Latest News Stories Concerning Dolphins and Whales

Ocean Pollution: Effects of Ocean Toxins on Dolphins, Whales & Human Health

BlueVoice.org has done extensive work researching and exposing ocean pollution, toxins and the impacts on dolphins, whales, other marine mammals and human health.

On this page  http://www.bluevoice.org/dolphins.php they have links for dolphins and whales and has a list of all the latest stories concerning them. This is all very interesting stuff so please take the time to read if you can.

Whaling

Whaling is the hunting of whales primarily for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales. Industrial whaling emerged with organized fleets in the 17th century; competitive national whaling industries in the 18th and 19th centuries; and the introduction of factory ships along with the concept of whale harvesting in the first half of the 20th century.
As technology increased and demand for the resources remained, catches far exceeded the sustainable limit for whale stocks. In the late 1930s, more than 50,000 whales were killed annually and by the middle of the century whale stocks were not being replenished. In 1986, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) banned commercial whaling so that stocks might recover.
While the moratorium has been successful in averting the extinction of whale species due to overhunting, contemporary whaling is subject to intense debate. Pro-whaling countries, notably Japan, wish to lift the ban on stocks that they claim have recovered sufficiently to sustain limited hunting. Anti-whaling countries and environmental groups say whale species remain vulnerable and that whaling is immoral, unsustainable, and should remain banned permanently.

 In the United States, whaling is carried out by nine different indigenous Alaskan communities. The whaling program is managed by the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission which reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The hunt takes around 50 bowhead whales a year from a population of about 10,500 in Alaskan waters. Conservationists fear this hunt is not sustainable, though the IWC Scientific Committee, the same group that provided the above population estimate, projects a population growth of 3.2% per year. The hunt also took an average of one or two gray whales each year until 1996. The quota was reduced to zero in that year due to sustainability concerns. A future review may result in the gray whale hunt being resumed.

 The World Wide Fund for Nature says that 90% of all northern right whales killed by human activities are from ship collision, calling for restrictions on the movement of shipping in certain areas. By-catch also kills more animals than hunting^. Some scientists believe pollution to be a factor. Moreover, since the IWC moratorium, there have been several instances of illegal whale hunting by IWC nations. In 1994, the IWC reported evidence from genetic testing of whale meat and blubber for sale on the open market in Japan in 1993.

Iceland has defied a global ban on commercial whaling by killing hundreds of whales since 2006. 
President Obama recently imposed diplomatic sanctions on Iceland for its illegal commercial whaling. But if that nation resumes its slaughter of whales next season, then Icelandic companies tied to whaling should be targeted for tough economic sanctions.

News Story Over Whales and Dolphins

The Taiji slaughter is legal under both Japanese and international law, even though it occurs in a nature reserve. Although dolphins belong to the same family as whales, they are not protected by the international ban on whaling.
And while Japan openly flouts the ban, in the guise of so called 'scientific whaling', it is at least illegal and one hopes the country will eventually begin honoring the treaties it has signed up to.
No such treaties protect the 23,000 dolphins killed by Japanese fishermen each year - indeed, the dolphins are victims of the whaling ban. 

When the whaling moratorium came into force in 1986, the Japanese authorities and fishing industry began slaughtering tens of thousands of dolphins. They did this to satisfy and maintain the Japanese love for whale flesh, which apparently tastes very similar to dolphin.
Within 12 months, the Japanese were killing more than 40,000 dolphins every year. Most were fed to children in school meals, with the rest being exported to China.
Ironically, recent scientific research suggests that the Japanese authorities might be endangering the health of their own children through this practice.
Dolphin meat is full of toxic mercury, cadmium, DDT and carcinogens such as dioxins and PCBs. Some cuts of dolphin meat have more than 5,000 times the safe level of mercury. Such levels can very quickly lead to severe nervous system problems and even insanity.
The dolphin meat is so toxic because the seas around Japan have become a soup of industrial wastes. These poisons become concentrated in fish, which the dolphins then eat. And when the Japanese eat the dolphins, they progressively poison themselves.
'Killing dolphins is horrific, but feeding their meat to children is morally repugnant and ethically untenable,' says Ric O'Barry. 'The government and fishermen put dolphin meat on sale where pregnant women and children can easily buy it. It's killing them.
'If you go to the hospitals around Taiji, you'll find evidence of people with mercury poisoning.'
These poisons are also having a shattering impact on whales and dolphins. Mercury damages their brains and nervous systems, too. And pesticides and other long-lived pollutants devastate their immune systems and cause cancer.
But perhaps the most insidious effect of all is the impact these pollutants have on fertility. Dolphin numbers are plummeting worldwide. Hunting obviously has a big impact, but reduced fertility plays an equally significant role.
And in recent years, yet another problem has begun to threaten dolphins and whales - noise pollution. Not only do both creatures use sound to 'see' underwater, they also rely on it to navigate and communicate.
Sound from ships' engines, oil exploration, and military sonar confuses them and can permanently damage their hearing.
The impact of noise pollution cannot be over-stated. The latest generation of sonar used by both the U.S and Royal navies can seriously harm whales and dolphins.
To put this in perspective, if a submarine uses its sonar at maximum power, then dolphins 100 miles away will hear an ear-splitting sound equivalent to standing next to a jet fighter on full thrust. Such noise pollution is believed to have led to many whale and dolphin stranding in recent years.

Although the killing of dolphins at Taiji is undoubtedly horrific, campaigners fear that an equally horrific fate lies in store for the world's whales. For the International Whaling Commission - at the behest of the U.S government - is currently working on a 'compromise' agreement that would legalize commercial whaling.
For the past 23 years, Japan has ignored international law and hunted whales illegally. To try to bring Japan back into the fold, the IWC is proposing to allow them to kill as many whales as they choose in their own waters.
'If the Japanese get their way, they will have succeeded in slaughtering hundreds of thousands of dolphins in defiance of world opinion,' says Andy Ottaway, director of the UK based welfare group Campaign Whale. 'They will also have won the right to kill thousands of whales.
'But there are also signs of hope. Japan has just voted out a government that was in power for more than 40 years. For the first time in decades, there's a chance that attitudes might begin to change.
'If this issue is raised at the highest level - preferably at Prime Ministerial level - then there is a chance that this slaughter, and that of the whales, might finally end.'

Activist Groups

Here is a list of different groups organized to help the fight against illegal dolphin and whale hunting. Please go to these pages and learn more about what can be done.

www.dolphinproject.org
This is a campaign under the International Marine Mammal Project at the non-profit Earth Island Institute. The Dolphin Project aims to stop dolphin slaughter and exploitation around the world. The Dolphin Project is a proud part of the Earth Island Institute, a non-profit, tax deductible organization founded in 1982. The Earth Island Institute has a long and active history in dolphin-related causes. Richard O’Barry is the campaign director and has worked on both sides of the captive dolphin issue, making him an invaluable asset in the efforts to end exploitation. He worked for 10 years within the dolphin captivity industry, and has spent the past 40 working against it. 


 http://www.savebiogems.org/stop-whaling-now/
 Launched in 2001, NRDC's BioGems Initiative harnesses the power of online citizen activism to help save our continent’s most endangered natural treasures — our BioGems — for the sake of a sustainable planet and all future generations. Each year, we mobilize 1.4 million NRDC Members and online activists to bring overwhelming pressure to bear on governments and companies bent on industrializing the world’s last wild places.

Since 2006, Iceland has killed 280 endangered fin whales and more than 200 minke whales. In the last two years alone, it has exported millions of dollars worth of whale meat, blubber and oil to Japan, Norway, Latvia and Belarus. Iceland has not only flouted the ban on whaling, it has depleted whale populations at an alarming rate. It’s practically begging to be sanctioned.
-Pierce Brosnan, Actor and NRDC Member




http://www.seashepherd.org/whales/whaling-around-the-world.html
Established in 1977, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is an international non-profit, marine wildlife conservation organization. Our mission is to end the destruction of habitat and slaughter of wildlife in the world's oceans in order to conserve and protect ecosystems and species.
Sea Shepherd uses innovative direct-action tactics to investigate, document, and take action when necessary to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas. By safeguarding the biodiversity of our delicately-balanced ocean ecosystems, Sea Shepherd works to ensure their survival for future generations.

How Can You Help?

 If any of you have not watched the documentary The Cove then you definitely should. It sickened me to think this is happening not only in Japan but all over the world. Every September 1st, the six-month dolphin hunting season opens and fisherman in Taiji plan to take to the cove despite international pressure. 

Go to the website www.takepart.com/cove/takeaction to learn more about this campaign and ways that you can help. Something very easy for each of us to do is to sign the petition. Every little bit can help. This campaign is actually making a difference. Before this movie was released 2,000 dolphins would die each year in Taiji. But last year, only 800 were killed.

The Cove

 Academy Award Winner for Best Documentary of 2009, THE COVE follows an elite team of activists, filmmakers and free divers as they embark on a covert mission to penetrate a remote and hidden cove in Taiji, Japan, shining a light on a dark and deadly secret. Utilizing state-of-the-art techniques, including hidden microphones and cameras in fake rocks, the team uncovers how this small seaside village serves as a horrifying microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.

What was happening in Taiji is this: local fishermen would corral dolphins in a small cove, pick the best to be sold to trainers (prices fetching sometimes above $150,000) and then slaughter the rest. The meat would then be sold in Japan, often labeled as another animal. Dolphin meat is often tainted by far more than the legal limit of mercury, and much of the meat ended up in Japanese schools. And, as others have to the slaughter of elephants and gorillas, O’Barry reacted with horror at the killing of an intelligent species. Japanese media refused to cover the story, and security in the cove is tight. So in 2007 Psihoyos filmed the slaughter with specially designed clandestine cameras.

11 Facts About Dolphin Hunts

1. Approximately 20,000 dolphins are killed legally each year in Taiji, Japan. The majority is killed at sea, but thousands are killed in dolphin hunts along coastal lagoons and coves. Dolphin hunts also occur in coastal island areas of the South Pacific and North Atlantic but they are nowhere near as large as those in Taiji.
2. Commercial whaling was outlawed in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission, but dolphin hunts remain legal.
3. Dolphin hunts take place both to capture live dolphins for marine parks and aquariums and to kill dolphins for their meat.
4. A live dolphin captured for a marine mammal park can fetch up to $200,000. A dolphin killed for meat draws about $600.
5. In coastal areas, dolphins are hunted by “drive-fishing” or “drive hunting” techniques, in which the dolphins are herded into net cages by loud banging sounds that disrupt their sensitive sonar, causing them to panic. Once trapped in the nets, they are either dragged to shore or to shallow cove waters where they remain until slaughtering.
6. Once a live dolphin is selected for a marine park, aquarium or swim-with-dolphins program, it is separated from its close-knit family unit, hoisted in trucks and planes and transported from the ocean to a far-away pool where it will face stiff odds of survival.
7. Over half of all captured dolphins will die within 2 years of their captivity. They must rapidly adjust to a new environment where they can no longer swim their customary 40 miles a day in open waters, engage with their social group or use their sonar properly.
8. Dolphins not selected for marine parks are then “sitting ducks” for local fishermen who kill them for the price their meat will fetch. In shallow coves, they are killed at close quarters with spears, knives and hooks.
9. The primary economic driver of dolphin hunting is the multi-million dollar marine park business, which allows fishermen the resources to undertake additional slaughter for meat.
10. Most citizens in Japan are unaware of the dolphin hunts and the serious toxicity of dolphin meat, which contains high levels of mercury and PCBs.
11. International attention and protest has helped to halt some dolphin hunts in the past but has not stopped the practice from continuing in the 21st Century.

Our Personal Choices Can Help!

 

Dolphins swimming underneath oil on top of the water in the Gulf of Mexico

Each day you have the opportunity to choose, and to change your behavior. Support responsible manufacturers by choosing their products - even if it means spending a little more. Do not support the production of wasteful or harmful products by contributing to the demand. 

By using recycled or recyclable items, buying in bulk instead of many little packages, and whenever possible, simply reusing what you can, you can significantly reduce the amount of waste YOU create. For example, if all our newspaper was recycled we could save about 250,000,000 trees each year. 

Industry creating large-scale pollution is not the greatest cause of the ocean's decline. Industry responds to the needs of the consumer. We use an incredibly amount of plastics most for packaging. Currently only about 3% of the plastic waste stream is recycled. Where does the rest of it go? It is believed that hundreds of millions of pounds of plastics are lost or dumped into the oceans each year.

Household chemicals that go down our drain, and toxic chemicals commonly used for weed and pest control for your lawn, can contribute to groundwater contamination and eventually affect the health of our oceans. The average American home generates 20 lbs of household waste annually that contains hazardous material.

The Threats

75% of our planet's surface is under water. Dolphins, porpoises, and whales are faced with a serious threat they have no control over which is pollution. Which are marine debris and invisible toxins humans create every day. 

The Pollution Problem

Marine debris is anything from a discarded sandwich bag to a lost fishing net. Every ocean in the world is littered with some form of debris, which resembles food for marine life. Many animals accidentally eat marine debris causing internal injury, intestinal blockage, and starvation.

Getting tangled up in floating debris is another serious and growing problem for marine mammals, at least 43% each year. Entanglement is an especially serious threat to young marine mammals that tend to be curious and careless. Once a young animals becomes entangled, it dies a slow and painful death as its growing body is restricted by debris.

Almost everything we use has the potential to become marine debris, from the bottle of milk in the refrigerator to the refrigerator itself. The largest source of marine debris is runoff from land-based sources, such as storm sewers and parking lots. That means the garbage we create each day is most likely what will end up in the oceans affecting dolphins, whales, and other marine life.

Toxins enter the marine environment through land-based runoff and air pollution as well as ocean dumping. Things we use every day, like automobiles, air-conditioners, and household products, create many toxins. Researchers routinely find high levels of toxins in the blubber of stranded marine mammals.

For years we dumped heavy metals and organic pollutants into our oceans thinking it was a resource so vast it could absorb any and all materials. It now seems that the oceans are finally becoming saturated. The evidence is in the marine life itself. Fish, turtles, and most recently, dolphins are now growing cancerous tumors. There is also evidence that pollution in our oceans is weakening the immune systems of marine mammals.