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One of the allegations in Killer In The Pool that SeaWorld pushed back hard on, was the assertion that Tilikum was abused by other killer whales at SeaWorld Orlando, and that aggression between killer whales in SeaWorld’s pools sometimes leads to serious injuries. Responding to the allegation, VP Of Communications Fred Jacobs said: “Injuries as part of the expression of social dominance are rare and almost never serious.”
Jacobs doesn’t say that serious injuries NEVER occur. Which is smart, because there is a pretty well known 1987 incident at SeaWorld Orlando in which a whale named Kotar bit a whale he did not get along with, named Kanduke, in the penis. The bloody result closed SeaWorld shows down for a period, and Kotar was eventually shipped off to SeaWorld San Antonio. He died there in 1995, when a pool gate he was playing with closed on his head and fractured his skull.
One of the allegations in Killer In The Pool that SeaWorld pushed back hard on, was the assertion that Tilikum was abused by other killer whales at SeaWorld Orlando, and that aggression between killer whales in SeaWorld’s pools sometimes leads to serious injuries. Responding to the allegation, VP Of Communications Fred Jacobs said: “Injuries as part of the expression of social dominance are rare and almost never serious.”
Jacobs doesn’t say that serious injuries NEVER occur. Which is smart, because there is a pretty well known 1987 incident at SeaWorld Orlando in which a whale named Kotar bit a whale he did not get along with, named Kanduke, in the penis. The bloody result closed SeaWorld shows down for a period, and Kotar was eventually shipped off to SeaWorld San Antonio. He died there in 1995, when a pool gate he was playing with closed on his head and fractured his skull.
At the same time, Jacobs carefully worded response could easily give the impression that this is not a very serious phenomenon. And it would probably shock many in the public to see what some of the injuries actually look like. The second most notorious incident between two SeaWorld killer whales occurred in 1989, between two orcas called Kandu and Corky. Here is one description of what happened:
Kandu was a good performer, but she was also a moody orca. Waterworks were done with her but she showed aggressions to her trainers more than once. In 1984 she got pregnant with her first offspring. Unfortunately she gave birth to a dead calf on January 31, 1986.
Almost one year after, SeaWorld got 2 new orcas; Kandu immediately got along with the male Orky II and soon became pregnant with her second calf. On September 23, 1988, she gave birth to a female named Orkid. Kandu was a good and protective mother, so she wasn’t enthused when Corky, one of the other females showed interest in the new calf.
On August 21, 1989, Kandu was swimming laps in the back pool, while Orkid and Corky performed during a show. Kandu suddenly rushed into the show pool and rammed into Corky with her mouth being open. Corky was fine after the attack, but Kandu broke her jaw and started bleeding soon after. She immediately swam back to the back pool, where she died from severe blood loss. Orkid was by her side.
This incident is tragic because it led to the death of a killer whale. But someone recently sent me a photo of what the scene looked like after Kandu returned to the back pool, and it is pretty shocking. It tells a story about what can happen in the pools that is totally at odds with the impression that SeaWorld often conveys: that there is some social jostling, but it is “almost never serious.” This looks pretty serious:
See images and read more about orcas attacking each other in captivity: http://timzimmermann.com/2010/09/14/do-orcas-at-marine-parks-injure-one-another/One of the allegations in Killer In The Pool that SeaWorld pushed back hard on, was... more
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WHALE meat is on the menu at about a sixth of Japan's state-run primary and junior high schools, a survey released today showed.
Of 29,600 public primary and junior high schools nationwide providing lunches for students, 5355 schools served whale meat at least once during the fiscal year to March 2010, the survey by Kyodo news revealed.
In Japan, cooked whale meat was a regular item on school lunch menus in the 1960s and 1970s as the annual supply of the meat reached a peak of 220,000 tonnes. It subsequently fell out of favour, with the supply dwindling to around 1000 tonnes in the 1990s as an international ban on commercial whaling was introduced.
But whale meat has recently made a reappearance on the school lunch table as the country gradually increased its catch of the ocean giants, Kyodo said.
The Institute of Cetacean Research, which carries out whaling in the name of research, sells whale meat to local municipalities for school lunch use at one-third of the market price, it said.
Japan hunts whales under a loophole to an international moratorium that allows the killing of the sea mammals for scientific research but it does not hide the fact that the meat is later sold in shops and restaurants.WHALE meat is on the menu at about a sixth of Japan's state-run primary and... more
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September 2nd, 2010
11:16 AM ET
Exploding stranded whales often only 'humane' option
A healthy humpback whale jumping in the Pacific Ocean.
Explosives were reportedly used in Perth, Australia, to euthanize a terminally ill baby humpback whale that had been stranded for two weeks on the country's western coast.
The whale, about 30 feet long, was given a "lethal explosion" to the brain, according to local news reports.
"It's ugly but it's also a fast and one of the few ways to euthanize a whale that's stranded and in distress for too long," said Ken Balcomb, the executive director and research biologist for the Center for Whale Research since 1985. The Center, located on the Pacific Northwest's San Juan Island, is nonpolitical.
Balcomb, who has euthanized several whales, said there are essentially two ways to end the mammal's life if there is no hope of healing it and freeing it. One can either exact a controlled explosion or cut the throat.
"If a whale has been in that spot for two weeks, you have to assume that its brain is not functioning, that it's in a twilight zone, and isn't really aware of what's happening," Balcomb said.
The longer a whale is out of water the more pressure builds on the mammal's organs, he said. "These are sad things, but they happen and the public should know that there's nothing else sometimes that can be done."
Post by: CNN's Ashley FantzSeptember 2nd, 2010
11:16 AM ET
Exploding stranded whales often only... more
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Hello Good People of Current!
I'm working on this awesome project~ and I was thinking about how my time with speaking with you, reading your comments and reactions to the good news and bad inspired the creation of this project. And I got to thinking...OMG! I have to tell them!
It's called People and the Planet, and it is all about how people are
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/peopleandtheplanet/people-and-the-planet
Here is the even longer piece in Huffington Post: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leah-lamb/sex-pandas-kittens-and-sw_b_695770.html
I have a dream of creating stories that reconnect people to the planet, and reclaim the way we tell stories about the environment. What? You say. Reclaim? Yes. Reclaim. Let me tell you why.
After nearly two years of consuming and producing environmental video and blog content for Current's Green Channel, I nearly crawled away in a deep depression about the state of the world. I suffered from too-much-eco-news-itis. So I sublet my house, and retreated to a cabin perched on a cliff on the Lost Coast to complete my novel (and escape the world as we know it). I unplugged from the Internet (as best I could), and plugged into the planet. I spent the last three months walking in the woods, walking by the ocean, and consuming information from a different source: the natural world. I've never been happier.
What happened is that I started to see a huge disconnect between my experience in the environment, and the news I consume about the environment. And then I started thinking about the key reasons about why I went into producing media: to motivate, mobilize and inspire people to be stewards for our planet.
Houston. We have a problem. Because I don't know about you, but that majority of news I read about the environment these days sucks......Hello Good People of Current!
I'm working on this awesome project~ and I was... more
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Written by Hardy Jones from BlueVoice.org
I was headed for Nuuk, Greenland, to attend the Inuit Circumpolar Council (ICC). As the doors closed on my IcelandAir flight from JFK, my iPhone told me the International Whaling Commission (IWC), with U.S. assent, had voted to allow Greenland to kill 27 humpback whales for aboriginal subsistence.
An hour out of Keflavik, I realized the humpbacks that have now become targets of the hunt were swimming a mere vertical mile below me. I had come to know this stock of whales in the Caribbean at Samana Bay and out on the Silver Banks. They were extraordinarily friendly toward me as I filmed them underwater. We looked at each other eye-to-eye, each knowing the other was aware of the other. The idea of their being harpooned is appalling to me.
The quota granted by the IWC specified the hunt could not begin until mid-October. But Greenland has announced the hunt will begin immediately, in flagrant violation of the permit. After landing in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, I would find other violations.
Along most of their migratory route off the eastern seaboard of the United States, the humpbacks are protected. In response to protection, they've become increasingly friendly and curious toward the whale watchers who now are part of a multimillion dollar business for charter boat owners, hotels, restaurants and transport companies. They approach boats and eyeball passengers with astonishing trust. That trust will now be rewarded by a harpoon.
Aboriginal hunts of marine mammals are a highly complex ethical issue. It is true that the Inuit and their cousins have traditionally thrived on what they call natural food -- caribou, seal, beluga, whales, and other marine mammals. They do not have much money with which to draw food from the cash economy, and they do not fare well on the kind of food eaten by Europeans and Americans.
But it turns out that Greenland's hunt for whales is as much about profits as it is about aboriginal rights.
I discovered in Nuuk that Greenlanders are not observing the terms of the IWC quota that permits the hunt be conducted solely for aboriginal subsistence purposes.
I checked out markets and restaurants and immediately and easily found whale meat for sale in commercial channels. To document my finds, I used my iPhone to snap stills and record video. In the supermarket I found packaged whale meat. In a Thai restaurant I found whale sushi and whale and Rangoon Whiskey soup. In a greasy spoon burger/pizza joint I found whale steak.
The Inuit of Greenland complain that they do not have enough whale to sustain themselves. They may be having a hard time getting whale meat because the big money guys are sucking it all up for the more lucrative commercial trade.
My final discovery came on the last day of the ICC. A young Inuit from eastern Greenland told me pleadingly that his village needed to take whales outside the IWC quota. "We steal them," he told me.
"What species of whale are you taking?" I asked.
"Any kind that the elders tell us," came his reply.
Humpbacks have been missing from Greenlandic waters for sixty years -- hunted out by whalers. Their population has now recovered to the extent that explorer whales have made their way back to ancient feeding grounds. This should be cause for joyous celebration -- not a dreadful slaughter.Written by Hardy Jones from BlueVoice.org
I was headed for Nuuk, Greenland, to... more
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From the Center for Whale Research:
The Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW) population underwent a genetic bottleneck sometime between one and two-and-a-half whale generations ago that has resulted in a very small and fragile effective population size – only about 25 whales currently parent any offspring, while the remaining 60 or so whales are either too old or too young to contribute to population growth. That fact alone makes every baby whale precious, or at least it should be precious, to everyone on this planet that cares about the survival of these charismatic icons of the Pacific Northwest. Being born is one thing, surviving in the modern world is another. My goal is to encourage our human society to make it possible for the effective population size of SRKW’s to grow during the current generation, and for the foreseeable future. Too often, for too long, and too recently we have seen it decline. In order to see increase we must give priority to allowing the whales sufficient food = salmon to survive, year-round, and that amounts to a lot of fish.
At the risk of designating a baby whale an ID number or a name when there is a good chance that it will not survive, and thereby perhaps offending some and wasting numbers, I am going to exercise my prerogative and name a few:
In J pod, there was a new calf born in November 2009 to a sixteen-year old new mother designated J28. I earlier designated the new female calf J46 and called her “Star” for the starring role I hoped she would play in inspiring the public interested in conserving the fish resources needed for the entire SRKW population (and for humans).
Also born into J pod in January 2010 was another new calf, this time a young male whose very young mother is twelve-year old J35. I designated this new male calf J47, and now call it “Looker” because it frequently (and delightfully) raises its head high above the water as if looking around when swimming alongside its mother.
In K pod, there was a new calf first seen in February 2010 with an experienced mother K12, who is also a grandmother. Virtually every time we see and photograph this new rambunctious baby whale it is racing alongside its mother, so I have called it “Speedy” and have designated it K43 - the newest member of slow-growing K pod.
In L pod, a new calf appeared in the summer of 2010, itself an unusual event because most new SRKW’s are born in winter months. The births typically occur in mid-winter seventeen months after the party times of historically abundant summer salmon migrations to these inland marine waters. Conception of this new calf, designated L115, must have occurred around January or February 2009 when all three pods made an unprecedented mid-winter appearance off Victoria (see Encounter 3, 2009 CWR webpage). The mother is L47, who has lost her previous four consecutive babies (L99,L102,L107,L111) since giving birth to her two successful daughters (L83 and L91), in 1990 and 1995. Without yet knowing the sex of L115 the newest calf of L47, I am going to call it “Hope”, for obvious reasons. “Toast” was submitted, but it is not very optimistic for a whale name when we hope it survives.
Another new calf in L pod, L114 born to L 77, first appeared in February 2010, but it did not survive to summer. No name, but only a number for its tombstone in our records. (see Matriline guide on our website).
L113 was born in the autumn of 2009 to fourteen-year old first time mother L94, and she is healthy and doing well as of this writing in late summer 2010. This year has been a relatively good year for salmon in the local waters, so we are wishing all is well for her. I am going to call her “Molly” after a very good friend whose ashes were spread as L113 and her extended family swam nearby in Haro Strait this summer.
Two other recent L pod calves are worthy of mention: L112 born to L86, probably in January 2009 and first documented in the afore-mentioned Encounter 3 of 2009 when she was less than a month old; I am going to call her “Victoria” for the beautiful city waterfront where she was first seen. [Hold your nose until the sewage issue is resolved! Maybe we should call her “Stinker”?]
And, last but not least, we have L110, a very rambunctious young male born to a young mother, L83 first daughter of L47. We first saw him in August 2007, still showing evidence of fetal folds from recent birth; but, by October he had clear evidence of a mark that will no doubt remain with him for the rest of his life: a large flap of his upper right lip had been torn askew and was protruding awkwardly from the starboard side of his face, perhaps from an encounter with the steel leader of a fishing line. He also now has evidence of a bulbous tooth abscess just in front of the flap. I am going to call him “Flapper”, in anticipation that a bit of Aussie humor will be good for him. He probably does not mind his easily remembered name, though others might.
My apologies to those who may be offended by the names and numbers I have given these whales. I’ve given the subject a fair amount of thought over three decades, and have refrained from giving them meaningless, stupid, or unpronounceable names. You may call them anything you wish, but I have been keeping the official records of these whales from the beginning of their study, and these names and numbers are what we will write in our books. The paternity paper is in preparation and due out soon; and it is likely to be at least as interesting reading, if not downright scandalous. Here’s a little teaser: the whales apparently live up to the motto: “Old Guys Rule” and you can guess what that is about.
We will discuss the reasons for the SRKW population bottleneck in another writing. Meanwhile, do whatever you can to promote healthy wild salmon populations, particularly Chinook salmon, in the Pacific Northwest if you would like these babies and the SRKW population to survive.From the Center for Whale Research:
The Southern Resident Killer Whale (SRKW)... more
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Come visit Monterey, CA this week to become involved in ocean conservation ideas and watch ocean-themed stories alongside Dr. Sylvia Earle (National Geographic Explorer in Residence) and Jean-Michel Cousteau.
http://www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org/aboutblue.html
"BLUE Ocean Film Festival is a global film festival and conservation summit for underwater filmmakers and marine researchers. A simultaneous community festival will share the best of the film competition with the public and will include presentations from the filmmakers and scientists who created them. Following the festival, a selection of winning films will tour the world, providing those who may not otherwise have access to these great films a chance to learn more about our oceans. "
http://www.blueoceanfilmfestival.org/home.htmlCome visit Monterey, CA this week to become involved in ocean conservation ideas and... more
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Dozens of whales die after 58 are stranded on New Zealand beach
By the CNN Wire Staff
August 20, 2010 10:35 a.m. EDT
Rescuers attempt to refloat 15 stranded pilot whales at Karikari beach in the far north of New Zealand.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Fifteen out of 58 pilot whales are still alive
* The whales were found Friday morning. officials say
* Officials are trying to get them back out to sea; iniitial attempts failed
(CNN) -- A beachgoer in a remote area of northern New Zealand found a horrific sight Friday morning -- 58 pilot whales stranded on Karikari Beach.
When conservation officials arrived, only 15 of the animals were still alive. The whales probably became stranded sometime during the night, said Carolyn Smith of New Zealand's Department of Conservation in Kaitaia, and that's why so many died before being discovered.
"The focus for everyone right now was to try to refloat the survivors," Smith said.
To do that, officials will position the whales to face out to sea and hope that they swim back out when high tide comes.
The whales "need to be held in the water for at least half an hour to allow them to reorientate themselves, before being released to hopefully swim back out to sea," the conservation department said.
A first attempt to refloat the whales was not successful Friday night. Conservation officials were going to monitor the animals overnight in the hope of trying again, maybe after moving them to Matai Bay, where sea conditions could be more favorable for refloating.
The next attempt would happen Saturday morning, said Mike Davies, acting area manager at the Department of Conservation's Kaitaia office.
Far North Whale Rescue, which has a team of trained volunteers, is working with the department to achieve this.
Currently, New Zealand's Far North region is experiencing heavy rain and wind, both a help and a hindrance to the rescue efforts, the Department of Conservation said. It means the whales are not at risk of drying out, but it creates difficult conditions for rescuers.
Adult pilot whales can measure up to 20 feet long and weigh up to 3 tons. Due to their social nature, they are often involved in mass strandings, according to the American Cetacean Society. The ACS is a non-profit group based in California that works to protect whales, dolphins and porpoises, according to its website.Dozens of whales die after 58 are stranded on New Zealand beach
By the CNN Wire... more
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Smiling Whales
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From: http://dcbureau.org/20100810782/Natural-Resources-News-Service/qyoure-killing-meq-how-whales-and-dolphins-sacrifice-for-national-security.html
The largest international naval exercise in the world off the waters of Hawaii known as the 2010 Rim of the Pacific or RIMPAC exercise involved 14 nations including South Korea, Thailand, Colombia, Peru and Malaysia with a total of 32 ships, five submarines, more than 170 aircraft and 20,000 personnel.
One of the primary threats the month-long series of exercises were designed to address comes from quiet diesel-engine submarines, which national security experts say North Korea, Iran and other potential adversarial nations possess. The best way to detect something as quiet as a submarine running nearly entirely on battery power – as opposed to a noisy nuclear sub – is with high-intensity active sonar, which sends out pulses of mid-frequency sound as loud as a rocket blast underwater.
The general consensus, with which courts over the past decade have largely agreed, says high-intensity mid-frequency sonar can kill whales and dolphins. The National Marine Fisheries Services – part of the National Oceanic and Atmosphere Administration – explicitly allows Navy sonar tests and training exercises to result in the deaths of specific numbers of whales and dolphins as long as they have a negligible impact to the population.
It’s under an exception to the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 that NOAA authorized the Navy this year in the waters around Hawaii to inadvertently harass thousands of marine mammals and kill up to 20 whales and dolphins among 10 different species during the course of its sonar exercises, including RIMPAC. (See attached)
Similar authorizations exist for training grounds bordering the entire west, east and gulf coasts of America including the Mariana Islands and Alaska, several of which the Navy is in the process of expanding.From:... more
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Fishing, whaling, a once thriving area of south-east Massachusetts, is nothing but desolation now, and IRS raids of hard-working families.Fishing, whaling, a once thriving area of south-east Massachusetts, is nothing but... more
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'Killer' cruise liner strikes again: THIRD endangered whale found under giant vessel's bow
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 3:37 AM on 31st July 2010
* Comments (66)
* Add to My Stories
A rare humpback whale has been found dead after it was hit by a luxury cruise liner near Douglas Island, Alaska.
The 43ft-long female humpback was found stuck on the bow of the Sapphire Princess after becoming attached overnight.
U.S. Coast Guard officials detained the liner for three hours to open an investigation and remove the whale’s body.
Investigation: A dead adult female humpback whale is pinned to the bow of the Princess Cruises liner
It is the second incident in a year for the Princess Cruises vessel after a dead fin whale was discovered pinned to its bow as it arrived at the Port of Vancouver from an Alaska voyage.
Fin whales, like humpbacks, are classified as endangered.
More...
* Experts warn dead whale pinned to Princess cruise ship will not be the last
Biologists and marine-mammal experts were yesterday examining the whale carcass and experts will conduct a necropsy today to try to determine the cause of death.
A Princess spokesman said it was 'fully cooperating' with the investigation.
Officials remove the whale carcass from the vessel's bow
Second incident: A dead fin whale was discovered pinned to the Sapphire Princess last year
The humpback was hit by the luxury cruise liner near Douglas Island, Alaska
'We were surprised and concerned by this discovery, as the ship felt no impact,’ he said.
‘It is unknown how or when this could have happened, as we were not aware that any whales were sighted in close proximity to the ship when the whale was discovered.
'We have strict whale avoidance procedures in place when our ships are in the vicinity of marine life.’
The Sapphire Princess is on a seven-day Inside Passage round-trip voyage out of Seattle.
In 2007, the company paid $750,000 (£480,000) to settle a criminal charge related to a dead pregnant humpback found just outside Alaska's Glacier Bay in 2001.
That whale was found to have had its skull crushed.
Although Princess did not admit in the settlement to striking the whale, the company pleaded guilty to failing to operate one of its vessels, the Dawn Princess, at a safe speed around whales.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1298891/Cruise-liner-kills-endangered-humpback-whale-Alaska-trip.html#ixzz0vJknZ8s9'Killer' cruise liner strikes again: THIRD endangered whale found under... more
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Gulf journals: Accounts of a tragedy
Since April 20, millions of barrels of oil have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico, devastating Gulf Coast communities and ecosystems. Here are nine stories from the people affected by the disaster.
Gulf journals: Documenting a disaster
July 28, 2010 1:54 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Wednesday marks the 100th day of the worst oil disaster in U.S. history. Since April 20, the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon explosion has allowed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, devastating many communities of the Gulf Coast and its ecosystem.
CNN iReport quickly realized that we had a unique opportunity to profile and share the stories of concerned Gulf residents. As the oil disaster continued to worsen, we received dozens of heartbreaking stories with photos and videos of oil-covered beaches and wildlife.
Once the threat of oil became a serious reality to Gulf Coast residents, we started to showcase both the powerful images and stories together on our blog, through a series of profiles of iReporters on the forefront of the disaster. We've heard stories from tattoo artists in Grand Isle, Louisiana, a lifelong Pensacola, Florida, resident, and a woman who's driven hundreds of miles to tell the story of a suffering Louisiana town.
These stories help us look into the lives of the hardworking people of the Gulf as they watch this disaster take its toll. Click through the gallery to read nine personal accounts of this catastrophe, and visit the iReport blog for a complete archive.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/IREPORT/07/28/gulf.journals.irpt/index.html?hpt=C1Gulf journals: Accounts of a tragedy
Since April 20, millions of barrels of oil... more
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Blog Tuesday, July 27, 2010 // Blog home »
Gulf journal: Whale research group a ‘voice from the sea’
Docked in Gloucester, Massachusetts, is a 93-foot vessel that’s circumnavigated the world doing whale research. For three laborious weeks, volunteer Jim Casey helped make sure the Odyssey was ready for its mission to explore marine life in the oily Gulf of Mexico.
Casey put in hard work painting and refitting the boat for its lengthy voyage down the coast of New England to the Gulf of Mexico. The self-described amateur filmmaker captured the crew’s preparations and brought this story to light on CNN iReport.
The Gloucester native volunteered with Ocean Alliance, a nonprofit group of whale and marine researchers. His hometown is the oldest seaport in the U.S. and has a rich maritime history steeped in its fishing industry. These days, that industry is dying and locals such as Casey are turning to whale research groups instead.
“It was really a privilege to be part of something,” he said. “Everybody’s so appalled about what’s happening in the Gulf. Just to be able to do something is the little way I can contribute.”
Once the Odyssey sailed off into the high seas on July 5, Casey bid the vessel adieu and followed the Odyssey researchers’ work from afar.
Ocean Alliance and the University of Southern Maine will be studying the Gulf’s marine life for the next three months. The group of about a dozen would like to observe whales and grow cell lines to see how species react to various toxins in the Gulf. All of this is taking place aboard the Odyssey, the only cell-line laboratory at sea in the world, according to Ocean Alliance.
The group aims to be a “voice from the sea,” says Ocean Alliance CEO Iain Kerr. He says the team wants to contribute independent research and analysis about this environmental disaster.
As the Odyssey makes its way to the Gulf, scientists are collecting samples along the way so they have a basis of what marine life is like now, just in case the oil creeps up the Atlantic Coast.
When it comes to sampling, the group will be catching fish, trolling for plankton and biopsying whales. A specially designed biopsy dart is the secret to gathering whale tissue. Once fired from a crossbow, the dart skims the whale and removes a tissue sample the size of a pencil eraser. These mammals the size of school buses usually don’t flinch, and Kerr insists the procedure doesn’t hurt.
These samples will then be grown in petri dishes, where researchers will expose the cells to contaminants. Kerr says it will take years of sampling and testing on return trips to determine the full effects of the oil disaster.
The Odyssey is set to reach Fort Lauderdale, Florida, this weekend to pick up more supplies before cruising to Mobile, Alabama. Kerr will only be on the boat intermittently, as his CEO duties and paperwork often bring him ashore. As for Casey, he’s been reading the ship’s logs online and calling the ship’s captain to make sure everything’s going according to plan.
Editor's Note: This blog post is part of a series of profiles of Gulf Coast residents and visitors directly affected by the oil disaster. If you'd like to share your story, you can upload photos and videos to CNN iReport.Blog Tuesday, July 27, 2010 // Blog home »
Gulf journal: Whale research group a... more
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latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-ocean-20100719,0,1686762.story
Obama to launch ocean initiative
The stewardship policy embraces a controversial zoning practice that could change how the U.S. regulates drilling, fishing and other maritime activities.
By Jim Tankersley, Tribune Washington Bureau
July 19, 2010
Reporting from Washington
President Obama on Monday is set to create a national stewardship policy for America's oceans and Great Lakes, including a type of zoning that could dramatically rebalance the way government regulates offshore drilling, fishing and other marine activities.
The policy would not create new regulations or immediately alter drilling plans or fisheries management. But White House documents and senior administration officials suggest it would strengthen conservation and ecosystem protection.
The initiative culminates more than a year of work by a federal Ocean Policy Task Force, which Obama established last year. After the task force releases its final recommendations, the president is expected to sign an executive order directing federal agencies to adopt and implement them.
Calling the BP oil spill ravaging the Gulf of Mexico a "stark reminder of how vulnerable our marine environments are," the recommendations center on creating a National Ocean Council to coordinate regulation of oceans and the Great Lakes, and on a principle of "ecosystem-based management" for marine areas.
The council would include top federal scientists and officials from a variety of agencies, including national security experts, environmental regulators and managers of ocean commerce.
The recommendations embrace a controversial practice called marine spatial planning, a zoning process of sorts that seeks to manage waters in the way some cities manage factories and strip malls. The process could result in confining activities such as drilling, shipping and conservation to areas the planners deem best-suited to each use.
Nine regional groups — consisting of state, federal and tribal officials — would draft plans for conservation and use of ocean resources that would have to be approved by the National Ocean Council. Federal agencies have agreed to abide by the plans.
If the Great Lakes regional body designated certain lake areas for offshore wind farms, for example, the Interior Department would agree to approve wind farms only within those areas.
The same would be true for any new offshore drilling projects. Currently, Interior officials develop drilling plans under a public comment process within their department.
In Southern California, the heavy focus on "ecosystem-based management" could cause the U.S. Navy to retool its fleet deployment, with an eye on how its operations affect water quality or whales.
The recommendations do not specify their effect on offshore drilling. Administration officials said the new policy would not prejudge or conflict with future findings of the bipartisan commission Obama had charged with investigating the oil gusher.
But the administration says coordinated, stewardship-heavy ocean management is likely to "really change" practices in nearly every marine activity, drilling included. The final task force report predicts that the changes would help restore fish populations, protect human health and "rationally allow" for ocean uses such as energy production.
"This sets the nation on a path toward much more comprehensive planning to both conservation and sustainable use of [ocean] resources," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the policy had not been officially announced.
The first draft of the policy, released in September, drew heavy criticism from some quarters, including industry and recreational anglers concerned that sport fishing might be restricted or banned.
After a deluge of criticism and meetings with fishing and boating groups, the administration modified the recommendations to emphasize the importance of fishing and ocean recreation, calling them "critical to the economic, social and cultural fabric of our country."
The recommendations do not include curbs on recreational fishing. But the mere prospect of marine spatial planning has drawn skepticism from ocean users.
Oil and gas officials are concerned too. They have repeatedly urged the administration not to adopt any planning process that could restrict offshore drilling.
Last fall, for example, a representative of the American Petroleum Institute testified at a task force field hearing, "The oil and natural gas industry's presence in the Gulf [of Mexico] has successfully coexisted with other ocean uses like tourism, fishing, the U.S. military and shipping for many years, demonstrating that the current system of governance works well."
The new plan would emphasize nine areas under the broad banner of marine stewardship and conservation, including improved scientific research and mapping; helping coastal communities adapt to climate change and ocean acidification, particularly in the Arctic; and enhancing water quality on land to boost ocean water quality.
jtankersley@latimes.com
Copyright © 2010, The Los Angeles Timeslatimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-obama-ocean-20100719,0,1686762.story... more
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Anti-whaling activist receives probation and suspended sentence
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 7, 2010 4:53 a.m. EDT
This undated handout obtained from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society on February 16 shows Peter Bethune.
* Japan
(CNN) -- Anti-whaling activist Peter Bethune was given a two-year suspended prison sentence and five years' probation Wednesday by a Tokyo district court judge for his role in boarding a Japanese whaling ship.
Bethune was found guilty on five charges, ranging from assault against whalers to trespassing into a whaling vessel. Bethune had previously pleaded guilty to all charges but assault. He could have received up to 15 years behind bars on charges.
Bethune testified during his trial in May that he had no intention of hurting anyone when he protested Japan's whale hunt.
The New Zealand activist from the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said that he believed the bottles of butyric acid he threw at the Shonan Maru 2 whaling ship were non-toxic and would not harm anyone.
Prosecutors said the butyric acid burned two crew members of the Japanese whaling fleet, but Sea Shepherd called it a harmless, albeit rancid, liquid. Butyric acid is found in rancid butter and vomit.
At the May hearing, he tearfully described the January collision between the Shonan Maru 2 and the Sea Shepherd's multi-million-dollar speedboat, the Ady Gil. The crash sunk the Ady Gil, which Bethune captained.
Weeks later, Bethune jumped aboard the Shonan Maru 2 and attempted to make a citizen's arrest of the captain. He was arrested and brought back to Japan to face criminal charges.
"I admit that I boarded the Shonan Maru, but I believe that I have good reason to do so," he said. "I admit that I fired the butyric acid."
Bethune's case is the first time a Sea Shepherd activist has been tried in a Japanese criminal court in the group's long-running battle with Japan's whalers in the icy waters of the Antarctic.
"It's encouraged us. It's certainly motivated us, and we're going back to the Southern Ocean with far more support than ever," said Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd founder. "I hope that we'll be much more effective because of it."
"Pete Bethune is a hero in New Zealand," Watson added. "He's a hero worldwide to people who want to see the end of whaling."
Japan annually hunts whales in the Antarctic, despite a worldwide moratorium on whaling, under the loophole that a country may legally do so if its purpose is scientific research.
Sea Shepherd has claimed the science argument is a sham, noting that the whale meat then gets sold in Japanese markets and served in restaurants.
"They're targeting endangered whales in an established international whale sanctuary in violation of the Antarctic treaty," Watson said. "They're criminals."
CNN's Junko Ogura contributed to this report.Anti-whaling activist receives probation and suspended sentence
By the CNN Wire Staff... more
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Crews connecting oil vessel to ruptured well
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 6, 2010 9:11 p.m. EDT
(CNN) -- Crews are in the process of connecting the vessel Helix Producer to the ruptured oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, said the man leading the federal response to the Gulf oil disaster. The hookup has been partially completed despite rough seas.
The vessel should draw up to 53,000 barrels of oil a day when it becomes operational, newly retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Tuesday afternoon in Houston, where he traveled to meet with BP officials. He also said progress continues to be made on two relief wells.
Despite rough weather in the Gulf of Mexico, Allen believes that the placement of a new containment cap and the deployment of key air and sea resources will eventually stop the massive amounts of oil now gushing from the well.
Once the Helix Producer is fully connected to the well and operational, officials will decide within 10 days whether to proceed with replacing the containment cap, Allen said.
Federal estimates say between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels (about 1.5 million to 2.5 million gallons) of oil have been gushing into the Gulf daily since April 22, when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig sank in the Gulf, two days after it exploded in flames.
High seas continue to hamper cleanup efforts. Allen said officials are closely watching a weather system near the Yucatan Peninsula.
Allen is meeting with BP in Houston about several "significant" developments. "You can't be successful if you can't coordinate, collaborate and integrate together," he said.
Allen told CNN earlier Tuesday that officials will be monitoring weather patterns to determine if and when they would try to install the cap, a process that will involve unbolting the jagged edge that exists on the structure now. Once completed, the new containment cap, he said, will achieve a perfect seal and keep oil from escaping.
Allen said the new cap "would let us get to a capture rate of 80,000 barrels a day." Crews currently are capturing up to 26,000 barrels a day.
Another tool in the effort to contain and stop the oil flow is a relief well that is "very close" to being completed, Allen told CNN, guessing it will be ready sometime in early or mid-August. Over the next week, relief well rig workers will drill 100 feet at a time until they can intercept the wellbore at just the right place, he added.
In early June, during an exclusive 48-hour embed with Allen, CNN's Kyra Phillips visited the site of the oil disaster and gained access to the Development Driller III -- the rig that is drilling the primary relief well some 16,000 to 18,000 feet below the sea floor.
"The intention is to intercept the wellbore, well down below the surface near the reservoir, then pump heavy mud in to counteract the pressure of the oil coming up," he told her. "That will allow them to basically plug or kill the well. Once that's done, you could do things like remove the blowout preventer, bring it to the surface and try to find out what happened."
Also, a massive airship, or blimp, and a ship that can suck oil out of the ruptured well are expected to arrive in the Gulf region at the end of the week to aid in oil disaster response efforts. Their arrival is being delayed because of rough weather, said Stephanie Hebert, spokeswoman for the cleanup effort.
The U.S. Navy airship will be used to detect oil, direct skimming ships and look for wildlife that may be threatened by oil, the Coast Guard says. It had been scheduled to reach the Gulf on Tuesday. The 178-foot-long blimp, known as the MZ-3A, can carry a crew of up to 10. It will fly slowly over the region to track where the oil is flowing and how it is coming ashore.
The Navy says the advantage of the blimp over current helicopter surveillance operations is that it can stay aloft longer, with lower fuel costs, and can survey a wider area.
The Coast Guard has already been pinpointing traveling pools of oil from the sky.
"The aircraft get on top of the oil. They can identify what type of oil it is and they can vector in the skimmer vessels right to the spot," Coast Guard Capt. Brian Kelley said.
But the problem since last Wednesday has been the ability to clean it up before it approaches land. Bad weather has made that task more difficult.
Tammy Mitchell of the Unified Command's Joint Information Center in Houma, Louisiana, said she believes no skimmers, aerial dispersants or onshore activity were deployed or operated Tuesday in Louisiana because of the weather. Teams are on a 48- to 72-hour standby watch because of the weather.
Poor conditions also canceled a boat tour for BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles, although he did manage to meet with workers.
Suttles said improvements have been made in cleanup operations. "The program will more effectively deploy boats to oil recovery activity and better utilize local commercial and charter fishing vessels to advance the effectiveness of the Gulf of Mexico response."
Meanwhile, Bob Grantham, spokesman for TMT Offshore Group, said progress has been made in testing the company's A Whale oil skimmer, the world's largest.
The delay from high seas "has allowed us to make valuable observations and to develop some additional technological innovations designed to improve the channeling of oily water into the ship's large capacity tanks," Grantham said in a statement issued Tuesday. "Over the next few days, we will have our first real opportunity to test the new technology under conditions that we hope will maximize the effectiveness of collection and ultimately decanting."
Earlier, officials said A Whale's abilities so far are "inconclusive," meaning the massive converted oil tanker -- which is 3.5 football fields long -- has yet to prove its Taiwanese owner's claim that it can skim between 15,000 and 50,000 barrels of oil off the sea in a day.
The Coast Guard said the testing period for the A Whale has been extended through Thursday.
So far, crude oil floating in the sea has not been concentrated enough for A Whale to skim effectively, according to oil company BP, even though it appears the ship has been surrounded by pools of oil just a few miles from the gusher.
"We've got oil coming up from over a mile below the surface. And it doesn't always come up in one spot. It's not always predictable. So, in fact, we need to locate the oil first, and then assign the ship to the areas of heaviest concentration," BP spokesman Hank Garcia said.
Bad weather has hindered cleanup efforts, he said. "When you've got 6-foot, 8-foot seas, it's not going to lend itself to good capture of the oil."
On Monday, authorities said tar balls linked to the crude gushing from BP's ruptured deepwater well had reached Louisiana's Lake Pontchartrain and hit the beaches near Galveston, Texas.
The Coast Guard reported over the weekend that a shift in weather patterns could send more oil toward sensitive shores in Mississippi and Louisiana, and bad weather over the past few days has significantly hampered cleanup efforts.
Anne Rheams, executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation, said Monday that the pattern was expected to persist for at least three more days.
The National Hurricane Center said Tuesday afternoon that a low-pressure area located near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula in the southern Gulf of Mexico was producing showers and thunderstorms, but it was not likely to develop into a tropical cyclone in the next 48 hours. A system that had hovered over the Louisiana coast Tuesday morning moved inland.
CNN's Allan Chernoff contributed to this report.Crews connecting oil vessel to ruptured well
By the CNN Wire Staff
July 6, 2010 9:11... more
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"Brown pelicans and other seabirds often dive into the oil because the slick makes the water look calmer. If they are coated in oil, they will be unable to regulate their temperatures, leading to hyperthermia.
Plankton, tiny immobile organisms at the base of the food chain, can be killed by chemically dispersed oil.
All four species of sea turtles in the gulf are threatened or endangered. Some have already washed up ashore, and with numbers already low, it would be harder to rebuild the population.
Dolphins, which often follow boats to play, have been following response crews, getting near the slicks.
Shrimp and other shellfish are more vulnerable to oil and chemical dispersants because they are stationary, while some adult fin fish populations may be mobile.
Fish larvae are most at risk. Bluefin tuna, now spawning near the spill, are of particular concern. The Gulf of Mexico is one of only two nurseries in the world for bluefin tuna.
Sperm whales, which spend most of their time diving for prey, may come up in the slick as they reach the surface to breathe."
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/28/us/20100428-spill-map.html"Brown pelicans and other seabirds often dive into the oil because the slick... more
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Picture of whale either clearly burnt alive or burnt to try and cover it up.
links to articles in the website.Picture of whale either clearly burnt alive or burnt to try and cover it up.
links... more
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