Archive: Marine Wildlife

Congressional leaders are calling on the Bush Administration to stand up for whales at this month’s annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in Chile. Recognizing the need for US leadership, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) and eight of his colleagues in the House of Representatives, as well as Senator John Kerry (D-MA) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), have introduced resolutions in their respective chambers to send the message that the United States must not be bullied into submission by pro-whaling interests.

“The message is simple. Now is not the time to capitulate to calls to weaken or undermine the existing IWC ban on commercial whaling,” said Chairman Rahall. “The American people care deeply about protecting whales, and the United States should continue on as an international leader in whale conservation.”

The United States is the current chair of the IWC, the international body founded over 60 years ago to be responsible for the conservation of whales. Since that time, a ban on commercial whaling has been instituted, two sanctuaries have been established, and attitudes toward whale conservation have improved. Yet while progress has been made, most of the great whales still face an uncertain future one that is made worse by additional threats in the form of climate change, fishing gear entanglement, overfishing of prey species, ship strikes, toxic pollution, and lethal sonar.

However, the biggest threat to whales comes from the member nations of Japan, Norway and Iceland, which have flouted the whaling ban and continued to whale for commercial gain by exploiting loopholes in the IWC Convention. Since the moratorium was put into effect, these countries have killed more than 25,000 whales, including over 11,000 who were taken under the guise of “scientific research.” Just this week, Norway and Iceland also resumed trade in whale meat with Japan, in flagrant defiance of an international ban on such trafficking.

“In the face of increasing pressure from pro-whaling nations, the US must reclaim its historic position as a leader in whale conservation and support the moratorium on commercial whaling. The time is running short to protect the world’s dwindling whale populations,” said Senator Kerry.

Although the United States has been an outspoken proponent of protecting the whales, most recently, US officials have not exercised this leadership position. In fact, rumored deals are said to have been initiated with the whalers. The ban is now in jeopardy, since the pro-whaling faction has recruited allied nations to join the IWC and convince fellow members that the body is unworkable and at an impasse. Once pro-conservation countries are now on the brink of capitulation and are in desperate need of leadership. Having led international efforts in the IWC to adopt the ban on commercial whaling, the United States is the natural choice for assuming this role, and it must do so before it is too late.

“This resolution serves to put the United States back on track and reaffirm its historically strong position in support of the whales. As current chair of the IWC; the United States holds a very important role and must extend all efforts to refocus the body toward its much-needed conservation aims,” said Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) Research Associate Susan Millward. “AWI commends Chairman Rahall, Senator Kerry, Senator Boxer, and their colleagues for sponsoring this important resolution.”

Today, the US House Committee on Natural Resources voted in favor of H.R. 5741, the Shark Conservation Act of 2008. Introduced by Subcommittee Chairwoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), the measure will reinforce the Shark Finning Prohibition Act, which was signed into law in 2000.

Since the original bill’s passage, the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning whereby the fins of a living shark are removed and the animal is thrown back in the water to die has been illegal in the United States, but enforcement has been hampered by loopholes in the ban.

Enforcement officials have stated that the only way to truly impose a shark finning ban is to require that sharks be landed whole, and an amendment to the Shark Conservation Act introduced by Representative Eni Faleomavaega (D-AS) contains this mandate. This key amendment requires that sharks be landed with their fins naturally attached and was also agreed upon by the committee.

“Personally I don’t like the way and manner in which sharks are being killed,” Faleomavaega told reporters. “But at least as a conservation measure…those fins better be on that shark.”

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), an animal advocacy group based in Washington, DC, supports this critical and timely modification to the current US shark finning ban. “We commend the committee for approving this important bill and giving sharks much-needed protection,” said AWI President Cathy Liss.

Actress Bo Derek, activist against wildlife trafficking and longtime AWI spokesperson, also sent a letter to committee members in support of the bill. “It’s very difficult to know how many there are left in the world. Some studies show that in the past 20 years, they’re down 90 percent. They reproduce very slowly,” Derek explained. “I don’t think sharks have a chance unless people just stop eating shark fin soup.”

While the bill would stop sharks from being finned in the US, imported shark fins served in the US could still be from finned sharks. AWI will continue its campaign to contact US restaurants currently serving the highly controversial “delicacy” of shark-fin soup, asking that they consider the precarious status of many of the targeted species and stop selling the dish immediately. A list of these establishments and a fact sheet on the practice of shark-finning are available on the AWI website.

Answering a bipartisan call to encourage the United States to stand up for whales, the House of Representatives today passed H. Con. Res. 350 by unanimous consent. In light of the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting to be held in Chile this month, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) and eight of his colleagues in the House of Representatives introduced the resolution to send the message that the United States must not be bullied into submission at the meeting by pro-whaling interests.

The United States is the current chair of the IWC, the international body founded over 60 years ago to be responsible for the conservation of whales. Since that time, a ban on commercial whaling has been instituted, two sanctuaries have been established, and attitudes toward whale conservation have improved. Yet while progress has been made, most of the great whales still face an uncertain future one that is made worse by additional threats in the form of climate change, fishing gear entanglement, overfishing of prey species, ship strikes, toxic pollution, and lethal sonar.

However, the biggest threat to whales comes from the member nations of Japan, Norway and Iceland, which have flouted the whaling ban and continued to whale for commercial gain by exploiting loopholes in the IWC Convention. Since the moratorium was put into effect, these countries have killed more than 25,000 whales, including over 11,000 who were taken under the guise of “scientific research.” Just this month, Norway and Iceland also resumed trade in whale meat with Japan, in flagrant defiance of an international ban on such trafficking.

Although the United States has been an outspoken proponent of protecting the whales, most recently, US officials have not exercised this leadership position. In fact, rumored deals are said to have been initiated with the whalers. The ban is now in jeopardy, since the pro-whaling faction has recruited allied nations to join the IWC and convince fellow members that the body is unworkable and at an impasse. Once pro-conservation countries are now on the brink of capitulation and are in desperate need of leadership. Having led international efforts in the IWC to adopt the ban on commercial whaling, the United States is the natural choice for assuming this role, and it must do so before it is too late.

“This resolution serves to put the United States back on track and reaffirm its historically strong position in support of the whales. As current chair of the IWC; the United States holds a very important role and must extend all efforts to refocus the body toward its much-needed conservation aims,” said Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) Research Associate Susan Millward. “AWI commends the House for quickly enacting this important resolution.”

A similar resolution, introduced by Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), is currently pending in the Senate.

As the 60^th meeting of the International Whaling Commission continues its deliberations, the Bush administration is undermining decades of whale conservation progress as it seeks to cut a deal with whaling nations that could lead to the official resumption of commercial whaling. Their deal making will be done behind closed doors without public oversight or accountability as the Bush administration has abandoned American principles of openness and honesty in order to engage in secret deliberations.

“It’s no secret that President Bush has one of the worst environmental record of any administration in history, but to sacrifice whales and democracy to placate whaling countries who have ignored repeated calls by many of the world’s governments to end whaling, is beyond the pale,” states D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the Animal Welfare Institute. “If this administration is willing to sacrifice whales to achieve a political end, there’s no telling what damage it could do to wildlife as President Bush’s eight-year reign of terror ends.”

Already this week, the Bush administration has:

• Ignored IWC rules for reporting transgressions of the IWC Schedule by refusing to admit that the illegal killing of a gray whale by Makah tribal members was an infraction of the IWC Schedule
• Indicated that it plans on supporting Greenland’s request for an aboriginal subsistence whaling quota of 10 humpback whales despite evidence of a significant commercial element to Greenland’s current hunt and the gross over-estimation of its aboriginal need for whale products
• Refused to promote transparency and openness within IWC deliberations by opposing attempts to include civil society to observe and participate in all work of the IWC and any working groups

“Despite promoting itself as a beacon of democracy and acting as a model for other countries in regard to transparency and openness in governmental operations, the Bush administration has decided to negotiate the future of the world’s whale in secret,” adds Susan Millward, a research associate with AWI. “The desire of the United States to conduct such deliberations without the accountability that comes from public scrutiny appears indicative of its intent to abandon its support for the whales in favor of support for the whalers.”

The United States is one of 24 countries who will engage in secret meetings over the course of the next year as they attempt to develop a package deal to “fix” the IWC through a process devised and promoted by Dr. William Hogarth, the US Commissioner to the IWC and the current Chair of the international body. Dr. Hogarth’s plan attempts to “fix” a convention that is not broken and is only at a stalemate because of the unwillingness of Japan, Norway, and Iceland to comply with international opinion and stop whaling coupled with the failure of the current Administration to use all diplomatic and legal muscle to permanently end whaling by these rogue nations.

For years, the United States was considered a leader in the worldwide effort to protect and conserve whales.  Under the Bush administration, however, the United States’ whale conservation agenda has been replaced by a plan of compromise and capitulation.  Such a dramatic shift in policy is inconsistent with the will of the vast majority of Americans who strongly oppose whaling. Reflecting the will of the people on the issue, the United States House of Representatives, only days ago, unanimously passed H.Con.Res. 350 demanding that the United States strongly support whale conservation, oppose any weakening of the commercial whaling moratorium approved by the IWC in 1982, and oppose any new form of whaling.

“It is clear from the actions of the United States at this week’s IWC meeting that the will of the American public and of Congress itself is of no concern or consequence to the Bush administration,” claims Schubert. “Yet again the arrogance of the Bush administration is clearly on display as it undermines decades of conservation gains for whales in a matter of days, abandons its principles of transparency, and ignores the opinions of its own constituents and even Congress. In this case, it’s not just the interests of the American people that are being abandoned but also the future of the world’s whales.”

The Bush Administration today hit a new low by supporting a proposal in favor of killing humpback whales, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) reports. By giving its support, the United States broke ranks with the conservation-minded member nations of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) who voted against the proposal. Unfortunately, this is one of several actions that the United States has taken at this year’s meeting contrary to its long-held position of supporting whale conservation.

Already this week, Bush Administration lackeys at the meeting have worked to facilitate a closed-door “deal” to bring about the resumption of commercial whaling. They have also ignored IWC rules for reporting transgressions of the IWC Schedule by refusing to admit that the illegal killing of a gray whale by Makah tribal members was an infraction of the IWC Schedule. Finally, they have refused to promote transparency and openness within IWC deliberations by opposing attempts to include civil society to observe and participate in the work of the Commission.

“It’s no secret that President Bush’s administration has one of the worst environmental records in history, but to sacrifice whales and democracy to placate whaling countries, who have ignored repeated calls by many of the world’s governments to end whaling, is simply inexcusable,” said D.J. Schubert, a wildlife biologist with the AWI who is currently attending the meeting.

The proposal to hunt humpbacks was offered by Denmark which sought the quota on behalf of the native people in its territory of Greenland which already has quotas to kill minke, bowhead and fin whales. Recent studies indicate that a quarter of the meat derived from killing these whales for “subsistence use” ends up in supermarkets for commercial sale. Nations opposing the proposal did so primarily because Greenland has not demonstrated the need for additional meat.

The United States is one of 24 countries that will engage in secret meetings over the course of the next year in an attempt to develop a package deal to “fix” the IWC using a process devised and promoted by Dr. William Hogarth, US commissioner to the IWC and current chair of the international body. Hogarth’s plan attempts to “fix” a convention that is actually only at a stalemate because of the unwillingness of Japan, Norway, and Iceland to comply with international opinion and stop whaling coupled with the failure of the current administration to use all its powers to permanently end commercial whaling.

For years, the United States was considered a leader in the worldwide effort to protect and conserve whales. However, lately its whale conservation agenda has been replaced by a plan of compromise and capitulation. Such a dramatic shift in policy is inconsistent with the beliefs of most of Americans and of the United States House of Representatives, which recently unanimously passed H. Con. Res. 350, demanding that the United States strongly support whale conservation, oppose any weakening of the commercial whaling moratorium approved by the IWC in 1982, and oppose any new form of whaling.

Yesterday, the House of Representatives unanimously voted in favor of H.R. 5741, the Shark Conservation Act of 2008. Introduced earlier this year by Subcommittee Chairwoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), the measure tightens the Shark Finning Prohibition Act, which was signed into law in 2000.

Later in the day, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) introduced S. 3231, an identical version of the Shark Conservation Act, in the US Senate. Senator Kerry has a long history of advocating for the protection of marine life, including sharks, and he was a lead sponsor of the Shark Finning Prohibition Act.

Since the original bill’s passage, the cruel and wasteful practice of shark finning whereby the fins of a living shark are removed and the animal is thrown back in the water to die has been illegal in the United States, but enforcement has been hampered by loopholes in the ban. “Sharks are vital to the health of marine ecosystems, but the practice of shark finning is driving their decline worldwide,” said Chairwoman Bordallo. The Shark Conservation Act offers sharks much-needed protection by imposing a ban on shark finning which requires that sharks be landed with their fins still attached to their bodies.

“It’s wonderful to see the House take this critical step forward in shark conservation. The Animal Welfare Institute commends Chairwoman Bordallo for her leadership on this important issue. We look forward to working with Senator Kerry and his colleagues in the Senate to secure enactment of the Shark Conservation Act of 2008.” said AWI president Cathy Liss.

Sharks are extremely slow to recover from overfishing because they mature late in life, grow slowly and have very small populations. Unlike their fish relatives, sharks produce a handful of pups instead of a large number of eggs. Despite their biology and the increasing warnings from experts that sharks are disappearing, millions of sharks are targeted for their fins and millions more die annually as bycatch.

Since the bill places no restrictions on shark fin imports, AWI still encourages consumers to avoid restaurants that sell shark fin products. A list of these establishments and a fact sheet on the practice of shark finning are available on the AWI website. If you find a restaurant selling shark fin products that is not listed, please send an email with the contact information to nosharkfinning@awionline.org.

The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) is pleased to announce that the Ivory Mandarin Bistro in Tampa, Florida has decided to stop serving shark fin soup. Restaurant owners Steve Sritrairasri and Jeffrey Wu made the decision after receiving information from AWI about the inhumane and wasteful manner in which shark fins are acquired and the overfishing of many shark species to meet the demand for the controversial shark fin soup.

“We were unaware of the many issues surrounding shark fin soup. After reading about it we decided to immediately stop offering it. It’s the responsible thing to do. These animals should not be slaughtered and pushed to extinction for a bowl of soup,” said Mr. Sritrairasri. “We hope other restaurants will join us and make Florida a shark friendly state.”

“We commend Ivory Mandarin Bistro for its compassionate decision. Mr. Sritrairasri and Mr. Wu clearly care about the marine ecosystem and it’s commendable that they have taken this responsible step,” said Serda Ozbenian, wildlife research assistant at AWI who leads the group’s shark fin campaign.

The decision by Ivory Mandarin Bistro comes on the heels of new rules enacted last Thursday by Florida and 14 other members of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) that require all sharks caught along the Atlantic seaboard to be landed with their fins naturally attached. This requirement will help strengthen the US Shark Finning ban by preventing sharks in the Atlantic from being illegally finned.

AWI encourages consumers to avoid restaurants that sell shark fin soup. A list of restaurants to avoid can be found on the group’s website, please click here. The Institute has identified 16 restaurants in Florida selling shark fin products and asks that consumers email nosharkfinning@awionline.org if they find an offending restaurant not appearing on the list.

Actress Hayden Panettiere, currently starring on the hit NBC series “Heroes,” led hundreds of participants in an aerial art event forming a giant human pilot whale beside the message “VOTE,” today in front of the US Capitol building.

The pilot whale symbolizes the tens of thousands of whales and dolphins killed each year by Japanese fishermen and the event commemorates the one-year anniversary of Hayden’s actions in Taiji, Japan, where she paddled out with protestors on surfboards to protect a pod of pilot whales who had been captured by fishermen for slaughter and for sale to aquariums.

Hayden is passionate about protecting whales and dolphins. As a spokesperson for the Save the Whales Again! campaign, she has made repeated calls for the Bush administration to defend whales at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and take action against the whaling countries of Japan, Norway, and Iceland for their persistence in killing whales for commercial gain.

“I turned 18 last year and I’m going to make my first vote count,” says Hayden. “I am looking forward to my visit to Washington to talk to those who will be voting in the upcoming election, to stress the importance of knowing where the candidates stand on the issues that are most important to them, and to be sure that come November 4th, they will actually go out and vote to ensure that their voices are heard.”

“Recent polls show that over 75 percent of registered voters oppose whaling, and over two-thirds want our government to do something about it.” said Jeff Pantukhoff, president and founder of The Whaleman Foundation and executive director of the Save the Whales Again! Campaign “yet to this point, the Bush administration has done little to stop the increasing slaughter and is now actively leading efforts that could result in a legalized return to commercial whaling.”

Over 25,000 great whales have been slaughtered for profit since the so-called ban on commercial whaling was instituted in 1986. “As current chair of the whaling commission, the US must stand up to whaling countries and lead the world in conserving whales and their habitats,” said Susan Millward, executive director of the Animal Welfare Institute and co-founder of the Save the Whales Again! campaign. “This illustrates how vital it is for Americans to elect leaders whose views actually reflect the will of the people and who will translate that will into policy.”

On the opening day of the 111th Congress, Representative Madeleine Bordallo (D-GU), chairwoman of the House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Fisheries, Wildlife and Oceans, reintroduced the Shark Conservation Act of 2009 (H.R. 81). A similar measure, to strengthen the Shark Finning Prohibition Act, was passed by the House of Representatives on a voice vote in July 2008, however, the Senate was unable to take action on the bill before the session ended necessitating its reintroduction in this Congress.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton signed the Shark Finning Prohibition Act in an effort to curb the wasteful and inhumane practice of shark finning – whereby the fins of a living shark are removed and the animal is thrown back in the water to die. This legislation made it unlawful to possess a shark fin in US waters without a corresponding carcass. Unfortunately, enforcement has been hampered by loopholes in the ban and finning has continued. The Shark Conservation Act of 2009 strengthens the original ban by requiring that sharks be landed with their fins naturally attached to their bodies. Enforcement officials have stated that this requirement is the only way to enforce a shark finning ban.

In introducing the measure, Congresswoman Bordallo said, “Removing these top predators drastically changes the food web structure, marine diversity, and ecosystem health. Addressing the practice of shark finning is an imperative step toward the conservation of sharks and marine ecosystems.”

Sharks are extremely slow to recover from overfishing because they mature late in life, grow slowly and have very small populations. Unlike other fish, sharks produce a handful of pups instead of a large number of eggs. Despite their biology and the increasing warnings from experts that sharks are disappearing, millions of sharks are targeted for their fins and millions more die annually as bycatch. The rising demand for shark fin soup has been cited as a leading cause of their demise.

“We look forward to working with Chairwoman Bordallo on this critical legislation and encourage Congress to act swiftly on its enactment,” said Serda Ozbenian of the Animal Welfare Institute. “In 2000, Congress acted appropriately on a bill that would end this practice. Sadly, in spite of the ban, some exploited a loophole and continued finning sharks. This bi-partisan bill will close that loophole to reflect what Congress originally intended.”