Whaling nations sink bid for sanctuary

‘Agency acted reasonably to protect seals’

PORTOROZ, Slovenia, Oct 25, (Agencies): Whaling nations defeated a renewed bid Tuesday by southern hemisphere states to create an Atlantic sanctuary for the marine mammals hunted to near extinction in the 20th century.

A proposal by Argentina, Brazil, Gabon, South Africa and Uruguay, which needed a 75 percent majority, mustered only 38 yes votes out of 64 cast at an International Whaling Commission meeting, an outcome lamented by conservationists.

Its main detractors were whalers Japan, Norway and Iceland — with backing from a number of African, Asian and small island states.

“With all the problems currently facing whale populations that have previously been devastated by commercial whaling, it is clear they need a protected zone where they will be able not just to survive, but to rebuild and thrive,” said Greenpeace whale expert John Frizell.

“What is the most disappointing is that all these efforts are ultimately being undermined by IWC member countries who are thousands of miles away, not even in the southern hemisphere and some even on the other side of the world.”

The proposal, backed by countries which depend on whale-watching tourist dollars, has been shot down at every IWC meeting since it was first introduced in 2001.

“It is very disappointing that once again, a proposal for a South Atlantic

on WHBY in northeast Wisconsin that “mankind has actually flourished in warmer temperatures.” Johnson said — in his words — “How many people are moving up toward the Antarctica, or the Arctic? Most people move down to Texas and Florida, where it’s a little bit warmer.” Whale Sanctuary has been harpooned,” said Matt Collins of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

“A sanctuary in this region would have provided strong protection to a wide range of whale and dolphin species.”

The scheme is to create a whale sanctuary of 20 million square kilometres (eight million square miles) in the South Atlantic ocean.

Estimated

Backers say about 71 percent of an estimated three million whales killed around the world between 1900 and 1999 were taken in southern hemisphere waters.

The most targeted species were fin, sperm, blue, humpback, sei and minke whales, they say — and many populations are still recovering under a 30year old moratorium on all but aboriginal whale hunting.

According to the proposal filed with the commission, the sanctuary would “promote the biodiversity, conservation and non-lethal utilisation of whale resources in the South Atlantic Ocean”.

But Japan, under fire for its annual whale hunts in the name of science, which critics say is a cover for commercial whaling, expressed vehement opposition.

Tokyo argues that stocks of some species have recovered sufficiently to make them fair game for hunters, and that simply declaring all whales off-limits was not in line with environmental

Johnson is in a tough re-election contest with Democratic former Sen. Russ Feingold, whom Johnson beat in 2010. (AP)

Carbon dioxide at record levels:

The UN says the concentration of carbon imperatives.

“Sustainable use of marine living resources, including whales... is perfectly consistent with environmental protection,” Japan’s IWC commissioner told delegates on Monday.

“This proposal is against the principle of sustainable utilisation of marine living resources,” he said of the sanctuary. Two other sanctuaries exist today, in the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean — where Japan conducts some of its hunts.

New Zealand and Australia have submitted a proposal for scientific whale hunts, such as those Japan says it conducts, to be much more closely scrutinised.

While there are no reports of hunting in the South Atlantic today, Brazil’s IWC commissioner Hermano Ribeiro told AFP on Monday a sanctuary would provide “some kind of security”.

Meanwhile, an appeals court panel on Monday ruled that a federal agency acted reasonably in proposing to list a certain population of bearded seals threatened by sea ice loss.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reverses a lower court ruling that found the decision by the National Marine Fisheries Service was improper.

At issue was whether the fisheries service can protect species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act when it determines that a currently nonendangered species will lose habitat due to climate change in coming decades.

dioxide in the atmosphere has reached a record high.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday that the rise was fueled by the El Nino, an unusual weather pattern caused by the warming of the Pacific Ocean. El Nino leads to droughts in tropical regions and reduces the capacity of forests and oceans to absorb carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

The UN-linked World Meteorological Organization said in a statement that the globally averaged concentration of carbon dioxide reached 400 parts per million for the first time in 2015 and surged again to new records this year. (AP)

Alert raised for Alaska volcano:

Scientists raised the alert level for a remote Aleutian volcano on Monday after an explosion was detected on the mountain and heard by residents of a tiny village some 45 miles (72 kms) away, a monitoring website said.

Cleveland Volcano, a 5,676-foot (1,730-metre) peak on the uninhabited Chuginadak Island, about 940 miles (1,504 km) southwest of Anchorage, was raised to orange from yellow by the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

The orange code, the second-highest on the scale, is issued when a volcano is “exhibiting heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption,” according to the observatory. A red code is issued when an eruption is imminent or under way. (RTRS)