News Items

Compiled by William Rossiter

Marine Mammal Biennial Conference: Help CSI To Help Others

The Society for Marine Mammalogy will be holding its 14th Biennial Conference from 28 November to 3 December 2001, in Vancouver, BC, Canada. See http://www.smmconference.org for full details of this valuable meeting. CSI is once again assisting many young scientists from developing nations to attend, because this one meeting brings together more specialists from around the world than any other, affording efficient potentials for a wide range of ways to help marine mammals. We helped eight people last time. We need your help to help more now.

Tuna/Dolphin Study

On 7 November, between 7:00 and 8:30 P.M., Dr. David St. Aubin, Director of Research and Veterinary Services at Mystic Aquarium, will talk about this summer's scientific assessment of the stress on dolphins encircled by tuna nets in the Eastern Tropical Pacific. Dr. St. Aubin was part of a team that swam with and studied the dolphins under these controversial circumstances. (See "Tuna/Dolphin Update" article in this issue.) Admission is $13.00 for nonmembers. Mystic Aquarium is at 55 Coogan Blvd., Mystic, CT. Phone: 860-572-5955. Web: http://www.mysticaquarium.org.

New York Whale And Dolphin Action League

Do you live in New York or New Jersey? Do you want to be directly involved helping whales and dolphins, or meet others who feel as you do? Join the New York Whale and Dolphin Action League, P. O. Box 273, Tuckahoe, NY 10707 U.S.A., 914-793-9186, NY4Whales@aol.com or NY4Whales@yahoogroups.com. Starting just this summer the League has sponsored several educational and advocacy presentations at public gatherings, presented issues on radio programs, submitted the outstanding anti-captivity documentary "A Fall From Freedom" to PBS for broadcast during the 2002-2003 season of "Point Of View," and is now working on state and local political support for several initiatives. CSI is proud to sponsor and support the League, directed by Taffy Lee Williams. We wish everyone involved great success.

CSI Photo Gallery

Friends of CSI are contributing their images to enhance the popular Photo Gallery on CSI's web site, http://csiwhalesalive.org. New additions are the Baiji and Yangtze finless porpoise from Dr. Wang Ding of China's Institute of Hydrobiology, and Brazil's tucuxi dolphin from Marcos César Santos of Projeto Atlantis. Look for Monterey's blue whales soon. We also thank Graciela Keidansky for her image of a right whale watching people in Argentina. If you would like to contribute please contact Bill Rossiter through CSI or rossiter@csiwhalesalive.org.

Whale Watching

Whale watchers are familiar with many of New England's whales by name, appearance, and even personality. There is a special joy in seeing a familiar wild whale, perhaps one that you "adopted" to support scientific research. This year one of the special stars was the calf of Filament, the first recorded fourth generation of large whale! Filament, a humpback seen off Massachusetts every year since she was born in 1989, is the daughter of Batik, born in 1983, and granddaughter of Tiger, first seen in 1977. Tiger's known family includes five children, and Batik had two before she failed to return in 1992. A boat hit Filament in 1991. She is now one of many survivors too easily identified by their scars. Filament may also be the oldest new mother known, at twelve years, but she also may have lost earlier calves. The overall point is that this intimate knowledge about the lives of humpback whales teaches us far more about these magnificent creatures than any whaling ever could.

While everyone knows that whale watching from Cape Cod to Maine is the best in the world, a new web site at http://www.whaleguide.com seems to offer some exciting worldwide alternatives for all of us. CSI requests that you help us appraise this resource: if you have an experience with one of the listed operations, or one that is not listed, we'd like to hear about it.

In a tourist frenzy beyond belief, people in Adelaide, Australia, this July were reported to stand on a floating dead whale so that they could pat great white sharks feeding on the carcass. One person brought their child along for the thrill. Officials are considering adding dead whales to the current 100 meter exclusion zone around all living whales to protect people from themselves. This event was one of the few not included in Whale Watching 2001, an exhaustive report prepared for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, http://www.ifaw.org, by noted researcher Erich Hoyt. The report documents the explosive growth of the whale watching industry in 87 countries and territories, a billion-dollar industry supported by more than 10 million people yearly.

How many of the world's blue whales turned up off California this summer? From late July through September, Monterey whale watches found them on all but a few trips. Blues appeared near the Farallons in early August. Besides record numbers, many people were even treated to lunge feeding, but seeing even one of these glorious giants passing by was a lifetime memory for many whale watchers. Researchers John Calambokidis and Todd Chandler studied as many as 200 individuals further offshore, a hard won research gift envied by many.

Mediterranean Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary

The Mediterranean whale and dolphin sanctuary was created in late September, after France, Italy, and Monaco ratified their treaty to protect the nutrient rich waters that attract 18 species, including pilot, fin and sperm whales, and common, striped, bottlenose and Risso's dolphins. The sanctuary includes 84,000 square kilometers (32,400 square miles), twice the area of Switzerland. From the French Cote d'Azur, Monaco to the Ligurian coast of northern Italy, it includes waters around the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, and is home to 25,000 to 45,000 striped dolphins, and up to 2,000 whales in summer. The World Wide Fund for Nature and other groups worked for ten years for this great achievement. Italy will be responsible for the sanctuary's management, including prohibiting all types of drift-net fishing in the area and regulating whale-watching activities.

Cook Islands Whale Sanctuary

Two million square kilometers of the central South Pacific Ocean became a whale sanctuary on 20 September, thanks to the Cook Islands. Frustrated by Japan's manipulations to prevent new sanctuaries through the IWC, the Cook Islands Government has declared their entire Exclusive Economic Zone off limits to whaling. CSI congratulates the Cook Islands for what is believed to be the largest whale sanctuary yet declared by an individual government in waters under its jurisdiction. The Cook Islands Whale Sanctuary may encourage other South Pacific nations to take similar actions against commercial whaling, for conservation rather than exploitation.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Cook Islands, Robert Woonton, said that the declaration of the sanctuary was a reflection of the high esteem in which whales are held by many Polynesian peoples. "We have lived peacefully alongside whales for many centuries," Mr. Woonton said, "but the devastation wrought by the commercial whaling fleets of the last century has left us with only a few animals now returning to their traditional South Pacific breeding grounds each winter. For the past two years, Pacific Island nations have appealed to the International Whaling Commission to establish a whale sanctuary for our region, to secure the future for these leviathans, but we have been thwarted by the opposition of the whaling countries and their supporters. If the nations of the South Pacific wish to protect the breeding grounds, which are so critical to the recovery of our depleted whale populations, then clearly we shall have to take matters into our own hands. We owe it to the Earth to support their survival." For more information contact Nan Hauser, Cook Islands Whale Research, at nan@whaleresearch.org, or CSI.

New Zealand's Hector's Dolphins Get Help

New management measures aimed at ensuring the survival of the critically endangered population of fewer than 100 remaining North Island Hector's dolphins became effective in September. All amateur and commercial gill net fishing is now prohibited within four nautical miles of the west coast of the North Island, within the specific range of the biologically isolated North Island Hector's dolphins. Losing one dolphin to human activities over a five-year period will eventually wipe them out. Three dolphins have been found dead on beaches this year. Two are likely to have been due to gill netting.

The management measures were announced following a one-year public consultation process and many studies. The official announcements glossed over some intense opposition by fishers, and the continuing campaign by scientists and environmentalists to enact some protection long ago, rather than study the issue year after year. The ban on set netting will affect the livelihoods of perhaps 23 commercial fishers, plus an unknown number of amateurs. A comprehensive monitoring program on trawlers and Danish seiners will be implemented by the industry, with 100 percent observer coverage for five years, subject to annual review.

Minister of Conservation Sandra Lee in 1999 declared the species threatened under the provisions of the New Zealand Marine Mammals Protection Act. She declared the North Island population a taonga (treasure), saying: "it would be a national tragedy if this animal vanished from the coastal waters it has inhabited for tens of thousands of years. Protecting it from the threat posed by fishing activity is essential if it is to survive." The North Island population of Hector's dolphin was classified as "critically endangered" by IUCN in November 2000.

Japan's Killing Season Opens

Anytime after 1 October dolphins, porpoises and small whales near some areas of Japan's shores may be herded by boats into bays and harbors, to be slaughtered for meat. A very few will be selected to be sold to captive display facilities throughout Asia. Offshore the commercial fishing industry may kill up to 20,000 dolphins and porpoises every year, mostly Dall's porpoises. Japan has essentially ignored the International Whaling Commission's request to stop the kill until accurate population estimates can be made.

CSI is proud to help Hardy Jones again travel to Japan, both to document some of this travesty, and by his presence cause some hunts to be cancelled. Please join us in wishing Hardy and his Japanese co-workers well. For more information on the anti-killing campaign see: http://www.bluevoice.org.

Indonesia's Walls Of Death

CSI reported some years ago on the "walls of death" in the North Sulawesi region of Indonesia. A massive pirate net fishery killed hundreds of cetaceans and thousands of fish. Local experts report that the nets have not reappeared there, but additional nets set by a Taiwanese conglomerate near Halmahera are rumored. Regional investigations to catch pirates are dangerous, official corruption is expected, and we must presume that the toll on marine life continues unabated.

Humans Make Orcas Sick

"Salmon Friendly Lawn" and "Orca Friendly Lawn" are eye-catching signs often seen in the Seattle area. The innovative campaign aims to educate the public that the collapse of salmon populations is linked to pesticides, cleaning products, lawn chemicals, and a host of other chemicals dumped into Puget Sound as toxic runoff. Some sources of the overall pollution are commercial and industrial, or from boats.

With the salmon depleted the famous Southern Resident orcas have turned to other prey, often bottom dwelling creatures that, from their lifestyle, have absorbed toxins from the polluted runoff. The orcas have no way to know that their food is poisoning them. Organochlorine pollutants from industrial dumps throughout the area may have depressed immune systems, leaving the whales more vulnerable to disease. How bad is it? The population of Southern Community orcas has plummeted almost 20 percent, from a high of 97 in 1996 to 78 in 2001. How many survivors are at risk from compromised immune systems is unknown.

CSI commends the many organizations and agencies that have come together to find solutions to the orcas' crisis, and by default, the recovery of the salmon and the health of Puget Sound. For more information contact the Orca Conservancy, http://www.orcaconservancy.org, and the Orca Recovery Campaign, http://www.saveorcawhales.org.

A recent scientific model by Dr. Martin Taylor, population biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity, predicts the extirpation or local extinction of Puget Sound orcas in as little as 33 years, unless the habitat is protected. The model used 26 years of data from the Center for Whale Research, and is the first to link population trends to habitat threats.

In early August the first legal hurdle to listing the Southern Resident pods of Orcas of Washington State under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was passed by NMFS. Called a 90 day finding, it came after intense deliberations over data received since a May petition for listing was made formally by a coalition of environmental organizations and individuals led by the Center for Biological Diversity. There also have been several workshops on the issue. NMFS determined that the petition presented substantial information that endangered or threatened status "may be warranted" under the ESA. A scientific team assembled by NMFS will complete a status review of this orca population by next May, to determine, in part, if the Southern Residents are "significant" pursuant to the joint NMFS/FWS distinct population segment listing policy. NMFS will then either deny the petition or issue a proposed rule to list the Southern Residents. A public comment period will follow, with evaluation of the comments by NMFS, and then a final rule will be issued by May 2003. However, this does not provide any immediate federal protection to the Southern Residents. As reported by the Endangered Species Coalition (http://www.stopextinction.org), of which CSI is a part, merely listing a species is no guarantee of official action. Hundreds of species languish on the endangered or threatened lists, subject to the competing whims of politics and profit.

It gets worse. "Transients", orcas that prey on marine mammals, may be the most contaminated of all marine mammals. The Marine Pollution Bulletin has declared the orcas of British Columbia the most contaminated cetaceans in the world. Many of Alaska's orcas were tested for contaminants between 1994 and 2000. The genetically unique "AT1" orcas of Prince William Sound may vanish from the toxins loaded into their tissues from their prey. Accumulating poisons from their prey, all marine mammals are victims of many contaminants, particularly PCB's and DDT, air and water borne contaminants from thousands of miles away.

SeaWorld's "Solution": Artificial Orca

SeaWorld, San Diego, proclaimed the first successful captive orca birth by artificial insemination in early September. The male calf was born to Kasatka, a 25-year-old captive orca. Depending upon one's perspective, this is progress. Whether the technique is ever used to maintain remnant populations of vanishing species is unknown, although this was touted as partial justification. It has been tried on dolphins in China.

Ariel and Turbo Released

On 31 August the two bottlenose dolphins Ariel and Turbo were released back to the wild by a team led by Ric O'Barry and the World Society for the Protection of Animals. The judge that ruled on the case of Ariel and Turbo, and gave the team the release permit, had received almost 3000 letters in support of the release from around the world. As reported in the last Whales Alive!, the dolphins had been abandoned in the mountains of Santa Lucia, Guatemala, by the traveling dolphin show Water Land, or Mundo Marino. After two months of rehabilitation the dolphins were let out of the sea pen on an initial trial, immediately joined a pod of 14 local dolphins, and have been confirmed as alive and well in the wild!

Keiko Wouldn't Release Himself

The Ocean Futures Society, http://www.oceanfutures.com, announced in mid September that Keiko had not joined for more than a few hours with any of the orca pods he met almost daily during many escorted trips to sea, some "walks" lasting several weeks. He played with some, chased some, and was chased by others. His human escorts left him alone up to six days, tracking Keiko with a VHF radio tag. However, as he never socialized, foraged, or fed with a group of orcas for enough time before the wild killer whales left the Westmann Islands for the season, and the valiant team was uncertain that he could fend for himself, the release effort has stopped until next year. He will winter in the Westmann Islands, where local support has waned; expected tourists did not appear. At least Klettsvik Bay is no longer considered suitable for salmon farming, removing that health threat to Keiko. The team is evaluating their resource needs and remains committed to Keiko's well being. After 23 years in captivity the 100 days he has spent free may not have been enough to adapt to whatever dialect, customs, or social rules he needs to be accepted into a pod.