Full Text Of News Articles

Parasail, thrillcraft state law nullified
July 18, 2004, Maui News

A federal judge has invalidated a state law barring thrillcraft and parasail boats from operating off Kaanapali during the humpback whale season, finding that the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) preempts the state law.

The ruling issued July 9 by U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway was on a motion filed by UFO Chuting of Hawaii and Kaanapali Tours, two parasail operators whose businesses have been shut down every winter by the seasonal ban.

According to Mollway, in a story first reported last week in The Lahaina News, Congress did not allow the states to take actions independently of the federal government when dealing with protection of marine mammals.

"In the MMPA, Congress put the federal government in control of matters relating to the taking of marine mammals, recognizing that other policy considerations might at times trump the protection of marine mammals," Mollway said.

Wailuku attorney Dennis Niles, a maritime law specialist who represented the two parasail companies, said Mollway agreed with his arguments that the federal act barred states from going beyond what Congress provided in the act, even if other laws such as the Endangered Species Act allows states to establish more restrictive rules.

The decision raises more serious questions, state Sen. Roz Baker said, if it means that the state cannot enforce any state laws dealing with marine activities intended to protect marine mammals.

As a state House member in 1991, Baker had been responsible for pushing through the state law that banned commercial thrillcraft such as Jet Skis and other high-speed boating operations from Dec. 15 through May 15 in the waters off South Maui and West Maui.

The law had been based on fears that fast-moving vessels were a threat to the humpback whales that breed and give birth in the waters around the islands every winter. The waters off Kihei-Maalaea and in the Auau Channel are considered prime humpback habitats during the winter season.

Other state laws also regulate boating operations around humpback whales in state waters, similar to rules established by the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but Baker said even those state rules would be unenforceable by state officials based on Mollway's ruling.

"If this ruling sets a precedent, it could mean that any state laws in any state designed to protect marine mammals would be invalid," she said.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which is responsible for enforcement of the boating rules, said on Friday that state attorneys are studying Mollway's ruling and have not decided whether to appeal the decision.

In any case, changes in operations of commercial parasail and thrillcraft businesses would not take effect until the next whale season opens Dec. 15.

State Rep. Brian Blundell, a marine business owner who represents the West Maui district, said he questioned the appropriateness of the state ban on thrillcraft operations during the humpback whale season, saying there are no data to establish that it makes a difference.

"There is an impact on the businesses that have to shut down for five months. They have to lay off workers, who collect unemployment," he said. "But there is no data that shows the parasail operations have an impact on the whales."

He said some supporters of the law will cite reports of an increase in whale sightings off the West Maui coast over the past decade since the law went into effect, but that is not evidence that the thrillcraft ban is a factor.

"There are more whales, so there should be more sightings," he said.

The businesses that are shut are also using vessels to conduct whale-watch tours during the whale season, although the boats are not designed for that kind of use, he said. But the law did not eliminate the boating activity in the areas where whales were likely to be, he said.

Niles said the federal laws to protect whales remain in effect and there is "no cause for concern that the whales have less protection because of the court's ruling. That is certainly not the case."

A key point of his arguments to Mollway was that the Marine Mammal Protection Act already specifies that no vessel can approach within 100 yards of a protected marine mammal.

"The parasail boats don't get within 100 yards. Where they operate, they don't get within 500 yards of the whales. When Congress says you can approach a whale as long as you don't get within 100 yards, it was wrong to ban an activity entirely," Niles said.

"What people don't talk about is that the regulation of boating can protect whales, but the concern is do you need an absolute prohibition of a certain kind of boating to protect the habitat?

"The court didn't get into whether other measures are effective in protecting whales," he said. "Congress already has spoken with clarity, and it is up to the secretary of commerce to determine what is appropriate."

In her decision to invalidate the state law, Mollway noted that the state can enact laws for protection of marine mammals but "must seek approval from or cooperate with the federal government.

"The MMPA does not allow states to implement such laws independent of the federal government,"

Baker said she has referred the decision to Hawaii Congressman Ed Case to review for possible action to clarify the rights of states in the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

She said she believes there are several threats to whales posed by the decision.

With parasail operations, she said, the boat captains may be aware of the restriction on approaching whales, but when moving at high speed towing a customer, "they can't just stop because a whale is in the area."

"If they sight a whale, what are they going to do? They can't stop the boat with someone up on a parasail," she said. "Are they going to let their customers just drop in the water? There is a real safety issue."

The ruling also opens the door to other kinds of commercial thrillcraft and high-speed boating operations that do not provide the safeguards a parasail operation might, she added.

With commercial Jet Ski rentals, customers are usually inexperienced riders who may not be able to control their vessels even if they do understand the rules about approaching too closely to whales, she said.

UFO and Kaanapali Tours operate Coast Guard-licensed vessels with licensed captains and require a second crew member who keeps an eye out for other vessels and objects in the water.

"Our crews are trained to avoid encounters," Niles said. "The captains and a deckhand are required to maintain a lookout for anything in the water to ensure a safe operation and reduce the chance of an inadvertent encounter."

He acknowledged that there is a difference in operations for businesses involved in thrillcraft rentals.

Naomi McIntosh, administrator for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, said she had not reviewed Mollway's decision and could not comment on it.

The sanctuary was created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Congress, to support research and enforcement programs to protect the humpback whale habitat around the Hawaiian Islands.

The sanctuary office provides support to the National Marine Fisheries Service enforcement section, whose agents monitor ocean activities around Maui County when humpback whales arrive.

Life improving for Hawaii turtles (green)
Maui News, July 15, 2004

More than a decade of tracking and photographing the rare green sea turtles that make their homes in the waters off Maui is paying off for a Canadian couple spending summers here.

Peter Bennett and Ursula Keuper-Bennett had to wait around, shivering and hungry, for hours and hours to be godparents to a nest full of turtle eggs, complete with pictures taken last week of "Maui Girl," turtle 5690.

But the photographs that have caught the attention of turtle researchers are records of a turtle that was a victim of fibropapilloma tumors 11 years ago, but who was found this year to be nearly free of the grotesque growths.

By documenting the recovery of the turtle that they've christened "Kimo," the Bennetts' excellent historical records, among the most complete anywhere, demonstrate a heartening regression of fibropapilloma disease, a mysterious ailment that 20 years ago was threatening to sweep through Hawaii's greatly reduced turtle population.
(For more info on the honu and fibropappiloma, goto the Turtle Trax website: www.turtles.org)

State aims to reduce swims with wild dolphins
July 11, 2004, Honolulu Star Bulletin

The days of swimming with dolphins in Hawaii may be numbered.

A company that got state permission Friday to conduct commercial kayak and snorkeling tours from Makua Beach agreed to get people out of the water when dolphins come within 50 yards.

The requirement for Makua Lani, the nonprofit organization that received a state permit yesterday, is the first attempt by the state to reduce human-dolphin interactions.

The DLNR plans to draft statewide rules regulating human approach to marine mammals. The guideline was taken from the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act.

The 50-yards-away permit condition is intended to protect dolphins, said Peter Young, chairman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources.

After hunting for food at night, "dolphins are going to these protected areas to rest" during the day and shouldn't be disturbed by people, Young said.

Areas where dolphins rest – and attract humans who want to swim with them – include Makua on the Waianae Coast, La Perouse Bay on Maui and Kealakekua Bay on the Big Island, Young said.
Dept. of Land & Natural Resources: www.state.hi.us/dlnr

Dead Whales Land in Canaries After Naval Exercises
Reuters, July 23, 2004

Two dead whales have landed in Spain's Canary Islands, raising fears they may have been hurt by NATO military exercises off Morocco and that more could have died, officials said on Friday.

The two whales arrived in the area within 24 hours and were dead for several days before their bodies drifted ashore, said Tony Gallardo, environmental expert with the local government of the island of Fuerteventura, one of the Canaries, which lies only about 100 km (60 miles) off the southern Moroccan coast.

"There is a strong suspicion that their deaths were related to the NATO exercises that finished a few days ago," Gallardo told Reuters.

Naval and air force units from 10 countries involving 20,000 troops and more than 20 warships took part in U.S.-led NATO military exercises off Morocco from July 11 to 16.

NATO officials had no comment.

Military, industry sonar harms whales
Report finds noise waves cause self-destructive behavior
Reuters, July 22, 2004

Sonar used by the military to spot enemy submarines is to blame for increasing cases of whales being stranded on beaches and dying, the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission said in a report this week.

The IWC report adds weight to theories that sonar harms the giant sea mammals, a hypothesis that has been disputed by the military and by the oil and gas industry which uses the technology to search for energy reserves.

“There is now compelling evidence implicating military sonar as a direct impact on beaked whales in particular,” said the report released at the IWC’s four-day annual convention which was winding up Thursday.

The report cited examples of bizarre and self-destructive whale behavior that seemed to have been caused by military sonar, such as a mass stampede of 200 melon-headed whales into shallow water in Hawaii last month during a U.S.-Japanese naval training exercise. One animal died.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has already secured an injunction limiting the U.S. Navy’s use of new low-frequency sonar that can travel vast distances through the oceans, and is now targeting the more common mid-frequency sonar.

Depleted Beluga Whale Population Stable, U.S. Says
July 22, 2004, Reuters

A depleted population of beluga whales has stabilized five years after Alaska Natives agreed to virtually stop hunting them, the National Marine Fisheries Service said yesterday.

Beluga whales in Cook Inlet, an icy channel that runs from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska, number 187 this summer, according to a count just completed by the federal agency. They numbered 174 last year and 192 the year before that, it said.

More than 1,000 belugas may have lived in Cook Inlet in the 1970s and 1980s, but the population shrank precipitously after that, service experts say.

In 1999, an agreement between Natives and the agency sharply limited hunting. A year later, the service designated the whales as "depleted," a protected status authorized by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Hunters killed only six belugas between 2001 and 2004, the agency said.

Whether the change caused the beluga population to stabilize is debatable, said Dave Rugh, an agency wildlife biologist.

Effort to relocate killer whale put off at least until fall (Luna)
Monday, July 19, 2004, Associated Press

Efforts to relocate a friendly but lonely and potentially dangerous killer whale have been called off, at least until fall.

The decision announced by Lara Sloan, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Ocean, leaves Luna free to continue to hang out in Nootka Sound off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The 5-year-old orca became separated from his pod, which frequents the waters around the San Juan Islands in Washington state, three years ago, and authorities are concerned about the potential hazard as he becomes increasingly friendly toward boats and people.

A plan to reunite Luna with his clan is opposed by the Mowachaht-Muchalaht First Nation, which dispatched canoes to lure him away from a net pen. Indian leaders have demanded a voice in the relocation plans. Some believe he is the reincarnated spirit of a dead chief.

Shark snare nets pose threats to humpback whales in Australia
Article title: “Cry of a mother who can't save her drowning baby”
July 20, 2004, The Australian

SNARED in a shark net, a baby humpback whale drowned off the Gold Coast yesterday despite the frantic efforts of its mother to raise the alarm.

The calf was the second humpback to be snared in shark nets this year. A 6m juvenile was rescued in May off Currumbin.

Yesterday's death, which follows a whale drowning in 2002 off Palm Beach on the Gold Coast, prompted Mr Long to call for the removal of the nets during the whale migration season from May to November.

"Whale numbers are increasing 8-13 per cent a year, so in 10 years we're going to be dealing with a huge problem," he said.

Opponents of shark nets want them to be replaced with baited drums that would catch only man-eaters such as white pointers and tiger sharks. But the Queensland Government said it had no plans to remove the nets.

The Humane Society said it was pushing to have shark nets listed as a threat to wildlife under the Federal Environmental Protection and Conservation Act. If successful, the society would be able to sue councils that did not take adequate measures to prevent wildlife such as turtles and whales drowning in the nets.

Whale Watching Takes Toll On Whales
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility press release, July 13, 2004

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

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

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

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

U.S. Explains Commercial Whaling Position
Associated Press, July 23, 2004

The International Whaling Commission put the brakes Thursday on a plan that critics said might lead to lifting a ban on commercial whaling that has been in place for 18 years.

The commission said in a resolution approved Thursday that the plan should be a starting point for discussing whale management over the next 12 months, but a measure calling for a vote on the plan at next year's annual IWC meeting was dropped.

The resolution was adopted after a fractious and lengthy session on the last day of the commission's annual meeting. The initial text of the resolution was amended several times, mainly by anti-whaling countries.

U.S. commissioner to the IWC William Hogarth, one of the proponents of the original text, called the outcome a "compromise" between pro-whaling countries, led by Japan, and the anti-whaling bloc, led by New Zealand and Australia.

The plan that served as a basis of discussion was devised by commission chairman Henrik Fischer of Denmark. Backed by Japan, Iceland and other pro-whaling states, the plan would include a five-year phase-in period when commercial whaling would only be allowed on coastal waters. It envisioned measures to ensure whalers do not exceed quotas.

The United States had backed the proposal at Wednesday's meeting of the International Whaling Commission but insisted it had not abandoned its traditional anti-whaling stance.

"It's not a shift in the U.S. position," Hogarth said earlier. "The United States is totally against commercial whaling. There's no change in that philosophy."

But, he added, if whaling does resume, "It's the position of the U.S. government that we need good strong measures in place."

Environmentalists feared the proposal could loosen a moratorium on commercial whaling in place since 1986, and some officials confirmed the plan was being considered a first step to doing away with the ban.

Some officials doubted the U.S. commitment to the anti-whaling cause.

Hogarth said fewer whales probably would be killed under a good management scheme than with no rules at all. He also insisted it was important the IWC remain relevant.

Whalers to Adopt New Killing Methods
Associated Press, July 21, 2004

Opponents of whaling won a victory Wednesday in their battle against the use of grenade-tipped harpoons when the International Whaling Commission approved measures aimed at saving the giant mammals from what animal-rights activists say are slow, painful deaths.

Pro-whaling nations at this year's commission meeting insisted that this method of slaughter is quick and usually painless. But the animal-rights view won out, with the 29-22 approval of a resolution proposed by anti-whaling nation New Zealand.

The decision highlighted the power struggle within the IWC.

The resolution does not ban grenade-tipped harpoons or impose another slaughter method. Rather, it endorses the view that the technique can cause whales to suffer, and it orders the commission to research different killing methods.

Greenland warned on whaling toll
BBC News, July 21, 2004

Scientists from the International Whaling Commission, holding its annual meeting in Italy, do not know if there are enough whales to support the hunt.

For years, Greenland has not provided data to help set safe catch limits.

The IWC allows small communities, mainly in the Arctic and the Caribbean, to hunt in what it calls "aboriginal subsistence whaling", for food. Greenland's allowance is 187 minkes, the smallest of the great whales, which grow to about 10 metres long in maturity, and 19 fin whales.

The most recent estimates of whale numbers around Greenland date back 11 years for the minkes, and 17 years for the fin whales. Since 1998 the IWC scientific committee has said its information is inadequate and has been seeking the results of aerial surveys of the whales, as well as DNA samples from all animals killed.

The committee says if it cannot agree a fin whale population estimate in 2005, it will probably recommend cutting or even abolishing the hunt quota.

Japan seeks to hunt more whales in Antarctica
Russia urged to protect gray whales around offshore oil wells
The Associated Press, July 20, 2004

Challenging the anti-whaling movement at an acrimonious global conference, Japan proposed hunting nearly 3,000 minke whales a year in the Antarctic, saying whale populations in the southern oceans were healthy enough to replenish their losses even if a 1986 moratorium on whaling is lifted.

While divided on that issue, nations with the International Whaling Commission on Tuesday declared that endangered gray whales in the waters around Russia’s Sakhalin Island need urgent protection from oil and gas development in the area.

The commission passed the resolution on the second day of an acrimonious meeting that has been dominated by Japan’s efforts to overturn the 1986 ban.

Japan made its proposal on minke whale hunting in the Antarctic on Monday evening.

The proposal was expected to be rejected, as it requires a three-fourths majority to pass. But it signaled Japan’s determination to have the ban on commercial whaling overturned — and indicated Japan’s intentions if the ban is ever lifted.

Whales Do Not Compete with Humans for Fish - Study
Mon Jul 19, Reuters

Whales and dolphins are not depleting the world's fish stocks despite the sea mammals' enormous appetites, according to a scientific study unveiled at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference on Monday.

The study, partly funded by U.S.-based group Humane Society International, counters arguments put forward by pro-whaling nations that whales, protected under international law, devour valuable fish stocks that could be used to feed humans.

Some whaling countries like Japan, Norway and Iceland, have suggested controlled killing of such animals would help reduce the growing strain on the fishing industry.

"The bottom line is that humans and whales and other mammals can co-exist, there's no need to wage war on them," said Daniel Pauly, professor of fisheries at the University of British Columbia in Canada and co-author of the report.

"There is certainly no need to blame marine mammals for the collapse of fisheries."

Check out related International Whaling Commission articles:
Whaling Body Agonizes Over Moves to Lift Ban: http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/26137/story.htm
Whalers think they scent victory:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3918449.stm
Whaling talks end with compromise:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5489304/
Japanese Vote Buying, Meat Sales Threaten Whaling Commission:
http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1366D000000FDC2FAA9F792E65054

Little being done to stop overfishing, experts say
July 18, 2004, Associated Press

Marine biologists say not only bluefin tuna but also other fish stocks are plummeting across the world, upsetting delicate natural food chains. Some fear irreversible damage has already been done.

Even worse, international law experts add, little is being done to stop it. Despite all the evidence, high-tech fleets probe the last deepwater refuges, hardly troubled by authorities.

Legal quotas are too high, specialists say, and in any case are often pointless because too many crews lie about their catch.

With a single bluefin worth as much as $150,000 on the Tokyo market, Italian and Russian organized crime is now involved, U.N. experts say.

About 20 percent of the world's dwindling supply is caught in the Mediterranean, where tuna stocks are most threatened. And bluefin are also endangered in the Atlantic and Pacific.

Catch-and-release may be giving fish the bends
July 15, 2004, Science

Sport fishing has never been a gas for the fish. But now Canadian researchers have found that fish that are caught and released may go back into the water with decompression sickness, or what divers call the bends.

Many fishermen have suspected that fish hauled up quickly from the depths might experience similar problems, and now a Canadian researcher has found evidence they are right.

Fish don't have to be caught very deep underwater to suffer from the problem. Dr. Tufts found that smallmouth bass, hooked in as little as five metres of water, show signs of the bends. He took blood samples and found that gas bubbles had formed in their bodies. There was evidence of tissue damage.

What is not clear is how decompression sickness affects a fish's chance of survival. In a news release, Dr. Tufts said it could be a significant conservation issue in deeper lakes across North America.

The next step is to find ways to help fish that are caught and released to recover from the bends.

Freak waves spotted from space
July 22, 2004, BBC News

Sailors often whisper of monster waves when ships sink mysteriously but, until now, no one quite believed them.

As part of a project called MaxWave - which was set up to test the rumours - two Esa satellites surveyed the oceans.

During a three week period they detected 10 giant waves, all of which were over 25m (81ft) high.

Now that their existence is no longer in dispute, it is time to gain a better understanding of these rogues.

In the next phase of the research, a project called WaveAtlas will use two years' worth of imagettes to create a worldwide atlas of freak wave events.

The goal is to find out how these strange cataclysmic phenomena may be generated, and which regions of the seas are most at risk.

Plastic left holding the bag as environmental plague: Nations around world look at a ban
July 21, 2004, Scripps Howard News Service

Imagine a world without plastic shopping bags. It could be the future.

There is a growing international movement to ban or discourage the use of plastic bags because of their environmental effects. Countries from Ireland to Australia are cracking down on the bags and action is beginning to stir in the United States.

Although plastic bags didn't come into widespread use until the early 1980s, environmental groups estimate that 500 billion to 1 trillion of the bags are now used worldwide every year.

Critics of the bags say they use up natural resources, consume energy to manufacture, create litter, choke marine life and add to landfill waste.

"Every time we use a new plastic bag they go and get more petroleum from the Middle East and bring it over in tankers," said Stephanie Barger, executive director of Earth Resource Foundation in Costa Mesa, Calif. "We are extracting and destroying the Earth to use a plastic bag for 10 minutes."

The foundation is calling for a 25 cent tax on plastic bags in California.

The tax proposals are loosely modeled on Ireland's "PlasTax," a levy of about 20 cents that retail customers have had to pay for each plastic bag since March 2002. The use of plastic bags in Ireland dropped more than 90 percent following imposition of the tax, and the government has raised millions of dollars for recycling programs.

One of the most dramatic impacts is on marine life. About 100,000 whales, seals, turtles and other marine animals are killed by plastic bags each year worldwide, according to Planet Ark, an international environmental group.

Seas absorb half of carbon dioxide pollution
15 July 04, NewScientist.com

The world's oceans have soaked up half of the carbon dioxide pumped into the air by human activities since the beginning of the industrial age, according to new two studies. The gas is acidifying the seas and may harm marine life, the authors warn.

Atmospheric CO2 has shot up from 280 parts per million (ppm) in 1800 to 380 ppm today. But that figure would be 435 ppm were it not for the oceans.

"The oceans are producing this tremendous service to humankind by reducing the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which can lead to global warming," says Chris Sabine, lead author of one study and an oceanographer at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Seattle. "But it's changing the chemistry of the oceans and may have consequences for marine ecosystems."

The researchers discovered that the oceans have absorbed 48 per cent of all CO2 from fossil-fuel burning and cement manufacturing, which is dissolved in the top 10 per cent of the world's seas.

They also studied the effects of CO2 on sea creatures and plants. When CO2 dissolves in seawater, it forms carbonic acid, which in turn can dissolve the shells and skeletons of marine life.
Journal references: Science (vol 305, p 362, 367)