Cetacean News

Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises is a book that anyone serious about wanting to conserve cetaceans and their habitats must have. This is Erich Hoyt's 14th book, published in 2005 by Earthscan, and only Hoyt could have written it. In thirty years of cetacean advocacy I have never felt more empowered or inspired by any other cetacean book I have seen. Many books tell us all that we know about cetaceans; finally we have a book that tells us how to help them by protecting their habitats, and perhaps more important, how to do more.

This is not just a description of every known Marine Protected Area (MPA) on Earth. It outlines the need, rationale, process, obstacles, challenges, techniques, and strategies of each, giving enough examples of successful problem solving to show anyone how to protect something they care about. The rationale, for example, is amplified in the section, "The value of cetaceans for marine-based conservation". This is the stuff the politicians need to know before they are moved to help. To get a feel for the book's potential start with some MPA you know well, perhaps locally. Hoyt reminded me that the Stellwagen Bank Sanctuary was jostled into reality only when threatened by a casino. What a battle that was!

Pieter Folkens' illustrations not only enhance many pages, but his acclaimed posters showing all cetacean species together are included, albeit scaled to this incredibly compact yet readable resource.

CSI commends the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society's effort to send this book gratis to many who could not afford it, because this is a must-have book for every reference library in every country. We're pleased to be assisting WDCS in sending this book to some of the key people we know will put it to good use.

Two bottlenose dolphins injured in a road accident near Christmas were recovering at Russia's St. Petersburg's dolphinarium, one having been thrown on the road following their truck's head-on collision with another vehicle. Along with a walrus, the dolphins, Larik and Polina, were returning to St. Petersburg from a nine-month tour in Shanghai. Their injuries were not life-threatening and they were expected to be back at work practicing for performances within ten days, although public performances in the near future were "out of the question."

Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium in December introduced a female harbor porpoise to their beluga exhibit. She had been rescued by the Cape Cod Stranding Network in February of 2002, underweight and dehydrated and, not having yet learned how to forage and survive on her own, was officially deemed unreleasable. A long period of rehabilitation followed, including thousands of hours of volunteer care, before she was introduced to the beluga's Alaskan Coast Exhibit. As always, the Mystic staff are using her cues to determine how fast to proceed. Yet to be named (with public suggestions) she is the only unreleasable harbor porpoise now in a U.S. facility. Several are kept in Europe, where for example, experiments have determined that human noise is a problem for the species (see related article).

Mystic Aquarium has been very successful over the years responding to the needs of cetaceans in trouble. No one who saw the spirited Commerson's dolphin Mystic rescued, from an illegal shipment to Japan, could miss her joy with life and the way she ruled her world, even handicapped in a body deformed by the small shipping box she had shared with companion dolphins that had died from the trauma. Mystic has had several significant rescues, rehabilitations and releases of marine mammals that have not only given animals a renewed life, but contributed much to science.

This makes us wonder why Mystic now has stooped to allowing tourists to "enter" the world of their beluga whales in the Alaskan Coast Exhibit, albeit only in waders as the water is kept cold. The 90 minute "Beluga Contact program" allows anyone (over five feet tall) to touch and get splashed by a beluga, for $145, essentially playing on the same human thrill-seeking that fuels dolphin contact and swim-with tours now sweeping the developing world. For a dark side view of this touchy business please see http://www.wdcs.org/, especially "Biting the Hand that Feeds".

Japan's Wakayama prefecture schools will be serving students whale meat twice a month starting in January, for the first time since 1982. Very few schools still serve the subsidized meat, currently valued at about US$5.35 per pound. An estimated 2,000 tons of whale meat is sold each year by markets and restaurants. How or if this meat is pretested free of contaminants found in other whale meat sold in Japan is not known. More minke meat will be available when the fleet currently "research" whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary arrives back in Shimonoseki. Japan plans to kill 770 large whales and perhaps 20,000 small cetaceans in 2005.

Fine Wine Helps Whales. As you may know, the "World Croquet Championships" are held yearly in Northern California's wine country, to raise money for charity. Foppiano Vineyards, the oldest family owned winery in the US, this year offered several cases at auction of its individually numbered Estate Bottled 2003 Cuvée Pinot Noir, with the proceeds going to the Hospices of Sonoma. Brice Jones, himself a very respected and genius producer of fine wines bought five cases and offered them to CSI as potential fund-raisers to help whales, dolphins and porpoises! The yet-to-be-bottled wine will include CSI on its label. CSI's Board of Directors was carried away by this generous offer, and came up with some perfect names, which will remain secret until we can use them. If you have to know why Brice was so generous to CSI, he and CSI's Bill Rossiter are old friends, both members of a mythical squadron of Old Fighter Pilots who tend to get carried away. As one example, one of the oldest members is about to fly around the world in his stagger-wing Beech (if you have to ask ...).

The point, of course, is to offer these select bottles as fund-raisers, guaranteed to have 100% go through CSI directly to help cetaceans. The fair market value of this cuvée has not been established, but if you are interested in purchasing a bottle or case, or have ideas about how to make the most of our opportunity, please contact CSI. If you know fine wines you'll understand the need to hurry. If you want to help whales you'll hurry even more, because how often can you get something back that is certain to make you happy?