OUTRAGE OVER WHALING ... #2 <cont>

I thought my "worldview" was a bit more expansive than your's.

And as for posting a list of questions like that, did you seriously expect anyone to spend the time researching the answers for you?

11 November 2006 Pilot whales mass beaching in New Zealand.
Over 40 pilot whales have died in a mass beaching in northern New Zealand on Friday. A pod of the same size was refloated by volunteers and guided by boats out to sea.

Whale experts have never been unable to explain why the whales swim into dangerously shallow waters and strand themselves year after year

New Zealand has one of the world’s highest incidences of whale beaching. Statistics show that over 5.000 cetaceans, whales and dolphins have ended in NZ beaches since 1840.

The largest even beaching was in 1918 involving 1.000 pilot whales in the

10 March 2005: UK Whale stranding cases double in ten years
Whale, dolphin and porpoise strandings have doubled in the UK over the last 10 years to 782, according to a new study. The Whale and Dolphin Stranding Scheme at the Natural History Museum blames an increase in fishing activity, which it says leads to more "by-catch". This can occur when dolphins or whales chase fish into giant nets and get entangled in the gear.
03 March 2005: Stranding of rare whales on far north beach
A stranding of seven rare gray's beaked whales on a Northland beach was the biggest ever stranding on mainland New Zealand. Four adult whales and three calves were found dead on Waikuku Beach.
29 January 2005: Whale Stranding in N.C. Followed Navy Sonar Use
At least 37 whales beached themselves and died along the North Carolina shore earlier this month soon after Navy vessels on a deep-water training mission off the coast used powerful sonar as part of the exercise. Although the Navy says any connection between the strandings and its active sonar is "unlikely" it is cooperating with other federal agencies probing a possible link.

27 November 2003: Predator theory for whale mass stranding
Over 100 whales and 20 dolphins stranded on a remote beach in Tasmania may have been driven to their deaths in a desperate attempt to escape a predator, Australian scientists have suggested. The beached carcasses of 110 long-finned pilot whales and 20 bottle-nosed dolphins were discovered by an abalone diver on the west coast of the island on Monday.
16 November 2003: 12 sperm whales die after stranding on NZ beach
A pod of 12 sperm whales, some 10 metres long and weighing up to 12 tonnes, have beached themselves on Auckland's west coast and died. The whales, thought to be mostly females with a young calf, were stranded over a five kilometre stretch of beach at the mouth of Manukau Harbour, drawing a crowd of about 1,500 curious onlookers today.

The low frequency active sonar (LFA sonar) used by the military to detect submarines is the loudest sound ever put into the seas. Yet the U.S. Navy is planning to deploy LFA sonar across 80 percent of the world ocean. At an amplitude of two hundred forty decibels, it is loud enough to kill whales and dolphins and already causing mass strandings and deaths in areas where U.S. and/or NATO forces are conducting exercises.

How does whale meat, caught by the Japanese whalers for "scientific research purposes", end up on upmarket Californian restaurants menus, disguised as sushi?

How does whale meat, which is illegal in the US, even enter the US in the first place?

How many other places are importing illegal whale meat from sources like Japan?

Sleight of hand motivated by financial gain. I can't think of any other reasons.

it would make equal sense to arrest the diners.

PS, I think that the diners in Calif. DID know they were eating blubber because the traditional dishes of whale meat leave the blackish epiderm on the blubber.

Whale sushi restaurant closes for good

Posted 1 hour 1 minute ago

A California restaurant facing criminal charges for serving endangered whale meat as sushi has announced it will close permanently as a "self-imposed punishment".

The Hump restaurant in Santa Monica and chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto face charges over "the illegal sale of a marine mammal product" after the Oscar-winning documentary makers of The Cove filmed them serving sei whale sushi.

"The Hump hopes that by closing its doors, it will help bring awareness to the detrimental effect that illegal whaling has on the preservation of our ocean ecosystems and species," a statement on the restaurant's website said.

"Closing the restaurant is a self-imposed punishment on top of the fine that will be meted out by the court. The owner of The Hump also will be taking additional action to save endangered species.

"One such action will be to make a substantial contribution to one or more responsible organisations dedicated to the preservation of whales and other endangered species.

"The Hump apologises to our loyal customers, the community of Santa Monica, and the public at large for our illegal actions."

The restaurant owners face up to a year in prison and a $US200,000 ($218,000) fine, while Yamamoto faces a maximum fine of $US100,000.

More
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/21/2851748.htm?section=justin


URL: http://able2know.org/topic/109975-42

Tiny Tokelau declares 11th Pacific whale sanctuary
By RAY LILLEY, Associated Press Writer Ray Lilley, Associated Press Writer " Wed Apr 14, 2:28 am ET

WELLINGTON, New Zealand " The three-island territory of Tokelau declared itself a whale sanctuary Wednesday, adding a huge patch of sea to the total protected area of more than 7 million square miles that is off limits to hunting in the Pacific Ocean.

The isolated group of coral atolls with a land area of just 5 square miles (12 square kilometers) has outlawed whaling in its 116,000-square-mile (290,000-square-kilometer) exclusive economic ocean zone, spokesman Foua Toloa said.

Sanctuaries have only moral force, but are seen by supporters as helping support the recovery of decimated whale populations like the humpback and southern right whale.

Toloa made the announcement at a conservation meeting in New Zealand that condemned continued whale-hunting by countries such as Japan.

"Whales don't recognize national boundaries, and Tokelau would be remiss if we failed to support our Pacific island neighbors in the quest to help recovery of the whales in our region," Toloa said.

About 1,500 people live in Tokelau, a U.N. protectorate that remains a colony of New Zealand and lies about 300 miles (500 kilometers) north of Samoa.

Tokelau's new whale sanctuary takes the number of protected areas in the Pacific to 11, and together they cover some 7.2 million square miles (18 million square kilometers).

The territory's declaration came as whale researchers and conservationists began a meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium in New Zealand. The grouping was formed by independent scientists to investigate the status of humpback and other whale species in the region.

The group noted that despite a global moratorium on commercial whaling being in force since 1986 and an international whale sanctuary established in 1994 in the oceans around Antarctica, more than 3,000 whales are hunted and killed for their meat each year.

Japan alone kills hundreds of whales each year in Antarctic waters.

Consortium member, Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, said whale sanctuaries send "very strong messages to the global community and particularly to the whaling nations ... that they are in a minority."

The sanctuaries also help endangered whale populations return to their pre-exploitation numbers, he said.

Sue Taei, co-chairwoman of the research group, said Tokelau was joining other Pacific nations in calling on whalers to respect sanctuaries, including the southern oceans' sanctuary where Japan hunts each year.

Baker said Japan was breaking two agreements by hunting whales in the southern oceans " contravening both the 1994 agreement to set up the sanctuary and the 1986 majority vote in the International Whaling Commission setting up the moratorium on commercial whaling.

Japan classes its annual hunt " mostly of nonendangered minke whales " as scientific whaling within the commission's rules, but opponents regard it as illegal commercial whaling under the guise of science.

The 11 Pacific nations and territories that have established whale sanctuaries within their ocean economic zones are: Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Niue, Papa New Guinea, Samoa, Tokelau, American Samoa and Vanuatu.

Two nations, New Zealand and Tonga, and two territories, Guam and the Northern Marianas, have passed laws banning the taking of whales from their economic zones but have not declared sanctuary areas.

Whalers blame low catch on Sea Shepherd
Updated Mon Apr 12, 2010 11:09pm AEST
ABC News


The fleet's catch of 507 whales was down sharply on last year's cull of 680. (Australian Customs Service: File photo)

The last ship of Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet has sailed home with the lowest catch in years and whalers have blamed the shortfall on high-seas clashes with environmental group Sea Shepherd.

The Nisshin Maru, the last of five whaling ships to return to Japan, sailed into Tokyo harbour with its hull splattered with blood-red paint thrown by the protesters.

The fleet's catch of 507 whales was down sharply on last year's cull of 680 and below the target of about 850, said Japan's fisheries agency, which blamed harassment by the Sea Shepherd group for the shortfall.

It was the smallest catch on record except for the 2006-07 expedition when the fleet caught only 505 whales after a fire aboard a ship hampered whaling operations.

This season's confrontations in icy Antarctic waters saw the sinking of a Sea Shepherd vessel, the Ady Gil, and the arrest of one of its activists, Peter Bethune, who faces trial in Japan for assault, trespass and three other charges. ...<cont>

Australia, NZ condemn 'offensive' whaling plan
By New Zealand correspondent Brigid Glanville
Updated 9 minutes ago/ABC NEWS online


The IWC's new proposal would allow 400 minke whales and 10 fin whales to be killed each year in the Southern Ocean until the 2015-2016 season. (Australian Customs Service, file photo)

Environment groups say the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) proposal to allow some whales to be killed is a return to commercial whaling.

The IWC's proposal would let whalers harpoon 400 minke whales and 10 fin whales each year in Antarctic waters until the 2015-2016 season.

Fin whales are an endangered species and green groups say the only reason their numbers are strong again is because of the ban on commercial whaling.

Australia says it will not support the proposal and in a surprise twist New Zealand has also said it will not support it.

The next meeting of the IWC in Morocco in June was always going to be heated, but Friday's announcement from the IWC guarantees the debate will be loud and long.

Australia is against whaling and is very worried this latest proposal may be supported.

"We'll look at the IWC statement carefully but on face value it falls very well short of any outcome that Australia could ever accept, and I repeat what we've said all through this process and that is that Australia remains resolutely opposed to commercial and so-called scientific whaling," Environment Minister Peter Garret said.

"We will not support a proposal which would sanction commercial whaling and we've put an alternative set of proposals which we think go towards achieving the conservation goals which we believe the IWC nations should set for themselves."

Australia wants a proposal that bans whaling for commercial and scientific reasons.

"We need to strongly press for no whaling in IWC endorsed sanctuaries. We need to agree on the scientific procedures that underpin all IWC decisions," Mr Garrett said.

'Legitimises whaling'

Environmental groups are outraged by the IWC proposal.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says the proposal endorses the killing of whales in one of the most critical feeding grounds, the Southern Ocean.

Mick McIntyre from Whales Alive says the proposal is flawed.

"This proposal would mean the return to commercial whaling because it clearly is a proposal that would legitimise whaling over a 10-year period," Mr McIntyre said.

"To me it's like if you were a parent and you said to your kid don't worry about us telling you what to do or receiving any discipline, you do what you like for 10 years and then we'll come and talk to you about how you went and then we'll talk to you about discipline at the end of those 10 years.

"I mean it's a free for all and it's completely legitimising what Japan has been doing in a scientific whaling program. It completely allows them to get away with murder basically."

This is the first time the IWC has put a figure on the numbers of whales it would allow to be killed.

The proposal was put forward in an attempt to break the deadlocked debate.

Non-whaling countries which support it, such as the US, believe a compromise will mean the number of whales killed will be closely controlled.

Three weeks ago there was international outrage when New Zealand said it would consider this proposal, but it now says the proposal is offensive and inflammatory.

"The proposal for a consensus decision proposed by the IWC chair and deputy chair today falls seriously short of being a basis for diplomatic settlement to the whaling debate," New Zealand foreign affairs minister Murray McCully said.

"In terms of the specifics, the proposed catch limits for the Southern Ocean are unrealistic and unacceptable from New Zealand's point of view.

"The suggestion that there should be a small quota for fin whale is an inflammatory proposal in my view."

Mr McIntyre hopes other nations will now follow New Zealand.

"New Zealand's change of heart is very, very welcome. I think commonsense has prevailed with the New Zealand government," he said.

"They saw the writing on the wall that this was a complete contradiction of the proposal. All that this proposal does is give the whaling countries everything they could possibly want."