Latest Report from Carlos on Dolphin Die-off

This is a synopsis of the most recent email report I’ve received from Carlos. BlueVoice has funded his return to Chiclayo to begin a new recon of the area he and I covered two weeks ago.

On Saturday, the President of the Congress told all media that the Ministers of Production, Environment and Energy should present an explanation to the Congress plenary session regarding the dead dolphins in the north.

On Sunday, the Minister of Production (including fisheries) called me from his assistant’s cellphone. He wanted me in a personal meeting Monday morning
9am to talk on "environmental affairs".

Carlos and Elena gave him a summary of what they knew. He was very concerned. Carlos: “I just told him
we had evidence of the acoustic impact and we are researching possible diseases associated with the strandings, since we never recorded anything like this over the past decade. He asked bout the importance
of marine mammals, and why the dolphins are so important. We explained. He was impressed, and worried. He concurred with us that dolphins are to people psychologically the closest animal.

So, in summary, we requested three things and he agreed:
1. To support and to participate in education campaigns for dolphins and ocean health.
2. To enhance the participation of Peru against whaling.
3. To declare marine mammals,specially dolphins, of National Importance.

So, at the end of the meeting, he agreed that he would like to have a copy of our final report on the dolphin strandings

New Toxic Results from Taiji Dolphin Meat

Funded by BlueVoice.org, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan has taken samples from the meat of dolphins killed at Taiji, Japan. Extremely high results were found for PCBs in pilot whale meat. High levels of mercury and methyl mercury were found in other dolphin meat.

The reports in Japanese and English are downloadable PDFs at:

http://www.bluevoice.org/pdf/taiji_testresults_english.pdf
http://www.bluevoice.org/pdf/taiji_testresults_japanese.pdf

No Dolphin Hunting in Futo

I just received word from Mr. Ishii, the former dolphin hunter who is now leading whale and dolphin watching trips. Great news!!

Yesterday, I attended the Annual meeting of the Ito(Futo) Fishermen's Union.
Their Annual Report says that their target for dolphin sales this
year .. is ZERO yen! This is because there have been no sales of dolphin for several years in Futo.I believe that there are various reasons but one of them must be people's unspoken resistance.......
But the fishermen are still waiting for the chance to hunt.
Let's continue our silent, well-mannered resistance with the words
"We are free!"