It’s no secret that the killer whale population in Puget Sound has been declining steadily over the last decade. Chemical pollution, sewage, PCBs and other contaminants in prey fish, water-vessel traffic and the resulting underwater noise, and the declining salmon populations all seem to play a part in the decreasing numbers of our local resident orcas, the southern resident killer whales. Seven more whales went missing last year, and researchers strongly suspect they starved to death. We all know that pollution is bad, already, though, right? So it’s perpetually a surprise to me when I hear about things like the approval of a proposed Maury Island strip mine project, a plan that residents have apparently opposed for years.
It’s both fascinating and frustrating (in a bizarre, trainwreck kind of a way) that so much talking about protecting, preserving, and cleaning up the Sound happens when the public is watching . . . but then projects like this get approval, mostly when no one happens to be looking.
Rep. Sharon Nelson, who represents the 34th Legislative District, recently wrote an opinion piece for the Seattle PI available online. In the piece, Nelson says, “If we’re going to save Puget Sound, we have to stop doing things like building new strip mines where killer whales feed.” Apparently, there are a lot of other folks who feel the same way.
Now, that may sound like a complete no-brainer. It certainly does to me. But then, I honestly don’t care whether or not some mega-corporation gets the results they want for their mega-dollars spent lobbying to build pet projects on top of local people who hate the very idea of those projects. On the whole, I personally wouldn’t ever greenlight this project—no matter how many (temporary) local jobs it supposedly means—for the potential damage to the health of Puget Sound, critical shoreline habitat for already-declining chinook salmon, and the safety of our few remaining resident killer whales. Admittedly, I’m a transplant to the Puget Sound area, but in the nearly ten years I’ve lived here, it’s seemed pretty clear to me that the human residents here DO care about the water, the environment, the salmon, and yes, the whales.
The frustrating part of environmental sell-outs like this, is that this sort of thing is too often done behind the public’s back. If you’re interested in getting involved to help preserve Puget Sound and our local marine habitat, here are a few sites to get you started with more information:
There are a good many other local organizations, as well, where you can make a difference. Honestly, just picking up trash off a stretch of local beach helps make a difference.
We still have whales today, because years ago, people cared enough to start making sure they were protected. If there are going to be whales in another few decades, it’ll be because we cared enough to do the same.
Sad news today, 150 pilot whales died after being stranded off Tasmania’s west coast. The numbers nearly doubled from what it was believed to be yesterday.
The whales were discovered Saturday, on a rocky area of coastline of Sandy Cape. Members of the local community and about six Department of Primary Industry and Water members worked in vain to try to save the stranded animals, that had been badly injured by the rocks.
Warwick Brennan, a department spokesman said that the whales’ chances of survival were much less in that sort of environment than if the had come ashore in a sandy area.
There were about thirty whales milling around not too far from the stranded whales that had to be shephered out to sea to prevent them from also meeting the same fate.
According to this article and Brennan, this is becoming a more common occurance in the area, with stranded whales appearing almost every twelve days. It is believed that the whales get in to this sort of danger when persuing prey into shallow waters.
Every year in the Faroe Islands, a commonwealth of Denmark, close to 2,000 pilot whales are rounded up near the shore where they come for feeding and then they are brutally slaughtered and eaten. It is a gruesome spectacle of human cruelty what is done on the shores of this island.
The Faroese people defend themselves by saying that this is a tradition that dates back to the 16th century, and a practice that has helped the people survive the harsh winters. The whale meat is not sold but divided among the community. The salughtering has become more intense since the collapse of the fishing industry in the region. They say they need to continue this barbaric butchering of whales or the community will starve.
In an ironic twist, chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands are recommending that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption because they are toxic. Apparently the whale meat contains too much mercurey, as well as high levels of PCBs and DDT derivatives, all unsafe for humans.
According to this article, research on the impact of the pollutants on the Faroese people, has shown that mercury especially has caused lasting damage. Such as damage to fetal neaural development, high blood pressure, and impaired immunity in children, as well as increased rates of Parkinson’s disease, circulatory problems, and possibly infertility in adults.
This is an example of the unsustainable lifestyles people have adopted throughout the ages in order to survive. It is now time for the Faorese people to reconsider their practices and possibly adopt a new way of life. One that respects the animals in the ocean, and one that will not put themselves at the risk of extinction from consuming poisoned wildlife.
It’s killing season in Japan, the factory ship has headed out sea, unceremoniously this year, though. Wonder if that has anything to do with the anti-whaling activists whose attention they are probably trying to avoid? And why wouldn’t they? According to this article, the Sea Shepherd activists plan to disrupt the 2008-09 whaling season, like they did the last. Last season Japan was only able to slaughter 551 whales, almost half of their 1,000 whale quota. That is pretty bad-ass!
Meanwhile, in Australia, the Environment Minister, Mr. Peter Garret, the former lead singer of Midnight Oil, is revealing the details of a $4 million anti-whaling program. Mr. Garrett said that the Australian government was undecided about whether to send a ship to shadow the Japanese hunting fleet.
Mr Garrett said he intends using diplomatic efforts together with the results of the new research project to influence the IWC and force Japan to stop hunting, “I’m not under any delusions as to how difficult and challenging this task is,” he said.
Whoa! Hold it there! Diplomatic efforts have not worked thus far, and it seems that the only people who are trying to actively do something are folks at Sea Shepherd. It’s not the research that is the issue, it is the fact that whales are being slaughtered illegally for profit! Now that Peter Garrett is in a position of power, a position where something could be done, why not do something? Diplomacy can only get you so far, and activists are putting their lives at risk because governments are unwilling to do anything.
Finally, the whales are getting the attention they deserve in the form of a TV series on Animal Planet called Whale Wars, and no it’s not about whales fighting with each other. Whale Wars follows the efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as it battles to end illegal whaling in the icy waters of the Antarctic.
Paul Watson is captain and founder of Sea Shepherd, a radical environmental group dedicated to ending illegal whaling. For several years, Watson and a group of staff and volunteers have engaged in a campaign every winter to find and stop Japanese ships that hunt whales in the name of research, attempting to stop them by any means necessary. Last winter, the crew stopped the Japanese from slaughtering 500 whales, but not without confrontations including gunfire, flash grenades, a dramatic hostage situation and full-throttled chases through the Antarctic Seas.
“This is an opportunity for millions of people around the world to wake up to the fact that hundreds of whales are being illegally slaughtered under the guise of research and we as the human species have to say enough is enough,” said Jonny Vasic, Director of Video and Film Projects for Sea Shepherd.
We, at Whale Watch salute the Sea Shepherd for their brave efforts, and we hope many of you will tune in on November 7, on the Animal Planet network.
In the Arctic Ocean of Alaska, whales are at the center of a political battle. But this isn’t the usual conservationists vs. big oil debate. What’s really at stake here is the future of traditional whaling, and depending on who wins this week’s elections for mayor, so is the future of the Arctic coast.
According to this article in the Anchorage Daily News, whalers who want to keep their traditional way of life, fear that if the oil industry is allowed off-shore this will adversely affect whaling. They fear that the noise and pollution will drive away the whales they hunt for subsistence.
But it’s not that simple, the economy of the region is reliant on the oil industry and it’s only a matter of time for the off-shore drilling to go into effect. The oil company is down-playing the effects of noise pollution and environmental pollution that it has on the whales, making it that much harder for the political leaders to make a desicion on the matter.
This is a disheartening situation because the parties involved are only looking out for their own interest. The only clear-cut losers are the whales. They will continue to be hunted by the whalers if off-shore drillling is not approved (though that’s very unlikely), and if drilling is allowed they wil be subjected to all sorts of threats. My question is: Is anyone looking out for the whales?
We all know that the oceans are getting more and more polluted by industrial waste and other human pollutants, and that this is contributing to the dessimation of many marine species, but did you know that our waters are also polluted with noise?
The International Fund for Animal Welfare says that underwater noise from ships, oil drilling, naval sonar, and other industrial-related noise is affecting the lives of whales. According to IFAW, the noise levels in the water are disruptive to the whales when feeding and mating. In some regions, the noise is deafening.
Scientists are working with governments to try to reduce the speeds of ships in order to elliminate some of the noise in the waters.
Maybe that’s what whales are trying to communicate to us. Recently, whales have been singing their whale songs near the New York City harbour, much to the excitement of scientists. Check out this story.
The butchers scientists at the Institute of Cetacean Research in Tokyo have revealed the findings of their more than twenty years study of minke whales. The study was published by mainstream publication Polar Biology, after being rejected by two other scientific journals. Check out this story for more details.
So after brutally slaughtering more than 4,500 minke whales, what did the research show:
Whales are losing blubber due to climate change.
The scientists justified the killings by saying that it was the only way to accurately study the animals. Some of the animals were unusable in the research because of the damage to their bodies from explosive harpoons and other crude methods used to kill them.
The researchers claim that krill, the main source of the minke whale’s diet, is in decline in the oceans. The study argues that global warming, over-fishing of krill for fish harvesting and competition from humpback whales are the culprits. Many in the scientific community fear that Japan will use this as an excuse for allowing commercial whaling of the humpbacks and other larger cetaceans.
Luckily, researchers in New Zealand and Australia plan to launch their own study, but without the gruesome slaughtering. Read more here.
