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March 23, 2000
Sea Shepherd says it will oppose whaling by Canadian tribes
Taking their cue from the Makah, several west coast  native Canadian tribes have predictably announced their intention to resume whaling for cultural, as opposed to subsistence reasons.  Canada, who is not a member of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and therefore not bound by its regulations, has sided with Japan and Norway in approving the proposal to  downlist gray and minke whales at the upcoming CITES meeting in April.  This would make it legal to kill these two species within limits set by the IWC.
 
Worse yet, Canada has violated international law by permitting the slaughter of highly endangered bowhead whales without reference to the IWC.  The Eastern Arctic bowhead population is so low that the species survival could hang on the life of one individual whale.

Captain Paul Watson castigated the Clinton-Gore adminstration for not imposing sanctions against Canada  for this offense against international law as its own law requires.

March 22, 2000  Source: AP
Whales die in US Navy sonar tests
Although the navy denies any connection, there seems little doubt that their testing of sonar equipment in the Caribbean has caused the deaths of eight whales who beached themselves in the Bahamas to escape the punishing noise. 

At least 14 whales had run aground coincidentally with and just following the tests on March 15.  More may yet be discovered.

Whale strandings in the Bahamas are exceedingly rare, about one every ten years, but the navy claims there is no scientific evidence to link the strandings to its four-hour test of the equipment. (Apparently timing is not scientific.)

This sonar is less powerful than the low frequency sonar the navy plans to unleash in the Pacific.

Japan seeks to end protection for whales.
Source: UPI   March 21, 2000
Japan is trying to lift the international ban against commerce in whales by proposing that Eastern North Pacific gray and Okhotsk Sea- West Pacific minke whales be removed from Appendix 1 of the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species  of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).  If international trade in flesh were to be resumed, it would encourage more tribes and countries to take up whaling and probably result in the killing of more endangered whale species.

Norway will propose removing Appendix 1 protection from the North Atlantic minke whales.  Both countries intend to present these proposals at the CITES meeting in Kenya April 10-20. They argue that whaling will not threaten these whales with extinction.

According to Rolland Schmitten, head of international affairs for the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, these proposals have to be considered in respect to all whale species.  "We believe this is a move toward commercial whaling.  We believe it's an end run around the IWC International Whaling Convention). Japan and Norway are aware of what they're trying to do."  (Nice to have US delegation on the right side after their end run around IWC to allow the Makah tribe to kill whales!)

Since the IWC instituted a ban on commercial whaling in 1986, Japan has killed hundreds of minke whales every year in what it calls scientific research.  Their flesh winds up at a high price in Japanese restaurants, however. Flesh from highly endangered blue and humback whales has been identified in Japan by DNA testing.

Norway kills whales for domestic consumption but her whalers have  been caught on at least one occasion trying to smuggle whale flesh into Japan.

Japan has tried with some success, but fortunately not enough, to tipthe scales, in obtaining votes that favor commercial whaling in CITES and IWC. by funding fishing operations in poor countries in exchange for their votes.

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