SAVE
THE WHALES
- CENTER
JOINS INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION PANEL IN JAPAN
- U.S.
REFUSES HABITAT PROTECTION FOR WORLDS MOST ENDANGERED WHALE
- FEDERAL
SCIENTISTS LEAN TOWARD E.S.A PROTECTION FOR PUGET SOUND ORCAS
- WANDERING
PACIFIC NORTHWEST ORCAS ESCAPE SLAVE TRADE
- SCIENTISTS
CALL ON SENATORS TO ENSURE THAT ORCAS ARE PROTECTED UNDER E.S.A.
- ORCAS
SLAUGHTERED IN GREENLAND
CENTER
JOINS INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION PANEL IN JAPAN
Center for Biological Diversity
population ecologist, Dr. Martin Taylor, will present population viability models
for Puget Sound orcas and bowhead whales in the Bering, Chukchi and Beaufort
Seas to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)
in Japan in May 2002. The IWC imposed a worldwide ban on commercial whaling
in 1982, but has thus far not developed international whale habitat regulations.
As the Centers population models are the first to include habitat degradation
parameters, they will help advance proposals to the IWC to develop a habitat
protection platform.
Dr. Taylor also attended
the IWC Scientific Committee meeting in Rome last summer.
Centers
orca page.
Centers
bowhead page.
U.S.
REFUSES HABITAT PROTECTION FOR WORLDS MOST ENDANGERED WHALE
The National Marine Fisheries
Service has rejected a petition by the Center for Biological Diversity to designate
critical habitat for the world's most endangered whale, the North Pacific right
whale (Eubalaena japonica). Recently determined to be a separate species than
the North Atlantic right whale, it was thought to have been driven extinct by
whaling. Its name was coined because it was considered the right
whale to hunt. In recent years, a tiny population has been discovered in the
Bering Sea. Less than 20 have been seen.
The whales have been repeatedly
sighted on the southeastern shelf of the Bering Sea, and although this area
is known to contain nutrient rich right whale food, the National Marine Fisheries
Service claims it does not have enough information to map out specific critical
habitat areas for the species. This is the same excuse it used in 1991.
Meanwhile, without the establishment of protected habitat zones, oil exploration,
commercial fishing and shipping traffic threaten to complete the process of
driving these whales to extinction.
To
learn more about the northern right whale.
FEDERAL
SCIENTISTS LEAN TOWARD E.S.A PROTECTION FOR PUGET SOUND ORCAS
A panel of federal scientists
appears to agree with important arguments made by the Center for Biological
Diversity and other groups in a petition the Center filed to protect the Puget
Sound population of orcas under the Endangered Species Act. A redacted copy
of their report released to the Center and Ocean Advocates under Washington
States Public Records Law affirms that the population is crashing perilously,
and supports the factual contentions made by the Center in its petition that
the orca population is a distinct population under the Endangered
Species Act. There is little biological question that the Puget Sound population
is headed toward extinction, but bureaucrats in the National Marine Fisheries
Service have hinted that it may be allowed to go extinct because it is not sufficiently
distinct or significant. The Puget Sound orcas, however,
are genetically, morphologically, geographically, and behaviorally different
from all other orcas. They even have their own language.
A Fisheries Service spokesperson
responded to the leaked report by saying it is only a draft, and that the actual
listing decision will be made by agency bureaucrats, not the scientific panel.
The Fisheries Service must decide by May 2nd whether to propose an endangered
listing for the orca.
Centers
orca page.
WANDERING
PACIFIC NORTHWEST ORCAS ESCAPE SLAVE TRADE
Though resident orcas,
especially young whales, travel and hunt with their maternal families all their
life, two young whales are inexplicably wandering alone, and out of the traditional
territory of their pods. In January, a two-year old female (A73) from the Northern
Resident population, which usually plies the coastal waters of British Columbia
and Alaska, was found alone in Puget Sound. Her mother A45, had been in poor
health and has been missing since 2001. She is presumed dead. Claiming she would
not survive, and that her orca population does not need her, the U.S. National
Marine Fisheries Service proposed to sell her to an aquarium, but objections
by environmental groups killed the plan. An attempt will be made later this
year to herd her back to her pod when it moves to southern Vancouver Island.
Luna, a two year old male
from the imperiled Puget Sound population, turned up alone in Nootka Sound in
northwest Vancouver Island last July, over a hundred miles from his pods
summer territory. He probably wandered away from the pod during its winter migration,
and is waiting for the pod the find him. They did not find him this winter,
and he has stopped calling out for them. The good news is that prior to this
he was assumed dead before being recognized in BC, and that he is hunting successfully.
Since the Puget Sound population is crashing and the whale appears healthy,
the National Marine Fisheries Service has no plans to make a risky intervention.
The Center for Whale Research is investigating to see if organic pollutants
played a role in his becoming lost.
The Puget Sound orca population
has been traveling erratically in the past few years, possibly in response to
salmon declines or pollution. One of the dangers of erratic traveling is the
loss or death of whales in unfamiliar waters. The Center and other groups have
petitioned to list the Puget Sound orca as an endangered species.
SCIENTISTS
CALL ON SENATORS TO ENSURE THAT ORCAS ARE PROTECTED UNDER E.S.A.
Ten independent whale scientists
have called on the Washington State congressional delegation to monitor the
National Marine Fisheries Service as it decides whether to protect the Puget
Sound orca under the Endangered Species Act. Worried that the agency might declare
the orca population not distinct or significant enough
to warrant saving from extinction, the scientists wrote:
Orcas are majestic
animals that are an integral part of our natural and cultural heritage. They
are a mainstay of our tourist economy, our love of the ocean, and our sense
of brotherhood with other species. The Southern Residents in particular have
become a cultural landmark with people throughout the Pacific Northwest. If
these orcas are extirpated, human life in the Pacific Northwest would be greatly
impoverished.
The Puget Sound orcas (aka
Southern Resident population) have declined by 20% in the past six years and
now number just 79 animals.
Centers
orca page.
ORCAS
SLAUGHTERED IN GREENLAND
In February, a large group
of orcas, apparently moving into unfamiliar territory because of global warming,
were slaughtered in Greenland. At least 24 whales were killed by local fishermen
and hunters in Disko Bay, eight were shot and killed by shrimp trawlers in Qasigiannguit
harbor, and eight were killed near Aasiaat. Many more may have been killed
In a response to a protest
by the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups, the Greenland Government
said orcas should be killed because they are reducing the number of marine mammals
available to human hunters. Just as the North American livestock industry kills
thousands of wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions each year to protect their
cattle, fishermen around the world routinely kill orcas to protect their access
to fish and marine mammals. Despite the assertions of Greenland, however, the
killing is illegal, because the International Whaling Commission has not issued
a take permit for killer whales.
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