Human Pollution Causes Cancer in Wildlife

Cancer in wildlife caused by human pollution is on the rise, according ot Newsweek. Our impact on the environment is leading to health problems in wild animals, especially considering much of our trash contains carcinogens. A report titled “Wildlife Cancer: a Conservation Perspective” published in Nature Reviews Cancer found “mounting evidence of human’s contribution to carcinogenesis in wild-animal populations across the globe, thanks to man-made toxins dumped into wildlife’s natural habitats.”

» See also: Do Hot Dogs Cause Cancer? Jersey Residents Demand Warning Labels

Last year, it was discovered that Tasmanian devils may become extinct in 20 years due to an infectious cancer called devil facial tumor disease, but many other species are also experiencing increased rates of cancer. For example, 17 percent of San Francisco’s famous sea lions die from renal failure or paralysis caused by genital carcinoma. A majority of these sea lions’ bodies contained high concentrations of PCBs and DDT. The report’s lead author Denise McAloose warns:

I am concerned that we as humans continue to impact the environment quite significantly,. As the human population continues to grow and utilize resources and damage the environment, I do believe that we will continue to see the emergence of disease, including cancer in wildlife.

If pollutants are causing cancer in wildlife, imagine what it is doing to the human population as well.

SEA LIONS OF NEW ZEALAND!INFORMATION AND CAMPAIGN UPDATES

Our sea lion is a champion deep-sea diver, reaching depths of 600 metres and clocking up dives of up to 12 minutes.

NZ Sea Lion Facts
Find out how many sea-lions have been killed this season by clicking here.
Repeatedly hunted throughout history for their skin, meat & blubber, New Zealand sea lion populations were on the verge of extinction by the 1800s.
Most New Zealand sea lions live in the sub-Antarctic islands.
Sea lions travel huge distances for food – up to 175km from the coast.
Sea lions once ranged throughout the North, South and Chatham Islands, but numbers have been drastically reduced due to hunting.
Only recently have sea lions started breeding on the Otago Peninsula.
In the last 10 years, squid trawl nets have killed between 14 and 123 sea lions every year.
In 2001, sea lion exclusion devices (SLEDs) were introduced into the squid trawl fishery to assist sea lions to escape from nets. However, the effectiveness of SLEDs in increasing sea lion survival is unknown.
As well as holding the title as the deepest diver amongst sea-lions, these marine mammals can lay claim to a less trumpeted title - as one of the world's most endangered sea-lions.

The population demise of our sea-lions began in the 1800s, when they fell victim to sealers’ clubs bringing them to the brink of extinction and leaving only scattered populations on remote sub-Antarctic islands.

These populations have not been able to recover due to disease and continued pressure from the modern squid fishery, as many sea lions are killed as by-catch in nets.

Today, New Zealand sea lions are estimated to number between 10,200 and 13,600 individuals, including just 5000 adults. Most breeding (86%) occurs on the Auckland Islands.

Such concentrated populations of nursing mothers make these sea lions particularly vulnerable to epidemics such as the devastating bacterial infections that swept through these populations in 1998, 2002 and 2003. The worst of these events in 1998 killed more than 50% of pups and 20% of the adult population.

Over the last eight years, the number of pups produced has declined significantly – thought to be a knock-on effect from a decline in the number of breeding adults.

The seal specialist group of the Species Survival Commission (a group of 7000 international specialists) of IUCN (the World Conservation Union), ranks the New Zealand sea lion as a vulnerable threatened species (see http://www.redlist.org


Threats : Trawlers
As well as suffering a huge population blow from these recent epidemics, each year dozens of sea lions die in the gigantic trawl nets of the Auckland Islands squid trawl fishery. The nets resemble giant socks, with openings between 4 - 60 metres high and stretching 150-200 metres in length.

Since the squid fishing season coincides with the sea lions' breeding season, many of the victims are pregnant and nursing mothers. Unborn pups follow the fate of their pregnant mothers, and pups are left to starve onshore, significantly increasing the death toll from trawl fishing.

In 2006, all females captured in the squid trawl fishery had recently given birth and were pregnant again. And in the 2008-09 season, scientists on New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands reported a 31% decrease in the amount of sea-lion pups being born, heightening fears about the impact of by-catch deaths.

In the last 10 years, more than 700 sea lions are estimated to have been killed in the sub-Antarctic squid trawl fishery alone – this does not include pups on shore and unborn babies. And these are the recorded deaths from the squid fishery alone - there are other fisheries in the Auckland Islands area that also catch sea lions, but they are not restricted under current fisheries management.

Save our sea lions: what is being done.
Sea Lion Distribution



Zoom in
IN 1995, a Marine Mammal Sanctuary (MMS) was established in the Auckland Islands to help protect sea lions. Stretching for 12 nautical miles from nearest shore, this sanctuary will allow the government to implement fishing regulations in these areas.

In 2003, an overlapping no-take marine reserve was establishing in this area, giving further protection to our sea lions. However, neither the marine reserve nor the marine mammal sanctuary covers the whole range of any NZ sea lion.

Forest & Bird believe that the MMS should be extended so that it protects the areas where the only breeding strong hold of NZ sea lions are found.

The sanctuary should be extended to the 500m continental shelf edge. The fishing method of jigging, which does not harm sea lions, would still be allowed.

Extending the sanctuary would not only increase protection for New Zealand sea lions, but also enhance the protection of 52 breeding marine bird species – many of which are listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. It would also protect New Zealand fur seals, southern elephant seals and threatened southern right whales, all of which forage and/or breed around the Auckland Islands.

Forest & Bird also supports:
Establishment of a marine mammal sanctuary around the Campbell Islands to protect another small breeding population of sea lions.
Reduction of sea lion deaths to zero in all fisheries. (This season, 113 sea-lions are legally allowed to be killed as by-catch - this is 40% more than the previous year. For a pictorial representation of this click here. Update: A 30% decrease in the amount of sea-lion pups for this season has prompted fisher ).
Transfer of squid quota in the Auckland Islands trawl fishery to other areas or to jig fisheries, which do not harm sea lions.
Current Policies
Ministry of Fisheries: Operational Plan. Each year an Operational Plan for the Auckland Islands squid trawl fishery (SQU6T) is set under the Fisheries Act to avoid, remedy or mitigate the effects of the fishery on New Zealand sea lions. This plan establishes an allowable ‘kill quota’ or number of sea lions allowed to be killed by the fishery each year. Submissions on the 2008-09 Operational plan are due on 31 October 2008
- Draft SQU6T Operational Plan
- F&B Submission on the 2008-09 Operational Plan (Word Document)
The Department of Conservation is working on a new policy to protect New Zealand sea lions. This would take the responsibility of protecting sea lions out of the direct control of the Minister of Fisheries and into the hands of the Minister of Conservation (with the agreement of the Minister of Fisheries). Forest & Bird submissions are as follows:
Submission by Forest & Bird on: Draft population management plan for New Zealand sea lion (Dec 2007)(PDF)
Submission by Forest & Bird on: Draft New Zealand sea lion species management plan: 2007-2017 (Dec 2007)(PDF)
Campaign Details
Branches working on this campaign
DunedinSouthlandMore campaigns in this region
National
For further details visit:http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/what-we-do/campaigns/save-our-sea-lions

Why Boycott the 2010 Winter Olympics?

Why Boycott the 2010 Winter Olympics?
Re-posted from My Space Blogs-Captain Paul Watson


10 Questions and Answers on the 2010

Winter Olympics Boycott to stop the



Canadian Seal Hunt

Q#1: Why choose the 2010 Winter Olympics? What connection is there with the Olympics and the slaughter of seals?

A: The connection is that the 2010 Winter Olympics is an international event hosted by Canada and this provides an opportunity to focus international attention on the slaughter of seals on the Canadian East Coast Canada is ignoring the majority of Canadians opposed to the seal slaughter but can they ignore the rest of the world?

Today, where we are in the midst of the largest extinction of species in over 65 million years, people's priorities continue to be defined by social circuses. The Olympics is the largest circus of all. It makes sense to utilize an international circus to focus attention on issues far more important than sports.

Q#2: Will the boycott be effective?

A: Back in 1986, a boycott was called for the World's Fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The event was called Expo 86. The protest was called because of the government of British Columbia's policy of shooting wolves from helicopters. In response to the international protest and bad publicity, the British Columbian government canceled the wolf hunt.

Will it stop the Olympics? Of course not but a call for a boycott as and will continue to get the attention of the Canadian government

Q#3: The Olympics are to be held on the West coast of Canada. What has this got to do with the East coast seal hunt?

A: Canada is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics and Canada is also responsible for the escalated quotas for seals on the East Coast. Additionally there are plans to have a commercial slaughter of harbor seals and sea lions on the coast of British Columbia The seals are being killed on both coasts. Every year, salmon farmers slaughter hundreds of seals and sea lions to protect the exotic predators they have introduced into the Pacific eco-system. Seals and sea lions belong on the coast of British Columbia and Atlantic salmon do not.

Q#4: Newfoundlanders are quick to respond to the seal protests with the accusation that Sea Shepherd does not protect other species like fish. "Where were you when the cod were being over-fished?" is the common complaint. Where was Sea Shepherd?

A: This is one of the most amusing accusations against us because it reveals how people and the media pass judgment without research.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was warning both Canada and Newfoundland about the excessive over-fishing and the consequences if it was not brought under control. This was back in the earl 80's. In 1992, Captain Paul Watson brought his concerns about the cod to the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Brazil where he was told by Newfoundland Premier Frank Well's to mind his own business.

In 1993, Captain Watson took our ship the Cleveland Amory to the Nose and the Tail of the Grand Banks where they obstructed and chased Cuban and Spanish drag trawlers from the area. In response, Captain Watson was arrested and charged with Mischief by the Canadian government for interfering with foreign drag trawl operations. He was put on trial in 1995 and he was acquitted despite the Canadian and Newfoundland government's spending over three million dollars in their attempts to convict him.

Since then, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has developed a plan to drop "net-rippers" on the bank to discourage destructive bottom trawling.

In fact the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society actually has more projects involving fish conservation than seal conservation. The accusation that we don't do anything to protect fish is bogus.

Q#5: Former member of Parliament, John Efford, has said to the media that the story of "head hockey" is a lie and a fabrication by Sea Shepherd to libel the sealers of Newfoundland What is "head hockey" and what evidence do you have that this takes place?

A: On page 74 of the book "Over the Side Mickey" - a sealer's first hand account of the Newfoundland seal hunt by Michael J. Dwyer, "head hockey" is described in graphic detail. Below is an excerpt from the book.

"I had heard the anti-sealing protesters say that sealers were barbarians. They were right. You have to be a barbarian to survive it!"

"How barbaric one became depended on how long one was subjected to it. Once, after only a short time into play "head-ball".

"It was like hockey but instead of using sticks, we used our hakipiks to try to shoot the head between two twitching carcasses we used as goal posts.We all took turns in the net. By the time the game was over, eyeballs, teeth, fragments of skull bone and lower jawbones were scattered all over the rink. Darrell won but we all had a great bit of fun."

- Michael J. Dwyer, "From Over the Side Mickey"



Q#6: The Canadian media is portraying the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as an American group forcing their attitudes onto Canadians. Is this true?


A: No, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is an international group with global representation, including Canada. In fact the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in August 1977 by a Canadian - Captain ..Paul Watson.Watson was raised in a fishing village in the Maritimes and comes from a family whose roots go back to the early 1700's in the Maritimes. Captain Watson has spent a great deal of time in ..Newfoundland.. and he has been fighting the Newfoundland seal hunt since 1975. In fact, Captain Watson has logged more ice and sea time with the seals than most Newfoundland
sealers.

The history of the opposition against the seal hunt is as Canadian as the hunt itself. Brian Davies, the founder of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and one of the first and most consistent opponents of the seal slaughter is also from New Brunswick. The Canadian seal campaign leader for HSUS is Rebecca Aldworth and she is a Newfoundlander born and raised. Farley Mowat, one of Canada's most famous writers and a man who has lived for years in Newfoundland, and now in Cape.Breton, is an ardent opponent of the seal slaughter. Farley Mowat is the International Chair of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Canadians who oppose the seal kill are not anti-Canadian... They are in fact standing up for Canada's honour in opposing a bloody cruel horrific needless slaughter that brings nothing but shame to Canada.

Q#7: Canadian and Newfoundland politicians are saying that the harp seals must be killed to conserve the dwindling populations of cod. Is
this true?

We can't blame the seals for the decline of the cod. If the cod are to come back, the answer is to increase the seal population - not decrease it. The primary predators of cod are other fish, the very fish that seals target. When you decrease seal populations, you increase predatory fish populations and therefore cause a further diminishment of cod. Isn't it strange that in 1500 there was an abundance of cod and there were some forty million seals on the East coast? Forty million seals and the fish were so plentiful. Explorer Jacques Cartier caught them in a basket thrown over the side. It was the greed of the dragger owners that destroyed the cod coupled with the incompetence of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. The seals are merely scapegoats for greed and incompetence.

The harp, hood, and grey seals have never been and are not a threat to the survival of the cod. The cod populations were destroyed by human greed and
incompetence.

Q#8: But Canadian government scientists say otherwise. They are the experts, aren't they?

There are scientists and there are scientific whores. Captain Paul Watson has long had a name for the marine biologists who work for the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans. He calls them biostitutes. They are paid by the Canadian government and they are paid to provide scientific justification for political policies. Because of these so called experts, fish species populations have crashed on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coasts. They have a proven record of incompetence.

In 1995, Captain Watson was debating a DFO marine biologist. Captain Watson said that in three years the Coho and the Chinook salmon would crash. The scientist responded by saying, "You are wrong Watson, you have absolutely no idea of what you are talking about. We have the best scientists in the world working on this and I can tell you that they know what they are doing and you do not. You are wrong, wrong, wrong Sir."

And Captain Watson was indeed wrong - he was too optimistic The Chinook and Coho population crashed within one year..

Q#9: The DFO have been telling the media that seals are no longer clubbed. They are shot instead. The Premier of Newfoundlabnd has
said that the club is no longer used and seal are now shot instead. Is this
true? John Efford the former Canadian Minister of Natural Resources said back in 2003 that the club was not used anymore. We proved him a liar then with our documentation although to do so meant we had to break the “Seal Protection Regulations” which makes it a crime to document or even witness a seal being killed.

A: The DFO apparently do not know what is actually goes on out on the ice. This year, Newfoundland sealers were observed, photographed and filmed clubbing seals to death.

And who is this John Efford by the way?

John Efford is a Newfoundland Member of Parliament who was a former Newfoundland Minister of Fisheries. He has used the seals as scapegoats to rise to power just as Hitler used the Jews. In fact it is a good comparison when you look at this direct quote from Efford.

On May 4, 1998, as recorded in Hansard, the transcript of the Newfoundland House of Assembly, Efford had delivered the following address '

"Mr. Speaker, I would like to see the 6 million seals, or what ever number is out there, killed and sold, or destroyed or burned. I do not care what happens to them. The fact is that the markets are not there to sell more seals; 286,000 were hunted and sold. If there was a market for more seals the commercial sealers would be hunting and selling seals. The special allowance was for the personal use of sealers, that they could take six seals for their personal use. What do they do with the pelts, Mr. Speaker, is up to them. They cannot sell them because the markets are not there. What they wanted was to have the right to go out and kill the seals. They have that right, and the more they kill the better I will love it."

Captain Paul Watson compared Efford to Goebbels in the ..Newfoundland.. media, and this comparison to the Nazi propaganda minister was met with a flurry of outraged Newfoundland editorials attacking him for calling Efford a Nazi. How could Watson dare to compare the slaughter of seals to the slaughter of Jews, they demanded.

Captain Watson responded that it was merely the same language and that it was ironic that Efford was calling for a "final solution" by killing "six million" seals. These were his words and not the words of Captain Watson.

Furthermore, Goebbels is famous for saying that if you tell a lie often enough, people will begin to believe it is the truth. This is exactly how Efford operates.

Efford further displayed his ignorance at Dalhousie University when asked why he did not call for the extermination of sharks for eating codfish. He answered that there were no sharks in ..Newfoundland waters, and this to an audience of astounded marine scientists who knew very well that white and Greenland sharks feed on seals and cod and are caught by Newfoundland fishermen.

And as if Efford's ignorance had no limits, he came up with the ridiculous idea to kill two million seals to feed refugees in Kosovo. A spokesperson for the refugees asked, "Was he serious?" When told that he was very serious, the spokesperson politely replied, "Thanks, but no thanks."

Conservation groups were not so polite. He was laughingly dismissed as an "idiot".

This did not faze Efford. "If saving people's lives by providing high protein value meat is being an idiot, then I guess that's what I am," he replied. It was the one thing that John Efford and Sea Shepherd agreed upon.

Q#10: Will the proposal to ban seal products into Europe end the commercial seal slaughter?

A: The banning of seal products by European nations has and will significantly hurt the sealing industry. Pelt prices have fallen dramatically as a result. Canada has responded by spitefully raising the quota by 55,000 seals to 338,000 seal pups. They are now killing seals without any real markets for the seal pelts.Canada is attempting to build markets in China and.Japan, the last of the wildlife barbarian
nations other than Norway, Iceland and Canada... So we must keep the pressure on and we must continue to destroy the markets for this vicious industry and it’s vile products. To do so we must seize every opportunity to use economic leverage against Canada.

– A boycott of the Olympics is an excellent tactic in this great crusade to stop the mindless slaughter of the most innocent creatures on earth – the baby harp, hood and grey seals.

Our objective is to peg the shame of the seal hunt to the prestige of the Olympic games to deliver a clear message - that Canada does not deserve to host the
Olympics until it puts an end to the largest slaughter of a marine mammal species on this planet. Until then we will see the red of the Canadian flag as blood and the white representing the innocence of the seals so brutalized and slaughtered by at the savage hands of Canadian sealers..

We Need to Stop Eating the Oceans

by Captain Paul Watson, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
The Oceans are like the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. As long as it was alive it laid a golden egg each day but then the greedy farmer decided to kill it to get all the gold inside and found nothing and the Goose laid no more golden eggs because it was dead.

For centuries, the oceans have fed humankind. But in the last century, human greed has raped and pillaged oceanic eco-systems remorsefully with an ecological ignorance that is staggeringly insane.

I don't eat fish because I am an ecologist and I have seen the diminishment of fish in the seas all of my life. I was raised in a fishing village and I was raised on a diet of cod, sardines, mackerel, smelts, clams, lobsters, flounders, and trout. I have seen with my own eyes the steady diminishment of fish, lobsters, and crustaceans. And what I ate as a child I choose not to eat today for the simple reason that there are to many of us on land eating so few of them that live in the seas.

The fisherman has now become one of the most ecologically destructive occupations on the planet. It's time to put aside the outdated image of the hardy, independent, salt-of-the-sea, and hard-working fisherman working courageously to feed society and support his family.

No longer does the average fishermen go to sea in dories with lines and small nets. Today's industrial fishermen operate multi-million dollar vessels equipped with complex and expensive technological gear designed to hunt down and catch every fish they can find.

One manufacturer of electronic fish locators (Rayethon) even boasts that with their product, "the fish can run but they can't hide."

And for the fish, there is no safe place as poachers hunt them down mercilessly, even in marine reserves and sanctuaries.


We humans have waged an intensive and ruthless exploitation on practically every species of fish in the sea and they are disappearing. If we don't put an end to industrialized fishing vessels and heavy gear very soon, we will kill the oceans and in so doing, we will kill ourselves.

Scientists this week revealed that widespread malnutrition is affecting the fish, bird, and animal populations of our oceans. Not only are we depleting their populations, we are starving the survivors.

We are feeding fish to cats, pigs, and chickens, and we are sucking tens of thousands of small fish from the sea to feed larger fish raised in cages. House cats are eating more fish than seals; pigs are eating more fish than sharks; and factory-farmed chickens are eating more fish than puffins and albatross.

With other factors like increased acidification, global warming, chemical pollution, and ozone depletion causing plankton populations to decline, we are waging a global assault on all life in our oceans. The fish cannot compete with our excessive demands. We have already removed 90% of the large commercial fish from the sea. Chinese demand for shark fins is destroying practically every species of shark in the ocean.

Whereas the fishing industry once targeted and destroyed the large fish, they are now focusing on the smaller fish, the fish that have always fed the larger fish. Of the top ten fisheries in the world today, seven of them now target the small fish. If the fish are too small to feed to people, they are simply ground up into fishmeal to feed domestic animals and farm raised salmon or tuna.

Aquaculture has also now emerged as the most wasteful utilization of fish and is the economic engine driving the intensive exploitation of small fish.

And now Japanese and Norwegian fisheries are extracting tens of thousands of tons of plankton from the sea to convert into a protein rich animal feed.

This week a report on the State of the World Fisheries and Aquaculture released by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) concludes that 80% of all marine fish stocks are currently fully exploited, overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion; including stocks of the 7 largest prey fisheries. Very few marine fish populations remain with the potential to sustain production increases, and more have now reached their limit than ever before.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is not taking an animal rights position on this issue when we say that people must stop eating fish and stop eating meat that fish are fed to. Our position is based solely on the ecological reality that commercial fishing is destroying our oceans.

We all know this. We are all aware of this diminishment. We feel it in our gut. The ecological reality is not only staring us in the face, it is kicking us in the teeth. The problem is that we are in absolute denial and we refuse to acknowledge that by stripping life from the seas, we will be undermining the foundation for our survival on land.

This denial is so entrenched that even Greenpeace serves fish to their crew onboard their ships while undertaking campaigns to oppose over-fishing.

The Kaiyapo people of Brazil call those who destroy the forests "termite people" because they gobble up the trees. In the oceans we have human parasites sucking the life out of the ocean and giving nothing back. We humans have become the parasitic bloodsuckers of the ocean and when we kill our hosts, as we will surely do the way we are presently going, then we ourselves will die.

For a long time, I wondered why I even have bothered to speak out about these concerns to a society that refuses to acknowledge this reality and simply dismisses any talk of over-exploitation as radical extremism. For decades, I have endured this extremism of apathy and ecological ignorance.

This last week in Paris at the Sustainability Conference I spoke of these things to a room full of journalists and when I called for a closure of all commercial fishing in the Mediterranean, I was pleasantly surprised that not a single journalist disagreed nor questioned me for making such a radical demand. In fact, my announcement was greeted with applause.

The public is becoming aware of the gravity of the ecological predicament that threatens life in the sea. And this is very encouraging. I can't think of anything more important than the preservation of diversity in our oceans. Perhaps we can adapt to global warming, and perhaps we can survive a mass extinction even of species on land. But I know one thing to be an ecological certainty and that is if we kill the oceans - we kill ourselves.

In diversity is the preservation of life.

We must stop eating the oceans. Eating fish is for all intents and purposes - an ecological crime. There are no oceanic sustainable fisheries - not a one. That little sustainability card that some people carry around to pretend to be ecologically correct consumers is simply a fraud, an attempt to make us feel good as we continue to eat the seas.

Now I know that some people are not going to like what I am saying, but then again, I have never written or spoken for the purpose of winning popularity contests. I don't try to be all things to all people. I aim to be ecologically correct in my thinking and from any perspective that I have viewed it. That, coupled with my observations of the steady and now escalating diminishment of life in the sea since I was a boy sitting on the end of the dock in Passamaquoddy Bay to now, and where I voyage through all the oceans of the world trying to defend life in the sea, I see the writing on the wall in big bold letters. The signs look ominous indeed, dangerously so.

Some may think that a call to ban all commercial fishing is radical. I view it as a very conservative and essential policy that we must implement to save the oceans and ourselves.

Am I concerned about the fishermen and their families? I am not without sympathy for their situation but I am far more concerned for the future survival of humanity and the oceans. We simply need to put an end to an industry and an occupation that is literally undermining the life support systems of this planet. This requires sacrifices, but sacrificing a job is preferable by far than sacrificing the future for all of us.

We need to consider the needs of the fishes and we need to give them the space and the time to recover from the terrible slaughter we have inflicted upon all the species that live in the sea.

I am tired of hearing the excuses of fishermen that the seals or the dolphins have diminished the fish numbers. They want to take us for fools to buy into this unscientific scapegoat argument. The fish are gone because they, the fishermen, took them, and took them and took them without mercy. And now like Wall Street bankers they come begging for subsidies and getting them because politicians for the most part suffer from homopechephobia, or a political fear of fishermen, who if they don't get what they want tend to riot and threaten.

They need to be treated as the ocean destroying thugs that they are. The fishing industry needs to go extinct before they cause a pattern of irreversible extinctions and loss of diversity in our oceans.

If an ecological collapse occurs because of the removal of a pivotal species or species, we won't be worrying about jobs. We'll be worrying that our fellow man will be hunting and eating us. If that occurs, the words that Jesus Christ once said would have become perversely very true indeed when he said to the fishermen, "I will make you to become fishers of men." (Mark 1-17)


Captain Paul Watson
Founder and President of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (1977-2009
Co-Founder - The Greenpeace Foundation (1972)
Co-Founder - Greenpeace International (1979)
Director for Greenpeace (1972-1977)
Director of the Sierra Club USA (2003-2006)
Director of the Farley Mowat Institute
Working Partner with the Ecuadorian National Environmental Police and the Galapagos National Park
Master of the M/Y Steve Irwin


www.Seashepherd.org

HSUS Again Sues to Stop the Columbia River Sea Lion Cull

Written by Alex Felsinger



The Humane Society of the United States has returned to court in attempt to stop the sea lion cull near the Bonneville Dam in Washington and Oregon.
vote nowBuzz up!Hundreds of sea lions may be trapped and killed in a program aiming to increase the salmon population in the river. The animal welfare group argues that the NOAA Fisheries Service has not sufficiently explained why the sea lions are being singled out despite other predators (like humans) having a greater impact on the salmon population.


» See also: Trophy Hunting Pushing Marco Polo Sheep Toward Extinction
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“To accept the agency’s view of administrative law would, for example, allow the Social Security Administration to grant benefits to a person that suffers from a 4 percent disability despite, and without ever explaining, numerous past decisions denying such benefits for people that suffer from a 15 to 20 percent disability,” read the brief filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The group points out the hypocrisy of increasing the commercial salmon catch from 9 to 12 percent of the run in 2012, but then turning around and killing sea lions, which are responsible for only .4 to 4.2 percent.

More details about the suit can be found at the Columbia Basin Fish & Wildlife News.

Photo Credit: tracy the astonishing on Flickr under Creative Commons license

FIRST SEA LION KILLED IN CONTROVERSIAL CULL!

First Sea Lion Killed in Controversial Cull; Media Banned

Written by Alex Felsinger



The first two sea lions were captured today in the joint Oregon and Washintgon sea lion killing program, with one being euthenized shortly after capture. The sea lions are being targeted because they eat salmon.
The animal was given a health exam when a veterenarian noticed a potentially contagious wound and decided to euthanize the it. Some captured animals may be placed in zoos or aquariums, but since very few such vacancies exist, many of the sea lions will be killed.

While fishermen take 12 percent of the endangered salmon run each year, it’s estimated that sea lions only eat between .4 and 4.2 percent. Media inquiries as to why commercial fishermen haven’t been forced to cut their take have essentially gone unanswered.

The Oregon and Washington Fish & Game Departments have also made it clear that the media is not welcome in the trapping areas, giving safety concerns as an excuse. Despite this, activists are attempting to document any sea lion kills by organizing a coastal watch.

If you live near the Bonneville Dam, you can contact In Defense of Animals at 503-249-9996 or the Sea Lion Defense Brigade at SeaLionDefenseBrigade@lists.riseup.net to join the coordinated effort to document the killing for the public to see.

Oddly, while their Norther neighbors spend money to kill the same animals, California is offering a $2,500 reward for anyone who has information that leads to the conviction of those responsible for the shooting of five sea lions.

Photo Credit: mikebaird on Flickr under Creative Commons license.

IDA NORTHWEST CRASHES GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING SEA LION TRAPPING!

IDA Northwest Crashes Government News Conference Announcing Sea Lion Trapping

Activists Then Stage Demo On First Day Of Government Harassment Of Protected Pinnipeds

Sea lion advocates including In Defense of Animals (IDA) crashed a February 27 news conference jointly held by the Oregon and Washington Departments of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW & WDFW) to oppose the misguided plan to kill sea lions, and to share more accurate information with the media. Representatives from IDA countered inaccuracies and false logic being promulgated by the state agencies to justify killing sea lions.

See video here:

KATU 2/27/09 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6255664535087939248&hl=en

KGW 2/27/09 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6830216201656776420&hl=en

KOIN 2/27/09 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2356394035043741378&hl=en

The Monday following the news conference, IDA participated in a demo. See video here:

KATU 3/2/09 - http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5838544607297386262&hl=en

Oregon and Washington state agencies revealed at the news conference their plan to resume trapping and killing of Columbia River sea lions, claiming that it is necessary in order to protect endangered salmon populations. However, according to the Environmental Assessment (EA) of the proposal to kill sea lions at the Bonneville Dam, sea lions eat between 0.4 and 4.2 percent of the 80,000 to 250,000 salmon and steelhead who spawn in the Columbia River’s spring run. By comparison, fisherman are permitted to take approximately 5 and 17 percent of the run, (this year the kill quota is 13 percent of the run), and hydroelectric dams take 9.9 percent of adults.

“Sea lions are not making a ‘significant impact’ to salmon populations—the standard set by the Marine Mammal Protection Act to justify killing them,” said Matt Rossell of In Defense of Animals. “Sea lions are being unjustly scapegoated by government agencies, and killing them is not going to resolve the real issues facing salmon recovery—over-fishing, dams, and habitat destruction.”

"These agencies have already demonstrated their irresponsibility, incompetence, and lack of respect for the animals they intend to 'manage,'" said Sheila Brown, of the Sea Lion Defense Brigade. "Last year, seven sea lions died in state custody at a time when they were under court orders not to kill these animals. Six of the animals died under very suspicious and mysterious circumstances which have still not been adequately explained. Tragically, the government now has permission to shoot sea lions while in the water, likely leading to mortally wounded animals suffering prolonged deaths."

To assist IDA Northwest's campaign to protect the sea lions, please contact Matt at: matt@idausa.org.

Click here to "Adopt an Activist" and help make our demos even more successful.

SEA LION SHOT IN SANTA MONICA BAY!

SEA LIONS SHOTMAR OFFERS REWARD FOR INFORMATION
Marine Animal Rescue (MAR) is offering a $5,000 reward leading to the arrest and conviction
of the person or persons responsible for shooting sea lions in Santa Monica Bay

PHOTO:P.WALLERSTEIN
The latest victim is this 8-month-old sea lion pup rescued by Marine Animal Rescue on February 3, 2009 at Dockweiler Beach, Playa del Rey, California.
At least one bullet penetrated the pup’s spine. He was paralyzed, and in critical condition. The pup had to be euthanized

This year in Los Angeles County there have already been FOUR confirmed sea lion shootings. Many more shooting victims don’t make it to shore; they die a slow death at sea.

Some fishermen feel that seals, sea lions and even pelicans are a threat to their livelihoods and will purposely injure or kill the animals. These violent acts by cruel individuals must be stopped. Just how much threat did this 8-month old, 30-pound sea lion pose to this anyone?

CITIZENS SHOULD REPORT INCIDENTS BY CONTACTING
Marine Animal Rescue 24 Hour Hotline:
1-800-39-WHALE

Marine Animal Rescue will be conducting undercover investigations along with expanding our public education campaign and will push for prosecution of the person or person committing these crimes to the fullest extent that the law will allow.

Marine Animal Rescue specialists have been conducting marine animal rescues in Los Angeles County for over 20 years.

For more information contact: Marine Animal Rescue, 310-560-6284
Peter WallersteinMarine Animal Rescue Specialist
Friends of Animals

SUPPORTMARINE ANIMAL RESCUE