Whales

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Norwegian government marine mammal management
advisor Lars Wallxe will advise increasing the unilaterally
declared Norwegian minke whaling quota from 425, the current
level, to circa 800-900, the newspaper Nordlands Framtid
reported on September 11. Norway is the only nation that currently
assigns itself a commercial whaling quota, but Iceland is
reportedly considering doing likewise.
Continuing to ignore the Norwegian violation of the
International Whaling Commission moratorium on commercial
whaling, U.S. IWC commissioner James Baker on September
12 formally protested the killing of two critically endangered
bowhead whales under a native subsistence quota unilaterally
assigned by Canada. U.S. aboriginals are allowed to kill 204
bowheads under a 1995 IWC quota running until 1998.

Oceanariums

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

The Utrish dolphinarium of the Russian
Academy of Sciences in Krasnodar, North Caucasus, on
September 5 released two dolphins into the Black Sea in an
experiment to see how well one of them, a 14-year-old male
named Dicky, would readapt to the wild after six years in
captivity. Dicky, captive for six years, was prepared for
release by capturing the other dolphin, Bella; introducing
them to each other; allowing them to bond; and then freeing
them together, in hopes they will remain together for as long
as Dicky needs help.
Ukrainian officials have refused to allow the
capture of 20 dolphins from the Black Sea this fall, for
exhibition in Turkey, which now has no captive dolphins.
Hopes of saving highly endangered Chinese river
d o l p h i n s by captive breeding were dashed on June 23, the
state-run Xinua news agency announced a month later, when
the first dolphin captured after a three-year search, a 10-yearold
female, drowned after becoming tangled in the protective
netting around her lagoon at the Tian’erzhou Natural Reserve.

HERPETOLOGY

October 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 1996:

Letters endorsing the addition of
alligator snapping turtles, American softshell
turtles, map turtles, timber rattlesnakes,
eastern diamondback rattlesnakes,
and sailfin lizards to the list of
animals protected under Appendix II of the
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species, and supporting the
move of gila monsters and beaded lizards
from Appendix II to Appendix I, must by
October 11 be received by the Chief, Office
of Scientific Authority, U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, 4401 North Fairfax Drive,
Room 750, Arlington, VA 22203; fax 703-
358-2276. All three turtle species and both
snake species are jeopardized by export to
Asian meat and traditional medicine markets.
Recorded exports of map turtles, for instance,

Extremism in Vancouver

September 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

VANCOUVER, B.C.––Turning 40, the Van-couver
Aquarium celebrated by granting free admission to anyone
born in 1956 for a week in June, just after alienating
supporters in the animal protection community with a
17,000-piece mailing denouncing “animal rights extremists.”
The mailing was to rally opposition to a referendum
proposal, which may be on the November city ballot,
that would ban keeping whales in Stanley Park, where the
aquarium is located. Despite offending some otherwise sympathetic
recipients, the mailing succeeded, inundating the
Vancouver Parks Board with 6,000 petition signatures,
2,000 preprinted postcards, and over 100 letters of support.

Liability-and-animal care rulings

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

MADISON, Wisconsin––In a ruling
of import to shelter staff, the Wisconsin
Supreme Court by 4-3 decision on June 27
reversed a Milwaukee County Circuit Court
jury award of $81,445 to part-time worker
Cheryl Armstrong, of Thistlerose Kennels in
Greendale, who was bitten by a Siberian
husky belonging to John and Ann Mack in
January 1991. Armstrong sued the Macks
and Milwaukee Mutual Insurance. Writing
for the majority, Justice Janine Geske argued
that Wisconsin law defines a dog owner as
anyone who owns, harbors, or keeps a dog.
In boarding the Macks’ dog, Thistlerose
became the dog’s owner for legal purposes;
Armstrong became the owner’s agent.
The ownership statute “is rendered
meaningless,” said Geske, “if one who in the
course of employment exercises control over
and provides care for a dog is not found to be
that dog’s keeper.”

Marine mammals

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Small whales
The Sacramento Bee warned in
June that the vaquita whale is “on the verge
of extinction, a victim of commercial gill net
fishing” in the Sea of Cortez, and that the
reserve set up to protect the vaquita may be “a
sanctuary in name only.” The vaquita is a
small toothed whale, a class not protected by
the International Whaling Commission.
Romanian Institute for Marine
Research scientist Alexandru Bologna says
only 10,000 dolphins remain in the heavily
polluted Black Sea, down from 70,000 in
1970, and one million in 1950, when the former
Communist regime began “economic capitalization
of dolphins,” i.e. slaughter.

Greenpeace gets wet

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

LUXEMBOURG––Major conservation
groups have historically been quiet
about fishing––and Greenpeace, founded on
oceanic campaigning, is no exception.
The world’s second-largest environmental
group, trailing only the World
Wildlife Fund, Greenpeace withdrew from
active opposition to sealing in Atlantic
Canada in 1986, even before seals were
blamed for crashing cod stocks. The
Greenpeace campaign against toxic pollution
in the St. Lawrence River was promoted in
part as an effort to improve fishing.

Oceanariums

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

Molly, the last known survivor of the traveling dolphin
shows popular in the 1960s, was on June 24 transferred by order of
the National Marine Fisheries Service from the Sugarloaf Dolphin
Sanctuary to the Dolphin Research Center, whose management has
long been critical of the Sugarloaf rehabilitation-for-release program.
NMFS suspended Sugarloaf operator Lloyd Good III’s
marine mammal exhibition license on June 7, two weeks after Good
and former Sugarloaf rehabilitation director Ric O’Barry released
the ex-Navy dolphins Buck and Luther without a permit. Buck and
Luther had been undergoing preparation for release since December
1994. A third ex-Navy dolphin, Jake, was seized on June 7 and
returned, with Luther, to the Navy dolphin program in San Diego.
Buck is also at DRC. Molly is claimed by the Key Largo-based
Marine Mammal Conservancy, formed by ex-Sugarloaf trainer Rick
Trout, who left after a November 1994 clash with O’Barry.

OFFING THEIR HEADS AT THE PASS

August 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, August/September 1996:

ANCHORAGE–– Indigenous
Alaskans killed at least 1,200 walruses this
spring, says the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, in a headhunting binge likely to
have lasting repercussions. Indigenous
hunters may kill as many walruses as they
want, but must use the whole carcass.
Responding to reports of headless carcasses
drifting ashore, the USFWS in May charged
two hunters with waste, for bringing 18 adult
walrus heads with tusks back to their village,
along with 19 whole walrus calves, but only
150 to 300 pounds of meat. In mid-June the
USFWS issued posters offering $1,000 for
information leading to the arrest and conviction
of other alleged headhunters.

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