BOOKS: Seeking the truth of whales

September 1, 1994 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

The Year of the Whale, by Victor B. Sheffer.

Scribner, 1969. 244 pages, paperback, out of print.

Gone Whaling, by Douglas Hand. Simon &

Schuster (Rockefeller Center, 1230 Avenue of the

Americas, New York, NY 10020), 1994. 223 pages,

$22.00 hardback.

Published 25 years apart, The Year of the Whale

and Gone Whaling came to ANIMAL PEOPLE, the former

at a library book sale and the latter for review, within 24

hours of one another. Victor Sheffer’s faintly fictionalized

account of the first year in the life of a sperm whale might be

remembered as the book that saved the whales, except that it

isn’t remembered at all despite the acclaim it received on pub-

lication, including the Burroughs Medal for the year’s best

book about natural history. Douglas Hand’s exploration of

the growing human fascination with orcas owes ancestry to

Sheffer’s work, even though the odds are good that Hand

hasn’t ever heard of Sheffer, much less read him. Though

ANIMAL HEALTH

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

No face-branding halt yet despite what mass media reported

July 7 media reports that the USDA would no longer require face-branding of steers import-

ed from Mexico were incorrect. Such an announcement was expected, but was apparently delayed by

the White House to get input on the rules change from the National Cattlemen’s Association. The

USDA did amend the import rules for Mexican heifers, who now must be given a local anesthetic

prior to spaying, and are rump-branded. The steers are branded to help inspectors backtrack cattle car-

rying bovine tuberculosis; the heifers are spayed to prevent the transmission of brucellosis.

Cold winter holds down roadkills: Peaks coincide with moon phases

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

DERRY, New Hampshire––The good

news is that roadkills will apparently claim 23%

fewer animal lives in 1994 than 1993. The bad news

is that the reason is probably not safer driving, but

rather the harsh winter of 1993-1994, which thinned

the numbers of many of the most vulnerable species.

Refinements of the survey method may

also account for some of the drop, from an estimated

total of 187 million animals killed in 1993 to just 137

million this year. The 1993 statistics were derived

exclusively from Dr. Splatt’s Roadkill Project, a

learning exercise then including students at 31 New

England middle schools, coordinated by Dr.

Brewster Bartlett of Pinkerton Academy, in Derry,

New Hampshire.

MARINE LIFE

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

Canada is secretly among the

nations trying to overturn the U.S. ban on

imports of tuna netted “on dolphin” as a

violation of the General Agreement on Trade

and Tariffs, according to a Canadian govern-

ment document disclosed by Michael

O’Sullivan of the Humane Society of Canada.

Canada has only a small tuna fleet, but seeks a

precedent toward overturning the pending

European Community ban on imports of fur

caught with leghold traps. Intended to take

effect in January, that ban has reportedly been

put off for another year, and is already subject

of a protest to the GATT tribunal by the U.S.-

based National Trappers Association.

Whale-meat and brain damage

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A comparison of the pilot whale

consumption of pregnant Faroese women

with amounts of methyl mercury found in

umbilical cords and maternal hair has

discovered that those who eat whale meat

often pass mercury to their fetuses at lev-

els which may cause brain damage.

Conducted by biochemists Christine

Dalgard, Philippe Grandjean, Poul

Jergensen, and Pal Weihe, of Odense

University, Denmark, the study was

published in the June/July 1994 issue of

Environmental Health Perspectives.

Ignoring the international ban on com-

mercial whaling, Faroe Islanders kill

circa 2,000 whales a year. The Faroes are

a Danish protectorate.

Did Japan quit killing hawksbill turtles to resume killing whales?

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

TOKYO, Japan––More than

three years after former U.S. president

George Bush warned Japan to quit dealing in

hawksbill sea turtles or face trade sanctions

under the Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species, Japan on July 15

banned the import of the rare turtles and/or

their parts––after importing circa 30 tons of

hawksbill turtleshell during the first half of

1994 alone. The shells are used to make var-

ious ornamental sundries. The Bush warn-

ing, never followed up, was the first-ever

U.S. move to enforce CITES, although

Congress gave the President the authority to

do so in 1977. Japan is believed to have

imported parts of more than two million sea

turtles since 1971, according to Earth Island

Institute, including the shells of at least

234,000 hawksbills during the 1980s.

Sea Shepherd, Greenpeace take on Norwegian whalers; JAPAN IGNORES SANCTUARY; RUSSIA MAY FOLLOW

September 1, 1994 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

NORTH SEA, TOKYO–––As a

summer of intense whaling and anti-whaling

activity off Norway closed, Japan announced

on August 12 that it too would flout the

International Whaling Commission by taking

an “exception” to the Southern Ocean Whale

Sanctuary, created in May. A similar

announcement was expected from Russia.

While Norway for the second year

unilaterally set a commercial whaling quota,

breaking the IWC moratorium on commercial

whaling in effect since 1986, Japan formally

objected to the inclusion of minke whales as a

protected species within the newly created

sanctuary, which includes 80% of the known

minke whale habitat: all waters south of the

40th parallel except for a dip around South

America. The objection means Japan will

proceed with plans for a so-called scientific

hunt of 300 minke whales within the sanctu-

Summer flooding tested disaster prep in Georgia

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

MACON, Georgia––Tropical Storm Alberto killed 31 people during the second

week of July, washing out 9,000 homes, 1,700 roads, 600 bridges, and 100 dams across

southern Georgia. Animals suffered too, as 300,000 chickens drowned on just one farm near

Montezuma, while 83 dogs and cats died in the submerged Sumter County Humane Society

shelter, a short distance north at Americus. Of the dogs left inside, only the shelter mascot

survived, hiding in a storage closet that withstood the water. One cat also survived, who was

quickly adopted out and named “Miracle.” Six dogs kept outside escaped as the torrent

wrecked their cages.

The Georgia Wildlife Resources division expected a heavy impact upon rabbits,

rodents, foxes, and fawns, who were born late this year due to a lingering winter. Driving

Free Willy––or breed him? MORE AT RISK THAN MONEY IN OCEANARIUMS

September 1, 1994 Archivist Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1994:

A surfacing fin whale probably didn’t inspire the

Vietnam War Memorial in Washington D.C.––but she might

have. She rises from the trench between waves like a glisten-

ing black wall, low at first, easing up out of the water until

her fin breaks the horizon and she looms for a moment as big

in life as in symbol. Then she spouts, arches her back, and

slides out of sight. Her broad tail never breaks the surface.

Just 15 seconds with a wild whale, after a 330-mile

drive and a three-hour cruise, can unforgetably confirm the

mystique of whales. Add to that half an hour of observing the

dolphins who often surf the wakes of whale-watching vessels,

and it’s no surprise that whale-watching draws 1.5 million

people per year in New England alone, pumping $317 million

into the local economy. Globally, says the British-based

Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, whale-watching is

now worth more than whale-killing ever was––perhaps even

in Japan, the leading market worldwide for whale meat.

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