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To: President Barack Obama
At 100 feet long, the blue whale is believed to be the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth. A century ago, more than 350,000 of these magnificent creatures thrived in our planet’s oceans. Today, fewer than 10,000 remain.
The waters of the Santa Barbara Channel are ground zero for ship strikes on endangered blue whales, and many other whale species and marine mammals. As the Santa Barbara Channel is one of the most heavily traveled shipping routes in the Pacific Ocean, travel through it can be a deadly journey for the world’s largest animal.
The only real solution for protecting these magnificent creatures is to move the shipping lanes west. To make this possible, NOAA and the Department of the Navy need to come together to reach an agreement on how to implement this change. You can use your influence to get these agencies to work together before we risk losing any more blue whales. Please take action now to protect these endangered creatures.
The waters of the Santa Barbara Channel are ground zero for ship strikes on endangered blue whales, and many other whale species and marine mammals. As the Santa Barbara Channel is one of the most heavily traveled shipping routes in the Pacific Ocean, travel through it can be a deadly journey for the world’s largest animal.
The only real solution for protecting these magnificent creatures is to move the shipping lanes west. To make this possible, NOAA and the Department of the Navy need to come together to reach an agreement on how to implement this change. You can use your influence to get these agencies to work together before we risk losing any more blue whales. Please take action now to protect these endangered creatures.
Sincerely,
[Your name here]
Japan To Start Whaling In North-Western Pacific Ocean
Tokyo (dpa) – Japan will start whaling in the north-western Pacific Ocean this week, aiming to hunt more than 100 whales "for scientific research," the government said Tuesday.
A fleet of three ships will leave Japan on Thursday, with the target of catching up to 90 sei whales and 25 Bryde's whales in the area by late August, the Fisheries Agency said.
It said the annual hunt was to clarify whales' food intake and "contribute to monitoring marine ecology in a comprehensive manner."
In March 2014, the International Court of Justice in The Hague ordered the suspension of Japan's research whaling programme in the Antarctic, ruling that it contravenes a 1986 moratorium on whale hunting.
The decision prompted Japan to give up whaling in the Southern Ocean in the last financial year to March, but it has said it will resume hunting there later this year.
Japan officially halted commercial whaling in 1987 but has conducted "research whaling" ever since under what critics argue is a loophole in the charter of the International Whaling Commission.
Save Endangered Whales From Reckless Navy Warfare Training
Tell President Obama to force the Navy to protect marine animals now, before it's too late.
Goal: 40,000 • Progress: 32,834
Sponsored by: Earthjustice
Reckless Navy training exercises — underwater explosions, missiles, and mid-frequency sonar — will needlessly kill and injure marine life from Hawai'i to California over the next four years.
The Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service estimate that the training and testing activities occurring right now in waters from Southern California to Hawai'i will result in more than 9.6 million instances of harm to whales, dolphins, and other marine mammals, and cause thousands of animals to suffer permanent hearing loss, lung injuries, or death. The deaths of even a few of these marine animals would be a huge loss.
Earthjustice is waging an emergency battle in court to force the Navy to avoid needless harm to endangered marine species. But we need your help to put additional pressure on President Obama.
Tell President Obama to conduct training in a responsible manner and restrict dangerous activities in areas that are critical to marine mammals at the greatest risk of permanent injury and death.
Dear President Obama,
Military training is important to our national security — but it can and should be conducted in a manner that prevents harm to endangered wildlife.
I am writing to urge you to update the five-year plan by the U.S. Navy for testing and training activities off Hawai'i and Southern California to conduct naval warfare training in a responsible manner and restrict dangerous activities in areas that are critical to marine mammals at the greatest risk of permanent injury and death.
The Navy and National Marine Fisheries Service estimate that, over the plan's five-year period, training and testing activities will cause nearly 9.6 million instances of harm to whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. The operations will include active sonar and explosives, which are known to cause permanent injuries and deaths to marine mammals.
Ocean mammals depend on hearing for navigation, feeding, and reproduction. Scientists have linked military sonar and live-fire activities to mass whale beaching, exploded eardrums, and even death. In 2004, during war games near Hawai'i, the Navy's sonar was implicated in a mass stranding of up to 200 melon-headed whales in Hanalei Bay, Kaua'i.
Please update the plan immediately, to prevent any more unnecessary harm to endangered whales and other ocean animals before it's too late.
Thank you,
Sea Shepherd to Pay Millions to Whale Killers
The activist group has agreed to pay $2.55 million in a settlement with a Japanese whaling group.
(Photo: Sea Shepherd)
Sea Shepherd Conservation Society agreed to pay $2.55 million to Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research on Monday as part of a settlement to resolve a long-standing legal battle over the anti-whaling group’s tactics against Japanese whaling ships in the Antarctic.
The settlement came the same day the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Sea Shepherd’s appeal of a federal court’s finding that the group was in contempt of a court order to stay clear of Japanese whaling ships.
The activist group’s tactics at sea include throwing smoke bombs at Japanese whaling ships and using metal-reinforced ropes to damage propellers and rudders. The question is whether those tactics—which typically take place in international waters—amount to piracy, and whether a U.S. court can order those activities to be stopped if they take place outside its jurisdiction.
Sea Shepherd believes the court can’t, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Court upheld that it can. Now, thanks to the settlement, Sea Shepherd will be giving millions of dollars to an organization it has tirelessly battled against in a fight to save the whales.
“Sea Shepherd believes that it complied with the Ninth Circuit injunction and does not agree with the holding that it was in contempt,” said Claire Loebs Davis, Sea Shepherd’s legal counsel. “This settlement resolves the issue of damages resulting from those contempt findings and allows us to put this issue that we have been litigating for more than two years finally behind us.”
The settlement stems from an ICR lawsuit filed in 2011 against Sea Shepherd and its founder, Paul Watson. The court originally denied the ICR’s motion for an injunction against Sea Shepherd. But in December 2012, the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision, which meant Sea Shepherd and Watson had to stay at least 500 yards from Japanese whaling ships in the Southern Ocean.
The court also determined that Sea Shepherd’s actions amounted to piracy under international law. That charge has been disputed by some legal experts, because the group’s actions did not involve the pursuit of monetary gain.
Sea Shepherd’s U.S. operation has maintained that it was not in contempt because it halted all of its involvement in the Southern Ocean after the injunction, but the group did transfer ownership of one of its boats to Sea Shepherd Netherlands. Because that boat was later used in the organization’s Southern Ocean campaign, the court ruled Sea Shepherd was indeed in contempt of the injunction.
Japan’s Whaling Fleet Comes Home Empty-Handed
The settlement outlines that Sea Shepherd will pay $2.55 million to the ICR, and in turn, the whaling organization will drop all remaining claims against Watson. The money will come from a Sea Shepherd legal fund and “[does] not draw from donor funds,” Davis said.
Gavin Carter, a Washington, D.C.–based adviser to the ICR, welcomed the settlement.
“The agreement shows that you can’t willfully ignore the law, even on the high seas,” Carter said. “The underlying case is about safety at sea, and the contempt charge relates to Sea Shepherd continuing to attack research vessels.”
The settlement, Davis added, will allow Sea Shepherd to concentrate on counterclaims it filed in continuing litigation in the district court, where the ICR is seeking a permanent injunction against the group.
“Now we can focus on the fact that they have been involved in illegal whaling in the Southern Ocean for a number of years and that they have taken violent actions against activists who have tried to prevent their illegal whaling,” Davis said.
Sea Shepherd says the ICR tries to kill more than 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary each year, including minke, humpback, and endangered fin whales.
The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986. But Japan has largely ignored the ban, citing an exemption that allows for whale hunts to continue as long as they are done for “scientific research.”
But in March 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that the annual hunt was illegal because it was not conducted for research purposes but rather to obtain whale meat for sale on the international market. That prompted Japan to declare a one-year moratorium on the Southern Ocean hunt in 2014, but the country has vowed to resume Antarctic whaling in late 2015.
In a related move, Japan announced it will resume “research whaling” in the northwestern Pacific beginning on Thursday and lasting through late August. The Japanese Fisheries Agency has approved the taking of 90 sei whales and 25 Bryde’s whales during the hunt.
We vacation near it, get food from it, transport ourselves and consumer goods
on it, mine and drill in it for minerals and oil and take it for granted. The
ocean, covering two-thirds of Earth, also plays a vital role in providing us
with oxygen, regulating the climate and removing carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere. It is so vast and so deep that for centuries we’ve viewed it as an
invulnerable source of infinite resources.
But our oceans—and the whales, dolphins, m
anatees, seabirds, sea
turtles, sharks and other marine life more intimately tied to
it—are in a sea of trouble.
Pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing and other problems may make you feel helpless, but the really great news is that every single day, every single one of us can do something to protect the ocean, the wildlife that rely on it and our own health.
Here are some suggestions:
But our oceans—and the whales, dolphins, m
anatees, seabirds, sea
turtles, sharks and other marine life more intimately tied to
it—are in a sea of trouble.Pollution, ocean acidification, overfishing and other problems may make you feel helpless, but the really great news is that every single day, every single one of us can do something to protect the ocean, the wildlife that rely on it and our own health.
Here are some suggestions:
- Avoid single-use plastics as best you can. The six most common single-use plastic items are bottles, bags, straws, utensils, lids and cups. Besides bringing reusable grocery bags to the store, try filtering your tap water to break the one-use water bottle habit. If you buy cold coffee drinks, be sure to bring a reusable glass or stainless steel cup and don’t forget your stainless steel or durable, reusable plastic straw. This helps prevent marine life from later getting entangled or trapped in plastic that inadvertently end up in the ocean, and there is less potential for animals to mistake plastic for food. Eating plastic can lead to starvation or malnutrition when it collects in an animal’s stomach making it feel full, preventing vital nutrients from being absorbed, causing internal injuries and infections or leaching toxic substances that can cause death or reproductive failure.
- Even so-called biodegradable plastic is a problem. Industrial facilities can use special techniques to break it down, but that doesn’t happen floating around in the ocean. (Curious about this myself, I added a “biodegradable” water bottle to my backyard compost bin. Two years and counting, it still looks like new but for the rich, composted dirt stuck to it.)
- Be alert to the danger lurking in soaps and other hygiene products. Plastic microbeads, added for scrubbing, are now found in facial cleaners and toothpaste and used by millions of people every day. A single bottle may contain more than 350,000 tiny beads. Too small for wastewater treatment plant filters, billions of these beads end up swirling down the drain and, ultimately, into the ocean, where zooplankton and other aquatic life mistake it for food. To avoid these products, don’t buy anything with polyethylene and polypropylene listed in the ingredients. (A barcode-scanning smartphone app that tells you if the product contains microbeads is available.)
- Remember that plastic is a petroleum product. This means that the one-use utensil you just tossed in the trash could be the result of off-shore drilling, which puts marine life at risk of oil catastrophes. Try keeping a camping spork in your bag.
- Know that wastewater treatment plants treat only organic matter. For the sake of all our waterways use nontoxic, natural cleaners (vinegar is a natural disinfectant, for example), avoid garden pesticides and don’t flush prescription medicine. Mix pills with coffee grounds or kitty litter to make them unattractive to scavengers and put them in the trash or take them to a community drop-off site if your city offers it.
- On rainy days, put off running the washer and dishwasher. When cities get hit with a deluge of storm water, it can overwhelm wastewater treatment plants and water goes untreated directly to waterways. Organic wastes won’t hurt the ocean but sewerage authorities are there to catch litter, too.
- Leave your landscape unpaved, leave gaps between pavers and use permeable material for patios and driveways. This allows water to seep into the ground rather than rush down concrete, picking up pollutants. It replenishes groundwater, too.
- Reduce your energy consumption. Carbon buildup in the atmosphere is making the ocean acidic. This makes it hard for corals and clams, for example, to build their skeletons and shells. Try to drive less, eat less meat—its production has a heavy carbon footprint—take the stairs, don’t turn on the air-conditioner when a fan would suffice, go solar. It all adds up.
- Last on this list—but by no means the least of what we can do—eat sustainable seafood, if you eat meat at all. High demand and unsustainable fishing practices are causing global fish populations to crash and other marine life to suffer as we deplete their only food sources or die when they are incidentally caught in fishing gear. Grocery stores and restaurants can greatly influence how seafood is caught. Make your concerns known to the businesses you frequent, so that every day can be World Oceans Day.
