eNewsletter June/July 2022

eNewsletter June/July 2022

Dear Visitor,

This edition of the eNewsletter features an Editorial by Eugène Lapointe, an Opinion by Ken Sumanik with a striking article on Bees.

�?�Editorial
Iceland�??s Whaling Operation

-- By Eugène Lapointe

News comes to us from Reykjavik that the Hvalur whaling company, Iceland's only whaling operation, stands ready to recommence commercial whaling with an intention of taking as many as 209 fin whales, most of which are to be exported to Japan. At first sight the determination of Hvalur's owner, Mr. Kristjan Loftsson, to press ahead with the whaling program might appear somewhat odd.

Loftsson and his harpooners had, for three years, sat inactive on quotas of 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales for the simple reason that there was no market for Iceland's product and Mr. Loftsson is far too close a devotee of the great free trade economist, Adam Smith, to release on to any of the world's economic stages a product for which there is little or no demand.

But now Mr. Loftsson detects an opening in the Atlantic cloud, an opportunity to revivify the whaling program that has stood idle of late. Japan's whaling operation now confines itself to its own Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and, consequently, animals landed at ports such as Shimonoseki no longer serve fully to satisfy Japanese - demand - enter Mr. Loftsson with his proposal.

Other factors now are in his favor. Halvur's lengthy and expensive pursuit of a new license for its meat processing plant has finally ended and the lengthy, expensive undertaking to insure the plant was not in any way contaminated by Covid-19 was complete.

To date, the country's Prime Minister, Katrin Jakobsdottir, the Fisheries Minister, Svandis Svavarsdottir have, in traditional manner, sought to straddle the issue, incorporating in their communication half-mentioned allusions to time to death and economic and environmental sustainability - issues that have been chewed over ad nauseam to the point where there is no meat left on the whale bone.

This need not be a matter of great concern to Mr. Loftsson.  He knows that his country's political leaders, whatever their rhetoric, will not wish to be seen to be the tools of foreign NGO's whose main intention is to use this island as a base for  ever more aggressive fundraising.

Opinion
Threatened and Endangered!

-- By Ken Sumanik

Ominous, alarming and almost fearful enough a cause to seek shelter, but what fears other than the present two year Covid 19 pandemic, melting polar ice-caps and rising sea levels are imminent? Visit the UN Red List website site to be visually assaulted and over-whelmed by its tally of 41,415 species of animals and plants world wide selected as candidates for extinction. It also presumes a comprehensive, �??critical indicator of the health of the world�??s biodiversity�?�.

A UN Climate Change website is equally intimidating, as are the IPCC�??s repeated reports of atmospheric CO2 accumulation over the past 30 years being the primary causative factor for the presumed warming.

The UN warns that Climate change is also difficult for animals and plants to adapt to, and says that species extinction would be lower if global warming was limited to 1.5°C. It has become the dependable default for most of Earth�??s woes, including threatened and endangered species.

Earth�??s present Goldilock�??s temperature, neither too hot nor too cold, but just right, is the desired option yet even under this ideal, species are threatened and endangered. Climate Change musings, like the weather, will pass. In the olde days drastic events were accepted as "God's will". People prayed they wouldn't happen again, meaning not again within their lifetimes.

Listing is decided by national committees of resource management professionals and academics; but also significantly influenced by input from the IUCN and NGOs like the WWF. They are non-nationals and non-stake holders, yet given standing on list selection committees. Once listed, Convention members are bound to meet the obligations of protecting species as directed by the UN�??s NEP.

Maintaining obligations by designating large areas as National Parks is a common practice of governments. It deprives indigenous inhabitants of lands and resources they have used forever by assigning them to others. The Masi in Tanzania and Kenya are being displaced in the interests of Biodiversity, Sustainability and Ecosystem restoration; their interest being superseded by eco-tourism interests and economic benefits to
governments. Have the Masi been designated threatened and endangered like any wildlife species in the Parks?

Politicians always experience the wrath of innocent people impacted by destructive public policy, not the NGO activists and knowledge deficient bureaucrats who developed them; for being unelected, they are unaccountable. Bureaucrats who have created the policies are inherently defensive. Having convinced their respective ministers into accepting them, the responsible ministers and their bureaucrats must be confronted by the affected parties. This is essential to re-establishing credibility and respect that all governments require in order to function effectively.

Priceless

Excerpts from Reuters June 2, 2022 �?? 6:10 PM GMT+2

�??Who knew?  Bees are fish.�?�

�??Legislators don�??t �??hide elephants in mouseholes�?�, the late Justice Antonin Scalia wrote.  But what about bumble bees in fish?

An appeals court in California earnestly held that bees are fish.  Or at least for regulatory purposes under the state�??s endangered species law.

Call me narrow-minded, but bees�?� are not fish.

�?�Bees are not fish �?? not if the word �??fish�?� has any coherent meaning at all.

The dispute began in 2018, when the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the Center for Food Safety, and Defenders of Wildlife successfully petitioned the state of California to consider protecting four species of imperiled native bumble bees (including the delightfully named Suckley's cuckoo bumble bee) under the state�??s Endangered Species Act.�?�

�?�2024 IWMC, All Rights Reserved

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