Fish wars erupt worldwide

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

Fishing vessels don’t fly the Jolly Roger, but fish piracy is increasing from the

Grand Banks to the Bay of Bengal, where crackdowns are underway. Related violence is up

as well. Malaysian marine fisheries head Abdul Hamid Syukor on May 18 disclosed the

seizure of a rocket launcher, five assault rifles, and 600 rounds of ammo from two

Vietnamese trawlers allegedly caught in the act of fish-poaching. The Russian news service

Itar-Tass reported June 5 that a Russian patrol boat “was forced to open warning fire” just

after midnight on June 4 to drive six Japanese vessels out of the Kunashir straits.

Norwegian coast guard ships on June 15 cut the nets of four Icelandic trawlers they caught

fishing in Artic waters and fired a warning shot to keep three others away. One Icelandic

captain claimed the Norwegians tried to ram his boat. Norwegian newspapers predicted an

imminent cod war. On June 18, meanwhile, a French destroyer broke up a net-cutting fight

among several dozen French and Spanish trawlers off the Azores. Violence is also close to

the surface on the Caspian sea, where caviar poachers affiliated with organized crime fight

with the fishing fleets of five nations for the last of the once abundant beluga sturgeon.

Diet & Health

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

A 10-month study published in the

June issue of Cancer Causes and Control, the

journal of the Harvard School of Public Health,

found that children who eat more than 12 hot dogs

a month whose fathers have a history of similar

consumption have nine times the normal risk of

leukemia. The study compared 232 leukemia

patients under age 10 with a similar group of

leukemia-free children. Wrote Dr. John Peters,

who led the University of Southern California

study team, “These findings, if correct, suggest

that reduced consumption of hot dogs could

reduce leukemia risks, especially in those con-

suming the most. Until further studies are com-

pleted and this issue becomes clearer, it may be

prudent for parents to consider reducing consump-

tion of hot dogs for themselves and their children

where consumption frequencies are high.” About

2,600 children a year get leukemia; 72% survive.

Whales for missiles: SANCTUARY CREATED––BUT WHALING GETS THE GO-AHEAD TOO

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico, and WASH-

INGTON D.C.––As whale defenders cheered the May 26 cre-

ation of the Southern Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica, the

International Whaling Commission on May 27 unanimously

approved a U.S. motion to provisionally accept the Revised

Management Plan, a formula for setting renewed commercial

whaling quotas. Mexico, Ireland, and India voiced reserva-

tions but did not formally oppose the consensus.

The Southern Whale Sanctuary starts at the 40th par-

allel south latitude, dipping to the 55th parallel around the

lower tip of South America. It connects with the extant Indian

Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Although the IWC has no policing

power, the sanctuary designation means that whaling is per-

manently illegal in approximately half of the world’s waters,

protecting––on paper––about 80% of the surviving baleen

whales, an estimated 80% of the time.

GATT panel says U.S. can’t protect dolphins

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

On May 23, one week before the U.S.

Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibition on the

import of tuna netted “on dolphin” took full effect,

a General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs panel

ruled for the second time that the prohibition vio-

lates GATT because GATT does not allow trade

bans based on commodity production methods.

As in 1991, the U.S. ignored the GATT

ruling, bringing the ban on non-dolphin-safe tuna

into place as scheduled on June 1. The previous

ruling was brought on behalf of Mexico, which

did not seek enforcement to avoid jeopardizing the

North American Free Trade Agreement, then

before Congress for approval. The May 23 ruling

was brought on behalf of the European Union,

and was slightly more favorable than the 1991 rul-

ing in that it did recognize––in theory, if not in

practice––the legitimacy of national attempts to

mandate international environmental protection.

BOOKS: New wildlife titles

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

The Zoo Book, by Allen W. Nyhuis. Carousel

Press (POB 6061, Albany, CA 94706-0061), 1994. 288

pages, 79 photos. $14.95 paperback.

Exhaustive but not definitive, The Zoo Book will give

zoogoers a general idea of what to expect at approximately 100

institutions, including 53 major U.S. zoos plus many aquariums,

foreign zoos, and other venues for observing captive wildlife.

Assessing each zoo from a tourist’s perspective, The Zoo Book

unfortunately gives good ratings to some whose animal holding

conditions and programs for the benefit of wildlife are poor to

mediocre. It also overlooks most small zoos. This justly penal-

izes the notorious roadside zoos, but may also tend to steer visi-

tors away from some outstanding small zoos, such as the

revamped collection at Watertown, New York, where a few

REVIEWS: North Atlantic Humpback Whales

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

N o rth Atlantic Humpback Whales, recorded by Paul

Knapp Jr. Compass Recordings (POB 8173, Bridgeport, CT

06605), 1992. $10.00.

As the do-wop chorus behind Paul Winter, Mannfred Mann,

Country Joe and others, whales have a CV comparable to that of the little-

known Diana Love, who sang on even more hit albums than the Beatles

before getting a star billing in her 29th year of rock-and-roll. Paul Knapp

Jr., an active member of Cetacean Society International, rectifies the

musical injustice to whales with his tape North Atlantic Humpback Whales.

The whales sing uninterrupted and unspliced on side A, picking up a back-

ground chorus of popping and crackling pistol shrimp on side B.

About trusting whales who are over age 30

July 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1994:

ANIMAL PEOPLE reported in

June that according to a new Humane Society

of Canada study of all cetaceans known to

have been captured 1960-1992, captivity

cuts the average lifespan of orcas and beluga

whales by 43 years, and the average lifespan

of bottlenose dolphins by 15 years. It now

appears, however, that the HSC estimates of

orca and beluga lifespans in the wild were far

higher than current research indicates.

Cetacean ages are estimated by counting the

enamel layers on their teeth. Until 1984,

they were believed to grow one layer per

year. Then a postmortem on a 24-year-old

beluga who was kept in captivity from infan-

cy found that he had grown two layers per

year. Many references still state the old esti-

mates, but follow-up investigation has con-

vinced most marine mammologists to cut

those numbers in half. A study of captive

cetacean longevity by D.P. DeMaster and

J.K. Drevenak in 1988 produced similar aver-

ages to the HSC study––but also found that

the life expectancy for wild-caught dolphins

who survive their first year in captivity is 33

years, longer than dolphins live in the ocean,

while life expectancy for captive-born dol-

phins who survive to age one is 47 years.

First-year mortality is very high for

cetaceans––as for most animals––both in the

wild and in captivity.

Killing wildlife for fun & profit

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Austrian scientist Dr. Martin

Balluch, now at Cambridge University,

reportedly may be deported from Britain

because he opposes fox hunting. Letters of

protest may be sent to the Right Honorable

Michael Howard, Home Secretary, Home

Office, 50 Queen Anne’s Gate, London

SW1H 9AT, United Kingdom.

The winter of 1993-1994 was

among the harshest on record, forcing deer

to yard up sooner and stay yarded longer––but

early field reports indicate that few deer

starved despite hunters’ claims of deer over-

population. Wild turkeys were hard-hit, how-

eve––and may decline, warns National Wild

Turkey Federation representative Tom Baptie

of Castleton, Vermont, because undigested

grain from cow manure is a staple of their

winter diet, but anti-pollution laws now

restrict where and when manure can be spread.

Birds

June 1, 1994 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1994:

Hard-pressed sturgeon, sharks, and

rays got a break courtesy of the birds in May when

the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge

closed a popular fishing road to protect the nests of

threatened snowy plovers. Killed mainly for kicks,

not eating, the sturgeon, sharks, and rays are less

protected than the plovers but perhaps in greater

jeopardy of extinction because of their rapid deple-

tion and slow reproductive rate.

Oregon State University professor

Morrie Craig has received an award from the

American Racing Pigeon Union for developing a

way to test guano to detect the use of performance-

altering drugs. Doping has lately become a prob-

lem in pigeon racing, as the top prizes in interna-

tional competition have soared above $200,000.

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