GRAY WHALES NEED HELP
It is unlikely that you will receive this before September 22, the deadline for comments on the draft environmental assessment (DEA, prepared by the National Marine Fisheries Service, NMFS, under the Department of Commerce) on the Makah Indian request to kill five gray whales and wound as many as 10 every year for subsistence and ceremonial purposes.  As their request will go to the International Whaling Commission when it meets in Monaco October 20-24, it will help if you write right away anyway.  The question Is: Should the U.S. support the Makah Indian request as the DEA seems to recommend.  Even if the deadline has passed, your comments opposing such support will help sway opinion.  The DEA recognizes that many organizations and individual oppose any resumption of whaling, but only five commentaries had been received as of September 12.  If you have e-mail, consult <Breach.Env@aol.com> or their web site
<http://www.members.aol.com/breachenv/home.htm>.  Otherwise, points you can make include the likelihood of instigating requests from aboriginal tribes worldwide affecting other whale populations; the effect on the whale watching business;  the Makah might do better to cater to whale-watching tourism; some of the Makah are opposed to the resumption of whaling; killing from canoes with .50 cal. rifle will not be quick.  Address comments to
     Hilda Diaz-Soltero, Director
     Office of Protected Resources
     US Department of Commerce
     NOAA NMFS
     Silver Spring MD 20910

GOOSE HUNT SUCCESSFULLY SABOTAGED
Members of the Coalition to Prevent the Destruction of  Canada Geese (CPSCG), the Committee to Abolish Sport Hunting (CASH), and PAAC from Vassar College joined forces on September 6 to prevent hunters from killing geese in Ringwood State Park, Ringwood NJ.  No geese were killed and no hunter suffered a heart attack, so it was a good day all around.

The excuse for the September hunt was that the hunters would be killing only the resident "nuisance" geese, but the Cree Indians say the geese begin their migration as early as mid-August.  The migratory and resident birds are physically identical.  The resident population is the result of game mangers stealing goose eggs, hatching them, and releasing birds with no parental guidance.  The geese like the grass on lawns and golf courses, stay around all year, and are deemed a nuisance because of their droppings.  This is a classic case of wildlife mismanagement which has resulted in allowing a hunter to kill as many as 120 geese per day in New Jersey's September hunt.  The hunt prevents other citizens from enjoying their park.

Anne and Peter Muller of CASH offer advice to others who may wish to sab goose hunts.  The crux is to marshal as much noise-making capability as possible.  They suggest acquiring at least one megaphone with a LOUD siren, the type sold in sporting goods (not hunting) stores at a cost of plus or minus $100.  This device should be augmented by many people yelling and screaming and using other noisemakers.  They caution a constant watch must be kept in all directions so approaching geese can be turned back before they get too close.  Noisemaking should cease as soon as the geese get the idea and start to change direction.  Otherwise the noise sends a confusing signal.

The hunter harassment statutes in most states have an anti-wildlife harassment clause.  NJ and NY do not, which may be why sabbers have not been arrested.  Anne Muller suggests another possible reason: that park and game managers may be trying to avoid unfavorable publicity.  The groups will sab again September 27th.  CONTACT: CASH 914-256-1200 or CPDCG 914-732-4704 (days) or 914-425-07116 (evenings).

HOUSE SUPPORTS USE OF TAX DOLLARS TO PROMOTE TROPHY HUNTING AND IVORY/RHINO HORN TRADE by rejecting the Fox-Miller amendment to HR 2159.  Opposition was helped by NRA, NWF, WWF and the Safari Club.  As the Senate has yet to vote on a similar amendment, your senators should be interested in your opinion.  Call senators on 800-972-3524.  (800-962-3524 has been disconnected.)

FUR FREE FRIDAY
Friends of Animals is asking activists from nearby states to join a massive protest in New York City, a fashion and media center for the whole country.  The event is held annually on the Friday after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping day of the year, in cities across the country.

Activists in Syracuse and the  central New York area have maintained year-round pressure on fur stores in the face of unwarranted persecution from the police and courts resulting in imprisonment for trespassing and sentences served out with hunger strikes.  The persecution stems from an unfortunate paint-throwing incident.

THE DOLPHIN DEATH ACT PASSED depriving people who still buy tuna of the opportunity to buy fish that was not caught by harassing dolphins.  As the earlier campaign to make "dolphin safe" (but obviously not "tuna safe") tuna available was so successful, and dolphin protection measures are already in place, the solution would seem to be to persuade the tuna industry to create a new "supersafe" category to distinguish it from the downgraded "dolphin safe" label.  Ken Martin of Project Delphis in Hawaii, a former porpoise/dolphin observer, quoted in Animal People <http://www.animalpepl.org>, warns that the proposed observer program would be useless.

DISEASE STRIKES ENDANGERED MEDITERRANEAN MONK SEALS
One group of 270 off the West African Mauritania coast has been reduced to 70 members.  The problem appears to be a dolphin moribilli virus, similar to the canine distemper virus.  An earlier epidemic in Baltic seals was attributed to immune system depression caused by organophosphate pollution.  Pollution does not appear to be a factor in the monk seal epidemic, however.

NEW YORK HUNTING SEASONS LENGTHENED
When the 1997 deer hunting seasons were announced, the most intensive killing time for most of the state, shotgun season, was 29 days long compared to 23 days last year.  The season used to be just one bloody week long, but careful management has enabled the deer population to keep expanding, causing more damage to farmers and home owners and more automobile accidents.  Potatoes used to be a pretty deer-proof crop here on the Civitas Sanctuary, but not this year.  The longer season will do little to reduce the population unless regulations are drawn up to kill more does.  In any case, many children will have less time to play outdoors, landowners will have less item to get in their wood without fear of getting shot, and recreation like walking, bird watching and cross country skiing will be curtailed for safety reasons. 

In addition to that, residents will be subjected to the second year of a three-year experiment to include formerly exempt Sundays in the season.  Exempting Sundays from the "big game" season at least gave people one day of the week to do outdoor things.

This announcement of the expanded deer season was preceded by news of a tentative 60-day duck season, the longest since the 1970's.  The Department of Conservation announced that the longer season in the state's western zone was based on anticipated federal regulations and "hunter input from public meetings and correspondence over the past several years".  This amounted to an open admission that hunters call the shots with the DEC whose budget is partially dependent on sales of hunting licenses.  It is as if they are seeing how far they can go before the 90% of citizens who do not hunt cry "Enough!"