Minke whale hunt over
Icelandic Review, August 19, 2005

The last minke whale, in a 2005 quota of 39 whales, was caught on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Whale Hunters Association (WHA) says that the hunting went well this summer. Iceland plans to hunt 100 whales next summer.

The last whale was one of the largest whales caught this summer. The whale meat went on the Icelandic market and sold much better than expected. "The market for whale meat is big", said the WHA, "and next year more whales should be hunted."

Reports that a total 100 of the originally designated 200 whales have been caught for scientific purposes since 2003. According to the Marine Research Institute, collecting samples and other data gathering have been successful. The Institute says that the distribution of whales close to Iceland seems to be quite different from the distribution of whales during the 1986-2000 period. This year there were fewer whales in areas where they are usually prominent. Bird life in those areas has also decreased.

The main goal of the research is to gather basic data concerning the diet of the whale. Other research includes genetics, health, mating, energy management and the physiology of the whales.

It is expected that preliminary results from this research will be presented for the scientific committee of the International Whaling Commission in
2006.
www.icelandreview.com

Japan Begins Hunt for 60 Whales
Rednova, September 9, 2005

Japanese whaling ships returned to port Friday with the first 3 of 60 whales they plan to catch along the nation's northern coast as they began the season's research program that opponents criticize as commercial whaling.

The hunt is approved by the International Whaling Commission and Japanese whalers are allowed to catch up to 60 minke whales along the coast of Kushiro on Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido.

Agency officials plan to study the whale's feeding patterns and its impact on fish stocks and report their findings to the IWC. The hunt ends on Oct. 31.

Most of the meat from Japan's research whaling is sold to restaurants to help fund the program. Friday's research hunt is authorized by the IWC in Japanese waters.

Japan had unsuccessfully pushed to overturn a 1986 ban on commercial whale hunts during the IWC's annual meeting in June in South Korea, where Japanese officials announced they plan to more than double its annual research hunts. Japan currently catches 440 minke whales in the Antarctic Ocean and 210 others in the northwestern Pacific.
www.rednova.com

Report: School in Japan serves whale curry
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, September 12, 2005

A public junior high school in Japan's northern port town of Kushiro had a new item on the menu for its students Monday - rice topped with whale curry.

The meat is from minke whales the local whalers had caught just off the coast of Kushiro on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido, Kyodo News agency reported.

Whale meat returned to public school lunches in Kushiro last year for the first time in 38 years as part of the city-sponsored campaign to promote whale meat. Whale meat dishes however, are not on the menu every day.

The whale curry will be served at elementary schools in town on Tuesday, and whale meat croquettes are planned in January, Kyodo said.
www.fortwayne.com

Scientists hope to listen for whales so ships can avoid them
Fosters Online, September 17, 2005

Small survey planes, daylight and luck have long been the best tools for scientists hoping to spot the rare North Atlantic right whale. The results aren't too impressive.

An estimated one in four whales are spotted by aerial surveys, leaving the rest vulnerable to ship strikes or fishing gear entanglements. But scientists say an underwater listening system they're developing will dramatically improve detection and reduce whale deaths.

The "passive acoustic" system would find whales and immediately transmit their location to nearby vessels.

Only about 350 North Atlantic right whales remain. In the last 14 months, at least eight have been found dead, though scientists recently speculated there could be far more deaths that were never discovered. Four of the known deaths were attributed to ship strikes and one to fishing gear entanglement.

The underwater microphones could allow scientists to pinpoint up to 75 percent of whales in areas they're known to frequent and reduce collisions.

This would enable scientists to scan for whales all the time, instead of just in sunlight or good weather. Researchers wouldn't be as dependent on the sometimes dangerous aerial surveys, or the luck needed to be overhead when a whale surfaces.

The listening system seems to work but it won't solve all the whale's problems. The North Atlantic right whale is quiet compared to crooners like the humpback. It sings to communicate, not as a way to find food, so the noises are less frequent.

In addition, different ages and sexes of the whales may make noise at different times, making the system less effective at spotting them. For instance, new mothers and calves may keep quiet to avoid detection by predators.

The system is at least three years from being fully in place in areas the whales frequent off New England, such as Cape Cod Bay. Complicated negotiations with shipping and fishing interests are needed to ensure vessels will use the new information to change their routes or slow down to avoid the whale.

Most mariners want to avoid collisions and would be willing to work with a new system that could precisely locate the whales. The problem now is that ships are being asked to take action based on little more than a good guess. Though regulations wouldn't be in place for years, data about the whales' location will be transmitted to passing ships so they take action voluntarily.
www.fosters.com

Lost in Katrina, dolphins 'flipping' to be found
MSNBC.com, Sept. 14, 2005

In an “unheard of” rescue operation, eight dolphins that were swept out of their oceanarium by Hurricane Katrina have been rediscovered hundreds of yards out at sea where trainers are tracking, feeding and caring for them.

“To find all eight of them on your doorstep is just unheard of,” said the president of Marine Life Oceanarium in Gulfport. “When we first saw them, they were really starving. When they saw their trainers, they were absolutely flipping.”

The eight Atlantic bottlenose dolphins were swept out of their tank by the storm surge from Katrina, which then destroyed the oceanarium. Since the dolphins were found, their trainers, a dolphin rescue and a marine biologist, have been boating out into the Gulf of Mexico three times a day to visit the pod of dolphins.

The six females and two males are fed fish filled with vitamins and medicine to help treat their infections. None of the dolphins suffered life-threatening injuries, but they all endured multiple scrapes and lacerations.

Officials say the U.S. Navy is preparing to deliver saltwater pools in which to keep the dolphins, but those are not expected to arrive before the weekend. In the interim, a swimming pool at a hotel will be placed on standby in the event an emergency rescue is necessary.

The dolphins range in age from 4 years to 40. Many animals were evacuated from the oceanarium before the hurricane, though the dolphins and a number of sea lions remained. Officials said they believed the steel-wrapped concrete holding tanks, which survived Hurricane Camille in 1969, would outlast the worst blows from Hurricane Katrina.

In looking at the twisted wreckage of what used to be an oceanarium, it was a miracle that any of the dolphins made it through all the debris without more serious wounds.
www.msnbc.msn.com

Police blow up stranded whale
IOL, September 14, 2005

On Wednesday, police used explosives to kill the Southern Right whale stranded on a South African beach, angering many onlookers.

The Dolphin Action Group said it was a humane way to put the whale down. The blast destroyed the top part of the whale's head, bloodying the water.

The 10m whale was still alive early on Wednesday, but Marine and Coastal Management officials made the decision to euthanise the animal, which they said could not be saved. "The whale was either sickly or injured and had to be put down. Bullets or even harpoons are a slow way of killing such a whale with all its blubber, and would have just prolonged its agony."

On Tuesday the beached whale attracted curious onlookers who watched rescuers and volunteers help keep the whale wet. Rescuers attached ropes to the whale's tail in an attempt to position its head facing the sea and pull it further out. But all efforts failed last night.
www.iol.co.za

Brigitte Bardot calls for halt to use of puppies as shark bait
Underwater Times, August 26, 2005

Brigitte Bardot, the 1950s/60s film star, has called on the French government to halt the use of live puppies and kittens as shark bait.

According to reports in Reunion (a French island located in the Indian Ocean) a six-month-old puppy was found last month with hooks implanted in its snout and one of its legs.

The French Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) told the daily the dog was the victim of cruel fishermen who attract sharks by throwing puppies
or kittens into the water, tied to fishing lines, and wait for the predators to swallow the thrashing animals. "We don't see that every day, but it's not the first time, either. We've already seen cats six or seven months old with hooks in them."

Bardot stated that "unfortunately these are not isolated incidents, and the people of Reunion are the first to be horrified by this despicable barbarity
which mars the image of their island."
www.underwatertimes.com

Tuna nearly fished to extinction
Nature News, Sep 15, 2005

Australian officials say one of its nation`s most valuable fish -- the southern bluefin tuna -- is facing extinction.

Australia`s Environment Minister Ian Campbell has determined even if global bluefin tuna catches were reduced to zero, stocks might not recover since only 3 percent of breeding stock remains. Although the committee has recommended the species be listed as endangered, it also said such a listing might further endanger the fish.

'It may weaken Australia`s ability to influence the global conservation of the species and, by implication, its conservation in Australian waters,' the committee said.

About 16,000 tons of the tuna are caught annually, including 5,265 tons by Australians. The bluefin sells in Japan as a sashimi fish for about $23 a pound.

Whale sharks converge off Mexico for veritable buffet
Orlando Sentinel, September 11, 2005

The biggest shark in the sea comes to Mexico for an all-you-can eat buffet. Just off this remote speck of land three hours north of Cancun, whale sharks mass by the hundreds each summer in a spectacle only recently discovered by scientists.

The sharks stuff themselves with tons of olive-green plankton, which blooms profusely in the bathtub-warm waters between Cuba and the Yucatan Peninsula. "The numbers of animals that gather here could be astounding," said Robert Hueter, director of the Center for Shark Research at Sarasota's Mote Marine Laboratory. "This could be the largest gathering of these sharks in the world."

The Wiles of Whales
Mirror.co.UK, August 25, 2005

A clever killer whale has taught others to catch birds using fish as bait. The four-year-old male would regurgitate fish on to the water surface to lure gulls - and then pounce. Four months later, five other whales at a marine centre at Niagara Falls, Canada, were spotted using the ploy. Animal behavior expert Dr Michael Noonan, who observed them, told New Scientist magazine: "They are setting a trap. They catch three or four gulls some days."
www.mirror.co.uk/news/

How you can help:

To protest Japan’s whaling practices sign our action alert petition: www.pacificwhale.org

To protest Iceland’s whaling practices write to Iceland’s ambassador visit: http://www.campaign-whale.org/iceland.htm

To encourage protection of Northern Right whales write your Massachusetts senators www.senate.com/state/ma.html


To support the animals stranded in Hurricane Katrina the Gulfport 's Institute for Marine Mammal Studies (IMMS) is coordinating the relief effort for the missing/ rescued dolphins and sea lions. Those who can, may volunteer in the search and recovery effort, and also may make donations for animal care and for rebuilding the facility. Please visit the website at www.dolphinsrus.com/

To sign a petition informing the French government you oppose kittens and puppies being used as shark bait, please visit the website below. Most of the website is in French but there is an English version of the petition: www.30millionsdamis.fr

To encourage the protection the habitat of the bluefin tuna, discourage exhaustive fishing practices, and boycott the purchase of bluefin tuna, visit: www.guardian.co.uk/fish/story and www.mbayaq.org/cr/cr_seafoodwatch

To support the continued research and conservation efforts of whale sharks, visit: www.whalesharkproject.org/