Horrific dolphin mortality north coast of Peru

I arrived here on Tuesday 3/28. On that one day we found 615 dead dolphins on 135 kilometers of beach north of San Jose, Peru. This tragedy is unspeakable. I have never heard of this level of UME (unusual mortality event). BlueVoice is working with Dr. Carlos Yaipen Llanos of ORCA Peru. Tissue samples have been obtained and will be analyzed. This must be investigated.

We have video and stills for the media. You can reach me at hardyjones@bluevoice.org

Estrogen Imitating pollutants Lead to Larger Breasts, Obesity, Diabetes

Huffington Post has just published my blog on the impact estrogen imitating chemicals ingested through fish (and dolphin meat) can have on obesity, diabetes and larger breasts in women – AND MEN! Toxic data a great tool to end dolphin hunt for meat. Please forward to friends and RT. Also Like and Comment on the blog.
http://huff.to/wPyhkh

DVD-R on History of Fight to End Dolphin Hunt

"When Dolphins Cry", my film on efforts to end dolphin killing at Iki, Futo, and #Taiji, Japan is now available. It begins at Iki in 1979. Includes story of Mr. Ishii's conversion from dolphin hunter to dolphin watch leader. Important background to today's efforts to stop the killing. DVD-R at Amazon http://amzn.to/wsL2yL

Test Results from Meat of Spotted Dolphins

Working in conjunction with ELSA Nature Conservancy BlueVoice now has results of our testsw of the meat of striped dolphins recently killed at Taiji. These results will be widely disseminated in Japan and worldwide. Here are the results:

According to the initial report,
mercury : 1.68ppm --4.2 times higher than the maximum allowance level

methyl mercury: 0.85 ppm --2.8 times higher than the maximum allowance level

PCBs : 0.62 ppm --a little bit(1.24 times) higher than the maximum allowance level

More data shortly.

Killing and Eating Dolphins Expanding Worldwide

By Hardy Jones
Photo of dolphin meat by Carlos Yaipen Llanos, ORCA Peru

Breaking news World Dolphin Hunt

We have recently learned that hundreds of dolphins are found dead, butchered and the meat consumed in Peruvian fishing villages. Until recently Japan has been the world villain in the area of killing dolphins for food. Now it is becoming clear that slaughtering dolphins and other marine mammals such as dugong and sea lions is more common than thought and very likely spreading as world fisheries collapse.

Rather than fighting to end the killing country-by- country or even village-by-village, BlueVoice and our associates are conducting toxic testing on dolphins worldwide. This, along with compilation of scientific papers on levels of contamination in marine mammals, will be published in a white paper, on the web via networking sites, in videos with special emphasis on reaching consumers.

We are also working to find epidemiological information that ties consumption of contaminated marine mammal meat to specific diseases. Finding high levels of heart disease and Parkinson’s in the Faroes is one example. We are working with ORCA in Peru to study and publicize the fact that people who eat dolphins in fishing villages in Peru have extremely high incidence of diabetes – a disease that can be brought on by ingesting high levels of heavy metals and organic pollutants such as PCBs.

It is vital that we alert consumers to the dangers of eating marine mammals, especially to prevent the consumption of these products by school children. It is imperative that we stop children from developing a taste for marine mammal meat in their formative years. This will prevent a lifetime of consumption of these wonderful animals.

More On Obama's Cop Out on whales

The following comes from Sue Arnold, Australians for Animals, a decades long campaigner against whaling. She well expresses my own feeling about Obama's decision not to sanction Iceland and my bewilderment at how save-the-whales groups could think his actions useful.

By Sue Arnold
Barack Obama has taken the easy way out. A report to Congress which
in effect sets a precedent for diminishing not only the IWC but all
multilateral environmental agreements which rely on trade sanctions
for enforcement.

The failure to issue trade sanctions against Iceland has profound
ramifications and ensures that the IWC is now a very toothless tiger.
The WTO rules supreme.

This is very serious. As for the groups who believe the instruction
relative to the Arctic and Iceland are useful, please explain exactly how?

Sue Arnold
Australians for Animals Int.

Whale Experts Says Obama Deal on Iceland a Cop-out

The quotation below is from Dr. Sidney Holt, a man who knows more about saving whales than any other living person. He is now in his mid-80s and knows IWC history personally going back fifty years.

Many enviro groups have hailed Obama's statement as a great step in whale preservation. I believe they are terribly mistaken and that is backed up by Dr. Holt's assessment which I publish below.

"It is the usual cop-out. Iceland has already responded, naturally, with threats to block the US bowhead catch/strike limit (at next IWC) in Panama. The rot started three years ago with the US Chairman trying to throw away 40 years of effort, much of it led by the US - Obama is simply continuing that in his own way. But he seems to be continuing the Bush administration's position on practically everything, often subtly worse. We should all be worried, but you in the US specially so. Sidney