Saving Seafood

‘Minke whales for dinner’: Norway’s controversial whale hunt is still on

March 11, 2021 — Norway plans to kill up to 1,278 minke whales this year, according to a recent announcement made by the country’s fisheries ministry. This is the same quota as the previous two years, although whalers only killed 503 common minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) in 2020, and 429 in 2019.

“Norwegian whaling is about the right to utilize our natural resources,” Odd Emil Ingebrigtsen, Norway’s minister of fisheries and seafood, said in a statement in Norwegian. “We manage on the basis of scientific knowledge and in a sustainable manner. In addition, whales are healthy and good food, and Norwegians want minke whales on their dinner plate.”

In 1982, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued a global moratorium on commercial whaling, which went into effect in 1986. But Norway, despite being a member of the IWC, formally objected to this ruling, and has continued to kill whales every year since 1993.

While proponents argue that Norway’s whaling program is sustainable, some scientists, conservationists, and animal welfare advocates disagree, arguing that it is unsustainable, unethical, and runs counter to the country’s conservation goals.

Read the full story at Mongabay

Humpback whale population on the rise after near miss with extinction

October 22, 2019 — Intense pressure from the whaling industry in the 20th century saw the western South Atlantic population of humpbacks diminish to only 450 whales. It is estimated that 25,000 whales were caught over approximately 12 years in the early 1900s.

Protections were put in place in the 1960s as scientists noticed worldwide that populations were declining. In the mid-1980s, the International Whaling Commission issued a moratorium on all commercial whaling, offering further safeguards for the struggling population.

A new study co-authored by Grant Adams, John Best and André Punt from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fishery Sciences shows the western South Atlantic humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) population has grown to 25,000. Researchers believe this new estimate is now close to pre-whaling numbers.

The findings were published Oct. 16 in the journal Royal Society Open Science.

Read the full story at Science Daily

KATHLEEN SAVESKY: Working together, we can save the North Atlantic right whale

July 31, 2019 — Last century, governments around the world came together to reduce commercial whaling, culminating in 1982 with the International Whaling Commission’s worldwide moratorium on that cruel and outmoded practice. Since the ban, cooperation among governments, conservationists, researchers and others have led to impressive recoveries for many threatened whale populations worldwide.

Today, just off our shores, Mainers face another historic threat to marine life that will require the same kind of commitment and creativity to solve.

Unfortunately, the North Atlantic right whale, a species whose ancient migratory pathway leads through Maine’s waters, is in crisis. The fate of this species, of which an estimated 411 individuals and fewer than 100 breeding females remain, depends not only on increased action from the governments of the U.S. and Canada, but also on the cooperation, coordination and creative collaboration of the fishing industry and responsible conservationists.

Read the full opinion piece at the Bangor Daily News

Japan Whalers Discuss Plan to Resume Commercial Hunt July 1

January 24, 2019 — Japanese whalers discussed plans Thursday to resume their commercial hunting along the northeastern coast on July 1, for the first time in three decades.

Their preparation follows Japan’s decision in December to leave the International Whaling Commission, abandoning decades-long campaigning in hopes of gaining support within the organization that has largely become a home for conservationists.

The Fisheries Agency said whalers in six Pacific coast towns, including Taiji, which is known for dolphin hunts, were expected to bring five vessels to form a joint fleet beginning July 1, one day after Japan formally withdraws from the IWC.

Taiji is leading the effort as a traditional whale town and will contribute one vessel to the fleet that will catch minke whales. Exact locations and hunting plans will be decided based on results of research operations planned by the end of June, said Shigeki Takaya, a Fisheries Agency official in charge of whaling.

Catch quota and hunting schedule are yet to be decided. Japan’s national broadcaster NHK said the coastal whaling will start from Hachinohe in northern Japan, or Kushiro, a main whaling hub farther north, on the island of Hokkaido. Each vessel would then head southward to Chiba, near Tokyo, while making several stops along the coast before heading back to Kushiro for more hunts later in the year, NHK said. Experts are deciding the sustainable catch quota using the IWC method. Japan plans to remain as observer of the IWC.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at U.S. News

Japan prevented from resuming commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean after failed IWC bid

September 17, 2018 — Japan will not be able to resume commercial whaling in the Southern Ocean after losing its bid at the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Overnight the commission held a meeting in Brazil where Japan’s proposal that would have opened the door to commercial whaling was defeated 41 to 27.

In response, Japan is threatening to quit the commission.

It has been arguing that whale stocks have recovered sufficiently for the ban to be lifted.

Japan’s Agriculture Minister Masaaki Taniai has warned his country will consider its options, if different positions and views cannot coexist.

“Then Japan will be pressed to undertake a fundamental reassessment of its position as a member of the IWC,” he said.

Read the full story at ABC News

How Whale Poop Could Counter Calls to Resume Commercial Hunting

August 29, 2018 — Before whales dive into the darkness of the deep ocean they often come to the surface and release a huge plume of fecal matter—which can be the color of over-steeped green tea or a bright orange sunset. When Joe Roman, a conservation biologist at the University of Vermont, saw one of these spectacular dumps in the mid-1990s, he got to wondering: “Is it ecologically important? Or is it a fart in a hurricane?”

Roman and other researchers have since shown whale excrement provides key nutrients that fuel the marine food chain, and that it also contributes to the ocean carbon cycle. These important roles are now influencing scientific and economic arguments for protecting whales, at a time when calls for a resumption of whaling are growing. “The scientific community is coming to understand a new value of whales: their role in maintaining healthy and productive oceans,” says Sue Fisher, a marine wildlife consultant at the nonprofit Animal Welfare Institute. “We are beginning to see governments use this rationale to justify measures to protect whales.” But as the International Whaling Commission (IWC) prepares for its biennial meeting next month, the ecological services whales provide are set to split the gathered countries—with an unknown outcome for the whales.

Whale poop’s importance is nothing to sniff at. In a 2010 study Roman’s team found whale defecation brings 23,000 metric tons of nitrogen to the surface each year in the Gulf of Maine—more than all the rivers that empty into the gulf combined. This nitrogen fertilizes the sea by sustaining microscopic plants that feed animal plankton, which in turn feeds fish and other animals including the whales themselves. Studies have found similar effects elsewhere, and with other nutrients found in whale feces. And when they migrate, whales also redistribute nutrients around the globe. By moving them from higher latitudes, Roman says, the giant mammals could be increasing productivity in some tropical waters by 15 percent.

By stimulating the growth of microscopic plants called phytoplankton, whale scat may also help limit climate change. These tiny aquatic plants remove carbon from the atmosphere and carry it deep into the ocean when they die. Research in the Southern Ocean showed the iron defecated each year by some 12,000 resident sperm whales feeds phytoplankton that store 240,000 more metric tons of carbon in the deep ocean than the whales exhale. This means that, on balance, whales help lock carbon away.

Read the full story at the Scientific American