USA and France Protect Humpbacks

NOAA and France’s Protected Areas Agency have signed a “sister sanctuary” agreement to support the protection of endangered humpback whales that migrate annually more than 3,000 miles between NOAA’s Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary off the Massachusetts coast and Agoa Marine Mammal Sanctuary in the Caribbean’s French Antilles.

Italy Protests Japan's Slaughter of Dolphins

Italy has submitted a formal protest today against Japan and expressed "feelings of dismay and great concern and sadness of Italian public
opinion" for the hunting of dolphins, a practice followed annually for
centuries in the bay of Taiji, a village south of Tokyo, in Wakayama
prefecture.

In this regard, on the recommendation of the Minister for Foreign Affairs Franco
Frattini, the Charge d'Affaires Embassy of Italy in Tokyo Alfredo Durante Mangoni, immediately went to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign
Affairs (Gaimusho) where he met the Director General for Europe
to whom he handed a letter of protest upon the imminent start of hunting
season.

Toxic Tests Prove Dolphin Meat Not Food

Dolphin meat from Okinawa

Additional test results have just arrived, expanding on those we posted last week.

Funded by BlueVoice.org, Elsa Nature Conservancy of Japan has taken samples from the meat of dolphins killed at Taiji, Japan and Okinawa as well as Beaked Whales in North Pacific waters. Extremely high toxic levels were found for PCBs in pilot whale meat sold at Taiji. High levels of mercury and methyl mercury were found in meat from dolphins killed at Okinawa.

BlueVoice.org will present these results at the International Whaling Commission starting July 10 both to stop the killing of dolphins on Okinawa and the importation of dolphin meat from Taiji to Okinawa. The people of Japan should not be exposed to levels of toxins many times the levels allowed by their ministry of health.

The Taiji 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

Results from Okinawa show:

Dolphin 1: mercury 6.5 ppm (16.5 x allowable)
methyl mercury 3.1 ppm (10.33 x allowable)
PCBs 2.4 ppm (4.8 x allowable)

Dolphin#2 mercury 3.88ppm (3.5 x allowable)
Methyl mercury 1.6ppm (4.8 x allowable)
PCBs 0.27 ppm (below allowable, probably because this was a calf.

Provisional regulatory levels of mercury and PCBs set by the Japanese government:
Mercury (T-Hg):0.4ppm, Methyl mercury (M-Hg):0.3ppm, PCBs:0.5ppm

Baird’s Beaked Whale was not contaminated by radiation but contained mercury:1.42ppm, methyl mercury:0.76ppm. PCB 0.10ppm

The meat was eaten on June 21 by nearly 40 school children, fifth grade of two primary schools before the meat had been tested. “This is important, because its mercury is 3.5 times higher and its PCBs is 1.5 times higher than the maximum allowance levels.” Sakae Hemmi, Elsa Nature Conservancy

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

Caribbean Whale now off Greenland - Danger

My apologies to Jodi Frediani for misspelling her name in my previous post. She has generously sent a picture of the Silver Banks - Greenland whale - a shot taken this year on the Silver Banks north of the Dominican Republic. The whale is not named but the Greenland researchers have called it 0001 or One. This whale is now in real danger from Greenland hunters.

Jodi Fredi reports Greenland whale (ID'd on the Silver Banks 2011) has just been sighted off Greenland. Now in danger of being hunted. We want to make this issue of hunting humpbacks personal.

The Voice of the Dolphins Published

My book, The Voice of the Dolphins, is now available at my eStore

http:www.createspace.com/3501299

It will be on Amazon in 4 days, Kindle in 3 weeks and in book stores.

Please let your friends and lists know about the book, where appropriate.

It covers decades of encounters with whales and dolphins in the wild, the fight to stop the slaughter of dolphins in Japan starting with Iki in 1979 and continuing through Taiji in modern times, the savagery of captivity, the huge dolphin die-off along the east coast in 1988 and the emergence of disease among dolphins deriving from suppressed immune systems due to chemical toxicity. Finally it connects contamination of the marine food chain to human disease including cancer.

Much of the book tells of marvelous encounters with dolphins and whales in the open sea, encounters that demonstrate the sentience, intelligence, curiosity and wonder of these creatures.