CALLS BY OTHER ORGS

 

Here we present to you projects and campaigns by other groups which are likewise working on the preservation of the marine biosphere and the biodiversity of the oceans.

ECOP-marine presents here to these groups a base in order to make as many interested people as possible aware about their work and to achieve a broader lobby against the repective threats, against which these groups fight. Texts and informations are presented by the respective groups themselves. 

ECOP-marine has no influence on these texts or data and did not make any alterations.

WDCS - Dec. 2007 - Out of sight, out of mind?                                      Dear Friend, We need your help to campaign for new laws to protect whales and dolphins around the UK before it’s too late.

SEA SHEPHERD INTENDS TO RAM AND DISABLE PIRATE WHALERS  SOUTHERN OCEAN, January 9, 2006 --/WORLD-WIRE/-- Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believes it is time to escalate the confrontation with the Japanese whaling fleet and bring an end to the illegal and ruthless slaughter of defenseless whales in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary.

Seals in Russia                                                                                                     Despite many years of campaigning to try and prevent the annual seal pup hunt in the White Sea region of Russia, Kent based spearheading group European Animal Welfare (EAW) supported by North Kent Animal Welfare (NKAW) are still largely hitting a brick wall when it comes to getting the EU to act.

BOYCOTT CANADIAN SEAFOOD                                                                    The Canadian commercial seal hunt is the largest marine mammal slaughter in the world.This year over 300,000 seals - mostly pups less than 2 months old - were bludgeoned, shot, and skinned to feed the whims and greed of the fur fashion and exotic leather industries, and their customers. Canada's commercial seal hunt is about money.The goal of the Canadian Seafood Boycott is to take all the profit out of sealing, and for every year the seal hunt continues to directly cost those who kill the seals 50 to 100 times more than what they earn from the commercial seal hunt.

ANOTHER YOUNG SEAL DISCOVERED SHOT IN SOUTH AFRICA Less than 4-days after Helen Bamford's article "Plea to ban guns on fishing trips to sea" in the Weekend Argus, another young Cape fur seal bull has been discovered shot. Once again since Sunday, dozens upon dozens of ski-boat snoek fishermen have been leaving Hout Bay for the shoals of snoek running off Hout Bay, and once again protected seals, are the victims.

Stop Russian seal farming and seal hunting!!! ( Open in new folder! )            At he end of this mail there is a draft letter which could be used as a basis for sending to the Russian Embassies.  Also attached is an Outline document on seal farms in Russia.

Help Save Dolphins and Sea Turtles from Drowning in Fishing Nets  Along our Atlantic coast bottlenose dolphins and sea turtles are becoming entangled in fishing nets and drowning at rates that threatens their ability to maintain and recover their numbers.

African Odyssea is committed to conservation and is actively involved in protecting the marine life on the Protea Banks reef, see our JAWG page for details.

Major US & UK Retailers Linked to Whale Meat Sales in Japan!

ABANDONED SEAFARERS -  KENYA / AFRICA

THE LEAST YOU CAN DO FOR WHALES PLIGHT

SEA TURTLE RESTORATION PROJECT

Campaign for a Dolphinarium-free Belgium 

European Cetacean Bycatch Campaign. Bycatch Action Day – September 4th

Dear NRDC Earth Activist...

Support for Unilever Workers in India Exposed to Mercury !

Our oceans are at risk - You recently joined thousands of other supporters who sent a letter to President George W. Bush

Petition to stop the killing of seals in Canada 

HELP TO CLOSE THE DOLPHIN TANK AT MANATI PARK BAVARO!

 

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SEA TURTLE RESTORATION PROJECT

POB 400/40 Montezuma Avenue 

• Forest Knolls, CA 94933 USA

PH. 415 488 0370 ext. 106 • FAX 415 488 0372

robert@seaturtles.org  • www.seaturtles.org

TIE IN: UN General Assembly to Vote on a Resolution Banning Shark Finning and Reducing Marine Bycatch on November 24th

International Coalition of 23 Marine Conservation Groups Praises UN Effort,

Urges Further Immediate Action on Industrial Fishing

Coalition Calls for an Immediate UN Moratorium on Pacific

Longline and Gillnet Fishing

PRESS RELEASE

CONTACT:       

Dr. Robert Ovetz, Marine Species Campaigner, Sea Turtle Restoration Project

+1 415 488 0370, ext. 106 (o), +1 510 459 7955 (c)

robert@seaturtles.org , www.seaturtles.org 

 

UPDATE: Urge UN to Ban Longline Fishing


“Save the Leatherback from the longline attack!” 



Throngs of school children, teachers and parents shouted this appeal to officials of the United Nations as they paraded in front of UN headquarters on June 8, World Oceans Day. Organized by Global Response and the Sea Turtle Restoration Project (STRP), the marchers were decked out in sea turtle costumes and carried black painted turtle umbrellas. They displayed thousands of letters urging U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to take action against longline fishing, which kills 40,000-60,000 sea turtles annually. This wasteful and destructive industrial fishing practice has brought the Pacific Leatherback sea turtle to the brink of extinction.

The female nesting population of highly migratory Leatherback sea turtles in the Pacific Ocean has collapsed by 95 percent since 1980. Eminent scientists warn that the leatherback could go extinct in 5-30 years unless we reduce the threat from longline fishing. Because sea turtles are migratory, traveling thousands of miles each year to nest, an international solution is needed.

Global Response has been campaigning for a ban on longline fishing in the Pacific since 2003, when we delivered over 1,000 Global Response members’ letters to the U.N. This year, the Sea Turtle Restoration Project also collected letters from 1,007 scientists in 97 countries, urging the U.N. to implement a moratorium on longlining in the Pacific. Signers include famed primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall, biologist E.O. Wilson, oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle and former U.S. astronaut Bernard Harris, Jr., M.D. The letters were received by Paul Hoeffel, NGO liason chief for the U.N.

Inside UN headquarters, Sea Turtle Restoration Project led an energetic effort to promote the longline moratorium during the sixth meeting of the U.N. Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Canada, New Zealand, the US, Australia, Chile and Costa Rica all called for urgent reforms in the fishing industry. Costa Rica plans to offer the General Assembly a blueprint for the UN to begin addressing the longline crisis, according to Dr. Robert Ovetz of STRP.

For more information, please see the Global Response action alert at

http://globalresponse.org/gra.php?i=2/03 

and Sea Turtle Restoration Project at

http://www.seaturtles.org

 

Co-signers

Randall Arauz, Programa Restauracion Tortugas Marinas, PRETOMA/STRP, Costa Rica; Member, Shark Specialist Group, IUCN

+506 241 5227 (t), +506 236 6017 (f)

rarauz@tortugamarina.org , www.tortugamarina.org 

 

Rosek Nursahid, Chairman, ProFauna Indonesia, Indonesia

profauna@indosat.net.id , http://www.profauna.or.id/English/about-profauna.html 

 

Mary and Alan Stuart, Directors, European Cetacean Bycatch Campaign, UK

info@eurocbc.org , http://www.eurocbc.org 

 

Brendan Cummings, Marine Programs Director, Center for Biological Diversity, USA

+1 520 623 5252 (t), +1 520 623 9797 (f)

bcummings@biologicaldiversity.org , www.sw-center.org 

 

Sigrid Lüber, President, Swiss Marine Mammal Protection, Switzerland

+41 (0)1 780 66 88 (t), +41 (0)79 475 26 87 (c)

slueber@asms-swiss.org , www.asms-swiss.org 

 

Araceli Dominguez, Grupo Ecologista del Mayab A. C. (GEMA), Mexico

+ 52 998 884 6944 (t), + 529 988 849 857 (f)

gema@cancun.com.mx , gema@reycaribe.com 

 

Lily Venizelos, MEDASSET-Mediterranean Association to Save the Sea Turtles, Greece

+30 210 3613572 (t+f)

medasset@hol.gr , http://www.medasset.gr/ 

 

Wallace J. Nichols, Ph.D., Director, Wildcoast, USA

+1 831 426 0337 (t), +1 831 426 0347 (f), +1 831 229 2255 (c)

wjnichols@wildcoast.net , http://www.wildcoast.net 

 

John R. Brakey, Executive Director, Amigos del Mar de Cortes, Inc., USA

+ 1 520-578-5678 (t)

johnnymingo@yahoo.com , johnnymingo@comcast.net 

 

Paradise Newland, Sirius Institute, Hawai’i

siriusinstitute@yahoo.com , paradisenewland@yahoo.com , www.planetpuna.com/si.htm 

 

William W. Rossiter, President Cetacean Society International, USA

+1 203 431 1606 (t/f)

rossiter@csiwhalesalive.org , www.csiwhalesalive.org 

 

Swiss Coalition for the Protection of Whales, Switzerland

+41 1 780 66 88 (t), +41 1 780 68 08 (f)

www.swisswhales.org 

 

Mary Alice Pollard, Canadian Voice for Animals UK Representative

+1 872 580 429 (t)

moonflower.uk@virgin.net , http://www.canadianvoiceforanimalsuk.org/ukintro.html 

 

Alan Cooper, Cetacea Defence, UK

cetaceadefenceuk@yahoo.co.uk , www.cetaceadefence.org 

 

Liz Sandeman, Co-founder, The Marine Connection, UK 

+44 (0)207 499 9196 (t/f)

MarineConnection@aol.com , www.marineconnection.org 

 

Ross Minett, Campaigns Director, Advocates for Animals, UK

+44 (0)131 225 6039 (t) +44 (0)131 220 6377 (f), +44 07946 517585 (c)

ross@advocatesforanimals.org 

 

Capt. Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, President/Founder, USA

+1 360 370 5650 (T) +1 360 370 5651 (F)

www.seashepherd.org , paul@seashepherd.org 

 

James Barnett, Director and veterinary surgeon, British Divers Marine Life Rescue, UK

james@bdmlr.org.uk 

 

Joseph Gordon, National Coordinator, Marine Conservation Education Program

National Environmental Trust, USA

202 887 8811 (t) 202 887-8880 (f)

jgordon@environet.org 

 

Pete Knights, Executive Director, WildAid, USA

415 834 1758 (t)

www.wildaid.org 

 

Prof. Julian Bauer, PDG&CEO, ECOTERRA International

+254 20 883333 (t) +254 20 882658 (f)

natural_seas@ecoterra.net    http://www.ecoterra.org.uk  

 

Dr. Hans-Jürgen Duwe, Chair, ECOP-marine

marine@ecop.info , www.ecop.info 

San Francisco, CA –Today, the UN General Assembly will vote on a resolution encouraging the “banning [of] directed shark fisheries” (Para 48), and “action to reduce or eliminate by-catch…to conserve non-target species taken incidentally in fishing operations” (paras 34-35 ) such as sea turtles, marine mammals and other species. While the international organizations listed above praise the UN for expressing its “concern” for these critical issues of bycatch of non-target species and sustainability, this mandate should be the impetus for an immediate effort to place a moratorium on pelagic longline, gillnet and other forms of fishing that is urgently needed to end the pending collapse of our ocean ecosystem.

A moratorium on Pacific longline fishing has already received wide support from the international scientific community. An open letter to the United Nations from 400 scientists, including the reknown oceanographer Sylvia Earle and biologist E.O. Wilson, and 100 non-governmental organizations published in a full-page ad in The New York Times on February 18, 2003, called for a moratorium on pelagic longlining and gillnetting in the Pacific Ocean.

“The heart of the problem is industrialized fishing like longlining and gillnetting, for example. Industrial longline and gillnet fishing in the Pacific Ocean slaughters millions of endangered marine species. Each year, about 4 million whales, dolphins, porpoises, sea turtles, billfish, sea lions, and sharks are injured or killed by longlines in the Pacific,” explained Dr. Robert Ovetz, Marine Species Campaigner with the Sea Turtle Restoration Project. That total includes about 40,000 sea turtles.

In addition to pelagic longlines and gillnets, driftnets, trammel & tangle, trawls and purse seines are wreaking havoc on the ocean ecosystem. The crisis is systemic, impacting spawning habitats, feeding areas, migration routes, and nesting beaches. Each year, scientists are finding rapidly declining populations of predatory and other commercial fish, cetaceans, mammals, and reptiles such as the Pacific leatherback sea turtle whose female nesting population has collapsed to less than 5% of its 1980s levels. According to a report in Nature (June 1, 2000) scientists expect the 100 million year old leatherback species to go extinct within the next 5 to 30 years if action is not taken immediately.

A recent study commissioned by the World Wildlife Fund found that about 1,000 whales, dolphins and other cetaceans are killed daily as bycatch on longlines, driftnets and gillnets. According to Dr. Ovetz, “this wholesale slaughter of marine mammals and other species can be prevented. We know the cause and the solutions. Some of the laws are already on the books. All that is lacking is the political will.”

Our commercial fisheries are also in serious crisis. Studies by the UN FAO and scientists in Nature estimate that the percentage of fisheries that are near depletion, already depleted or over-depleted range from 75-90%. According to a report in Nature (May 15, 2003) industrial fisheries such as longlining, driftnetting, trawling, and gillnetting are estimated to have reduced large predatory fishmass to 10% of pre-industrial levels. Immediate action to implement sustainable fishing will help not only reduce or end the slaughter of threatened marine species but prevent a crisis in food security for the 15% of the world that relies on fish as its primary source of protein.

As the UN moves to debate the resolution, immediate action should be taken to implement a moratorium on longline and gillnet fishing in the Pacific. The resolution already expresses “concern at the reports of continued loss of seabirds, particularly albatrosses, as a result of incidental mortality from longline fishing operations, and the loss of other marine species, including sea turtles….” This concern needs to be  translated into immediate emergency action if we are to save our ocean ecosystem.

A longline and gillnet moratorium could be modeled after the UN’s foresighted efforts in 1991 to implement a global moratorium on driftnets longer than 2.5 km. The moratorium stopped the slaughter of millions of marine species, especially dolphins, that were being injured and killed by these floating “curtains of death.” It was this moratorium that led the European Union to ban driftnets from its nearly all its waters in 2002. It will require similar UN action to encourage the necessary political will to stop the destruction of our oceans.

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Campaign for a Dolphinarium-free Belgium


An appeal to new Belgian political representatives to end all activities in the dolphinarium at Bruges

A Spanish group named Aspro Ocio recently bought our last Belgian dolphinarium.
http://www.marineland.es/ingles/area_corporativa.htm 
At the same time, a huge commercial campaign is now launched through many popular newspapers in order to promote this facility. Maybe the worst is to come. Will belugas and orcas be imported one day in Belgium ? Why not ?
Everything is possible when you get money enough and some help from American friends...
__________

Adquisición del Boudewijnpark, Bélgica

El 29 de octubre se firmó la adquisición por parte del grupo Aspro Ocio del parque Boudewijnpark, uno de los grandes parques de ocio de Bélgica. El parque está situado cerca de Brujas y tiene una extensión de 200.000 m². Es un parque con una oferta muy amplia, que posee un total de 25 atracciones incluyendo espectáculos de leones marinos y delfines, instalaciones con focas, un gran lago con barcas, atracciones para toda la familia como montaña rusa, tiovivos, norias y una gran pista de patinaje sobre hielo. Se puede encontrar más información sobre el parque en la web: www.boudewijnpark.com.
Con esta nueva incorporación, que es la tercera en el año 2002 después de Aqualand Sainte Maxime en Francia y Aquasur en Gran Canaria, el grupo Aspro
Ocio se consolida como líder europeo en parques regionales de ocio; en la actualidad tenemos 22 parques situados en 6 países: España, Portugal, Francia, Suiza, Reino Unido y Bélgica.

__________

More than ever, thus, at a time when Belgium could make its influence felt on the European stage, it would be a great achievement if this country could set an example once again on a question of ethics and end this genuine abuse of animals by refusing to have a dolphinarium on its territory. It should be noted that in fact since the closure of the pools in Antwerp in 1998, there has been a controversial pool in action in the city of Bruges as part of the Boudewijn amusement park. Numerous wild dolphins have been wrenched from the ocean and ended upconfined under the grey concrete dome of this theme park. How many? Impossible to really know: it seems that no official account has ever been published on the arrivals and departures of these cetaceans to and from thisdeadly swimming pool.

We do know however from reliable sources that Allan, born in the wild around 1963, and 'acquired' by Harderwijck in 1974, died in Bruges, suffocated under burning beams during the great fire there on 5th August 1988. Kiana, Oshun, and Jasperina, his three companions, died at his side suffering the same fate. In their turn other dolphins died later, eaten away by mould, gnawed away by the chlorine, exhausted from lack of sun or by depression. Year after year the pool became more depleted…
It appears that seven dolphins are still surviving there in 2003. The year efore there had been eleven. As for the unhappy dolphins born every year in his grim prison, one by one they are torn away from their mothers straight ater weaning and sent to a pool somewhere out-of-the-way in Portugal or esewhere, where they swim in a 'petting pool' with tourists.
What do our children learn about the life of dolphins, of their culture, their hunting habits, their languages, their amazing intelligence or their enormous brain with a mathematical ability which surpasses our own, when they go on a school trip to Bruges?
Nothing of course, absolutely nothing, only the fact that these 'non-humans' can act like clowns and imitate us when they are forced to do so through hunger, isolation, physical blows or boredom. The sole education which this marine circus provides is to demonstrate that Nature is made to be subjected by man and the dolphins made to play ball.

It is high time that Belgium finally denounced this pointless, obsolete, cruel and destructive American import loud and clear, like they did in England as long ago as 1986.

* Pointless: since the 1970s dolphinariums have been widely discredited for the purposes of scientific study or the preservation of species The only useful way of observing, of getting to know, and of protecting wild dolphins is to go out to the open sea where they live. This is what serious scientists now do.

* Obsolete for the purposes of education, as dolphinariums only give us a humiliating and partial account of cetacean-clowns which is a throw back worthy of the 19th century's perception of animals. There are enough films, photos and even reasonably priced trips nowadays (wild dolphins live all over the European coast) that we can dispense with these aquatic prisons.

* Cruel for no pool, no lagoon could ever replace life in the wild for these highly sociable and intelligent creatures who become weak in captivity and die there
before their time at the end of a grim life. The slow agony and duly recorded life of the unhappy dolphin Iris will stay in our minds for a long time as an example of how life in a pool represents a moral and physical torture for cetaceans who are put there and subjected to force.

* Destructive for the environment, for the births in the pool do not fulfil their promise of supplying new generations of dolphins; meanwhile hundreds of new pools which open all over the world continually need a water supply, and the incessant capture of young females and their babies which takes place every day in every ocean will, in time, cause exhaustion of the genetic pool and therefore the progressive extinction of wild dolphin populations.

To keep such an "aquatic circus" under Spanish control open in Belgium is a way of guaranteeing that this senseless practice will continue, not only in Europe, but in the rest of the world.
By legislating against all forms of cetacean captivity, Little Belgium, nevertheless "heart of Europe and home of NATO", would encourage other European nations to do the same and to understand once and for all that dolphins are highly intelligent creatures blessed with their own culture, one that is adapted for swimming in the open sea and not in concrete pools.

For these reasons we propose that the Council for the Protection of Animals in Belgium (headed by J.M. Giffroy)jean-marie.giffroy@fundp.ac.be 
and the new Animal Welfare Minister
Personal website : http://www.freyaweb.be/ 
e-mail : freya@freyaweb.be 

- demand that the new Spanish managers of the Bruges Dolphinarium submit to them all relevant detailed information concerning new acquisitions, births, deaths, the transfers carried out to and from Harderwijk, Spain, Portugal, Senegal, or Solomon Islands up-to-date reports on the state of health of the detained animals, their names and origin etc.

- determine the best way in which the Dolphinarium at Bruges could be closed down within the shortest possible time

- define the measures to be taken so that the dolphins detained at the moment in this establishment could eventually be returned to the open sea, or at the very least, benefit in the future from a more decent reception in an open air lagoon or closed marine bay.

Do you want to become involved in this campaign ?
Join us today just adding your name to the new  

COMMITTEE FOR A DOLPHINARIUM-FREE BELGIUM

Thanks in avance

Y.Godefroid
Website "In the Name of Iris"
http://www.dauphinlibre.be/petitiobruges.htm#Campaign 
http://www.dauphinlibre.be/

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European Cetacean Bycatch Campaign.

Bycatch Action Day – September 4th


Cetaceans are protected under the Bern, Bonn (ASCOBANS, and ACCOBAMS),
and Biological Diversity Conventions, the Habitat and Species Directive
(92/43/EEC) and are treated as having Appendix I Status CITES, within
the European Union. In the UK, they are protected under the Wildlife and
Countryside Act, and the Countryside and Rights of Way Act.

However, each year, tens of thousands of cetaceans die in European
waters due to incidental capture in fishing gear (bycatch). The true
extent of the bycatch problem is not known, as many fleets prohibit
observers from boarding their vessels. Bycatch poses one of the most
serious threats to dolphins, porpoises and whales. Although
unacceptable bycatch levels have been identified in EU waters, very
little has been done by Member States to reduce these levels.

The European Cetacean Bycatch Campaign, is lobbying for the EU Common
Fisheries Policy to be amended to incorporate cetacean bycatch
mitigation measures. These include:


1) Mandatory placement of independent observers on board a
representative sample of vessels in fisheries with the potential to
cause bycatch.
2) The establishment of bycatch response teams, responsible for devising
programmes of bycatch reduction measures, to meet set targets and time
frames, and for monitoring the implementation and effectiveness of these
programmes.
3) The restriction or closure of fisheries failing to meet the targets
within the given time frame.
4) Enforcement of bycatch reduction measures throughout the EU.



Enforcement of bycatch reduction measures has been shown to be highly
successful.

In 1994, it was estimated that 2100 harbour porpoises were killed in the
Gulf of Maine (US) gillnet fisheries each year. In January 1999, a
bycatch response programme was put into effect. The deaths of harbour
porpoises were reduced to 270.

In the US Mid-Atlantic gillnet fishery, it was estimated that an average
of 358 harbour porpoises were killed in nets each year (1995 - 1998).
After the introduction of a bycatch response programme in 1999, the
estimated bycatch for that year was 49 harbour porpoises.

In 1972 it was estimated that 423,678 dolphins were killed in the tuna
purse seine fishery in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. As a result
of the enforcement of bycatch reduction measures, the preliminary
estimate of dolphins killed in this fishery in the year 2000 was 1,636
(estimates provided by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission).

The Campaign has gained the support of politicians, animal welfare
organisations, and individuals throughout Europe.

September 4th has been designated “European Cetacean Bycatch Day”

We intend that the demonstration be peaceful, and good-humoured. Anyone
who cares about the issue of cetacean bycatch is welcome.

Similar demonstrations will take place in other UK and European cities
on the same day. We hope that this will send a clear message to the
European Commission that the loss of thousands of cetaceans in fishing
gear will no longer be tolerated by the citizens of Europe.

For further information please contact

cetaceanbycatchcampaign@btinternet.com


or write to ECBC, PO BOX 2404, LONDON, W2 3WG.


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Dear NRDC Earth Activist

Court battle to protect whales against deadly Navy sonar

 

From: John Adams earthaction@nrdcaction.org 
To: aomestlaurence@hotmail.com                                                                  Subject: Court battle to protect whales against deadly Navy sonar                      Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2003 13:57:37 -0400 (EDT)

Dear NRDC Earth Activist,

We need your immediate support as we go to trial in a case that is critical to the future of marine mammals on this planet. Less than two weeks from now, NRDC litigators will face off against the Bush administration in federal court, with the safety of entire populations of whales and dolphins at risk.

This long-awaited courtroom battle is the culmination of our eight-year campaign to stop the U.S. Navy from illegally deploying its Low Frequency Active (LFA) sonar system -- a new technology that blasts ocean habitats with noise so intense it can maim, deafen and even kill marine mammals.

I hope you'll go to https://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa.asp  right now to make an online emergency contribution in support of this historic case.

What's at stake? Consider: last year, the Bush administration issued the Navy a permit to deploy LFA sonar over 75 percent of the world's oceans and to harass or injure up to 12 percent of every single marine mammal species found anywhere in this vast expanse of ocean!

But before that disaster could unfold, your support enabled NRDC to race
to court last fall and win a dramatic eleventh-hour reprieve for thousands of whales and dolphins. A federal judge blocked global deployment of the sonar system until a full trial could be held and all the evidence heard.

That all-important proceeding will begin on June 30th. It will determine whether this dangerous technology is finally unleashed upon our planet's oceans -- or whether it should be permanently blocked until the Navy obeys the law and demonstrates that LFA would not cause serious harm to ocean life.

Scientists are warning that LFA sonar may threaten the very survival of entire populations of whales, some already teetering on the brink of extinction. At close range, the system's shock waves are so intense they can destroy a whale's eardrums, cause its lungs to hemorrhage, and even kill.

Further away, LFA noise can cause permanent hearing loss in marine mammals after a single transmission. At 40 miles away, LFA noise is still so intense it can disrupt the mating, feeding, nursing and other essential activities of marine mammals.

Two years ago, the mere testing of high-intensity Navy sonar in mid-frequency range caused a mass stranding of whales in the Bahamas. Whales from at least three different species died, their inner ears bleeding from the explosive power of the sonar signal.

Just last month, a group of biologists off the coast of Washington state witnessed a "stampede" of distressed marine mammals as a U.S. destroyer, operating a powerful mid-frequency sonar system, passed through. Over the next several days, ten porpoises were discovered stranded on nearby beaches.

And the dangers go beyond marine mammals. In preparing for the upcoming
trial, NRDC has uncovered the shocking results of the Navy's own LFA research on human scuba divers.
One Navy test subject was exposed to 14 minutes of LFA noise at 160 decibels -- far below the level of 235 decibels at which the actual LFA system will be operating. The diver experienced uncontrollable shaking in his limbs and lapsed into a seizure-like state that recurred periodically for days. The Navy's report described him as a "casualty."

The Bush administration wants us to believe that the impacts of LFA will be negligible! Launching a massive acoustic assault on the world's oceans is not negligible. Threatening communities of whales, dolphins and humans with injury and death is not negligible.

The Bush administration's position on LFA is arrogant, inhumane and, almost certainly, illegal. But we cannot stop the deployment of this technological menace unless we have the financial resources to fight this courtroom battle to the very end and win a permanent ban.

Again, I urge you to help by going to https://www.nrdc.org/joinGive/join/lfa.asp  right now and making an online emergency contribution.

With your help, we can make sure that no more whales have to suffer and die from high-power sonar. Let me know you'll stand with us at this critical moment in the fight to protect all ocean life. Thank you.

Sincerely,

John H. Adams President Natural Resources Defense Council

 

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Subject: Our oceans are at risk
From: "Ted Danson @ Oceana" <Ted.Danson@oceana.org>
Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2002

Our oceans are at risk

Thank you.

You recently joined thousands of other supporters who sent a letter to
President George W. Bush at http://www.OceansAtRisk.com 

As you know, the threat to our oceans affects EVERYONE. Our oceans are
at risk, and with them our food supplies, our coastal economies, and even
ourselves.
I need your help to get the word out.
With enough public support, we can protect our oceans and preserve the
earth's web of life for future generations.

Thank you again.

Ted Danson

-- PLEASE FORWARD THIS MESSAGE --

Dear Friends:

I just sent a free letter to protect the oceans at http://www.OceansAtRisk.com . Our whole world depends on having healthy oceans.

But our oceans are at risk.

Every day, thousands of fish, turtles, dolphins and other marine life are
drowned, crushed, and suffocated after being caught on fishing hooks and
nets meant for other species. Each year, an estimated 44 billion pounds of
unwanted, dead or dying fish and countless numbers of turtles, porpoises,
and sharks are simply thrown overboard.

Can you take 30 seconds to help stop this senseless destruction? Join me

and send your FREE message at this link:

http://www.OceansAtRisk.com 

Oceans generate much of the world's oxygen, provide 95 percent of the
living space for the earth's animals and plants, and feed billions of
people around the world. We need healthy oceans to survive.

Like you, I love to swim in a healthy coral reef or watch whales and
dolphins playing in the ocean. But in our lifetimes, the ocean abundance
we treasure now could be gone.

As you read this email, hundreds of marlin, sea turtles, whales and
porpoises are being caught and destroyed. Some of these species are
endangered, and at risk of total extinction. We must act now to
preserve the earth's web of life for future generations.

Four Federal laws clearly require the U.S. to end this senseless waste
of our valuable ocean species. But, the government agency in charge has
failed to enforce them.

That's why I'm helping to launch this campaign to tell President Bush to
act now to enforce the law and protect ocean life. I've sent my letter -

now you can send yours.

It only takes a minute to help. And once you've done your part, please
forward this message along to other friends and family members. We take
so much from the oceans; let's give something back.

Thanks for caring about our oceans

Ted Danson

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Petition to stop the killing of seals in Canada 
 
IT WILL ONLY TAKE A FEW MINUTES!!!! 
 
Target: Jean Chretien Prime Minister of Canada 
 
Sponsor: Sasa Srepfler
 
 
Canada plans to kill more than 307,000 seals this year ! Last year was  the largest kill since the 1960's. We have to act now to stop the butchery of these animals. ..... 
See full petition below. 
 
 
Petition to stop the killing of seals in Canada  In few weeks time the seal hunt will start all over again in New  Foundland. Last year The  Ministery of Fisheries and Oceans exceeded their number of quota by  32,000 animals and their  estimate of a "sustanaible" hunt by more than 50,000. 
The hunters, armed with clubs and other illegal weapons, beat to death  the baby hooded and harp seals in front their mothers who often die too trying to save their  pups. Male adults often are left to bleed to dead after have their penises brutally removed to export to countries such as Japan where is use as an "aphrodisiac". 
The most shoking evidence comes from 2001, when a international team of  Veterinarians who witnessed the hunt, perfomed post-mortem examinations among some  carcasses chosed randomly and proved that a 42% of those seals where skinned alive !!! 
This is the largest mammal killing in the world and there are not good  excuses for such a massacre and torture of these beautiful living beings. It only gives Canada a bad name as a primitive nation, who gets profit from the fur of baby seals. 
 
Please, we urge you to stop allowing and supporting the killing of your own wildlife in such horrific way ! 
 
To Sign Petition go to:
 
http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/236982184

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Help Save Dolphins and Sea Turtles from Drowning in Fishing Nets

Along our Atlantic coast bottlenose dolphins and sea turtles are becoming entangled in fishing nets and drowning at rates that threatens their ability to maintain and recover their numbers.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is now taking public comment on plans to reduce this loss of depleted dolphins and threatened and endangered sea turtles.

The plans, in the form of proposed regulations, address the threats to these creatures from fishing gear along the mid-Atlantic coast.  In large part the plan was developed by conservationists, commercial fishermen, scientists, and others working through “take reduction teams.”

The agency is taking comments until February 8th, so please respond as soon as possible.  And please try to find time to edit our sample message to put it in your own words, including telling the agency why these creatures are important to you.

TAKE ACTION

For information on the life histories and threats to these animals please see our bottlenose dolphin fact sheet  and our sea turtles fact sheet.

Background Information

Bottlenose Dolphins:

Because the western North Atlantic coastal bottlenose dolphin stock is suffering human caused deaths in commercial fishing operations at rates that are threatening the stock’s ability to maintain its numbers, the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requires the development of a plan and regulations to turn this situation around. 

The stated goal of the plan is “To reduce the deaths due to accidental entanglement in fishing gears.”  NMFS is currently taking comments on whether the proposed regulations are adequate to meet this goal. 

For greater detail on the Bottlenose Dolphin Take Reduction Plan visit the website set up by NMFS.

Sea Turtles:

All sea turtles found in U.S. ocean and coastal waters are listed under the U.S. Endangered Species Act as either threatened or endangered.  This requires that actions be taken to stem their loss and promote their recovery.  Over the last ten years the number of stranded (dead) sea turtles found along the coast of Virginia and North Carolina has increased dramatically.  Most of the sea turtles killed are from the northern subpopulation of threatened loggerhead sea turtles.  Scientists have concluded that this important subpopulation is either in a state of decline or at the very least is not recovering.  Entanglement (and death) in certain types of “large mesh” gill nets is believed to be a contributing factor.  Also believed caught and killed in these gill nets are the lesser numbers of the highly endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle.

In late 2002 NFMS issued regulations to reduce the loss of sea turtles in federal waters, but this resulted in more gill net fishing in state waters closer to shore, which also poses a serious threat to sea turtles in the area.  Therefore, NMFS is proposing regulations in the state waters of Virginia and North Carolina to reduce the danger from gill nets to sea turtles.  These same measures will also reduce the risk to bottlenose dolphins from these nets, so the rules have been combined.

The proposed regulations would implement commercial gear restrictions, gear tending requirements, prohibitions on fishing at night in some areas, gear marking requirements, and seasonal closures for large mesh gillnet fishing in state waters of Virginia and North Carolina.   If these measures become permanent, hundreds of sea turtles and bottlenose dolphins will be saved.

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WDCS • December 2007

Out of sight, out of mind?


Dear Friend


We need your help to campaign for new laws to protect whales and dolphins around the UK before it’s too late.

Every day these vulnerable animals face being entangled, harassed, bombarded with loud noise and driven away from their homes. With increased development around our coasts and ineffective, outdated laws to protect them, our whales and dolphins are fighting for survival.

WDCS has been campaigning with other conservation groups for new laws to protect UK sea-life since 2005. That year, we helped gain a commitment from the Government to create a Marine Bill. However, since then, the Government has consistently delayed the progress of this Bill.

For the UK Government, the old saying ‘out of sight, out of mind’ seems to be good enough. But WDCS strongly disagrees and we need your help to ensure whales and dolphins are not forgotten.

Whales and dolphins around the UK cannot wait. Without improved protection from marine developments including near-shore and deep sea industry, and other sources of chemical and noise pollution, plus fishing nets, the many whale, dolphin and porpoise species around the UK will become a thing of the past, potentially lost from our coasts for good.

The Government is now saying that it will produce a draft Marine Bill in Spring 2008. We need to ensure that this happens and that the resulting laws really do protect whales and dolphins.

Earlier this year, we wrote to you asking for your help. If you haven't already done so, please join our campaign and add your name to our petition urging the Government to act. Click here to sign the petition now. ( http://205.212.187.100/petition/petition/ ) Please also tell your friends and family about our campaign.

Thank you, your support is essential to help us keep up the pressure on the Government.


Mark Simmonds

WDCS Director of Science

 

 

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