IWMC World Conservation Trust

In This Issue

The Hidden Agenda Behind RMS & RMP Delays

Government Official Claims India’s Elephant Is Near Extinct

NGO Beluga Suit Carries “Endangered Label” To New Depths

U.S. Naval Tests Suspected In Caribbean Whale Strandings

The New Zealand Theory

General Information

While those nations guilty of this obstructionist mode will certainly disagree, and even quite persuasive yet unfounded arguments to the contrary, Article V of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) is clear in its directive that any restrictions on whaling, such as the creation of sanctuaries, “shall be based on scientific findings.”  That requisite for scientific need was ignored in the establishment of the Southern Oceans Sanctuary.

The drive for transforming all oceans into sanctuaries has started.  The pattern is clear to anyone monitoring IWC and related cetacean issues.  From the patchwork of sanctuaries dotting the globe, these nations hope their stalling tactics will allow them to stitch together a huge quilt blanketing the world’s oceans from shore to shore with “no whaling” signs.  Once in place, the sanctuary quilt will render the need for IWC to institute a global management plan for the orderly regulation of international whaling and for the conservation of cetaceans unnecessary and meaningless.

Those nations and NGOs opposed to whaling argue that IWC cannot be a “fishery management organization” and a species “conservation organization” too.  They claim the two are incompatible.  They are not.  Every national, regional and international fishery regulatory body is both a conservation and regulation entity.  Each has an obligation to see that the exploitation of the resources under its protection are used in a sustainable fashion.  And each, save IWC, has put forth its best efforts to meet that dual mandate.  And each, when confronted with issues of species conservation, is capable of creating emergency short-term and long-term management plans complete with monitoring systems in months, not decades.

The science and the models are available for IWC to fulfill its obligations to the animals, to the cultures tied by history to marine mammals, to fishermen and the families, and to the world.  Why won’t those nations, many of whom were the earth’s greatest wastrels in their centuries of slaughtering whales to lubricate industry, listen?  Why must they posture as “born-again” cetacean saviors who preach a hypocritical creed and issue imperious dictates against cultures whose relationship with whales since the beginning of history has been one of sustainability? 

Why don't the like-minded nations come out in the open and state their real agenda?ž
 

More to the point, Ms. Gandhi said only 800 male elephants have dramatically reduced India’s elephant semen pool.  The former environment minister blamed illegal ivory poaching and “cruel” catching of elephants for “training, for tourism, or logging.”  She said “this training that we are doing of elephants is the most brutal, primitive and stupid in the world.”  However, either Ms. Gandhi failed to provide key information necessary to fully appreciate the true state of the Indian elephant or the reporter interviewing her was derelict in his questioning technique. 

Ms. Gandhi followed, in that sense, the footsteps of the Head of India delegation, attending the last CITES COP12 meeting, who was speaking out of his head on the Elephant issue.  When asked by the CITES Secretariat to clarify and substantiate its comments, he fumbled, stumbled, hesitated and could not even remember his earlier comments.  A great Conservationist!

Ms. Gandhi suggested that “capturing” elephants for domestication contributed toward the species decline, but she did not clarify how.  Are male elephants killed by trainers or neutered?  Is her figure of 800 males the number in the wild or the total of males in the country?  And, most important, India, like Kenya, prides itself on its “humane” approach to wildlife conservation condemning “sustainable use” of animals or other wild resource activities in virtually every form.  Why then are these countries having such a difficult time managing their resources?  And, why did Ms. Gandhi not offer solutions to reverse this trend?  The questions unasked are often the most interesting.ž
 

Partially treated wastewater from Anchorage as well as gas and oil exploration in the area are other factors not considered by the NGO lawsuit.  Lest the world believe the quest to list the Cook Inlet family of beluga whales as “endangered” reflects the status of the beluga worldwide, the following should be included in every press article about the species.  According to the University of Michigan, there are some 60,000 beluga whales inhabiting the world’s oceans.  Other figures place the beluga count at a mere 36,500.  But of course, these figures are conveniently omitted in NGO literature about the plight of “endangered” whales.ž
 

The Ides of March were not kind to Julius Caesar nor to 16 hapless cetaceans swimming in the Caribbean near Bermuda.  The cetaceans – 13 beaked whales, two minke whales and a spotted dolphin – became stranded on three separate islands.  Six whales died.  From the conditions of the bodies – bleeding in and around the ears, in the brain fluid, and trauma to their larynx and auditory fats – acoustic activity such as underwater explosions, sonar, or landslides are suspected.  No mention of electro-magnetic pulse (EMP) weaponry testing was mentioned.

The United States Navy quickly became the prime suspect as it admitted its ships were testing bursts of sonar in the area around the time of the strandings.  Sonar from NATO ships is suspected in the 1996 stranding of 12 beaked whales in the Mediterranean.  Anecdotal accounts describe military testing and action – from depth charging whales as suspected submarines to machine gunning surfaced whales for practice – during times of peace and war as resulting in the deaths of numerous cetaceans.  Just as the U.S. Navy, beaked whales are described as both “secretive” and “deep-divers.”  Tests by the Navy and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) are investigating the strandings.ž
 

The New Zealand Theory: Humans
should have a non-lethal relationship with Whales.

“Moby, do you accept
IWC as your beloved husband?
 

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