab workers who accused the lab of dolphin mistreatment. The workers were convicted of theft.

The facility, run as a private, nonprofit foundation, was founded in 1973 by researcher and UH professor Louis Herman for studies into dolphin intelligence. It is financed chiefly through grants and contracts and has done groundbreaking work to show the amazing abilities of the ocean mammals.

It has also offered opportunities for students and researchers to work with dolphins. The lab has focused on studies of intelligence, including experiments on communications. One project sought a method of establishing two-way communications with the animals or an artificial language through which the animals could instruct human handlers.

The facility is tenuously connected to UH, with the university paying Herman's salary as a professor of psychology and monitoring water quality and animal care through its Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee that is part of campus research operations. The state owns the land and Herman's Dolphin Institute pays lease rent.

Goeggel said the facilities are run-down and too small for the number of dolphins that have been held there.

"We've been saying Kewalo should have been closed back in 1977 when the two original dolphins were liberated," she said. "I hold him (Herman) responsible for all of those deaths."

Herman was not available to comment.

There are new plans for the institute to participate in a $3.3 million program on Maui tracking humpback whales. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is paying for the program, which is code-named Splash.

Herman has said that two graduate students have been specially trained to take tissue samples from humpbacks as part of their tracking through the Pacific. The hope with this study is to determine to what extent humpbacks from different Pacific regions intermingle.

Right whales' survival breeds new optimism
Official state symbol makes a comeback
By CHARLES SEABROOK
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/14/04

For the endangered North Atlantic right whale — Georgia's "official state marine mammal" — there is growing optimism that the species can be pulled back from the brink of extinction.
  
The hope stems from several key observations of the leviathans in their only-known winter calving grounds — the ocean waters off Georgia and North Florida — over the past few years.
 
Biologists and conservationists who regularly survey the coastal waters now believe that a previously undocumented group of as many as 17 female right whales has started using the calving grounds — joining another group that has been coming there for years.
 
"It's amazing to me to think that something as big as these animals — 40 to 45 feet long and weighing perhaps 40 tons — could have escaped detection until now," said Brad Winn, a biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.
 
"But that's part of the mystery surrounding these animals."
 
Scientists have known since 1980 that the other right whale group migrates each year from summer feeding grounds off the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England to the calving grounds off Georgia and Florida.
 
That group has been studied over the years through regular aerial surveys.
 
"There may be other summer feeding grounds for the right whale that we don't know about," Winn said.
 
He and other experts on the survey teams are so familiar with the whales in the well-documented group that they know most of them by name or by a coding number. They can identify individual whales according to the animal's "callosity pattern," a series of big welts on the whales' backs and heads caused by parasitic lice.
  
Why the previously unknown whales are now showing up at the winter calving grounds off Georgia and Florida is unclear, but scientists say that any significant increase in the population helps ward off possible extinction of the animals.
 
Only about 300 North Atlantic right whales remain, making the animals one of the world's most endangered species.
 
Fueling the scientists' optimism about the whale's survival is the number of right whales born in recent years. So far this season, 13 newborn whales have been spotted in Georgia and Florida waters. (One of the calves, however, washed up dead last month on Amelia Island in Florida.)
 
In 2001, 31 calves were sighted. In 2002, 21 were tallied, and 19 were spotted in 2003.
 
That contrasts sharply with only one calf reported in 2000, which prompted researchers then to speculate that the whales may have reached the point of no return, near extinction.
 
Researchers also are heartened by the shorter calving intervals that they are documenting.
 
"In the past, we have seen four- to five-year intervals in breeding cycles for right whales," said biologist Monica Zani of the New England Aquarium. "This year, we have seen some females that are calving after only a three-year interval.
 
"This is great news for such a small population, where every calf that is born is crucial."
  
Georgia officials plan to showcase the right whale as part of the state's natural heritage when the G-8 summit meeting convenes on Sea Island in June.
 
Once numbering in the thousands in the North Atlantic, right whales, which can reach 60 feet long, were hunted to near extinction in the 19th century. They got their name from whalers who thought them the "right whales" to hunt: They were easy to approach and lived close to shore, and their high blubber content (as much as 40 percent of their body weight) kept them afloat once they were killed.
 
The right whales that spend summers off New England and Nova Scotia feed on tons and tons of plankton, or tiny crustaceans known as copepods, each the size of a grain of rice. In early November, females begin migrating along the East Coast to their calving grounds off Georgia and Florida.
 
Unfortunately, the shallow-diving, slow-moving whales are vulnerable to collisions with big ships — one of the greatest threats to the survival of the species, along with entanglements in fishing gear.
 
The whale's migration route and its summer and winter grounds cut across some of the world's busiest fishing areas and shipping lanes. Right whales do not try to avoid ships the way other whales do, for reasons scientists still are trying to determine.
 
To prevent possible ship strikes, biologists provide critical location data for the right whale Early Warning System.
 
"Whenever a whale is sighted, its location is relayed to the Navy and Coast Guard officials who then broadcast advisories warning military and commercial vessels to use caution when operating near the area," said Jamison Smith of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission.
 
The program is headed up by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in cooperation with the Navy and the Coast Guard.
 
No known right whale deaths have occurred from a ship collision in Georgia waters since 1996. However, a pregnant female was lost in February, probably due to a ship strike, near the North Carolina-Virginia border.
 
"This was a significant loss to the right whale population because she was a reproductively proven adult female, the worst individual of any population to lose," Winn said.

Animal protection groups launch global anti-whaling campaign
TOKYO (AFP) Mar 09, 2004

Animal protection groups from more than 55 countries launched a global anti-whaling campaign Tuesday focusing on the alleged cruelty behind hunting with harpoons.

The Whalewatch campaign is lobbying the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to halt "research" whaling, maintain the ban on commercial whaling and bring the issue of cruelty back to the fore.

"Given the constantly moving environment in which whales live and are hunted, there are inherent difficulties in achieving a quick, clean kill," the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA), a leading member of the 140 groups involved in the campaign, said in a statement.

More than 1,400 whales are expected to die this year alone in commercial or scientific operations by the traditional whaling nations of Norway, Iceland and Japan, according to London-based WSPA.

However Peter Davies, WSPA's director general, said: "The cruelty behind whaling has become obscured in recent years by abstract arguments over population statistics.

"The fact is that, whether it is one whale or a thousand, whaling is simply wrong on cruelty grounds alone."

Whalewatch is lobbying the IWC before the commission's annual meeting in Italy in July. Last year's meeting forced through a measure to increase the protection of whales but almost every other proposal ended in deadlock.

The campaign argues that the whaler's harpoon often fails to kill its victim instantaneously and some whales take over an hour to die.

Japan's deep-sea research whaling fleet is currently on its annual voyage to the Antarctic Ocean, where it will kill up to 440 minke whales.

The country stopped commercial whaling in 1988 after agreeing to an IWC moratorium but used a loophole to begin what it calls research whaling.

Iceland resumed research whaling after 14 years last August, in defiance of world opinion, while Norway has an opt-out clause from the moratorium.

Japan argues that the research backs up its claims that whale populations are thriving and consuming valuable fish stocks, while opponents argue it is just commercial whaling in disguise.

Whale meat is considered a delicacy and served cooked or raw at specialised restaurants in Japan.

Dolphins used for shark bait
06mar04, The Sunday Mail, Australia

A photograph showing a dolphin being hauled on board an Indonesian fishing boat allegedly in Australian waters was released by the Federal Government yesterday. A second dolphin also appears to lie on the deck of the boat.

Both are likely to be used as bait in the lucrative hunt for shark fin.

Fisheries Minister Ian Macdonald said the image highlights how much damage illegal fishing could do to Australian fish stocks if authorities don't continue to take a tough line against those who plunder our waters.

Mr Macdonald said Indonesian fishers use dolphin as bait to lure sharks, which in turn have their fins cut off and are left to die a slow death in the water.

Mr Macdonald alleged the vessel - which was photographed by a Coastwatch aircraft last month north of Cape Croker off Arnhem Land - was 95 nautical miles inside the Australian Fishing Zone.

The 29-year-old skipper has been charged with two counts of illegal fishing and two counts of illegal possession of a cetacean and was due to appear in court in Darwin yesterday.

Mr Macdonald said maps have been distributed in Indonesian villages which outline where the Australian Fishing Zone begins.

He said fishing for shark fin was a highly commercial operation which has only developed over the past 10 years.

"These fishers target Australian waters because they are aware our fisheries are among the best managed in the world," he said.

Last year a record 138 illegal fishing boats were detected in Australian's northern waters, while 20 have already been seized this year.

Healthy sea lion heads to freedom
Chippy released 6 pounds heavier
Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer
Thursday, March 4, 2004

Chippy the celebrity sea lion swam to freedom off Drakes Beach Wednesday, ending a month-long adventure that took him 100 miles up the San Joaquin River into the heart of California farm country.

Staffers and volunteers from the Marine Mammal Center, who had taken Chippy to Point Reyes National Seashore to let him loose, clapped as they watched his slick, dark head move farther out to sea, then disappear in the surf. They deemed the event "a textbook release."

"We're all happy,'' said volunteer Stan Jensen. "He rested a bit from the trip, then he headed straight to the water. When he hit wet sand, he flopped on his belly. He was eagerly trying to get to the deep water where he could actually use his flippers."

Jensen was one of the volunteers who helped the 321-pound young male sea lion back to health after a gunshot to the back of his head. The sea lion was found Feb. 9 on a farm road near Los Banos in Merced County and was taken to the Sausalito center, where doctors gave him antibiotics and removed the bullet.

Wildlife experts say his trip up the San Joaquin River may have been in reaction to the shot from a large-caliber weapon. Or he could have been chasing fish, or simply disoriented after eating fish contaminated with domoic acid, which can affect nervous systems of marine mammals, they said.

The National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the Marine Mammal Protection Act, is investigating the shooting but has no leads. There is a $3, 500 reward for information leading to a prosecution and conviction of the shooter. The center is treating another sea lion that was also shot.

The release went well, but it wasn't such an easy task earlier in the day to move Chippy, who gained six pounds during his stay with the Marine Mammal Center, from his concrete pen into a stainless steel box designed for moving marine mammals.

The tussle lasted more than an hour. At one point, he bared his teeth and bellowed at the humans trying to get him into the box.

After two failed attempts at herding him with boards and luring him with fish, the staff fenced off his 10-foot-diameter pool so he couldn't jump in and elude them. After that, they successfully herded him with the boards into the box.

The volunteers put the box on the back of a pickup truck and headed out on the 2 1/2-hour trip toward Drakes Beach. Once there, the volunteers backed the truck down to the beach and lifted the box to the ground, about 150 feet from the water. The sea lion rested there for about 20 minutes.

When the cage door opened, a tawny-brown Chippy jumped out.

He stood up tall and, for a few moments, slowly surveyed the onlookers who fanned out on each side of his cage.

Then, never looking back, he headed straight for the water.

Scientists will follow the movements of the pinniped with a bulky 5-inch- long satellite-tracking device glued on his back. The device could remain there as long as six months. He also has a smaller plastic tag inserted in a flipper for close-up identification.

These are the months that sea lions feed, say wildlife experts. Out in the ocean, he'll search for herring, anchovies, sardines and, when available, salmon.

In May, the sea lions go to a rookery in the Channel Islands where they start mating. By June, July and August, they're moving up to the Vancouver Island area in British Columbia.

All along the coast, sea lions use haul-out sites where they rest and regulate body temperature. Pier 39 at Fisherman's Wharf, perhaps the best known haul-out site, attracts from a dozen to 100 animals.

The California sea lion's population is very healthy with about 250,000 in the state. There are also rookeries in Mexico.

Chippy is a sound example of that healthy population and meets the center's criteria for release, said Dr. Martin Haulena, staff veterinarian for the Marine Mammal Center. He is "big, bright and alert," Haulena said. "He acts like a normal sea lion and doesn't show any obvious ill effects. His wound has healed up very well, and he's good to go.''

At 321 pounds, Chippy is still a young adult. Full-grown males reach 800 pounds. But Chippy is special, said center spokesman Jim Oswald.

"He has good bone structure, and a beautiful coat," Oswald said. "He's very expressive, and paternal with pups. On his second day at the center, we put a pup in with him to make sure he was socialized. They were sleeping together, and he had a flipper over the pup.''

The sea lion's antics at the time he was discovered near Los Banos gained him many fans.

After he jumped up onto the trunk of a California Highway Patrol squad car and started sunbathing, Officer Mike Panelli nicknamed him Chippy. Panelli, who was on hand Wednesday for the release, had also gone to see him previously in Sausalito.

The CHP started a fund to pay for Chippy's and other animals' care. Along with donations to the center, the total reached nearly $28,000.

"It's not every day that this happens,'' said CHP Officer Patrick Ensley. "We wanted him to have the best care so he could be returned to the wild. It's a great story with a great ending.''

More stories on Chippy:
Chippy returns
Chippy's gone fishing
Chippy goes free

Village must show heritage to get bowhead whale quota
The Associated Press, March 1, 2004

ANCHORAGE--The Inupiat Eskimo village of Point Lay must prove its heritage as a subsistence whaling community before it can have a bowhead whale quota, the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission has decided.

It's not the Barrow-based organization that needs to be convinced but the highly politicized International Whaling Commission, Point Lay Mayor Julius Rexford told the Anchorage Daily News.

That will take at least a year and perhaps $50,000 to conduct, putting off the village's hope of landing a whale this spring, he said.

"It's all politics from here on in," Rexford said. "But we're not going to go away. The people of Point Lay are determined to reactivate our whaling culture."

It's been 67 years since the last bowhead was landed in the village, between Point Hope and Wainwright on the Chukchi Sea coast, Rexford said. The whaling tradition died out as the village dwindled to as few as two residents in the ensuing years, he said.

In the 1970s, former residents and their offspring began moving back. Point Lay was too small to get a bowhead quota when the International Whaling Commission began regulating the subsistence harvest in 1977.

The village is asking for an annual quota of one whale. The village has doubled in size during the past 10 years, to about 260 residents, and a new source of subsistence food is needed, Rexford said. Point Lay relies mainly on its harvest of 35 to 45 beluga whales a year, but that catch is not enough to feed the community, he said.

"We didn't have nothing for Thanksgiving and Christmas," the traditional holidays for sharing subsistence harvests, Rexford said. "I'd hate to start taking more than 50" belugas, he added. "That would be another concern."

To start hunting the much larger bowhead whales, which can grow to 60 feet and 110 tons, Point Lay must be recognized by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.

Meeting Feb. 18-20 in Barrow, the commission, made up of whaling captains from 10 villages, agreed Point Lay first needs to conduct a "cultural needs assessment."

According to longtime whaling village consultant Stephen Braund, an Anchorage anthropologist, the real need for the assessment is to prove Point Lay's need to the International Whaling Commission.

Some Pacific Swordfish Fishing Banned
TERENCE CHEA, Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO - The federal government banned commercial fishing for swordfish in a large swath of the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, in a move to protect endangered sea turtles that were being killed or injured by the hooks.

The new rules, released by the National Marine Fisheries Service, prohibit longline fishing for swordfish in the Pacific between the West Coast and Hawaii. The ban, scheduled to take effect April 12, will affect about two dozen fishing boats based in California, Oregon and Washington.

Recreational fishing is not affected.

"It's an important step in protecting endangered sea turtles from going extinct," said Todd Steiner, director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network, which lobbied for the ban. "It won't save the sea turtles by itself, but when the U.S. takes proper action, it's in a better moral position to get other countries to also take action."

The United States makes up only about 5 percent of the global swordfish fishing fleet, Steiner said. Japan, Korea and Taiwan all have large fleets.

Longline fishermen use lines up to 50 miles long that carry thousands of baited hooks to catch swordfish.

Sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and seabirds also get caught on the hooks. Federal officials have estimated that "long-lining" kills 61 threatened loggerhead sea turtles and 15 endangered leatherback sea turtles each year. Biologists say the leatherback could become extinct in 10 to 30 years if current trends continue.

The fisheries service issued the ban after its scientists determined that continued swordfish fishing would jeopardize the survival of the sea turtles, said Tim Price, the agency's assistant regional administrator for protected resources.

In August, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the fisheries service had violated the Endangered Species Act by allowing longline fishermen to continue operating along the West Coast.

The fishermen have said a ban on swordfish fishing would threaten their livelihood.

The rules bar longline fishermen from bringing in their catch to West Coast ports. A 2001 federal ruling bars them from operating in Hawaii.

ON THE NET
National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/
Sea Turtle Restoration Project: http://www.seaturtles.org/

Duke Study Gives First Worldwide Measure Of Sea Turtle Casualties By Longline Fishing

DURHAM, N.C. -- More than 250,000 loggerhead and 60,000 leatherback turtles are estimated to be inadvertently snared each year by commercial longline fishing, with up to tens of thousands dying, according to the first global assessment of the problem. The researchers who conducted the assessment said that, although their numbers are estimates, they are firm enough to warrant the development of rules for fishing equipment and practices to reduce or avoid such losses.

The study, by researchers from Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, was published in the March 2004 online and print editions of the research journal Ecology Letters. First author was Rebecca Lewison, a research associate at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. Co-authors were Sloan Freeman, another Duke research associate, and Larry Crowder, who is the Stephen Toth Professor of Marine Biology at Duke. Their research was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Longlines are lengths of monofilament fishing lines that can stretch for 40 miles and dangle thousands of individually baited hooks. They are set at optimal depths and times to catch tuna and swordfish.

Because the environmentally protected loggerheads and leatherbacks frequent the same zones where these longlines are strung, many sea turtles are either hooked attempting to swallow the bait or are entangled in the fishing gear, the study noted. Such unintentional captures are classified as "bycatch."

"There have been few attempts to quantify the magnitude and extent of protected species bycatch even for fisheries in which bycatch is perceived as a pressing concern," Crowder and his colleagues wrote in their Ecology Letters research paper. "This is, in part, a consequence of limited data."

In the face of those shortcomings, the Duke team mined available turtle bycatch data from the 13 nations that collect such information. And they extrapolated estimates for areas like the Indian Ocean where bycatch data was unavailable.

They also collected the most current fishing information from three primary sources: The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission and the Secretariat for the Pacific Community Oceanic Fisheries Programme.

To obtain a global picture of where and how frequently turtles were being caught, the researchers then superimposed fishing and bycatch data on a grid map of all Earth's oceans. They also added available demographic data for loggerheads and leatherbacks.

In an interview, Crowder said "the Ecology Letters paper is the first to do a global assessment of sea turtle bycatch in longline fisheries. That's what sets it apart. There had been some earlier regional analyses of sea turtle bycatch, but nothing global prior to this."

The problem was particularly acute in the Pacific Ocean, found the researchers. In fact, more turtles "are killed than nest in the Pacific," Crowder told a February symposium on marine animal conservation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science 2004 annual meeting in Seattle.

The published study located four "primary hotspots" for longline fishing: in the central and southern Pacific Ocean, the southern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Crowder said those longlining hot spots mark sectors where currents converge in a way that boosts the productivity of marine life, which in turn attracts both hungry turtles and commercial fish.

The authors estimated that longline fleets from 40 different countries set about 1.4 billion hooks in the studied year of 2000 – the equivalent of about 3.8 million hooks each day. And their results suggest that longline fishing worldwide was "likely to have caught at least 200,000 loggerheads and 50,000 leatherback turtles in 2000," they wrote.

In his interview, Crowder added that loggerheads tend to become bycatch much more frequently than leatherbacks because loggerheads are much more interested in nibbling longline bait. "Leatherbacks very often are not caught by being hooked in the mouth but they're sometimes hooked in a flipper or have a line wrapped around their flippers," he said.

Using National Marine Fisheries Service bycatch mortality figures, the study estimated that "tens of thousands" of the total hooked or entangled turtles ultimately died from those encounters.

The authors especially warned of "serious consequences" for the future of loggerhead and leatherback in the Pacific, where they wrote that "precipitous declines" in the numbers of nesting females are already being recorded.

Because the air breathing turtles can often still surface after they are snared, most deaths are not caused by drowning but by "injury related to hooking or entangling," Crowder said.

Previous research, the study also noted, revealed that longlines set to catch swordfish snare turtles at a 10 times greater rate than tuna longlines. Crowder said such a difference arises because tuna longlines tend to be set deeper in the water than the depths where turtles tend to frequent, and during daylight hours.

"Swordfish gear tends to be fished at night, and in shallow water," he said. "So if you just look at where the gear is relative to where the turtles are, it's more likely that they're going to bump into gear set for swordfish," he said.

The study noted that "the United States has implemented both temporary and permanent fishery closures to reduce turtle bycatch and protect turtle populations." But it adds that only about 2 percent of worldwide longline fish landings are taken by U.S. fishing vessels.

Crowder added in his interview that a number of ideas are already under consideration to address the turtle bycatch problem. Two current favorites are substituting circle-shaped longline hooks for the present "J" shape, and altering the kind of bait used.

"The National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing that circle hooks and changes in bait will largely solve the problem," Crowder said. "I tend to think it's a recommendation that is very promising, but not yet ready to implement in the fishery."

Other suggestions include altering fishing practices, like changing the depths at which the hooks are set. "Perhaps places could be located in the ocean where there are still swordfish to catch but fewer turtles, redirecting the fishery to where the bycatch rate might not be as high," Crowder said.

Technology can aid efforts to restrict or close off certain areas from fishing for a time, he said. By international agreement, longline fishing boats might be required to install sensors so that satellites can be used to monitor them for compliance.

Such "vessel monitoring systems" are already used off regions like New England, where both cod and scallop fishing are banned in large areas, he said.

"The additional costs are minor, considering the costs of other electronics that state-of-the-art fishing vessels now have on board. That might seem invasive to individual fishermen. On the other hand, if one fisherman is playing by the rules he would want to be reassured that all the other fishermen are too.

"I guess our paper raises the stakes a bit to say this is something that we need to deal with fairly quickly," Crowder said. "It puts the pressure on to research those potential solutions as quickly as possible."

Pacific turtles 'gone in decade'
By Alex Kirby
BBC News Online environment correspondent

The steep decline of the Pacific Ocean leatherback turtle has gone so far the species could be extinct within no more than a decade, conservationists fear.

A report by the US group Conservation International says leatherback numbers there have fallen by 97% in 22 years.

Five of the six other species of sea turtle are also at risk of extinction, though not necessarily as acutely.

Threats include fishing practices and the poaching of the turtles' eggs, but scientists say they can still be saved.

CI released its report on the plight of the Pacific leatherbacks at the 24th annual symposium on sea turtle conservation and biology, meeting in Costa Rica.

It says their numbers have fallen from about 115,000 breeding females to fewer than 3,000 since 1982.

James Spotila, professor of environmental science at Drexel University, said: "The Pacific leatherbacks currently face an annual mortality rate of up to 30%.

"That rate is clearly unsustainable, and without dramatic intervention we can expect to see them disappear in as soon as a decade."

Of the other species, the Kemp's ridley and hawksbill turtles are also both classified by IUCN-The World Conservation Union as critically endangered, the designation given to the leatherbacks.

Green, olive ridley and loggerhead turtles are classed as endangered, and only northern Australia's flatbacks are not thought to face extinction.

Roderic Mast, vice-president of CI and president of the International Sea Turtle Society, said: "On land, the canary in the coal mine warns humans of impending environmental danger.

"Sea turtles act as our warning mechanism for the health of the ocean, and what they're telling us is quite alarming. Their plummeting numbers are symptomatic of the ocean as a whole."

One particular threat to turtles is the practice of longline fishing, which involves the use of lines up to 145km (90 miles) long baited with as many as 8,000 hooks each.

Scientists are urging a dual approach to saving the turtles:
• better protection and management for their nesting beaches, and control of land-based lights: the turtles mistake them for the Moon, walk towards them, and become stranded on the beach
• more marine protection and safer fishing techniques - less than 0.5% of the oceans are formally protected, and inexpensive changes to fishing gear and practices could mean radical cuts in the mortality rate.

One promising development, CI says, is the investment of several million dollars over the next three years to consolidate a marine protected area stretching from Ecuador to Costa Rica. The money is coming from four Latin American states, the United Nations Foundation, Unesco, and CI itself.

New Seascape Initiative Stretches from Costa Rica to Ecuador Safeguarding Threatened Marine Habitats
Partners to invest $3.1-mln in marine initiative that encompasses five protected areas & safeguards threatened species in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia & Ecuador

San Jose, Costa Rica - In one of the most ambitious marine conservation initiatives in the western hemisphere, four Latin American nations, the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, the United Nations Foundation (UN Foundation), Conservation International (CI) and others are consolidating a marine protected area that stretches from Costa Rica to Ecuador and helps safeguard some of the world's richest marine habitats and dozens of endangered species.

The project, known as the Eastern Tropical Pacific Seascape, covers 211 million hectares (521 million acres) and extends from Costa Rica's Cocos Island National Park to Ecuador's Galapagos Island National Park and Marine Reserve. Along the way, the Seascape helps link marine protected areas in Panama and Colombia, safeguards an important migratory route for the Endangered blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) and protects one of the last remaining nesting grounds in the Eastern Pacific of the Critically Endangered leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea).

Under the agreement, the UN Foundation will invest $1.567 million in the Seascape. CI and their Global Conservation Fund (GCF) will match that amount with the support of a $1.2 million donation from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The four nations that share the Seascape and dozens of partner organizations are expected to put additional millions into the project, which is being led by UNESCO's World Heritage Centre.

The announcement was made today during the opening of the 24th Annual Meeting of the International Sea Turtle Society in San Jose, Costa Rica. The event has drawn more than 1,000 experts from 70 nations, making it the world's largest gathering of marine turtle researchers.

"Healthy seas are being threatened by rampant commercial fishing, coastal development and a flood of waste and pollutants," said Conservation International's Chairman of the Board and CEO Peter Seligmann. "It will take international cooperation to keep our oceans healthy and productive. We owe these four nations, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Panama our thanks and support for working together to conserve one of the planet's most precious resources."

The Seascape initiative is part of a broader, $15-million agreement between CI, the UN Foundation and the UNESCO World Heritage Centre to conserve current and proposed Natural World Heritage Sites, like Costa Rica's Cocos Island National Park and Marine Reserve, Ecuador's Galapagos Islands National Park and Marine Reserve, and Colombia's proposed site, Malpelo National Park.

"This alliance to protect the world's 149 Natural World Heritage Sites gives us the ability to make strategic investments that maximize the likelihood of salvaging these unique and delicate habitats," said Timothy Wirth, President of the UN Foundation. "This Seascape initiative is vitally important to the health of our ocean and we certainly hope it becomes a model for marine conservation around the world."

The initiative comes amid mounting evidence that the ocean is under duress. According to a recent study in Nature, 90 percent of large, predatory fish populations - including tuna and marlin - have disappeared. In addition, 75 percent of all commercial fish populations have either collapsed or are approaching collapse. Despite these trends, marine conservation lags far behind terrestrial initiatives. While about 12 percent of the Earth's surface is currently protected, less than 1 percent of the ocean enjoys some form of protection.

One of the marine species that has been hardest hit is the leatherback turtle, which has seen its populations decline in the Eastern Pacific by more than 97 percent in the last two decades. The Seascape addresses the threat by incorporating Costa Rica's Baulas de Guanacaste National Park and its surrounding waters - one of the leatherback's last nesting grounds on the American Pacific.

"The leatherback turtle is a species that has been around longer than the dinosaur, but unless we take immediate and determined steps to change our current fishing practices and our consumption habits, we will see it disappear within our lifetime," said International Sea Turtle Society President, and CI Vice President Roderic Mast. "The Seascape will help give these magnificent creatures the protection and recognition they so urgently need."

Among the treasures the Seascape will encompass are the Galapagos, home to hundreds of unique and vulnerable species found nowhere else on the planet and as many as 750,000 seabirds, 22 species of reptiles and six species of mammals. Cocos Island is equally rich, with more than 230 plant species, 360 insect species and 85 bird species. The Seascape also encompasses Coiba Island National Park in Panama and Gorgona National Park in Colombia.

The United Nations Foundation promotes a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world through the support of the United Nations and its Charter. Through our grantmaking and by building new and innovative public-private partnerships, the United Nations Foundation acts to meet the most pressing health, humanitarian, socioeconomic, and environmental challenges of the 21st century. For more information visit: www.unfoundation.org

UNESCO's World Heritage Centre is the secretariat to the World Heritage Convention, signed by 178 countries. The purpose of the convention is to identify sites of outstanding universal value and help conserve them for the benefit of future generations. For more information visit: www.whc.unesco.org

Conservation International (CI) applies innovations in science, economics, policy and community participation to protect the Earth's richest regions of plant and animal diversity in the hotspots, major tropical wilderness areas and key marine ecosystems. With headquarters in Washington, D.C., CI works in almost 40 countries on four continents.

For more information visit www.conservation.org

Ocean activists: Google sinks free speech
Ads critical of Royal Caribbean, industry are yanked
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:11 a.m. ET Feb. 13, 2004

Online search engine leader Google has banned the ads of an environmental group protesting a major cruise line’s sewage treatment methods, casting a spotlight on the policies — and power — of the popular Web site’s lucrative marketing program.

Oceana, a 2-year-old nonprofit group, said Google dropped the text-based ads displayed in shaded boxes along the right side of its Web page because they were critical of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.

Washington D.C.-based Oceana believes Royal Caribbean pollutes the oceans by improperly treating the sewage on its ships. It hoped to publicize its complaints by paying to have its ads appear when terms like “cruise vacation” and “cruise ship” were entered into Google’s search engine.

The ad, which said “Help us protect the world’s oceans,” appeared for two days last week before Google pulled it from its page.

When Oceana challenged the ban, Mountain View, Calif.-based Google responded with an e-mail advising the group that it doesn’t accept ads with “language that advocates against Royal Caribbean.”

Oceana’s ad didn’t mention Royal Caribbean directly, but the link directed Google visitors to a Web page critical of the Miami-based cruise line.

The decision stunned Oceana because it reeked of censorship and favoritism, said Andrew Sharpless, the group’s chief executive.

“We were surprised because the answer they gave certainly raises the question whether they got a phone call from Royal Caribbean,” Sharpless said Thursday. “We can’t prove that, but it certainly smells that way.”

In a statement, Sharpless added that "Google has no qualms running a series of ads promoting low fares and exotic getaways on Royal Caribbean's behalf. They also don't seem to have a problem running countless ads for pornography, but apparently cleaning up the oceans crosses their line."

"For this company to claim to promote freedom of expression and yet deny us the right to effectively advocate against pollution is blatant hypocrisy," he stated.

Both Google and Royal Caribbean denied there was any pressure applied to remove the Oceana ad.

Google’s policy prohibits ads criticizing other groups or companies, said spokeswoman Cindy McCaffrey. “We do reserve the right to exercise editorial discretion when it comes to the advertising we accept on our site,” she said.

Google’s ad policies don’t affect the noncommercial results that the search engine delivers using a closely guarded formula.

Oceana’s ad probably would be accepted by Yahoo!, which operates a similar online marketing program through its Overture subsidiary. Overture accepts critical ads, as long as they aren’t obscene or libelous, said company spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens. “We see it as a freedom of speech issue,” she said.

The ads have become a big moneymaker for Google, providing the company with hundreds of millions of dollars to expand its operations and technology.

As a privately held company, Google doesn’t disclose its financial results, but its revenue last year is believed to have ranged between $700 million and $1 billion. The company is expected to go public later this year.