Guest guest Posted June 23, 2001 Report Share Posted June 23, 2001 Thanks to Mike and Winston for this (fairly) regular news update. If interested in learning more, visit www.stopwhalekill.org Judge Denies Request Over Whale Fri 22 Jun 2001 BOSTON (AP) - A federal judge on Friday denied an environmental activist's request to stop a planned operation to disentangle a North Atlantic right whale from a fishing line, clearing the way for a rescue that could involve sedating the rare whale. Richard ``Max'' Strahan had argued that the rescue attempt by the National Marine Fisheries Service violates the federal Endangered Species Act and an injection could kill the whale. But U.S. District Court Judge George O'Toole wrote that while the act forbids most human contact with a threatened species, an exception can be made '``for scientific purposes or to enhance the propagation or survival' of endangered species.'' Strahan accused O'Toole of glossing over the stringent requirements for making an exception to the act. ``This was the court acting without any concern for the animal and rubber-stamping this incredible thing,'' he said. ``The intended plans are nothing more than subjecting the whale to experimentation.'' The North Atlantic right whale was first spotted on June 8 about 80 miles east of Cape Cod with a rope embedded deep in its upper jaw. The rope is causing an infection that will eventually kill the whale, one of only about 300 left in the world, said Teri Frady, a fisheries service spokeswoman. The Center for Coastal Studies and the fisheries service are considering sedating the 50-ton whale, putting a harness around it so it doesn't lash out, and cutting trailing portions of the rope off so that it will eventually loosen naturally. Officials said they've consulted 13 veterinarians on the proper drug and dosage, if sedation is necessary. Despite the judge's decision, the rescue attempt remains stalled until early next week at the earliest, because of rough seas, Frady said. . ``The wound is serious, and the longer it goes, the worse it can get,'' she said. Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. ========================================================= Scientist says whale exam 'inconclusive' By Misty Edgecomb, Of the NEWS Staff http://www.bangornews.com/cgi-bin/article.cfm?storynumber=36701 BAR HARBOR - Scientists have completed their investigation of the body of a young pilot whale that died in the Penobscot River over the weekend. However, the investigation shed little light on the whale's mysterious behavior in coastal waters in recent weeks. On Thursday, Judy Allen, a scientist at Allied Whale, called the necropsy - similar to an autopsy - " fairly inconclusive. " Researchers inspected the 12-foot-long animal inside and out, but found only an injury to its lower jaw, which could have been caused by the whale's repeated attempts to beach, Allen said. The juvenile male whale's stomach was empty when it was found, but its protective layer of blubber had not been depleted, so scientists do not believe that the whale starved to death as a result of its injury. " It wasn't emaciated, and there were no obvious signs of disease - nothing jumped out as a likely cause of death. You just couldn't draw any conclusions, " Allen said. Local residents have tracked the whale's progress since it first appeared near Stockton Springs almost three weeks ago. The long-finned pilot whale is not a species that is commonly seen off Maine's coast, although it is far from rare in the North Atlantic. The whale traveled upriver, nearly to Bangor, enthralling residents all along its journey. Allied Whale staff members were called to rescue the animal when it repeatedly beached on the sandbars and mudflats near Cape Jellison. Despite the scientists' best efforts, the whale would not return to the Atlantic. Instead, it spent its final three weeks in shallow water, floating on the surface and swimming in tight clockwise circles. This odd behavior indicated to scientists that the whale was probably ill. Pilot whales are a particularly social species, traveling in pods of 50-100 animals, so a solitary animal is typically suffering from disease and near death, scientists said. A fisherman found the whale's body floating in the Penobscot River on Tuesday morning and turned it over to Allied Whale, where staff members completed their investigation that evening. Tissue samples from the animal's brain, blubber and vital organs have been preserved. Later this week, the samples will be sent to a lab used by Allied Whale's parent organization, the marine mammal strandings program at the National Marine Fisheries Service, Allen said. Tests will require several weeks to complete, and the samples may not even yield useful data because the whale had been dead for several days when the tissues were collected, she said. To guarantee the best results, researchers prefer to test tissues within 24 hours of an animal's death. Scientists have received conflicting reports about the animal's whereabouts on Saturday, thus are not sure when the whale actually died. They listed the time of death only as the weekend of June 16-17. " Some things can only be detected if you're able to get these samples within a certain time period, " Allen said. " There may be a limited amount of knowledge available. " The whale's body now rests in a cage submerged in the water just off Mount Desert Island. Fish and microorganisms in the water will eat away its flesh, leaving a clean, perfectly preserved skeleton, Allen said. Once prepared, the skeleton will be displayed and used for study at College of the Atlantic. ============================================================= http://www.charlotte.com/observer/natwor/docs/whale0622.htm Published Friday, June 22, 2001 off the coast of australia Research: Songlike sounds of minke whales are unique Contrary to what had been thought, minke whales produce loud and distinctive songlike sounds unlike any previously detected whale noises. Researchers recording dwarf minke sounds off the coast of Australia recorded, to their surprise, distinctive sounds, including a particularly striking call they dubbed the " Star Wars " vocalization because it reminded them of the sound of a laser gun in the popular movie. Some whale experts initially dismissed the sounds, saying they must have come from something else, perhaps Australian Navy ships. After ruling out that and any other possible sources, the researchers concluded they must be from the minkes. The research appears in the June issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. ================================================================ What's happening to the orcas? Scientists and San Juan residents wonder, 'Where is this going to end?' http://seattlep-i.nwsource.com/local/28566_orca22.shtml Friday, June 22, 2001 By M.L. LYKE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER SAN JUAN ISLAND -- It sounds like a bad night at the bingo hall as heavy-hearted researchers at the Center for Whale Research list lost friends of recent years. There are dozens: J-18, the male that washed up off Vancouver last March with an open ulceration; L-51, a reproductive female, and L-97, her young calf; K-4, a grandma that would have been a great-great-grandma if she had lived. " We have had so many losses, I thought, 'Well, we are at the bottom,' " says Astrid Maria van Ginneken, a professor from the University of Netherlands who has been volunteering at the center for 15 years, helping document the southern resident " J, " " K, " and " L " orca pods. That bottom gave out last week when the center announced another seven killer whales missing in action, presumed dead, reducing the local population of killer whales to a precarious 78. " I thought, 'Oh God! This can't be true, " says van Ginneken, a principal investigator at the center. Her voice is a whisper. " I thought, 'Where is this going to end'? " It was a question on everyone's mind this week as eco-attuned islanders mourned the iconic animal that should symbolize all that's right in their clean, green world. Suddenly, it seems to symbolize all that is wrong: dwindling runs of the orcas' favorite salmon; toxins dumped in the water that accumulate in the animal's fat. " It's sickening; it's sad, " said Carey Worthen, docking in Friday Harbor on his 36-foot Maine lobster boat. " And the season's not over yet. I'd be surprised if we don't lose another one or two whales. " On an island where orcas rival dogs as man's best friend and even hard-core scientists can get teary talking whales, the news hit hard. " It's a real blow to the heart to realize that the family of whales is eroding, " said Gary Boothman, mayor of Friday Harbor, county seat for the San Juan Islands. " It seems to be a symbol that a lot of things we've taken for granted are slowly going away. " Boothman likened the loss to the death of a " dear friend. " Others used spiritual terms to describe their affinity to the orcas, which have returned to the waters of Haro Strait to feed each spring for some 10,000 years. " I was flabbergasted, " said Michael Niedzielski, who tends bar at the Front Street Ale House, an English-style pub with handcrafted beer and well-rubbed brass mermaid fixtures. " You can call it psychic or whatever, but it's like they are our kindred spirits. " The 21-year-old female orca L-82, also known as Kasatka, surfaces off the shores of San Juan Island within view of the Olympic Mountains. Seven resident orcas are missing. Mike Urban / Seattle Post-Intelligencer Click for larger photo The special connection of man and animal here defines the place, and determines its rhythms. " It's like losing your family, " says Bill Wright, owner of San Juan Safaris in Roche Harbor. " We gauge our life by when the whales come and go. It's like summer solstice to us. " It's also like bread-and-butter. Images of orcas adorn tourist mugs, T-shirts, even the ferry dock in Friday Harbor. Whales are big business. Whale-watching is big business. Losing the pods could be devastating. Some estimate the hit would be as high as $40 million a year. The deaths aren't official until the end of the season in September. But already, funereal activities are under way. Sympathy e-mails have arrived at the Center for Whale Research from as far away as Japan and New Zealand. The seven animals are already X'd out of the official Orca Survey Field Guide. " It's so painful to have to take their photos off the wall, " says Kelley Balcomb-Bartok, who was 13 when his father, Ken Balcomb, started research at the center. He grew up with the whales. He has watched them die off. " Everyone's walking around in a funk here, " he said. At the Whale Museum in Friday Harbor, staff members this week were redrafting the " dead whale letter " that will be sent out to scores of families who adopted one of the seven whales. Wednesday, educators had the task of explaining to a young schoolgirl from Bellingham that the orca she named in a contest sponsored by the museum and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last fall was among the missing. The orca was L-98, a calf dubbed " Luna " by 9-year-old Ashley Green. She picked the name, she wrote, because " the orca whale explores the ocean like the moon explores the Earth. " The news was hard on Ashley. " I'm sad. I'm disappointed, " she said. " I hope they'll find her. " Chances are slim, say the dozens of experts who live and breathe orcas on this island. Killer whales have strong, formal family bonds and travel in their maternal groups for life. Historically, if a member is missing when the family group shows up in spring, that member will not reappear. Van Ginneken estimates chances of the whales returning at less than 1 percent. Rich Osborne, research director at the Whale Museum, holds no hope at all. " For those of us who study these whales, it's for sure, " said Osborne, who expects the catastrophic dive will ensure passage of endangered species protection for the orcas next spring. Gone are three adult males, one adult female, and three calves. Six are from the large, far-traveling " L " pod, which ranges out to open ocean. Among the missing are L-1, a male born in 1959 who lost his mother and all but one sibling; L-11, probably born in 1957, who watched her oldest son atrophy to a swimming skeleton; and L-62, a 21-year-old male whose mother has now lost every one of her offspring. Some researchers suggest these inner-pod tragedies may themselves negatively affect population. " There's good reason to believe that the more you lose, the more you lose. When social structure is damaged, the death rates may go up, " says Mark Anderson, who heads Orca Relief, an organization that petitioned San Juan County to prevent boats from " chasing whales. " Everyone's searching for answers on this island, a place locals joke is an " opinion surrounded by water. " The question is simple: What's killing the orcas? The answers aren't. Theories, countertheories, postulations and refutations fly. Fingers are pointed at: Toxins: Blubber sampling has shown the southern orcas have the highest levels of PCBs of any marine mammal. The toxic industrial products, used in electrical equipment until the 1970s, accumulate in the orcas' fat, and can mobilize into the bloodstream, weakening immune systems and hampering reproduction. Fish: Logging, dams and development have contributed to the demise of the Northwest's once healthy stocks of salmon, the orcas' preferred meal. Some scientists theorize that orcas are turning to bottomfish that dwell in contaminated sediment. Ironically, salmon runs are temporarily rebuilding because of a cooling in water temperatures. Predators: Some whale observers speculate that the " L " pod, on its ocean-going travels, may be victim of transient or offshore orcas. Unlike southern resident orcas, these animals eat and kill marine mammals, including gray whales and blue whales. Prey: One researcher postulates that the " L " residents themselves may be breaking pattern and killing marine mammals for food, possibly the most sickly animals that are easiest to catch. Drift nets: Could the orcas become entangled in the thousands of miles of abandoned drift nets floating in the open ocean? Or in the drift nets of active fishing vessels? Some argue that's the case. The most heated discussions center on the whale-watching boats, private and commercial, that dog the whales, dawn to dark. Several studies suggest that an increase in underwater noise from boat engines and depth finders may be damaging orca hearing. Orcas rely on hearing to navigate, communicate and hunt. And some scientists question if the press of whale-watching boats may stress the animals. But studies on vessel effect remain inconclusive. Whale-watch operators complain that, unlike toxins or dwindling resources, they are visible targets. In fact, they argue, they are educating the public to the plight of the killer whale. Many of the boat operators, who grow as intimate with the orcas as the scientists who study them daily, are pessimistic about the return of the missing seven. " This is really unprecedented. Something very strange is happening, " says Mike Bennett, owner of the Mosquito Fleet. Researchers hope the bad news is a wake-up call, and not a death knell. But it's hard to be optimistic when so many of the world's most closely watched whales -- considered family on this island -- are dead. " We spend our lives trying to be part of their lives, but it puts you in a vulnerable position, " Balcomb-Bartok says. " It makes you wonder -- should we dissociate ourselves from our friends, to protect our own emotions? " As he talks, he looks out over feeding grounds on Haro Strait, a view to a 10,000-year-old past, and an uncertain future. Right now, it's hard to see beyond the painful present. " All I really want to do is have a bonfire, sing, and say a prayer to our lost friends, " Balcomb-Bartok says. =============================================================== Gray whales with Winston http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Jungle/1953/index.html Save the Whales http://www.homestead.com/savethewhales/index.html _______________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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