Whale and Dolphin Talk

My New Year's Wish

2011-12-31T06:04:00.007-06:00

In a world where people still starve, dictators still reign, greed runs rampant, and acrimony is a synonym for governance; where cancer is unvanquished, women are still raped, relatives kill each other, and children are abducted and murdered; where ethics are ignored, amorality is rewarded, infidelity is flaunted, and secularism prevails; it is hard for those of us who care, to know where to begin in our caring.

It is understandable then, that so few of the good and decent citizens of the world are willing to invest their time, and financial and emotional resources to save the whales and dolphins who share this tiny blue space marble with us. There are so many other equally just causes and so many unfilled needs. But that does not stop those of us who do care about these intelligent and sentient creatures from hoping that others will join us in condemning the cruelty and depravity of Japanese, Icelandic, and Norwegian whalers who slaughter whales on the high seas; or the avarice and callousness of the owners and employees of Sea World and other parks like it who keep Orcas, and Belugas, and Bottlenose Dolphins trapped in tiny tanks for the amusement of ignorant and uncaring audiences.

And so as we stand together on the doorstep of 2012 and beyond, while I wish for the future salvation of whales and dolphins from persecution by man, I urge the rest of you to care about something; anything worthwhile. Take up some noble banner be it feeding the world, or curing cancer, or educating children, or protecting the innocent from evil: if you don't then what will be your legacy? When your days here are done will you be able to look back on your life and say I mattered; I counted; I stood for something important? If so, you will leave the world a better place and that, my friend, is a greater epitaph than any amount of fame or fortune.

I am going to take some time off from writing this blog. I am not sure when I will be back. Until then good luck and God bless...

Good Tidings To Some But Not All

2011-12-24T08:53:00.004-06:00

In their op-ed article in last Sunday's New York Times, titled, "War Really Is Going Out of Style," Joshua S. Goldstein and Steven Pinker expressed the view that mankind is gradually turning away from war. They proposed that "...our growing repugnance toward institutionalized violence..." is perhaps the primary cause and noted that "...cannibalism, human sacrifice, heretic-burning, chattel slavery, punitive mutilation, sadistic executions..." have largely disappeared from the face of the earth. Sadly, they are wrong.

In this time of year when over one third of the population of the earth, and eight out of ten Americans, celebrate the birth of Christ, the thought that war may be a thing of the past must give hope to us all. It should also make us even more appreciative of the nobility, sense of duty, and sacrifice demonstrated by the men and women who have served in our armed forces. And yet, even as we thank them and look upon our fellow human beings through the eyes of peace, it is sad to note that the very acts that Messrs. Goldstein and Pinker cite as fading from our pan-global repertoire are still painfully evident in our treatment of the whales and dolphins with which we share the earth.

Despite the good tidings that men and women of faith everywhere feel at Christmas, the most intelligent and sentient beings on the planet, next to man, still suffer the brunt of mankind's millennia-long love affair with violence, brutality, and killing. In great numbers, they are still slaughtered, butchered, consumed, enslaved, mistreated, mutilated, and executed by us: and for that we are a lesser people and this is a lesser world. That any animal should be made to suffer is inexcusable; but where the victims of such vile acts possess an awareness of self and family that is arguably equal to ours, the infliction of such suffering is abhorrent.

Perhaps one day, on some Christmas Eve in the future, the good tidings that we feel toward our fellow men will apply equally to these beautiful and beleaguered creatures of the deep. Until then, those of us who care deeply about these magnificent beings that are relentlessly hunted by Japanese, Icelandic, and Norwegian whaling fleets, or confined in tiny concrete tanks for our amusement by Sea World and other fun parks like them, will continue to speak out against the depravity of the few and the apathy of the many.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

US Law Firm Takes Blood Money

2011-12-19T00:01:00.006-06:00

Under the American system of justice even killers who commit the most heinous acts, such as the rape and murder of children, are entitled to legal representation. This is a necessary and fundamental precept of democracy. Accordingly, there are some in the legal profession who must take on this morally repugnant task; however, the role of 'public defender' is not one with universal appeal to law school graduates. And even in the case where a defendant charged with such acts of brutality has the resources to hire the best legal counsel, many law firms choose to decline such an assignment.

This conundrum holds true for those evil and cowardly human beings who commit acts of extreme cruelty to animals; they too must be defended. However, it is disappointing to note that the Seattle law firm of Miller Nash has agreed to represent Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) in its law suit against the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS). The suit seeks to enjoin Paul Watson's group from "acts of violence", which the Japanese claim caused them to cut short last year's whale hunt. Why any American law firm would wish to act on behalf of the Japanese whalers who massacre these magnificent creatures is perplexing; but in the case of Miller Nash it is even more so since the firm prides itself in its commitment to protecting the natural environment, and actively supports 'no kill' animal shelters.

One is left to wonder, what were the partners thinking in accepting the ICR as a client? Can they truly draw a distinction between killing cats and dogs in shelters, versus whales on the high seas? Or is it that the blood money was just too rich to decline? How sad. How cold. How cruel.

Tsunami Blood Money

2011-12-12T00:01:00.005-06:00

Adding tragedy to tragedy, the Japanese government has admitted that some of the public funds earmarked to help rebuild the areas devastated by last March's tsunami will be used to increase the security for its whaling fleet. While the government works towards the abolition of the worldwide ban on commercial whaling (along with Iceland and Norway), it is defiantly continuing its barbaric practice of whaling under the guise of 'research'. And in an attempt to thwart the anti-whaling efforts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, some tsunami relief money is being used to add an unspecified number of coast guard ships to accompany the whaling fleet on their annual voyage of butchery to the Southern Ocean.

So all of you decent and humane citizens of the world who donated your hard earned money to help the beleaguered peoples of Japan recover from the devastating earthquake and tidal wave have unknowingly contributed to the massacre of thousands of whales. Obviously, it is too late to take your donations back: the only thing those of us who care about whales and dolphins can do is shake our heads in silent sympathy for the magnificent, intelligent, and sentient beings who are about to be slaughtered in those cold and unforgiving Antarctic waters.

Whale Poop and Sushi

2011-12-05T00:01:00.007-06:00

What's the difference between whale poop and sushi? About $5,000 a pound. Ba-dum-bum CHING!

In the world of whales and dolphins where the news is almost always sad or bad or both, I thought we could all use a little smile...but before I explain let's have a look at today's gloomy headlines:-

*the Japanese whaling fleet is back down in the Southern Ocean slaughtering whales again while their government has increased funding for this butchery masquerading as 'research.'
* the young female Orca (named Morgan by the Dutch people) has been transferred to a sea park in the Canary Islands after a court rejected pleas by animal rights groups to free her.
* veterinarians at SeaWorld claim that close human contact is good for their captive Orcas. Of course, the threat of being fired has nothing to do with this ridiculous and disingenuous claim.
* the seas off the Faroe Islands are running red with blood once again as islanders partake in their annual bloodfest in which Pilot Whales are massacred in the surf.

And so on, and so on; whenever and wherever whales come in contact with man, the news is rarely good. Which brings me back to the matter of whale poop and sushi. If you thought the answer to my opening one-liner was that raw fish and cooked rice demanded the higher price, you'd be wrong. It is the poop, at least as far as Sperm Whales are concerned. This dark, waxy material, known as ambergris that is excreted by these magnificent squid hunters has been the stuff of legends ever since whalers first went to sea with murder on their minds.

Over the centuries it has been used variously as food (yuk), an aphrodisiac (ya baby), incense (really?), a cure for migraines (both cause and cure?) and much more; but its use in perfume is what generates the big bucks. When fresh, it smells like cow slurry (just ask a dairy farmer) but after it's aged it takes on a pleasant aroma in its own right and also prevents the perfume's scent from fading.

But before you run down to the seashore and start searching for Sperm Whale poop, you should know that it's illegal to sell it in the US; so if you find some just put it in a bucket of sea water for about a year and then you can make your own perfume (if every brainless female celeb can do it, why not you?), but don't be surprised if your neighbors all move away.

Swim For Your Life

2011-11-28T06:49:00.004-06:00

The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends regular exercise for women during pregnancy, including running. Some pregnant women have even been known to run marathons while in their third semester. However because the strain that extreme exercise places on the mother and her unborn child, some OB/GYNs recommend swimming rather than running as a way for pregnant women to stay in shape. Regardless of whether a human female chooses to run or swim, at least she never has to face what her Bottlenose Dolphin counterpart does, where extreme exertion can literally mean the difference between life and death.

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology, and reported by Victoria Gill, a science reporter for BBC Nature, pregnant Bottlenose Dolphins have their top swimming speed cut nearly in half. The research states that while a non-pregnant dolphin can swim at more than 14mph, late in their twelve month pregnancy this is reduced to 8mph.

It should be noted that according to other expert sources, the top speed of Bottlenose Dolphins is estimated to be 20mph; however, the reduction in swimming speed cited in the JEB study likely holds true. And the brutal significance of this fact is starkly evident when you consider that the three main predators of Bottlenose Dolphins, namely, Transient Orcas, Great White Sharks, and Tiger Sharks, can swim at least as fast as a non-pregnant dolphin, and in the case of Orcas, much, much faster (32mph).

Thus, while it is generally considered a good thing for a human female who runs regularly to slow her pace during pregnancy, just the opposite is true for her dolphin counterpart. So to all Bottlenose Dolphin mothers-to-be, we say swim, lady swim...for your life!

Orcas On Vacation

2011-11-21T00:01:00.007-06:00

Each winter millions of human beings migrate to warmer climes; some to seek a brief respite from the pressures of everyday life back home; others to indulge the senses with food, drink, and companionship; and most just to sit under a warm sun and vegetate. This latter activity invariably ends up with painful sunburns and peeling skin; an unwelcome consequence of too much of a good thing done too fast. But to the Killer Whales who spend most of their lives in the frigid waters off Antarctica shedding their skin is precisely what they seek when they too leave winter far behind.

According to a study reported in ScienceDaily*, one type of Orcas regularly travel from the Southern Ocean to the tropical waters off South America. It seems that living in those icy polar seas contributes to the growth of yellowish algae on their skin, and the Orcas' migration north helps rid them of their old skin and with it the algae. What is even more remarkable is that like their human counterparts, these trips are relatively brief. One Orca was monitored taking the 5,000 mile return trip in just 42 days. (Of course very few of us ever get a 6 week vacation, unless you live in France that is).

So the next time you find yourself sitting on some sunny, pristine beach shedding your skin just think, out there beyond the thin blue line that separates our world from theirs, there may be some big black and white member of the dolphin family doing exactly the same thing.

* J.W. Durban, R. L. Pitman. Antarctic killer whales make rapid, round-trip movements to subtropical waters: evidence for physiological maintenance migrations? Biology Letters, 2011: DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0875

A Shadow Over Switzerland

2011-11-14T00:01:00.006-06:00

Switzerland has had a long history of neutrality in times of conflict. It has not entered an international war since 1815. Its government is actively involved in peace keeping missions around the globe, and it is the birthplace of the Red Cross. And yet with such an impressive record of non-aggression against humankind, it is hard to understand how the Swiss government, and the Swiss people, can allow the inhumane treatment of another species that comes closest to man in terms of intelligence, sentience, and non-aggression; the dolphin.

Two hours by train outside Basel is a fun park called Conny Land that boasts of having Europe's finest open-air dolphin lagoon. Claiming to offer fun and entertainment for the whole family, the park's owners fail to mention that over the past three years seven of their dolphins have died; and the circumstances of the most recent death are particularly distressing. Over the objections of German animal activist organizations, ProWal, and The Whale and Dolphin Protection Society, the owners of the park allowed a two-day techno rave to be put on within yards of the dolphin lagoon. Animal experts believe this resulted in the death of an eight year old dolphin that had been healthy up until the rave. It also likely caused unknown and unknowable distress to the other dolphins in the lagoon.

Certainly the veterinarian and trainers at the park know that dolphins have particularly acute hearing; not only through their internal ears but also via their complex echolocation capability. And yet they allowed the rave to take place anyway. ProWal recorded noise levels of over 100 decibels outside the park; clearly beside to the lagoon it would have been much louder. Moreover, sound travels 4.5 times faster under water than in air, so for two days these poor creatures were subjected to what for us would be like standing beside a roaring jet engine for 48 hours.

Such cruel disregard for the dolphins' well-being goes beyond the pale and the Swiss people should be ashamed. Ironically, the name that had been given to the dolphin that died was Shadow; and that is exactly what has fallen over that otherwise peace-loving nation.

Jona and the Whale

2011-11-07T00:01:00.003-06:00

No. That's not a typo. I'm not sure what the female version of the name 'Jonah' is so dropping the 'h' will have to do. Most of you are familiar with the bible story of Jonah being swallowed by a whale.

"Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah..."
Jonah 1:17 King James Bible

Well, last week off Santa Cruz, California, a bikini clad woman on a surfboard and several kayakers came close to acting out the bible story, when two feeding Humpback Whales shot up out of the water, mouths agape, mere yards away from them. (If you haven't seen it on YouTube, go and view it). Setting aside the fact that the woman and her fellow gawkers were violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act, had the whales been any closer the consequences could have been deadly. Unlike Jonah who apparently survived his ordeal, had the woman been knocked off her surfboard and swallowed it is unlikely she would have survived.

Humpback Whales do not eat humans (no whales or dolphins do), but with an enormous mouth that can hold 500 gallons of water and 400 fingernail-like baleen plates hanging from the upper jaw that strain thousands of pounds of krill with each gulp, she would have met a terrifying death. Hopefully, she and her boating companions have learned a lesson and will stay away from whales in the future. Arguably the worst part of this story is that the whale would probably have died too, with the body of a stupid human being stuck in his throat.

Love and Hate In New Jersey

2011-10-31T00:01:00.005-05:00

I love New Jersey. I lived there for fifteen years and the Shore brought my wife and I together. The state has given the country more than its fair share of noteworthy people. How can you not love and/or admire Frank Sinatra, Franki Valli, Queen Latifah, Meryl Streep, Michael Douglas, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Count Basie, Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr., Captain Iván Castro (blinded in Iraq but still serving in the Army) and all the brave men and women in our military, William Brennan, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, Bill Parcells, Franco Harris, Shaquille O'Neal, Al Leiter, Dana Bash, Andrew Napolitano, and Chris Christie (whether you're a Republican or Democrat he's a breath of fresh air in a world of idiots and double talkers). The list goes on and on and these are just a few of the names most of you will recognize.

However, there is a news story from the Garden State that makes me sick to my stomach. It's about a pathetic excuse for a human being, quite possibly a New Jerseyan (but let's hope not), who deserves nothing but your scorn and anger. He (I assume it's a man because I can't believe a woman would do something as cruel as this) is the slime ball who a month ago fired a .30 caliber bullet into the jaw of a Short-Finned Pilot Whale in the waters off the Shore. This beautiful, intelligent and sentient being suffered in agony for several weeks, until finally succumbing to infection and starvation, and beaching himself near Allenhurst where he died.

The National Marine Fisheries Service Office of Law Enforcement is looking for this depraved coward, and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his arrest and conviction. If caught, he will be subject to a fine of $100,000 and a one year prison term (should be longer) for violating the Marine Mammal Protection Act. It is my fervent wish and prayer that he gets what is coming to him. Perhaps, if we are very lucky, one day he will fall overboard and meet a Great White Shark, up close and personal. We can only hope...

Morgan's Unconquerable Soul...

2011-10-24T00:01:00.008-05:00

If you have been following the story about the young female Orca rescued last year off the coast of the Netherlands and held ever since in a small tank in a marine park in Harderwijk, the latest news is not good. The Dutch government has finally issued their ruling in which they rejected the plea by animal rights groups to try to reunite the Orca, who was given the name Morgan, with her family in the wild. Instead the court ordered that she be transferred to an animal park in the Canary Islands.

If you have read my earlier postings on this story, you know that I believe Morgan was doomed either way. The chances of finding her family pod were remote and without them she would have faced certain death alone in the North Sea. Equally dismal, however, are her prospects for living a normal life in the Tenerife marine park since the average life expectancy of Orcas in captivity is ten years compared to fifty or longer in the wild. (An inconvenient truth that the management and owners of these parks, like Sea World, conveniently omit from their PR campaigns.)

In the end, this is just one more sad tale about what happens when the world of whales and dolphins intersects with that of humans; a collision that nearly always proves fatal for the intelligent and sentient beings who dwell in the Seven Seas. Goodbye Morgan. To paraphrase William Ernest Henley's poem Invictus:

Out of the fate that awaits you,
Trapped in a watery hellhole,
We pray whatever gods may be
For your unconquerable soul.

A Different Kind of Evil

2011-10-17T00:01:00.003-05:00

For those of you who follow this blog I apologize for the two week gap in my postings. Right after my last commentary, I inadvertently downloaded some malicious software onto my computer that temporarily left me deaf, blind, and mute in cyberspace. I assure you that I came by this nasty stuff innocently and must have picked it up on one of the presumably legitimate websites I canvass for material for this blog (which one I do not know and it is likely that the keepers of the site don't even realize that a snake lurks in their woodpile). It is a sad testimonial to our time that a force of evil exists out there in the hearts and souls of some pathetic human beings who find pleasure in harming others in this fashion. While these lowlifes may not have degenerated to the same level of depravity as those who rape, maim, or murder, they are still the slime under the rock of humanity; and they deserve whatever fate lies in store for them in the living hell into which all evil must eventually devolve.

That said, I am deeply saddened to note the recurrence of a different kind of evil; that which arises from the misplaced Chauvinism of the Japanese government, which both condones and fosters the continued existence of their nation's whaling fleet. As spring returns to the Southern Ocean, the Japanese fleet is sailing once again to continue the insanely cruel slaughter of the largest and most magnificent beings God ever created. Under the ludicrous guise of "research" they will spread the precious life's blood of a thousand doomed whales upon the pristine waters of those far off seas. That such an advanced and otherwise civilized nation like Japan continues this barbaric practice is due to one reason and one reason alone; it is because they see the world's outcry for them to stop as an imperialistic assault on their culture. And until the good and decent people of Japan raise their voices against this misguided and malicious sense of nationalism, the butchery will continue unabated.

Arrogance, Intolerance, and Stupidity

2011-10-03T00:01:00.005-05:00

Before the Sea World/OSHA hearings were adjourned, the fun park's executives stated that they intended to put trainers back into the water with Orcas in the future. They claimed that such "water work" is essential for the emotional well-being of these highly sociable animals.

Wait! What? Say that again. It is incredible that the presumably intelligent human beings who own and operate Sea World could proffer such a deceitful and self-serving defense. If indeed they truly cared about the 'well-being of these highly sociable animals' they would not imprison them in tiny concrete tanks where their dorsal fins droop, their minds grow numb, and their souls die even sooner than their bodies (the average life expectancy of a captive Orca is 10 years versus 50+ in the wild).

Are these men and women so obsessed with greed that they have lost every shred of decency and humanity that their parents taught them as little children? The arrogance, intolerance, and stupidity of Sea World's owners and management are a sad testimonial to the ignobility of which we humans are capable.

It is all so sad...so very, very sad.

We Can Kill Their Souls

2011-09-26T00:01:00.006-05:00

This past week in a U.S. District Court in Orlando, Florida, attorneys for the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) defended the government's job safety citations against Sea World. The government claims that the fun park's management operated an unsafe work environment for its employees who work with Orcas. At issue was the tragic death last year of a Sea World trainer in the jaws of Tilikum, a six ton male Orca that had been involved in two previous human deaths.

As might be expected, the fun park's attorneys vigorously defended their client, claiming the woman's death was simply an unfortunate accident in which Tilikum unintentionally drowned her after her long ponytail drifted into his mouth. Government witnesses countered that the huge dolphin (yes, Orcas are dolphins not whales) grabbed her arm not her hair, and attacked her viciously causing injuries far too graphic to repeat here. As in all such legal cases of "we say, they say" the truth is hard to determine; and in fairness to Sea World's legal counsel, they are not being paid to find the truth, only to defend their client's definition of what the truth is.

Testimony will not resume again until mid-November; however, one salient fact is clear, a loving and lovely young woman is dead, and her killer remains trapped in a tiny concrete tank barely twice as long as his body. This troubled behemoth is freed only briefly to perform stupid tricks before audiences who are either oblivious to the cruelty inherent in the actions of his mercenary owners, or apathetic to them. Keeping Orcas in captivity is a tragedy of limitless proportions and I think Ms. Diane McNally, a cetacean rights activist and writer, said it best in her recent Victoria Times Colonist article titled, "Orcas wont' eat us, but we can kill their souls" (see link below).

Sea World is killing the souls of every Orca they keep, and each time the public goes to one of their fun parks they become accomplices to Sea World's crimes of crass and commercial inhumanity. Perhaps one day, after the lawyers have gone home, and the trainers have gone back in the water, and the next human being is killed by one of these tormented souls, then maybe finally, we the people will rise up and say, Enough!

http://www.timescolonist.com/technology/Orcas+kill+their+souls/5441202/story.html

The Lesser Evil

2011-09-19T00:01:00.007-05:00

Sad news: nzherald.co.nz reported today that a young female Orca has died after being stranded near the Whangaparaoa Peninsula approximately 25 km north of Auckland. A necropsy will be performed at Massey University's Albany campus to determine the cause of death, however, it appears that the Orca was emaciated.

Did you ever wonder why stranding seems to be such a pervasive and tragic ending to the lives of so many whales and dolphins. Clearly there is evidence that sonar from navy ships is a contributing factor, especially in mass stranding. However, at least in the case of a single stranding, I sometimes wonder that when a whale or dolphin senses the end is near, they choose to strand themselves rather than face the alternatives.

There are a million ways for a mammal to die and we, the arrogant and ignoble two-legged variety, are directly responsible for the deaths of countless millions of other mammals each year; including those with two- and four-legs as well as flippers and fins. However, if I were an Orca roaming wild and free, (NOT trapped at Sea World) and I felt the cold fingers of death approaching, I think I would choose the lesser evil of dying alone on some sandbar or mud bank rather than drown or be torn apart by sharks. Wouldn't you?

The Blueblood and the Beast

2011-09-12T16:29:00.006-05:00

Two recently released studies with Bottlenose Dolphins provide further evidence of their intelligence and sentience.

Jennifer Viegas of Discovery News reported on a study by Peter Madsen at Denmark's Aarhus University that shows that dolphins communicate with each other using a complex physiological process, involving the vibration of connective tissue in their nasal cavities. It is virtually identical to that used by humans in speech and it provides further evidence that the sounds they make are far more complex than the human ear can detect or the human brain can comprehend.

Another study conducted by Joan Gonzalvo at the Tethys Research Institute in Milan, Italy, and reported by Rowan Hooper in the New Scientist, reveals that dolphins clearly understand death and react to it in a profoundly personal manner, especially when it involves their young. Anthropomorphic concerns aside, what is more 'human-like' than mourning the death of a child?

They talk like us, they grieve like us, and yet we still imprison them in tiny concrete tanks and force them to perform stupid animal tricks for our amusement. Or even worse, we slaughter them like the fishermen in Taiji, Japan, are doing right now.

So you tell me, who is the blueblood and who is the beast?

Brutal Facts About Captive Orcas

2011-08-24T00:01:00.002-05:00

BRUTAL FACTS:
* The average adult American drives 32 miles a day and is free to travel around the world.
* An adult Orca in the wild can swim 100 miles a day and is free to travel around the world.
* An Orca at Sea World can swim 50 yards across the show tank before having to turn around.

* The area of an average American home is 2,700 square feet.
* The area of the world's oceans is 139 million square miles.
* The minimum area set by the government for a captive Orca's tank is 1,800 square feet, with a diameter of 48 feet. An average adult Orca is 24 feet long. (Proportionally, this is the same size as cells for murderers on death row).

* The average life span for an American is 78 years.
* In the wild, Orcas can live up to 80 years.
* In captivity, Orcas have an average life span of 10 years.

CONCLUSION:
You tell me, is keeping Orcas in captivity cruel and unusual punishment? If you agree that it is, here is what you can do about it:

* First, stop going to Sea World or marine parks like it. And tell two friends to stop, and have them tell two friends. Soon the message will reach thousands of like-minded people.
* Second, express your views on Facebook or YouTube or on any and every forum to anyone who will listen.
* Third, teach your children that to keep intelligent and sentient beings in tiny cement tanks barely twice as long as their bodies, and force them to perform stupid animal tricks for our entertainment is wrong. Just plain wrong.
* Fourth, write your Representative or Senator and ask them to introduce a bill in Congress to outlaw the keeping and breeding of Orcas in captivity. (For those of you outside the U.S. do this with your respective government representatives.)

THE HOPED FOR OUTCOME:
Releasing captive Orcas into the wild is problematic and most likely a death sentence. As such, those already in captivity are doomed either way. However, if we stop going to Sea World and to all the parks like it; and/or if the government outlaws this inhumane practice, then the owners and management will stop breeding them or buying them. They will be forced to end the shows and allow their captives to live out the rest of their lives in peace. And eventually, in 10 years or so, there will be no Orcas left suffering in cement tanks anywhere in the world.

NOTE: I will be traveling for a few weeks and unable to post. I'll see you on the flip side.

Gloomy Update On Captive Orca

2011-08-18T06:03:00.008-05:00

My previous posting noted the sad story of a young female Orca captured a year ago in the North Sea and kept in a small cement tank at the Dolfinarium at Harderwijk in Amsterdam ever since. Animal rights activists have brought legal action against the Dolfinarium to prevent them from selling her to an amusement park in Spain and the matter is currently under review by a Dutch court. The Orca was given the name 'Morgan' which means 'from the sea' in old Welsh but it is unlikely she will ever see the ocean again.

Unfortunately, the latest news out of Amsterdam is not good. According to a report by nzherald.co.nz the Dolfinarium's management have still not moved Morgan into a larger tank with other dolphins as ordered by the judge, and New Zealand Orca expert, Dr. Ingrid Visser, believes Morgan's mental state is deteriorating rapidly.

That she might be going insane should not come as a surprise to anyone who cares about these magnificent beings. It is a fate suffered by many other captive Orcas who lead foreshortened lives of mind-numbing boredom, physical distress, and mental anguish at sea parks around the globe.

The harsh reality is that this little Orca's future is dim whether she is released or not, and time is running out...

Captive Orcas: Doomed Either Way...

2011-08-08T00:01:00.013-05:00

Pending further study, a court in Amsterdam has blocked the sale of a young female Orca (named Morgan by the Dutch) to a Spanish amusement park but the court stopped short of ordering her to be returned to the North Sea where the then-sick animal was rescued a year ago. While freeing Morgan instead of condemning her to a life sentence in a concrete tank in Spain is a romantic notion, the harsh reality is that this resilient little being is doomed either way.

These are highly social animals: their family group is everything to them; providing food, comfort, and safety, to the exclusion of Orcas from different pods. As such, even if the court rules in favor of Morgan's release, the likelihood of her handlers being able to find her family group is slim: barring that, she has little chance of surviving on her own. Arguably, the alternative is even worse.

Female Orcas can live 80 years in the wild but only 10 years on average in captivity. There are over 40 Killer Whales in marine parks around the globe; two-thirds of these are owned by Sea World. While the Company's management and owners wax eloquent about how their actions have contributed to mankind's knowledge about the species, the truth is that captive Orcas are big business, pure and simple. If millions of people didn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year gawking at Orcas as they perform stupid animal tricks, we wonder how quickly Sea World's corporate altruism would fade?

Whether a Killer Whale is captured in the wild and sold into captivity, or born there, they lead foreshortened lives of mind-numbing boredom, physical distress, and emotional anguish. On several occasions, this has led to Orcas killing their trainers as happened at Sea World Orlando last year when a 12,000-pound male named Tilikum attacked his trainer, drowning her. It was the third such death involving this particular animal.

Sadly, Morgan is doomed no matter which way the Dutch court rules. And meanwhile, the owners of Sea World, and all the other marine parks like it around the world, keep raking in the money...

Dolphin, Heal Thyself.

2011-08-01T00:01:00.005-05:00

"Physician, heal thyself:" Many of you (well, perhaps some of you) are familiar with this proverb spoken by Jesus (Luke 4:23, King James Bible). One interpretation of the full quote in which these words appear is that we should attend to our own failings before criticizing others. (Sadly, this is something that the President and the Congress currently seem oblivious to.) Yet another more literal interpretation is simply that human physicians, while helping others, are often unable to help themselves.

In stark contrast to our own failings as a species, both behavioral and physiological, it appears that dolphins are capable of doing just that. A recent study by a scientist at the Georgetown University Medical Center, as reported by Science Daily (reference below), has indicated that dolphins possess a remarkable ability to quickly heal from serious injuries such as shark bites without suffering infection or significant bleeding, and with apparent indifference to pain. Moreover, as these injuries heal, there is almost complete restoration of their normal body contour.

This is yet another indication of the magic and majesty of dolphins; but even as I say this, the people of Taiji, Japan, are preparing for their annual harvest of dolphins in which they will brutally slaughter 2,000 of these innocent beings. Need I say more about the contrast between our two species?

Reference: Georgetown University Medical Center (2011, July 25). Dolphins' 'remarkable' recovery from injury offers important insights for human healing. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 28, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/07/110721095834.htm

The Evil Eye of Envy

2011-07-25T00:01:00.011-05:00

Two recent news stories provide further evidence of the intelligence and sentience of whales and dolphins, while the reaction of some to the stories confirms the ignorance and arrogance of man.

In the first case, which occurred recently off the coast of California, a humpback whale that had been entangled in fishing nets breached 40 times around the boat of the three men who had cut the nets and saved the whale from certain death. The men interpreted this behavior as an act of both joy and thanks. The second incident, this one in Australia, was sadder but no less revealing. In it, a pod of dolphins surrounded the body of a young man who had tragically fallen into a harbor and drowned. One of the dolphins was seen trying to push the man back to the surface, apparently in a vain attempt to try to save him. These are just two of the many examples of whales and dolphins displaying thoughtful behavior toward humans, several of which have been featured in this blog (e.g., May 10, 2010 & July 31, 2009 postings).

And yet, as touching and telling as these stories are to most of us, they always evoke vitriolic reactions on the part of others who seem threatened by the possibility that humans are not the only thinking and feeling beings on earth. That has proven to be true once again, judging by the angry comments posted on each of these news stories disavowing any anthropomorphic interpretation of the actions by this whale and dolphin. Thankfully, these unhappy few who see the world through the evil eye of envy, and who are afflicted by some deep psychological need for schadenfreude, are the exception not the rule. For those of us who are comfortable with our own place in the universe, and who rejoice in the magic and majesty of whales and dolphins, such stories stir the spirit and soothe the soul.

Because We Can...

2011-07-18T00:01:00.006-05:00

Great toothed whales slowly starve to death, their guts blocked by plastic garbage they have swallowed in seas awash with man's refuse...

Pilot whales strand themselves on lonely beaches, there to die agonizing deaths, their brains fried by Navy sonar...

Killer whales inexorably go insane trapped in confined concrete tanks that are proportionately the same size as prison cells on man's death row...

Baleen whales are slaughtered on the high seas then butchered on blood-covered decks of Japanese, Norwegian, and Icelandic whaling ships...

Adult dolphins are disemboweled alive by uncaring men in a cove in Taiji, Japan, and in the seas surrounding the Faroe Islands...

Baby dolphins die in record numbers in the oil-polluted waters of the Gulf of Mexico...

And on, and on, and on...

Why? Why do we humans do this to the only other creatures that possess a level of intelligence and sentience closely approaching ours?

Because we can, and for that reason this is a sadder planet and we are a lesser people.

Corruption on the High Seas!

2011-07-04T00:01:00.005-05:00

It is a sad testimonial to our time that we see greed and corruption everywhere we look; in business, in government, in schools, and even in houses of worship: so it should come as no surprise to anyone that we also find it on the high seas; or at least in the global organization that is supposedly the protector of the great whales that live therein. The International Whaling Commission, which currently has 89 member nations, issued a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. However, under a scientific research loophole three members have continued to slaughter thousands of whales each year ever since; they are Norway, Iceland and by far the worst offender, Japan. And not only has Japan continued to flaunt this loophole in the face of the anti-whaling movement, but the Japanese government has allegedly been working to get smaller member nations to join with them in having the moratorium lifted. They are doing this by offering aid packages and directly bribing high-ranking individuals in these countries.

If Japan succeeds in this monstrous effort, the oceans of the world will literally be awash once more in the blood of tens of thousands of the most majestic creatures that ever lived, and there will be nothing that you or I can do to stop it. But right now, it is not too late for those of us who care about the great whales to do our part in saving them.

The IWC will hold their annual meeting from July 11 through the 14, on Jersey in the Channel Islands, and it is encouraging to note that the British Government has embarked on a concerted effort to clean up the corruption in the IWC. Those of you who live in Great Britain should show your support for your government's noble efforts; and all of you who live in one of the other member nations (the list is available on line) should reach out to your government and demand that they add their support to the British efforts.

Please do it now! This is not just about stopping corruption in the IWC: it is about saving the lives of countless whales that will otherwise be persecuted without mercy or respite.

Dolphins Do Double Freqs.

2011-06-27T00:01:00.005-05:00

Yikes! Science Daily reports that researchers from Sweden and the US have discovered that dolphins and porpoises are capable of sending out high-frequency sound, or ultrasound, at two different frequencies at the same time (see reference below). Dr. Josefin Starkhammar is an obviously brilliant newly minted PhD in Electrical Measurements at Lund University. She developed a device with 47 hydrophones that facilitated this incredible discovery. (She also has a Master's degree in Engineering Physics). She states that this dual echolocation ability enables dolphins to better locate objects. I suspect that there is much more to it than simply finding their dinner, and Dr. Starkhammer admits that "...we humans have a lot to learn from dolphins." Notwithstanding her appropriately objective understatement, it is exciting to see that science continues to push the boundaries of our understanding of these remarkable beings. Someday we might even learn their language and who knows what they will be able to teach us then! I bet they won't make us perform stupid people tricks...

Reference: Lund University (2011, June 8). Dolphins use double sonar: Researchers discover that dolphins can generate two sound beam projections simultaneously. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 26, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/06/110607112338.htm

Seas Run Red with Blood Again

2011-06-20T00:01:00.007-05:00

Just when we thought that the great whales were safe from the exploding harpoons and long knives of Japanese 'research' ships, death stalks them on the high seas once more. This time it is in the Pacific not the Southern Ocean where many will die a gruesome and violent death. The Japanese whaling fleet cut its 2010-2011 season short in February after slaughtering 172 whales, 20% of their normal kill. This was mainly due to the continuing efforts of Paul Watson and the members of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society; intrepid sailors who risk their lives to harass the whalers. It was a short-lived victory. Last week, Japan announced that it has sent out its whaling fleet to the northwest Pacific to kill another 260 whales for 'scientific research' purposes.

As this blog has noted many times before, this mindless slaughter will continue unabated in the face of worldwide condemnation; not because there is a commercial use for whale meat or any scientific value in butchering whales; there is none for either. It is because the conflict has devolved into what the Japanese government sees as an imperialistic assault upon their culture. And until the good and decent people of Japan demand that their government put an end to this barbaric practice, no amount of pleading, cajoling, or threatening by foreigners will stop the killing. And so it is that the seas will once again run red with the blood of these magnificent, sentient, and intelligent beings.

Orcas In Death Row Cells

2011-06-13T00:01:00.003-05:00

As reported by Margaret Munro of Post Media News, in late 2009 a Canadian biologist was able to place a satellite tracking device on the dorsal fin of an Orca off the Admiralty Island in the Canadian Arctic. That autumn, the Orca was tracked as it swam from the Arctic to the Azores in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 5,400 kilometres. Similarly, Killer Whales in the Pacific have been known to swim from Alaska to California. These impressive journeys are an indication of the freedom of the seas that Orcas in the wild enjoy.

In stark contrast, the show tank in which SeaWorld Orlando makes its Orcas perform stupid animal tricks measures approximately 45 metres across. And the tanks where they keep these huge members of the dolphin family when they are not performing are less than half that size, some even smaller. SeaWorld will tell you that these tanks exceed the minimum requirement set by the USDA, which is 14.6 metres (as if that is something to be proud of). Tillikum, the adult male Orca who killed his trainer last year at SeaWorld Orlando, and who had been implicated earlier in the deaths of two other humans, is 7 metres in length: how long do you think it takes him to reach the far side of his tank? Could this be a factor in his mental torment and lethal behavior?

Ironically, it is interesting to note that the government's space requirement for captive Orcas is proportionately the same as the penal system allots to prisoners on death row. To keep these magnificent, intelligent, and sentient beings in tiny concrete prison cells constitutes cruel and unusual punishment and should be banned. Unless and until the government does something about it, you can help by boycotting SeaWorld Orlando, and all other parks like it.

No Chance To Say GoodBye

2011-06-06T00:01:00.004-05:00

It has only been five years since the Australian Snubfin Dolphin was recognized as a separate species but the government's Threatened Species Scientific Committee is concerned that the Snubfin is on the verge of extinction. Found exclusively in the coastal waters off Northern Australia, it is only two meters in length with brown coloring on top, lighter brown on the sides, and a white belly. It has a bulbous head with a flexible neck and a small, snubby dorsal fin that is the reason for the name that we humans have given it. By their appearance and behavior, they are very appealing little beings and for those of you who have read The Tempest's Roar, I am certain that Pan would have loved knowing them. But before Pan or any of us ever get that opportunity, they will likely vanish forever. And we won't even get a chance to say goodbye...

The Gift That Keeps On Giving

2011-05-30T00:01:00.005-05:00

It has been over a year now since BP's Deepwater Horizon well flooded the Gulf of Mexico with 5 million barrels of oil but the horrible gift BP gave to the Gulf just keeps on giving in so many ways; not the least of which is the alarmingly high death rate among Bottlenose Dolphins. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has reported that over 150 dolphin carcasses have washed up on Gulf coasts since January. Scientists attribute this unusually high number directly to the effects of the BP oil spill and the dispersants used to clean it up. And who knows how many other dolphins have died as a result of this disaster but whose bodies have sunk to the oil slime covered sea floor.

BP executives and shareholders have moved on, regaining their six figure bonuses and dividend payments respectively, but sadly dolphins continue to die. And while BP executives measure time in fiscal years, and their shareholders mark the passage of their lives in decades, the time it will take to repair the damage that BP has done to the once pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico can be measured in centuries.

Fish Eaters Beware

2011-05-25T07:20:00.007-05:00

Two new studies confirm that the levels of toxic pollutants, including PCBs, PBDE flame retardants and DDT, are accumulating at an increasing rate in the bodies of dolphins and whales. Known as persistent organic pollutants, or POPs, they have been linked to cancer, neurological damage, and birth defects in both animals and humans. In particular, these deadly chemicals have been found in large amounts in the blubber of Bottlenose Dolphins. Ironically, since humans eat many of the same species of fish that these dolphins do, these pollutants caused by man are now coming full circle back to kill him. I suppose there is justice in that. So all you fish eaters out there beware; that spare tire that you are carrying around your waist will kill you in more ways than one.

A Crack In The Ice

2011-05-16T00:01:00.001-05:00

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) reports that the Icelandic whaler who has slaughtered nearly 300 endangered Fin Whales over the past five years is 'hanging up his harpoon'. The man will not be named here because such a cruel and insensitive person does not deserve recognition; especially since his reason for stopping is financial. Apparently his sale of whale meat to Japan has been disrupted by their recent tsunami tragedy, and there is no longer any market for whale meat in his country. It is too bad that his decision was not made out of a realization of the barbarity of his past practices, but at least he is stopping. Perhaps with this crack in the ice, more of his peers in Iceland and Norway will follow his lead.

Lord of the Rings meets Finding Nemo

2011-05-09T00:01:00.000-05:00

I am donating 100% of the royalties I receive on the next 5,000 copies (paperback or digital) that I sell of The Tempest's Roar, to organizations whose goal it is to save the whales and dolphins. And I would like to encourage you to buy my book to help in this cause: it is available at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and other online booksellers in either paperback or digital versions (the Kindle and Nook versions are currently selling for $3.19).

Among those who have read it I think one reviewer said it best when he described it as Lord of the Rings meets Finding Nemo. To learn more about this story that blends scientific fact with speculative fiction and thereby appeals to both the head and the heart, please go to my website at www.rarclouston.com

DO...YOU...SPEAK...ENGLISH???

2011-05-02T00:01:00.004-05:00

Did you ever notice that when Americans (and to be fair, sometimes even the British or their Colonial cousins) try to communicate with someone who doesn't speak English, they always talk v--e--r--y s--l--o--w--l--y or REALLY, REALLY LOUD? It's as if they expect that by doing this the other person is suddenly going to smile and say "Oh that! Why didn't you say so?"

To me that's akin to the guy in California who takes people out in his catamaran with an underwater pod and let's them play different sounds, including previously recorded whale song, over speakers to see if passing whales or dolphins react.

Can't you just imagine what the whales must think of this. Picture this, two Humpbacks are out there gulping down anchovies by the gazillions, and along comes this catamaran filled with tourists. Here is what the conversation between the whales might sound like. "Oh God, here come those stupid humans again. Just watch, they're going to play that annoying conversation they recorded of a Grey Whale last week and expect us to roll over and let them scratch our bellies."

Poor whales. Silly us. Do Berlitz or Rosetta Stone offer a course in Whalish??? No? Pity!

A Sad Day For The Sea And The Planet

2011-04-26T00:01:00.006-05:00

Friday, April 22nd, 2011, was a sad day for those of us who love the sea and the whales and dolphins who rule over its dominions. On that day, SeaWorld Orlando debuted their new Killer Whale show, which they have presumptuously and insensitively named 'One World.' Their spin-doctors describe it as a grand spectacular of lights, and music, and fountains...and oh yes, Killer Whales, who they call the 'ambassadors of the sea.' They go on to claim that its purpose is to excite, and educate, and inspire their guests to make a difference in the world.

Wait! What? To make a difference how? By paying huge sums of money to sit on bleachers and gawk and guffaw while intelligent and sentient beings, who God created to roam the open oceans of the world, perform stupid and demeaning tricks.

The people who own and operate SeaWorld do it because they can: they can because the government allows them to; and they can because their "guests" don't understand the difference between a Killer Whale and a trained monkey in the circus. But Killer Whales know the difference and that's what makes their imprisonment so very sad.

And while these ignorant and uncaring audiences continue to pay money to the wardens of these liquid prisons, magnificent ocean beings remain locked away in tiny concrete tanks where they lead shortened lives of mind-numbing boredom and mental anguish. For this, we are a lesser race and this is a lesser planet.

The Humpback Hit Parade

2011-04-21T00:01:00.003-05:00

Building upon the musical theme of my previous posting, albeit on a happier note (pun intended), a study conducted by graduate students at the University of Queensland, and reported online in Current Biology, reveals that male Humpback Whales within a specific population all sing the same mating song at any given time. (Gosh, you'd think that at least one of these big boys would want to sing his own tune to stand out from the rest of the gang; but then again, perhaps female Humpbacks aren't too particular as long as their prospective mates can carry a tune, any tune.)

The researchers report that these "cultural waves" spread across the ocean as they are copied by whales in other populations, in what amounts to a Humpback hit parade. And just like with their human counterparts, when one song has gained ocean wide popularity a new song will appear to replace it.

As Pan, the little Harbor Porpoise, and co-star of my book, The Tempest's Roar, might say, "Pleases us. Pleases us," because to him, whalesong is the most beautiful sound any sentient being can hear on this tiny blue space marble that we call Earth but whales know as Planet Ocean.

The Amazon River Dolphin Song

2011-04-18T00:01:00.004-05:00

In 1946, Frank Sinatra was the first to record "The Coffee Song," a novelty song that contains the well-know line, "They've Got An Awful Lot of Coffee In Brazil." Over the years numerous other artists have performed the song, including Louis Prima, Sam Cooke, Rosemary Clooney, and the Muppets to name a few. The song's humorous lyrics and catchy tune can always be counted on to bring a smile to those who hear it. But sadly, today far more depressing lyrics could be put to that familiar tune because catfish fishermen on the rivers of the Amazon rain forest have discovered that the strong odor given off by the flesh of the Boto, or River Dolphin, attracts catfish: as a result, thousands of these beautiful pink, bluish gray, or off-white creatures are being slaughtered every year to be used as bait. Recently, one fisherman joked that he often harpoons these dolphins "just to be mean." Such brutality is illegal in Brazil but the government's environmental protection agency has too few agents to cover the entire country and the killing goes on unabated. So the next time that you hear this song, I suggest that you substitute the following lyrics to remind yourself of this tragic reality because "They Kill An Awful Lot of Dolphins In Brazil"

Orca Watching Is Cool, Eh?

2011-04-14T08:11:00.003-05:00

First, let me state that I was born in Canada and although I have lived in the United States for most of my adult life I still love the land of my birth. There are too many good things about that majestic country north of the 49th parallel to list here...but the regulations that the Canadian government currently has in place regarding Killer Whale watching are not among them!

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has so far not announced whether they will adopt the same regulations recently put in place by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: specifically, starting next month all boats are prohibited from approaching Orcas any closer than 180 metres(commercial vessels are exempt which is another story)whereas in Canadian waters boaters may still come within 100 metres.

Since Orcas know no international boundaries, I hope that the Canadian government will adopt the same restrictions, and I urge the many Canadian readers of this blog to contact Fisheries and Oceans Canada and urge them to do so.

Watching Orcas from a boat or kayak is cool: I know because during the summer that I worked in Namu, B.C. when I was in college(a very long time ago), I got up close and personal to Orcas many times; but if I were to do it today I would do so from afar. Let's hope everyone, Canadian and American alike will follow suit.

A Norwegian April Fools' Joke

2011-04-11T00:01:00.003-05:00

April 1st was the start of the annual whaling season in Norway, one of only three countries that continue to defy the 1986 ban on commercial whaling; the other two being Iceland and Japan. Since Norway allowed whaling to begin again in 1993, nearly 10,000 whales have been brutally slaughtered. Contrary to what the captains in their 20 ship fleet would have you believe, the killing of whales is a cruel and brutal procedure that but for the fact that it occurs miles at sea, would sicken any decent human being who witnessed it. However, in an outrageous display of arrogance, intolerance, and stupidity, the Norwegian government does not consider such cruelty as sufficient grounds to halt this barbaric practice.
My ancestry is Norse and the male line of my family can trace our history in an unbroken line back to the first recorded Earl of Orkney, Rognvald the Powerful, a Norseman who lived in the 9th Century A.D. However, as this slaughter is once again being perpetrated upon these magnificent and sentient beings, I am not proud of my heritage.
And the irony in all this is that less than 5% of Norwegians eat whale meat. So who is the bigger fool; the Norwegian government that allows this unwanted slaughter to continue, or the other 95% citizens who enable it through their apathy?

Killer Whale v. Great White Shark

2011-03-18T00:01:00.002-05:00

What's the difference between a Killer Whale and a Great White Shark? Some of you might answer, a brain; but you would only be half right.

Orcas are intelligent, sentient, sociable beings capable of reasoning, planning, problem solving, thinking abstractly, comprehending complex ideas, learning quickly, learning from experience, collaborating through communication, and perhaps most intriguing of all, playing, as a triathlete in New Zealand recently discovered. While swimming 80 meters offshore she looked down and saw "a big black and white face looking up at me." After frantically getting back on land, she realized that the Orca was simply curious and wanted to play. On the other hand, Great White Sharks are little more than a life support system for a gruesome mouth, and had this woman's encounter been with one of these mindless eating machines it would have ended differently; horribly so.

Having said this, Great White Sharks possess something that far too many Orcas do not, which is freedom. This is because these sharks die immediately in captivity and cannot be kept in sea parks. Orcas also die in captivity, long before their time, but not right away. Instead they are doomed to suffer years of mindless boredom, physical hardship, and mental anguish. And lest you think that the capture of Orcas in the wild is prohibited, both Japan and Russia have recently begun allowing it again; dooming more of these magnificent creatures to a slow and cruel death, all for our entertainment.

And that, my friend is the real difference between the Killer Whale and the Great White Shark...FREEDOM!

P.S. I'll be traveling for a few weeks and unable to post...see you on the other side.

Arrogance, Intolerance and Stupidity

2011-03-14T04:38:00.008-05:00

According to Chuck Tompkins, curator of zoological operations for Sea World parks, steps are being taken to get trainers back into the water with Killer Whales, one year after Tilikum, one of the captive Orcas in their Orlando park, killed a trainer (see my blogs in February, 2010). He says that they have spent tens of millions of dollars on safety equipment to protect the trainers, as well as on 'retraining' the Orcas. All this is being done despite findings by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)that Sea World was reckless in allowing humans into the water with the Killer Whales: a finding Sea World is currently fighting.

The tragedy in all this goes far beyond the caring and talented woman who died last year doing what she loved;

-beyond the magnificent creatures doomed to spend foreshortened lives in tiny concrete tanks performing stupid animal tricks;

-beyond the gawking audiences who are either oblivious to, or apathetic about, the physical hardships and mental anguish these animals suffer;

-beyond the employees of these parks who mean well and do not intentionally inflict harm upon their captives;

-beyond the owners and management of these parks who must answer to their shareholders who expect a positive return on their investment;

Sadly, the greatest tragedy in all this is that we as human beings have deceived ourselves into believing that we are the only intelligent, sentient beings on this planet; and that we have the God-given right to do anything we want, whenever we want, to the earth, and to the skies, and to the seas.

As I wrote in my morality tale, 'The Tempest's Roar',"...when we have all been dead ten thousand years, there will be nothing left to mark our passing except barren lands and empty seas; and in between on lonely shores, living stones will cry out in silence the three words that will serve as our collective epitaph; Arrogance, Intolerance and Stupidity."

The Fourth Monkey

2011-03-11T00:01:00.004-06:00

Many of you recognized the proverbial principle of the three wise monkeys in the previous posting. Some of you know that the source of this maxim is a 17th century carving over a door in the Tōshō-gū shrine in Nikkō, Japan. The three monkeys are Mizaru, who holds his hands over his eyes and sees no evil; Kikazaru, who covers his ears and hears no evil; and Iwazaru, who holds his hands over his mouth and speaks no evil. However, what you may not know is that there is actually a fourth monkey. His name is Shizaru, and he holds his arms across his chest to symbolize that he does no evil.

That said, the answer to the riddle is that none of the three monkeys were allowed into heaven. In a telling twist of fate, the fourth monkey was also on the bus and he too was killed but unlike the other three he was welcomed into heaven. The reason is that he never, ever went to the sea park: he knew that by paying money to see the Killer Whale perform stupid and demeaning tricks reinforced the evil behavior of the cruel and greedy humans who owned the park.

Please remember this parable the next time you think about going to a sea park where Killer Whales are held captive. It is not enough to see no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil; you must do no evil.

Riddle of the Three Monkeys and the Killer Whale

2011-03-08T00:01:00.009-06:00

One day, three monkeys went to an oceanarium. They sat down on a bench in front of a tank in which a Killer Whale was swimming in mindless circles and being made to perform stupid and demeaning tricks.

The first monkey whose name was, See No Evil, believed that it was cruel to keep such a magnificent creature imprisoned in a tiny tank where it would die long before its time. So he kept his eyes covered so that he would not have to witness the Killer Whale's mental anguish and humiliation.

The second monkey, whose name was Hear No Evil, liked looking at the Killer Whale: he had fun when he came to the sea park and didn't want to listen to what the first monkey was saying so he kept his ears covered.

The third monkey whose name was Speak No Evil knew a human who worked as a trainer at the oceanarium; his friend told him that everything the first monkey said was true: but he was afraid that the evil men who owned the sea park would fire his friend if he said anything so he kept his mouth covered.

The next day these three monkeys were riding in a bus that was hit by a truck and all three were all killed. Which monkey do you think got into heaven?

For the answer you'll have to wait until the next posting...

The Voice of God?

2011-03-04T06:20:00.004-06:00

Scientists believe that there is a lone baleen whale somewhere out there in the oceans of our world whose song is so low that others of its kind cannot hear it. This unique whalesong was first recorded by hydrophones in 1989 at a frequency of 51.75Hz, which is just above the lowest note on a tuba, and has been tracked many times since. The scientists say that baleen whales, such as blue, fin, and humpback, communicate with each other using sound between 12 and 25Hz, and they conclude that this whale, whom they have named 52Hz, must be all alone, without friends, or family, or a mate because it sings so low.

However, I submit that there may be another explanation: perhaps, just perhaps, we are not the only intelligent and sentient beings on this tiny blue space marble who believe in and pray to a Supreme Being; and if you are willing to suspend disbelief and accept this notion, then maybe what the hydrophones are picking up is not whalesong, but the voice of God.

Offshore Orcas Eat Sharks

2011-03-01T08:09:00.008-06:00

In my novel, The Tempest's Roar, I wrote the following:

"Pan knew there are three types of Killer Whales that roam the seas; the first, are a noisy and sociable group who eat only fish. Man calls them Resident Orcas. The second type is reclusive and far more dangerous to other beings than sharks. This is because they eat only mammals, including other beings, in direct violation of the Fifth Commandment. These cannibals are called Transient Orcas and they are the pariahs of whalekind. Much is known among beings and man about both these types of Killer Whales. However, this is not the case with the third type of Orca, for they are a breed apart. They live far out in deep, bluewater and never interbreed with the other two types. And there is one major difference compared to the other kinds of Orcas, which is that although this third type occasionally kill and eat mammals like seals, walruses and sea lions, they never, ever eat other beings. In fact, their preferred prey are sharks. Man refers to this third kind as Offshore Orcas, and they are a fierce and noble breed best left alone by man."

As far as I knew there was no evidence to support this, however, something told me that it was true so I took poetic license and made the statement. You can imagine my surprise and delight when I read that this was indeed the case, as you can see from this excerpt from a January 17, 2011 article by Larry Pynn in the Vancouver Sun:

Headline: Orcas off B.C's coast love the taste of shark.

"A mysterious population of offshore killer whales in B.C. are specialists at killing sharks — to the detriment of their teeth — marine scientists have discovered in a landmark study.
Scientists have long known that resident killer whales depend on fish, especially salmon, and that transient killer whales exist on marine mammals such as seals and sea lions.
But the diet of offshore killer whales — first identified on the B.C. coast in 1989 — has remained largely a mystery due to their wide-ranging and distant movements."

I offer this to hopefully induce you to read The Tempest's Roar, which is available in both soft cover and as an e-book at leading on-line booksellers. I think you will find it an enjoyable read. Its central message is to highlight the damage mankind is doing to the oceans and, in particular, to enlist support for all save the whales organizations. To that end I will donate any and all royalties that I receive from the sales of this book to these organizations up to the first $10,000 I receive, and possibly even far beyond that. So please buy the book.

A Simple Coincidence?

2011-02-25T13:41:00.008-06:00

It is disheartening to note that over the past two months, forty-eight dolphins of all ages have been found dead on the beaches of the northern Gulf of Mexico, from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle. Tragically, twenty-nine of these were fetal-size calves, which compares to two of these 'unusual mortality' events during an entire normal year.

State and federal officials and marine scientists have been quick to point out it is too soon to link this tragic occurrence to the BP oil spill. It is appropriate that they should take such an objective approach, and indeed it may be nothing more than a simple coincidence...just like the purported link between cigarettes and cancer, cell phones and brain tumors, crack cocaine and crime, CEO salaries and employee layoffs and a host of other connections that industry mouthpieces continue to deny. That said, sadly there is nothing we can do about it. The oil residue and toxins are out there in those once lovely waters where they will remain for years, and possibly decades, to come.

Meanwhile, BP's profits in the 4th Quarter of 2010 jumped by 30% and the London-based company has announced that it is resuming dividend payouts again for the first time since the oil spill. And while corporate executives and BP shareholders celebrate, baby dolphins will continue to die...

Plus que ça change...

2011-02-22T14:48:00.003-06:00

Plus que ça change, plus que c'est la même chose - the more things change the more they stay the same.

Hi there...I'm back. It's been nearly nine months since I last posted on this blog but I have decided to start again. My love of whales and dolphins, and my anger and sadness at the way we treat them, has brought me back to speak out on their behalf.

Sadly,a quick survey of the headlines shows me that very little has changed since I left, to wit:

SeaWorld continues to deny that keeping Orcas trapped in tiny concrete tanks is cruel and unusual punishment, and the root cause of numerous attacks on trainers that have occurred there and elsewhere over the years; and now they are seeking to have a Federal judge seal forever from the public eye the testimony of experts in the investigation of the fatal attack that occurred one year ago this week in Orlando. If they are so sure of their position, what are they afraid of?

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is taking credit for the Japanese cutting short this year's whaling operations in the Southern Ocean, as perhaps they should. However, if anyone thinks that this is the end of whaling by the Japanese they are sadly mistaken. It was never about the whale meat. It is about what they see as an assault on their culture and they will be back. Count on it...

Some blue crab fisherman in Florida butchered the carcass of a Pygmy Sperm Whale that washed ashore. He said he planned to eat it. Perhaps if there is reincarnation, he will come back as a sea lion pup in South Africa's Shark Ally when the Great Whites are feeding...

An aquarium in Hong Kong plans to capture up to a dozen Beluga Whales and doom them to a life of captivity in what the CEO of the park claims is an effort to build public support for the conservation of these magnificent creatures...Wait! What? Run that by me again.You're doing this to save the Beluga...why not start by saving these twelve?

I could go on but that's enough for now. You catch my drift. Whales and dolphins keep struggling to survive in the face of human stupidity, greed, and worst of all, simple apathy. We can't do much about the first two, but along with others who care, this blog will attempt to address the latter.

See you next time....

Good Bye And Good Luck

2010-06-07T07:59:00.004-05:00

I began writing this blog a year ago and during that time, it has been read over 3,600 times by people living in 57 countries around the world; people like you who care about whales and dolphins. I sincerely appreciate your patronage but I must confess that I wish I could have reached many, many more of you. I suppose that with the catastrophes, corruption, and chaos that mankind is currently facing, the plight of whales and dolphins is just not that important. Therefore, I have decided to take a hiatus from writing this blog; quite frankly, I do not know if I will ever be back. In parting, I will leave you with a poem from my book, The Tempest’s Roar: it is a prayer for all those in peril on the sea, including the whales and dolphins with whom we share this planet; this tiny blue marble drifting silently through space that we call Earth but they know as Planet Ocean.

Oh Great And Restless Sea

Hear us oh great and restless sea,
oh wondrous ocean deep and wide.
Your boundaries all beings keep,
your storms and tempests we abide.
Pray let us pass in the days to come,
free from thy wrath, safe on thy tides.
That we may cross thy mighty plains,
and suffer not like those who died.
And in the end, with our journey done,
may we to thee simple sojourners be.
Once here in time and place, then gone,
from thee oh great and restless sea.

Take care all, perhaps one day we will meet again…

You Humans Are A Curious Lot

2010-06-03T08:19:00.003-05:00

Four million years ago, when your ancestors first walked erect, you were herbivores. By that time, my ancestors, the earliest whales and dolphins, had been swimming through the oceans for over forty million years, and the interaction between our two species was minimal. Two million years later, you became hunter/warriors, running around on your two little feet, clubbing and stabbing to death anything and everything that walked or crawled on land, including your fellow man; but still the interaction between us was limited. Ten thousand years ago, the inevitable happened: you took your killing ways to sea and began hunting my kind, but your methods were primitive and posed no serious threat to us. Thus, for nearly four million years, we co-existed peacefully.
But all that changed in the early 17th century when you began whaling on a commercial scale, and by the 19th century, you had taken your predatory skills to a whole new level, literally slaughtering hundreds of thousands of my kind. For nearly four centuries, this butchery continued unabated, driving many of us to the edge of extinction; until finally in 1986, a caring majority of you decided to bring commercial whaling to an end…sort of. Tragically, some among you, those living in Japan, Iceland, and Norway, still believe that it is their God-given right, their cultural prerogative, to perpetuate the slaughter.
And yet, even as this brutal bloodlust continues, others among your kind work passionately to bring the killing to an end through brave acts on the high seas, proposals submitted to the International Whaling Commission, and legal action brought before the International Court of Justice. You humans are a curious lot; the same DNA that makes some of you cold-blooded killers, makes others peacemakers. And meanwhile, caught squarely in the middle, my kind watches, and waits, and hopes…

Marine Mammals In The Military

2010-05-31T07:15:00.004-05:00

On this Memorial Day, it is appropriate to note that the United States Navy will soon begin using Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins and California Sea Lions to guard Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington State, which serves as the home base for eight of the Navy’s ballistic-missile submarines, two cruise-missile subs, and one fast-attack sub. Reportedly, the dolphins and sea lions were trained by the Navy’s Marine Mammal Program in San Diego and will soon be moved north to Kitsap. Their primary mission will be to detect terrorist swimmers or divers and assist in their capture. It is a sad testimony to our time that such a use of marine mammals is necessary; however, using them to assist in the war against terrorism is a far more noble and justifiable purpose than allowing them to be enslaved in aquariums for entertainment purposes. As such, we wish the Navy well in their efforts to keep safe their nuclear submarines, which are a key part of the might and right that holds back the dark cloud of evil that seeks to destroy our world. May God bless all the men and women who serve in the United States armed forces, and in those of free nations everywhere.

Life Imitating Art

2010-05-28T07:30:00.006-05:00

The catastrophe that is unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico is a stunning example of the harm and havoc that man is wreaking upon the oceans of the world. And while some of you may take a few minutes out of your busy lives to look on with concern as others struggle to contain the river of black death that is spreading through the Gulf, it is the creatures who live in those once pristine waters who will suffer for decades and perhaps centuries to come: none more so than the whales and dolphins. Despite this continuing assault on the domain of these sentient and self-aware beings, they have not sought to harm mankind in return.
But what if there comes a day when whales and dolphins turn against man? What if they seek to destroy you as you continue to destroy their world, through either the actions of the few or the apathy of the many? This is the premise of my novel, The Tempest's Roar, and the BP disaster is a tragic case of life imitating art. As such, the story has never been more timely, and I urge you to read it. If you do, you will never again look upon the deep blue seas that surround you through the same eyes. Whether you choose to believe it or not, you are not the only intelligent beings on this endangered blue marble drifting silently through space, this place of terrible beauty and untold potential that you call Earth but whalekind knows as Planet Ocean. For more information, please visit http://www.rarclouston.com

Let Me Be Clear

2010-05-26T00:01:00.005-05:00

Let me be clear about my view of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I admire the bravery and strength of purpose these people demonstrate in their efforts to interfere with the Japanese whaling fleet in the Southern Ocean. Their crews risk their lives on that cold and dangerous ocean at the bottom of the world.
However, this tragedy is not about the slaughter of a thousand whales each year off Antarctica, and Sea Shepherd’s ability to save some of them. It has devolved into what the Japanese government and people see as an imperialistic assault upon their culture—an insult to the entire population because of a few die-hard old men caught up in the ways of the past.
Sea Shepherd's actions only serve to widen Japan’s sense of isolation from the rest of the world: a cultural remoteness formed over two millennia that will not be bridged by acts of aggression. Author Richard D. Lewis, in his book, “The Cultural Imperative: Global Trends in the 21st Century,” points out that in any interaction with the Japanese, “What is said is actually of minor importance. How it is said, who says it, and when it is said are the vital ingredients.”
Accordingly, the only way to get Japan to stop the Southern Ocean whale hunt is by allowing them to save face, and that is exactly what the proposal being presented to the IWC in June by the U.S. and other anti-whaling nations will do. As good as Sea Shepherd’s intentions may be, their continued attack on Japan’s whaling fleet has jeopardized this compromise, which will mean that the annual slaughter will continue for many years to come. Now is not the time for confrontation; it is the time for cool heads and calm negotiations. Otherwise all hope is lost.

Whales And Crab Pots...

2010-05-24T00:01:00.008-05:00

Commercial fishermen in Alaska are complaining that Sperm Whales and Killer Whales are stripping their longlines of fish. Now let’s see if I understand the problem: men in fishing boats go out onto the open ocean where these whales and dolphins live, and leave baited hooks on floating fishing lines, sometimes forty miles long. Halibut, sable, skate and other fish are attracted to the bait and bite on the hooks. After struggling for a few minutes, these fish die and hang there. And then along come the Sperm Whales and Killer Whales who strip the lines of these dead fish. Then the fishermen come back, find the fish heads hanging there and get angry at the whales.
But let’s say these same fishermen got off their boats, drove their pickups into the interior, and strung a forty-mile long clothesline from tree to tree with sirloin steaks hanging on hooks every few feet. Don’t you think that grizzly bears and black bears would figure out that this was a free lunch pretty quickly? And bears have one-tenth the brainpower of whales and dolphins, if that.
So here is my message to Alaska's commercial fishermen: if you do not want to lose your fish to whales, stop longline fishing, and go join the crab fishermen on the Deadliest Catch. Whales haven’t figured out how to open crab pots…yet.

Voyeurism At Its Worst

2010-05-21T00:00:00.006-05:00

Two weeks from today, season 3 of the television series Whale Wars will begin. It documents the battle that occurred this past year in the Southern Ocean between the Japanese whaling fleet and the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. I submit that there are three kinds of viewers who will watch this series: the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY, as follows:

The GOOD: these people truly care about whales and believe that Sea Shepherd is helping protect these magnificent creatures. They are not! By saving hundreds of whales this year, Sea Shepherd has ensured that thousands more will die in future years. And by watching this show, those of you in this group are contributing to the perpetuation of the slaughter. Your viewership provides profits (blood money) for the network, and misguided encouragement to Sea Shepherd, all of which further strengthens the pro-whaling movement in Japan. Therefore, I plead with you, the most humane of all humans, NOT to watch Whale Wars.

The BAD: these people do not care about whales at all, and only watch the show because they think Sea Shepherd are noble warriors of the high seas. Sadly, this admiration is totally misplaced, and would be better directed towards the real heroes of society, police officers, firemen, and the military. However, I will not try to reason with you in this group because thinking is not your long suit.

The UGLY. These people only want to see blood and they do not care if its whale blood or human blood as long as the slanting decks and frigid seas are covered with it. The more the better. I will not waste any time or arguments on you. You display voyeurism at its worst and you are a lower form of life than whale lice.

So there you have it, as Whale Wars begins another season, the network gets richer, Sea Shepherd gets more acclaim, and whales will continue to die. And for that reason, you humans are a lesser race and this is a lesser planet.

Winning The Battle But Losing The War

2010-05-18T00:01:00.004-05:00

A small but increasingly vocal minority among the Japanese general population has begun to put pressure on their government to put an end to the so-called ‘research whaling’ that takes place each year in the Southern Ocean. And there are some Japanese politicians at both the local and national level who seem willing to support the proposal currently being worked on by the United States and other anti-whaling countries that would close the loopholes in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling. In return, the principal whaling nations of Japan, Iceland, and Norway would be allowed to conduct limited and tightly monitored commercial hunts in their own coastal waters. Unfortunately, such a compromise will likely fail, and when it does, it will be due in large measure to the shortsighted actions of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Mr. Tadamasa Kodaira, a pro-whaling lawmaker in the governing Democratic Party said that the recent aggressive actions of foreign environmental groups like Sea Shepherd have fanned popular ire, making it impossible for Tokyo to compromise. The operative word there, in case you missed it, is IMPOSSIBLE. Thus, in saving the lives of hundreds of whales in the Southern Ocean this year, Sea Shepherd has doomed many thousands more to death over the years to come. There is a time to fight, and a time to talk. Sea Shepherd obviously does not know the difference: in winning the battle on the high seas they are losing the war. And while men fight, whales die.

I Say Gray. You Say Grey. Let's Hope The Future Isn't...

2010-05-13T00:01:00.002-05:00

Gray (or Grey) Whales have certainly been in the news a lot lately, and not in a positive way. First comes a report from Southern California that the number of sightings of Northern Pacific Gray Whales has dropped alarmingly this year, to about one-fifth of normal. This observation, combined with the fact that the International Whaling Commission in June is going to consider allowing NPG whales to be hunted again, has created concern among all those who care. The California Coastal Commission has pressured NOAA to update the Gray Whale study to determine whether the species is in decline. Unfortunately, these results will not be known until after the IWC makes its decision.
Meanwhile, much to the astonishment of marine biologists, a Gray Whale (gender unknown) has been spotted in the Mediterranean Sea off Israel. Since the North Atlantic population of Gray Whales was hunted to extinction in the 18th Century, it is presumed that this whale swam across the Northwest Passage (now largely free of ice thanks to global warming), through the Atlantic Ocean, and into the Mediterranean. Sadly, the whale appears to be alone and emaciated, which is not good, and the chances for its survival are poor.
With both of these troubling matters preying on your mind, please keep these and all other whales, and dolphins in your thoughts and prayers. Let’s hope our future isn’t gray…or grey.

Great shot, Scott!

2010-05-10T00:01:00.002-05:00

Last week, Scott Landry, director of the Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, saved the life of a female Right Whale in the Great South Channel off Cape Cod. Notwithstanding the unfortunate fact that you humans have to create such teams, I was thrilled to learn that Mr. Landry was able to cut the rope wrapped around the whale’s upper jaw by shooting it with a razor-tipped bolt from a crossbow. Northern Right Whales are endangered and saving the life of even one whale can have a profound impact upon the survival of the species. This type of entanglement in fishing lines happens all too often with the great whales, especially Right Whales, and it invariably leads to infection and a slow, painful death. However, in this case, thanks to the great shooting by Mr. Landry, the whale was freed of its life-threatening noose. Great shot, Scott! By the way, whenever a human saves a whale’s life, a tiny image of the whale is etched upon that human’s soul, which guarantees admission through the gates of heaven. It also works in reverse.

A Cry For Help!

2010-05-04T07:44:00.002-05:00

I am breaking my normal pattern of posting every 3-4 days by issuing this urgent cry today to the readers of my blog in the United States. The House Subcommittee on Insular Affairs, Oceans and Wildlife is currently reviewing the Marine Mammal Protection Act’s provisions for the public display of whales and dolphins, and they welcome public comments until this Friday, May 7th. Please add your voice to those calling for an end to the spectacular cruelty being inflicted upon whales and dolphins at marine parks and aquariums. The captive display of orcas and bottlenose dolphins at the Sea World parks, and beluga whales and white-sided dolphins at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, to name just a few examples, cannot be justified no matter how hard their owners and management try to spin it. Their care and concern for their captives is purely mercenary, and their claim that they are educating the public is both ridiculous and disingenuous. Making a wild animal perform stupid and demeaning tricks that they never do in their natural habitat is hardly a proper education for children. And sentencing these intelligent and sentient beings to a shortened life of mindless boredom and unknowable torment is cruel and despicable.
Here is how you can help: between today and this Friday, May 7th, please email Ms. Katherine Romans, the clerk of the subcommittee hearing (at the address below), and tell her you do not support the continuation of these performance spectacles that serve strictly for audience amusement and park owner profit. Here is your chance to do something noble and decent in a world where these qualities are so sadly lacking. Please act now!
katherine.romans@mail.house.gov/

Looking Up At Mountains Versus Looking Down

2010-05-03T00:01:00.004-05:00

After exploring some 200 of the estimated 45,000 seamounts that dot the ocean floor worldwide, scientists from NOAA and Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi were surprised to learn that these submerged peaks have an abundance of biodiversity. This comes as no surprise to whales and dolphins as we have always known about the profusion of life that exists on these underwater mountaintops, which brings to mind another fundamental difference in the way our two species view our surroundings. I commented about this last October but it bears repeating now: it is how differently we view mountains. You humans are surrounded by peaks that tower over you, making you seem small and insignificant. For you to see the view from their tops you must climb their sides, a journey that is arduous and often fatal. Whereas we spend our lives swimming high above seamounts. From our vantage point, we can see the majesty of a mountaintop—the biodiversity noted in the NOAA/Texas A&M study—while its base holds no appeal for us, because it is rooted firmly in the deeps, where we dare not go. It causes me to wonder if that is why the soul of man is cloaked in darkness and self-pity, while that of my kind is filled with light and hope; you spend your entire lives looking up at mountains wishing you were on top, while we spend our lives looking down on them thankful we are not at the bottom.

1 Down, 128 Million To Go

2010-04-29T00:01:00.004-05:00

I have said that the way to end whaling by Japan is not by attacking their whaling ships, or by hurling invectives at them from the far side of the ocean. Neither of these has worked. These actions and words are seen as an imperialistic assault upon their culture and only serve to further entrench the Japanese government's support for whaling. The only voices that pro-whaling politicians will listen to are those of the people of Japan themselves. And to that end, I am heartened to learn that one such voice has now been raised by a former employee of the Taiji dolphin hunt. She was what they call a 'dolphin trainer' and her job was to select the dolphins that would be sold to aquariums. She did this knowing that those she did not pick would be killed and butchered. Now, many years later, after seeing the film 'The Cove', she has spoken out against this barbaric annual slaughter. In her words, (translated from Japanese), "It is just a small group of hardheaded men who continue the practice of dolphin hunting with the excuse of protecting our culture". She added that, "I think it is about time that we Japanese people open our eyes to what we are doing and what the rest of the world is asking of us." Amen! Hers is only one voice out of 128 million, but it is a start. From her lips to God’s ears, and to the ears of those hardheaded men.

Why Do I Care? Why Should You?

2010-04-26T00:01:00.012-05:00

Today, I will temporarily silence the sincere, sometimes sarcastic, and always unapologetically anthropomorphic voice of the whales and dolphins, on whose behalf I have been speaking passionately now for nearly a year, both in my book, The Tempest’s Roar, and in this blog. Today I want to address you simply as a fellow human being. Recently, I received an email from a leading figure in the ‘Save the Whales’ movement who had never heard of me but had been led to read my blog. He asked me some probing questions; why do I work so hard at this cause…what do I ultimately seek to achieve…who benefits from my writing…and, cutting to the chase, why do I care?

Why do I care? Any intelligent person might ask that same question; why should anyone care about whales and dolphins? A nation at war. A stagnant economy. Acrimonious debates at the highest levels in politics. Corruption and greed rewarded. Life savings slipping away. Homes lost. Dreams fading. Aging parents. Unsettled children. Cancer. Crime. Chaos...Believe me, I understand: life is hard. With all of the above crashing down upon us (me included), why should we care about whales and dolphins? The reason is simple, and it is not because I believe that unlike any other creature walking, crawling, flying, or swimming across the face of this earth, whales and dolphins come closest to us in intelligence, in self-awareness, in feeling, in being afraid of their enemies, in loving their families, and in understanding the meaning of death and dying. I believe all these to be true but there are many who do not.

However, there is one fact that is indisputable: life is short and we are only here once. I believe that to have lived without caring for some cause, without believing in something more important than ourselves, without lifting ourselves up above the trials and tribulations of our daily lives, without trying to make this earth a better place no matter how small our impact may be or that no one will ever know we tried, is never to have lived at all. When we are dust, and no one beyond our grandchildren remembers our names, what we have done in our lives beyond simply passing through time and space, will live forever. That is why I care. And that is why you should too, if not for whales and dolphins for something, somewhere. Do it and your life will have meaning far greater than you know. Do it because you were here.

Between the Devil and the Blood Red Sea

2010-04-22T00:01:00.005-05:00

A small group of anti-whaling nations, including the United States, is currently attempting to broker an agreement that would limit and could potentially end whaling by Japan, Iceland, and Norway. The agreement would allow these three countries to continue whaling for another ten years. The quid pro quo is that they would agree to reduced quotas, restrictions on targeted species, and stricter monitoring, including global DNA tracking of whale products. As is always the case among your kind on matters of critical international importance, the negotiations have generated heated debate and discord as extremists on both sides of the issue are quick to criticize the work of the negotiating committee but slow to offer practical alternatives. Opponents argue that the agreement will 'open the floodgates' to the slaughter and not guarantee the end of whaling after a decade. Proponents say that it is a reasonable first step in the process of ending this barbaric practice forever. The brutal fact is that all efforts to stop whaling to-date have failed, including brave but divisive acts on the high seas, and bluster and bombast on the safe side of the shore. And as this acrimonious debate continues among nations, my kind is caught between the devil and the blood red sea.

Violence Only Begets Violence

2010-04-19T00:01:00.004-05:00

The Japanese whaling fleet has returned home from the Southern Ocean and according to Shigetoshi Nishiwaki, head of the Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research, the fleet was only able to ‘catch’ half of its 1,000 whale ‘research’ goal. Euphemisms aside, he means they were only able to 'slaughter' and 'butcher' half the tonnage targeted for restaurants in Japan, South Korea, and elsewhere including the U.S. as occurred recently in California. Nishiwaki cited the acts of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as the primary reason for this failure. As brave and well-intended as Sea Shepherd’s sailors may be, their actions are seen as an assault on the Japanese culture, and ironically, in saving the lives of 500 whales this season, they have further entrenched the Japanese government’s support for whaling. As such, they are hurting the very cause in which they so passionately believe. The only way to get Japan, Iceland and Norway, to stop this brutal practice is to reach out to ordinary citizens of these countries and get them to work against whaling from within their own society. As with other aspects of human society, in the case of whaling, violence only begets violence. We must ignore the tyranny of the few and instead appeal to the compassion and reason of the many.

If Not You, Who? If Not Today, When?

2010-04-14T00:01:00.004-05:00

Today is Cetacean Day, a day when countries around the world honor whales, dolphins, and porpoises, the intelligent and sentient beings your scientists call cetaceans. If you were not aware of this, you're not alone. Based on the limited coverage in global news media, apparently only the people of Malta and Hawaii are celebrating this event. And it will most certainly get no support in Japan, Iceland, and Norway—three countries who continue to slaughter cetaceans—other than perhaps by having the men in rubber aprons standing on decks awash in whale blood, sharpen their long knives and ring the dinner bell even more loudly.
If I seem cynical, I am. Despite the good intentions of whoever it was who decided to make April 14 a day to celebrate the beauty and majesty of my kind, this noble but little-recognized effort pales in comparison to the continuing cruel and unusual treatment that cetaceans are subjected to around the globe. And I am not just referring to the butchery cited above: I am also talking about the imprisonment of Belugas, Orcas and Bottlenose Dolphins, among others, who are confined in tiny concrete tanks where they live shortened lives of mindless boredom as the free spirit that was hard-wired into them at birth flickers and slowly dies. All in the name of entertainment, masquerading as ‘education’. Sad. So very sad.
So if you really care about my kind on this day set aside by someone somewhere to honor cetaceans, the best thing you can do is to sit down and write a letter to your government, and demand that it stops the killing and captive display of whales, dolphins, and porpoises around the globe. If not you, who? And if not today, when?

Unicorns Are Back: Let's Kill Them.

2010-04-12T00:01:00.005-05:00

In 2004, Canada’s committee on endangered wildlife recommended listing the Narwhal as a ‘species of special concern’, and in 2008, an international study identified this spiral-tusked whale as the species most susceptible to the effects of retreating Arctic sea-ice (contrary to views that polar bears are most vulnerable). Against this ominous backdrop, six researchers from Canada, the U.S., and Greenland developed a new system for counting Narwhals, and have recently concluded that the population in Canada’s northeastern waters is higher than was originally thought. However, in an astonishing display of perverted logic, the project team led by Canadian federal Fisheries and Oceans scientist, Pierre Richard, has concluded that, “there is a large population out there, one that can probably sustain a large hunt.” What! Float that by me again: the number of these beautiful whales who gave rise to the myth of unicorns is higher than you thought so let's go kill them! I can think of several other conclusions that might be drawn from this study, but recommending the slaughter of Narwhals is not one of them. Is there no end to the hubris and blood lust of humankind? I guess not. Watch out polar bears, you may be next.

Hypocrisy in Rotterdam

2010-04-08T00:01:00.004-05:00

It is illegal in the Netherlands to import whale meat. However, this apparently does not prevent those who profit from the slaughter of great whales to move the product of their butchery through the port of Rotterdam. It is hard to understand how the Dutch authorities can draw this distinction. This case involves seven refrigerated containers of meat from endangered Fin Whales killed by whalers in Iceland that were bound for Japan. Before the ship NYK Orion that was transporting the whale meat could depart Rotterdam harbor, activists from Greenpeace who were tipped off to this illegal cargo, chained themselves to the ship’s anchor line. However, despite their heroic efforts, it appears that the Dutch Customs office may allow the whale meat to continue on its journey. If they do, these officials will have blood on their hands: not blood from the bodies of the dead whales that once flooded the decks of the Icelandic whale ships; rather it will be blood from the whales’ souls and it can never be washed off. Let us hope that the good people of the Netherlands will not allow their government authorities to become enablers to the brutal and archaic practice of whaling. It is time for all the citizens of the world to see whaling for what it is: murder in the first degree.

Before the Last One Dies

2010-04-06T00:01:00.004-05:00

There is a small porpoise, called the Vaquita, who lives in the clear, warm waters at the extreme northern end of the Gulf of California. It is a beautiful little creature, with a unique body shape and color pattern, a tall dorsal fin, and dark eye rings that have given it the name, ‘Panda of the Sea’. If you saw one you could not help but fall in love with it; but soon, very soon, no one will ever see a Vaquita again. There are only 100-150 left in the wild and none in captivity, where they do not do well or breed. It is the world’s most endangered marine mammal and it is vanishing before our eyes. Every year, as many as half the population of Vaquitas become entangled in gillnets and drown, and reproduction cannot keep up with this attrition rate. But it is not too late to save them from extinction. Here is how you can help:

1. Write letters to your government, or to the United Nations, in support of the Vaquita conservation efforts by Mexico’s Ministry of Environment.
2. Do not buy shrimp or fish caught in gillnets, and support fishermen who do not use gillnets.
3. Tell your friends, and all those who will listen, about their story.
4. Donate to the Vaquita Recovery Fund at,
Cetos Research Organization
c/o Cetos Atlantic/Ann Zoidis
11 Des Isle Avenue
Bar Harbor, ME 04609
And visit www.cetosresearch.org

Please help before the last one dies, and the light of yet another species is extinguished forever.

A Time for Thanks

2010-04-01T00:01:00.004-05:00

Today is not the time for criticism of those among your kind who persecute whales, dolphins, and porpoises. Instead, on this the eve of the holiest three days of the Christian year, and during the week-long Jewish festival of Passover, it is a time for us all to give thanks: thanks for the salvation of those who see Jesus as the son of God; thanks for the salvation of the ancient Hebrews who escaped from enslavement in Egypt; and thanks for the grace and goodness of those of you who seek to save my kind, both great and small, from extinction. Through your care, and concern, and generous contributions to 'save the whales' organizations, you bring us one step closer to the day when we can peacefully co-exist on this tiny blue marble drifting silently through space that we share. May God bless you and all men and women of good faith everywhere; and may He keep the ‘many’ safe from the evil that still lurks in the hearts of the ‘few’.

Creatures of a Lesser God.

2010-03-29T00:01:00.007-05:00

Japan, Iceland, and Norway are the whaling equivalent of the ‘Axis of Evil.’ However, it is not the ordinary citizens in these countries who are to blame; most are ignorant of the wanton slaughter of great whales that their governments perpetuate on the high seas. Rather it is the government officials who are responsible for their respective departments of fisheries, along with the men who do the actual killing, who are true parasites on the soul of man. And speaking of parasites, let us turn to some other odious creatures who afflict whalekind. First, are the barnacles who attach themselves to the slower moving members of the baleen whales. Your scientists categorize this as ‘obligate commensalism’, because they do not harm their host. I beg to disagree because at best, being heavily laden with thousands of pounds of hard-shell invertebrates adds to the whale’s burden; and at worst, it slows the whale down and makes him easier prey for whalers. Thus, the Ministers of Fisheries in the Axis of Evil are ugly, blind, and self-serving creatures exactly like barnacles. And then there are whale lice. These odious, blood-thirsty crustaceans actually feed upon the living whale's tissue. They are nature's equivalent of the evil men in whaling ships who kill and butcher their victims. Both are louses of the first order. So there you have it, whalers and their government enablers, the lice and barnacles of your kind; truly creatures of a lesser god.

Something Is Wrong With Right Whales

2010-03-26T00:01:00.007-05:00

Something is wrong with Southern Right Whales and scientists among your kind are trying to find out why. Over the past five years, more than 300 whales, mostly young calves, have been found dead in the waters off Argentina’s Patagonian coast. It is the largest die-off of great whales ever recorded, and a cause for grave concern with regard to the recovery of the Southern Right Whale population. The whales were given their name by whalers who considered them to be the ‘right’ whales to hunt because they are such slow swimmers and before this barbaric practice was banned over 45,000 Right Whales were slaughtered around the globe. Sadly, it is estimated that there are only 7,500 Southern Right Whales alive today, and Northern Atlantic and Northern Pacific Right Whales number far less. Scientists from the International Whaling Commission are working with the governments of Argentina and the Province of Chubut to solve this mystery. Let us hope they find the cause and correct it before it is too late. With Japan, Iceland and Norway still butchering great whales, and Denmark lining up to join in the blood fest, it is critical that those of you who care about these magnificent beings do whatever you can to prevent their disappearance from the face of the earth. Please help by financially supporting 'Save The Whale' organizations, by writing your government in support of the ban on commercial whaling, and by telling your friends about this blog and others like it that seek the salvation of whalekind.

All's Fair In Love And War. Not.

2010-03-23T00:01:00.003-05:00

Paleontologists in Italy have analyzed the fossilized skeleton of a dolphin and determined that this ancient ancestor of mine was killed by a shark. By analyzing the teeth marks on the skeleton’s ribs they were able to determine, in gruesome detail, the size of the shark (big) and the nature of the attack (brutal). While this particular dolphin and shark are both extinct, their descendants obviously are not, and such horrific attacks on my kind by these mindless eating machines continue to this day. The only consolation that I take in this unpleasant reality is that my much larger cousins, the Offshore Orcas, delight in eating sharks, especially Great Whites. In addition, whenever we have the numbers in our favor, we dolphins kill every shark we encounter. What is it that you humans say, “All’s Fair in Love and War?” Well, in this case you are half-right. There is no love lost between dolphins and sharks. We are mortal enemies locked in a perpetual state of war. Our survival depends on killing them before they kill us. It is an unfortunate way to live, but then again, you humans know all about that, don't you.

Whale Poop Tells All

2010-03-19T00:01:00.005-05:00

I thought both you and I could use a brief respite from the tragic tone and tough message of my recent postings. Lord knows there is too much pain and sadness in the sea of troubles that separates your world from mine. So today, I will talk about an amusing story that comes to us from Seattle, Washington, where Dr. Brand Hanson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (whew, his business card must be a foot long), has been studying whale poop. Poop you say? Yes, poop I say. You know, those little (little being a relative term), irregularly shaped nuggets of excrement that my kind leaves behind (pun intended). Unlike you humans, we obviously do not have tidy porcelain bowls to collect our waste. Instead, it floats off into the sea, or in this case, into Dr. Hanson’s net. (I hope he has a doctoral candidate to collect it). At any rate, using the poop of my cousins, the Resident Orcas of Puget Sound, Dr. Hanson has determined that they prefer Chinook salmon from British Columbia’s Fraser River to those spawned in rivers further south in the United States. He suggests this is because Fraser River Salmon are fatter but I have another theory: given that the Fraser River salmon are Canadian, they are friendlier than their American counterparts, and therefore more unsuspecting of the Orcas’ intentions. And what do they get for this greater sociability? They get eaten and turned into whale poop. Too bad for them, eh?

An Alternate Universe St. Patrick's Day Wish

2010-03-17T00:01:00.008-05:00

A U.S. District Court in Los Angeles today pronounced sentence on the chef of a sushi restaurant, and on the CEO of its parent company. Both men were convicted in the illegal sale of meat from Sei Whales. When questioned why they had continued to serve whale meat despite knowing it was from an endangered species and prohibited under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the men just shrugged and said that whales are nothing more than big, fat, juicy ocean-dwelling hogs. Apparently, they were unaware that such marine matters are handled within the United States Littoral Waters federal court system, and unfortunately for the accused, its current presiding judge is a Grey Whale whose brother-in-law, a Sei Whale, went missing in the Southern Ocean last year (the Japanese claim they know nothing of his disappearance). The defense attorney for the accused, a Transient Orca who also enjoys eating whale meat, insisted the men were doing nothing more than what is common practice by people in Japan, Iceland and Norway. Despite this argument, a jury made up of Bottlenose Dolphins, Minke and Humpback Whales found the men guilty as charged. As proscribed by the law, the men will be dragged behind a U.S. Coast Guard motor launch through the waters off the Farallon Islands next September at the start of the Great White Shark season. So let it be written, so let it be done!

Something Is Rotten In Denmark

2010-03-15T00:01:00.003-05:00

In Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet (Act 1, scene 4), Marcellus says, “Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” Sadly, in a case of life imitating art, this quote is as apt today as it was during the time of Shakespeare’s ill-fated prince. As evidence of this, I submit the following appalling news item: the government of Denmark has applied to the International Whaling Commission for permission to begin hunting Humpback Whales again. It is not enough that Denmark helped decimate the North Atlantic population of Humpbacks before this archaic and brutal practice was banned, but now that these magnificent creatures are making a slow comeback, the Danes are eager to begin the slaughter again. Apparently, they have heard that the Japanese intend to hunt Humpbacks without the IWC’s permission, and they want their share of the blood fest. Thankfully, the IWC rejected the request…for now. For all you citizens of the world, who abhor this horrific practice, please write your government and demand that whaling be stopped once and for all. If you do not do this now, the seas will soon run red once again with the blood of Humpbacks, and all hope for their kind will be lost. Forever.

"The Cove" Wins an Oscar!

2010-03-12T00:01:00.001-06:00

I am pleased to report that Director Louis Psihoyos’ film, “The Cove”, won the best documentary Oscar on Sunday. It depicts in horrifying detail the annual slaughter of thousands of dolphins by fishermen in the Japanese town of Tajii. The Japanese government defends this brutal practice by saying that dolphins should be treated like other animal food stocks, such as cattle, hogs, and chickens. Obviously, I disagree but you should decide for yourself. Please see the movie. It is available now on DVD. After you do, even if you accept the government's argument(and thereby disregard the extensive scientific evidence that dolphins are sentient and intelligent beings), at the very least, I think you will agree that the dolphins deserve a better death than the horrific fate that awaits them in that cove from hell. While great care is taken by most cultures to harvest cattle, hogs and chickens in as humane a method as possible, the Tajii fishermen make no such effort. Instead, they slice open the dolphins with long knives and laugh as the doomed creatures writhe in agony in water the color of blood. One can only hope that when the movie begins showing in Japan this summer, millions of decent and humane people among the Japanese population will demand that their government puts an end to this barbaric slaughter once and for all.

Killers of the Fourth Kind

2010-03-09T07:27:00.005-06:00

To scientists among your kind, there are three types of Killer Whales; the first are a noisy and sociable group who eat only fish and inhabit fixed territories within coastal waters. You call them Resident Orcas. The second type is far more reclusive and taciturn. They are nomads of littoral seas who eat only mammals, including other dolphins and whales. You know them as Transient Orcas, and these cannibals are pariahs among my kind. Much is known among your scientists about both these types. However, that is not the case with the third type of Orca, for they are a breed apart. They live far out in deep, bluewater and never interbreed with the other two types. Although they eat mammals, their preferred prey are sharks. You refer to them as Offshore Orcas, and they are a fierce and powerful breed best left alone by both your kind and mine.
Having said this, there is another kind of Orca, whom I shall call Killers of the Fourth Kind. These Orcas were captured in the wild and doomed to spend foreshortened lives of mindless boredom and emotional anguish in your aquariums and sea parks; or they were born in those confined concrete tanks and will never know the joy of freedom. Either way, they are the equivalent of those whom you keep on death row, and like them, these Killers of the Fourth Kind have nothing to lose by venting their rage in the worst way possible. They have killed humans before and they will do so again. Count on it.

Not the First and Not the Last

2010-02-26T10:03:00.008-06:00

Two days have passed since the tragic death of the trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, and park management has stated that it was an accidental drowning involving Tilikum pulling the woman’s ponytail, while eyewitness accounts seem to contradict that. Regardless, it was not the first time a captive Orca has attacked a human (as the list below shows), and sadly, it will likely not be the last.

SeaWorld, San Diego/ 1971/trainer attacked by an Orca.
Sealand of the Pacific, Victoria B.C./1991/ trainer killed by Tilikum.
SeaWorld, Orlando/1999/ homeless man found dead in Tilikum’s tank.
SeaWorld, San Diego/1999/trainer attacked by an Orca.
SeaWorld, San Diego/2006/trainer attacked by an Orca (allegedly the 2nd attack in two weeks although park denies it).
Loro Parque, Tenerife/2009/trainer killed by an Orca.
SeaWorld, Orlando/2010/trainer killed by Tilikum.

Proponents of keeping Orcas in captivity say that these attacks are isolated incidents that must be viewed in the context of the thousands of hours during which Orcas have performed over the past forty years, and the millions of people who have enjoyed these performances. What a self-serving and patently mercenary argument. 'The parks make millions, the public is entertained, and the harm to trainers is collateral damage.' As well-intended and sincere as SeaWorld's employees may be, these parks are profit centers pure and simple, and Orcas give them an unlimited license to print money, no matter what SeaWorld's articulate CEO may say.

Meanwhile, the Orcas themselves are doomed to lead shortened, mindless lives in tiny concrete pools, as their dorsal fins droop and the free spirit that was hardwired into their DNA at birth slowly flickers and dies. People, listen to me: these magnificent beings know all too well their fate, and the mental torment that it generates in all of them will continue to be vented by a few in future attacks. This is as much of a stone-cold certainty as are the profits that the parks will continue to drop to their bottom line.

I will be traveling for the next ten days and will not be able to post. But I think it’s better that I do, to allow my disgust with the spectacular cruelty that you humans are inflicting upon my kind to dissipate before we speak again.

A Tragedy For Us All

2010-02-25T06:45:00.001-06:00

The tragic death of a trainer at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida, yesterday is a brutal reminder of what can happen when a wild creature that is free to swim through all the oceans of the world is captured and placed in the narrow confines of a concrete tank, where it is doomed to spend the rest of its life performing stupid tricks for human amusement. May God be with that woman’s family and friends. Below is a posting from last November that bears repeating on this sad occasion:

Spectacular Cruelty

The next time you and your family go to a marine park to gaze and gawk at the Orcas as they are made to perform demeaning tricks, I want you to remember this. The average life span of Orcas in the wild is forty years, and females can live well into their seventies and eighties. Now contrast this with the following fact: the average life expectancy in captivity of an Orca captured in the wild is less than six years. Yes, you read that correctly—six years! And for Orcas born in captivity, it is not much longer. The only blessing for the latter group is that they at least have never known the joy of freedom. Add to this disturbing statistic the fact that of the nearly two hundred Orcas held captive in man’s liquid prisons since 1964, less than one third lived longer than ten years, and only forty-one are alive today. If there is any shred of decency in you, how can you interpret these facts as anything but spectacular cruelty?

Doomed By a Clash of Cultures

2010-02-24T00:01:00.005-06:00

Brave but foolhardy acts of protest on the high seas, and bluster and bombast on the safe side of the shore, will never stop the Japanese from slaughtering my kind, either in the crimson-flecked windspray of the Southern Ocean, or the blood-soaked bays of Tajii. This tragic affair is no longer about the slaughter of tens of thousands of whales and dolphins each year. It has devolved into what the Japanese government sees as an imperialistic assault upon their culture. And Australia’s recent threat to take Japan to the International Court of Justice over their annual Antarctic whale hunts has only served to further widen Japan’s sense of isolation from the rest of the world: a cultural remoteness formed over two millennia that will not be bridged by fast boats or slow courts.
In his brilliant book, “The Cultural Imperative: Global Trends in the 21st Century,” Richard D. Lewis points out that in any interaction with the Japanese, “What is said is actually of minor importance. How it is said, who says it, and when it is said are the vital ingredients.” Unless the Americans, and Australians, and the rest of the anti-whaling world stop shouting, and until the Japanese start listening, my kind will be doomed by this lethal clash of cultures.
I pray that thought leaders on both sides of this contentious debate will see the light; and even though I realize how futile such a prayer may be, that does not lessen its sincerity, or the sense of hope behind it.

The Empty Soup Bowl

2010-02-22T00:01:00.004-06:00

While there is legitimate debate over the cause of global warming, be it the doings of man, or the eternal cycles of nature, and despite the ill-informed guffaws of cynics, cold, hard scientific fact indicates that the world's climate is warming, and along with it the oceans; the primordial soup bowl from which we all arose eons ago. New research conducted by scientists at the University of Otago in New Zealand, and George Mason University, in the United States, confirms that the evolution of whales and dolphins was directly linked to the presence of plankton, the primary converters of sunlight into food in the sea. Other research has long held that the plankton biomass is inversely related to ocean temperature; and therefore, it is safe to assume that as the seas warm, the entire food chain will slowly die, with us whales and dolphins, and oh yes, you humans at the bottom of the empty soup bowl together. See you there…

Fiction, Lies, and Bloodlust

2010-02-18T00:01:00.004-06:00

Under pressure from pro-whaling nations, the International Whaling Commission plans to allow commercial whaling of certain species to begin again once the population reaches 54 percent of the pre-hunting levels. Quite apart from the vileness of this logic (Look, they're back, let's start slaughtering them again before they fully recover), the IWC is conveniently ignoring one crucial issue, namely that the pre-slaughter population estimates are wrong. Dead wrong. For example, they believe that before the ceticide began, Humpback Whales in the North Atlantic Ocean numbered approximately 20,000, and with the current population at about 10,000, whaling will soon begin again. However, genetic research conducted by Stanford University in 2003 indicated that North Atlantic Humpbacks once numbered 20 times that level, or 240,000; and that the global population was actually 1.5 million rather than the IWC projection of 100,000. This hypothesis is substantiated by the discovery of falsified logbooks from whaling nations. New Scientist estimates that during the three-year period of 1959-1961 alone, Soviet whaling fleets killed 25,000 Humpbacks while reporting a kill of 2,700. Tragically, despite these countervailing arguments, Humpback Whales, one of the most beautiful beings that God ever created, are about to be butchered again based on fiction, lies, and bloodlust. And since your kind has proven so adept at killing each other, all hope for my kind is lost.

The Depths of Hubris

2010-02-15T00:01:00.002-06:00

Fact: Humans hunted Humpback Whales nearly to extinction.

Fact: Although still endangered, Humpback Whales are making a slow recovery in the North Pacific, including the waters of Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Fact: Humans spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil in Prince William Sound, 21 years ago, devastating the herring population.

Fact: The herring population has been slow to recover.

Fact: Humpback Whales eat herring.

Conclusion: Humpback Whales are to blame for the slow reappearance of herring. At least that is one theory being postulated by marine scientists in Alaska.

Wait! Run that by me again…Humans nearly wipe out Humpbacks. Humans nearly wipe out herring. But when the herring biomass struggles to recover, you blame it on the whales! Is there no bottom to the depths of your hubris?

Imagine That!

2010-02-12T00:01:00.003-06:00

Scientists from Aberdeen and St Andrews Universities say that they have discovered some incredible behavior on the part of Orcas living in the waters off the Shetland Islands. Specifically, by using underwater microphones they have observed the Killer Whales using low-pitched noise to frighten herring, causing them to bunch up, which allows the Orcas to stun the fish with their flukes before feeding upon them. Wow! Imagine that. I can just picture the scientists bobbing about in their Zodiacs out there on the cold North Sea, saying to each other, How on earth--or better yet, How in ocean--did these poor dumb beasts figure this out? How indeed. Oh well, in fairness I should at least mention that in his reporting on the research, Simon King of BBC2 observed that, “These are sentient animals, with complex family structures, but being so close you really get the sense that there is so much more to these creatures than we currently know.” Good for you, Mr. King. That’s a start. Now if we can just get the rest of mankind to agree, perhaps we could all live together in harmony on this blue space marble you call earth, but my kind knows as Planet Ocean.

First Us, Then You...

2010-02-10T00:01:00.001-06:00

It is bad enough that your kind decided long ago to enslave dolphins and dumb us down into pathetic proxies of our wild counterparts, forced to perform demeaning animal tricks for your amusement, but this really takes the cake (or should I say the herring). An organization with the alphabet soup acronym of SWBGRRC, which stands for Sea World and Busch Gardens Reproductive Research Center, is conducting what they call ‘preferential sex-selection reproductive research for exotic animals’. Say what? You heard me; they are using technology to separate X and Y sperm so that zoological institutions can manage the genetic diversity of their captive animals. Whoa. How exciting! Not only are dolphins no longer allowed to procreate naturally in captivity (artificial insemination lacks a certain ‘je ne sais pas quoi’) but now our keepers can decide the gender of our offspring. And what comes after that? Eye color? Size of dorsal fin? Jumping ability? There is even talk that this technology will have application to control animal diversity in the wild. Oh the wonder of it all! But watch out people, first us dolphins, and then, you.

Oh Great And Restless Sea

2010-02-08T00:01:00.004-06:00

At this very moment, a thousand whales are being butchered in the Southern Ocean by the Japanese whaling fleet. The killers do it not for research as they claim, or for the meat, which they deny. Instead, they do it as a matter of national pride, in defiance of the 'cultural imperialism' of the rest of the world, and neither appeals to reason nor pleas for mercy will ever stop them. And so, in sad tribute to my fellow beings in seas awash with their blood, we dedicate the following poem.

Hear us oh great and restless sea,
oh wondrous ocean deep and wide.
Your boundaries all beings keep,
your storms and tempests we abide.
Pray let us pass in the days to come,
free from thy wrath, safe on thy tides.
That we may cross thy mighty plains,
and suffer not like those who died.
And in the end, with our journey done,
may we to thee simple sojourners be.
Once here in time and place, then gone,
from thee oh great and restless sea.

God bless the innocents and forgive those who persecute them, for this is one world and we must all live in it.

The World Is A Sadder Place

2010-02-04T00:01:00.005-06:00

The body of a male Sperm Whale washed ashore last week on a beach near the small British town of Beadnell, in Northumberland. The whale’s body was 10 meters in length with an estimated weight of 30 tons indicating that he was a young adult. When fully grown both measures would have doubled. Staff from the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) assume that he entered the North Sea by mistake and starved to death because there are relatively few squid in those waters. Had he lived, what an incredible life this whale might have known, powering through all the oceans of the world and diving as deep as 3,000 meters on dives lasting two hours. With his powerful echo-location(or earsight as I call it), just think of the stunning undersea landscapes that he would have known, and incredible adventures he would have had, in that world of eternal darkness where even nuclear submarines dare not go. It was a tragic ending to the life of one of God’s most magnificent creatures, made all the more distressing by the fact that some people have been caught stealing ivory teeth from the carcass. Despite this crass (and illegal) behavior, I hope most of you will agree that today the world is a little bit sadder place because of the premature death of this young whale.

The Navy Gets It Wrong With Right Whales

2010-02-01T00:01:00.004-06:00

Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Savannah, Georgia, in an attempt to stop the United States Navy from building an Undersea Warfare Training Range in the Atlantic Ocean off Jacksonville, Florida. In addition to heavy ship traffic involving extensive mid-range active sonar, this 500 square nautical mile zone will entail hundreds of miles of undersea cables and acoustic devices. Clearly, after 9/11, the Navy must take whatever steps it deems necessary to protect the nation and while this training range may be the right thing to do, it is being done in the wrong place since the location is adjacent to the shallow waters where endangered North Atlantic Right Whales give birth to their calves each year from November to April. It is a brutal fact that whenever whales and warships come together, the whales always lose. Since there are only 300 to 350 Right Whales left on the planet, the death of even one can be devastating, especially when it could have been avoided. We are hopeful that the lawsuit will get the Navy to move their training range; however, we are not optimistic given that in November 2008 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Navy on a similar matter that threatened the lives of whales. It would seem that compromise is a term not found in U.S. Navy training manuals.

A Freedom He Will Never Know

2010-01-28T00:01:00.002-06:00

The Shedd Aquarium in Chicago announced this week that beginning at noon this Sunday, visitors will be allowed to see the male Beluga Whale that was born at the aquarium in December. While the people operating this aquarium are undoubtedly well meaning, the harsh reality is that this baby will spend his life in a confined indoor tank. He will never know the clear cold waters of Hudson Bay, or the Arctic Ocean, or the Russian White Sea where others of his kind are free to swim to the horizon and beyond. He will never experience what it is like to frolic beneath the ice, or chase squid, or forage the seabed for crabs. He will never feel the sun on his back, or spyhop to watch seabirds soar and swoop high above wind-swept waves, or feel the surge and swell of the seas in a wild winter storm. And, like others of his kind who are enslaved in aquariums around the world, he will die long before his time, never knowing what it was like to be free. An unbiased observer among your kind might ask, Why? Why do we doom this baby and others like him to abbreviated lives of inestimable boredom and unknowable sadness? And the shameful answer will be, we do it for our pleasure and entertainment.

My Fiftieth Posting

2010-01-25T00:01:00.002-06:00

If I may be permitted to take a time out on my regular commentary about the world of whales and dolphins, this marks my fiftieth posting since I began writing Whale and Dolphin Talk last summer. On behalf of Apollo, I am honored to report that readership has been steadily increasing over the last six months, and during the past thirty days alone, two hundred and eighteen people from twenty-one countries around the globe have read my blog (of which fifty-two were returning visitors). This is gratifying since my topic does not rise to the same level of general interest as blogs about a Brit who recites Shakespeare in his sleep, or one from Hollywood that tracks what the preferred implant sizes are at plastic surgery clinics this season, or another that counts how many different ways there are to make mac and cheese. However, if you prefer a more altruistic topic and are passionate about whales and dolphins, I humbly ask that you tell your friends about my blog. The only way we will ever prevail in our efforts to save whalekind from the brutality of the few, and the apathy of the many, is to reach out and touch the hearts and minds of good people everywhere. Thank you. See you on the other side of the thin blue line that separates Apollo’s world from ours.

Greenpeace Gets It Right

2010-01-21T00:01:00.001-06:00

Over the past two years, Greenpeace has not sent a ship down to the Southern Ocean to interfere with Japanese whaling ships. Instead, they have redirected their efforts to informing the Japanese people about the annual whale slaughter being carried out with the support of their government. According to a study commissioned by Greenpeace, less than 1 in 10 of the Japanese people is aware of whaling and only 1 in 20 eats whale meat. Given these remarkably low figures, it is clear that the best way to stop whaling is to bring the unspeakable acts of the whaling fleet to the attention of the general population. The Japanese Institute for Cetacean Research, which is the organization that perpetrates this butchery under the guise of research, has attempted to cast anti-whaling efforts as an attack on the Japanese nation and its culture. Ironically, the misguided bravery of anti-whaling activists who still sail in harm’s way on the high seas, and the angry invectives hurled at the Japanese people by well-meaning but uninformed foreigners only serve to reinforce this campaign. Heightened public interest and concern will only be achieved by appealing to both the hearts and minds of the Japanese people. And so we say, Good for you, Greenpeace. Good for you!

Close Encounters of the Best Kind

2010-01-18T00:01:00.008-06:00

In stark contrast to the tragic occurrence in South Africa last week in which a man was devoured by an enormous Great White Shark, there is news from New Zealand of another incident involving a human and an ocean dweller, but in this case it was the human who was doing the attacking. According to the Department of Conservation, a woman paddler took a whack with her oar at MOKO, a Bottlenose Dolphin in the Bay of Plenty (Plenty of what? Dolphins not sharks I hope). Apparently MOKO was being rather boisterous and would not allow the woman to return to shore. As much as I do not like the idea of a fellow dolphin being whacked on the head, I can understand the woman's frustration; sometimes my kind does get carried away with play. But know this, if in those same waters a Great White Shark had suddenly appeared, you can be sure that MOKO would have been a far better defense for the woman against the shark than her oar. I hope she realizes this. Whales and dolphins provide close encounters of the best kind, even though only a few among you humans know it and most of you do not care.

Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

2010-01-15T00:01:00.003-06:00

Let us turn away, at least for a moment, from the on-going whaling tragedy in the Southern Ocean to another tragedy that deserves your attention. This is the recent fatal attack on a swimmer near Cape Town by a Great White Shark described as being "dinosaur huge". Similar attacks in Australia have prompted government plans to seek out and destroy these 'rogue' sharks. Even though it may surprise you for me to say this, given my dislike for these mindless eating machines, I do not think such action is justified. We are all part of nature, and nature can be unkind. Moreover, you cannot kill them all. While showboating divers on television fool around with White Sharks 3 to 4 meters in length and get away with it, there are others out there that are much larger and far more dangerous. I am not talking only about the big sisters that return to the Farallones every September that can reach 5 meters in length. I am referring to monsters 6 meters and up, like the one who devoured that hapless human near Cape Town. The sad reality is that every time one of your kind goes into the water off South Africa, South Australia or Northern California, they are risking a close encounter of the worst kind. So be warned, unlike Orcas, the killers among my kind, Great White Sharks will eat you if you give them the opportunity. If you do not want to risk it, swim in a pool.

It Would Only Be Fair

2010-01-13T00:01:00.007-06:00

Recently, in response to my on-going attempts to convince your kind that whales and dolphins are intelligent and sentient beings who deserve to live free from persecution, enslavement, and murder, a man in Australia said he would believe this when he saw one of my kind write a book, compose a song, or appear on a reality show. I will concede that at least the first two require a certain minimum level of intelligence but I also submit that brainpower can manifest itself in many different ways, and what one intelligent species does in its own environment is not necessarily an appropriate measure for another. Let us suppose for argument's sake, that somewhere in the vastness of space, there is a race of beings with sufficient intelligence, knowledge and capability to enable them to visit the earth(setting aside why they would even bother). Using the same logic of my Aussie friend, since these space invaders were obviously capable of inter-galactic travel and you humans are not, it would be perfectly acceptable then for them to attack, enslave, or eat you. Would this make mankind any less intelligent? I think not. Oh, and by the way, if/when that happens, it would only be fair that the Aussie be first in line.

All They Will Hear Is Silence.

2010-01-11T00:01:00.008-06:00

The renowned American abolitionist, William Lloyd Garrison once said,

“With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will
plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter, nor waste
arguments where they will certainly be lost.”

He was speaking about slavery, a practice that few in the world today would endorse or tolerate. Arguably, the continuing persecution and slaughter of whales and dolphins by Japan, Norway, and Iceland does not rise to that same level of inhumanity. However, the fact remains that in the far off waters of the Antarctic, men of different races and cultures are at this very moment leveling charges and counter-charges against each other. And while a state of tyranny reigns, any hope that reason and humanity will prevail drifts away on the frigid, wind-swept seas. In the meantime, thousands of sentient and intelligent beings who have done nothing to deserve their horrific fate will continue to die. Perhaps one day, when all the whales and dolphins are gone from the seas, the children of these three countries will look at their parents and ask, Why. And all they will hear is silence.

To The Good And Decent People Of Japan

2010-01-08T00:01:00.002-06:00

This week, in the waters of Antarctica, a Japanese whaling ship, the Shonan Maru, rammed the Ady Gil, a smaller boat operated by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. The Ady Gil was cut in half but thankfully, no one was killed on either vessel. However, the likelihood of a human being dying grows with each hour that these whale hunts continue. Your government, through its Fisheries Agency, claims that the hunts are done in the name of research, but the truth is that the meat from the thousands of whales that are killed each year ends up in the fish markets of your country, and it is consumed by you. Quite apart from the danger this presents to you and your children due to the potentially deadly levels of mercury in the meat, there is another reason to stop this killing, which is that it is wrong. Unlike cattle, chickens, or tuna, whales are a sentient and intelligent species and for all practical purposes they are not a renewable resource; once they are gone from the oceans we will never see their kind again. In the name of all that is good and decent, please, please, demand that your government stops the whaling. Now is the time, humanity is the reason, and you are the only people on this planet who can put an end to this brutal and archaic practice forever.

No Sins Save Gluttony

2010-01-06T00:01:00.003-06:00

Jonathan Leake, in the Sunday Times, reports that scientists have recently declared dolphins as “the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans.” Quite apart from the obvious evaluator bias, I am delighted that some among your kind finally recognize that whales and dolphins possess a level of intelligence, social skills, and self-awareness significantly higher than three-year-old children and chimpanzees—two groups to whom my kind has been erroneously compared in the past. Now I have nothing against children or chimps but please, a baby dolphin mere seconds after birth demonstrates cognitive, verbal, and motor skills far beyond those of either group, not to mention being able to echo-locate a shrimp at a thousand yards. Try that the next time you take your little one (or pet ape) to the seashore. Unfortunately, this declaration has apparently incensed some morons among your kind who have expressed their outrage in the blogosphere, at least to the degree that their monosyllabic minds and propensity for vulgarity allow. Whatever. Whether these buffoons like it or not, dolphins are equally as intelligent as humans are, and we are far less likely to exhibit the Seven Deadly Sins of wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony—with the possible exception of gluttony, as might be the case whenever a school of fat, juicy anchovies is present.

What a Fin-tastic Start to the New Year!

2010-01-04T00:01:00.001-06:00

Hello there. I am back. I hope that your holidays were safe and satisfying. As we start our journey together into the next decade, I am thrilled to report wonderful news out of Southern California. According to CBS News Correspondent Sandra Hughes, sightings of great whales in Santa Monica Bay have increased dramatically in recent weeks; including Fin, Blue, and Humpback Whales. Scientists among your kind are not sure why (go figure) but regardless of the reason, it is great news nonetheless. Now let us hope that the Japanese whaling fleet does not pull a Pearl Harbor sequel, and sail into US territorial waters with murder on their minds to begin slaughtering these magnificent cousins of mine. In the highly unlikely event that these mindless, cold-blooded killers tried that, I trust that the US Navy, with whom my kind has not always gotten along, would come to our rescue. Nothing would give whales and dolphins greater satisfaction than to see Japanese whaleboats rotting on the sea floor.

To Dwell In Darkness Yet Pray For Light

2009-12-21T00:01:00.005-06:00

Almost ninety percent of all human beings live north of the equator and for all of you who do, today is the shortest day of the year: said differently, today is when you dwell the longest in darkness. You refer to this as the Winter Solstice, and for thousands of years the days leading up to this longest night have been marked by celebrations in all great religions. Regardless of how you worship God, or the precepts of your faith, a common theme across Buddhism, Christianity, Islam and Judaism, is the sense of rebirth, revelation, and enlightenment that underlies these hours of prolonged darkness. In essence, your celebrations in the face of such enduring gloom all contain the promise of the return of the light, and the hope for better days. It is in that spirit then that I wish all of you great peace and joy as you celebrate your faith. In so doing, I pray that one day my kind, the whales and dolphins who share your world, will live free from the persecution and wanton destruction still inflicted upon us by some among your kind.
We will speak again in the new year. Until then, may God shine his light upon you and deliver you from darkness.

The Screams of a Silent Killer

2009-12-16T00:01:00.006-06:00

I am compelled to return to a subject about which I have spoken before. It is the ongoing tragedy being carried out by fishermen in the Japanese coastal town of Taiji. During six months each year, beginning in September, tens of thousands of dolphins are rounded up in small groups and herded into a tiny cove. There the Bottlenose Dolphins are separated from the rest to be sold to oceanariums around the world, dooming them to lives of imprisonment. But these are the ‘lucky’ ones. The rest, mostly Spinner and Spotted Dolphins, are then methodically butchered alive by these cold, cruel men who snicker and suck on cigarettes as the dying adults cry out to their young, and the terrified young scream in agony, in water stained red with blood. Ironically, the dolphin flesh, which contains mercury levels 2,000 times higher than what is safe for human consumption, is then sold under the guise of whale meat. In murdering the dolphins, the fishermen are thereby unleashing a silent killer upon unsuspecting consumers. My heart aches for the innocent victims, both dolphin and human, of these evil men and I pray that someday good and decent people in Japan will put an end to this atrocity forever.

Blue Whales Sing The Blues

2009-12-13T08:24:00.004-06:00

Scientists among your kind have recently reported that the whalesong of male Blue Whales has been getting quieter over the past few decades in all the oceans of the world. They interpret this fact as evidence that the Blue Whale population is increasing and, as a result, males do not have to sing as loud to find a mate. Wait! What? Float that by me again—because male Blue Whales are singing more softly, there must be more of them. How about the possibility that they are singing more softly because they are sad. Sad at man’s continuing destruction of the seas. Sad at the drowning deaths of thousands of whales and dolphins every year, entangled in open ocean drift nets. Sad at the global warming that is destroying their feedstocks such as krill that cannot live in warmer waters. Sad at the annual slaughter of Minke and Fin Whales by bloodthirsty Japanese and Norwegians, the true murderous pirates of the high seas. And most of all, sad because they know few among your kind care about them. I could go on but you get the point. Male Blue Whales are singing the blues and it is not because there is a female nearby.

Hallelujah. The Young Whale Is Free!

2009-12-09T10:49:00.002-06:00

Fantastic news! The Associated Press has just reported from Hawaii that the young Humpback Whale who was entangled in hundreds of feet of polypropylene rope has been freed from his deadly bonds. God bless Ed Lyman, marine mammal response manager for the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, David Schofield, marine mammal stranding response coordinator for the Pacific Island Regional Office of the National Marine Service, and all the others who worked tirelessly to save this young whale. These men and women deserve greater acclaim than this troubled and preoccupied world will accord them but I can assure you that their names will be revered among my kind all across Planet Ocean. And perhaps one day, all your kind will care about whales and dolphins the way these brave and noble people do. Hallelujah! The young whale is free.

Norwegians Join Japanese in Bluewater Hall of Shame

2009-12-07T14:09:00.002-06:00

Norwegian government officials announced this week that the quota for the annual slaughter of whales is being increased next year by a staggering 45% to 1,286 whales. They offered no rationale, which is not surprising since there can be none. Demand for whale meat has declined, and world sentiment to save the whales is increasing. The only explanation of this atrocious decision is that the hearts of their government officials are apparently as frigid as the weather in that northern land of granite and ice. This announcement comes as the Japanese whaling fleet heads to the Southern Ocean for their annual butchery of whales in the name of science. As I have said before, the fault for these continuing atrocities lies not with the people of these two countries, but with their elected officials. It is my fervent hope that one day all those who promote the continuing murder of my fellow beings will answer to a higher judge.

On a separate note, I have heard nothing about the young Humpback Whale entangled in that rope off Hawaii. If I hear anything I will let you know. Please do the same for me.