WDC Blog - From the Front Line

UK IT Manager Lindsay Bruce has just come back from an extended visit to our US office where he set up a new Fieldwork database and Photo ID system. He regrets not having posted anything on the blog whilst there, but the hard-working team in the US had him working 24/7 on their amazing fieldwork program. Now he's back and got through the backlog of emails, another BIG project has just landed on his desk - the 2008-9 Volvo Ocean Race.

One of the privileges of working for WDCS is the broad array of projects that you get to work on. As well as the day to day business of maintaining our global communications network, there are many individual projects that need special attention from our IT team. The variety of projects is mind-boggling, and we get to work in areas that regular commercial IT staff only get to dream about - fieldwork, acoustic research, whale watching, media libraries, and - on occasion - something REALLY big.

The Volvo Ocean Race is a REALLY big idea. The 37,000 mile 8-month long race is the pinnacle event in the sailing calendar; a grueling marathon crossing some of the wildest, most inhospitable seas in the world. The competitors will pass through regions where whales and dolphins are living on the edge; driven back by increasing pollution, commercial shipping, fisheries bycatch, hunting, and climate change. WDCS is campaigning for a worldwide network of Marine Protected Areas, safe habitats for key populations of whales and dolphins at risk. We are immensely proud to be Team Russia's marine environment partner for the 2008-9 Volvo Ocean Race, helping to raise awareness of the plight that whales and dolphins face, and sailing under the banner of "We sail for the Whale".

For me personally, this is a fantastic project. I've always loved the sea, ever since I was a boy skipping stones across the waves on the beach by my grandparents house in Argyll, Scotland. The raw energy of the open sea, its mystery, dangers and the incredible abundance of varied life beneath and above the waves. But that life is now in great peril.

The race is on to save whales and dolphins. Will you help?

For more information and to find out how YOU can make a difference, visit www.whales.org

Game on.

I had the privilege and pleasure yesterday of attending the National Junior SeaLife Conference in Birmingham UK. The conference brought together nine of the UK's most outstanding young advocates and scientists. In a range of presentations which spanned issues as diverse as bycatch and shark finning; the destruction of seals as scapegoats for over fishing; the conservation of coral reefs and the protection of cetaceans, we had some of the most imaginative demonstrations of the power of idealism and advocacy.

I was moved by the passion that these young people brought to the debates and the conviction by which they made their cases. As NGOs we regularly deal with governments and scientists, but the cynicism that we often encounter means that our drive to make change happen is often dented by the intractability of those who want nothing but the 'status quo'. It is so refreshing to hear the articulation of the vision of a world where real conservation and protection is envisaged.

All the entries were great but I wish to single out two of the presentations that tackled the issue of the conservation of whales and dolphins. Abigale Rudland told us about the ecology and threats to the beautiful Beluga whale, and Molly Clayton gave an informed presentation on whales and whaling.

I was really proud of both of the young women and their presentations reminded me of why its so important to keep up the work we are doing.

Well done guys and well done SeaLife for a great event.

In a cynical move to reject international opinion and the opinion of its own biological scientists, the Greenlandic Government has given its hunters higher quotas for small cetaceans. Sermitsiaq.gl reports that 'The government has set the combined quota for the haul of belugas and narwhales at 200 white whales and 300 narwhales in the coming quota year. In many areas the quotas are larger than the Institute for Natural Resources recommends.'

The applicable quota for white whales in West-Greenland is nearly double that of the Institute's recommendation. They recommend that the quota be a maximum of 100 mammals a year, but the government has set it at 180.

The latest tally estimates the total number of white whales (belugas) captured is 11,773. This is a sign of less progress, even though the quota until now has been more than the biologists' recommendation.

The applicable quota for narwhales in Qaanaaq and west-Greenland is 210, which is 75 more than the biologists recommend.

So, having failed to convince the international community at the IWC that it should be allowed to hunt humpbacks, the petulant Greenlandic Government is taking its revenge on more belugas and narwhals. Despite the fact that it was unable to repudiate accounts of commercialisation of the whale hunt, the Greenlandic government had claimed at the IWC meeting that it should be allowed to hunt more whales simply because it 'demands so'.

Like a spoilt child Greenland is reacting by hurting whatever it can. It knows that the international community will be horrified at its actions and it is hoping to blackmail governments like the UK into giving in the future. But this cynical move just demonstrates the role of Greenland in its support of the commercial whalers. It has systematically helped the cause of commercial whaling, (at the same time betraying the cause of aboriginal subsistence whaling) by seeking to distort the difference between commercial and aboriginal subsistence whaling.

I wonder if we are yet to see calls for commercal whaling quotas out of Greenland in the near future - nothing would now surprise me!