Cetacean Society International

Please Help CSI's ACOREMA
Earthquake Relief Project!

Along with the grants we have made and will make to ACOREMA, CSI will send 100% of whatever you donate to help ACOREMA directly to ACOREMA. But you must follow the simple instructions at the bottom of this alert to ensure that your tax-deductible donation is directed as you wish.

An earthquake destroyed nearly 80% of Pisco, Peru in August, including ACOREMA, an Environmental Interpretative Center that CSI has supported for almost a decade.

The earthquake took only three minutes to turn this:

Into this:

Every survivor in the city is devoting all their resources to surviving and recovering something of their lives, and many relief agencies are focused on these basic needs. Everyone needs something symbolic of normal life. ACOREMA can be that symbol.

ACOREMA must be rebuilt:

• To show people something "normal" to rely upon;
• To give people hope about the future of their community;
• To provide a place for children and adults to congregate and focus on something other than the devastation in their lives;
• To continue the long term goal of improving public perceptions about cetaceans and the marine environment.

100% of any donation to "Cetacean Society International" with "ACOREMA" clearly noted in the memo area will be directed completely to ACOREMA, and is fully tax deductible by U.S. residents. Please mail donations to:

Cetacean Society International
P.O. Box 953
Georgetown, CT 06829 U.S.A.

Posted: 21 October 2007

Letter to the Japanese Consulate in Boston
Protesting Japan's Dolphin Drive Hunts

For more information see the October 2007 Whales Alive!

September 25, 2007

Consul General Yoichi Suzuki
Consulate-General of Japan
Federal Reserve Plaza, 14th Floor
600 Atlantic Ave.
Boston, MA 02210

Dear Consul General Suzuki:

We write as a coalition representing thousands of individuals opposed to the dolphin drive hunts that occur annually along the coastlines of Japan. Our coalition is protesting today in front of the Japanese Consulate in Boston, Massachusetts over this ongoing slaughter of dolphins, small whales, and porpoises by Japanese fishermen. Similar demonstrations are taking place outside Japanese embassies and consulates around the world in protest of these cruel and unsustainable hunts.

Dolphin drive hunts, also known as 'drive fisheries', occur annually from September through April in the coastal towns of Taiji and Futo. During these hunts, dolphins are encircled by motorboats out at sea and chased into shallow coastal waters where they are trapped with nets. The dolphins are then killed or trapped alive to be sold into captivity. Every aspect of this fishery is extremely cruel, from the exhausting drive from the open ocean that can separate family groups, to confinement in a netted cove where the dolphins are crudely slaughtered. Killed for their meat, or because they are considered pests in competition for fishery resources, these highly sentient mammals face severe distress, suffering, and pain. The live dolphins selected for sale to marine parks and aquaria are subjected to an impoverished and greatly reduced lifespan in captivity. Many die of stress and injury during and immediately after capture and transport to these facilities in Japan and overseas.

On September 1, the 2007 drive hunt season began with the round-up of ten Risso's dolphins in Taiji. Over 2,000 dolphins and small whales are killed annually in these drive hunts, including bottlenose, Risso's, striped, and spotted dolphins and pilot and false killer whales. Up to 20,000 small whales and dolphins are taken in other hunts along the coastline of Japan, including over 17,000 Dall's porpoise taken in northern Hokkaido. It is unclear whether local populations of dolphins, porpoises, and small whales can survive the intensity of these kills which are poorly regulated, unsustainable, and inherently cruel.

Many Japanese people are unaware that these hunts occur in their country. Because officials are conscious that the world will not tolerate the killing of these beautiful animals, filming of the dolphin slaughter is hampered and people are kept away from the areas where the killing takes place. The fishermen hide evidence of the hunts from the public eye by erecting tarpaulins and tents behind which the dolphins are slaughtered. Additionally, despite growing evidence that the dolphin meat from these hunts is heavily tainted with dangerous levels of mercury and poses a potential threat to human health, the contaminated meat is promoted in school lunch programs.

As you are aware, whale and dolphin watching is steadily growing in Japan along with a growing respect and care for marine life. Wildlife watching is not only a popular activity for locals and tourists alike, but is also a financially viable alternative to killing or capturing dolphins for entertainment. Drive hunts are a direct threat to the valuable dolphin watching industry.

The undersigned groups strongly oppose these drive hunts on both welfare and conservation grounds. We urge you to act now and to heed the voices of the global community opposed to the unsustainable slaughter of entire families and communities of whales and dolphins. Please end the dolphin drive hunts now.

Sincere regards,

Courtney S. Vail, US Policy Officer, WDCS
Sharanya Krishna Prasad, Program Officer, WSPA
Helen Rayshick, Executive Director, MARC
William Rossiter, President, CSI

Posted: 21 October 2007

ANWR Alaska National Wildlife Refuge And Other Protected Areas At Risk - AGAIN

Big Oil Threatens Alaska's Oceans

A tragedy is quietly unfolding in the seas adjacent to ANWR as the US Minerals Management Service and the Bush Administration rapidly push through their Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) plan to open over 84 million acres of biologically sensitive oceans to oil and gas exploration.

Having repeatedly failed in Congress to gain access to ANWR's oil fields, whose economic value has been questioned, Big Oil is now targeting the next best thing, America's portion of the pristine Arctic Ocean, portions of which make up the coastline of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. As the vast drilling project spreads through the region, ANWR and other protected areas such as the Alaska Maritime Refuge, the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, the Cape Krusenstern National Monument and the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve face massive devastation.

The US Department of Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS), the agency in charge of outer continental shelf oil and gas leases, produces an offshore energy production plan every five years. The 2007-2012 Oil and Gas Leasing Program, often referred to as the "Five Year Plan" includes biologically sensitive Arctic waters: the Bering's Sea's Bristol Bay, Beaufort Sea and the Chukchi Seas in Alaska. Congress must take action within 60 days of the published proposal or the plan becomes law.

If the plan is not stopped by Congress, one of the world's most biologically diverse ecosystems will succumb to the degradation and pollution that accompanies this activity.

WHAT'S AT STAKE?

The most productive Arctic oceanic ecosystem, ANWR and their inhabitants, are facing a grim and unthinkable intrusion into their rich and important habitat. Benthic (bottom dwelling) organisms, such as mollusks and crustaceans, flourish in the shallow Chukchi Sea, intertwining with the complex oceanic food web that includes an amazing diversity of fish, seals, walrus, sea birds and whales. The Beaufort Sea provides food for imperiled polar bears and is a major migration route for endangered bowhead and beluga whales. Increasing numbers of protected humpback, fin and grey whales, perhaps prompted by increasingly warmer waters to their south are becoming dependent on these waters as well. Recent Inupiat sightings of highly endangered northern Pacific right whales, as well as orca, blue and minke whales are raising concern that these imperiled species are also moving into the area to facilitate their survival.

Land-dwelling animals, and those that feed from ice floes, are intricately dependent on the Arctic waters for their existence. The estuaries, inlets, river outlets and bays along the Chukchi and Beaufort Sea coastlines provide breeding and spawning grounds for millions of birds, including some endangered species such as Stellar's eider and murrelet. Endangered Arctic capelin, salmon and cod make their way through these waters enabling the existence of much Arctic wildlife. At the waters along the coast, icy temperatures produce a bounty of sea algae and phytoplankton, perhaps the most vulnerable as the base of the Arctic food chain. High mortality rates for sea birds result from impacting the rigs, incineration from the flare and oiling. The seas, coastlines and the lands adjacent are inseparably linked, stabilizing the fragile and challenging climate. Arctic people, including Inupiat activists, have clamored to stop this proposed drilling scheme which is sure to bring widespread devastation.

It's not just oil extraction that places the Arctic at risk. Seismic testing requires the use of 24-hour blasts from high intensity sonar gun arrays that are known to adversely impact cetaceans (whales and dolphins), fish and other marine organisms. (Engas, et al)

In an unusual move, the MMS's Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the project was completed before the Five Year Plan was published, a factor that further undermines and even negates its validity as it breaks from the usual governmental protocol. Environmental groups cite the blatant conflict of interest inherent in the MMS plan: the MMS must generate income from its leases, clearly a reason to find little or no environmental detriment, or dismiss such findings, to enable the project to continue.

Local groups such as the Northern Alaska Environmental Center are refuting the quality and integrity of the MMS's science. In fact, the EIS has astonishingly found that there will be few significant long-term impacts on the seas' ecosystems, a claim that many find hard to believe. "Many of their conclusions defy logic and in many cases contradict other conclusions found in the EIS itself," says Pamela Miller, Arctic Coordinator of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. "They are the fox watching the henhouse." She adds, "The research provided is profoundly insufficient." (EII)

Federal scientists from the MMS acknowledged that existing information is insufficient to measure the effects of the project on the region's oceanic species, noting "a troubling lack of data about existing wildlife populations necessary for adequate monitoring." (ibid) Even the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is on the record citing a "lack of data regarding the distribution, abundance, and habitat use of important biological and subsistence resources in the area..." (ibid)

Many believe the data is skewed heavily toward development. For this fact alone, Congress must call for a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement to thoroughly examine the worthiness of this project.

HOW BAD CAN EXPLORATION AND DRILLING BE?

Oil spills from grounded or sinking oil vessels are not the only source of oil pollution in the marine environment. Leaks and seepage, common throughout the oil exploration and rig systems, processing waste as well as tankers flushing their ballasts after off-loading accounts over half of the oil that enters the world's oceans, an astounding but little known reality. In fact, where there are oil rigs, there is a mess of seepage and spills, and a dirty residue that fouls everything in sight.

"Estimates of oil derived pollution to the world's oceans suggest about 2.5 million tonnes per year. Of this, 23% comes from accidents and practices associated with oil transport, 8% from fixed installations such as oil rigs and coastal refineries, 58% from manufactured waste and oil pollutants washed into the sea from land..." (Marine Conservation Society) http://www.mcsuk.org/mcsaction/pollution/oil

There are no substantiated claims that an adequate amount of oil to justify such drilling in the first place even exists in these waters; similarly, oil for recovery is believed to be minimal on nearby ANWR's northern slope. Still, Shell Oil, BP, and ConocoPhillips are fast-forwarding their efforts to obtain MMS exploration permits, even as the industry fails to prove they can clean up any spills in the icy waters. Unless Congress stops this process, modifies the plan, asks for a SEIS or a thorough review of the data, the vital shores, waters and lands adjacent will become filled not with the region's prolific wildlife but messy industry infrastructure that includes pipelines, landfall bases, processing and waste facilities and ports.

As Arctic inhabitants deal with the growing threats to their way of life from global warming, the government should step up its protections to the area. If drilling is allowed to occur, the people and wildlife that make the Arctic region their home, whose lives are as integral to the landscape as the water itself, will be unwisely sacrificed for the questionable amount of oil that is hoped to be recovered.

CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS:

Call these numbers and ask to be connected to your US Senators and Congesspersons: Tell them that they must stop and thoroughly review the Minerals Management Services 2007-2012 Five Year Plan, the Oil and Gas Leasing Program targeting America's Arctic region.

U.S. Senate switchboard: (202) 224-3121. To send an email: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

U.S. House switchboard: (202) 225-3121. To send an email: http://www.house.gov/writerep/

Minerals Management Service
Dr. John Goll, Regional Director, Alaska OCS Region, Minerals Management Service, 2801 Centerpoint Drive #500, Anchorage, AK 99503-5823, 907-334-5200, 907-334-5202 (fax), John.Goll@mms.gov.

For more information:

http://www.alaskaoceans.net/sao/OCS.htm

http://www.pacificenvironment.org/downloads/final%20lease%20sale%20193%20comments.pdf

"Oil and Water." Earth Island Journal, Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2007. Earth Island Institute.

Sources

Alaska's Oceans in Peril. Alaska Oceans Program.
http://www.alaskaoceans.net/sao/OCS.htm

Engas, Lokkeborg, et al. "Effects of seismic shooting on local abundance of catch rates of cod (Gadus morhua) and haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus)."
http://www.livingoceans.org/oilgas/oilandgasreports/seismicshooting.pdf

Letter to Dr. John Goll. Alaska Coalition, Alaska Wilderness League, Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace, Earthjustice, Natural Resources Defense Council, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Pacific Environment, The Wilderness Society, Trustees for Alaska. December 21, 2006
http://www.pacificenvironment.org/downloads/final%20lease%20sale%20193%20comments.pdf

Miller, Pamela A. Alaska's Arctic Ocean Coasts Slammed by Offshore Leasing & Drilling. The Northern Line: Journal of the Northern Alaska Environmental Center. Volume XXVIX, Number 2. Summer 2007.
http://www.northern.org/artman/publish/pdfs/newsletter_summer_2007.pdf

"Oil and Water." Earth Island Journal, Volume 22, Number 2, Summer 2007. Earth Island Institute.

"Pollution, Oily Facts." Marine Conservation Society.
http://www.mcsuk.org/mcsaction/pollution/oil

"Seabirds at Risk around Offshore Oil Platforms in the Northwest Atlantic." Marine Pollution Bulletin: Viewpoint. Vol. 42, No. 12, pp. 1285-1290. Elsevier Science Ltd. 2001.

Posted: 30 June 2007