A Whale of a Week, SeaWorld, Scarlet, J-35 / Tahlequah, Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force,North Atlantic right whales & International Whaling Commission Rejected Japan’s Proposal to Resume Commercial Whaling.

Fisheries officials have just reported that another critically endangered right whale was found dead off the U.S. East Coast.

There are now fewer than 450 of these whales left. 

So many have died that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the increase in deaths an Unusual Mortality Event.

This is unprecedented. 

A major threat to the remaining North Atlantic right whales is seismic airgun blasting. This process to locate oil and gas deposits deep beneath the seafloor can be loud enough to drown out whales’ ability to communicate, hunt and reproduce.

We’re kicking our campaign to protect these whales into overdrive. To pull it off, we have to prevent seismic airgun blasting in the Atlantic.Female whales seem to be dying more frequently than males, making these deaths all the more concerning for the continued existence of these whales. Currently, only about 100 females of breeding age remain

The opposition to new offshore drilling and seismic airgun blasting continues to grow, due in large part to ocean advocates like you.

Together, we have built a wave of opposition against the deep pockets of the oil and gas industry. The 300th municipality just formally opposed the expansion of oil and gas activities off their shores – this is a record high. More than 2,000 local, state and federal elected officials have also publicly opposed new risky drilling and oil exploration activities.

But our fight is still far from over, and the only way we will win is with your support.

We will NOT let up in our fight to protect North Atlantic right whales and defend our coasts from seismic blasting and dangerous offshore drilling.

We’ve won battles like this before because ocean advocates like you stood with us. We’ve successfully blocked seismic airgun blasting for oil and gas in the Atlantic for five consecutive years now. We will not back down this time, and we hope you won’t either.

Scarlet’s is the second heart-breaking orca death from the critically endangered population in less than two months. In her final days, she was so thin and weak that her bones were showing, and she struggled to swim and hold her head up. She was lost from her family pod and is sadly presumed dead.

Scarlet’s death is a MASSIVE tragedy for this already fragile population that is facing extinction.
Only 74 Southern Resident orcas remain, Don, a new 30-year low. Bold action is needed NOW to save them.
These orcas need your help.
We know what needs to be done. Oceana is working tirelessly with stakeholders in the Pacific Northwest to call on the Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force to adopt effective, ecosystem-based measures to save these orcas from extinction.

With ocean advocates like you by our side, we’re calling on the task force to take these immediate actions:
  1. Prioritize and accelerate habitat restoration for Southern Resident orca’s primary food source, Chinook salmon.
  2. Increase and secure funding for pollution prevention and clean-up programs.
  3. Commit to a noise reduction goal with immediate actions to reduce harmful noise.
  4. Increase and maximize beneficial spill over the lower Snake and Columbia River dams and support actions to remove the four lower Snake River dams to increase available prey.
Southern Resident orcas have not had a successful pregnancy in three years, and desperately need YOU to be their champion before they are gone forever.

Every day of delay is a step closer to the extinction of Southern Resident orcas – that’s why we need your support to push for solutions now.
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International Whaling Commission Rejected Japan’s Proposal to Resume Commercial Whaling. The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has rejected Japan’s recent proposal to nullify the moratorium on commercial whaling! The attack on the global moratorium has attracted criticism from around the globe – and it is now fortunately off the table. According to reports from Humane Society International (HSI), with no consensus on the proposal, Japan pushed for a vote on the package, which required a three-fourths majority to pass. The proposals got only 27 votes in support, while 41 countries voted against and two abstained from a vote.

The proposal advanced by Japan undermined the prohibition on commercial whaling which dates back to the 1980s. Among other recommendations, the proposal suggested establishing a process to determine catch limits for what the country called “abundant whale stocks/species,” despite the fact that the country has illegally killed protected whales in the past and has infamously failed to submit welfare data to the IWC for over a decade. A shocking investigation found whales killed in Japan’s Antarctic hunt have taken up to half an hour to die, which is unimaginably cruel.

“It is an immense relief that the IWC’s moral compass has led it to reject Japan’s reckless and retrograde attempt to bring back commercial whaling,” said Kitty Block, President of HSI. “What Japan tried to do here was to bend and break the rules of the IWC to lift an internationally-agreed ban on killing whales for profit. It deserved to fail; the world has moved on from commercial whaling, and so must Japan. We hope that the IWC can now get on with the business of protecting these ocean leviathans from the myriad other threats they face.”

Being the first country to rebut Japan’s proposal, Australia described commercial whaling as “a business proposition against which many parties hold legitimate environmental and welfare concerns.” The countries voting against the package also included Argentina and the IWC’s 24 European Union member states.

“The IWC has a large, expanding and impressive marine conservation agenda, bringing countries together to find ways to protect whales from problems like bycatch and pollution,” said Nick Gales, Australia’s Commissioner. “Against that important and urgent backdrop, Japan’s pro-whaling ambitions look regressive and vastly out of step with enlightened global efforts to act as stewards for the world’s largest mammals. It’s clear from exchanges this week that those countries here fighting for the protection of whales are not prepared to have the IWC’s progressive conservation agenda held hostage to Japan’s unreasonable whaling demands.”

The IWC’s decision is fantastic news for whales – animals who already must struggle against a number of threats and would severely suffer from an immense added strain of commercial whaling. Image source: YanceTAY/Pixabay
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