SAVE THE WHALES

  • CENTER JOINS INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION PANEL IN JAPAN
  • U.S. REFUSES HABITAT PROTECTION FOR WORLD’S 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 Center’s 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.

Center’s orca page.
Center’s bowhead page.


U.S. REFUSES HABITAT PROTECTION FOR WORLD’S 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 State’s 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.

Center’s 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 pod’s 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.

Center’s 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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