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Whales
& Dolphins
Facts
About Whaling: History
People's Daily Online, feature — June 2006
Large-scale whaling began around the 11th
century with hunts by the Basques and gained momentum
in the 19th century with the invention of faster, steam-powered
ships and more deadly harpoons...
Why
the Whalers Won
Tony Juniper, Guardian Unliited, commentary — June
2006
June 16th could mark the start of a new
open season on the world's whales...
Whales:
In Deep Trouble
The Independent Online, feature — January 2006
The Japanese call minkes "cockroaches
of the sea", serve their sperm as a delicacy,
and their meat as burgers to fast-food addicts. Since
the 1986 international moratorium on whaling, Japan
has taken, under the guise of "scientific research",
7,900 minkes, 243 Bryde's whales, 140 sei whales
and 38 sperm whales...
'Secret'
Dolphin Slaughter Defies Protests
Boyd Harnell, Japan Times, feature — November 2005
Every year, an unknown number of healthy
young specimens are selected and removed from the killing
coves to be sold into the international dolphin captivity
industry, to be kept in aquariums, trained to perform
at dolphinariums or for swim-with-dolphin program...
Nets
Killing 800 Whales and Dolphins Every Day
Dive Magazine, feature, November 2005
The majority of the 300,000 cetaceans
that die annually in nets drown, die of exhaustion
or are attacked by sharks, according to the report...
Japan
Lying About Whaling: Cousteau
Jonathan Moran, The Advertiser, feature — July
2005
The son of the late diving pioneer Jacques
Cousteau also believes Blue Whale, the largest species
on earth listed as endangered by Australia, is being
sold in Japanese fish markets...
Energy
Probe A Risk For Sea Life
Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor, investigation — July
2005
There is an increasing body of evidence
indicating that the intense blasts of sounds from
seismic air guns can injure, kill, and otherwise
harm marine mammals and fish...
Japanese
Professor Questions the Existence of Whaling Culture
in Japan
Sea Shepherd, interview — July
2005
Rakuno University Professor Jun Morikawa
says that contrary to the claim by the government
of Japan, whale meat is not an important part of
Japanese culture and there never was a widespread
tradition of eating whale meat prior to the end of
World War II...
Save
the Whales, Harpoon a Japanese Sushi Hunter
Emma Tom, The Australian, commentary — June
2005
Members of Japan's pro-whale hunting
lobby aren't a popular bunch. Their critics just
can't seem to get a grip on the fact that luncheon
meat is a perfectly acceptable byproduct of scientific
research...
Back
on the Menu
Mallcom Brown, Sydney Morning Herald, feature — May
2005
Anti-whaling
groups are making a last-ditch stand this week
to stave off what many see as inevitable — a
wholesale shift in the International Whaling
Commission (IWC) towards exploitation, including
possible abolition of conservation measures so
painstakingly achieved in the past...
The
Dolphin Defender
Hardy Jones, PBS, feature — May
2005
He filmed dramatic
dolphin hunts, and the documentary footage made headlines
and sparked international protests. Jones also discovered
the effects of chemical pollution on dolphins and orcas,
the largest species of dolphin...
U.S.
Set to Oppose Efforts to Restrict Use of Sonar
Marc Kaufman, Washington Post, feature — February
2005
Although
allies have become increasingly concerned about research
indicating a link between the mass strandings of
whales and nearby naval use of sonar, the new U.S.
position, being finalized last week, puts national
security first...
A
Very Murky Business — Dolphin Captures
Paul Kenyan, The Independent, feature — November
2004
Japan's
fishermen have begun their annual dolphin hunt. While
most will end up as sushi, marine parks are blamed
for perpetuating these brutal culls...
If
Whales Could Scream, The Killing Would Stop
Rebecca McQuillan, The Herald, commentary — July
2004
It
can take them an hour and a half to die. They are
speared by harpoons with explosive grenade heads,
designed to detonate inside them causing maximum
internal damage...
Marine
Parks: Below the Surface
Sally Kestin, Sun-Sentinel, investigation — May
2004
Dolphins
and whales have become so valuable, some worth
up to $5 million each, that attractions take
out life insurance and transport them worldwide
for the chance to breed more. About 2,335 marine
mammals have been moved one or more times, 11
animals, at least a dozen times. Duke, a sea
lion owned by a Mississippi company, holds the
record: 19 moves...
Dolphin
Slaughter in Japan
Helene and Ric O'Barry, investigation — January
2004
The
whalers drive them into a lagoon this way like sheep,
and here they are doomed: the whalers seal the mouth
of the lagoon with nets and, with the animals trapped
in a small area, it is an easy task for them to drive
them into shallow water and drive fishermen’s
hooks and knives into their bodies, bleeding them to
death...
What's
Wrong with Using a Dolphin as an "Advanced Biological
Weapon System"
Ric O'Barry, Frontline
Online, PBS, feature — 2000
'We're
only talking about a few dolphins here. There's millions
of them out there.' That's the argument. But what's
wrong with abusing a few women? Hey, there's millions
of them out there! It's the same kind of thinking,
same kind of logic...
The
Story of Navy Dolphins
Frontline Online, PBS, feature — 2000
At
one point during the 1980's, the U.S. program had
over 100 dolphins, as well as numerous sea lions
and beluga whales, and an operating budget of $8
million dollars...
A
Whale Named "JJ"
Peter Wallerstein, feature — January
1997
I wrote most of this
story within days of this rescue when all the details
of it were fresh in my memory. In the beginning of
the story the whale is called Marina. This was the
name the rescuers named her before she was named JJ...
Whalesong
Stephen Siciliano, poem
But
it isn't the same at all /
fails to conjure up those colors /
for compared to the whale /
even the lion's heart pales /
becomes a very small thing...
For
a Coming Extinction
W.S. Merwin, poem
When
you will not see again /
The whale calves trying the light /
Consider what you will find in the black garden—And its court...
A
Whale of a Conversation
Laura Moretti, essay
I spoke with an acquaintance
recently who confessed that she had gone to Sea World
in San Diego. She said she felt sad when she remembered
some of the things I had told her about wild animals
in captivity but she wanted to know where else people
would learn about killer whales...
Home
Is A Wounded Heart
Laura Moretti, essay
The
world is ailing. Every morning when we awaken, there
is a whale thrashing, a monkey screaming, a lone
wolf howling, in the back of our minds. There is
no escape from enlightenment, from truth, no escape
from what lies beyond the morning sparrow’s
song — not for us, those of us who work for
the lives of others...
The
Promise
Laura Moretti, essay
Dolphins are messengers
from beyond our own realm. They carry with them
age-old truths, a wisdom at birth no human being
experiences before death. They are masters of their
universe. And they remind us of the splendor and
preciousness of life, of time, of all that has
been and is and is yet to be...
Liberating
Moments
Laura Moretti, essay
It was a gentle-sounding
crash, as gentle as the giant that had made it. Fifty
feet of humpback whale breached the quiet, calm ocean,
forty tons of living flesh and sentience crashed
onto the water’s surface with an explosion
of spray and foam unlike anything I could ever have
imagined...
My
Soul and Inspiration
Laura Moretti, essay
The
police advised us to leave the city of Los Angeles
and go home the day after the riots had erupted,
and we heeded it. The surface streets were relatively
deserted, but the freeways were nearly a parking
lot — in both directions...
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