July 21, 1999
The Canadian Ministry of Fisheries turned down the request of Marineland to remove six beluga whales from Canadian waters for display purposes.  Marineland circumvented the ministry's refusal by importing three belugas from Japan.  Canada is now reportedly considering an additional ban on importing cetaceans and possibly all ocean mammals.

July 19, 1999
AP reports 155 dead gray whales compared to 80 last year.  Biologists estimate actual number may be 800.  Only the carcasses that wash ashore can be counted.  The rest disappear.  Nobody really knows why so many have died except that the carcasses are emaciated indicating a lack of food.  The concentrations of pollutants in flesh are low.  Some speculate that the increased population, from 2,000 to 26,600, may be the problem, but the western Pacific population is still low and both eastern and western groups used to find enough food in the Bering Sea before populations were decimated by human slaughtering.  Another possibility is that the warming effect of unusually intense el ninos has diminshed the populations of bottom dwelling crabs and tube worms on which gray whales feed. 

July 13, 1999
AP reports "tussle" between Norweigian whalers and Greenpeace, the latter claiming whalers shot at them, the whalers saying they were shooting at a whale.  Norwegian Coast Guard arrested 15 Greenpeacers and seized their vessel 'Sirius'.

June 29, 1999
Marineland at Niagara Falls, Canada is seeking government permission to capture six beluga whales citing the educational value of having whales on display to the public but not mentioning the extra income their presence is likely to generate.  Canada  banned the export of beluga whales from its waters in 1992 after two of four whales taken to the Chicago Aquarium died shortly after arrival.  The ban did not apply to capture, however, just export.
Keeping wide-ranging animals in a tank is an education in cruelty.  Much more can be learned from whales captured on video and  movie film.

June 27, 1998
Rescuers are trying to save two right whales entangled in fishing nets in the Bay of Fundy according to an article by Chris Lambie in today's The Daily News, Halifax, Nova Scotia.  They have failed so far but will keep trying hoping to get close enough to help after the whales have become exhausted from dragging the nets everywhere they go.  A whale research group, East Coast Ecosystems were successful in disentangling a right whale on June 5.
        There are only c. 300 right whales still surviving.  Being slower than other whales, they were targeted by commercial whalers because they were easier to catch.  They are called right whales because they were the "right" whale to catch.  Since 1970, 16 right whales have been killed by ships compared to two deaths from entanglement with fishing gear. 
        On June 25, President Clinton established  a protection area off Cape Cod and a smaller one off the Florida coast.  Upon entering these areas, ships are required to report  their position, speed, course and destination to the Coast Guard.  They will be informed of the location of any whales in the area. and how best to adjust their course to avoid them.  Ships are also required to report any whale sightings of their own.
       Both Canada and the United States are studying the possibility of moving shipping lanes to reduce the likelihood of whale collisions.

June 22, 1999
Campaign to free Lolita from Miami Seaquarium by Tokitae Foundation. 
Lolita is a 35-year old orca who has been confined in a sub-standard tank that does not even meet United States Department of Agriculture's minimum space requirements.  Water said to be 55 degrees F was actually measured at 77 degrees F.  Orca or killer whales natural life span is thought to between 50 and 100 years.  When she first arrived at the Seaquarium at the age of 6, Lolita had the company of Hugo, a male previously captured from her pod, but Hugo died of brain hemorrhage at the age of 15 from constantly bumping his head against the sides of the tank (perhaps trying to push back the barrier that confined him? or was it just desperation?)  Seaquarium says his death was caused by a viral infection. 
         The Tokitae Foundation wants to move Lolita from the Seaquarium, where she performs in two shows every day, to a sea pen off the coast of Washington where she was captured and members of her pod still roam.   The foundation hopes to release her to rejoin her pod.  If that turns out not to be a viable option for her, they propose maintaining her in the sea pen for the rest of her life.
         The Tokitae Foundation was formed expressly to free Lolita.  Their address is 2829 Indian Creek Drive #1006, Miami Beach FL 33140 USA.
Email: NatUlster@aol.com  Websites:  http://www.rockisland.com/~tokitae
and http://www.freelolita.net.
         Letters can be sent to Ron DeHaven, Acting Deputy Adminstrator, USDA, 14th St, & Independence Ave. Washington DC 20250 
email: RonDehaven@usda.gov  Ask that tank be re-evaluated.
         Arthur Herz, Miami Seaquarium, 3195 Ponce de Leon Blvd
Coral Gables FL 33134  email: arth@wometcoent.com
tel: 305-361-3705    fax: 305-375-3618
         Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas, 111 NW 1st St. Miami FL 33128
email: mayor@metro-dade.com  tel: 305-375-5071    fax:305-3618
The mayor has been very sympathetic to Lolita's plight.
         

June 10, 1999
Congress received the following marine mammal summary report on gray whale mortalities from its Congressional Research Service:
"As of June 1, 1999, at least 65 dead gray whales have been reported along the Mexican coast so far this year, with an additional 20 in California, 7 in British Columbia, and possibly as many as 16 in Washington.  Scientists speculate that the poor nutritional (emaciated) condition of these dead whales indicates that the population may exceed the food available in the Bering Sea causing the whales to starve."

Captain Paul Watson, founder and president of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society responded to an Article in the Los Angeles Times referring to this report as follows:

"Leave it to the Times and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to conclude that the deaths of gray whales in record numbers must be all their fault and none of our own ( 'Deaths May Signal Too Many Whales for the Ocean." June 6)

"The theory that an estimated 26,000 whales are somehow exceeding the carrying capacity of the Pacific Ocean is almost unworthy of response.  The Pacific Ocean--specifically the Bering Sea--once sustained both Easter and Western stocks of gray whales.  The Western Pacific whales are now virtually extinct. With so much less competition, how could the Eastern Pacific gray whale now be starving?  And how do we surmise that 26,000 whales is "too many"?  The man best able to estimate the 19th century "pre-exploitation" number of gray whales--as he himself lived then was probably responsible for killing more gray whales than any other individual--was Captain Charles Scammon.  He counted 40,000.  If the Pacific cannot now sustain half that number from a single stock, then the ocean and the whales both have a problem.

"In attempting to dismiss my observation that gray whales must twice yearly traverse the length of the coast of California through the most intense toxic agricultural runoff in the world, NMFS calls this an unlikely cause in the rise in whale deaths because the whales don't do the majority of their feeding here and there has been no sharp increase in runoff this year.  I would advise the federal biologists to acquaint themselves with the concept of "cumulative effect" if I did not already know the extreme unlikelihood of a scientist in the employ of the government citing human activity as the probably cause of an environmental crisis.  This would indicate the existence of a problem that would require alterations in the behavior of government or industry to remedy.  And that would never do."  www.seashepherd.org
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          previous whale news  102        later whale news
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