Unbeknownst to the Earth’s whale population, it’s been a big week for whales. Above the ocean’s surface, we humans have been determining their fate.
First off, it seems that Delta and Dawn are back at sea. When the two wayward humpback whales, a mother and her calf, were sighted 90 miles inland, up the Sacramento River on May 13, humans rushed to their aid. After two weeks of efforts, with thousands of spectators on the banks and in boats, cheering the whales on, the whales seemed to figure out how to get back to the salty Pacific. Whether the recorded whales calls, banging metal pipes and fire hoses helped or distracted the injured whales from their journey back to the Bay, no one knows. Maybe they would have found their way back without any human help at all…
While the predicament of these two individual whales captured the public attention and sympathy, the fate of the rest of the world’s whales hung in the balance as well.
It was an event during which humans could surely help whales, not just two whales, but whale populations all over the globe -the 59th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) last week in Anchorage Alaska.
What were the results of this weeklong convention whose purpose is “to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks?”
“Any significant development for whale conservation was thwarted by political wrangling and self-interest,” according to a World Wildlife fund report
The international forum barely addressed global warming, which scientists consider one of the most serious threats to marine life. A warming climate threatens food sources in Antarctic waters for the world’s largest creature, and has been linked to unusual migration patterns and the strange behavior of whales off Alaska’s coast, scientists say.
A proposed International Whaling Commission resolution about global warming’s impact on whales never even came up for a vote. The group opted instead for a climate change conference “at some point in the future.”
And sure, there were some strong statements against the proposal by the U.S. government to lease an area of critical habitat for the world’s most endangered whale population – the eastern North Pacific right whale – for oil and gas development. But “strong statements” don’t do much.
Plus, by the end of the tumultuous week, Japan threatened to quit the International Whaling Commission according to a National Geographic report. Japan had failed to gain support for a proposal to allow four of its coastal communities to hunt whales.
“As governments disagree on the same issues over and again, more and more whales are being killed by governments exploiting loopholes in the moratorium against commercial whaling. This degrades the entire spirit of the convention” said Wendy Elliott of WWF International’s Global Species Program. “Time is running out for these species and for the IWC.”
I can understand subsistence whaling, but the exceptions to the ban on commercial whaling granted to Japan, Iceland, and Norway make less sense. Culling whales to protect fish stocks or for “scientific research,” and then allowing them to be sold on the market seems more like a loophole.
Jorgesalazar quite rightly notes that so-called ’scientific whaling’ under whatever excuse, including for the spurious reason of culling whales to produce more fish, is a loophole that the original drafters of the Intenational Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) never contemplated being so abused. However, never let it be said that the IWC ‘allows’ Japan, Norway and Iceland to get away with this. It’s simply that the IWC has no teeth to sanction these countries for their self-allocated quotas. And these quotas are just that, self-allocated based on political targets, not given by anybody but the three governments concerned. Indeed, the IWC has repeatedly condemned these three country’s whaling, and its the whalers who want to see the IWC fail.
The extreme interest in the fate of the lost whales, Delta and Dawn from people around the world shows how much we humans care about whales …
Maybe because they are mammals, like us?
I was very proud of our deep concern for Delta and Dawn and hope that one day all endangered animals will be cared for by humans.
a couple of years ago my girlfriend heard on the news that a large pilot(i think it was a pilot whale it was large and black and whales are not my area) whale had beached itself on the shore of jetty park. she worked there at the time and it happened after she left for the day. we returned and for about an hour and a half she joined others in rushing with buckets to the surf to get seawater to keep the whale wet until seaworld people arrived. thius whale was around 40 feet long and i knew it was done for because it could not be moved, yet i learned a new respect for her love of this creature and her world when i wouldnt waste energy to help yet she tried as hard as the others to save it. it was not a proud moment for me but i knew the outcome as if i were madam cleo. after a while the seaworld people arrived from orlando and euthonized the whale. they injected something into it and it thrashed for just a moment or so and i felt the horror not just for the whale but for everyone that tried to save it. i will never forget this feeling as i can empathize through my girlfriends pure intent to simply help and her pain that it was for nothing. i knew this was going to happen because it was simply huge and heavy and yet i cannot tell you how bad i felt at knowing how hard they all tried. this is one of many many reasons i belive that no matter what your political religeous or for that matter any belief that all humans are hardwired to care. if those whales were simply media fodder or real concern or even political news, alll of us care in one way or another and the coverage was for the better.
Sam:
It’s funny that it’s sometimes easier to care about two individual whales, and harder to care about all whales. I think that’s in our human nature as well.
Eleanor
its easier to care about what is front of eyes,reality, or whatever. you can see something with your own eyes and your brain or heart simply reaches out. but if you hear of it or read about it or see it on tv you are disconnected from it somehow…anyway she told me it was in fact a pilot whale around 25 ft and that she hadent thought of it in a while until i brought it up this morning.she also told me that the qutopsy of it revealed plastic trash bags in its digestive system was the assumed culprit in its demise.thank goodness that simple good nature rules people into caring.
That’s terrible that people littered trash bags in the ocean. As for this loophole, it looks like we need to get more specific as to what use the whales can be, so they’re not used commercially.
plastic trash bags should be done away with. pine trees where used in the production of paper bags. these trees grow qickly and break down in the ocean. i blame ill informed and easily led liberals for doing away with the production of paper bags. see how their ill informed and kneejerk reactions ( yet well intention )have effected other creatures? i belive the hearts of these people are in the right place yet they are easily misled by the corruption of those that would speak to them of the wrongness of all that might lead them. plastic bags also have been found in the gut of many turtles washed ashore along the coast.look people are going to buy boats and most people will forget and allow the plastic to blow overboard. im not an advocat for the paper bags producers of america but i do want something either digestible or biodegradable.