is designated as a "research" project, but the crabs are sold on the market making it a commercial enterprise.  One can only wonder why the NPS appears willing to sponsor it for 15 or more years.   
              Alaska Senator Frank Murkowski has introduced a bill (S.1064) which would open the entire park to commercial fishing further endangering humpback whales and and other marine animals that are supposed to be protected in the park.  The proposed regulations are available at
<http://www.nps.gov/glba/fedreg.htm>.   The Alaska Wildlife Alliance, which obtained the court order to stop fishing in wilderness waters, believes that public opinion may be the deciding factor.  NPS invites comments, which must be postmarked no later than May 15 to be considered.  Address them to James M. Brady, Superintendent, Glacier Bay National Park, PO Box 140, Gustavus AK 99826 or <glba_administration@nps.gov>

CANADIAN SEAL HUNT REVIVED BY ASIAN DEMAND FOR PENISES  Sealers who had been allottted a quota of a quarter of a million seals last year may have killed twice that number, enough to endanger the population, according to some Canadian govenment scientists.  Many of the bodies were left to rot after their sexual organs were removed.  Lisa DiStefano and Captain Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd
Society 3107A Washington Blvd., Marina del Rey CA 90292 plan to continue their opposition in spite of last year's violence that threatened the life of Captain Watson for daring to announce there was a market for shed hair gently combed from seal pups.  The step from bashing to combing was apparently too big for these men and the step from bashing seals to bashing someone with different ideas too small.  Most Canadians are opposed to killing seals, but it is politically expedient for politicians to support it.  The International Fund for Animal Welfare, 411 Main St., Yarmouthport MA 02675 USA (400 Bank St. Suite 400, Ottawa, Ontario K2P 1Y8, Canada) will send you a free campaign kit.  Call: 1-888-201-1111.  Their website provides direct e-mail connection to Canadian officials
<http://www.ifaw.org/seals>

WHALES LOSING GROUND  The October meeting of the International Whaling Commission was not good for the whales or the majority of Americans who care about them.  The Makah Indian request to kill gray whales, ignominiously supported by the U.S. delegation, was granted with permission to kill four a year. (They had requested five.)  In return, the Siberian Chukchi tribe was awarded the lives of five bowheads deducted from the Alaska Indian quota.  Whales killed by the Chukchi go primarily to feed foxes on a nearby Russian fur farm.  The Nootka Indian tribes in the vicinity of Vancouver now say they will kill 25.  This was a shameful act by the mighty U.S., especially as smaller nations like New Zealand stood firm for restoring a full whaling moratorium.           
        More ominous still is the Irish proposal to declare all the high seas a sanctuary for whales in exchange for opening coastal waters to commercial whaling.  This sounds like a positive offer until you realize that the
200-mile zone coastal waters comprise much of the world's oceans and that these are the waters most frequented by whales.  The proposal will be discussed at a closed IWC meeting at Oman in May.  As the goal of the IWC from the start was to achieve a total ban on whaling, this would be a big step backward into the bad old days when killing whales was a regular commercial business.
        IWC recognition of "cultural" whaling is one of the most insidious provision of the Irish proposal because it espouses the rights of native peoples to kill whales for subsistence purposes.  As we have seen from the Siberian situation, native needs are not what they once were in the past.  The Makah claim that they will kill from log canoes, but the Siberian tribe uses motor-driven boats.  The Makah individuals who have been pushing whaling have made no secret of the fact that they have an eye on making money from their kills.  Tribal elders have gone out of their way to oppose the resumption of whaling.  The tribe has no subsistence need for whale flesh.  Even its past connection with whaling was mostly for oil, which could be sold.

FEDERAL TRAPPING BILL HR1176, introduced by Congresswoman Anita Lowey (NY) has 75 co-sponsors.  It needs to be scheduled for a hearing in the Commerce Committees.  Please write:
Thomas Bliley, Jr., Chairman, House Commerce Committee,
2125 Rayburn Washington DC 20515  and
John McCain, Chairman, Senate Commerce Committee,
508 Dirksen, Washington DC 20510. 
Also urge your Congressperson to sign on as a co-sponsor.  Thanks are due to co-sponsors and Congresswoman Lowey.

CALIFORNIA INITIATIVE TO END TRAPPING AND
POISONING OF WILDLIFE will be on the November ballot provided 430,000 valid signatures of registered voters are obtained by
January 30, 1998.  Partially filled sheets are acceptable and should be turned in promptly for processing.  Instructions and petitions are available from ProPAW
11726 San Vicente Blvd. #300, Los Angeles CA 90049
Phone: 310-207-7706  Fax: 310-207-1218
e-mail <propaw@ix.netcom.con>

ALASKA IS STILL KILLING WOLVES to enhance the caribou population in spite of the fact that caribou are successfully coexisting, (even increasing in number) with the wolves.  The Alaska Department of Fish & Game is also engaged in a weird program of trapping and sterilizing the alpha pairs in the Fortymile area and plans to relocate some of the yearling wolves, a program that will surely result in indiscriminant breeding, and thus a larger population, and interfere with the transmission of genes by superior animals.  The Department also endorses a private bounty of $400 per dead wolf.  This is particularly strange in view of the fact that the Fortymile caribou herd has quadrupled in the last 20 years.  Write to Governor Tony Knowles, PO Box 11001
Juneau AK 99811 or e-mail him <governor@gov.state.ak.us> .

MOJAVE NATIONAL PRESERVE INVITES WILDLIFE KILLERS  The preserve conducts a desert big horned sheep auction, a deer-killing season, a trapping season for foxes and bobcats, hunting seasons for foxes, bobcats, mule deer, rabbits, beavers, and quail.  There is open season on coyotes, weasels,skunks, rodents and reptiles.  This is your federal land.  Contact Superintendent Mary Martin,  Mojave National Preserve, 222 East Main St., Barstow CA 92311  or call 760-255-9901.   Information from Wildlife Damage Review, POB 85218, Tucson AZ 85754.  Phone: 520-664-0883

HORSESHOE CRAB CRISIS  New Jersey Audubon Society has a temporary court order to ban catching horseshoe crabs whose population has decreased by 90% in six years.  Also threatened are migrating shore birds who need the crabs' prolific eggs to complete their journey to the Arctic.  The crabs are sold to Japanese fishers for bait.  Letters are needed to Governor Christine Whitman, 125 State St. Trenton NJ 08625 thanking her for her earlier ban and asking her to institute a permanent ban because crabs do not breed until they are nine years old.

BRITISH FOX HUNTING A STEP CLOSER TO AN END A bill to ban what Oscar Wilde called "the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable", chasing foxes with hounds, usually on horseback, came a step closer to its end as MP Michael Foster's bill passed its second reading.  The prognosis is not good, however, because the Labour Government fears putting it on the agenda will cause other legislation to be side-tracked by political maneuvering.  It remains to be seen whether the will of the majority will prevail over the determined minority of blood sports enthusiasts.  Letters to Prime Minister Tony Blair,
10 Downing St. London, UK could help.

CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FISH & GAME BAGS CAT  Responding to a report of a mountain lion attack, DFG officials used a 12-gauge shotgun to demolish a 10-pound Abyssinian house cat.  DFG claimed their action was justified.

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