Marine mammal exhibitors join protest against Japanese coastal dolphin killing

October 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2006:

More than 60 organizations demonstrated
outside Japanese embassies and consulates in 32
cities against “traditional” coastal whaling on
September 20, 2006, the second annual Japan
Dolphin Day declared and coordinated by Ric
O’Barry of One Voice. Most notoriously practiced
at Taiji, the coastal whaling method consists of
driving dolphins into shallow bays from which
they cannot escape and then hacking them to death
en massé, after some are selected for live
capture and sale to swim-with-dolphins
attractions and exhibition parks.
The so-called “drive fisheries” have been
protested for more than 30 years by marine mammal
advocates including Sakei Hemmi of the Elsa
Nature Conservancy/Japan, film maker Hardin
Jones, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder
Paul Watson, and Steve Sipman, who invented the
name “Animal Liberation Front” in connection with
releasing two dolphins from a Hawaiian laboratory
in 1976. The Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks &
Aquariums and the American Zoo & Aquarium
Association finally issued statements of
objection to the “drive fisheries” in March 2004,
as did the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums
in June 2006.

Whales’ navy gains two ships

September 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

The global “navy” defending whales has added two ships–the
Leviathan, recently acquired by the Sea Shepherd Conservation
Society, and the Stenela, the first dolphin-watching vessel based
in Mozambique, funded by the German Society for Dolphin
Conservation, Save Our Seas Foundation, and Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
While the Stenela will attempt to protect whales and dolphins
by promoting appreciation of marine mammals in a new part of the
world, the Leviathan will lead the Sea Shepherd intervention against
Japanese “research” whaling within the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary,
designated by the International Whaling Commission in 1994 but not
recognized by Japan.
“We will be bringing two ships, a helicopter, and about 60
volunteers,” pledged Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson. Watson said
that the Levithan appears to be as fast as the Nisshin Maru, the
Japanese whaling factory ship, which repeatedly sped away from the
former Sea Shepherd flagship Farley Mowat last winter in high seas
skirmishes also involving two Greenpeace vessels.
The Institute of Cetacean Research, the Japanese whaling
front, plans to kill up to 935 minke whales and 10 fin whales within
sanctuary waters this coming winter.

Editorial: Crabs are animals too

September 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2006:

The poster for an August 27, 2006 crab feast planned by the
Prince Rupert SPCA looked like a bizarre parody. A grinning cartoon
crab, pink as if already burned, sprawled beneath a beach umbrella.
“Live crab, cooked to eat at the park or cooked to take home,” the
poster advertised. A photo of a real crab affirmed that real animals
were really to be boiled–until on August 17 the parent British
Columbia SPCA cancelled the event under pressure personally directed
by Sea Shepherd Conservation Society founder Paul Watson. Watson
then pledged to personally make a donation and urged others to donate
to the BC/SPCA.
Though the crab feast was averted, the episode raised issues
of posture and strategy which should be of pre-eminent concern to
every humane organization.
“Our mission,” the Prince Rupert SPCA web site predictably
proclaims, is “the prevention of cruelty to animals, and promotion
of animal welfare.”

Namibian seal hunt

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

The 2006 Namibian sealing season opened on July 1, with a
quota of 85,000 pups, 20,000 more than in 2005, and 7,000 bulls.
Adult females are exempted, to keep the seal breeding population up.
Just a fraction of the size of the annual Atlantic Canadian
seal hunt, the Namibian hunt has attracted little public attention
and protest–and even less since South Africa ended sealing in 1990.
As Namibia and South Africa share the same seal population, a common
misperception was that all sealing had ended along the Atlantic coast
of Africa. In fact, the Namibian sealing quota was doubled to
60,000 after 2000, when according to the Namibian government as many
as 300,000 seals starved due to depleted fisheries. Overfishing and
climatic change due to global warming appeared to be the major causes
of the seal deaths, but Namibia claimed the seals had overpopulated
their habitat. Current reports indicate, however, that the
Namibian seal population has never recovered to more than 75% of the
size it was in 1993, the recent recorded peak year.

Norwegian buyer declares whaling moratorium after IWC ban holds

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

OSLO, ST. KITTS, TOKYO– The Norwegian fish wholesaling
firm Norges Rafisklag on July 7, 2006 asked whalers to stop killing
whales because there is insufficient market for whale meat to warrant
more whaling this year.
“We don’t have buyers for more whales than those already
shot. Therefore we are sending out a message to halt the hunt,”
Norges Rafisklag spokesperson Hermod Larsen told NRK, the Norwegian
national broadcasting company.
Larsen is the Norges Rafisklag regional director for Lofoten,
the hub of the Norwegian whaling industry. Norges Rafisklag is the
only major buyer of whale carcasses.
“It’s not possible now, for those who don’t have their own
[storage] facilities, to shoot more whales for the time being,”
Larsen added.

Navy, NRCA settle conflict over sonar use

July 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 2006:

LOS ANGELES–The U.S. Navy and the Natural Resources Defense
Council on July 11, 2006 announced an out-of-court settlement of
cross-filed lawsuits over the use of high intensity mid-frequency
sonar during the “Rim of the Pacific 2006” war games.
“The settlement prevents the Navy from using the sonar within
25 miles of the Hawaiian Islands Marine National Monument and
imposes a variety of monitoring methods to watch out for and report
the presence of marine mammals,” said Associated Press writer Eric
Berkowitz.
Involving 35 ships from eight nations, RIMPAC 2006 during
the latter half of July tested the ability of U.S. anti-submarine
defenses to detect ultra-quiet diesel/electric submarines belonging
to Australia, Japan, and South Korea, whose technology is believed
to be similar to that of China, Iran, and North Korea.

Sealers overkill quota, mob observers

May 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

OTTAWA–Atlantic Canadian sealers reportedly killed as many
as 16,000 more infant seals than their 2006 record quota of 325,000,
“yet not one sealer was arrested,” observed Sea Shepherd
Conservation Society founder Paul Watson.
Logistic problems kept the Sea Shepherds away from the
Atlantic Canada seal hunt in 2006, but Watson initiated a boycott of
Costco stores. Costco executives on March 1 told Sea Shepherd
volunteer Stephen Thompson that Costco would quit selling seal oil
capsules, Watson said, only to renege less than two weeks later
under pressure from Newfoundland politicians.

Odds are risky for whales at IWC

May 1, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, May 2006:

ST. KITTS–The outcome of the 58th annual meeting of the
International Whaling Commission, upcoming at the St. Kitts & Nevis
Marriot Resort and Royal Beach Casino, looks like an even bet.
“This year the pro-whaling nations look likely to achieve
their first majority,” assess environment correspondents David
McNeill and Michael McCarthy of The Independent–but that was just
before Israel joined the IWC, possibly tipping the balance against
whaling
“Over the past six years, at least 14 nations have been
recruited to the IWC as Japan’s supporters,” McNeill and McCarthy
note. “Most of them have no whaling tradition. Some, such as
Mongolia and Mali, do not even have a coastline.

Rights-&-Freedoms defense failed for Sea Shepherds

April 2, 2006 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2006:

CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I.–Rejecting a “freedom of expression”
defense in December 2005, Prince Edward Island Provincial Court
Judge Nancy Orr on January 17, 2006 convicted 11 crew members from
the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society vessel Farley Mowat of being
within half a nautical mile of sealers during the 2005 Atlantic
Canada seal hunt.
The 11 defendants were arrested after several were assaulted
by sealers, who were not charged.
Orr found Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson not guilty
because he did not leave the Farley Mowat during the March 31, 2005
confrontation, and “because it was established that the Farley Mowat
was a place of residence,” Watson said. The Canadian Department of
Fisheries and Oceans requires anyone who approaches sealers to have a
permit, but people may witness the hunt from their homes.
Three days later the Crown Prosecutor dropped charges against
Watson for alleged violations of the Canadan Shipping Act filed over
the same incident.

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