Iceland Minister Warns on Whaling

Many consumers simply will not want to buy fish from sources that are linked to killing whales

REYKJAVIK, 20 May, 2008 (BBC) - Iceland's whalers have embarked on this year's hunt with the country's foreign minister warning that whaling may damage Iceland's "long term interests".

Boats left to begin the hunt on Tuesday after the fisheries ministry issued a quota of 40 minke whales for 2008. Officials say the hunt is sustainable and justified by market demand. The British government and several environmental groups joined foreign minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir in criticising the decision . . .

Icelandic Humpbacks Monitored

REYKJAVIK, 1 December, 2008 - The Icelandic Marine Research Institute has been monitoring the movements of a humpback whale since early November.

It was marked along with other whales with a satellite transmitter in Eyjafjördur, north Iceland, on November 6 and has since made it to south Icelandic waters. Another humpback that was marked at the same time has remained in Eyjafjördur, in all likelihood feeding on capelin, Morgunbladid reports. The purpose with the project is to study the movements of baleen whales around Iceland and their travels out of Icelandic waters in the fall. Unlike other baleen whales in the North Atlantic, not much is known about the humpback. Its only known winter breeding location is in the Caribbean. Some of the humpbacks that reside around Icelandic in summer travel to the Caribbean in winter, but others appear to be of an unknown stock and breed elsewhere. A considerable number of humpback whales seem to remain in Icelandic waters in winter and are known to feed on capelin. The project is supervised by Gísli Víkingsson at the Icelandic Marine Research Institute.

Japan MUST be Expelled from the IWC

When it comes down to the smooth running of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and it's orderly administration which country is the most disruptive? Which country gives aid money for votes? Which country takes up far too much time at meetings? Which country consistantly ignores the wishes of the Commission? Which country still kills whales?

Japan!

When it comes down to who wants to kill whales, on a per capita basis, the details are quite astounding. It makes one wonder how a small group of people can disrupt a perfectly good international organisation and simply "buck the system". . .

International Anti-whaling Campaign

The Whalewatch report, Troubled Waters, was published March 9th to mark the start of the global campaign against whaling.

Britain's best-known naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, stresses the point in his foreword to the report. "The following pages contain hard scientific dispassionate evidence that there is no humane way to kill a whale at sea," says the broadcaster.

JOIN the 'Whalewatch' campaign and add your voice to an unprecedented coalition of over 140 conservation organisations (NGO's) from more than 55 countries lobbying the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to call a halt to all commercial and scientific whaling operations, maintain the current ban on commercial whaling and bring the issue of cruelty back to the fore . . .

Whales are Not the Major Causes of Dwindling Fish Stocks

N.O.A.A. US Department of Commerce

Do whales and other marine mammals compete with humans for fisheries resources? Should whales be hunted to save fish stocks? Today's marine science community has enough expertise and experience with the complex ocean ecosystem to recognise that the "competition" claim is oversimplified and the hunting proposal is biologically unsound.

As a whole, whales do not eat "large quantities of fish as food," nor do they threaten the health of the world's limited marine fish resources. Some whale species do prey on fish, but often on fish that humans do not consume. In truth, humans are primarily responsible for fisheries declines. It is humans who continue to threaten the world's stocks through overfishing and reluctance to allow stocks to naturally replenish . . .

Japan Fights Whale Conservation Measure

The International Whaling Commission opened its annual meeting in Berlin under the threat of a Japanese walkout if the Commission adopts a hotly contested measure designed to improve whale protection.

The latest clash between pro-whaling nations and those pushing for more conservation involves a 31-page proposal to form a committee charged with "strengthening the conservation agenda" within the 50-nation whaling commission.

The 19 sponsors of the "Berlin Initiative" include the United States, Britain and Australia. The measure calls for working with global wildlife groups to better protect the marine mammals. Japan says the proposal focuses too much on conservation at the expense of sustainable harvests. The meeting began with an argument between the commission's pro- and anti-whaling factions over whether it should be dropped from the agenda altogether . . .

Japan should NOT kill porpoises to eat Open Letter to the Government of Japan
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Say NO to Navy Noise

Eco-activist Diana Mann Photo by Jack Gould

Low frequency active sonar is based on very low frequency sound [100-1000 Hz] can travel great distances and detect quiet submarines. The system uses intense sound. The US Navy has given a figure of sounds as loud as 235 decibels generated by massive sound transmitters towed behind TAGOS-class ships. The noise level of a jet engine is about 120 decibels.

A NATO LFA exercise in 1998 left numerous dead beaked whales on the coast of Greece. LFA testing off the Island of Hawaii in 1998 caused humpback whales to leave the test area, apparently resulted in separation of whale and dolphin calves from their mothers, and injured a snorkeler in the water. . .

18 Countries Call on Japan to End Scientific Whaling

Australia joined 17 other countries in making a demarche to Japan opposing its scientific whaling program.

The demarche sets out our strong concerns about Japan's continuing program of lethal whaling. Australia is disappointed that Japan is now expanding its program of whaling in the North Pacific to include another species, the Sei whale.

There is ample evidence that the scientific objectives of Japan's research program could be achieved using non-lethal means. . .

Gray Whale Numbers Shrink by Thousands

The population of Eastern North Pacific gray whales has dropped in the past four years from an estimated high of more than 26,000 to less than 18,000, alarming environmentalists but drawing no major concern from federal scientists who monitor the once-endangered whales.

Environmentalists see the drop as a sign that the whale's population is still threatened by hunting, pollution, climate change and dwindling food supplies. . .

CAUTION: Whale meat is hazardous to your health

That message to Japan's finicky consumers could end up being more damaging to Tokyo's hopes of resuming commercial whaling than years of campaigning by environmentalists focused on endangered species.

"If it became more widely known that this meat was contaminated, people who want to eat whale would probably stop," said Koichi Haraguchi, a researcher at Dai-Ichi College of Pharmaceutical Sciences in western Japan.

So far, though, most Japanese consumers seem blithely unaware that the whale meat they see as a gourmet delight may be tainted with dangerous mercury and toxic chemicals. . .