wildlife

Top L: killing whales. Top R: Arrested... New Zealander Peter Bethune is shielded from view. Bottom L: Japanese protesters rallied against Pete Bethune in Tokyo. Bottom R: Whale meat sashimi dish is served at a restaurant near Wada Port in Minamiboso, Chiba, Japan.

 read more »

Threatened. L: the red squirrel will be lost within the next 20-30 years unless effective action is taken. This poor fella's just heard the news. R: the pine marten. One of England’s rarest, & cutest, mammals.

A pair of giraffes nuzzle as they stand in the bush near Koure, Niger. The IUCN lists west African giraffes as an endangered species.

A giraffe from Africa's most endangered giraffe subspecies. Their numbers have quadrupled to 200 since 1996, an unlikely boon experts credit to the impoverished government keen for revenue that has enacted laws to protect them, a conservation program that encourages people to support them, and a rare harmony with humans who have accepted their presence.

Climate change is robbing polar bears of their habitats, & is the greatest threat to their survival.

Polar bear products are used for furs, rugs and taxidermy. Melting sea ice in Arctic will kill thousands of bears in coming years; US says commercial trade must not be allowed to make the situation worse.  read more »

(quote)

Responses to 'Is the Anti-Whaling Activist Who Boarded a Japanese Whaling Ship a Pirate?' Jim Says: The Japanese are trespassing and poaching within a known whale sanctuary. What type of research results in the SALE of WHALEMEAT to consumers - this is profiteering by the Japanese and they are the actual pirates? AnimuX Says: If Japan prosecutes Pete Bethune, he will become the political prisoner of a tyrannical government that has even violated the basic human rights of its own citizens (remember the Tokyo Two?) in order to support the whaling industry. Not to mention the fact that the captain of the ship that Pete boarded, Shonan Maru 2, is the same man who rammed and destroyed his vessel, Ady Gil, nearly killing Bethune and 5 members of his crew. If anything, the captain and crew of the Shonan Maru 2 should be apprehended and charged by New Zealand authorities for attempted murder.

As for the flawed concept that Japan is doing “legal” research in the Southern Ocean:  read more »

Legal expert said Bethune's boarding is not illegal under international law. Under marine law, the whaler, the one to accept or refuse citizen’s arrest, has obligation to see Pete Bethune safely back to land. Here are some questions: does the subject of a citizen's arrest have the right to imprison the citizen who delivers the arrest? The whaler did not allow journalist to speak to Pete Bethune. Does Bethune, victim of Jan. 6 collision and the one delivering citizen’s arrest, have the right to see or to speak to someone, such as an attorney for legal help, his chosen interpreter for language help, etc. etc.?

(quote)  read more »

*update* Ady Gil rammed by Shonan Maru No. 2, view from MV Bob Barker, sitting parallel to the Ady Gil before the incident. Ady Gil rammed by Shonan Maru No. 2, view from MV Bob Barker, sitting parallel to the Ady Gil before the incident. 6 crewmembers, four from New Zealand, one from Australia, and one from the Netherlands, were immediately rescued by the crew of Bob Barker. Ady Gil skipper Pete Bethune told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that one of his crew had broken ribs but it was a “miracle” that no one had died. “When they were about 40 meters away they suddenly veered to starboard and cut off the front three or four meters of my boat and sheared it in half,” he said. “If anyone was in the forward sleeping quarters they would be dead.”

(quote)

Skipper Pete Bethune tells of 'murderous' brush with death  read more »

Shall we protect Nature as it is,
reserve some land, ocean, resources
for coming generations, for our children’s children?
Shall we, or shall we not? In words, or in action?

(quote) Approval of oil drilling in Chukchi Sea fails to include recent science and violates laws that protect clean air, water, and ocean resources. Oceana, together with Arctic communities and other conservation groups filed a legal challenge in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to the Minerals Management Service’s (MMS) approval of Shell Offshore Inc.’s proposed exploration drilling in the Chukchi Sea. The groups argue that MMS and Shell have not complied with federal laws that require thorough analysis of potential impacts and protections for clean air, water, and marine life.  read more »

Green sea turtles, whose ancestors evolved on land and took to the sea to live about 150 million years ago, are one of the few species so ancient that they watched the dinosaurs evolve and become extinct.

(quote)

World's biodiversity crisis needs action, says UN. With species extinction running at about 1,000 times the "natural" or "background" rate, some biologists contend that we are in the middle of the Earth's sixth great extinction - the previous five stemming from natural events such as asteroid impacts.

The United Nations has launched the International Year of Biodiversity, warning that the ongoing loss of species around the world is affecting human well being. Eight years ago, governments pledged to reduce the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010, but the pledge will not be met.  read more »