Entries by Sue Rocca

Our scientific colleagues will point out that the International Whaling Commission began for them some weeks ago, indeed the IWC Scientific Committee has been meeting in closed session for quite some time now in Panama. The rest of the WDCS team is on its way to attend this week's forthcoming technical committee meetings and working groups.

Some would say that this is where the real work is done, but this year's plenary session promises to be either a damp squib if Japan and her allies once again just 'upsticks' and walk out of the meeting, or something quite different if there is a real debate about Greenlands increasingly commercial whaling.

But lets guess that Japan will not just walk out as it never likes to miss an opportunity to bring pressure on the USA whenever the Alaskan Inupiat quota is up for debate. Japan is quite happy to threaten the susbsistance whaling quota of the Inupiat if they can further the aims of the few Japanese whaling companies that are left. So lets see. You can follow the whole meeting here on the new WDCS website and through our blog.

The IWC meetings this week are as follows:

Monday 25th June: Working Group on Whale Killing Methods and Associated Welfare Issues, Infractions Sub-committee and the Budgetary Sub-committee.

Tuesday 26th June: Conservation Committee.

Wednesday 27th June: Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling Sub-committee and the Working Group to consider the role of observers at meetings of the Commission.

Thursday 28th June: Finance and Administration Committee.

Monday 2nd-6th July:     Annual Meeting of the IWC.

All the meetings are taking place at the:

Hotel El Panamá
Vía España 111
Street Eusebio A. Morales
P.O. Box 0816-06754
Panamá, Rep. de Panamá

I recently learned about “clearing house’ blog, where you include links to all of your other articles on a given subject…and thought it a perfect thing for something as complex as a the Conference on Migratory Species (CMS). The CMS aims to conserve terrestrial, aquatic and avian migratory species throughout their range – that alone is a huge task. However, that task grows when you consider that 116 member countries have to work together. So what follows is a summary of the first few blogs from our CMS team, the links will take you to the actual in depth blog where you can read more.

This year’s CMS was in Bergen, Norway where sunshine was rare and official papers and badges got stopped by customs. On the agenda is a draft global
work plan for cetaceans, which will hopefully ensure enhanced action on all
species of cetacean currently listed on Appendix I and II of CMS. Appendix I
are endangered species and Appendix II are species with unfavorable conservation status, they include approximately 40 of the 86 species currently recognized by CMS. Other important draft resolutions up for consideration that directly affecting cetaceans concern marine debris, fisheries bycatch, and marine noise.

WDCS attended CMS’s Scientific Council meeting where our Director of Science, Mark Simmonds, tell about the importance of CMS. The primary and most important mechanism CMS uses to help all species is independent regional agreements that relevant countries join. For the whales and dolphins CMS has established one regional agreement for the North Atlantic (ASCOBANS) and another for the Mediterranean and Black seas and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS). There is also a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for cetaceans off West Africa and another for cetaceans in the vast Pacific Ocean.

After the Scientific Council, begins the Conference of Parties (COP ) which takes place every three years. This year’s grand opening ceremony was wonderful, full of inspiring words. Words like: wildlife belongs to all of us
and we belong to it and we are allowing erosion of biodiversity at a time when our dependence on biological services and diversity is increasing rapidly. The opening ceremony speeches also highlighted successes (the recovering Saiga Antelope in Russia), the importance of not only working together, but also working with other multilateral conventions and treaties (like CITIES), and the importance of single decisions like Tanzania’s recent decision not to build a road through the migratory route of many wild animals across the Serengeti. All of this is necessary to restore the ecological infrastructure on the planet. It is not so strong now, but will be important for adaptation to climate change.

In this grand opening it is pointed out that it is no coincidence it is being held in Bergen, the most international place in Norway. And Norway is built on migratory species. People followed reindeer, and then moved from southern France, once they discovered the migratory salmon (once common and huge). And still today Norwegians take their migratory species seriously. The most popular song in Norway is about migratory birds. To me, the most inspiring speech relayed by our CMS COP team in this grand opening blog was the idea that we need people to understand the beauty of nature and not impair it with jargon. We need people to understand the ecosystems argument - destroying one species can have enormous impacts on the rest, and the economic argument – healthy species population have economic potential and not just for tourism. The environment is most important thing; it is holy, our life, our home, our food, we are part of it.

So this is just a summary of the first few blogs from our CMS COP team. The best is yet to come….

Taiji Update And the Oscar goes to THE COVE, one year later
 

(07.03.2010) What had happened since then? One year ago, on the 7th of march 2010, THE COVE won the Academy Award as the best documentary.  Previous to that evening, the movie, revealing in a relentless and exciting way the Japanese dolphin hunt, won every award you can achieve with a documentary during film festivals.

But in Japan, the movie couldn't achieve much approval. The Japanese press criticized the movie itself and the fact that it achieved an Academy Award. The film distributors who released THE COVE in Japanese cinemas were attacked by ultra-nationalists as were the cinemas who wanted to show the film. As a result, many of them decided not to show it.

These results were not expected by the nationalists and things went quiet about the movie and it literally disappeared from the screens. However, the noise made by ultra-nationalists on the streets of Tokyo unleashed a debate about the freedom of press and opinion in Japan, which is in a bad shape. More and more citizens of Japan are taking notice of major corporations and bribed members of the parliament enslaving publishers and dictating which media has to publish and in which way. And more and more the citizens of Japan they want to conceive an opinion of their own. Therefore, more than a few urged to be able to watch THE COVE and make their own mind up.

At the end, the nationalists became very quiet because they did not want to draw even more attention to the movie. And the movie became a success in several Japanese cinemas.  That's one accomplishment of this cinematic masterpiece, which has been available on DVD in Japan for two weeks now - with alot of promotion before the release of the DVD. In addition to that, there is a synchronized and uncensored version available for download.  

It's without a doubt the movie resulted in the decreased demand for dolphin meat. Well informed sources are talking about a total decrease of about 30 per cent in comparison to last year. The reason for that is mainly that most of the people are now aware of the high level of mercury the meat is containing. Moreover, the younger generation doesn‚t want to consume dolphin flesh.

Therefore the decrease in animals killed in this season's hunt is not a great surprise and it allows us to be a bit optimistic. About 900 dolphins were killed during this hunting season, which ended a few weeks ago; in comparison to last year's season where about 1,700 dolphins were slaughtered. To make it short: Yes, the movie, the Academy Award, the worldwide publicity, the book and the pressure from outside haven't failed to have the desired effect.

But that leaves the question about what comes next. Does it need more and steady pressure? Or would more pressure lead to acts of defiance and to a hardening of the situation, ie. that they will hunt the dolphins more than ever? The only thing for sure is, that it would be fatal to give up now and to look away from what's going on. It's now time to look forward to a future without a dolphin hunt in Japan. And to pursue that goal with all reasonable efforts.

The latest from Taiji.
By Hans Peter Roth - WDCS rep on the ground.
The hunt is over

(27.02.2011) As the drive hunt season in Taiji ends on February 28th, it dawned on me that the hunter won't hunt for the next six month. They dismantled the tarps in the harbor which helped to hide the dead bodies when they arrived for the slaughter house. And the metal rods have been removed from the boats.

In that way the hunting boats are turning into normal fishery boats which shows that there really is an alternative to the drive hunt, because for the next six month, the hunters are fishermen.

In the next step, the green, blue and gray tarps have been removed from the death cove. These should hide the whole massacre from the eyes of the uninvited, hidden observer.

After I added it all up for myself I am able to say, that about 900 dolphins died during the hunting season 2010/2011. That's an impressive decrease to last year when they are thought to have killed about 1,700 dolphins.

There were for the first time several observers from different organizations and from Japan here to report at any one time during the whole period of the hunt. Because of this, this season is the first time possible to get an approximate calculation of the number of dolphins killed and to compare it with the numbers that are published. The number of the captured dolphins is yet unclear. But as we now know for sure, the number is much higher than last year.

The End of the season is now even officially made public and some Japanese newspapers wrote about it.  The decrease of the number of slaughtered dolphins is a sign of hope. But the reason can only be guessed. Is the total number of dolphins decreasing? Are the dolphins beginning to avoid the region? Do the hunters on purpose hunt less animals to kill, because the demand for whale and dolphin meat is decreasing? Probably, it's a combination of all the factors. Fact is, that the hunters left some animals alone at times, instead of killing them.
Hans Peter Roth

Here's a lost blog from Hans Peter Roth we thought needed to get posted.

Once more bottle-nosed dolphins are the victims

(09.02.2011)

"They started before seven o'clock" - This was told to us by the friendly man from the coast guard who has already watched us at the marina of Katsuura. He's speaking of the dolphin hunters. It has been raining the whole night for the first time since I've arrived in Japan for more than four weeks ago...  Just in time as we're going to sail the sun begins to shine.  But today our mood is by far not as good as yesterday.

The sea is astonishingly rough today. But even though they're hunting.  Obviously, they've made a find. Now, all we can do is hoping that the pod is able to escape.  The boat from the coast guard is heading directly towards us, which is unusual. And shortly after, a man, standing on the bow of the armed, fast and maneuverable blue vessel, is giving unmistakable signs.

"Stop!" Michae Yoshiko is shouting. He is sitting at the steering wheel. "Stop!" We bring the ship about and the coast guard approaches us. One man fetches a megaphone. "Massive waves, wind", they shout from the megaphone. "Please drive carefully and not too far off". They are stopped us to tell us that, I ask? "More likely to see if we're going to comply with their orders" Michael answers. Again, a shout from the megaphone: "And please do not approach the dolphin hunters!" Gotcha. We gather speed again. Michael complies with the orders. We keep distance. It's eerie to watch the hunters and their doings.

It doesn't look good for the dolphins. We can't see well what's going on, due to the rough sea and the distance we have to keep. But yet, the formation of hunting boat has passed the narrows between the little lighthouse on the rock and the fishermen's gillnets.  An escape is getting more and more unlikely. Suddenly, everything happens pretty fast. We decide to head to the Marina as soon as possible in order to see what's going to happen in the cove. Florian, Kyoko and I are already taking off, while Michael and Yoshiko moor the boat.

We are too late to see much. And first, Florian is stopped by the police, who wants him to identify himself. From the public viewpoint directly above the cove we become witnesses of a boat who is hiding his dead carriage under green tarps and carrying it out off the cove to the harbor where the slaughterhouse is.

"They slaughtered about 20 to 25 bottle-nosed dolphins," Nicole explains sadly. She watched the whole scene on behalf of Sea Shepherd. "But they chose no living dolphin". Bottle-nosed dolphins are again the victim. The classic Flipper-dolphins. The girl's voice of the speaker from the whale museum and dolphinarium walks notable in our direction. The childish voice is telling about the show. The show with the bottle-nosed dolphins.

Latest news from Taiji

By Hans Peter Roth - WDCS rep on the ground

Shocking new Images from the Death Cove are making Waves 

The close-ups are unbelievable. Both in what they are showing and in their quality. One video shows from striking distance how pacific white-sided dolphins where beastly slaughtered. One of the dolphin hunters drives a sharp spike into the back of a dolphin and pokes around in the body. After he extracted the spike from the body he rams a wooden plug into the wound, so that no blood flows out, which could turn the death cove red.
This 'new' way of killing is labeled as 'humane' by the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries. It’s said that the hunter cuts through the spinal cord of the animal and that the dolphins would die instantly. Another cynical lie.

The animal shown in the close-up is still alive, obviously for several long minutes. It even manages to break loose from the rope. This barbaric torture hardly ever kills instantly, as the recordings show. Several sequences, published at different points of time, show the cruelty from different perspectives and are of different origins, where all shot within January 2011.

The owner of the shocking close-ups is the German NGO Atlantic Blue. How they got the video is however left open. This gives leeway to rumors...

Cross cutting sequences in the same video, shot from a different perspective are showing that the black curtains, which are normally used by the fishermen to hide the massacre, were partly left open on the day the video was filmed. A strange 'coincident'… In the meantime, even 'The Sun', England's major daily newspaper, issued the video. (Attention: heavy and disturbing stuff!) As a consequence of the publication, local watchmen, police officers and coast guards once more intensified the measures of safety and observation around the cove. More about this disturbing 'milestone' in the next update.

Hans Peter Roth

Latest news from Taiji.
By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.
(02.2.2011)

The month February is only 2 days old and already over 20 rissos dolphin had to give their lives in the death-cove of Taiji. I will never get used to the sight of the hunting boats lining up on the sea and starting to chase the dolphins towards the cove, when black smoke rises from their chimneys due to the quick manoeuvres they have to take
too block the paths of the cetaceans.

And I will never get used to the noise when fishermen knock against their boats to stampede the dolphins and to disturb their communication.

Yesterday they killed eight and today around fifteen dolphins. This can't be true – but it is the bitter truth!

At the same time another tragedy happened in Taiji.

At the “Dolphin Base” in Taiji, a dolphin trader complex, about half a mile from the infamous cove, 3 pacific white-sided dolphin where taken from their enclosure and loaded into three small wooden boxes for transport. After several hours on the road, northwest of Osaka, the truck driver came into a snow storm and lost the control over his vehicle and crashed into the guard railing.

It took estimated eight hours before the truck was able to continue his journey. All along the three dolphins had to hold out in their small, cold and dark prison. Members of “Sea Shepherd” followed the truck with a rental car and reported afterwards that the journey, all in all, took over 30 hours. The cruel journey ended at Tsukumi Dolphin Island, a dolphinarium in the prefecture Oita, on the island Kyushu, which shell be opened by April this year. The fact that another dolphinarium will open his doors, sadly shows that the number of dolphinariums - and therewith the demand for living dolphins – is still raising in Japan.

Latest news from Taiji.

By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.

(31.01.2011) 
A month of horror – and of hope

January 2011 ended in Taiji as calm as it has begun.

During the last three days no dolphin was killed. Today the hunting vessels remain in the harbor. But yesterday there was a hunt. Once more pacific white – sided dolphins were the victims. Again the hunters lined a horseshoe-shaped net, several hundreds of meters away from the harbor. Sadly, two dolphins walked into that trap – and will have to carve out a miserable existence in captivity for the rest of their lives.

It’s time for a quick review of the past month: Approximately 185 dolphins were killed in January. According to our own observations of the killings we counted 25 bottlenose dolphins, 120 Striped dolphins, 38 Rissos dolphins and 2 Pacific White-Sided dolphins. 20 of these animals were selected for aquariums, mainly Bottlenose dolphins and White-sided, but also some Rissos dolphins. These numbers may be not accurate as a precise counting is not always possible from our viewpoints – especially when the hunt get chaotic, like we reported on the Striped dolphins hunts.

And now it’s time to talk about the horror. The brutality and the suffering I had to witness surpassed my worst expectations. Every claim saying the new killing method (severing the spinal cord as more “human” and killing the animal in seconds) is a sheer and cynical lie. There is enough evidence from this month the 'new' killing method results in senseless suffering and the slow and painful death of the animals. (I will get back to this in another blog soon).

What the dolphins have to go through before their death is also indescribably cruel. The drive and the associated underwater noise that is created to stampede those dolphins. The fear. The total exhaustion – until death -  due to the hunt. The expectation of their own emanant death, tied up by their flukes while another individual from their group is killed.

And these dolphins – like those Striped dolphins – that strand on the razor sharp rocks in panic. That abrade until they exsanguinate. Once we had to witness stranded striped dolphins half dry writhe due to the pain up to one hour exposed to the sun, bleeding, until the hunters dragged them away from the rocks.

Please apologize my radical language.

January 2011 – a month of hope, too? I’d say: Yes. I got to know several Japanese who now engage actively in the conservation of Japanese dolphins. Courageous women and men with different backgrounds, everyone of them contributing their own part to achieve the common goal. A growing grass-roots movement in Japan! This is very important. Furthermore the number of killed animals in this hunting season is low compared to the last season. In sum 660 to 690 dolphins were killed. In the last hunting season 1,700 animals had to die. It’s very likely that this number will not even be approached.

There is the hope of understanding that it simply is not okay that one single nation – unjustified – is undertaking acts so backward to the majority of the world's public. Although it is just a small group of backward people in a remote village that continues the barbaric killings with the blessing of corrupt officials and subsidized with tax money of a nearly bankrupt* government.

Hans Peter Roth 

* On January 27th the Rating agency Standard & Poors downgraded the solvency of Japan due to increasing national debts.

The latest news from Taiji

By Hans Peter Roth – WDCS rep on the ground.

The most beautiful days are those, when the dolphin hunter are not going out at all. Here the boats are driving the dolphins with the help of an artificial wall of noise in front of them. By banging on metal rods, the hunter scare the dolphins under water and drive the animals where they want them to go, it can be heard miles away.

From time to time, they come back from an unsuccessful hunt when the dolphins are able to escape their agitators. Today was such a day. Apparently, twelve boats followed a pod of dolphins but the dolphins were able to divide and finally escaped into the ocean. What a bother for the tormentors who had to return without any prey after five plus hours of searching and hunting. What a waste of working time and fuel!

A kind of dry season dominates the region. Since my arrival three weeks ago I haven’t seen a single drop of rain. Everything is bone-dry. That makes the observation on the one hand easy, but unfortunately on the other hand it also creates perfect hunting conditions for the dolphin tormentors. Nearly every day the ocean is calm like a lake, yet there is a possibility of waves from a land breeze which would make the search and hunt more difficulty.  


you can see the area where the dolphins are in the lower left hand corner.

Hans Peter Roth

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are one of the most endangered animals on the planet with fewer than 450 remaining. While they once roamed both sides of the Atlantic, they now only exist on the eastern seaboard of the US and Canada where they struggle to survive. Ship traffic, fishing gear, pollution, and offshore energy developments create daily physical and acoustical obstacle courses through which they must weave to find food, and each other.

But they are not beyond hope. What we, as humans, do, will determine which way the pendulum swings- recovery or extinction. And the US is legally obligated to work toward recovery, even if we (as a nation) sometimes forget we are. Right now, thanks to your support, WDCS is helping to remind the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that they have a legal obligation to protect these animals.

With the passage of the Endangered Species Act (in 1973), right whales received legal protection which included the creation of Critical Habitat - areas that are critical to the conservation of the species (i.e. have physical characteristics that known to be important for things like breeding, feeding, and nursing.) In 1994, Critical Habitat was designated for Northern right whales (E. glacialis) in Cape Cod Bay, the Great South Channel (East of Cape Cod) and off the coast of northern Florida.  Those areas were known to be important feeding and nursing areas in the north, and calving areas in the south. Last year, WDCS, along with the Humane Society of the United States, Defenders of Wildlife, Center for Biological Diversity, and Ocean Conservancy, petitioned NMFS (the federal agency charged with protecting whales) to expand Critical Habitat for NA right whales. Researchers from NMFS, itself, had discovered previously unknown habitats of significance for the species. It seemed like a no-brainer, to be honest.

However, NMFS never responded to our petition. We waited, and waited, and waited.......... 90 days passed, the legally mandated limit for them to respond to our petition. Nothing. So we went to Washington DC (another thank you for your support which got us there) and asked what the problem was.

Seems when NMFS designated North Pacific right whales as a separate species from North Atlatnic right whales in 2008, they weren't sure if
Critical Habitat still existed legally in the North Atlantic. So they couldn't respond to a request to "expand" if it wasn't there.

We pointed out a variety of NMFS documents where they referred to Critical Habitat as still existing for North Atlantic right whales post 2008, as well as pointed out that the species designation E. glacialis, for which Critical Habitat in the Atlantic was designated, remained with North Atlantic right whales. They said they would get back to us shortly. So we waited some more...................... But we can't wait any longer and neither can NA right whales. As a result, WDCS, along with Defenders of Wildlife, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Humane Society of the United States filed a suit today. It was not our first choice, but a necessary one.

I am not a lawyer, I am a biologist. I have studied right whales, I have necropsied dead animals on a beach that had been either killed by ships or entangled in fishing gear. I have heard them talk to each other. I have seen them interact. I am privileged. And I am ever so grateful to the lawyers and advocates that can do something legally to help ensure that, in the future, the privilege will not be mine alone.

There are many, many lawyer jokes- but I am humbled by the dedication and passion for which the lawyers and advocates have fought for a species they have not yet seen in the wild. And I am sincerely thankful to our supporters who fund us to make sure that NMFS doesn't forget they have a legal obligation to make sure the pendulum swings toward recovery