WDC Blog - From the Front Line

This is a few days late but I wanted to pass on a message we received from our colleagues Paul and Helena in Canada.

'December 11th marks the 39th anniversary of the capture of a family of northern resident orcas in Pender Harbour, British Columbia. The captured pod, known later as the A5s, was very nearly destroyed when six, half of the pod’s members, were forcibly removed and sent to various aquaria around the world. Corky, then just five years old, is today, the sole survivor of those captured. Most died within a few years.  Corky’s fate was to watch her fellow captives die one after the other.  Corky later suffered seven unsuccessful pregnancies. Her story is a sad tale and a sorry commentary on how our relationship with Nature can be bent and distorted for self-gain.

But Corky’s story fortunately has had more than one chapter. Over the years, and while Corky has circled endlessly around the confines of her concrete tank, thousands have acted on her behalf during protests; by painting and mounting cloth squares for her very long banner; reading, writing and witnessing her story in the press, films, on TV, and in books; singing her song; wearing her name on tee shirts and hats, hanging posters and bumper stickers; cheering boats and buses carrying her message; and voicing supportive opinions on the web. It has been an amazing effort in the face of her captors’ continued intransigence.

The broadcast of Corky’s story has helped ensure that there will never be another capture of orcas in the Pacific Northwest, and hopefully, eventually in the rest of the world.
As people have come to know Corky, they also have come to know about her family in the wild and have become advocates for their welfare as well. Corky was captured at a point in time when almost nothing was known about the natural life of orcas in the wild. Orca research has come of age in the intervening years. It is now understood that orcas are bonded together for life in their families, and that they have long, unbreakable traditions, passed from generation to generation. Corky, along with every member of her family, retains these traditions for life.

But like Corky, the plight of her wild family is less than secure. Corky is reaching way beyond the normal longevity for captives, an admirable testament to her strength as an individual and ability to survive.  Concern for wild orcas is growing because several populations rely entirely on the yearly migration of salmon, and this migration is being severely threatened by disease, parasites and a failure to thrive due to a confluence of factors that includes; increasing number of fish farms, commercial and sport fishing, logging and other industries, pollution, increased ocean noise, loss of habitat and global warming.

The orcas forged their diet preferences during thousands of years of abundance. Whether they now have the ability to respond to the need to change remains unknown.
We have only ourselves to blame for creating this situation and the orcas’ precarious future. Corky still “wears” the badge of her pod, and any effort to return her to her family must now surely include an effort to reverse the great harm we are doing to her ocean world and her family’s ability to thrive.'

Please light a candle for Corky and her family this Christmas.

Politics is not what I signed up for when I started, as an intern in a marine mammal course, way back when ---- in the dark ages. I had an undergraduate degrees in Biology and Chemistry and was taking grad classes - which is how I ended up with the marine mammal internship (actually, it was because they cancelled the art class I originally signed up for but I digress). I went on the boat - fell in love - and never looked back. I was going to do research on whales, respond to strandings, study whales, learn about them, and be a scientist. I wasn’t going to play politics, learn about legal issues, and certainly not play a game of semantics. But in walks the Bush Administration and life changes.

For the past eight years (though it seems so much longer) I have watched the integrity of science and the environmental legislation in the US erode like the beaches around me. Yet no one can make it sound better than the Bush Administration- the era of the sound-bite. It started way back when Bush was first in office (for the sake of accuracy, I can not say “elected”). There was the “Data Quality Act” passed in 2001. That sounds nice, doesn’t it? Making sure the science is “sound”. Reality is a bit different from the sound-bite though. The Data Quality Act (DQA) was a two sentence rider on a spending bill at the request of corporate lobbyists. It makes it difficult for federal scientists to challenge any corporate claims (from drug companies claims to health impacts from pollution). It made it difficult for me to get a map published in 2007 which showed where whales were hit by boats off Cape Cod. Because the data hadn’t yet been “vetted” by federal officials, the map couldn’t be used in a book. It didn’t matter that the carcasses were necropsied and showed trauma from vessel strikes, or that one of the strikes was witnessed, it only mattered that federal agencies couldn’t confirm it because of the DQA (it’s been over a year and those data are still not released - takes about three years now, apparently).

Then, in 2003, there was the increased “need” for Homeland Security which was the excuse to exempt military exercises from the Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act. In 2004, the Bush Administration upped the ante to protect us against terrorism by allowing federal agencies to “conceal sensitive information” required by the National Environmental Protection Act. This, of course, was going to protect us from terrorists that might be hiding in federally protected woodlands. By allowing commercial logging, those pesky terrorists couldn’t hide amongst the old growth trees.

Back to whales - I have spent the better part of the past eight years watching North Atlantic right whales die, one by one, from vessel strike and entanglements. I have watched hard working federal employees trying to do their job to protect right whales as they pounded their heads against the Bush Administration wall. I watched the World Shipping Council have more influence over a rule to protect right whales than any environmental group or federal employee. I watched the rule get released, finally, from the grip of the Bush Administration - only after multiple legal challenges thanks to the Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Ocean Conservancy and WDCS.

And now, with literally only weeks left in office, the Bush Administration has a parting gift for wildlife - a final attack on the Endangered Species Act - all in the name of “streamlining” it. And, you may have guessed by now, the streamlining serves industry well, but is to the determinant of endangered species. On December 11th, the Department of Interior announced the passage of a rule to modify the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The changes would allow agencies to permit potentially harmful actions that could impact endangered species and their habitats without consulting with federal wildlife experts.

Most of these actions require a 30 day “cooling off” period which means we still have another five days for this Administration to “streamline”, “protect us”, or “ensure quality” at the expense of endangered species and environmental protection. Dear President Elect Obama - all I want for Christmas is this - I spend less thinking that the status quo in environmental protection is a success - and more time being a biologist. 


Every year when WDCS attends the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting we encounter arguments from the pro-whalers as to why they should continue killing these remarkable creatures. Sometimes the arguments appear as pseudo-science (our ’research whaling’ will eventually reveal how many animals are out there, honest) through to spurious science (The whales are rampantly eating all our fish and eventually will come into our fish markets and eat all the fish there too)

The worst of it though is when the Japanese ultra-nationalists come into play. Anyone that does not agree with them is a racist. Anyone that questions their so-called ‘science’ is an imperialist. Have a look at the work of Kobayashi Yoshinori if you want to see unbridled hatred to anti-whalers in full flow. Articulate, creative some may believe it to be, - but dripping with anti-western sentiment it scares me to think this is what some people actually believe.

It reminds me that I had the ‘pleasure’ of attending the Kyoto IWC some years ago. Now Kyoto is a beautiful city, and if you ever get the chance to go there, please do so. It has great restaurants and beautiful buildings, and the people are wonderful. What wasn’t so good was the busloads of black clad right wing idiots that were parading up and down screeching hatred at us – I am not sure if they were shin-uyoku or just uyoku dantai or some version of the above, but they cheered one of my colleagues, because she is blonde and they thought she was Norwegian – but the rest of us felt like, well to tell you the truth, it reminded me of stories of 1933 all over again. If you didn’t look like them or think like them, you were made to feel less than human.

I guess I am remembering those experiences because I note that the Guardian is quite rightly covering the case of the Greenpeace Two. The article refers to their treatment at the hands of the 'the Tokyo metropolitan government, led by rightwing governor Shintaro Ishihara', is now trying to demonize the recent Greenpeace investigation of whale meat smuggling, whilst pandering to these jingoistic nationalism of commercial whaling.

Our thoughts go out to Junichi Sato and Toru Suzuki and their families as they make this stand.

Japan may have many reasons to defend its whaling; it may wish to ruin its international reputation for the few remaining hundreds of jobs that are involved in killing these mammals; it may believe that it can buy its way to 'being right'; but it cannot allow this crude nationalism to continue to define its position on whaling.

It struck me that when we changed the WDCS websites we most probably made it harder to get access to some of the older postings. One of the most popular was the 'Life sized Blue Whale'. Yes we can make a life-sized Blue whale appear on your desktop as if by magic. If you dont believe me then take a click. If you do believe me do it anyway.

It will be interesting to see what happens when Japan thinks it will get what it wants from the IWC and will no longer have to rely on its sponsored acolytes in the Caribbean. Sir Ronald Sanders writing in the Antigua Sun ponders what will happen if the IWC gives Japan its coveted commercial whaling.

The IWC is meeting in secret session this week, - well 24 nations of the IWC’s membership, are meeting in Cambridge in the UK, to try and force through a secret deal that the outgoing US administration seems desperate to achieve. Not content with unwinding other environmental protection, it would seem that the Bush administration is focused on giving the whalers some form of commercial whaling as a parting gift.

Sir Ronald notes ‘If, indeed, the outgoing Bush administration and the Japanese government manage to agree a package that gives Japan what it wants, Japan will have no further requirement to recruit countries to support it at the IWC. Once Japan no longer requires such support, there will be no need to continue to give incentives to any country in return for its support. So the Japanese might get their way, and the leverage of the small Caribbean countries might disappear as would the blandishments of the Japanese.’

Sir Ronald poses some relevant questions. So, will the Caribbean nations change their position before the sell out or will they go down with the deal? Without Japan to help them out how many of them will remain part of the IWC in these difficult economic times? Because these small nations  are committed to conservation aren’t they? – So they must be intending to stay even if they have to pay for attending to support an industry that does nothing for them or their growing whale watching industry. Or is their idea of preservation the preserves you find in a Japanese pickling jar! Interesting times, especially when Japan is reported in other fora to be reluctant to 'become the ATM for the world' when it come to climate change. Seems they don't mind when it directly benefits them and whaling.

I have been thinking more about Tomohiko Taniguchi comments that we discussed here last week, and further to a comment from my colleague Kate, I think we should send our used toothbrushes to the various Japanese embassies to mark our distaste at their continued whaling.

So, maybe that's the next campaign tactic. So if you are so inclined, send your old toothbrushes to your local Japanese embassy, with an offer to buy a new one from them if they stop whaling. You can find your local Japanese embassy address here, if this idea takes your fancy.

Let's see if they clean up their act and finally give up this archaic and unnecessary industry. I am thinking what we can send/do for Norway, but I would suggest that we continue to refrain from bying Icelandc fish that is in any way connected with the whaling company Hvalur hf. Last year WDCS ran a campaign with other NGOs to persuade supermarkets not to stock Hvalur fish, and the majority agreed. If you are buying fish and it's Icelandic, make sure it's not from this company that mixes whaling and fishing. Your purchase could be subsidising whaling, so beware.

Rome was apparently not built in a day.

In a closing press release from the CMS COP, Rob Hepworth, the CMS Executive Secretary is quoted as saying the following: 

"The convention’s development over the last three years has been remarkable – we have doubled our species agreements, trebled our project donations, and run our first high-profile global awareness campaign – Year of the Dolphin. 18 new countries have joined us in the global effort to conserve migratory species. The conference has shown its confidence in our strategy, and increased our budget modestly in real terms despite the global financial crisis.However we now have to stretch our resources that much further still to protect the birds, mammals and marine creatures which journey around planet earth.”

We report here on the final session of the last day.

After lunch it was fast and furious. All the hanging resolutions were swiftly concluded and many delegates had either already disappeared or were clearly ready to do so. This situation may well have created a pressure to move to poor compromises that might not have otherwise happened; but that can also be said to be part of the strategy of some. 

The final outcomes were something like this:

The proposal to list the saker falcon on Appendix I was withdrawn but it was agreed that unless there is improvement in its conservation status, the species will be listed on Appendix I at COP 10.

The cheetah did make it to Appendix I but it is expected that three countries who have it in international trade will take out formal reservations.

The sharks had a difficult meeting but the mako sharks (longfin and shortfin) and the porbeagle shark, were listed on Appendix II. The northern hemisphere population of the spiny dogfish joined them. Denmark, on behalf of the Faroe Islands, placed a formal reservation on the porbeagle shark.

Seven cetacean species were listed on CMS Appendices I and II at the conference: the Irrawaddy Dolphins, the Black SeaBottlenose Dolphin the Atlantic Humpback Dolphin got Appendix I status. The Clymene, Risso's Dolphin, the Mediterranean population of the Bottlenose Dolphin and Harbour Porpoise were given Appendix II protection.

The marine species, by-catch, ocean noise, and climate change resolutions were all concluded but not without there being some disappointments in their language. The budget agreed for the next 3 year period was only a 3.3% increase on the previous. A decrease in real terms and a disappointment to many.

The final comments from WDCS on this meeting, issued as a press briefing can be found here. 

WDCS thanks Italy, FAO and Rome for hosting the meeting. We enjoyed being in the city (although we would have liked more time to have seen it). We thank the meeting chairs and the CMS officials for all their hard work, and also the all the delegates from the 100 countries, 70 NGOs and elsewhere who came to Rome to do their best for the migratory animals.

View of the COP

Niki at breakfast

Darren of IFAW attempting to navigate the FAO building

 The team from WWF

Veronica Frank (Noise expert)

Patrick Van Klaveren of Monaco and the eye of a gorilla

Some conference literature (or possibly some 'wanted posters')

FOR MORE PICTURES AND A COMENTARY OF WHAT HAPPENED AT THE COP GO TO THE EARTH NEGOTIATIONS BULLETIN (ENB) BY CLICKING HERE.

ENTER THE GLADIATORS.

Today is going to be tough and we enter the last day of the COP with some trepidation. Much has been left to be settled today – all the resolutions and the budget and the clock is ticking.



The Ladies of WDCS (and the Coliseum)

Anyway, when the news about the reduced budget for the Convention breaks, we have to respond strongly, hence WDCS, with Niki Entrup speaking, recognizes the tough financial crises that Countries are experiencing globally. However, he adds, allow us to stress an example that demonstrates species conservation becomes prohibitively expensive when we wait too long before acting to conserve species. The Mexican Government is currently spending in excess of US$18million to save one small cetacean species, the Vaquita, to prevent its extinction. Looking at the budget in front of us, we are extremely concerned therefore, as it includes just €170.000 for conservation projects over the next triennium for all migratory species. WDCS reiterates our appreciation of voluntary funds contributed by Parties, especially Germany, but we urge Parties to reflect on the current budget and the pressures we especially impose on developing countries, leaving them unable to take forward effective and needed conservation action. Thank you, Chair.

A little later, as the progress on resolutions is reported by the people who have been chairing the various working groups, WDCS intervenes again on the report from the Marine Working Group:

"WDCS congratulates the chairmen and the working group on their hard word; and is sorry that he has to make the comments that he has to. The noise resolution was always going to be a difficult one to conclude, but the changes that have been made to the resolution now on the floor are substantive and not simply editorial as had been suggested they would be last night.

WDCS finds the resolution weak and convoluted anyway but was able to take some comfort from some reference to precautionary action – a reference which has disappeared over night.""

The Chairman says that there will be the opportunity to look at this again.

Norway now makes a general comment about the need to work more closely with FAO and CITES especially with regard to proposals to list marine species and he suggests some language that can be included in the marine species resolution.

Costa Rica for the Latin America block is concerned about the inclusion of shark species; the scientific council must provide independent scientific advice he says (implying presumably that they are not). The scientific councilors present (a line of distinguished men with grey beards) say nothing.

The Chairman offers his view – he agrees that the Scientific Council must give advice; we have to consider the limits and difficulties for them – we need to act before it is too late he says (quoting something said by WDCS earlier) and the council must be able to raises problems when it seems them; and it has problems with funds and resources.

Further resolutions come forward and there are proposals concerning the resolution for new agreements to include some language on elephants.

Rather curiously, Alison Wood of WDCS is waving the WDCS flag and asking to speak. What is going on? Surely WDCS is not going to intervene on these animals. (She is still waving.) Bill Perrin (marine mammal expert) and Monaco are waving too. More elephants follow. Sorry more discussion on elephants follow.

Bill Perrin is finally given the floor. He exlains that in the scientific council they discussed the development of a new SE Asia agreement for marine mammals and they agreed that it should be expanded to include all cetaceans.

Ah, we see now WDCS, Bill and Monaco wish to comment on the Agreement resolutions, not the elephant initiative. WDCS is not invited to speak but Monaco does and he supports the amendment to the resolution to remove the word small… which means the new agreement can be initiated for all cetaceans.

Good says the Chair and we pause for another signing ceremony.

Then we come to the climate change resolution and there is much discussion, despite several meetings of a working group. Several Latin America countries have problems with the inclusion of clauses related to ‘mitigation’. Some suggest that this is not appropriate as it goes outside of the mandate of the migratory species convention.

An impassioned plea from WWF follows. Their spokesman explains that the ‘mitigation’ being called for relates exclusively to actions for the animals concerned. Will her arguments prevail? We shall see but that clock really is ticking loudly now as we break for lunch. 

Bill and the porpoise.

The focus of today’s meeting here in a rather chilly Rome, are the proposals for species listings (putting animal species on the Convention’s two appendices to try to promote more action to protect them) and progressing all the various draft resolutions. We are also doing a lunch-time event with WWF on the threat posed by Climate Change today…. However there will undoubtedly be many conflicting urgent activities. We start our day in this part of historic Rome by walking past the Coliseum, then alongside the Forum (the central hill where Rome was founded); drawing level with the Circus Maximus, we carefully navigate across the Roman traffic and into the FAO building. We squeeze into our seats, plug in the computers, get the papers out, and quickly fall sound asleep….

No no no. We awake and listen carefully as the Chair sorts out the agenda for the day and then we go into the species listing proposals: The Secretariat, in the form of the redoubtable Marko Barberi, calls out the name of each species and then asks if there are any objection to them being included (firstly in Appendix 1). So it is that the Black Sea bottlenose dolphin moves to Appendix 1 with no opposition (silent cheering from WDCS). The Irrawaddy dolphin follow suit (more hearty but inaudible applause). Similarly, the Atlantic humpback dolphin moves onto appendix one (there is silence, but not in our hearts). Then we come to the cheetah… anyone object? ‘No’ says the chair, but there is a shout and it is Norway asking for the floor. He has a general point, and speaks about CITES and wishes that this proposal had been discussed with them. However, he generally supports the cheetah … but the cheetah at this point is stopped from moving to Appendix 1. The west African manatee, however, quietly joins this Appendix. We move on to Appendix two proposals. The Egyptian vulture steps up onto this list. A small falcon proves more controversial and is taken away for further consideration. Some warblers are listed and then we get to the harbour porpoise listing proposal for its west Africa population. Are there any objections. A small pause and then Norway can be seen to be waving his card again.

He says that it is unclear to him if the proposal meets the criteria and he suggests that there is no population estimate. The species is widespread and common globally he suggests. Mauretania who sponsors the proposal speaks up and notes it has been validated by the CMS scientific council (and we note it is also supported by the range states).

WDCS hands hover over the button that asks for the floor… but the chair asks for the advice of the Scientific Councillor for marine mammals, Bill Perrin.

 Bill speaks. His intervention is short and to the point: this population is morphologically distinct, geographically separated and abundance is low. Those WDCS hands are hovering again, but maybe Bill has done the job… Norway comments that we are all working towards the conservation of species and he does not want a wide debate about application of he CMS criteria; the appendix 2 criteria are pretty weak… they need elaboration. But he goes on to accept the proposal and the porpoise is listed. [WDCS goes back to resting, quietly]

We move to the Mediterranean population of the fascinating Risso’s dolphin. Norway indicates that it has the same comment here. Monaco comments that we must be consistent (but we suspect that he does not mean this in the same way that Norway might). However, Norway again does not block consensus. The Mediterranean population of the bottlenose dolphin and the Clymene dolphin go the same way. The African wild dog and Saiga antelope also join Appendix 2. However, a few species are objected to.

So, failing to reach the appendices at this time are the Cheetah, the sharks and the Seika falcon but we may come back to them. One of the scientific councilors suddenly speaks up powerfully for the cheetah which he notes is critically endangered in much of its range and in the face of his robust defense, the Norwegian opposition subsides. Lunchtime sees the climate change briefing…. In a remote room in a distant corridor of the vast FAO building a small crowd of the friends of the climate gather. One delegate turns up for the free sandwiches and then does not attend the briefing (what surprised me is that he found the place… possibly he was lost). Many mentions are made of the narwhal including an impassioned plea for its survival. For more about this event see the report of the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. A little earlier Nicola Hodgins signs the text of the new memorandum of agreement for small cetaceans in west Africa on the behalf of WDCS.

  Nicola and Heidrun Frisch

The other half of lunch is taken up with an urgent working group and in fact the rest of the day is about progressing the texts of many resolutions – these include the important marine species resolution (which includes reference to Arctic species); the noise resolution; the bycatch resolution and others.

In the evening many working groups break out in many remote and hard-to-find parts of building. Many delegates will probably still be wondering around the building tomorrow trying to find their way out….  hopefully they will because tomorrow is the final curtain. The big questions now will be will the budget for the convention be approved, will it be adequate to the task and what will all those resolutions contain in the end…. will they survive, will they be useful? For a fuller explanation about the species listings please go here.

Niki and Silvia

Mark talking through lunch again.