News on Cetaceans Worldwide - Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society

A team of 30 Chinese and foreign scientists have failed in a 26-day search for the rare white-flag dolphin (baiji) in the Yangtze River, raising fears of imminent extinction.

The last such expedition, in 1997, located 13 of the world's rarest dolphins, which lives only in China's longest river, the Yangtze, Xinhua news agency said Saturday. The baiji is considered to be more endangered than the giant panda, which lives in remote forest areas, because the dolphin faces additional threats from pollution and environmental degradation, it said.

"We can't say the baiji is extinct. However, the population has dropped dramatically over the past decade," Wang Ding, vice director of the hydrobiology institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was quoted as saying. Wang and his colleagues estimate that no more than 50 are left.

During a 1,700-kilometer (1,100-mile) trip down the river that ended in Shanghai, the scientists found that the population of the finless porpoises had also fallen.

Wang said pollution, overfishing, shipping and a large number of water conservancy projects had affected the habitats of the animals, Xinhua said. "If the situation cannot be improved, the baiji may be extinct within ten years, and the finless porpoise will also be endangered," Wang said.

There are an estimated 1,000 black finless porpoises in the river, about half the number 12 years ago, Wang said.

Source: Yahoo News

6 Nov 2006

Dolphin captured at Taiji found with abnormality

On 28 October a young bottlenose dolphin captured by fishermen in a dolphin drive hunt at Taiji, Japan was found bearing an unusual feature - two extra fins. The two extra fins are located halfway between the dorsal fin and the tail fluke on either side, where the pelvic structure would be found.

The discovery of the dolphin was largely covered by the media, and it was claimed that this was the first time such a dolphin had ever been found. Some scientists even claimed that this would be an important evidence for that dolphin ancestors had once lived on land.

However, among the media coverage there is not a word about how the dolphin was brought to captivity - the annual Japanese dolphin massacre. The five-year-old dolphin was netted with its mother during the Japanese drive hunt, and then it was soon separated from its mother, which was later butchered along with other bottlenose dolphins. The four-finned dolphin is now retained in a steel cage in Taiji Harbor, and will be transported to the Taiji Whale Museum (a commercial dolphinarium) later for display.

For more information about the four-finned dolphin and Japanese dolphin slaughter, please see the weblog by the “Save Taiji Dolphin Campaign”.

18 Sep 2006

Right whales close to extinction

Fewer than 350 North Atlantic Right Whales roam the waters of the Eastern seaboard of North America. The population is dangerously close to extinction and the US government states that “Today, the right whale population is sufficiently fragile that the premature death of a single mature female could make recovery of this species untenable”. They also acknowledge that the biggest threat to the survival of this species is ship strikes. However, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, the governing body charged with protecting these whales) has yet to provide adequate protection for this critically endangered species and, as they sit back and wait, at least 17 right whales have been documented as dying or being killed since February of 2004. More than ? of those deaths were attributed to vessel strikes and 10 of those killed are known to have been females, including 3 that were pregnant when they were killed.

In November of 2004, the NMFS acknowledged that action needed to be taken when it issued a comment deadline for a proposed rule to reduce ship strikes to right whales. However, since that time, at least 7 right whales died as a result of ship strike injuries and 2 additional animals were struck. This does not consider the animals that died and were not necropsied (scientifically studied) to determine a cause of death. Nor does it include the animals that have been struck and lost at sea.

NMFS currently states that “A continued lack of recovery, and possible extinction, will occur if deaths from ship strikes are not reduced”. NMFS is currently seeking comments from the public regarding a proposal to control ship speed in the areas where right whales are known to occur throughout their feeding, breeding and migratory ranges. “Unfortunately, many people think that the whales are already saved which is simply not true” said Sue Fisher, US Policy Director for WDCS (North America). “Not only do they still need our help, but here is a chance to save, not just a whale, but an entire species found no where else in the world.”

Source: WDCS

17 Aug 2006

Dolphin trapped in Speedo is rescued

A lucky adolescent male bottlenose dolphin is back to living nude and free in Florida's Sarasota Bay after making a potentially fatal wardrobe choice early this summer.The 10-year-old dolphin, known as Scrappy, probably owes its life to a Brookfield Zoo marine mammal research team that works year round in the bay.

The drama began July 6, when a member of the team working in the bay spotted Scrappy unaccountably and uncomfortably swimming around while wearing a black, Speedo-brand man's bikini swimsuit.

"He must have found the swimsuit floating in the water," said Randall Wells, a population biologist who runs the Sarasota Dolphin Research Program. "Somehow he got his head and torso through the waist and one of the leg holes of the suit, and it was hugging him right where his pectoral fins and body meet.

The project team began looking for Scrappy every day. They feared the tight-fitting, non-rotting synthetic cloth suit could injure or kill the dolphin as "drag" force from swimming pushed it into the soft skin in front of the pectoral fins."Eventually it could cut deeply enough to sever arteries, causing him to bleed," Wells said.

When the swimsuit was still stubbornly clinging to Scrappy after three weeks, the team got an emergency rescue authorization from federal officials who monitor its work in the bay.

Scrappy's capture turned into an all-day ordeal for the depantsing team Wells organized Aug. 3. Five fast boats carrying 31 people raced across the bay after the animal, trying to surround it with a net. Late in the day they were able to bring the dolphin aboard a boat.

The suit had made cuts a half-inch deep and three-quarters of an inch long in front of each fin. Scrappy was visibly underweight and also had a fresh, visible but non-serious shark bite, both conditions probably caused by a hampered ability to swim because of the suit.

"We felt his injuries weren't that serious, so after we removed the swimsuit, we cleaned the wounds and gave him a strong antibiotic. Then we attached a small radio tag to one of his fins and, after about half an hour, we let him go."

With the radio tag, his team can locate the animal easily every day, Wells said, and Scrappy, who as an immature male still lives mostly by himself, has shown no ill effects from his wardrobe experiment.

"I suppose the real lesson for humans is that, if you bring something to the beach or on your boat, take it home with you. Anything you leave behind could have dire consequences for wildlife."

Source: Chicago Tribune

14 Jul 2006

Greenland's narwhal hunters off the hook

Greenland 's hunt for narwhals is unsustainable. Even Greenland 's own scientists stated late last year that they were unable to guarantee that any international trade in the tusks was sustainable while hunting levels remained so high.

For the last four years, WDCS has tried to bring Greenland to account for its hunting; taking its concerns to CITES which regulates trade in endangered species. Finally, last year, the narwhal was included in a Review of Significant Trade – a process to review the impact of international trade on the species, and make recommendations to ensure that it does not harm the species. But at a meeting of CITES' Animals Committee which concluded today in Lima Peru , the review of Greenland was dropped.

Greenland wriggled off the hook by imposing a temporary export ban just weeks before the meeting. The Animals Committee concluded, wrongly in WDCS' view, that if there was no trade, there could be no review.

The reality is that Greenland will continue to hunt narwhals at unsustainable levels during the period of the trade ban, and just stockpile the ivory tusks and the carvings that they sell to tourists. Either Canadian hunters, who also trade the ivory tusks, will move in to meet the demand - a bonanza for them – or the reduction in supply will push prices up, benefiting Greenland when trade resumes.

Greenland says it will not lift the ban and resume exports until its scientists are certain that trade is sustainable. However, once trade resumes, the export permits accompanying the stockpiled ivory will violate the CITES treaty, because they will relate to animals taken during the period of the trade ban when hunting was unsustainable.

Sue Fisher, WDCS' wildlife trade and hunting expert, commented: “If Greenland abides by its promise not to trade until its scientists are sure it is sustainable, they will have to reduce their hunting quotas; there is no other way around it.” But the hunting lobbying in Greenland will fight quota reductions to the bitter end and has incredible influence over the Home Rule government of this Danish territory. For example, hunters exceeded the narwhal quota of 260 last year by 50 animals and, instead of being punished, were simply given an extra 50 on this year's quota.

WDCS is now examining other legal options for bringing Greenland to account for the decimation of this species. The most heavily exploited population on the west coast has been reduced to approximated 25% of its former levels by hunting, most of which is conducted with rifles from motor boats.

Source: WDCS
Photo Source: Narwhal.info

21 Jun 2006

A wake up call to save the world's whales

At the IWC's 58th meeting, on the Caribbean island of St Kitts between 16th and 20th June, pro-whaling countries gained a majority of votes for the first time in over 20 years. In a landmark moment, with the passing of the ‘St Kitts and Nevis Declaration', the moratorium on commercial whaling was proclaimed unnecessary, the IWC dysfunctional, conservation groups a threat to governments, and whales voracious predators that are out-competing humans.

The ‘ St Kitts and Nevis Declaration' flies in the face of world opinion and was secured by just one vote, with 33 votes in favour, 32 against and one abstention. Significantly and controversially, Denmark was the only European Union Member State to vote in favour of the declaration, causing an outcry across Europe and around the world.

The moratorium on commercial whaling has not been a complete success but it has saved many thousands of whales and saved several populations from the brink of extinction. Japan 's objective of overturning this ban will require over three quarters of the vote at the IWC, which Japan does not yet have. Japan must hope to gain that majority next year when the IWC meets in the USA . However, WDCS hopes that the setbacks of this meeting will act as a catalyst for high level intervention from conservation-minded countries to take back the IWC and ensure the security of whale populations.

Philippa Brakes, Whale Welfare Expert for WDCS said: “This may be just the wake up call that the world needs. The global community has another year to prevent this tragedy from occurring and with such a spotlight on the IWC now, we can only hope that any countries that might have been considering joining at the whalers behest, or continuing to vote under instructions from the whaling nations, will reconsider the implications of being accessories to one of the biggest environmental crimes of the millennium.”

Source: WDCS

For more information concerning the meeting held by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), please visit the website of IWC:

http://www.iwcoffice.org/index.htm

and website of the WDCS:

http://www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/allweb/E39BA98044C97E3180256D04004A0425

3 May 2006

Sonar tied to deaths of 400 dolphins?

About 400 dead bottlenose dolphins washed up on 28 April along the shore of a popular tourist destination on Zanzibar's northern coast. It was not immediately clear what killed the 400 dolphins, whose carcasses were strewn along a 2 1/2-mile stretch of Nungwi, said Narriman Jidawi, a marine biologist at the Institute of Marine Science in Zanzibar.

Scientists are now studying the remains of some of the 400 dolphins. Among other possibilities, marine biologists were examining whether U.S. Navy sonar threw the animals off course.

Some scientists surmise that loud bursts of sonar, which can be heard for miles in the water, may disorient or scare marine mammals, causing them to surface too quickly and suffer the equivalent of what divers call the bends — when sudden decompression forms nitrogen bubbles in tissue.

A U.S. Navy task force patrols the coast of East Africa in counterterrorism operations. A Navy spokesman ruled out the possibility Navy sonar might have disoriented the dolphins and led to their deaths. He said there were no U.S. Navy vessels within 580 miles of the location in the 48 hours before it happened.

The most conclusive link between the use of military sonar and injury to marine mammals was observed from the stranding of whales in 2000 in the Bahamas. The U.S. Navy later acknowledged that sonar likely contributed to the stranding of the extremely shy species.

In Zanzibar, a preliminary examination of their dolphins' stomach contents failed to show the presence of squid beaks or other remains of animals hunted by dolphins. Their general condition, however, appeared to show that they had eaten recently, since their ribs were not clearly visible under the skin.

Experts are preparing to further examine the dolphins' stomachs for traces of poisonous substances such as toxic "red tides" of algae.

Source: The Associated Press

21 April 2006

Japanese fleet returns with vast whale haul

Japan's so called ‘research' voyage to Antarctica ended 14 April with the return of the fleet to Kanazawa Port. On board, their research subjects are already processed, shrink-wrapped and frozen into neat blocks. The meat from 853 minke whales and ten fin whales will now be sold to subsidise future years' research in Antarctica (where 50 humpback whales, and 40 more fin whales will be added in 2007) and the North Pacific, where Japan ‘studies' 160 minkes, 50 Bryde's, 100 sei and 10 sperm whales each year.

WDCS anticipates that Japan will again have trouble selling the meat from this hunt. Last summer, 4,800 tonnes of whale meat were stored in warehouses in Japan, which included 20 percent of meat from the 2005 hunt which was unsold. The addition of fin whales and almost double the number of minkes this year will add over 1000 extra tonnes of meat, but prices continue to fall. Japan must be hoping that the species will re-awaken consumer interest, but the signs are not good: Bryde's meat - a new species in 2000 - has fallen to almost half its initial value; while the price of sei meat – new in 2002 and once the most prized species - has fallen by almost a third since it was first sold.

To shift the meat, the government is selling it at a great discount, including to schools. More than 1.6 tons of whale meat were served as school lunch in hundreds of schools in Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka and Nara prefectures and in Tokyo in January 2006, almost double the amount for the whole of 2005.

WDCS is also very concerned about the methods Japan used to kill these fin whales. Killing whales as large as fin, sei and sperm whales at sea under difficult circumstances is fraught with problems, which is reflected in the poor rate of instantaneous kills that Japan has reported from its Pacific hunt of the bigger species. Of even greater concern is the fate of whales that escape wounded and may die lingering deaths.

Source: WDCS

13 Mar 2006

Over 1,100km of fishing net killing Britain's porpoises and dolphins

Thousands of Britain's porpoises and dolphins are feared to be dying each year in over 1,100km of bottom set fishing nets currently in use off the south west coast of England while the UK Government has failed to implement the EU law brought in to protect them.

According to figures from Fisheries Minister Ben Bradshaw, some 1,100 km of gill and tangle nets – enough to stretch the length of the UK eight times over – is used by British fishermen in the waters to the south west of England.

With both harbour porpoise and common dolphin populations threatened by these fishing nets, WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, is calling on the government to act now before it is too late.

Gill nets and tangle nets are set on the seabed using anchors or weights and left to fish passively, for several days in some fisheries. The netting is fine, light and cheap and can be fished in huge quantities - over 100 km per vessel in the case of tangle nets. French, Irish and Spanish fishing vessels also use bottom set nets in this area.

Harbour porpoises are particularly at risk from these nets because of their feeding behaviour near the seabed. However, common dolphins are also getting killed. These animals become tangled in both gill nets and tangle nets and in their struggle to free themselves, become tightly gripped by the net. After a struggle which can result in cuts, severed fins and tail and even a broken beak, the animal eventually suffocates and dies. While some of the nets' victims wash up on the beaches in the south west, the majority sink to the ocean bed and go unrecorded.

Since the 1st January, these nets are legally required to be fitted with “pingers”, electronic acoustic devices designed to keep porpoises away from the danger. Despite having more than 18 months notice since the EU law was adopted, Bradshaw has now admitted that not enough preparation has been done to be confident that the pingers can be introduced effectively. A further two month trial is due to be completed at the end of March. In the meantime, porpoises and dolphins continue to die in these nets.

Source: WDCS

17 Feb 2006

4 Belugas from Russia arrived at Taiwan

Earlier this year the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA) of Taiwan decided to import four more belugas. After a seventeen-hour flight, the plane carrying the four animals finally arrived at Kaohsiung airport the night of 17 February. To avoid being confronted by protests from the local conservation groups, the airport and the airline company refused to confirm the flight and its landing time. Even though some concerned organizations knew about the belugas' arrival, NMMBA refused all media interviews and the animals were able to be transported to the aquarium in a low-keyed way.

NMMBA said that they would place the four belugas in an adaptation pool for a month and arrange for their meetings with visitors later. All of these animals are females with an average age of 4 - 5 years-old. This is the second time NMMBA had imported belugas, and they claimed that the import is for the aquarium's three existing male belugas (the fourth is a female) to breed with. Four years ago NMMBA imported six belugas but two died within two months of arrival.

The import of these four belugas has prompted much public opposition. Some local and oversea conservation groups have pointed out that introducing belugas from Russia poses a survival threat to the local wild population; and the process of hunting beluga is so brutal that the belugas are treated in an inhumane way.

Source: dwnews.com

21 Jan 2006

Whale lost in Rive Thames dies

The lost and distressed whale seen swimming for two days in the River Thames, London, died on 21 January 2006, when rescue workers ferried it on a salvage barge in an effort to release it in the open sea. The whale struggled with the effects of being out of the water as it was ferried toward the Thames Estuary, officials said. It was learned that the animal had suffered a series of convulsions before its death.

The Northern bottlenose whale was first seen flailing through the Thames the day before, luring thousands of curious onlookers along the shoreline. Northern bottlenose whale is only found in the North Atlantic ocean, and is a species which prefers deep water (more than 1,000 m). It is generally accepted that the animal had got lost, being away from its normal habitat.

Source: Yahoo News, BBC News

8 Jan 2006

Green group ships intend to stop whale hunt

Every year Japan dispatches a whaling fleet to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary around Antarctica. In the face of international opposition, Japanese whaling fleet set out again on 8 November 2005. This time Japan has doubled their whale hunt quota to 935 minke whales, and for the first time added 10 endangered fin whales, raising stronger controversies over the hunt.

Two of the concerned groups, Greenpeace and Sea Shepherd, have already sent out vessels to pursue the whaling fleet to Antarctica, in an attempt to halt their whale hunt and record their whaling operation. One of the Greenpeace ships has collided with the factory ship of the whaling fleet, while another ship of Sea Shepherd has rammed a whaling supply ship. Besides, Greenpeace sometimes deploy a few inflatable boats between the hunted whales and the harpooners in order to stop them firing the harpoons, but still a certain amount of minke whales have been taken. Greenpeace considered the protest successful, “It has prolonged the hunt; some whales have got away and the whalers have had to look for another one.” And Greenpeace has not seen any fin whale hunt yet.

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) imposed a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. However, Japan has continued to hunt whales in the name of “scientific research”. Whale meat has long been a part of the Japanese cuisine, and Japan makes no secret that the meat from the “scientific research” ends up in markets. For years a number of countries have urged Japan to stop their hunt, including Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United Sates. But Japan, considering consuming whale as a part of their cultures, has no intention to stop the annual hunt. Other than Japan, Norway and Iceland have also carried out commercial whaling every year, causing opposition of the IWC member countries.

Sources: WDCS, Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, stuff.co.nz, news.com.au

Photo credit: Greenpeace / Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert


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