BlueVoice Views

The True History of Actions to Save Dolphins at Taiji

2012-01-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

Friday, September 16, 2011
Chronology of Efforts to End Dolphin Slaughter at Taiji

by Hardy Jones

Photo by Dieter Hagmann

This posting attempts to cover only events at Taiji, deliberately omitting what occurred at Iki and Izu during the late 1970s and early 1980s. I welcome any additions or corrections by email.

Admittedly this chronology is heavy in references to BlueVoice due to the fact that I am most familiar with our work. Again, I invite additions and corrections from informed sources.

In 1980 Howard Hall and Hardy Jones, while en route to Iki Island to film a dolphin slaughter, learned of the capture of 200 melon-headed whales (actually a species of dolphin) at Taiji, Japan. They brought their cameras to Taiji and were able to effect the release of all the melon-heads.

In 1999 the massacre of a group of bottlenose dolphins at Futo came to the attention of CBS News. Hardy Jones was interviewed on the subject and seeing the ghastly footage decided to return to Japan to see what might be done to end the dolphin killing.

In 2001 Hardy met Sakae Hemmi, of Japan’s Elsa Nature Conservancy, and the two worked together at Taiji and Futo to end the dolphin killing. They returned each year, in some years accompanied by photographer Larry Curtis, during dolphin hunting season with Hardy filming and Sakae gathering data.

During the early 2000s Environmental Investigation Agency sent representatives to Taiji who were treated very roughly.

In 2002 Hardy’s film, When Dolphins Cry, premiered on National Geographic Channels worldwide. It portrayed the killing of dolphins at Taiji and the story of the conversion of Izumi Ishii from dolphin hunter to dolphin watch leader.

In 2003 representatives of Sea Shepherd went to Taiji. Two of their members cut nets holding dolphins in Hatagajiri Bay. Whether any dolphins escaped is an open question. But the act brought both international news coverage and heightened security at the killing cove.

2003 was also the first year of Ric O’Barry’s efforts to end the killing of dolphins at Taiji. He has returned to Taiji for extended periods each year since and later starred in the film The Cove.

In 2005 PBS broadcast Hardy Jones’ The Dolphin Defender, a film that included both the story of the slaughter of dolphins at Taiji and the beginning of dolphin watching at Futo.

During much of the first decade of the 2000s WDCS supported the work of BlueVoice in Japan and conducted outreach programs elsewhere in Japan to educate the Japanese public about the dolphin slaughter and the dangers of consuming mercury laden dolphin meat.

During the years 2007, 08, 09, 10 and 2011 German journalist Dieter Hagmann visited Taiji and brought back extraordinary footage of the brutality of the dolphins slaughter. His work appeared in TV-Stations: ARD, ZDF. Newspapers: SUN (British), Bild (German), Aftonbladet (Sweden), Associated Press (Japan), Zeeburg Nieuws (Netherland) Press Agencies: PRNewswire, asiaprnews, Reuters, CNW, DPA with many online publications.

Since 2006 BlueVoice, in conjunction with Elsa Nature Conservancy, has been conducting tests of dolphin meat for mercury and organic pollutants such as PCBs. Results have shown high to exceptionally high levels of these contaminants. Tests also showed extremely high levels of mercury in persons who consumed dolphin meat.

In 2007 surfing legend Dave Rastovich along with film star Hayden Pantierre paddled surf boards into Hatagajiri Bay and brought international attention to the situation at Taiji.

At roughly this time, a film crew organized by Louie Psihoyos began work on a film centered around Ric O’Barry and his crusade to stop the killing at Taiji. The result would be a documentary film named “The Cove.”

In 2008 a Japanese journalist, Hiroshi Hasegawa, received data developed by Elsa and BlueVoice that documented high levels of mercury in four dolphin-eating Taiji citizens. Hasegawa then conducted additional testing that found even higher numbers for mercury among the dolphin-eating population. The results were published in AERA, a major Japanese magazine. His article spurred the National Institute for Minamata Disease to propose testing citizens of Taiji for mercury. The tests showed that citizens of the town had very high levels of mercury but claimed they found no impact on health. That conclusion has been widely disparaged by international experts.

In 2010 the Psihoyos film, The Cove, won film festival after film festival culminating in winning an Academy Award. This film brought a tsunami of protest against the practice of killing dolphins and raised the issue around the world. Psihoyos and his cohorts have continued their efforts in Japan to end the dolphin slaughter and The Cove continues to reach audiences worldwide.

During the 2010 – 11 hunting season Sea Shepherd maintained a group of activists at Taiji known as the Cove Guardians. They provided web reporting throughout the entire period of the hunt.

In 2011 BlueVoice sponsored tests conducted by Elsa Nature Conservancy of dolphin meat from Okinawa and Taiji. The tests showed elevated levels of mercury and PCBs. The tests results have been widely disseminated in Japan.

At the beginning of the 2011 – 2012 dolphin hunting season Ric O’Barry organized a prayer vigil at Taiji and, along with associates such as Leilani Munter, provided information on the hunt during September.

Sea Shepherd Cove Guardians also returned to Taiji and are reporting from the scene.

Despite these extensive efforts the hunt and slaughter continues.

What Will it Take to End Japan Dolphin Slaughter?

2011-08-30T06:17:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

This is a slightly modified article I wrote last year for Huffington Post. It reflects the fact that Sea Shepherd pushed the Japanese whaling fleet out of the Antarctic during the 2010-11 season. But the principal issues are the same this year as last.

The dolphin hunt begins at the end of this week. Perhaps 100 police, coast guard and god knows what other form of policing will be present to greet the ever growing crowds of dolphin activists drawn to the scene of the killing.

On September 1st the dolphin hunts in Taiji, Japan are scheduled to resume despite unrelenting tsunamis of publicity around the world highlighting this brutal slaughter. In addition the village of Futo, just southeast of Tokyo, has announced it will resume dolphin hunts, mainly to secure dolphins for captivity. Dolphin hunting in Japan continues uninterrupted. NB: This did not happen last year, primarily due to absence of dolphins from their waters.

The resumption of the dolphin hunts followed a weekend, August 27 - 29, during which Animal Planet aired the two-hour season finale to Whale Wars, the fight by Sea Shepherd to stop whaling by Japan in the Antarctic, a two-hour presentation of The Cove, the academy award winning film by Louis Psoyhos featuring Ric O'Barry; and the premier of O'Barry's own three-part film series Blood Dolphins. This represents a media barrage of unprecedented dimension.

NB: The dolphin hunt continued through the entire 2010-11 season and was even extended.

While issues of cruelty are a highly important part of the argument against these hunts there is another compelling reason why dolphins and whales not only should not be hunted but instead demand greater protection than ever.

Growing evidence suggests that dolphins are becoming so contaminated by marine toxins that eating them constitutes a genuine threat to human health. Health officials in Denmark and the Faroe Islands have already recommended that consumption of pilot whale meat taken in the notorious "grinds" not be eaten due to high levels of contaminants in the meat.

The issue of heavy metal contamination in large predatory fish and marine mammals is becoming well known. Less widely known are the high levels of organic pollutants such as PCBs, PBDEs, DDT, and other chemicals that suppress mammalian immune systems and disrupt normal endocrine function. Some of these chemicals are known to be estrogen imitators that act to feminize men and superfeminize women; in some cases raising the percentage of females babies born over male babies significantly.

Dolphins are already severely threatened by anthropogenic forces. During the last year numerous peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published documenting a worldwide surge in incidence of diseases heretofore unknown in dolphins.

A team of researchers and veterinarians from the Marine Animal Disease Lab at the University of Florida have discovered at least fifty new viruses in dolphins, the majority of which have yet to be reported in any other marine mammal species.

Thirty new diseases have developed simultaneously worldwide resulting from what Dr. Gregory Bossart, Chief Veterinary Officer at the Georgia Aquarium, describes as profound immunosuppression leading to environmental distress syndrome resulting from chemical intoxication.

In addition, resistance to antibiotics has been found in dolphins in numerous locations around the world. Obviously antibiotics do not occur in nature. They come from people who take antibiotics and introduce them into the ecosystem through bodily elimination or simply throwing unused pills away. After they reach the watershed plankton ingest them and they bio-accumulate up the food web to concentrate in top predators such as dolphins. The dolphins then have the potential for breeding antibiotic resistant super bugs that may pass back to humans. The transmission of disease from one species to another is called zoonosis and is of great concern to the CDC. AIDS is one example of zoonotic transmission.

I first went to Japan to stop the dolphin slaughter at Iki Island in 1979. In 1980 cameraman Howard Hall and I filmed a barbaric slaughter of scores of bottlenose dolphins. Airing of the footage around the globe caused massive worldwide protest.

In that case exposure of the brutal footage of dolphins being hacked and stabbed to death essentially brought an end to the dolphin hunt at Iki. But such publicity has not produced a similar result since. NB: Dolphins are no longer found around Iki, This may be the result of changing water temperatures forcing their prey to other parts of the sea or it may be the dolphins around Iki were extinguished by the brutal hunts.

After Paul Watson and his Sea Shepherds vanquished the Japanese whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean Japan may believe it has to dig in its heels on the dolphin issue. The massive deployment of police to Taiji certainly indicates they are not backing down. I have been told by highly knowledgeable Japanese environmentalists that sticking Japan's nose in it may be making it all but impossible for Tokyo to withdraw from dolphin hunting. A proud sovereign nation cannot allow small groups of environmentalists to be seen to make it kow-tow. If Japan stopped dolphin hunting now it would appear environmentalists had forced them to back down. But the knowledge that diseases such as brucellosis and papillomavirus are being found ever more frequently in dolphins may, ironically be what forces the end of eating dolphin meat. And if that isn't enough thirteen additional RNA-based viruses that cause intestinal disease and encephalitis in humans have also recently been discovered in dolphins

It baffles me that whaling and dolphin killing can persist in the 21st century. We know so much about these magnificent animals. Whale and dolphin watching generate over US$2.1 billion per year around the world, vastly more than whale and dolphin killing.

But human self-interest on the part of entrenched bureaucratic elites is a powerful force molding individual ethics and shaping short sighted policies. So in Japan and elsewhere whaling and dolphin hunting persist.

In the light of emerging threats to the marine ecosystem, dolphins and whales in particular, the deliberate killing of these curious, intelligent, sentient animals is tragic and will only hasten the extirpation of whole populations of these magnificent sentinels of the sea.

Eyeball-to-Eyeball with a Sperm Whale pt II

2011-08-26T10:07:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

Thoughts floated through my mind, lingering for instants but, finding no certainties on which to perpetuate themselves, drifting back to wherever thoughts come from. "What does the vast computing system housed in the six-foot square skull of this animal make of me? Am I a joke? Does it find me as funny as I might a monkey scratching its ass? Surely it doesn't see me as edible? Does it have any clue that I can think too?"

But the one thought that never left my mind was, "how do I keep this animal with me?" For by now I was in love with this whale. I could not disengage my eyes from its one huge eye. I watched its every move. "Every move you make, every breath you take. . . . .". Even in open ocean swimming with a sperm whale my mind is a jukebox. It breathed every thirty seconds. I huffed and strained for enough air to keep my legs pumping. For five minutes we swam eyeball-to-eyeball, the whale using only the barest motion of its tail to gain forward momentum. I was surely in an altered state but it was not dreamlike. It was intense reality.

The great eye moved slightly forward in its socket, the left edge of the tail fluke was raised and my whale began a right turn, prelude to breaking off contact. You cannot pursue whales. If you try you will find yourself looking at a disappearing tail, some sloughed off epidermis and more than likely passing through a reddish brown cloud. So I resisted that impulse and turned left, mirroring the whale's retreat. When I looked over my shoulder the whale had turned back toward me.

Knowing I had to try to bring it to the camera I headed back towards the boat. Roc, with his huge housing, could not have moved far from it. I resented the responsibility of having to help the French crew get video of this encounter. I wanted my whale to myself to see where the encounter would go if we were left on our own.

As we approached the boat I could see Roc hanging at the surface, the glassy dome of his camera pointing at us. He was getting his video but I was going to lose my whale. Perhaps unwilling to get close to another of these strange creatures or to approach the boat, perhaps obeying a call from its mate far below, the sperm whale breathed twice, accelerated, arched forward and began to swim almost straight down. I could see it pass through the slanting golden shafts penetrating the blue of the sea. A bubble from its blowhole, a bubble from its anus and it was gone.

I don't remember swimming back to the boat but once aboard I jettisoned my dive gear and clenched my fist in triumph. Trying to share some of the experience with the French video crew I said "Incroyable! Ne c'est pas?" The director raised his shoulders and twisted his face performing that characteristic Gallic shrug and lit a cigarette.

To me to be uninspired by a sperm whale is a tragedy. Soon I will write about the joke I played on the French film crew. I love France and the French (by and large) but occasionally their arrogance needs to be brought down a peg.

For more stories of interspecies contacts in many oceans of the world read The Voice of the Dolphins by Hardy Jones, available in print and Kindle at Amazon.com

Eyeball-to-Eyeball with a Sperm Whale

2011-08-22T13:06:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

In 2001 I joined a French film crew off the Caribbean Island of Dominica. They were doing a segment of the hugely popular French television show Ushuaia. I had been hired as the whale expert and because I speak passable French. We had some remarkable encounters with sperm whales and I played a marvelous joke on the French crew.

I sat down on the swim step of our 32 foot cruiser and hauled on my fins, holding my breath to avoid inhaling the noxious diesel exhaust sputtering out of the engine at the waterline next to me. French cameraman Roc Pescadere dropped down next to me, easing his massive video housing into the water. Seventy yards away the pair of sperm whales cruised slowly toward us, their bulbous heads forging through the calm surface of the deep blue Caribbean Sea. Behind the whales the blazing green of the volcanic slopes of Dominica rose under a blue sky contrasting with cumulous clouds.

I dropped a mask over my face and bit down on the snorkel then slipped into the water as quietly as possible so as not to alarm the whales. Roc followed and we kicked lightly to separate ourselves from the boat, then hung at the surface, peering over the top of the glassy sea to spot the whales. They had begun to pick up speed. While still heading toward us they were moving faster and veering slightly to their right. We were going to lose them. I felt the usual sadness when failing to make contact and wondered, "why are you comfortable approaching our boat but frightened off by a clumsy swimmer?"

By now the two whales were close enough to view underwater; no more than 100 feet away. Viewed from above the surface their single blow holes, canted slightly off center on the left of the head, ventilated and inhaled like steam engines beginning a journey. Beneath us was what to humans is perceived as endless blue but to the whales' sonar would appear as undersea slopes and canyons hundreds of meters below. One of the whales was considerably larger than the other, nearly fifty feet in length. Both had angled the leading edge of their pectoral fins downward and begun to arch their backs, the last move before throwing their tail flukes upward to depart the surface where man and whale can interface to enter an azure universe all their own.

In a last attempt to get the whales to come and play I resorted to a technique that had often worked with dolphins and killer whales. I began to sing a pathetic imitation of a humpback's song. "Whoooop. Whoooooooop. Uuuuuhhhhhh." The smaller of the two sperm whales continued its forward motion, pointing its massive square head straight down, raising the six-foot wide tail fluke to add gravity’s impetus to the descent. The larger whale seemed about to do the same but instead of going fully vertical it hesitated, slightly arched its back and stopped as though it had bumped into something. I remember thinking "that's the first clumsy move I've ever seen a whale make."

The sperm whale now lay still at the surface and began to sonar me, generating sonic images, not only of the exterior of my body but three-dimensional impressions of the bones and air spaces within my body. Anything that wasn't water-like would read. The sonar pulses were like fingers snapping and occurred at intervals of roughly six seconds. The world got very quiet and slow. Again calling on strategy learned from encounters with other cetaceans, I began to swim - not directly at the whale, but at a 45 degree angle which brought me closer while not making a direct approach. The whale turned and began to move forward very slowly on a similar tangential tack. At a distance of fifty feet I could see the whale's eye clearly, large as a grapefruit, rotating in the socket, looking at me. Once we were no longer head-on it's sonar could not focus on me. We were eyeball-to-eyeball.

The whale was light gray with lighter patches where skin had sloughed off, a way of reducing friction as it moves through the water. I paid close attention to the jaw. The surprisingly small lower mandible fit tightly into the upper, the five-inch teeth on the bottom fitting into empty holes in the upper. An open mouth can be a threat sign so I was glad this whale's mouth was clapped shut. To keep up with the whale I had to exert myself to the fullest, breathing like a runner in the final stretch of a marathon and kicking with all the force I could muster from my finned legs. Roc with his camera housing was left behind and I knew he'd be angry that I was drawing the shot away from him.

We continued moving closer. My companion was as large as a freight car. At twenty-five feet the whale turned slightly right. It had reached its limit of tolerance. I edged slightly left so we found ourselves broadside to one another, and I recall thinking "he's got a helluva a lot broader side than I do." We continued swimming parallel to one another, eyes engaged. I was looking into the eye an animal that has the largest brain of any creature ever to live on earth, a brain seven times larger than my own. The sperm whale's eye was massive and intelligent.

In part II: Sperm Whale Etiquette

For more stories of encounters with dolphins, killer whales, humpback and sperm whales read The Voice of the Dolphins, available at Amazon.com in print and Kindle.

Meeting Goodall: of Dolphins and Chimps pt III

2011-08-17T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Great Banana Heist

We conducted our interview with Dr. Goodall until Julia ran out of audio tape and went to the hut for another roll. She screamed and came running out looking extremely embarrassed. The reason was only too clear. Standing in the middle of the clearing was a large male chimp with the banana stalk. He didn’t laugh out loud but looked mighty pleased with himself.
I looked at Goodall expecting the worst, but she was smiling. Julia blurted out her explanation. “I opened the door and he just pushed me out of the way and grabbed the bananas. He’s phenomenally strong.” Julia appeared impressed if not a bit traumatized by the encounter.
We stopped filming to watch one of the most astonishing interspecies interaction I’ve ever witnessed. The male with the bananas stood there like a Capo Mafosi. Females approached with their hands cupped and a look of supplication. He began doling out one banana after another to favored females.
The baboons went nuts, screeching and running around in a frenzy. They wanted some banana too. After doling out a few of the precious fruits, the male climbed a nearby tree and began to eat. He would peel a banana, eat it with a look of supreme self-satisfaction and then drop the peel to the baboons below. The word haughty doesn’t begin to describe his attitude.
If ever anyone doubted the similarities between humans and chimps they need only have witnessed that interaction. The facial expressions, attitudes and behaviors of the chimps were only a slight exaggeration of what we see in our fellow humans.
It is much harder to see these expressions in dolphins as their faces are fixed, rigid to minimize drag through the water. In many dolphin species they appear to be smiling all the time but that is only the result of evolutionary forces shaping their faces moving through water over eons.
We returned to Kigoma without further misadventure, found our plane and then flew through thunderheads the entire way back to Dar Es Salaam. It was bumpy and a true white-knuckler. Below us was trackless Africa - no place to crash or even land. I was glad when we touched down back in Dar.
That night we found a secret restaurant where you could buy a sumptuous dinner - if you had dollars. The room was mainly peopled by large and well-fed African men, each of whom had two or three women crowding around him seeking his favor. My mind went back to the chimp with the bananas. Along with the fine food there was a local spirit called Conyagi – cognac. The stuff was vile but I threw back quite a few shots.

For more stories of interspecies contacts in many oceans of the world read The Voice of the Dolphins by Hardy Jones, available in print and Kindle at Amazon.com

Meeting Goodall: of Dolphins and Chimps pt II

2011-08-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

At the end of my last post our party had been marooned on the shore of Lake Tanganyika when the boat Goodall sent for us broke down just off a desolate village. Our two Africa boatmen loped off back toward Kigoma.

Nat, Julia and I sat there speechless. Things were about to get worse.
A band of six or seven African men approached us smiling big. Lots of white teeth. They were drunk and they had guns. The only positive development was that they spoke French. It turned out they were rebels who had been driven out of Congo across the Lake to the west.
We were all truly afraid for our lives. One guy, brain sloshed in alcohol, could decide to blow us away for fun. We’d disappear and no one would know it had ever happened.
I decided it would be best if we walked into the village. I actually felt hungry. It’s impossible to convey the poverty of this village. People just sat around with blank stares on their faces in front of their miserable huts. Then we spotted a dented and rusty sign with a Pepsi logo and the words “New Yankee Restaurant.” Huh!
We entered the dark premises and saw a fire at the back. A frail elderly man hunched over a paint can filled with oil set over an open fire. We made motions of our hands to our mouths – the international signal for eat and he waved us to a log used as a seat. He then raised his index finger while raising his eyebrows. You want one? Then alternated the one finger with the middle finger to indicate “Or two?”
One or two of what we wondered. Not knowing what was on offer we signaled “one” and waited to see the fare. The old man reached into a tin, pulled out some dough, wadded it into the size of a baseball and threw it into the oil in the paint can. Two minutes later he plucked the sizzling blob out of the oil and threw it down on a tin plate. It was muddy brown. The room was so dark it was impossible to ascertain the cleanliness of the plate but there was a decidedly hard and heavy sound to the impact on the plate of what I was beginning to think of as a kind of donut.
Whatever it might have been it was way too hot to eat so we were left to ponder who, if any of us, would allow hunger to overcome aversion.
When the cook motioned toward the “donut” I suspended rational process and reached down and tried to pinch a small portion out of the blob only to discover it was more a rock than a blob. Eventually I was able to break off a small portion and, with both Julia and Nat watching, put it in my mouth.
It was totally saturated in oil which, while rancid, at least didn’t taste like it was petroleum based. There was no other taste to it.
We extricated ourselves from the New Yankee Restaurant by paying what was surely far more than we should have and signaling we wanted to eat it while walking along the shore of the lake.
For another hour we sat near our boat and pondered our situation. There is no doubt this was one of the most dangerous situations I’d ever been in. The drunken men with automatic weapons followed us around, occasionally inviting us somewhere or other. I was concerned that Julia, being a woman, might be in more danger than the rest of us.
At dusk the sound of an outboard motor reached our ears and to our immense relief a small skiff appeared, driven by the boatmen who had set off for Kigoma five hours previously.
We took the original boat in tow and headed north along the eastern shore of the lake resuming our voyage to the Goodall camp. It was after dark when we turned into the shore and beached both boats. Dr. Goodall emerged onto the rocky shoreline with a flashlight. We began to unload our gear, taking care not to step into the water.
Her first question was “what kind of food did you bring.” I realized instantly that we had made a big mistake not doing some shopping at Kigoma.
“We landed late and weren’t able to get anything.”
She expressed mild irritation and said “well we don’t have any food here.” It had never really occurred to me that you could get to a place where there actually was no food. She was somewhat mollified when I told her we did have her engine parts, T-shirts and floppy hats.
Eventually we stashed all our gear and sat down at a small table in her cottage. Momentarily a sweet potato appeared which we all divided. That was it for food.
Hunger kept me awake and alert far longer than I normally would have been. I explained to her how we approached dolphins in the wild. She was interested in the fact that dolphins maintained eye contact with us. It’s very poor etiquette to look directly at male silverback gorilla and might easily earn you a charge. Among chimps eye contact is broken during periods of conflict and reestablished during reconciliation.
I described our methods of naming individual dolphins and how we had foolishly named a young dolphin One Spot, only to find the following year that One Spot had become Four Spot a product of maturation in all spotted dolphins.
I was humbled to be in Dr. Goodall’s presence and delighted that she didn’t laugh me out of the room as I described our work in the Bahamas. On the contrary she summed up her feelings saying “what you are doing is analogous to what we’re doing here. One of the main benefits of your work is to make the dolphins real for people, to make people empathize with the dolphins and feel what they feel. People will protect only those things they love and your films certainly make people fall in love with those dolphins.”
Eventually exhaustion overcame adrenalin and we all drifted off to our sleeping bags.
In the morning we awakened and prepared for our trek up the hillside to where she expected we’d find one of the bands of chimps she had been working with for 27 years.
There was tea but the question of a heartier breakfast didn’t come up so I asked Dr. Goodall if I might have a banana off the large stalk resting near the front door.
“Those are for the chimps . . . but you can have one,” she replied, underlining the word “one”.
I felt so maladroit and wanted to explain that we were ocean and boat people – not Africa bush people. Our meals at sea were always served on demand and in great abundance. But I knew we’d flubbed it when we didn’t bring our own food.
The weather was equatorially hot and I sweated immediately through my khaki shirt as Nat, Julia and I climbed the hill. Occasionally Jane (she’d suggested we drop the Dr. bit and call her by her first name) would stop and point out a location where she’s first met a certain chimp or from which she had observed the troops before making close encounters. The combination of no food and dehydration lent the whole experience a not unpleasant hallucinogenic feel.
Near the top of the hill Jane led us to a cement block hut with a door consisting of stout iron bars. She explained that when she had her young son, whom she referred to as Grub, with her she’d had to lock him in the hut for fear that he would be kidnapped by the chimps. She also told us that Grub had come down with Schistosomiasis and that, while he was now well, might not have fully rid himself of the parasite. Give me sharks any day.
We put our gear into the hut along with the huge stalk of bananas. As we exited she threw the bolt and warned us “never leave this door open – even for an instant.” We nodded okay not bothering to ask why.
I set up my camera on a tripod and Julia got the recording devices ready and mic’d Jane. It was not long before a chimp sauntered into the clearing. He walked right up to Goodall and extended his hand, his long index finger looking like the model for the ceiling of the Cistine Chapel. Other chimps appeared on the periphery and baboons appeared scuttling around looking very deferential to the chimps. WE were aqbout to meet the most famous chimps in the world.

To be continued . . .The Great Banana Heist

For more stories of interspecies contacts in many oceans of the world read The Voice of the Dolphins by Hardy Jones, available in print and Kindle at Amazon.com

Metting Goodall: Of Dolphins and Chimps

2011-08-05T07:27:00.000-07:00

by Hardy Jones

When I realized that our initial contacts with the spotted dolphins in the Bahamas were not a one-time event, it became clear there was an extraordinary opportunity to study a group of highly intelligent animals in the wild.
There was an obvious comparison between the work we were doing and the groundbreaking efforts of Dr. Jane Goodall at Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania. We had hoped to have her join us in the Bahamas but when that wasn’t possible my work on a PBS special in 1087 gave me the opportunity to visit her at her worksite on Lake Tanganyika.
The trip was not an easy one. Julia Whitty, Nat Katzman (a producer from PBS)) and I went through Nairobi on the way to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We stayed at the legendary Norfolk Hotel, had magnificent breakfasts every morning and sortied out to various national parks to cover stories about people who were making a difference in the protection of wildlife in Kenya for our film “Saving the Wildlife”.
When we returned to the Norfolk one evening we found a letter under our door from Dr. Goodall asking us to bring a few things with us when we flew to meet her in Tanganyika. The request included motor parts, some T-shirts and hats. We wondered why she didn’t just get them in Dar Es Salaam but purchased and packed them for the flight.
After arrival in Dar Es Salaam we soon learned the reason for her request – the city had absolutely nothing available to buy. Nothing. No thing. The socialist regime of Julius Nyerere had absolutely ruined the economy. Small shops were open but had nothing to sell. When we sat down to breakfast there was a full menu. We ordered and the waiter dutifully noted our requests. And then nothing came. All we could get was tea and stale bread.
We flew in a twin-engine charter plane from Dar to Kigoma, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika close to the border with Burundi. There we were met by a small skiff powered by a single outboard motor and operated by two young African men who did not speak English. The vessel, sent by Dr. Goodall, was covered by a wooden roof held up by four two-by-twos.
Dr. Goodall had advised us to buy our own food in Kigoma to bring to her home site. We went to the market but the fruits, vegetables and meat were so covered with flies that we defaulted to “well, she’s got to have something better than this.”
Lake Tanganyika is the longest fresh water lake in the world measuring 675 kilometres north to south and is 500 feet deep in some areas, making it the second deepest lake in the world. We motored along the shore for a couple of hours appalled by endless hillsides absolutely denuded of trees. In some places the hills were gouged by runoff and the soil showed bright rust in color. In other areas the slopes were great burnt swaths. It was sickening.
A southerly wind pushed up some fairly good swells that helped our ramshackle vessel along at a good clip. We were starting to relax when the motor quit a hundred yards off a small village. We started drifting toward shore. The conversation turned to the highly poisonous water cobras common in the lake and the danger of exposure to the parasite Schistosomiasis. We weren’t sure but we’d heard that the parasitic worms or flukes could enter the urethra and make their way to the bladder. None of us were going to enter the water.
After 45 minutes the boat washed ashore on a beach just south of the village. The two young African men informed us by signs that they would run back to Kigoma to get a replacement part.
As we sat down on the beach a group of drunken men carrying assault rifles approached us. The had come from the civil war in the Congo just across the lake.
To be continued.

IWC - One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

2011-07-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

IWC Blog 2011Tweets

Plenary opens w UK reform document being presented. This doc supported by entire 27 member EU and USA, Latin America et al

Main issue is requirement that payment of dues be made by wire transfer only. This designed to prevent vote buying corruption.

Left out of reform is expansion of NGO speaking rights, which are far below what prevails in other international fora.

USA delegation chief "disappointed" expanded NGO participation eliminated. Ms Medina also supported financial reforms.

Sandra Bessudo of Colombia spoke in favor of reforms. Brazil and all Latin American nations emerging as strong 4 the whales.

Nevis-St Kitts put on a comical show badgering minute point after minute point to delay proceedings. Lunch Break til 330p.

Why do certain Caribbean nations attempt to prevent passage of regulations that prohibit cash transactions? Answer is: You got it.

All parties committing to adopt UK reforms by consensus. Japan, USA, St. Kitts-Nevis, UK. Main reform is payment be by wire.

UK reforms adopted by consensus. What's missing is allowing added input from civil society or NGOs which have vast expertise.

Session began more than 1/2 hour late. Japan has introduced measure calling it safety on the high seas but aimed at Sea Shepherd.

Brazil offering proposal for South Atlantic whale sanctuary.

Costa Rica speaking in support of sanctuary - also Colombia, USA , Australia.

Ecuador supports sanctuary. UK supports. Remember passage requires 3/4 majority.

India proposes a name change to this organization to “International Whales Commission”. GO INDIA

Russia asking Brazil and Argentia to withdraw sanctuary proposal to save IWC from self destruction. Huh? So voting would destroy the organization??

Iceland opposes but Denmark says it will vote 4 sanctuary. Israel supports. Monaco too. Switzerland wants 2 put vote off

Nevis (surprise) opposes. Calls sanctuary emotional and calls for more study. Portugal and Spain support sanctuary.

Argentina NGO speaking in favor of sanctuary - one of the rare cases where NGOs allowed to speak.

India states indigenous whaling goal should be to reduce quotas systematically & take into account alternative “food resources”. India putting forth great ideas at this IWC.

Big question is if Latin Americans will demand a vote. Facing this conundrum chair, w Brazil assent adjourned 4 coffee.

Back in session. During coffee only 5 nations opposed sanctuary. Russia opposed but said they would favor vote.

There is no consensus. Brazil speaking now. Delegate says no other way but to vote. Latin Americans will not get trampled as they have in past years.

Argentina asks Iceland, St Kitts, Cameroon, Norway 2 respect will of vast majority + agree to consensus on S Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.

Japan threatens to “break quorum” if a vote is brought on the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary.

Breaking quorum wud be outrageous and block vote on the sanctuary. This again shows the despicable nature of Japans whalers.

Ecuador says breaking quorum wud end this years IWC.

Colombia speaking with energy and anger against machinations to defeat ability to vote.

Monaco says breaking quorum to defeat a vote would be a disgrace on the IWC. USA silent on this.

Chairman asks for a vote. Nations opposed to sanctuary walking out of room. Will it break quorum?

Japan leads walk out from the IWC meeting in Isle of Jersey. Broke quorum to avoid vote on sanctuary proposed by Latin Americans

After hours discussing whether 2 vote or not on S American proposal 4 a whale sanctuary we are told we must wait another 90 min

Awaiting return of delegates with the text that'll spell out how IWC will proceed on S Atlantic whale sanctuary.

How can St Vincent and Nevis-St Kitts betray their tourist industry by selling out the whales beloved by tourists. Answer has to do with those suitcases of money that have just been banned.

Commission decided to kick the can down the road and have an intersessional meeting to determine rules governing quorums.

Next IWC to be held in Panama. 2012. South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary will be first item on agenda.

IWC is a totally dysfunctional organization. It has 85 member nations, many of which do not attend the meetings or pay their dues. But a quorum is still based on 85 members, so it takes only a small group to break quorum. Reforms are desperately needed.

International Whaling Commission 2011 Sunday 7/10

2011-07-10T03:43:00.000-07:00

IWC Blog

IWC 2011 – Why BlueVoice is Here.

The International Whaling Commission is where the fate of thousands of whales will be decided. There are many interests atending vying to determine the policies that will prevail here. The IWC is taking place on the Isle of Jersey, a “separate possession of the Crown”, not part of the UK. Only 12 miles from France.
There are Inuit from Alaska and Greenland, whalers from Japan, members of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (though they are not allowed in the meeting venue), pro-whale groups of all stripes and delegates from scores of nations.
The message Blue Voice will deliver is that whales are not for killing – not only because they are endangered, though this is true – but because they are sentient, intelligent, magnificent and both curious and friendly to humankind. We have brought films and research papers to prove that point. You wouldn’t need to prove it to anyone who’d ever been in the water with a whale. Those who have done so know it intuitively. But most people, and it’s probably just as well, have never had that direct contact.
Many of the pro-whale groups base their arguments on science and that is vitally important and effective. But most seem to shy away from saying “we should not kill whales on moral grounds.” That is the very message we will emphasize.

Our new film Singing Whales Under the Gun is at
http://bluevoice.org/webfilms_singingwhales.php

BV board member arrived at the venue hotel in the same cab as U.S Chief of Delegation Monica Medina. He was able to give her a copy of our new film which demands the withdrawal of the quota to Greenland for hunting humpback whales.

First meeting of U.S. Delegation and NGOs (non-Governmental Organizations) took place Sunday morning. Very cordial and perhaps a bit promising.

For background information on previous IWC meetings check out The Voice of the Dolphins, available on Amazon.com in print and Kindle format.

Evidence of Humpback Whale Intelligence and Culture

2011-07-06T07:54:00.000-07:00

BlueVoice Press Release for IWC 2011

Contact: Hardy Jones – hardyjones@bluevoice.org
During the IWC: Hotel de France +44 1534 614000

NEW DISCOVERIES IN WHALE INTELLIGENCE
The official opinion posted on the Japan Whaling Association website is that whales are no more intelligent or special than cows. That is beyond a falsehood. It is an absurdity; but an absurdity based on self-interest.
THE TRUTH: Whales are now documented to share the same kind of intelligence possessed by humans, according to researchers after discovering brain cells in humpback whales previously found only in humans, other primates and elephants.(4)
Recent studies have found a certain type of neuron cell in humpback whales thought to be involved in higher mental processes. These brain structures were previously believed to be the thing that made humans unique in the animal kingdom based on the fact that they’re involved with the processes of emotion and social interaction. These cells occur in parts of the human brain thought to be responsible for social organization, empathy, speech, and intuition about the feelings of others.
These so-called spindle cells are credited with allowing us to feel love and to suffer emotionally. To repeat, they were touted as the brain cells that set humans and the other great apes apart from all other mammals with the possible exception of elephants. Now it has been discovered that several species of whale also have spindle neurons.
Humpbacks, other whales and dolphins exhibit complex social patterns that include intricate communication skills, coalition-formation, cooperation and cultural transmission of information.
The cells, known as spindle neurons, are found in two very restricted regions in the brains of hominids - the family of species comprising humans and other great apes – the anterior cingulated cortex (ACC) and the fronto-insular cortex (FI). Recently they have been discovered in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of human as well.(1) Spindle cells are also found in the brains of humpback whales, fin whales, killer whales, sperm whales(2)(3), bottlenose dolphins, Risso’s dolphins, beluga whales, and African and Asian Elephants(5).

These discoveries raise profound questions on the ethics of hunting such sentient creatures.

Examples Of Culture In Whales(6)
Within a given humpback population, male whales (only the males sing) adopt the same mating song, with only minor variations. These songs can be enormously complex, made up of numerous themes that are repeated in the same order. From 1998 to 2008, the researchers identified 11 distinct songs.
“Humpback whale song is unique because intense conformism to the current (song) norm is coupled with high plasticity in the trait,” the authors write.
Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have a highly stereotyped, repetitive, and progressively evolving vocal sexual display or “song” that functions in sexual selection (through mate attraction and/or male social sorting). All males within a population conform to the current version of the display (song type), and similarities may exist among the songs of populations within an ocean basin. Here we present a striking pattern of horizontal transmission: multiple song types spread rapidly and repeatedly in a unidirectional manner, like cultural ripples, eastward through the populations in the western and central South Pacific over an 11-year period. This is the first documentation of a repeated, dynamic cultural change occurring across multiple populations at such a large geographic scale.

The information in this paper is drawn from the sources cited below and is used under The Fair Use Act.
(1) Fajardo et. al.; Escobar, M.I.; Buriticá, E.; Arteaga, G.; Umbarila, J.; Casanova, M.F.; Pimienta, H. (4 March 2008). "Von Economo neurons are present in the dorsolateral (dysgranular) prefrontal cortex of humans." Neuroscience Letters 435 (3): 215–218
(2) Coghlan, A. (27 November 2006). “Whales boast the brain cells that make us human.” New Scientist.
(3) Hof, P. R., Van der Gucht, E. (Jan 2007). "Structure of the cerebral cortex of the humpback whale, Megaptera novaeangliae (Cetacea, Mysticeti, Balaenopteridae)". Anat Rec (Hoboken) 290 (1): 1–31.
(4)Butti C, Sherwood CC, Hakeem AY, Allman JM, Hof PR (July 2009). "Total number and volume of Von Economo neurons in the cerebral cortex of cetaceans.". The Journal of comparative neurology 515 (2): 243–59. (5) Hakeem, A. Y.; Sherwood, C. C.; Bonar, C. J.; Butti, C.; Hof, P. R.; Allman, J. M. (2009). "Von Economo neurons in the elephant brain". The Anatomical Record (Hoboken) 292 (2): 242–8. (6)Dynamic Horizontal Cultural Transmission of Humpback Whale Song at the Ocean Basin Scale,Ellen C. Garland, Michael J. Noad, Anne W. Goldizen, and seven other authors, Current Biology (April 26, 2011)

General References
Nimchinsky EA, Gilissen E, Allman JM, Perl DP, Erwin JM, Hof PR (Apr 1999). “A neuronal morphologic type unique to humans and great apes. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 96 (9): 5268–73.
Allman J, Hakeem A, Watson K (Aug 2002). “Two phylogenic specializations in the human brain. Neuroscientist 8 (4): 335–46.

Dolphins Rescue Me From Hammerhead Shark

2011-05-16T09:01:00.001-07:00

by Hardy Jones

The following is an excerpt from my just published book The Voice of the Dolphins:

Perhaps the most compelling evidence of how the dolphins felt about us came in 1985 late in the afternoon after a day of filming. Howard Hall, Julia, and other members of the underwater crew had climbed aboard the Zodiak that covered us as we worked at any distance from the main boat. I lingered at the surface, enjoying the delirious late afternoon light, my camera hanging in my right hand. The blue skies above held huge, gleaming white cumulous clouds, and toward the western horizon, blazing orange rays of sunlight shone out of the sea. The water temperature was in the high eighties. I lay on my back and experienced bliss.
Half a dozen young spotted dolphins, including a band of juveniles we’d named the Gang of Four, swam slowly over the sandy bottom thirty feet below. Occasionally, one dolphin would bite another on the tail and begin a brief, friendly tussle consisting of darting, twisting, and jaw snapping. But mostly they were grazing for bottom fish.
In the distance, at the limit of visibility, another sleek, gray creature appeared, swimming in an unusual, sine-wave manner and hugging the bottom. Its tail was not stroking up and down; it was slashing from side to side. The tail fin was vertical, and the head broad and flat. This wasn’t a dolphin. It was a very large Atlantic hammerhead shark, one of the few shark species that will attack humans. The shark moved toward me, angling first to one side then the other as though following a scent, probably mine. It was swinging its eyeballs, stuck out on the extremities of the head, so as to see its target first with one eye, then the other, perhaps to gauge distance. I didn’t feel comfortable presenting the hammerhead with the sight of my dangling legs, so I jackknifed and dove toward the bottom, raising my camera. Not only was this a unique chance to document the behavior of dolphins around sharks but raising the camera also served to put some metal between the fast-approaching predator and me.
The shark was grayish brown and about eleven feet long. I could judge its size easily because it was twice the length of the subadult dolphins swimming nearby. It undulated across the bottom, its movements now excited and menacing. I’d been diving with hammerheads in the Pacific on numerous occasions and had never felt threatened, but Atlantic hammerheads have a nasty reputation, and this one displayed the agonistic postures that precede an attack.
I hung in the water five feet over the bottom, and sooner than usual, my lungs began to ache for air. In a moment, I’d have to return to the surface. The shark turned directly toward me and accelerated with a flick of its tail. It happened so quickly that I could only react by pulling my camera tight against my body, poised to thrust it against the shark’s sensitive rostrum if it struck at me. I turned the camera on.
Suddenly the undersea world came alive with high-pitched whistles and intense sonar bursts. Two juvenile dolphins, Chopper and Stubby, appeared over my left shoulder. I flinched as I felt the wash they created streaking through the water straight for the hammerhead. In an instant, two buddies joined them, bolting in from the right.
The Gang of Four worked as a unit, diving and turning in unison like a squadron of fighter planes flying precision maneuvers.
The hammerhead saw the onrushing dolphins and, looking harassed and perplexed, jerked to the side, away from me. With powerful beats of their tail flukes, the dolphins launched themselves toward the shark’s head, clicking and whistling intensely, turning away only at the last instant. Again and again the juvenile dolphins dived at the hammerhead, mobbing it the way sparrows do a hawk, using sonar bursts to attack the shark’s lateral lines, a highly sensitive component of the shark sensory system, disorienting the huge fish.

For more stories of interspecies contacts in many oceans of the world read The Voice of the Dolphins by Hardy Jones, available in print and Kindle at Amazon.com
My book is available at my eStore:
http://www.createspace.com/3501299
and at Amazon: http://amzn.to/klnDw0

My Diagnosis of Mercury Poisoning from Fish

2011-04-22T13:32:00.000-07:00

In the mid-1990s, I had started to experience fatigue. I’d always
tended to work myself to exhaustion but would usually recover
after a night of rest. But by 1997, I was waking up as tired as
when I’d collapsed into bed the night before. I also noticed that
my hands were shaking and my short-term memory was spotty.
I saw a number of doctors and tried to describe my symptoms
in detail. None of them was much interested in what I
had to say. None of them found anything wrong with me. One
suggested the problem was psychosomatic. Then, on advice of
a friend, I went to a chiropractor, Dr. Bob Culver in Los Altos,
California. He was attentive as I described exactly how I experienced
the fatigue, and suggested I submit to a hair analysis that
would determine my levels of salts and heavy metals.
The results of the test were unexpected and alarming. I was
high in cadmium and zinc, but my mercury level was literally
off the charts, and he diagnosed me with “chronic mercury
poisoning”. Where on earth had I accumulated such toxic levels
of this particular heavy metal?
There are two ways to get rid of mercury. One is to simply
stop eating fish that contain high concentrations. The half-life
of methyl mercury is 49 to 164 days so within six months 50 to
75 percent of the mercury will have been eliminated from the
human body, though this rate of dissipation may not be true for
the brain. I stopped eating tuna and swordfish, and my mercury
levels dropped naturally. Another way to speed the mercury on
its way sometimes recommended by doctors is to take zinc
supplements that bind with mercury and eliminate it from the
body in a process called chelation.
I took zinc daily and immediately noticed a huge increase
in my physical strength and mental concentration. When I was
retested nine months later, my mercury level was barely detectable.
I don’t believe I incurred any permanent damage, though
it’s impossible to say for sure. But if high levels of mercury are
ingested by children in early stages of mental and neurological
development, damage can be permanent.
I was relieved to have rid my body of toxic mercury. What
I did not know was that when a fish has a high concentration
of mercury, it almost certainly is high in another class of contaminants:
persistent organic pollutants (POPs) such as polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) and DDT—components of toxic
industrial and agricultural chemicals. There was a time bomb
still ticking inside of me.
The full story appears in my book The Voice of the Dolphins, out very soon.

Sharing a Bowride with Dolphins

2011-03-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

From Hardy Jones

The following is a brief sample of my forthcoming book, The Voice of the Dolphins. First one to tell me who is the true voice of the dolphins gets a free DVD of The Dolphin Defender, our show on NATURE.

The year was 1978 - our first encounter with the spotted dolphins with whom we would maintain contact for more than thirty years.

Dolphins intercepted our course, and took up positions on both sides of the bow, keeping pace with barely a flick of their tail flukes, pushed along like surfers by the pressure wave made by Albury’s forward motion. We cruised for ten minutes and shot two magazines of film, but there were only so many ways to photograph the same action. Then Jack McKenney had an idea: he and I could hang by our arms from the rope off the witch’s cradle under the bowsprit and suspend ourselves in the water to share the bow wave with the dolphins. It might scare them off, or it might be seen as initiation of a game.
With barely a thought that if we lost our grip, we’d be run over and pulled through the ship’s propellers, we lowered ourselves into the glassy waters. The dolphins barely reacted, moving only slightly to the side or ahead of us. After a moment, they settled back into their former positions, including Jack and me in their formations. I was beyond ecstatic. I had passed through the looking glass and entered a parallel universe.
Two dolphins swam just in front of me, mottled shadows two feet under water. Another surfaced and blew just an arm’s length to my right. The warm, salty Bahamian waters lifted us, and the pull of the boat allowed us to skim along the surface. My arms felt strong. The sun made the world warm with golden light. I wanted to freeze or distill this moment to somehow hold on to it.
I stuck my head underwater and rolled to the side. The dolphins became excited and barraged me with sonar. A youngster bolted in from the stern wake and nearly touched me before its mother called it away. More dolphins arrived, and now it was clear we had reached the middle of their territory, so Mike slowed the boat and Ray dropped anchor. The dolphins lingered and began to play among themselves only a few feet from Albury. My own private moments with the dolphins came to an end as the rest of our crew jumped into the water. Excited, the dolphins responded, pink bellies flashing against the deep turquoise background.
We swam with the dolphins as the sun melted into the horizon. Jack and Jim filmed, but the rest of us sought out individual dolphins. Both dolphins and humans were more relaxed than during first contact. The mood of the encounter reflected the calm clarity of the sea. Perhaps we had gone through the introductory stage of excitement and wonder and could now begin to get to know one another in a calmer mood. We looked the dolphins in the eye, and they looked back. Although it was only a day after our first meeting, it felt like a reunion in the open sea, more than thirty miles from land.

Japan Retreats From Southern Ocean - What's Next

2011-02-18T09:15:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones, author of forthcoming book The Voice of the Dolphins,
Executive Director BlueVoice.org

Now that Paul Watson and his Sea Shepherds have drive the Japanese whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean to end their whaling season early, the question arises as to what's next for Japanese whaling. Tokyo confirms the whaling fleet has been called home, ending the 2010 - 11 season, but leaves open possibilities of returning to the Antarctic next year.

Of course if Japanese whalers return to the Antarctic seas they will face Watson and his fleet - probably stronger and more imaginative than ever. In addition international law regulating shipping in the Antarctic will mandate, as of August 2011, that machinery using heavy oil be replaced by devices running on light oil. That is not massive expensive but would require a refit of the factory ship Nisshin Maru in times when the bogus scientific whaling operation is not coming close to paying its way through sale of whale meat.

In addition the factory ship is old and dottering. She has had two fires in recent years that, had they gotten out of control, could have unleashed devastating pollution in the sensitive Antarctic ecosystem. Is building another factory ship an option? I don't think so. I was on the Nisshin Maru some years ago when she tied up in Japan. It was like being on an aircraft carrier. There could be no economic incentive for building another of these Goliaths when sales of whale meat are falling and huge unmarketable stockpiles of whale meat are stuffing freezers in Japan.

Japan's bureaucracy is by no means united in support of whaling. The Foreign Ministry and Ministry of Trade and Industry have spoken internally against whaling as something that damages Japan's image and commerce. But Japan's Fisheries Agency is so powerful it has been able to override opposition to whaling. This is the same agency that supports the slaughter of thousands of dolphins in Japan.

The fisheries agency has tried to expand the take of dolphins. Taiji, the town made infamous by the film "The Cove", built an expensive new abattoir in hopes of expanding output of dolphin meat. But interest in dolphin is declining as more people become aware of the levels of mercury and other contaminants in the meat.

Japan also hunts whales in the Northwest Pacific. Likely the Nisshin Maru will depart for these whaling grounds in May. In recent years they've taken Bryde's, sei, sperm and minke whales. This hunt takes place in Japanese territorial waters and would not be accessible to Sea Shepherd action. But there are reasons to question the wisdom of hunting these populations of whales. Sperm whales taken in past years were declared unit for human consumption due to high levels of pollutants in the meat.

An emerging element in the calculus over whaling is the presence of disease antibodies in many marine mammals around the world. Kazue Ohishi of the University of Tokyo and his colleagues discovered pathological and seriological evidence of Brucella infection in baleen whales taken in the Northwestern Pacific. Brucellosis is a disease with proven zoonotic potential. It can spread from one species to another. Workers exposed to contact with animals or meat -- such as slaughterhouse workers, farmers, and veterinarians -- are at high risk of this serious disease. The possibility of transmission of Brucellosis from raw whale or dolphin meat to humans is a very real possibility.

The increase in diseases such as Brucellosis among immune suppressed marine mammals is another sign of the deterioration of the ocean environment. It is a brutal absurdity that whales be hunted in such a circumstance.

Santa Arrives by Sea

2010-12-22T10:41:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones, executive director BlueVoice.org
Author soon-to-be released book The Voice of the Dolphins

The Christmas season of 2010 brought a day of reunion for the officers and crew of a cruise ship and the sisters and children of a Catholic orphanage on the Caribbean Island of St. Lucia. In late October Hurricane Tomas had slammed into the island interrupting supplies of water, food and transportation. Some Lt. Lucians had had no food or clean water in days. Noordam came to the rescue.
When hurricanes are bearing down on an island destination, the standard mode of operation for cruise ships is to run for calmer waters so passengers will not be disquieted by the tempest and their safety will be ensured. But when Captain John Scott of Holland America’s ms Noordam learned of the serious destruction caused by hurricane Tomas on St. Lucia he made full speed back to the island he had just departed. Tomas destroyed much of the island’s infrastructure. The lack of drinking water was acute.
The situation was particularly dire at the Holy Family Children’s Home, an orphanage that had been adopted by Noordam and its crew. The kids were hungry, thirsty and scared.
On November 7 Noordam delivered some 50 thousand gallons of water to the main dock in Castries for the general population. This was no easy feat as ships are designed to take on water, not dispense it. But the officers and crew jury-rigged a system to deliver the life sustaining water. They also delivered food from the ships larder and clothing. Passengers chipped in with cash donations that went to the orphanage and an old age home.
I spoke with Captain Scott and hotel manager James Deering aboard the Noordam. “It was nice to be able to help people out when they are down,” the captain told me. And Holland America corporate had been totally behind his aid efforts. The ship was preparing to deliver on the requests for gifts made by the orphans to be delivered a couple weeks later.
After I left the ship James Deering wrote me about the special Christmas visit by Noordam in St. Lucia.
Every child from the orphanage received exactly what he/she had wished for from Santa Claus.
The pool party / brunch went over very well.
The teen girls had their first spa treatments.
The kids ate more than seemed humanly possible - and took the leftovers back home with them.
Our generous guests donated approximately US$1,500 cash, which was given directly to the Sisters who run the orphanage.
We sent boxes of christmas cookies and candies home with them as well to cover Christmas Day.

While on St. Lucia my wife Deborah and I were able to negotiate the washed out roads on the island to take an aerial tram through magnificent rain forest. It was encouraging to see many birds had survived the winds and rain. Some tourist activities were not yet operable but progress is being made in restoration. I have to say St. Lucia is one of the lovliest islands in the West Indies.
I guess I should also mention that I have no affiliation with Holland America Cruise Lines.

THE DAY WE SAVED THE DOLPHINS

2010-12-20T12:00:00.000-08:00

From the soon-to-be released book The Voice of the Dolphins
by Hardy Jones

In 1980 Howard Hall and I were on our way to Iki, Japan to attempt to stop the slaughter of dolphins there. En route we were diverted.

We woke up our first morning in Osaka and saw a story on the front page of the Japan Times, an English-language paper published in Japan. The story’s headline reported “200 Rare Whales Captured at Taiji.” The animals were melon-headed whales, actually a species of dolphin. The story went on to say that the dolphins would be killed to provide food for lions at the Shirahama Zoo. It struck me as extraordinarily perverse that these magnificent wild dolphins would be killed to feed captive lions.
We changed plans on the spot and headed for Taiji, a small village of some thirty-five hundred people on the coast east of Osaka. We arrived in Taiji, found accommodations in a small hotel, and walked out to the small bay where the pitiful dolphins were being held. The coast there is magnificent with endless bays and coves formed at the juncture of mountains and sea.
Our presence disturbed the fishermen who had driven the dolphins into the bay. They were aware of the international outrage provoked by the slaughter at Iki the year before and didn’t welcome any foreign observers—especially those with cameras.
There wasn’t much Howard and I could do directly, so we just hung around the bay with our still and movie cameras at hand. The fishermen seemed stymied. They held meetings. Two days passed. Some of the dolphins succumbed and sank into the depths of the cove, but most remained alive. Howard and I worried that while the fishermen were talking, the dolphins weren’t eating and might starve. Dolphins do not drink and depend entirely for their hydration on the fish they eat.
On the third day of captivity for the melon-heads, the fishermen informed us that as a gesture of goodwill, the dolphins would be released. I believe they were afraid of attracting the same kind of international outrage that had been focused on Iki. The following morning, the fishermen drew back the net separating the melon-heads from freedom. But the dolphins didn’t budge. Confusion or shock or the knowledge that members of their pod were sick or injured kept the group huddled at the end of the bay farthest from the net.
The fishermen brought a small skiff driven by an outboard motor in behind the dolphins and began revving the engine. The dolphins started to move. The skiff herded them until they were past the net line. Once out of confinement with a clear vision of open ocean ahead, the whole pod erupted into spectacular porpoising leaps across the face of the sea. I remained poker faced, but inside, I was wild with joy. Maybe our cameras were all powerful.But that was long ago.

Are San Juan Orca Starving?

2010-12-08T11:51:00.000-08:00

Guest Blog by Howard Garrett, Orca Network, www.orcanetwork.org

When the Southern Resident orcas were declared endangered under the Endangered Species Act in 2005 after a population drop of 20% between 1996 and 2001, a variety of research projects were launched to find out why. Effects of vessel traffic on orcas were studied, persistent toxins were described, and researchers studied what these orcas' eat and how much of it is available to them.

Research on the orcas' hunger problem has uncovered the clearest results. NOAA researchers have examined fish scales and fecal material in the wakes of the whales and have concluded that: "Chinook salmon, a relatively rare species, was by far the most frequent prey item, confirming previous studies."

Prey availability studies have repeatedly yielded convincing correlations: drops in Chinook salmon numbers preceded higher mortality rates of Southern Resident orcas. Using 25 years of demographic data from two populations of fish-eating killer whales in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, that population trends are driven largely by changes in survival, and survival rates are strongly correlated with the availability of their principal prey species, Chinook salmon.

Whale watch tour boats can at times disturb the whales and those incidents should be
reported widely and some reprimand should be, and is, delivered to the captains and owners. The Q13 story (a tv news report) almost completely failed to mention the lack of food, the primary factor resulting in starvation, although they promise to do another story entirely about how the depletion of Chinook is starving the orcas. The boats do disturb the whales at times, but that is minor in comparison to the lack of Chinook.

Some naturalists talk about the very complex and politically charged salmon issue, but much more needs to be done to make sure the boats provide a good overview of the environmental degradation that has reduced the availability of Chinook for the So. Residents.

Results of Tests for Pollutants in my Body

2010-12-06T09:25:00.000-08:00

In 2003 I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood. Medications have kept me in remission for more than seven years. One of the factors that can lead to this disease is exposure to persistent organic pollutants. A major source of these pollutants is large pelagic sea food such as swordfish and tuna. During the late 1990s I was eating large quantities of these fish thinking them healthy. After my diagnosis I decided to have myself tested for the levels of these pollutants. The results described below are excerpted from my forthcoming book "The Voice of the Dolphins." They were certainly shocking to me.

From "The Voice of the Dolphins" (c) Hardy Jones
The first task was to document correlations between high levels of toxic substances in the oceans, and clusters of multiple myeloma and other cancers in humans on adjacent lands. I decided to begin with myself and had my blood tested for environmental toxins. It wasn’t cheap – four thousand dollars. But if I was going to pursue this line of investigation, I needed to know whether I had high levels of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in my own body that might have triggered the myeloma.
I contacted AXYS Analytical in Victoria, Canada, a company that analyzes the contaminant levels on both the Canadian and American orca that pass through the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the San Juan Islands. They sent me a kit with a return Fed Ex package and pre-addressed label. Getting my blood drawn was a simple matter. I went to the lab where I had my monthly blood tests done and handed them the instructions from AXYS. They sat me down, wrapped the rubber ribbon around my arm and drew the blood. Then it went into the hands of Fed Ex.

The report took three months in coming, but the results were staggering. I had hundreds of toxic chemicals in my tissues. The report showed significant levels of POPs, in particular heptachlor, nonachlor, aldrin, mirex, dieldrin, and dioxins. But what really jumped out were spikes of particular congeners (subtypes) of DDE ( a metabolite of DDT), hexachlorobenzene (a petroleum derivative known to cause cancer), chlordane (a pesticide known to cause cancer and banned in the USA in 1988), PCBs (the same chemicals found in declining populations of orca off Washington State), hydroxy PCBs, hexachlorbyphenyls, and PBDEs (flame retardants).

Not only were levels of some of the individual toxins high, but the combined total of all classes of specific chemicals, each of which could produce cancer by itself, was enormous. Beyond that, these chemicals synergize to produce effects greater than that of each individual chemical.

Where had all these chemicals come from?

I showed Dr. Durie (Dr. Brian Durie, International Myeloma Foundation) the results of the tests. He was amazed by both the variety of chemicals documented and the very high levels of some of them. But he further surprised me with the news that the levels in my body were not atypical in the relatively few Americans who have been tested for their toxic burden. But, he cautioned, just because certain values were “common” in the general population didn’t mean they were harmless, especially in combination. The very fact that they were common might mean the levels of pollutants in the American population were far more dangerous than imagined.

Author's Note: Vastly more is known about the levels of pollutants in marine mammals than in humans.

BlueVoice Blog/Website recognized

2010-12-06T08:22:00.000-08:00

BlueVoice has just been selected as 28th best blog on ocean education out of a pool of thousands by Public Policy.

The Good, Bad and Ugly in West Indies

2010-10-12T06:50:00.000-07:00

by Jeff Friedman, BlueVoice.org board of directors

Joelle (Jeff's wife) and I did some diving in Grenada. The reef was full of life and they recently designated several of them as protected areas off limits for any fishing. But I will tell you I think I was spoiled by our diving in the Bahamas (BlueVoice trip off Bimini, summer, 2010). Perhaps it was from the rain every night kicking up sand, but the visibility was much better in the Bahamas. Less blue and more green in Grenada.

I was also happy to see that in the Tobago Cays national park they have patrols out making sure no one is fishing and no one is taking turtles. I had a great encounter with a Hawksbill turtle who let me follow him for a few minutes, until I was worn out – they can really move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2qeaxiaFeY

And we had a ton of fun on the ship:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okvuLJwLFIQ

Some thoughts on whaling down there… Grenada, which has voted with Japan, seems to be getting a ton of foreign aid now from China. I did not take the island tour, but my shipmates did and said there are projects going on all over the island courtesy of China. I’m not sure why – perhaps because Grenada is so close to Venezuela, and China wants oil from there. But China’s money may reduce the importance of Japan’s contributions. Grenada doesn’t hunt whales or dolphins as far as I know, so their vote is purely financial.

I spoke to some people on Bequia about their humpback quota. Most of the islands that are part of St Vincent and the Grenadines, including Bequia, are very primitive. The hunt from Bequia is definitely old school, with small boats and hand held harpoons, which explains why they do not have successful hunts every year. I believe their quota is 2 per year. The people there that I spoke with believe their hunting will die out as it is done by older people on the island. The younger generation seems to have no interest and they don’t seem concerned about keeping it going as a tradition. I got the sense that it is a subsistence hunt and they don’t really care about preserving it. The people on the island are incredibly kind and friendly. It left me feeling that although I am totally opposed to their hunt, Japan and Greenland are a much more concerning issue right now.

I also think change is coming down there. The seeds for development and tourism are evident. And right now the government of St Vincent & The Grenadines is very friendly with Chavez and Castro. But the locals see the opposition party winning the next elections in 2011 and the opposition party is friendly to conservation, tourism and wants US dollars there. That might present some opportunities to swing their vote away from Japan (at the IWC).

I met an interesting guy on Bequia named Brother King. He started a turtle sanctuary there and runs it on very little funding. He is a former fisherman who talks about the ocean destruction he has seen during his lifetime and his commitment to starting the long term rebuilding of ocean life. His focus is on hawksbill and green turtles. He goes to nesting sites, covers the tracks and covers the site with debris so that hunters can’t find the eggs. He goes back when it is time for the eggs to hatch and then he takes the turtles to his sanctuary where he cares for them. When they are 5 years old he releases them. He feels this gives them a better chance to survive long-term and says he has had sightings of his released turtles years after. He is lobbying hard with the opposition party so they pass conservation legislation when they take power.

We did see dolphins once very briefly while under sail. They were swimming in the opposite direction and as one swam past the ship it did an incredible breach and flip right next to the deck where I was standing. It reached the height of the deck and was literally 10 feet right in front of me. Unfortunately I wasn’t holding my camera.

I shared a lot of info on BlueVoice with my shipmates and loaned one couple from Boston a copy of The Dolphin Defender as they seemed very interested in the issues.

Week Two Dolphins and Sharks at Bimini

2010-07-28T06:44:00.000-07:00

July 17. Left Miami and crossed stream into strong easterly winds on our nose. Made only four knots. Arrived Bimini 11am. I did some free diving to get my breath back. Divers enjoyed a 25 foot reef with loads of fish.

Afternoon we ran in dolphin grounds and had a ten minute close contact with seven spotters. Strong winds continue to make it a tough job to put people into the water and extract them.

July 18. Despite strong easterlies we had good dives Limited dolphin contact. Overnight at Gun Cay. Juliet is rock solid. Fellow travelers are wonderful grup, enjoying everything.

July 19. Morning dive at Stevie’s Wonder. Lots of fish but viz down to max of fifty feet. 4 – 5 foot swells made diver recovery an adventure. Sailed north in the pm. Found dolphins flying off the wave tops. Juvenile with flaming pink belly porpoise leaping beside us time after time. Ended the day at Bimini Road. No extraterrestrial contacts.

July 20. Weather too rough to look for dolphins. Nice dive in clear water in the morning then into Bimini to overnight. What a shame the Complete Angler burned down some years ago.

July 21. Weather still very rough. But again nice diving at Bull Run and other locations. Coral still vivid and alive. Plenty of small fish. Mellow sharks at Bull Run. Everyone enjoyed being with them and some cured their life long fear of sharks.

July 22. Still rough. Great diving. Had to run for Miami to arrive ahead of tropical storm Bonnie.

July 23. Debarked the Juliet and drove home to Saint Augustine through driving rain much of the time.

In a future blog I will write of the dangers of putting divers into rough water in the open sea.

Meeting Dolphin Friends

2010-07-17T06:34:00.000-07:00

July 10. It’s been thirty 32 years since I first sailed into the world of the spotted dolphins who inhabit the northwestern Bahamas. This year we’re near Bimini, a location I first discovered in 1987 aboard Juliet, a 103-foot schooner with spacious, comfortable staterooms.

We left Miami at 4pm, passing through light rain. Giant black and gray cumulous hovered behind us over the highrises that face on government cut. Two massive cruise ships preceded us, the two carrying roughly three thousand passengers. Quite a contrast with Juliet carrying twelve plus crew of four.

At 2am July 11 we anchored north of Bimini and woke up to dolphins around the boat. There were approximately sixteen spotters, mostly juveniles.

My goal is to get as many identifications as possible of individuals here. Most of my work with dolphins in the Bahamas has been with the pods of the White Sand Ridge, north of Grand Bahama island. In 2004 and 2005 that area was hit by massive cat 5 hurricanes. Many of the dolphins previously identified in that area were not seen after those events. There is a possibility they moved to other areas and Bimini is not far from the northern schools.

It was even thought that Chopper, whom I first identified in 1979 and had known personally for nearly three decades, had been among the victims of the tempests. But Denise Herzing, a dedicated scientist who has studied the White Sand Ridge school, told me she had seen him in 2007. That was a relief.

The dolphins found us about 730 am. They were really engaged with the divers. I shot some nice video. After a midday break of diving and lunch we found dolphins at 4pm. They were playing wildly amongst themselves. They had no interest in us but they did not run from us. I found myself totally enveloped in dolphins during some of my freedives and the video came out nicely. So far we’ve only been able to identify one dolphin from this area – one with a shark bite that tore away half the dorsal fin.

July 12 we found dolphins early but disengaged when they seemed to want to be on their own. The weather is very hot – in the mid 90s and I’m urging everyone to drink water, take salt and keep slathered in sunscreen. Late afternoon we found dolphins feeding. Entered the water and a lone teenager came to a group of 8 of us passing very close to each diver, closing its eyes in a sign of trust. Maybe a smile. Gazed at itself in my camera dome.

July 13. Brilliant scuba dive on a drop off north of Bimini. In afternoon there were four boats looking for dolphins. Not a good scene. We had only minor contacts and I broke off in late afternoon. We will head for another location. It just didn’t feel good to me to see all those boats running around trying to pick up dolphins.

July 14. Dove Bull run. Friends very happy with the reef sharks. Ran to b-2 and found dolphins immediately. Two close encounters with them. One appeared to have been slapped with silver paint three times on right side. Another had deep cut in dorsal starting just forward of the peak. A lovely squall swept over Juliet just after dinner.

July 15. Seas came up over night. Three to four foot swells in the morning. Six playful young dolphins hit our bow after breakfast. One was silver paint. Divers had a phenomenal experience with this group for 45 minutes. Seas layed down.

July 16 Awoke in Miami harbor and said goodbye to the BlueVoice supporters who had accompanied us. Tomorrow a new group joins us and we head back to the Bahamas.

BlueVoice Busts Illegal Whale Commerce in Greenland

2010-07-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

Greenland Blog #3

BlueVoice Uncovers Unsanctioned Commercial Whaling in Greenland
by Hardy Jones

The word that the IWC had granted Greenland a quota to hunt nine humpback whales in each of the years 2010 – 2012 reached me in Iceland as I traveled to Nuuk, capital of Greenland.

The word that twenty-seven of these curious, intelligent, infinitely graceful creatures will be killed after years of protection is heart wrenching. Over the decades during which the approach of a boat did not mean a painful death, humpbacks have become friendly, approaching boats and even divers in the water.

Now that bond of trust will be broken. That is sad in itself but it may also impact the whale watching business that supports communities all along the east coast.

The IWC granted Greenland the humpback quota for whaling that would provide meat for ABORIGINAL USE ONLY. But in Nuuk I’ve discovered the meat in a super market, in the form of sushi at a Thai restaurant and as steak in a greasy spoon burger and pizza joint. Tonight I will head out to find whether there are other establishments purveying whale. Commercial sale of whale meat is not allowed under the IWC quota.

It is sad that humpbacks have just reappeared off Greenland after sixty years only to be slaughtered.

I am in Greenland to attend the Inuit Circumpolar Council. I want to learn what information is available on levels of heavy metals and organic pollutants in marine mammals killed for food and in the people who eat it what health problems have been identified and how the Inuit intend to deal with that information.

It’s an established fact that women who eat large quantities of dolphin, whale and seal meat give birth to a high ratio of girl babies over boys. In some villages the ratio is two to one. In one village no boys have been born in some time.

I discussed this issue with William L. Iggiagruk Hensley (Willy) an Inupiaq who has too many major league political and business credentials to list. He was a member of the Clinton transition team, a leader in several Alaska native organizations and author of Fifty Miles From Tomorrow, a brilliant work.

I was astonished to learn that he had no knowledge of the fact that eating marine mammal meat was causing such a bizarre impact on Inuits. It is literally suppressing the production of male children not to mention immune systems and mental development.

Among the speakers at the conference is Per M. Bakken of the United Nations Environment Programme. He warned that a chemical catastrophe faces the people of the north from contamination in some of the food they take from the sea – marine mammals in particular. I asked him if he felt the Inuit ignored or were in denial about these facts and he agreed that they paid little attention to it.

What they are really ticked off about is the fact that trade in seal skins is prohibited by many nations.

Greenland

2010-06-27T13:24:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

My IcelandAir flight slips out of U.S. airspace at 34-thousand feet bound for Greenland via Keflavik, Iceland. I await word from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in Agadir, Morocco on the fate of Greenland’s request to kill humpback whales for aboriginal subsistence.

After we go “feet wet” out of Labrador the ocean is cloud-covered the entire way to Iceland. An hour out of Keflavik I realize the humpbacks that may now become targets of the hunt are swimming a vertical mile below us. I have known this stock of whales in the Caribbean at Samana Bay and out on the Silver Banks. They were extraordinarily friendly towards me in the water. Along most of their migratory route along the eastern seaboard of the United States they are protected. This protection has brought increasing friendliness and curiosity from these whales toward whale watchers who comprise a multi-million dollar business to charter boat owners, hotels, restaurants etc. That trust now seems destined to be breached.

Aboriginal hunts of marine mammals are a highly complex ethical issue. It is true that the Inuit and their cousins have traditionally thrived on what they call natural food – caribou, seal, beluga, minke whales, and other marine mammals.

But the whales taken by Greenlanders are less and less destined for an aborignal table. The fin and minke whales already hunted in Greenland are being sold at high price in grocery stores and high-end restaurants. This hunt for whales is about profits – not aboriginal rights. In fact the Inuit of Greenland are apparently having a hard time getting any whale meat because the big money guys are sucking it all up for the more lucrative trade.

During my stopover in Iceland I learn the IWC has voted to allow Greenland a quota of nine humpback whales. They are going to kill the great white winged singers of songs. Greenland will become the only entity on earth legally killing humpbacks.

This is not my first visit to the land of the Inuit. I spent some time among them in Iqualuit in Nunavut, a federal territory of Canada with quite a measure of independence from Ottawa. What I learned is that when aboriginal peoples change their diet from “natural” foods to store bought McDonalds or Kentucky Fried they develop diseases ranging from acne to diabetes and obesity. But if they eat high end predators such as beluga and narwal they most surely run the risk of intoxication by heavy metals such as mercury and chromium as well an organic pollutants such as PCBs and PBDEs.

I was prepared for surprises during my sojourn in Greenland. The first was a mind boggling example of how is one man’s detriment is another’s great good fortune. Greenlanders are actually cheering on global warming. They have recently been able to grow turnips in south Greenland and they pray still warmer weather will open up new opportunities in agriculture – no surprise in a land more than three-quarters covered in ice. The downside is that if all of Greenland’s ice melts global sea level would rise by up to 24 feet inundating many coastal areas around the world and perhaps even the newly flourishing turnip farms.

Mercury/Health Expert Slams Taiji Mercury Findings

2010-05-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

Dr. Jane Hightower is author of Diagnosis Mercury. She's a San Francisco based internist famous for discovering the effects of mercury on many patients suffering unknown medical symptoms. At the request of BlueVoice she comments on the results of tests of mercury levels in citizens of Taiji, Japan, the village made famous by The Cove for its heinous dolphin slaughters. The tests were carried out by the National Institute of Minamata Diseases (NIMD).

The NIMD concluded that while a significant number of citizens, especially those who ate dolphin meat, had very high levels of mercury, there was no evidence these mercury burdens were causing health problems. BlueVoice points out that internationally recognized tests for neurological function were not carried out by the NIMD researchers.

It should be also be pointed out that the tests conducted by the National Institute for Minamata Diseases were paid for - wait for it - the town of Taiji!!!

Dr. Hightower's statement:

There are many studies that confirm that methylmercury is toxic to humans and can adversely affect health in a number of ways. Of most concern with long-term over exposure is non-specific symptoms, neuropsychiatric symptoms/damage, autoantibody induction, infertility, coronary artery disease, atherosclerosis, and elevated heart rate.

These adverse effects have been seen with much less exposure than what has been reported with the people of Taiji. It would be unconscionable if the Japanese government chooses to look the other way.

The Japanese government’s approval of consumers’ exposure to high mercury content as a result of a limited and inadequate study has potential for disaster.

Japan Mercury Whitewash: Report on Taiji Dolphin Meat

2010-05-09T08:24:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

Sakae Hemmi of Elsa Nature Conservancy and a long-time associate of BlueVoice, reports from Taiji, Japan that the National Institute of Minamata Disease has found extremely high levels of mercury in people who eat dolphin meat in that village made infamous by the award winning film The Cove. But they claim to have found no evidence these high levels of mercury have done any harm to those people. Results were released in a press conference Sunday in Taiji.

Unfortunately the NIMD had not conducted tests necessary to determine the impact of high mercury levels on humans including neurological tests and IQ tests. In the absence of such tests their conclusions are meaningless.

From the report faxed to me by Ms. Hemmi this morning: 1137 hair samples were tested in summer of 2009. In 43 persons the levels of mercury were higher than 50 ppm. As a reference point 1 ppm is considered the top level acceptable by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The highest tests results were for TAiji citizens who eat meat such as pilot whale.

In 2008 a Japanese journalist, Hiroshi Hasegawa, received data developed by BlueVoice that documented high levels of mercury in four dolphin-eating Taiji citizens. He then conducted additional testing that found even higher numbers for mercury among the dolphin-eating population. The results were published in AERA, a major Japanese magazine. His article spurred the NIMD to propose testing citizens of Taiji for mercury.

In a second article this reporter wrote "Through possible intentional error or plain negligence, the examination itself was outside standard neurologically based testing standards that take the brain deteriorating effects of methyl mercury poisoning into account." Those tests include the two-point discrimination test and a test for ability to discriminate three-dimensional objects by touching them. They also neglected to do IQ tests.

The upshot is that Taiji will take no action to control the sale of dolphin and whale meat.

The only good news is that studies will continue under the auspices of another organization. Those studies will particularly focus on the circulatory systems of children in Taiji.

We are seeking comment from Dr. Jane Hightower, a widely recognized experts on the impact of mercury of people who accumulate excess quantities of this heavy metal on whether it is possible to have such high levels of mercury in a human body without it causing harm.

Bottom line is that the NIMD report is a whitewash. Perhaps the scientists who conducted the studies on the dolphin-eating citizens of Taiji learned their trade from those who conduct "scientific whaling.

April 26 at BlueVoice

2010-04-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

Blog 4-26-10

A Day at BlueVoice.org

Going over reports from lawsuit against Dupont filed in Mississippi by a man – a heavy seafood eater - who contracted Multiple Myeloma a form of blood cancer, from eating shell fish from a bay contaminated by Dupont. Jury initially awarded him $15 million.

Writing Chapter 8 of my book. Manuscript due May 15.

Just found group from Louisiana that has brought the issue of chemical contamination to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. They allege that the United States is not protecting their right to live in a healthy environment. The commission has agreed to hear their petition. This is the first environmental human rights complaint from United States citizens to be heard by the Organization of American States. It could be another tool to fight the contamination of our planet by toxic chemicals.

Seeking contacts in Greenland to help investigation of abnormal ratios of male to female babies in in Inuit villages due to contamination by estrogen mimicking chemicals in fish and marine mammals eaten there.

Email from Chris Palmer showing cover and other elements of his new book Shooting in the Wild. Excellent book due in stores May 15. Several stories about my filming adventures.

Looking at possible implications for dolphins from the oil rig disaster. Oil has now covered an eighteen hundred square mile area. Sperm whales were seen in the vicinity of the slick.

Entangled Humpback Location Currently Unknown

2010-03-24T09:34:00.000-07:00

Entangled Humpback Location Currently Unknown

I just received a call from Jamieson Smith of National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) bringing me up to date on the status of the humpback whale entangled off Florida.

The humpback sighted off Ft. Pierce is the same one first seen off St. Augustine March 7. A concerted effort was made to rescue the whale on that occasion. But the whale has been highly evasive. It evaded placement of a satellite tag that would have enabled continuous monitoring of its position.

NMFS is advertising a hotline number for anyone spotting this entangled whale. 866-755-6622

The rescue team that was in St. Augustine has been moved to Ft. Pierce to be ready should another rescue attempt be possible.

There have been reports of entangled humpbacks off the Florida coast in recent days but the whales turned out to be unencumbered.

There was no calf with the entangled humpback. The captain of the party boat who reported that says he saw a large animal under the entangled whale. He assumed it to be a calf but in retrospect says it never surfaced so the shadowy figure must have been a shark.

We discussed the dolphin activity around the humpback and Jamieson told me that was not unusual. We both agreed that it is hard to impute motivation to dolphins under such circumstances. But he did say that having dolphins around an entangled whale makes it easy to find the whale.

I told him of my experience in the Bahamas where I was certainly protected by four juvenile spotted dolphins from a hammerhead shark. Judge for yourself in the accompanying video.

Dolphins Protect Entangled Humpback from Sharks

2010-03-22T09:26:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

Last week my friend Zach McKenna of St. Augustine Eco Tours told me of seeing loads of whales well of the coast of St. Augustine. There were right whales and humpbacks.

Tragically there was a humpback entangled in monofilament fishing line. A team from NMFS tried to disentangle the whale for many hours but was unsuccessful.

Yesterday a fishing boat out of Jensen Beach on the east central coast of Florida spotted a humpback entangled with the line cutting into her flesh. A calf was nearby. A Mako and a hammerhead shark were circling. The mother breached continually, apparently to drive off the sharks.

"(The whale) has polypropylene rope wrapped around its head and pectoral fin and its attached to an anchor," said Captain Patrick Price.

Price said he saw the larger of the two whales breach many times. Then, amazingly, a large pod of about 100 dolphins arrived on the scene. The dolphins circled the whale to protect it from the sharks. The dolphins accompanied the whale for over an hour until Price saw a whale breach a mile to the south. At that point the dolphins headed in that direction.

Captain Price remained on the scene for four hours until a NMFS team arrived on the scene. At 2:45 p.m. sea conditions deteriorated. The NMFS biologist on hand called off rescue efforts to avoid further injuring the whale.

NOAA whale scientist Jamison Smith said that if boaters see a whale in distress they should call call 866-755-6622. A team of biologists trained in handling whale entanglements is on standby.

I phoned Jamison Smith. I’m awaiting a return call as of 1215 Monday. Will report updates.

Did U.S. Head of Delegation to IWC Go Rogue?

2010-03-17T18:16:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

On March 16, 2008 President Obama said We must strengthen the International Moratorium (on whaling). “Allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable,” he said emphatically. His delegation to the International Whaling Commission’s just concluded intercessional meeting did not support that position. The question is whether there has been a change in the president’s position or his head of delegation Monica Medina has gone rogue and the president is not aware of it.
The intercessional meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) assembled to hammer out a consensus on how the organization would move forward ended with no action taken due to lack of a quorum.

Meeting in St. Pete Beach, Florida from March 2 - 5 the commission addressed the question of how to create a set of regulations and quotas that would satisfy both whale protectionists and whale hunting interests. Of course at the ethical level no such compromise is possible.

Whales are simply not products. They are not creatures to be “harvested” as so many of the whaling delegates describe the process of taking their lives. No one planted these magnificent animals. No one invested resources to grow them. Their taking involves using a small canon to drive an explosive harpoon into their bodies that detonates instants after contact and leads to agonizing death.

The second item to be negotiated was whether to grant a quota of at least fifty humpback whales to Greenland. Many excellent pro-whale organizations argued that there is not enough scientific data available to determine whether humpbacks can be hunted in a sustainable manner. To me this may be a tactic that is appropriate to IWC meetings but these facts do not represent the real reason we should not kill whales.

We should not kill whales because of who and what they are, highly intelligent and magnificent animals beloved of millions of people. In the cases of humpback and fin whales they are endangered species. We have wiped out more than 90 percent of many whale populations. In some cases humans have annihilated whole populations of whales.

The factual, rational and highly regarded New York Times published an editorial opinion that whales should not be killed for any reason.
Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico spoke strongly of a need to phase out whaling entirely in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. The United States offerings were weak-kneed. Head of delegation, Monica Medina, was often at odds with the expert members of her own delegation and spoke platitudes and pleasantries that did not present a cogent American position.
Not a single environmental NGO supported Medina’s position. The reasons are as follows:

The proposed set of regulations called The Package would legitimize commercial whaling by suspending commercial whaling moratorium for a decade.
The Package does not prevent contracting governments from exercising their right to object to any or all of the Schedule amendments, or from leaving the Commission and returning with a reservation such as Japan’s current ruse of scientific whaling.
The Package legitimizes whaling in the Southern Ocean in a sanctuary established by the IWC itself.

The Package does not phase whaling down or out.

The Package is not based on sound science. Catch limits will not be calculated using the IWC agreed precautionary scientific approach, or even subject first to consideration by the Scientific Committee.

The Package fails to require the whaling nations to give up their reservations to the CITES Appendix I listing of whales. It provides an incentive for the whaling nations to continue trading with each other under reservation and to develop new commercial products from whale tissues and oils and develop new markets for the trade in whale products in the future.

But more than any and all of these flaws in the Package there is one simple truth: Whales are not for killing.

Link Between Dolphin Slaughter and Whaling

2010-03-17T17:50:00.000-07:00

By Hardy Jones

When I was in Iki, Japan three years ago the former head of the fishermen’s union told me something important. Iki had not been granted any further quotas to hunt dolphins because the Japan Fisheries Agency (JFA) felt Iki had gained too much notoriety from the footage Howard Hall and I took of the 1980 slaughter.

He said the JFA feared the dolphin slaughters and whaling would be linked in peoples’ minds and that whaling was vastly more important to Japan than the dolphin hunt.

Now I don’t know how this squares with the worldwide ignominy Taiji has suffered from films over the last few years, most recently The Cove and prior to that When Dolphins Cry, a film I did for National Geographic. But I believe the linkage exists.

It is important to see the connection between the two issues. The killing of whales at sea, while it has been filmed by Sea Shepherd and Greenpeace, does not compare in graphic intensity with the ghastly slaughter of dolphins that can be videotaped from the shores of Hatagagiri Bay at Taiji.

The two hunts – for dolphins and whales – meld in the mind. They are rightly seen as a common policy of the nation of Japan. In addition there is the fact that dolphin meat is often sold as whale meat.

Ultimately there is the image of a modern industrial nation countenancing the hideously cruel and primitive killing of animals of high intelligence – animals that are beloved around the world.

Finally there is the perfidy of the Japanese government denying the findings of its own scientists – that dolphin meat and whale meat contain high levels of contaminants that threaten human health.

For those of us who write about these issues keep the linkage in mind. Japan would sacrifice the dolphin hunt to save whaling. And the blood of the dolphins is the blood of the whales in the mind of all who care about both.

Decision on Fate of Whales Postponed

2010-03-05T07:21:00.000-08:00

March 3, 2010. St Peter Beach, Florida

By Hardy Jones

The intercessional meeting of International Whaling Commission (IWC) assembled to hammer out a consensus on how the organization would move forward has ended with no action taken.

Meeting in St. Pete Beach, Florida from March 2 - 5 the so-called Small Working Group addressed the question of how to create a framework and set of regulations and quotas that would satisfy both whale protectionists and whale hunting interests. Of course at the ethical level no such compromise is possible.

Whales are simply not products. They are not creatures to be “harvested” as so many of the whaling delegates describe the process of taking their lives. No one planted these magnificent animals. No one invested resources to grow them. Their taking involves using a small canon to drive an explosive harpoon into their bodies that detonates instants after contact and leads to agonizing death.

The second item to be negotiated was whether to grant a quota of at least fifty humpback whales to Greenland. Many excellent pro-whale organizations argued that there is not enough information available to determine whether humpbacks can be hunted in a sustainable manner. To me this may be a tactic that is appropriate in the confines of the commission meetings but these facts do not represent the real reason we should not kill whales.

We should not kill whales because of who and what they are; highly intelligent and magnificent animals beloved of millions of people. In the cases of humpback and fin whales they are endangered species. We have wiped out more than 90 percent of many whale populations.

Even the factual, rational and highly regarded New York Times published an editorial opinion that no whale should be killed for any reason.

Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico spoke strongly of a need to phase out whaling entirely in the Southern Ocean around Antarctica. The United States offerings were weak-kneed. Head of delegation, Monica Medina, was at odds with the expert members of her own delegation and spoke platitudes and pleasantries that did not present a cogent American position.

The meeting in St. Pete did not attract a quorum so no decisions could be taken. That is a blessing as it will allow BlueVoice and likeminded organizations to present forcefully to President Obama the argument that no whales should be killed and that he should demand of his delegation that they not push for consensus on issues for which no consensus can or should be reached. Whales are not for killing.

U.S. TO SUPPORT DISASTROUS RETURN TO COMMERCIAL WHALING

2010-03-03T09:11:00.000-08:00

FROM THE SESSION ROOM
URGENT ACTION REQUIRED.

By Hardy Jones
St. Pete Beach, Florida
Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Obama Administration, through its delegation to the International Whaling Commission Small Working Group, appears ready to sign off on a deal that would permit a return to legal commercial whaling. Japan, Iceland and Norway’s whaling has heretofore been conducted under reservations to the moratorium on whaling that has been in place since 1986.

The only chance to derail this backroom deal appears to be direct protest to President Obama. All environmental groups are united in their opposition to the plan to legitimize whaling. In this way the president who promised a new way of doing things is vulnerable but only if those of us who love and revere whales make our outrage known to the White House.

If the United States were to vote for a resumption of commercial whaling it would represent a 180 degree turn around from the position the president took just a year ago.

On March 6, 2009 the Obama administration pledged it would firmly oppose whaling. Environmentalists thought Obama was signaling a tough US position approaching meetings to examine the proposal that would open the door to legal whaling.

One of the results of this deal would be a quota for Iceland and perhaps Japan to hunt endangered fin whales.

It is BlueVoice’s position that there is no justification for whaling whatever. Absolutely. Whales are sentient beings with high degrees of intelligence and self-awareness. They are magnificent and inspiring, beloved to millions around the world.

TO PROTEST THIS RECKLESS POSITION EMAIL THE WHITE HOUSE. On the web go to http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

You can paste the following into your email message and add your own thoughts. It is very important to personalize the message so it does not appear mass produced.

President Obama, you have previously indicated you would strongly support the protection of whales. The statements of your delegation to the NGO caucus at the IWC in St. Pete, FL belies your commitment. I urge you to oppose legalization of commercial whaling. Whales are intelligent and sentient creatures that should not be killed. Thank you.

IWC group Proposes Return to Commercial Whaling

2010-02-23T09:40:00.000-08:00

by Hardy Jones

The so-called small working group of the International Whaling Commission has released a draft proposal that would overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling that has has been in place since 1986.

The compromise is aimed at unblocking the protracted negotiations between IWC member countries opposed to commercial whaling and those that hunt whales.

BlueVoice is unalterably opposed to any move by the IWC that would sanction the killing of whales commercially. We believe it is morally unacceptable to kill such large brained, social and, in most cases, endangered animals. There can be no compromise on the murder of such creatures.

The draft proposal must be ratified by the plenary of the IWC which meets in June in Morocco.

BlueVoice urges the Obama administration to mount a vigorous defense of the whales.

In an era when ocean pollution and destruction of food species and habitat already pose dire threats for the whales of the world the last thing we need is commercial whaling.

The draft proposal would allow only Japan, Norway, Iceland and the Faroe Islands, to whale commercially. Indigenous subsistence whaling also would be allowed.

Japan is currently hunting whales in the Antarctic conducting what it bogusly calls a scientific whaling program. The take of 900 minke whales plus 50 endangered fin whales are sold commercially in Japan.

The IWC proposal includes language stating that the IWC will "focus on the recovery of depleted whale stocks and take actions on key issues, including bycatch, climate change and other environmental threats."

But environmental groups are outraged by the proposal.

Greenpeace International called for the proposal by to be rejected out of hand.

My old friend John Frizell of Greenpeace says "We are at a critical junction for both whaling and ocean conservation. A return to commercial whaling would not only be a disaster for whales but will send shock waves through international ocean conservation efforts, making it vastly more difficult to protect other rapidly-declining species such as tuna and sharks."

If you believe, as we do, that whales are extraordinary, sentient and intelligent creatures then any legitimization of their slaughter is anathema.

We will be at the intercessional meeting of the IWC in St. Petersburg, Florida in early March to join other major conservation organizations in opposing these proposals. We'll be tweeting and blogging from the scene advising our members via ACTION ALERTS of steps that need to be taken as the meeting progresses.

It's Global Climate Change - not Global Warming

2010-02-17T07:12:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones

Its’ freezing again down here in St. Augustine (N.E. Florida). I get up in the early morning hours when the temperatures hit their lows and if the thermometer looks like it will cross into freezing territory I water and cover my citrus. It’s not as frigid as in January when we had to string Christmas lights through the key limes and Meyer lemons to protect them.

Where the cold has really caused devastation is in its terrible effects on species of wildlife that aren't geared for such temperatures. There are perhaps 4,500 sea turtles, some of them highly endangered, that are in a moribund state - paralyzed by the cold and possibly not going to survive. Manatees have been severely impacted, many have died and each day that passes with extreme low temperatures the more of these engaging creatures will die. In January we had large die-offs of fish and alligators in many parts of the state due to cold water temperatures.

Some animals that have died are exotics that the ecosystem is better off rid of i.e. Burmese pythons that have been let loose by pet owners and multiplied in the Everglades. Certain non-native fish that push out local fish are also dieing in large numbers while native fish are surviving better.

Animals that are at the northern limit of their ranges are all vulnerable. And the recent record cold down here is an indicator of things to come as climate changes due to a combination of forces, mostly greenhouse gasses created by human activities.

Let’s be clear about something. What we are facing is not global warming, though the globe is warming. On a global basis January was the warmest month in recorded history worldwide. But in large parts of the United states there have been unusual cold and record levels of snow fall. There are those who disparage and despise Al Gore and the vast majority of scientists around the world who support the thesis of anthropogenicly induced climate change. They are showing either their own stupidity or their dogmatic clutching at anything that will undermine the science that proves global climate change a real and present danger.

These people are generally not stupid. They are ideologues who make a living parroting a line of thought that is bought, literally, by a segment of our population. These are people who twist their own belief systems to allow themselves to make money by falsifying information critical to the survival of our planetary ecosystems.

In this way Fox News and their ilk say the recent cold waves and heavy snow falls prove global warming is bogus. No one should ever have used the term global warming. Huge mistake. Global climate change models call for rising overall global temperatures with extremes of cold, hot, snow, drought, flooding etc. And BTW, warmer air holds more moisture and thus creates more snow so heavy snow is completely consistent with global climate change, even with global warming.

Email from a friend in Vancouver says they are having the warmest winter in recorded history. Reports from Iqaluit in Arctic, Canada indicate extraordinarily mild winter temperatures.

On the other side of the world Australia has experienced its warmest year ever.

Oddly, for a species self-named homo sapiens, we tend to believe what is convenient or profitable. This will have consequences.

The Cove and BlueVoice

2010-02-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

Louie Psihoyos, multiple award winning director of The Cove, has generously written of the role played by BlueVoice and Elsa Nature Conservancy in bringing the story of the dolphin slaughter in Taiji and the threat of mercury to those who eat dolphin meat to world attention. The Cove has won virtually every film festival it has entered and is now nominated for an Academy Award. Equally important, The Cove has secured distribution in Japan. I am confident that when the Japanese people learn of the slaughter of dolphins in their own country, coupled with information on the dangerous levels of mercury in dolphin meat, the brutal practice that takes the lives of 20,000 dolphins a year will end. Hardy

Louie's statement:

Today is a good day for dolphins and the supporters of Blue Voice. The documentary I directed called The Cove about the annual slaughter of dolphins in Taiji can now announce a distribution deal in Japan. Getting to this point has been a long journey but none longer than the work of Hardy Jones and Blue Voice who were the first boots on the ground in Taiji going back to 1980. Hardy’s work, in collaboration with Sakae Hemmi of Elsa Nature Conservancy, resulted in the shutting down of the infamous drive fisheries in Iki and Futo and his work on mercury toxicity in cetacean meat has significantly reduced the demand for human consumption in that country.
The huge international response to The Cove helped to temporarily halt the slaughter of dolphins but the dolphin hunters of Taiji have recently ramped up their operation. In addition, they have installed more razor ribbon in the National Park above the cove and hired additional guards to patrol the area when they have captured dolphins. I believe the additional security is a good sign because it means the dolphin hunters know the world is now watching and their horror show cannot survive the light our collective work has shined on the issue.

I believe we will win this issue in Japan, not because of the inhumanity to animals but because of the inhumanity to man – nobody should be served poisoned meat just because of the ‘tradition’ of a few people. The Japanese Minister of Health’s provisional limit for mercury in seafood is 0.4 ppm (parts per million) but dolphin meat can have anywhere from 5-5000 times more mercury than allowed by health food laws. The dolphin hunters and their middle men sell much of the dolphin meat in Japan as ‘whale’ meat. Dolphin meat is considered in Japan to be a ‘trash’ fish and we believe if the ruse were widely known – the demand in Japan would collapse. In addition, much of the most toxic parts of the dolphin meat, the internal organs are ground up and used in pet food and fertilizer! So even if you are a vegetarian in Japan you can be poisoned by dolphin meat. The earliest signs of mercury poison was in Minamata, Japan where the Japanese government tried to cover up the first large scale industrial accident in history, the first signs of contamination were seen in cats. ‘Dancing cat disease” was the first sign of a problem before it spread to humans and was called ‘Minamata’s’ disease. People in Japan should be on the look out for their pets acting strangely.
There is a lot of work to do in Japan to inform the Japanese people that there is a problem. The government and the media have done a pretty good job trying to spin this film as a ‘Japan bashing’ movie but the Japanese people themselves who have seen it do not agree. The Cove is a love letter to the Japanese people because we are giving them the information that the government is trying to cover up. Both Hardy and I have been poisoned with mercury from eating too much fish so the issue to us is emotional and very personal.

Many dolphins have larger brains than our own and more convolutions of the gray matter allowing for more sensory neurons. They may be more sensitive than were are and we know that nature would never burden a creature with a weighty brain if it were not being used for higher functions. Our responsibility now is to realize that in the next decade our choices will decide the fate of the world. For many people this awareness will begin when they first view The Cove and quickly see how that this tiny body of water is a microcosm of a much bigger problem we all face. But I would like to acknowledge the work and tireless work of Hardy Jones of BlueVoice.org and Sakae Hemmi from Elsa Nature Conservancy whose efforts have been instrumental in helping to create awareness about the issues way before my organization, OPS entered the fight by making a film. There is a wonderful quote by Margaret Mead who said, ““A few thoughtful people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” Hardy and Sakae deserve to be acknowledged as early champions of these important ocean issues.

The changes we seek count on the support of millions of people who believe change is possible. And make no mistake, the fight has only just begun and we will need the efforts of many like-minded organizations working together to solve the many issues raised in The Cove. Please support the important work of Blue Voice because I believe they are not just saving dolphins, they are helping to save humanity and perhaps the world. The awards bestowed on The Cove have been incredible but Hardy’s groundbreaking work made it possible. I believe awards should only be regarded as the collateral that happens when we try to create awareness to solve the issues. Our real reward will come when the cove is shut down, dolphins are no longer captured for human entertainment and we realize that our fates for survival are intertwined by actions we must now take.

For the Wild,

Louie Psihoyos
Director of The Cove
Executive Director of the Oceanic Preservation Society

Unusual Strandings of Dolphins Along Florida Coast

2010-02-06T12:45:00.000-08:00

Ten dolphins and one beaked whale have stranded on Florida beaches near the Kennedy Space Center over the last nine days.

Megan Stolen, a scientist with the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in Melbourne Beach, described the numbers of stranded dolphins as "unusually large."

No far there is no explanation for the event.

It is illegal to try to return the dolphins to the water. Institute Director of Florida Development J.B. Kump said the best course is to try to keep the dolphins wet, and notify experts. Beach-goers who find stranded dolphins are asked to report any stranded animals to toll-free phone number 888-404-3922.

Dolphin Intelligence viz Human Intelligence

2010-01-26T11:44:00.000-08:00

by Hardy Jones

It has long been my belief that there should not only be a ban on directly killing dolphins but regulations which protect their habitat, food supplies and water quality.

I’ve spent more than thirty years among dolphins in the wild. Much of it has been spent with spotted dolphins in the Bahamas. But I’ve also interacted in a personal way over varying periods of time with spinner dolphins in Hawaii, killer whales in Norway, sperm whales in the Galapagos and off Dominica and bottlenose dolphins at Rangiroa Atoll.

Their curiosity and inventiveness in creating and maintaining a relationship with a non-cetacean intelligence such as myself has convinced me there is something extraordinary going on in their massive brains. My conviction is only enhanced by observations of them interacting among themselves.

I don’t need scientific proof that cetaceans (whales and dolphins) are intelligent but I welcome it as a way of convincing the vast part of humanity who’ve had no contact with these creatures that they are a special case; that they merit special protection under law.

Drs. Lori Marino and Diana Reiss used mirror self-recognition to prove that dolphins are self-aware. The story of this remarkable work received substantial media play when it was published. In January of this year articles began to pop up around the world reporting a call from Dr. Marino that dolphins be treated as “non-human persons.”

The articles cited studies that have shown dolphin communication is similar to that of humans and that dolphins have brains have many of the features and functions of human brains.

In a statement that really pecks at the cosmic egg Dr. Marino, Senior Lecturer in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University in Atlanta, said dolphins neuroanatomy “suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions.”

After reading of Dr. Marino’s statement I traveled to Atlanta to interview her. In a Starbuck’s just off campus we had a fascinating discussion of the difficult subject of comparative intelligence.

I pressed her on a question that I’ve long had about why dolphins, who in many cases have larger brains than humans, are “marked down” because of something called the brain-body weight ratio. Essentially that says that to get a true value on the intelligence of an animal you must divide the brain size by the body weight. This produces the result that because dolphins weigh more than humans the high denominator in the calculation pulls down the “intelligence” of dolphins viz humans.

I propose to Lori that a large part of dolphin weight is simply blubber that requires no brain functions to control it.

Her answer was complex.

(To be continued)

Shark finning horror in Japan

2010-01-11T13:16:00.000-08:00

by Hardy Jones

Attached to this blog you will find a photo of the catch from a single Japanese shark fishing boat. It will give you an idea of a process that is exterminating sharks worldwide. BV http://www.bluevoice.org is funding a study of mercury levels in sharks as part of an effort to dry up the market for shark products.
Photo by Circlet. Copyright Circlet, BlueVoice.org

More soon.

A Day at BlueVoice Home Base

2010-01-05T12:04:00.000-08:00

Email is both a bane and the source of our ability to make a worldwide impact. When I arrive at my desk about 8:30 each morning I download 50 to 80 emails. After trashing the junk I’m still left with maybe thirty pressing communications from around the world. Next I have to make an evaluation of those that are “burning” - something that needs immediate attention.

Here are the email transactions for December 28,2009.

Email from Dieter Hagmann, video of bottlenose dolphins that have been killed. Dolphin hunters appear to be using a new way of killing dolphins so there will be no blood. How do we use this information? Who will pay attention over the holidays and with so much other news breaking.

Email from Sakae from ELSA Nature Conservancy (our ally in Japan). Email sent 3:00am her time. As always she’s burning the midnight oil. She confirms what I also see in Dieter’s video – that some of the dead dolphins are bottlenose.

Query prompts me to do a quick Google on Brucellosis in dolphins and whales around Japan. There are many cases. How do we prove there is disease in dolphin meat at Taiji? That would really whack the market for dolphin meat.

Video arrives reporting death of a dolphin named Rasca, attributed to Navy sonar. Seemed to be a news report but had an air of fakery. Put out word to list serve Cetacean Freedom Network for verification.

Sue Arnold (Australians for Animals) email via CFN. She’s working on getting world religious leaders to go to Taiji to bear witness.

Word comes through that the dog we fostered has been adopted. Beautiful picture of Sunshine with her new family.

Email from Jim Abernathy (who runs the dive boat Shearwater) discussing impact of high mercury in human tissues on human sexual dysfunction. BV is sending him video of a shark fishery in Japan for use on his website re his new book on sharks.

I email Dr. Jane Hightower, world class authority on mercury contamination on humans and author of “Diagnosis Mercury” for analysis of mercury impact on human sexual dysfunction.

Email from Dr. Sidney Holt, one of the original and longest workers on behalf of whale and dolphins. He lives now in Italy and we reconnected through the internet. We back-and-forth on diseases such as brucellosis in whale and dolphin meat. Danger to humans? Tool to destroy the market for whale and dolphin meat?

Email reporting a major article will come out in Japan on mercury in dolphin meat and in those who eat it. Japanese scientists testing people of Taiji appear to be covering up results on who has mercury poisoning.

Email from several CFNers – the video on Rasca is not genuine news. Turns out to be a clip from a feature film in the making.

Dr. Hightower replies to my inquiry - there is ample reason to think high mercury impacts sexual function. Certainly lowers sperm count and affects nervous system.

A $400 dollar donation arrives. Nice lift for us. We appreciate the money but also the support.

More video arrives from Dieter. I take a deep breath and open it. Starts with three men hauling a bottlenose into the cove. The dolphin is brought under a green tarpaulin. No blood is seen. Soon a dolphin sling attached to the side of a boat comes out from under the tarp headed for the holding pens. This dolphin will be trained and sold for entertainment.

Rest of the afternoon will be reviewing three hours of Dieter's video of dolphin slaughter in Taiji. A grim prospect.

Horrifying new Footage of Dolphin Hunt at Taiji

2009-12-29T08:35:00.000-08:00

by Hardy Jones

Dieter Hagmann, a very brave German videographer has sent us footage showing what we believe proves the slaughter of bottlenose dolphins continues at Taiji, Japan. For a while it had been hoped that media exposure of the ghastly hunt had stopped or slowed the hunting of dolphins for meat. Then it was hoped that at least bottlenose dolphins would be spared. But it is now clear it is business as usual at Taiji.

We at BlueVoice are resolved that in 2010 we will deliver a blockbuster against the hunting of dolphins in Japan. I can't discuss the exact nature of this move but there are some very compelling reasons why humans should not eat dolphin meat. We will make these known backed up by hard scientific data.

The accompanying video is highly graphic. I publish it so the world will know what is going on in Japan.

FAROE ISLANDS FAROES PILOT WHALE PROTESTS MAY BE COUNTER PRODUCTIVE

2009-12-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones

Recently the capability of web networking enabled some opposed to the ghastly slaughter of pilot whales in the Faroe Islands to set this crime before the world. The tone of the communications that we at BlueVoice and so many others received was that this was the first revelation of these events. There was a desperate call to “do something.”
In fact, various environmental groups including
www.eia-international.org and www.animalfund.org have worked for decades to stop the “grind” as it is called. And yet it continued. But in 2007 something occurred that did at least slow down the killing. Danish and Faroes health authorities warned that pilot whale meat contains dangerous levels of mercury that can lead to Parkinson’s disease and heart problems among other health problems. That warning collapsed the market for pilot whale meat and the hunts subsided for a period of nearly two years.
There is some indication that there is a vast quantity of pilot whale meat in storage already so there is no need to carry out further hunts. But in early 2009 at least one took place.
As Bill Rossiter of Cetacean Society International recently wrote, “We're all concerned with the best way to deal with these bloody hunts, but, in the past, whenever NGOs go public against the hunt, the grinds begin again. There had been no hunts for more than sixteen months but at the very end of January 2009, when the emails started to circulate and get media coverage (especially in the UK and India) the grinds began again.”
There is no way to know if there is a cause/effect going on here but Danish environmental groups, very much in touch with the situation in the Faroes, advise against further protest at this time.

URGING JAPAN HEALTH MINISTER TO STOP DOLOPHIN HUNT

A similar case involves a request that letters of protest be sent to Japan’s new Minister of Health who has expressed concern about mercury in food sold in Japan, which would certainly include highly tainted dolphin meat.
It is my observation that protests sent to Japan to end whaling and dolphin killing have not worked over the course of thirty or more years. In the late 1970s and 80s a massive effort was made to organize a boycott of Japanese goods. This had no discernable impact on Japan’s whaling policy and coincided with an exponential growth in the import of Japanese products to the United States.
Furthermore, if a Japanese minister were to contemplate changing regulations dealing with dolphin hunting, protests from foreigners (gaijin) would be counter-productive. No Japanese official could appear to be bowing to foreign pressure.
It is my belief, now that the major impact of The Cove may have run its course and dolphin hunting continues as usual, that food safety issues will destroy the market for dolphin meat in Japan as it has in the Faroes.
That is where BlueVoice is putting our energies.

Can Japan Continue Antarctic Whaling

2009-12-14T07:59:00.000-08:00

Japan Vows to Continue Factory Ship Whaling

by Hardy Jones

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has threatened international legal action after the new Japanese government declared its intent to continue whaling.

Two weeks ago Japanese officials said the government would not support industries that were loosing money and required substantial subsidies to continue operations. That would have included the whaling industry and the withdrawal of subsidies would have forced a closure of Antarctic whaling operations based around the factory ship Nisshin Maru. Now Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada says there is no need to discontinue whaling.

The Japanese statement comes as the factory ship Nisshin Maru and its associated killer boats along with an escort of security ships, begins whaling in Australian Antarctic Territory waters.

Australia has traditionally been among those who have taken the strongest stand against whaling.
''Let me be very clear,'' Mr. Rudd said. ''If we cannot resolve this matter (whaling in the Antarctic) diplomatically, we will take international legal action.''

The International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea could impose an injunction to halt whaling 14 days after a case is lodged.

Other factors may force the end of factory ship whaling. The Nisshin Maru contravenes new rules proposed by the United Nations International Maritime Organization for ships operating in the Antarctic in at least three ways: The heavy fuel oil it uses would be banned; its hull-strength and safety would fail new requirements; and its annual
dumping of thousands of tons of offal at sea is rejected in the global nature reserve.

The regulations were backed by the Antarctic Treaty System after a series of accidents involving cruise ships. The Nisshin Maru itself has caught fire at least twice, on one occasion in Antarctic waters. The potential posed by this out of date factory ship for an environmental catastrophe in one of the world’s most environmentally sensitive areas is obvious.

One factor holding Japan’s feet to the fire should all the above-mentioned regulations be enforced is that Japan desperately wants a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Violating UN regulations would hardly be helpful in achieving that goal.

It may well be that Japan will not want to appear to be knuckling under pressure from environmental groups but would silently be grateful for UN regulations that would force the end of its unprofitable and highly objectionable whaling practices.

Talks have continued over recent years at the International Whaling Commission in hopes of finding common ground between whaling nations and those nations that oppose it.

But there can be no compromise between those who kill whales and those who consider them sentient, intelligent beings. You cannot say “a little murder is OK.”

BlueVoice has published a white paper entitled “A Shared Fate” detailing levels of contamination in people who eat whale and dolphin meat. Mercury poisoning is a well-known threat but there is also evidence from Japanese scientists that diseases such as brucellosis are developing in whales. These are diseases that could spread to humans.

Humpback Whale Rescues Baby Seal

2009-12-08T13:58:00.000-08:00

Scientists Robert L Pitman and John W Durban sailed to the Antarctic in search of killer whales - killer whales that eat seals, catching them by forcing or tipping them off ice flows.

While they observed the unfolding of such an event, a group of humpback whales arrived on the scene. Pitman and Durban watched as one seal, swept into the water by the orca, swam towards the humpbacks.

As the killer whales moved in, the seal leapt onto the vast
ribbed belly of a humpback, and nestled in the animal's armpit. And when a wave threatened to put the seal back in harm’s way, the humpback used its massive fifteen foot long flipper to help it back on.

"Moments later the seal scrambled off and swam to the safety of a nearby ice floe," wrote the scientists. They believe the seal triggered a maternal defense mechanism in the humpbacks. Scientists have to talk that way. Normal people would say that the humpback which has a huge brain and lives in close societies had empathy for the seal just as any of us might. WE do not credit animals with higher brain functions, even though the anatomy of their brains shows they clear have that capacity. Here's a question for you: what would the consequences be if we really got it that animals have minds, emotions and feelings. Ponder that one.

Oceana's Hugely Successful 2009

2009-12-02T11:39:00.000-08:00

December 1, 2009 by Hardy Jones

BlueVoice grew out of American Oceans Campaign which was later absorbed by Oceana. BlueVoice then became a fully independent 501 c 3 but continues to work closely with Oceana. Today I am sitting in as a member of the Oceana Ocean Council, on the annual Washington DC board meeting.

The work that Oceana does is stunningly impressive. As Ocean conservation NGOs go Oceana is well funded. And they use these funds to excellent purpose. The organization is highly dedicated to specific goals that are attainable.

By the end of the presentations on 2009 activities I was enormously encouraged. Oceana has proven that it packs a punch. Successes like this prove big battles can be won.

Some of the victories achieved during the previous year include:

Protection of Sea Turtles from longlines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Nearing passage of a bill that would prohibit landing sharks without their fins attached. This would prevent the deplorable practice of catching sharks, cutting off their fins, and dumping the rest of the shark back into the ocean alive to die a torturous death by drowning.

Winning protection for bluefin tuna.

Having contributed to converting five chlorine plants in the United States to processes that do not produce mercury, Oceana is working to convert the final four.

Currently working to get congress to pass a resolution that recognizes ocean acidification to be another of the damaging results of CO2 emissions.

Helped stop (for now) expansion of oil and gas expansion in the U.S. Arctic.

Closed the U.S. Arctic to industrial fishing.

Supported legislation that now protects krill in federal waters of the California current.

Reached agreement with fishermen to protect deep water corals off coast of Florida.

I always come away from these board meetings inspired by Ocean’s work. It is reassuring to know that a powerful ocean conservation organization is working so effectively to protect the seas and its creatures.

http://www.oceana.org

Japan Whaling May Be Doomed

2009-11-21T12:58:00.000-08:00

by Hardy Jones
Humpback eye phto by Gene Flipsy

Two things may doom Japanese whaling, at least in the Antarctic.

The Japanese whaling fleet has just departed for its annual Antarctic whale
hunt but the enterprise operated by the Institute of Cetacean Research for the
Japan Fisheries Agency faces two huge problems at home:

a chronic lack of demand for for whale meat and possible UN regulations barring the antiquated Japanese whaling fleet from entering Antarctic waters.

More than 5-thousand tons of whale meat has been freezered from last year's hunt due to declining demand for the product. According to the Sydney Morning Herald (The Australian) the whaling business requires a subsidy of nearly ten million dollars per year to maintain operations.

A parliamentary waste-cutting panel, convened by the new government, has recommended the whaling business's main source of funding, the Overseas Fisheries Co-operation Fund, be shut down. This would end whaling in the Antarctic and possibly all factory ship whaling.

In addition, United Nations regulations mandate certain hull specifications for vessels entering Antarctic waters. The Nissin Maru, the factory ship on which Antarctic whaling depends, does not meet those standards and may be prohibited from entering the fragile Antarctic ecosystem.

Fate moves in strange ways. As we fight whaling and dolphin slaughter we cannot predict which methods will be effective. It may be that either of the two factors cited above will provide the Japanese government with a face saving way to end this barbarous business. What a wonderful day that would be.

Baby Boom among San Juan Orcas Killer Whales

2009-11-16T14:31:00.000-08:00

BabyBoomOrca

The birth of the fifth killer whale calf this year within the endangered southern resident killer whales pods is spectacular news. The births bring the total number of animals in J, K and L pods to 87.

"It's a baby boom," said Howard Garrett of Orca Network. http://www.orcanetwork.org

But this news is countered by the fact that seven orca of these same groups died over the past winter. There is genuine concern about the survival of these highly beloved whales. The salmon on which these orca feed has been in low supply and the whales that died showed signs of emaciation. They are also some of the most toxic animals on earth, containing huge levels of chemicals such as PCBs.

Historically, the three pods had about 120 members. But that was before dozens of these magnificent animals were cruelly captured for the aquarium trade. In the late 1990s dredging in Puget Sound may have released plumes of toxic sediments that poisoned the animals downstream of the location.

Dr. Ken Balcomb, of the Center for Whale Research, a longtime friend, was one of the researchers who first photographed the newest arrival. I’ve spent joyous times with Ken running with the J, K and L pods. In my film “The Dolphin Defender” Ken describes the crisis these orca face from lack of food and pollution.

The newborn calf has characteristic pink markings and folds behind the dorsal fin. The calf was swimming with Polaris, its mother, a 16-year-old aka J28. See video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIAT-DnD2ek

In my days with Ken he described how female orca offload lipophilic (fat binding) toxic chemicals into their newborns through their lipid rich milk. This reduces the mother’s toxic burden but has always struck me as among the most perverse results of how we treat the oceans as a dump for deadly chemicals. The new arrival will have a better chance of survival because its mother has already had a calf that died. Its death would have allowed Polaris to eliminate toxins such as PCBs and fire retardants from her system, according to Balcomb.

Another source of hope is that this year
has been much better for salmon than last. "I just hope they are well-fed from the summer and don't have to dig too far into their fat reserves. We'll do a roll call when they all come back at the
beginning of next season," Balcomb added.

More information on contaminants in the marine environment dangerous to both killer whales at humans at http://www.bouevoice.org

Booby Traps at Taiji

2009-11-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones

A very brave young Canadian woman has reported from Taiji that the fishermen have booby trapped the hill from which we video the dolphin slaughters.

Leslie-Ann Gervais is now home in a small town in Ontario. It is very fortunate that she escaped serious injury. Here is what she wrote in an email to me:

“... the booby traps were set up with "razor wire" as the ends that grabbed onto my leg, ankle and shoe were very sharp, still have a few marks...and that was from a very cautious step. They had strung more at a head-high level the next day as well...which could poke out an eye...or worse slice into someone's throat.

“The Dawn of the killing...(which happened while it was still dark)....i counted 16 men in a boat leaving the scene (last time 9-10 men)....maybe they had herded-in more later that day which is why there were more men this time and I may have even missed out on counting others too. And this time, they did the killings in the dark and they took such pains with booby traps and trying to block the look out . . .”

“When i went back again today i could not get through that one area...in fact i got caught up in barb wire even though i was looking for it! It latched on to my pants, ankle and shoe...with just one cautious step. Therefore, since yesterday they have entwined EVEN more barb wire. It is tied around trees and stretches and entwines itself camouflaged within the trees and among bushes and leaves. Yesterday, found one which was ankle high, but tied between two trees... NOW, just now saw one head high...which could easily slice through a neck or take out an eye. Makes it very dangerous for anyone who is filming or taking photos and not paying attention to their surroundings.”

Went to the cove this morning...wanted to be present for this family of Pilot Whales. I arrived just as the dawn was breaking and the slaughter was ending. "Personal Space" was in my shadow, flickering his lighter, moping around me - he was sulky, perhaps because i did not have a camera in his face.

This morning they had three nets, two on the outside and one dividing inside the cove. Perhaps because last time they had a problem with the last brave Samurai Pilot Whale who fought so hard. This family of Pilot Whales seemed to slip away quickly....as there were more men this time ...counted 16 men out there on three boats.... After the slaughter they checked the nets as though they were looking for one that had been killed, but disappeared....and made me think of the baby:(. Just so awful. At the end, a speed boat of 11 men came towards shore - all looking my way...even though i may have been scared inside....showed no fear...and gave them my best Native warrior look, 9 men disembarked and left the scene.”

What an extraordinary young woman, operating alone in Taiji!

Sadly it is clear hunting dolphins at Taiji has not ended. It is now clear to me that the only way to end it is to prove the high toxic levels in marine mammals, in the people who eat them and then connect high toxic levels to disease.

Toxins and Disease Threaten Catastrophe for Marine Mammals

2009-10-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

Avalanche of New Diseases Hits Marine Mammals
Quebec City, Canada, October 14, 2009
By Hardy Jones

Dolphins and other marine mammals are often described as sentinels of the health of the seas. They are long-lived, coastal dwelling, top-of-the-food-chain predators, sharing those characteristics with humans. The news from these sentinels is that the oceans are contaminated to a degree that seriously threatens the health of not only marine mammals but humans as well.

At the previous meeting of the Society of Marine Mammalogy in Cape Town in 2007, a major theme was that dangerous levels of toxins have been detected in many species of marine mammal in locations around the world and that this is impacting their immune systems.

At the current meeting in Quebec the chickens have come home to roost. Actually they’ve been coming home for a log time but now scientists have caught up to it. Until we turned the oceans into a chemical soup a bacteria, virus or fungus, ubiquitous or commonly found in the environment, was taken care of by a healthy dolphin, seal or manatee immune system. Those immune systems are now being assaulted by high levels of contaminants building up in marine mammals globally.

The chemical industry has maintained that dilution of chemical waste was the solution to the problem. What they did not count on is the biomagnification of toxic chemicals by the marine food chain causing marine mammals to ingest and store dangerous levels of organic pollutants.

The following is a partial list of papers presented at the conference describing diseases emerging among marine mammals. Many of them have heretofore been unknown or rarely found among marine mammals. The sheer volume and variety of these diseases is highly alarming.

New diseases being found in dolphins: papilloma, brucellosis, morbillivirus, toxoplasmosis, leptospirosis, botulism, cholera, salmonella.

Toxoplasmosis in polar bears in Svalbard, Norway. Possibly due to warming waters and more diverse array of migratory birds arriving in the island.

Opportunistic Antibiotic Resistant Organisms Cultured from Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins Inhabiting Estuarine Waters of Charleston, SC and Indian River Lagoon (Florida). Paper by Bossart et al.
Bossart et al have found high percentage of dolphins along the southeastern coast of the United States to have epidermal lesions. Same researchers have found lobomycosis in bottlenose dolphins in same area along with orogenital papilloma.

Unusual mortalities of marine mammals in the St. Lawrence Estuary associated with saxitoxin-producing red tide.

Giardia and Cryptosporidium found in North Atlantic and Southern Right Whales.

Streptococci in marine mammals stranded around the British Isles.

There has been first confirmation of Phocine Distemper Virus (PDV) in sea otters in Alaska. There has been a huge decline in the Alaska sea otter population over recent years.
Tracy Goldstein.

Verminous pneumonia found in Saint Lawrence Estuary (SLE) Belugas. This derives from lungworm. One hundred percent of the adult and juvenile populations have this affliction.
Geuix et al.

PBDE concentrations in marine biota and people from North America are the highest in the world and are increasing. PBDE concentrations in marine biota and people from North America are the highest in the world and are increasing. Susan Shaw et al

Distemper has caused epizootics in Lake Baikal, the Caspian Sea and Northern Europe.

Organochlorine pesticides found in Galapagos sea lions.

There are many more and the whole problem is compounded by warming of the climate. Organic pollutants bound in ice are released when the ice melts. As waters warm prey species may decline or disappear. In many diverse locations marine mammals are reported to have thinner layers of blubber meaning that pollutants stored in fat have been released into the blood and organs of the animal.

President Obama has recently called for a massive strengthening of the laws governing production, distribution and disposal of toxic chemicals. The chemical companies will fight it tooth and nail but far stricter standards must be applied - not just to save marine mammals but humans as well.

Top Whale Researcher Calls Japans Scientific Whaling bogus

2009-10-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

Phillip J. Clapham who directs research on large whales at Alaska Fisheries Science Center reported to the Society of Marine Mammalogy in Quebec that Japanese scientific whaling is without merit and a poor screen for continuing commercial whaling.

In addition he said the Japanese consider whales competition for fish and thus want to cull them.

Scientific whaling was originally designed by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) for small sample size. Nothing like the huge takes of Japan. The IWC Protocol allows sale of whale meat to covers costs.

1982 IWC passed moratorium to start in 1986. Japan immediately began scientific whaling.

Japan says they need to kill whales to study their position in the ecosystem. But it’s really because they think whales eat too many fish – too many of “their” fish.

The total number of whales taken by all nations, including Japan, prior to the moratorium was 2100 from 1952 – 1986. Total taken by Japan since 1986 is 12,581 whales and counting. So after the moratorium the number of whales killed skyrocketed due to Japan’s so-called scientific whaling.

The original scientific whaling self-awarded quota started at 300, went to 442, then 852. Japan is now hoping to take humpbacks and has taken fins.

Japan has also taken 200 minkes in Northern Pacific.

The argument that whales “eat too many fish” is preposterous. Not all whales eat fish – most in Antarctica eat krill.
There are so few whales today compared to prewhaling that this idea of whales consuming all the fish is nonsense.
Main predation on fish is other fish.

If you remove top predators from a system you disrupt the system. The real problem is human overfishing.

Japan said Minkes were eating too much krill to allow the blues to recover. So they justified killing minkes.

Then they said the minkes were victims and that humpbacks are driving the minkes out of business. So they now want to kill humpbacks. Anything that justifies their desires.

Clapham told the meeting of nearly 1,000 marine mammal scientists that after 18 years there is no valid scientific data from Japan’s work nor has Japan integrated its work into that of other studies.

Today there are far better non-lethal alternatives to study whales.

A highly interesting turn of events is that Australia will start a Southern Ocean Research Partnership that will employ no lethal methods and will be tied in to other scientific work. What effect will this have on the Japanese Antarctic Whaling fleet operating in the same waters?

Dolphin Kills at Taiji Japan diminished

2009-10-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2009
Hardy Jones

There is some good news regarding the level of slaughter of dolphins at Taiji. While some 80 pilot whales have been slaughtered during the first five weeks on the season this is far below the normal kill rate.

International pressure has been brought about by films such as The Cove. In addition revelations in international meetings that the Japanese government is subjecting its citizens to a major health risk by allowing the sale of toxic dolphin meat have put tremendous pressure on Japan to end the slaughter of dolphins.

Blue Voice will continue to test dolphins and dolphin eaters to show the extreme levels of contamination present in dolphin meat.

We are currently in Quebec at the biennial meeting of the Society of Marine Mammalogy where highly disturbing are being presented about the rise of new diseases among marine mammals and the danger of transmission to humans.

More on this in blog tomorrow.

Zoonosis: Transfer of Disease between Dolphins and Humans

2009-10-11T12:21:00.000-07:00

October 11, 2009. Quebec City, Canada
by Hardy Jones

The following is taken from my hastily scratched notes during the Environmental Health Workshop.
In the early days the Society of Marine Mammalogy bi-ennial meetings were devoted to identification and distribution of whales, dolphins, manatees, and analysis of feces of various species of marine mammal from Patagonia to the Arctic. There were always a few reports on the songs of humpback whales.
At the Cape Town meeting two years ago there was a marked increase in the number of papers on contamination of the marine environment by toxic chemicals and their impact on the health of marine mammals and even humans. It was the first time I’d heard discussion of the concept of zoonosis - the transfer of disease between species, including animal to human animal and human animal to other animal species.
Here in Quebec environmental contamination and zoonosis are among the principal topics in the Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Marine Ecosystem workshop. The bottom line of the discussion is that unprecedented environmental changes are taking place worldwide brought about by urbanization, rapid global transportation and global climate change.
Interspecies disease transfer is not a new concept. AIDS is thought to have arisen through blood contact when a human killed a monkey in central Africa for food. The same is thought to be true for Avian Influenza (bird flu) and swine flu (H1N1).
Trichinella, a member of a genus of parasitic roundworms, causes trichinosis, a disease once feared among those eating pork. Trichinella is now being found in Ringed Seals and possibly in Walrus that have been forced to eat ringed seals due to a decline in their normal prey due to overfishing and climate change. Inuit hunt Walrus for food. It is unknown whether eating walrus constitutes a health threat for those Inuit.
Carlos Yaipen-Llanos of the Peruvian group ORCA, reports an increase in diabetes in northern Peru among fishermen who eat dolphins. The increase in disease incidence does not occur among members of the same village who do not eat dolphin meat. Incidence of diabetes among Peruvians in general is quite low.
Japan was listed among those nations that are hot spots of risk for zoonotic events. Drug resistance has been identified in Japan along with many new pathogens. The combination could lead to a superbug that would not respond to antibiotics.
The conference itself begins October 12.

Belugas and Blues: Whale Watching St. on the Lawrence

2009-10-11T12:04:00.000-07:00

October 6, 2008
Deborah and I arrived in Quebec airport at 1030pm – an hour late. Canadian customs is one of the most annoying systems on earth. The length of lines is usually atrocious, worse than Narita airport at Tokyo. But this time we were at the head of the line and checked through quickly. Ah, in the clear for a decent arrival at our hotel and a good night sleep.
When we reached the final official to whom you normally hand your customs declaration, virtually anywhere in the world, you are into the country. But no, the young lady with the big iron on her hip in a blue para military uniform put us into a special holding area and we wait and wait and wait. Behind us about ten individuals or couples singled out for one reason or another lengthen the line. We at least are at the head of the line.
For an hour and fifteen minutes, as I decline into a hypoglycemic torpor, we wait for someone to come and deal with us. When an official finally addresses us he has many questions. He wants to know if we are working in Canada and if we are going to sell our gear. We talk for a long while explaining that we are attending a conference on marine mammals and are not traveling second-hand camera salesmen. Eventually the pressure of the people behind us sighing and shuffling forces him to let us through. Why the hell would I want to sell my camera? To be fair the customs agent was perfectly courteous.
And from that point on the French Canadians defied their reputations as some of the world’s most unfriendly people. Maybe it is because I speak a bit of French but we have been greeted in an unusually cordial and friendly manner through our entire stay so far.
October 7. It’s raining in the morning as we drive toward Tadoussac. The fall colors are radiant, even in the rain and fog. The hotel Tadoussac is one of those classics you find in National Parks, anyway a mini version of them. The living room with fireplace looks out over the St. Lawrence. Food is excellent and the rooms adequate.
It’s exciting to think we are so close to Belugas, not to mention blue whales, humpbacks, minkes and many other cetacean species. The area looks pristine. It is not. The St. Lawrence is vast but not big enough to handle the flood of pollutants that have come from upstream
We take a commercial whale watch and immediately spot belugas - pretty far away but still my first sighting of this species that has intrigued me so long. I will save a discussion of the survival prospects of these dolphins (though they are called beluga whales they are a species of dolphin) for a subsequent blog. New information will be released at the forthcoming conference.
During the trip we also see minkes feeding right by our boat and blue whales a couple hundred yards from us. It’s October and generally the true whale species would have departed but we’re lucky and they’re still here.
Without exaggeration the St. Lawrence is one of the great whale watching venues on earth.
Once in Quebec at the environmental health workshop I describe my experience whale watching to two young Japanese scientists who were delighted at the prospect of similar encounters the following day.

My First Dolphin Massacre, Iki, Japan

2009-10-04T06:43:00.000-07:00

My First Massacre
The Tragic Story of Dolphins at Iki

In 1978 I first heard of the terrible slaughter of dolphins at Iki Island, Japan. In Hawaii filming my first film on dolphins, I saw a picture in the local paper of hundreds of dolphins dead on a beach on an island off southern Japan.

By that time I was a bona fide dolphin lover, having just spent time swimming with and filming a pod of spinner dolphins off Lanai. The pictures from Japan shocked and horrified me. I could not imagine how people could deliberately kill dolphins.

I went to Iki in 1979 and 1980 as well as in later years, most recently 2006. Some interesting facts emerged from those visits.

Until 1971 dolphins had not been a problem at Iki. But in that year a current broke off from the main Kuroshio Current running from the Philippines past the eastern coast of Japan and changed the distribution of fish around Iki, bringing fish dolphins prey upon. At the same time the Japanese were overfishing their own waters and the Shichiriga Banks off Iki were one of the few areas where abundant quantities of fish could still be found. The dolphins may have been forced to Iki by shortage of fish elsewhere.

By the mid 1970s so many dolphins migrated through the area off Iki that fishermen began to worry they would consume too many fish. Their catch was falling and they were terrified. But overfishing was the culprit (plus pollution in the breeding areas) not dolphins. The Iki islanders brought in a fisheries expert who said there might be as many as 300-thousand dolphins passing by, each eating 20 pounds of fish a day. The fishermen did the math and concluded they were at war with the dolphins – a typical resource war. They began by shooting and harpooning them. Then they learned from fishermen at Taiji the Oi Komi technique of banging on metal poles stuck in the water to make painful sounds that would drive the dolphins into a bay where they would be slaughtered.

In 1978 the first mass murder of dolphins took place. The fishermen, surprisingly, had invited the media to record the event which resulted in the photos syndicated around the world, one of which I saw in Hawaii. Amazingly the fishermen thought that showing how many dolphins were in their fishing grounds would spur the government to action to eradicate the dolphins or to pay a bounty on them. Follow the money!

In 1979 I brought a film crew to Iki. We interviewed the fishermen, went out on their boats but never saw a dolphin. I made a film in which I tried to understand (not agree with) why these fishermen, who were astonishingly decent and hospitable people, would brutally slaughter as many as two thousand dolphins. They did it to protect their livelihood. It was a them or us mentality.

In 1980 I returned with Howard Hall, then a neophyte underwater cameraman, today one of the preeminent marine cinematographers in the world. We went first to Taiji where we turned our cameras on a group of 200 melonheaded whales that had been captured and were slated for slaughter. Fearing a worldwide scandal if the killing were filmed they let the dolphins go.

Howard and I then went on to Iki where we walked straight into a brutal massacre of up to 2,000 dolphins. We shot film. I got it to Tokyo where CBS News processed it and satellited it around the world, causing a massive backlash against Japan.

Dexter Cate, an environmentalist from Hawaii, untied some of the nets holding those dolphins not yet killed. He was arrested, tried and sent to prison but released fairly quickly. His action brought further attention to the situation at Iki.

Late in March of 1980 local and prefectural governments told the Iki Islanders they should not hunt dolphins – at least until things cooled down. There was no hunting until the mid 1980s when dolphin slavers came to Iki with money in hand and incited an oi komo roundup resulting in the taking into captivity of dozens of dolphins and the slaughter of hundreds.

During my most recent visit to Iki I learned that there are no dolphins in the waters around Iki today. There is no consensus as to why. One plausible answer is that water temperatures have changed, removing the prey that first attracted dolphins to Iki during the 1970s. Squid boats now find their catch far to the north of Iki and report there are dolphins in those waters. The fish that have left Iki waters have been replaced by more southerly species as the waters warm. The fishermen are catching tuna for the first time.

The irony is that dolphins for captivity have become so valuable that the Iki Islanders wish they would come back so they could capture and sell them.

At Futo, where dolphins had been hunted for years, the latest hunts occurring in 1999 and 2004, bottlenose dolphins have disappeared and are found on the other side of the Izu peninsula. This certainly has to do with a change in water temperatures. I can’t say the dolphins learned to avoid Futo because they were hunted for decades and always appeared offshore until very recently. But larger forces are at work in the oceans today.

Taiji - No Time to Relent Pressure

2009-09-18T12:15:00.000-07:00

No Time to Relent at Taiji – A Thirty Year Perspective by Hardy Jones, BlueVoice.org

I’ve been going to Taiji since 1980 as well as to other ports where they kill dolphins such as Futo. My first visit to Japan was in 1979 to the island of Iki where a horrific massacre took place before our eyes and more importantly our cameras.

The huge international pressure brought about by the release of our film footage caused the Japanese fishing authorities to withdraw quotas to kill dolphins at Iki and there was no further killing there until the mid 1980s when an emergency permit was granted because dolphin captors from several countries came to the island with money in hand.

When I last visited Iki two years ago I was told there are no longer dolphins in the waters of Iki. I don’t know if they were exterminated or whether warming waters has driven the prey elsewhere. At Iki they would love to have dolphins again – to sell to aquariums.

In 1999 approximately 100 dolphins were captured at Futo, Japan. Some 14 were taken into captivity, others were killed for meat but many were released – probably due to quota restrictions.

THE COVE has caused a huge international outcry and the Japanese are very sensitive to this. Japan is not monolithic on dolphin hunting and whaling. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Tourism all oppose those bloody businesses. But the hugely powerful Japan Fisheries Agency (JFA) prevails and encourages the hunts to continue.

A major fear they have at JFA is that the bloody pictures of the dolphin slaughters will further swing international opinion against whaling which is of far greater importance to them than dolphin hunting.

When the dolphin hunting season opened this year Ric O’Barry brought a busload of reporters to Taiji. No hunting took place while the press was there but very little can be read from that. The dolphin hunters would not kill in front of such a gathering of world media.

Then a group of dolphins and pilot whales was taken. The fifty pilot whales were killed. Some thirty bottlenose dolphins were taken for captivity and the rest let go. This release may or may not indicate a change in policy.

It may help to clarify Taiji’s and the Japan Fisheries Agency’s intentions at Taiji to know that the Japanese use the following words:

Dolphin: iruka - bando iruka for bottlenose dolphins
Pilot whale: ma gondo
Risso’s dolphin: hana gondo

They define the latter two as whales. So they could say they are giving up killing dolphins and still kill pilot whales and other “gondo” in large numbers.

Also, it may be that the Taiji coop is now realizing that they should not kill bottlenose dolphins for meat as they fetch such a high price in the captivity trade. Remember the Iki islanders now wish they had dolphins back and the lesson may not have been lost on the fishermen at Taiji.

Finally, it is not unprecedented for dolphin hunters to release bottlenose dolphins after taking a number of them as captives as at Futo in 1999. Many bottlenose dolphins were released after some taken for captivity and others slaughtered for food.

There is a quota limit on each species which factors into the decision of whether to kill or release so they may release in order to be able to capture more for captivity later in the year.

The Cove has been a bombshell in the faces of dolphin hunters but they may stop killing “dolphins” and turn their blades on “gondo” or simply tone down the kills in the expectation that The Cove will run its course.

The final nail in the coffin of dolphin hunting may be the growing recognition that dolphin meat is highly toxic. The market for it is dwindling. At BlueVoice we continue to test dolphin meat for mercury and organochlorine contamination. We also test human hair for mercury and will soon test the blood of dolphin eaters for organochlorine contamination.
http://bluevoice.org/news_dolphinmeat.php

For now it would be a grave mistake to tell the world that the killing of dolphins at Taiji is over.

Testing Monterey Dolphins for Toxicity

2009-09-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

We set out onto Monterey Bay at 7am each of the last two days into heavy fog. On day 1 the fog lifted and we had magnificent weather on a flat sea with no wind. Yesterday the fog never relented and the swell was higher but expert boat handling allowed us to carry out the work.

The bottlenose here in Monterey Bay live literally in the surf line or just outside it. We frequently saw them ride waves towards shore and then come blasting thru the backside of the waves. It was a joy. And to make the miracle of Monterey Bay even more there were sea lions and sea otters everywhere.

As we continually report the levels of organochlorine and heavy metal toxicity in dolphins worldwide has grown at an alarming pace. This induces immunosuppression in the dolphins opening them to serious disease and reduced reproduction.

In Monterey a non-profit group known as Okeanis (daughter of Poseidon) is testing bottlenose dolphins which have presented wide spread skin lesions, an indication of suppressed immune resistance. These tests are essential to discover the levels of contamination in the dolphins, which act as sentinels of the condition of the oceans because they are feed at the apex of the marine food chain and are coastal dwelling. Once the tox levels are determined the obvious next step is to look for ways of cleaning up the waters that flow into Monterey Bay which lays adjacent to intensively cultivated agricultural areas - obvious sources of pesticides.

I really enjoyed my time on the water with Daniela Maldini, president of Okeanis, Mark Cotter who does the photo IDs with an astonishingly acute eye and Tom Jefferson who does the tissue sampling. These are highly dedicated people doing extremely important work. www.okeanis.org

The work by Okeanis is being carried out under permit by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Whale Watch Boats Help Stop Humpback Hunt

2009-09-01T06:26:00.000-07:00

Photo (c) Lawrence Curtis

We were shocked at the recent meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC)to learn that Greenland is seeking a quota to hunt fifty humpback whales. The IWC didn't vote on the matter but put the decision off until Dec. 8 when a special meeting will be held.

BlueVoice http://www.bluevoice.org has organized whale watch captains to distribute flyers which allow whale lovers to protest the bloody business of killing humpbacks. Humpbacks are highly endangered and very slow and easy to kill. They face challenges from a changing global climate which redistributes their food sources.

The whale watch operations that are distributing our flyers are:
Granite State Whale Watch - gsww@myfairpoint.net www.granitestatewhalewatch.com
Monterey Bay Whale Watch - mbwhale@aol.com gowhales.com
Dolphin Fleet Whale Watch - orders@whalewatch.com www.whalewatch.com
Cape May Whale Watch Research Center - www.capemaywhalewatcher.com
Bar Harbor Whale Watching Company - www.barharborwhales.com

We thank all who are contributing to this effort to save the singing whales.

Hardy Jones

50 Humpbacks Face Death

2009-08-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

DATE SET TO DECIDE HUMPBACKS' FATE
The International Whaling Commission has set Dec. 8 - 10 in St. Petersburg, Florida, USA for a meeting that will decide whether Greenland will receive a quota to kill 50 humpback whales. BlueVoice opposes this quota in the strongest terms. Most people are not aware of this impending slaughter. We are distributing flyers suggesting ways to protest the hunt on whale watching boats around the United States and will soon begin efforts to get state governors to declare humpbacks animals of high cultural and economic importance to their coastal towns. To help us distribute flyers email us at contact@bluevoice.org.

Humpback whales are large brained, highly communicative sentient creatures. We must make the oceans safe for such magnificent creatures.

Hardy Jones

Genetic Links between Toxins and Cancer

2009-08-17T09:15:00.000-07:00

The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) has published a report that describes a genetic link between environmental toxins and bone disease in multiple myeloma, a form of blood/bone cancer. Once considered a disease of the elderly, and a rare one at that, myeloma is increasingly being diagnose in patients under 45. The big question is "why, when many cancers are being reduced in incidence, is myeloma increasing and penetrating lower age groups?

One possible explanation is the increase in environmental toxins. But what is the connection between the toxins and the disease?

Researchers with the IMF gene bank (Bank on a Cure) have identified changes in SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) that are part of DNA sequences. These changes reduce a person's ability to process chemical toxins such as Dioxin and may lead to cancer.

The finding, published in the latest issue of the journal Leukemia, authored by Dr. Brian Durie, chair of the IMF, - http://www.myeloma.org - provide a possible link between myeloma and environmental toxins.

As these toxins rise in the marine food chain we are seeing more cases of cancer in dolphins, types of cancer never before identified in these marine mammals. Dolphins should be seen as sentinels warming us to the dangerous levels of pollution accumulating in our oceans.

If we analyse the status of disease and pollution in dolphins worldwide we can conclude only that a global pandemic exists that now threatens dolphins and more and more is a menace to human health.

Hardy Jones

U. S. Military Says Climate Change A Threat

2009-08-10T12:12:00.000-07:00

An ultraradical left wing group is saying that global climate change poses a security threat to the United States. Oh WAIT! That's actually the National Intelligence Council and the Pentagon saying it. They're concerned that whole regions may become destablized by extreme weather, including drought, violent storms and mass migrations of people - even pandemics. That's not to mention food and water shortages, and catastrophic flooding. The military and intelligence experts who produced this information will testify next month when the Senate addresses new climate and energy legislation already passed by the house.

There are still some nitwits who argue that global climate change has nothing to do with combustion of fossil fuels. They have their paid experts who try to obfuscate the climate debate the way "scientists" paid for by the tobacco companies cast doubt on the dangers of smoking. They claim that the current rise in temperatures is a natural and cyclical event. And they are partially right. But also dead wrong.

The fact is the earth tracks around the sun in an elliptical rather than circular orbit. Earth is now moving closer to the sun and thus will experience warming. Another factor is that the earth wobbles a bit on its axis, not something we'd notice at the individual level, but important in that it tilts the Arctic closer to the sun.

So now is the worst time to add the creation of greenhouse gases to an already warming planet. Do we want to create a perfect storm of climate change?

Dolphins Show Exposure to West Nile Virus

2009-08-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

During the past two years highly alarming reports have appeared showing dolphins have developed resistance to many antibiotics. The work, conducted by Dr. Greg Bossart et al reflect research on dolphins in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina and the Indian River Lagoon, Florida. The research shows that common antibiotics have been ingested by dolphins to the extent that the dolphins have developed resistance to them. This leads to the possibility that super strains of viruses or bacteria could develop among dolphins.

Now Dr. Bossart and his colleagues have detected evidence of Eastern, Western and Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses along with West Nile Virus in at least one of the two dolphin populations. The research team also detected Brucella or brucellosis, a widely feared disease in cattle, caused by ingestion of unsterilized milk or meat from infected animals, or close contact with their secretions. Brucellosis is a zoonose - an infectious disease that can be transmitted from animals, both wild and domestic, to humans or from humans to other animals.

The combination of these two discoveries indicate the possibility of health problems of an alarming nature.

The entire report may be found at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/eaam/am/2009/00000035/00000002/art00002

Hardy Jones

Scientists Study Massive Debris in Pacific

2009-08-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

Marine scientists from Scripps Institute of Oceanography are en route to the middle of the North Pacific for a study of plastic debris accumulating across hundreds of square miles of sea north of the Hawaiian Islands called the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch."

The expedition will study how much debris is collecting in what is known as the North Pacific Ocean Gyre, and how that material - mostly tiny plastic fragments - affects marine life.

The debris is concentrated by circular ocean currents within a vast "convergence zone" roughly midway between Japan and the West Coast of the United States.

"The concern is what kind of impact those plastic bits are having on the small critters on the low end of the ocean food chain," Bob Knox, deputy director of research at Scripps, said after the ship had spent its first full day at sea.

Besides the potential harm to sea life caused by ingesting bits of plastic, the expedition team will look at whether the particles could carry other pollutants.

Pesticide tied to Obesity and Diabetes

2009-08-03T11:09:00.000-07:00

A new report indicates a tie between the widely used pesticide Atrazine and obesity and diabetes. Atrazine, according to Mary Turyk et al, affects insulin signaling and induces insulin resistance. The report says "Atrazine or its metabolites might be introduced into humans through corn syrup and other corn-derived foods. Turke had previously found the odds of developing diabetes is highest in persons with high levels of DDEs and PBDEs. For details: http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/news/diabetes-and-environmental-contaminants

by Hardy Jones

Walter Cronkite and the Whales

2009-07-18T06:23:00.000-07:00

I worked at CBS News from 1968 through 1971, most of the time in the CBS News HQ on West 57th Street in NY. I had the honor and pleasure of working with Walter Cronkite on many occasions, especially during the Apollo 11 moon landing when the whole space unit decamped from New York to Houston.

But my favorite memory of him took place in 1982, long after I'd left the news business. We were on a whale watching boat out of Boston cruising the Stellwagen Banks on a gray day during which numerous humpbacks popped up for a breath of air and then dove. Nothing spectacular but Walter was thrilled. His huge and genuine enthusiasm for the whales was marvelous to see.

On the way back to Boston we saw three humpback whales breaching in tandem almost directly in our path. During the 45 minutes it took us to close with the flying whales one dropped out, leaving two whales still breaching, rising to breathe and then diving for yet another breach. When we were within 100 yards of the whales there was only one breacher but the whale flew out of the water so close to the boat that we all screamed, Walter Cronkite no exception.

Five years later I interviewed him in his well appointed offices at Black Rock, CBS's corporate headquarters on Sixth Avenue and 52nd St. He spoke with great passion and deep knowledge of the environmental issues facing us in those days, which of course have only grown more threatening in the succeeding years.

Walter Cronkite was a great man who really did know "the way it is."

Hardy Jones, July 18, 2009

Eye-to-Eye with Dolphins

2008-08-14T12:22:00.000-07:00

Bahamas 2008 Blog

Extraordinarily Friendly Contacts with Spotted Dolphins

Sat. 8-2. We cast off from Miami at 4pm on the Juliet, a 104-foot, three-masted steel schooner and ran out Government Cut to the open sea passing high price and high-rise condominiums. What a relief to get to sea and what a sea it was – almost flat calm, inky dark when we hit the Gulf Stream.

This is my fiftieth year since crossing the stream for the first time as a fifteen year old, my thirtieth year crossing to be with the friendly dolphins found along the edge of the stream on the Bahamian side.

I’m traveling with my wife, BlueVoice marketing director, Deborah Cutting and nine other members of BlueVoice.org, three of whom are good friends from last year’s expeditions.

Miami has receded on the horizon but not disappeared altogether. Ahead the surface is broken by feeding dolphins. As we draw nearer they jump on our bow - very large bottlenose dolphins, several calves among them. They ride with us, sometimes pressing a tail against the leading edge of the bow, rolling over and looking at us, breaking off and diving only to return to us. From time to time one will roll on its side and look up making eye contact. It’s a thrilling beginning to this year’s voyage.

On the bow I can sense the transition of my mind from daily pressures and petty hassles to one of wonder and deep relation. For me crossing the stream is not merely transit from Florida to the Bahamas. It is entering another universe peopled by fellow sentient creatures in the form of dolphins.

The Juliet is a marvelous boat with an excellent crew. The vessel is astonishingly steady. First night a squall blew up and out the porthole I could see waves of three feet. The Juliet was steady as a rock.

Sunday 8-3.We cruise during the day near Bimini looking for spotted dolphins in a place I’ve been coming since 1989. Late in the day we find them. Swimmers fly off the side of the boat and soon find themselves among the most up close and personal dolphins I’ve ever encountered. They cruise by, half closing their eyes as they go into interlock with one swimmer or another. This is made possible because we approach the dolphins slowly. Of course we can only be with them if they want to be with us. With this approach one dolphin may fix it’s eyes on a diver and if the diver looks back and maintains eye contact an interlock takes place not unlike two lovers.

The dolphin narrows its eyes and appears in a state of ecstasy and if the diver will swim calmly alongside the dolphin a connection forms that is deeply moving. Several swimmers exit the water amazed, those who have had previous experience with dolphins perhaps more so than neophytes. This has been an extraordinarily intimate encounter that lasted more than an hour.

You really have to think what it means that we can come out to these remote areas of the Bahamas and find friendly, curious dolphins who clearly enjoy their encounters with us and much as we do with them. These creatures are in no way lower than we are in intelligence and sentience or right to live. That knowledge gives rise to a whole new morality that includes the needs and wellbeing of animals.

Mon. 8-4. The second day we find a small group of bottlenose skimming along the bottom searching for small fish like flounders and pearly razors. Nurse sharks are feeding nearby. I can’t see any connection between the dolphin’s activities and the nurse sharks.

Tues 8-5. Early morning. Spotted dolphins. Again very close interactions with our swimmers. We then proceed south along the Bimini chain finding wonderful shallow water snorkeling spots. There is a huge variety of life on what appear to be health reefs. Mustard coral colors the reef in the shallow sunny waters. In the crevices are small octopus, moray eels and myriad fish of brilliant color.

It has been my desire to find friendly or accessible schools of dolphins around the world. My first encounters with friendlies came in 1978 north of Grand Bahama when I met a school of spotted dolphins about whom I made a number of films, most recently The Dolphin Defender on PBS, and whom we continue to visit to this day. I’ve found and swum with friendly bottlenose in Rangiroa, with killer whales in Norway and with sperm whales in both the Galapagos and off Dominica.

In 1989, on a tip from treasure diver Bob Marx led me to El Dorado Shoals off Bimini to find another school of friendly dolphins. And now we are heading even further south in the Biminis to find still another school of spotted dolphins we hope will be at least approachable.

Wed 8-6. OCay. This is our first visit to the area and I didn’t want to disappoint our associates who had already been having great encounters at Bimini. I felt real pressure to find dolphins down here. And we did - as many as 30 spotters. They were accessible but did not display the friendliness of the Bimini group. Because the dolphins were approachable but not friendly this developed into an excellent opportunity to look at their behavior. The water is extraordinarily clear and we could see the spotted dolphins plunging their noses into the sand in search of small prey. There were many juveniles in the group and I could see the “crèche” formation where adults are outriders to the calves they try to contain in the middle. Of course the calves test the limits constantly rocketing out of the circle to check on what manner of bizarre creature has entered their space. “Hmm. Very awkward these featherless bi-peds! But they seem to breathe air like us so they’re not fish.”

Thur. 8-7. We encountered spotted dolphins in the morning in very murky water. There was a group of five juveniles – still no development of spots – who charged around us when we were in the water. Their energy was enormous. They looked us in the eye but it was in “fly by” mode.

The weather has been extraordinary. The Bahamas tend to be very calm during August and your major risk is a hurricane. But nothing came across the Atlantic to spoil our party this year.

Just before leaving the shallow sand banks where we usually encounter the dolphins everyone goes overboard for a last swim. The water is thirty feet deep and astonishingly clear. An odd but wonderful sight - all of us floating in the ocean miles from land laughing and talking about the wondrous experience we’ve just had.

I return to home in St. Augustine to learn that my film “The Dolphin Defender” will be playing on NATURE on PBS Sunday night. From the first friendly meeting with dolphins in 1978 I have known a deep sense of privilege and corresponding duty to protect dolphins to the best of my ability. I cannot simply enjoy their company in the Bahamas and ignore their plight elsewhere.

Why Taiji, Japan Fishermen Kill Dolphins

2007-11-21T03:43:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones

Taiji, Japan, Nov 8, 2007

We all search for reasons why the fishermen at Taiji continue to hunt dolphins despite massive international protest and revulsion, and despite the fact that the name of Japan is besmirched by allowing such atrocities.

There are several reasons. One is that the dolphin fishermen make good money doing this, especially from selling the live dolphins they capture. The second is that the Japan Fisheries Agency never retreats, never surrenders any resource. This is the same agency that has said they will allow the Japanese Antarctic Whaling Fleet to hunt Humpback Whales this December. They thumb their nose at the world (actually it’s the middle finger they use).

The third is that those who carry out or give permission for these heinous slaughters simply lack empathy for dolphins. They do not project themselves into the skin and minds of the animals they grab from the sea, confine in nets and then slaughter in front of their families without the slightest care for their pain. Perhaps it is a simple lack of imagination.

Or perhaps their financial self-interest simply governs where they will allow themselves to experience empathy.

If they would suddenly realize that dolphins are sentient, loving, socially close, highly intelligent animals, who probably experience the world pretty much as they do, they would have to quit their dolphin killing business. They would lose money and they would have to admit to themselves the unspeakable pain they have caused. They would have to admit that they are mass murderers.

Taiji Dolphin Slaughter Draws World-wide Condemnation

2007-11-21T03:34:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones

Taiji, Japan Nov. 6, 2007

SEE VIDEO OF SLAUGHTER OF RISSOS DOLPHINS AT BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE. Warning, it is highly graphic.

“This place is now a battlefield,” is how a police inspector assessed the current situation here in Taiji, Japan.

To my mind this is a huge exaggeration but shows the mind set of the people who live in this beautiful, remote and extremely quiet coastal village where local fishermen routinely capture and kill thousands of dolphins.

The dolphin hunters have been stunned by the appearance of wave after wave of filmmakers, environmentally concerned surfers, Hollywood celebs and journalists. On Monday, October 30 they had corralled some thirty pilot whales in the killing bay. As they began their grizzly slaughter 38 surfers paddled into the picture. Cameras rolled and then a remote controlled helicopter flew over bearing a small camera that recorded the butchery. The footage was soon appearing on TV and computer screens around the world.

The fishermen were apoplectic. What they fear and detest most is public exposure and here it is in spades.

For years BlueVoice operated in Taiji alone. Our documentaries appeared on National Geographic and PBS and caused avalanches of protest generated through the BV web site. The fishermen hate us and consistently tried to wrest our video from us. But they were powerless to stop us. Over the years others have joined the fight to save the dolphins here. They are welcome to the fight.

I received a very nice note from one of the surfers who had participated in this demonstration of support for the dolphins:

hi hardy having part of the surf crew into Taiji i appreciate even more the great work you have being doing all these years and we will be sure to put bluevoice out to people. with thanks, howie surfersforcetaceans.org

But this year a critical mass seems to have been reached. Just as the surfers were escorted out of town for crossing the dolphin hunters nets, BlueVoice arrived. The dolphin hunters have not ventured out since we appeared – seven days with no dolphin hunting.

My notion is that the fishermen are reeling. I think they have always imagined that interest in this abomination would melt away. But the reverse is happening. Each time word about the tragic and brutal killings here reaches the world more attention is attracted.

The combination of television and internet exposure of the dolphin slaughter here and mounting evidence of the toxicity of the dolphin meat ought to bring an end to this savagery. BlueVoice will soon publish the results of tests of both dolphin meat and fish caught in the Taiji area. Early results show the dolphin meat is contaminated by both mercury and organic pollutants at levels far exceeding Japanese health standards.

Exposing Toxic Levels in Dolphin Meat Key to Ending Slaughters. bluevoice.org/sections/ocean/doltoxin.shtml

Exposing Toxic Levels in Dolphin Meat Key to Ending Slaughters

2007-11-21T03:14:00.000-08:00

By Hardy Jones

Taiji, Japan Nov. 5, 2007

I’m reporting today from Taiji, Japan, a village I first visited in 1980 when we were able to rescue some 200 false killer whales from butchery.

For nearly three decades I’ve fought to end the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. Filming these unspeakably cruel butcherings and distributing the footage to news media around the world has brought huge embarrassment to Japan. I have placed this footage in four documentaries which have been seen in excess of 100-million people and tens, if not hundreds of thousands of emails and faxes of protest have arrived on the desks of Japanese officials as a result.

Virtually all villages that hunted dolphins have quit doing it. Part of that is international pressure brought about by television and internet exposes of these dolphin atrocities.

Taiji still holds out as the die-hard village that insists that their culture depends upon hunting whales and dolphins.

But the whole equation has changed. The death of dolphin hunting here will come about because revelations of the high toxic levels in the dolphin meat are finally striking home. Levels of mercury and chemicals such as PCBs in samples of dolphin meat taken from local super markets vastly exceed safe levels. But the Japanese government is not enforcing their own laws (which makes you wonder how much we can trust food imports from Japan).

For Japanese content click http://bluevoice.org/sections/dolphins/save_jp.shtml

For interview in Japanese with Japanese mercury expert click http://bluevoice.org/sections/ocean/doltoxin.shtml

For more information on toxics click http://bluevoice.org/toxic_lv2.shtml

But local supermarkets and some market chains have taken dolphin meat off the shelves. Dolphin meat provided by the dolphin killers to schools has now been refused. Overall the demand for whale and dolphin meat is dropping and so is the price.

Progress is slow but it is certain.

Taiji, Japan Councilman Opposes Mercury in School Lunches

2007-11-21T02:58:00.000-08:00

Nov 1, 2007

by Hardy Jones

If you want a hero, I’ve got one for you. My colleague, Sakae Hemmi of Elsa Nature Conservancy, and I interviewed this humble but extraordinary man for two hours yesterday - a man who has virtually written off his political career by simply pointing out that the local school district was feeding mercury-laden dolphin meat to school children.

Taiji is the last holdout among villages regularly hunting dolphins off the Japanese main island. Its people do not want their dirty laundry aired outside of Taiji. It’s understandable – there’s plenty of filth. But Mr. Junichiro Yamashita, an Assemblyman in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, is the first official to come out and take a stand against the utterly idiotic practice of poisoning school children in their formative years with methyl mercury at a time when they are most susceptible to learning disability and neurological problems.

He called the meat served to the students exactly what it is - “toxic waste” - and that is not exaggeration. He has had pilot whale meat obtained in Taiji tested for mercury and PCBs and found the levels shockingly high.

He has had the courage to go before the international press and tell this sordid story of dolphin hunters trying to create a new market for their contaminated goods. And he has his own blog, written in Japanese. The local people hate this.

Mr. Yamashita was told he would not win reelection if he spoke of the dolphin issue. He and his wife have been socially ostracized. She is very disappointed about this but totally supports her husband’s work.

Yamashita-san is a formidable man. He has a huge collection of data on toxic chemicals in the marine environment and how it affects human beings. He uses the internet with great facility over ADSL. This is not the last we will hear from this highly intelligent and dedicated man.

What he has done is put the community’s interests ahead of his own. He has gone out of his way to make things better – something politicians, something all of us could practice more.

Al Gore Despairs Climate Change While Winning Nobel Prize

2007-10-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

Al Gore Wins Nobel Prize but Despairs About Global Climate Change

by Hardy Jones, Executive Director, BlueVoice.org

“I just don’t know what to do,” said the former vice president and Nobel Prize winner for his fight to stem the warming of our planet. He repeated the phrase several times. He had just come to Los Angeles from Boulder, Colorado where he’d been told that melting in the Arctic was proceeding at a rate far faster than predicted.

Mr. Gore was speaking to a gathering of members and friends of Oceana, a Washington based, ocean-oriented environmental organization on whose Ocean Council I sit. http://www.oceana.org

The facts Mr. Gore set out were chilling and his repetition of the phrase “I just don’t know what to do. No one is paying attention,” were deeply troubling to many in the audience.

At the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado Mr. Gore had just been told that in every case where scientists had set out a range of predictions on the rate of melting of the Arctic Sea (and scientists are conservative by nature) the actual results had always come in at the top of the forecast range or above it. He was told that where original forecasts had predicted that the Arctic Sea would melt during the summer within 50 – 100 years, the scientists he had met with had recently lowered their predictions to 30 years and then to 20. Now they are predicting this will happen within six years and could actually happen at any time.

For information on this year’s Arctic ice conditions go to http://www.nsidc.org/news/press/2007_seaiceminimum/20071001_pressrelease.html

Katrina should have shown us that the day of catastrophic weather change is upon us. But Katrina is being treated as an isolated event. Our attention and money are being sucked up by the war in Iraq and the pressures of everyday life. Measures proposed to slow the production of greenhouse gasses are laughably inadequate. While Europe and North America might be able to roll back greenhouse gas production by a few percentage point in a decade, that pitiful reduction will be overwhelmed by output from China (which already equals the United States in greenhouse emissions) and India.

Make no mistake about it – our planet is undergoing wrenching change. It now harms only those on the periphery of world society – Pacific Islanders, Inuits of Alaska and Canada, citizens of Bangladesh; unless you count the people of the lower Mississippi Valley which you should. But soon the rising seas will flow over all low lying land around the world.

You want to talk about a drop in real estate values - how much will coastal properties be worth from Brownsville to Bangor if the sea rises two feet or if people really start believing that such a sea level rise will take place. You want to talk about real estate becoming illiquid? Well, liquid real estate will be truly illiquid - worth zilch.

As someone who lives in Florida only a few feet above sea level this is of concern. Each time I look out at the magnificent and delicate marshes in the St. Augustine area I marvel at their fragile beauty and wonder how long before they are inundated. BTW, the inventory of unsold properties in St. John's County (just south of Jacksonville) is the highest on record.

Algal Bloom and Fish Kill On Florida Beach

2007-09-27T15:08:00.000-07:00

Tears, Hacking Cough, and Dead Fish on High End Real Estate

By Hardy Jones, executive director, BlueVoice.org

Deborah Cutting, shooting stills, and myself on video got out of our car at the site of an unusual (for this part of Florida) fish die-off and red tide event. Immediately our eyes began to burn and we started coughing. I’d heard about these occurrences of respiratory and eye irritation on the Gulf coast of Florida and along the central coast of California but never had the experience myself. It’s really odd to know that a toxin generated by a marine algae is blowing off the water with enough strength to cause respiratory distress in people walking the beaches and living nearby. I still have a scratchy throat hours after leaving the site.

See my blog of August 14, Algae Blooms Threatens Florida’s Gulf Coast for further information.

Some city employees tried to prevent me from filming the effects of this Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) at Houguenot Memorial Park, a beach east of Jacksonville, Florida. That’s a bit bizarre until you realize that attractive beaches constitute much of the life blood of Florida. It reminds me of the town officials who tried to keep shark warnings from being posted in the film “Jaws” so as not to discourage tourists.

The fish at the high water mark were a sad sight. A blown up puffer fish, a needle-fish, mullet, even a baby alligator - How could that be? – all strewn, wide-eyed, mouths agape, like rubbish in a huge crescent at the top of the beach.

We drove north to Fernandina Beach that had been the scene of a similar event yesterday. But there were few dead fish. What was clearly visible were the scraping marks of the earth moving equipment that had just cleaned the beach of the dead fish, though not their odor still hung in the air.

First indication of the red tide had come from a NOAA satellite that detected it September 25. Northeasterly winds are moving the algal bloom south. In a day or so we may not have to travel more than a mile to see the bloom. It could reach St. Augustine that soon.

What has caused this bloom? Well, no one knows the specifics of this one. Experts at the Nassau County Department of Health say correctly that it’s a combination of water temperature, salinity and wind direction. But it’s more than that. These blooms are hugely exaggerated by fertilizers that run off agricultural land carrying nutrients that magnify the bloom. Combine a little global warming and you can get a super-bloom.

Florida real estate values already suffer from the declining national market, fear of hurricanes and rising insurance costs. You can add the threat of algal blooms which make a day at the beach a tearful event.

BTW, these HABs are a global phenomenon, growing more serious with each year.

UPDATE: By Friday, September 28 the red tide had crossed the St. John's County border and continues south.

Cat Litter Threatens Dolphin, Whales and Sea Otters

2007-09-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

Runoff From Cat Litter and Agriculture Pose Deadly Threat to Marine Mammals

By Hardy Jones, executive director, BlueVoice.org

The human footprint on the world is heavy indeed, even among the best intentioned.

Cat litter flushed down toilets by pet owners may be the cause of death for dolphins, whales and porpoises around the coast of Britain. Public health experts have found evidence of a common parasite in dead marine mammals and say cat owners who dump litter boxes into toilets could be the unwitting source.

Cats are essential to the life cycle of the parasite Toxoplasma gondii, and the only animals which shed T-gondii through their feces, which can infect most mammals and birds when it enters the food chain.

In California concern that cat feces have contributed to sea otter deaths has led to warnings on cat litter bags that contents of litter boxes should be disposed of by placing them in a plastic bag and putting them in the trash. Scientists studying a mysterious decline in sea otters off California are now placing blame on cat owners who flush cat feces into the marine ecosystem through their toilets.

Toxic Algae off Los Angeles Killing Scores of Sea Lions

Toxic algaes known as harmful algal blooms (HABs) are a dramatically increasing problem worldwide. See my last blog about how they are affecting Florida.

The current outbreak of toxic algae off Los Angeles Harbor is the most virulent on record. So many sick and dieing seals and sea lions are stranding on the beaches that marine mammal rehabilitation centers have become overwhelmed. As a result some sickened sea lions cannot be taken to treatment centers.

The affected animals suffer seizures and brain damage brought on by the algae’s powerful neurotoxin.

A question I ask myself constantly is “What in hell will it take to generate popular awareness and demand for political action to stop the abominations we are perpetrating against the life support system of our planet? Where is the tipping point where people say “Alright! Enough.” Shouldn’t marine mammals dieing on our most popular beaches be a wake up call? How about air contaminated by gasses put out by algae in the Gulf of Mexico forcing residents and tourists to wear surgical masks off some of Florida’s most beautiful beaches? (See blog of August 9 - 10) That’s not enough to move the political powers that be? It should be enough. But agricultural political clout is strong and measure to improve the situation would be costly.

Epidemic Threatens Dolphins Around Spain
Spain has asked nations around the Mediterranean to help monitor an infection that may become an epidemic threatening dolphins. There was a similar epidemic during the 1990s.

Morbillivirus, a potentially fatal infection, was found in dead striped dolphins -- a protected species -- washed up on beaches in Spain. This same virus causes measles in its human form.

Why Morbillivirus, which is commonly found in the environment, is suddenly killing these dolphins is under investigation.

The warning signs are everywhere.

Horror and Hope in the World of Whales

2007-08-28T04:41:00.000-07:00

A Day at BlueVoice.org
Monday, August 26, 2007
By Hardy Jones

Though the BlueViews Blog will more often than not concern our work in the field I want to give a picture of some of what we do on a daily basis – the issues that cross my desk, the actions we take on involving dolphins and other marine mammals and sometimes observations about the state of the planet in general.

WHALE WATCHERS SEE BEAKED WHALE HARPOONED
First thing this morning I received a report that whale watchers in Japan spotted a Baird’s Beaked Whale off the Northern Island of Hokkaido. To their horror they saw that the whale had been harpooned by a catcher boat. People voiced their pity for the whale. Japan is still hunting whales despite enormous international condemnation but small whale watching companies are trying to turn whales into money in a non-lethal way. BlueVoice.org - http://bluevoice.org/ shows the work we are doing to stop Japan’s horrific plan to hunt humpback whales in the Antarctic this November.

PETITION FRENCH POLYNESIA TO HOLD OFF BLASTING UNTIL HUMPBACK MOTHERS AND CALVES LEAVE BREEDING GROUNDS. We received word from an old friend, Pascal Rohde, in Tahiti, that the local government plans to blast a larger hole in the reef opening into the harbor at Tahiti. This time of year the waters around Tahiti are home to pregnant females and their new born calves. We sent off an email on behalf of BlueVoice’s membership. You can add your own by emailing: Attention Mme la Ministre of Environment and Tourism Maina Sage at email secretariat@tourisme.min.gov respectfully asking them to put off the dynamiting until November when the humpbacks will have left for the Antarctic.

EXCELLENT NEWS – Iceland has announced it will not issue new whale – hunting quotas until market demand for the meat increases. Japan has not issued Iceland an export agreement so a huge market for Icelandic whale meat has evaporated. As you can see, Japan is the lynchpin that propagates whaling far beyond its own shores.

CAMPAIGNS IN PLANNING
In late October or early November we will again send a team to Futo and Taiji, Japan to attempt to stop the slaughter and capture of dolphins that takes place there. We have test results showing extremely high levels of mercury in dolphin meat but this year we will test the fish caught at Taiji and Futo to determine mercury levels. We expect them to be high and publication of these figures at the time of the worldwide concern for food safety will jolt the villages where dolphins are hunted. Exposing the toxic levels of their fish products will threaten the economy of these villages and hopefully bring additional pressure to end the barbaric practice of hunting dolphins. We will be webcasting live from the scene.

Dolphins Control Hammerhead Shark

2007-08-23T13:15:00.000-07:00

July 2, 2007 - BlueVoice Among Dolphins - Week 2
Day 8: Boarded Shearwater at 5pm last night and headed out at 3am. I awoke at 7am and went to the bridge to scan for deep-water animals. None sighted but it’s worth looking and I love the feeling of crossing the Gulf Stream, this vast torrent of warm water which controls so much of the earth’s climate; something I’ve been doing since I was 16 years old.

We reach the dolphins area around 1pm and cruise quite a while finding nothing. But at 4:15pm we find two subgroups in close proximity. They are playing and continue to play as we approach them. We then have over three hours among the dolphins. They do engage us a bit but my feeling was that mostly they were playing in our vicinity. There were senior adults and perhaps seven younger dolphins in ages ranging from two or three years old to perhaps six judging by their spotting patterns. The spotters are gunmetal gray when born and add spots as they age. The two subgroups join and then intense play breaks out among all the twelve dolphins. It’s a privilege to witness the lives of these animals in the wild.

Our traveling companions are delirious from this unique experience, which occurred, in late afternoon through evening in the most beautiful late afternoon light.

A particularly interesting observation was made by several – a single adult dolphin above a group of five young dolphins in the water column. The large dolphin had its mouth open and seemed to be talking to the group of youngsters as though they were students in a classroom. The youngsters were answering back with mouths open and seemed to be talking in a human way. But dolphins do not communicate mouth open so this was something else.

Mouth open can be a threat but it can also be an indication of roughhouse playing.

Later that night we anchored in the Gulf Stream and a few dolphins showed up to grab the flying fish and squid attracted by our boat light. More arrived as the night progressed until there were perhaps 15 dolphins chasing their dinners with exhilarating bursts of speed. Boat Captain Jim Abernathy caught the entire day in a series of 85 wonderful photographs and the groupings will be interesting to study. Overall an astonishing day with a total of more than six hours of close contact with the dolphins.

Day 9: Dove the Sugar Wreck in the morning. As usual it proved to be one of the world’s most beautiful shallow water dives with colors visible due to the shallow depth and myriad fish of many species, including a lion fish – a Pacific fish now proliferating in the Atlantic.

Two days of somewhat rough weather and sparce contact with dolphins.

Day 11. A wonderful SCUBA dive early this morning to 65 feet. Large grouper and reef sharks. Clear water and a crevice to swim through. I emerged stoked. We then hit a massive thunderstorm and deluge of rain. But in late afternoon we hit perhaps fifty dolphins working a ball of yellowtails. This is something I’ve not seen in 29 years out here though I know it is how many marine creatures feed. The dolphins easily outswam the fish and had no trouble taking what they wanted. Some dolphins formed a barrier to escaping fish while the rest attacked vertically. We had 6 – 8 divers in the water and the terrified fish sought shelter near us, clinging to our shoulders, running into bathing trunks, into arm pits and down the fronts of women’s swim suits. The dolphins pursued the fish into their hiding places, in one case threatening to remove the bathing suit of one of the women from our boat. For the yellowtail it was sheer terror and fight to survive. The dolphins never let up reducing the school to a fragment of what it had been by the time we withdrew from he water due to darkness. A few of the yellowtail abandoned the school and streaked off into the deep blue of the sea alone – perhaps to meet up later or perhaps be taken by predators in the night. I looked into the eyes of the fleeing fish and saw sheer terror.

Among our divers delirium reigned. We had been in the midst of a primordial event - as raw as it gets but we were not threatened. We were witnesses within the massacre, untouched.

July 6:. Arrived Riviera Beach, offloaded the boat and said good-bye to the wonderful group of people with whom we had shared this unique experience.

Next year we will seek out other schools of friendly dolphins in the Bahamas. Details at www.bluevoice.org as we finalize plans.

Algae Blooms Threatens Gulf Coast

2007-08-14T05:03:00.000-07:00

The Blob has come to Florida
By Hardy Jones
August 9 and 10, 2007

The federal government spends $2-billion dollars a year to subsidize an industry which causes massive environmental damage to a vast area of Florida and its coastal waters, destroying fisheries and now threatening real estate values and the tourist industry on the Gulf Coast. The Feds (and that means out tax dollars) then spend billions of dollars more to try to alleviate this unfolding catastrophe. The industry receiving our tax dollars in such a profligate abundance is sugar – always referred to in Florida as “big sugar” because of its huge political clout.

Of course sugar can be grown more economically in nations that really need a sugar industry. But vast swaths of Florida north and south of Lake Okeechobee have been subjugated to this crop and the pesticides and fertilizers required to grow it. The consequences for other parts of the state are calamitous.

On August 9 and 10 I drove around, flew over and traveled by boat around Lake Okeechobee, down the Caloosahatchee River, through Pine Island Sound and Red Fish pass and out into the Gulf of Mexico, returning through San Carlos Pass. At Lake O I saw mountains of contaminated muck just dredged from drought-lowered lake, endless fields of sugar cane and ultimately fifty square miles of the Gulf covered in an algal bloom that seems on the verge on developing into highly toxic red tide.

Greg Rawl, an independent water consultant, and Andy Powell, head of a construction company that had just finished demucking parts of Lake O, guided me along the Calahoosahatchee pointing out the vast engineering works that have distorted the historical flow of water from the big lake, creating land dry enough for residential housing, farming and other human enterprise.

Lake O, today suffering through one of its worst droughts in memory has seen its water levels drop to their lowest levels since recording began in 1932 – 8.8 feet at on July 1. The low water levels exposed large areas of the lakebed and made it easy to bring conventional earth moving equipment in to remove two million cubic yards of sludge that had accumulated on the natural lake bottom. The idea is that by removing the muck they will restore natural sandy bottom that will support move natural vegetation and fish life.

At first they thought they would give the sludge to farmers but then learned a lot of it contains pesticides, arsenic and other heavy metals so piles of the stuff just sit around the circumference of the lake. No one is quite sure what to do with these mounds. Some have suggested they may spontaneously combust, eliminating the problem on the ground but transferring it to the air.

The other great problem of Lake O and waters downstream is that fertilizers used in agriculture and droppings from cattle have rendered a phosphorous poor environment, to which plant life had adapted, into a phosphorous rich water system which promotes the intrusion of exotic vegetation such as cat tails which wipe out the native flora. Removing the muck removed some of the phosphorous.

Nitrogen also adversely affects the waters of Southern Florida, fresh and marine.

Friday August 10
I met Greg at his Cessna 182 and we took off heading back over the land we had seen by road the previous day. Flying conditions were ideal, the sky a blazing blue, few Cumulous clouds in the distance – not even hinting they might produce rain. From the air you get a sense of the massive engineering that has gone into bending nature’s design to something more amendable to human demands such as agriculture, housing and marinas.

There’s a lot of algae on the lake and the area devoted to sugar cane is staggering.

We then flew the Calahoosahatchee past Fort Myers over Pine Island Sound and out into the Gulf. We flew for miles north and south seeing blotches, rafts and strands of an algae called Tricodesmium covering fifty square miles of water, some of it reaching with two miles of the shoreline of Sanibel Island.

In the afternoon Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah Joined us on a boat provided by Sanibel – Captiva Conservancy Foundation and we ran through Pine island Sound, and through Red fish pass on the course we had followed by air earlier in the day. Greg spoke of the days when one of the world’s largest Tarpon fishing tournaments took place near here. No more – the tarpon are gone because of poor water quality.

We easily found the algae Tricodesmium matted into huge rafts on the surface of the bay and when we had cleared Red Fish Pass and run a couple miles out to see we hit the heavy concentrations.

We also found an algal form called Lyngbia. Gary and Ray were appalled at the size and density of the algal blooms and both felt a red tide would follow bringing fish kills such as happened last year.

They’ve been fighting to improve waters quality in the area for years and lately have achieved some successes. They have strong allies now – owners of very expensive homes who have seen their property values drop as masses of Red Tide accumulate on the beach, giving off noxious odors and a gas byproduct which stings the eyes and burns the lungs. And tourists are now abandoning the lovely islands along Florida’s Gulf coast because of he foul waters.

How bad do thing have to get before societies take remedial action. It would seem that if a harmful algae was growing out of control producing noxious gasses harmful to large numbers of people that citizens and government would act to restore a healthy eco-system. But that doesn’t seem to be the way humans work.

What has happened in Florida as in so many other places in the world is that immediate profit prevails over long-term interests. The huge federal subsidies to Florida Big Sugar have led to the destruction of habit supporting fisheries which has in turn contaminated fish and driven the price of fish in general up several fold. Who hurts from that – the fishermen and the consumer. Not to mention all the other animals who depend on fish for food, dolphins for example.

And by the way, there is an algal bloom on the east coast of Florida off Palm Beach threatening plants, deep water reefs and marine life.

Meanwhile the Bush administration has had The Everglades removed from the UNs World Heritage Committee endangered list and the president has announced he will veto a $21-billion water preservation bill that contains $2-billion dollars for Everglades restoration.

Return to Dolphin Friends

2007-08-06T17:58:00.000-07:00

June 24, 2007 - BlueVoice Among Dolphins - Week 1
By Hardy Jones
“North of Grand Bahama on the Little Bahama Banks there’s a place I’ve been going for more than twenty years and up there you’ll find dolphins that you can spend hours with. They’re just incredibly friendly and curious.”

Those were the words of treasure diver Bob Marx in 1978 and they propelled me into a new universe of adventure, discovery and just plain mind-blowing encounters with dolphins in the sea 40 miles north of Grand Bahama Island. So as I sit here today waiting to clear customs at West End I can say “North of Grand Bahama Island there’s a place I’ve been going for more than 29 years and I have found Atlantic spotted dolphins that I could spend not hours but weeks and months with. They have been incredibly friendly and curious.” I’ve come to know many of them personally and have known one of these dolphins for 28 of the 29 years.

Day 1: In a few minutes we’ll head north to the dolphin grounds. There are eight BlueVoice members aboard as well as Deborah Cutting, my wife and BV director of marketing, who put the complicated logistics of this whole venture together.

Within three hours I spot a pair of frigate birds, often a good indicator of dolphins, and sure enough there are several, feeding and playing in the water below. We spend the next five hours with them. At first the dolphins just swim past us. We’re not bothering them but neither are we interesting them. This changes late in the day as the sun moves toward the horizon and the warm, saturated colors that filmmakers call “magic light” emerge. Now the dolphins are playing games like pass the seaweed. Our group has learned that dolphins can sometimes be interested by seaweed so every piece of Sargassum in the area is grabbed and presented to the dolphins, who to the delight of everyone, swim over and take the offerings of the divers. In several cases the dolphins complete the circuit – take the sea weed, pass it from their rostrum to pectoral fin, to tail fin, to another dolphin. The circuit is judged complete when that dolphin returns the seaweed to the person who had offered it.

Our fellow passengers, many of whom are true novices when it comes to being at sea and for whom this is certainly their first experience with dolphins in the wild, are thrilled but have no clue that this is not an every day occurrence.

Day 2: we have short encounters with dolphins in the morning but then nothing so we move down to the sugar wreck, truly one of the loveliest “small” dives in the world. Strewn across the bottom in only fifteen feet of water are the remains of a steel Molasses carrier that sank in the 1870s, The wreck is a riot of colorful fish, phalanxes of barracuda, sting rays, parrot fish, hordes of yellow grunts, blue runners and countless other fish. The water was running strong off the banks in what the Bahamians call an “off mon” current. Visibility was low in the green water but often it is crystal clear when the “on mon” current

Last night I played “Dolphin Adventure” for the passengers and crew. There were hoots of laughter at my long 70s hair-style. I felt sadness for all the years that have passed and the innocence of those days. And I marveled at how many times I’ve come out to these remote shallow banks to be with the spotted dolphins. But I feel that so much more is behind me than ahead of me.

My relationship with these dolphins is still a thing of wonderful innocence.

Day 4 - Wednesday. We had lots of ins-and-outs with the dolphins today. Spotters in the morning. Bottlenose later and then spotters again. No prolonged contact but lots of opportunities for people to take pictures. A massive hammerhead was found with a group of mothers and calves. When our eight divers entered the water the hammerhead headed off. It passed the Shear Water and I was awed by its size. It looked like a whale shark. What was it doing? Stalking one of the calves? It certainly took off when the divers entered the scene and had clearly been dominated by the dolphins prior to our arrival.

Wendy’s report of the hammerhead incident. During mid- afternoon Wendy sighted a great hammerhead, estimated by several at being 13 – 14 feet in length and having a huge girth, being held over the bottom by four dolphins, two fully mature and two younger and smaller. The dolphins were swimming over the hammerhead and somehow controlling a beast many times their size and weight. The divers’ appearance broke the relationship. The shark proceeded away from the dolphins and humans. On the periphery of that group there were two other larger dolphins. The dolphins seemed completely in control.

Day 5: weather rough, cloudy and choppy. Rained often. Plenty of white caps. Too strong to go to the WSR. Several people snorkeled. But it was an uncomfortable day. We headed for Florida early and en route John spotted some false killer whales. The seas were quite rough but we stayed with them for a quarter of an hour. This is not a rare species but it is unusual to see them because they are deep water animals. I love imagining what goes on out in the Gulf Stream but we normally cross at night so we don’t see some of the big marine mammals out there.

Day 6: We cleared customs back into the USA at 9am.