Makin' Waves

So the IWC is over with a final score of 5 for the whales and 1 for the whalers and after all the doubts and concerns about this year's meeting we should feel relieved and there is cause for some kind of celebration I guess. After all it could be so much worse but I don't feel happy and actually I am angry at governments who voted for a return to the "normalisation" of whaling and I am angry at the IWC for accepting the votes from countries who have clearly been bribed. Thousands of whales will die again this year, for no other reason than national pride and greed, despite our best attempts to save them.

It's wonderful to see that Greenpeace will return to give the whalers a hard time in the Southern Ocean but we all know that this hasn't helped to strengthen the international moratorium on whaling in the past so my question is: Is it at all possible to stop thousands of whales being killed each year? Nothing has worked so far and we can argue about tactics all we like but ramming and sinking whaling vessels has not stopped whaling either. Letters have been written, protests have been staged, boats have been rammed and sunk, meetings have been attended, awareness and money has been raised, pressure has been applied to companies who funded whaling while countries who have been bribed have been named and shamed. Maybe it's up the politicians to do something about whaling but what can they do and will they do it? The only thing that is going to stop whaling nations is a fisheries boycott or some other form of financial or political pressure yet I don't see any anti-whaling nation ready to instigate this.

In the meantime it doesn't hurt to keep TAKING ACTION online: E.mail the Prime Minister of Denmark and ask him to save whales

L.

Posted by wavemaker at 04:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pro whaling versus anti-whaling countries represented by population size rather than simply the number of countries who voted one way or the other

I really can't understand how the IWC continues to function in the way it does today - turning a blind eye to all the vote buying that goes on and making no distinction between votes from large countries and votes from tiny islands. Shouldn't over 1 billion people get more of a say than 1 thousand? This doesn't seem very democratic to me at all.

There were only 3 more countries that voted in favour of the whales today compared with the number that voted against the whales (during the IWC vote for a secret ballot that would make it easier for Japan to take control). Although the result was 33 (against the secret ballot) and 30 (for), the difference between the pro-whaling and anti-whaling countries is actually 440 million people.

I worked this out by adding up all the population sizes for the voting countries and did a little pie chart showing you the end result. I only wish that the IWC votes were more representative of individual country population sizes. That would alo stop Japan buying votes because all of a sudden getting small islands to vote on their side would not be so useful for them!

Lisa.

Posted by wavemaker at 11:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (23)

Breaking news: Japan has failed to gain a majority at the International Whaling Commission.

Greenpeace has also just announced that it will return to the Southern Ocean this year to defend the whales again.

For more details click here and here.

Posted by wavemaker at 05:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Japan plans to kill 50 humpback whales

I just cooked up this lovely dish this evening... mussels in a tomato based sauce with lots of chili and garlic. I used green lipped mussels from New Zealand... produced by Sealord. This is the company that used to have links with the Japanese whaling fleet but thanks to the pressure mounted by NGOs like Greenpeace and Earth Island Institute their parent company Nissui pulled their funding from the fleet. So now, Japanese whaling is a fully governmental affair. That's got to hurt somewhat but sadly not much has changed. I can eat Sealord mussels now without feeling guilty but the whales are still not safe.

In the last few weeks more countries that will probably vote against whale conservation have joined the IWC. Although the moratorium is not at risk (yet) many measures that currently protect whales and dolphins may get the chop if the pro-whaling nations get their way. We all know that they succeed in winning pro-whaling votes from other countries because they bribe them financially but this blatant corruption of the IWC continues. Additionally proposals including the creation of a South Atlantic whale sanctuary (led by Brazil) are unlikely to succeed.

It's a frustrating situation to say the least and one that I often find very depressing but despite the fact that the majority of people on this planet are against the commercial exploitation of the great whales - the needless hunts continue and there seems very little we can do about it.

The IWC meeting begins this Friday in St Kitts. Like many other small island states, St. Kitts and Nevis supports whaling in exchange for Japanese fisheries aid.

There was suggestion last year that the Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (1946) should be updated. There was also a resolution put forward for a Ministerial meeting to try and tie whaling to other issues such as trade or Japan's bid to join the United Nations. Apparently the IWC members reached a deadlock in a February meeting in the U.K because the pro-whalers would not accept the restrictions of the RMS (Revised Management Scheme). So I wonder what will happen at this meeting.

Japan intends to double their take of minke whales in the Southern Hemisphere in 2006. They also plan to kill 70 endangered fin whales over the next 3 years and 50 endangered humpback whales in 2008 - all in Southern Ocean Sanctuary. Japan also continues to increase whaling in the North Pacific. They now kill 220 Minke, 50 Bryde's, 100 Sei, and 10 Sperm whales here for "science". Iceland recently announced that they plan to take 50-70 minke whales during the 2006 summer season. This is up from 39 whales in 2005. The Norwegians continue to set their own whaling quotas and have already set this year's at 1,052 minke whales, which is up by 300 whales compared to last year.

The future does not look bright.

Stay tuned into the proceedings by following the Greenpeace blog.

Posted by wavemaker at 11:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Soft Coral - Maldives (my best underwater pic!)

Yesterday was World Ocean Day. I'd have taken part in whatever community thing that was planned here but sadly nothing happened (and don't give me that "you should have organised it yourself" crap - I have organised beach clean ups in the past and this year I was hoping someone else would do something). I checked out Greenpeace to see what they had going on. They've done a funny football movie against bottom trawling that is simply genius and also have a list of 10 things you can do for the oceans. The Nature Conservancy also did a cool page dedicated to the special day but I couldn't find many other Ocean Day things online.

I didn't know that this day is not yet officially recognised by the UN even though it was created in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. So... I asked the United Nations to officially designate World Ocean Day as June 8th each year through a simple petition that only took a few seconds.

Once I'd done all the online actions and sent a bunch of e-cards to my mates I got on with the rest of my day. I did my laundry using ECOver powder (non-toxic) and then hung my clothes out on the line (instead of using the dryer) when I got back from work. In the evening I went to a party and refused the tray of shrimp while telling friends about bycatch and mangrove destruction (although trying to lecture friends after 4 gin and tonic's wasn't easy!). At dinner I ordered Pacific salmon, a fish not under threat like Atlantic salmon.

At the end of the day I realised it's not community events that are going to have the biggest effect on the oceans it's how we live our lives on a daily basis. We don't need to adopt a whale, or clean up an entire beach once a year...we can also save our seas simply by conserving energy, eating the right seafood and taking actions online! Pretty easy really... now just imagine if EVERYONE did this!

HAPPY WORLD OCEAN DAY (sorry I'm late!).

Lisa.

...one thing is certain: we have the power to undermine the healthy functioning of the sea that supports us and all of the rest of life on Earth, but no sure way to heal the harm. For ages, the sea has taken care of us. For ourselves and all who follow, the time has clearly come for us to take care of the sea.

Sylvia Earle

Posted by wavemaker at 08:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

David Attenborough showed a very convicing graph on the telly that looked a bit like this

There was one section I remember very well and that was when Sir David was walking along this graph with some bloke from the Met Office (yes walking - it was a very big graph!) and they showed how recent climate change was correlated with human activity rather than natural events. I've been looking for this very same graph online but haven't found it. I re-drew the graph as I remember it but ideally I would love to know where this is shown online so that next time anyone has doubts about human induced climate change I can tell them to put this in their pipe and smoke it!

Sir David wrote in the Independent:

" I do not have any doubt at all. I think climate change is the major challenge facing the world. I have waited until the proof was conclusive that it was humanity changing the climate. The thing that really convinced me was the graphs connecting the increase of carbon dioxide in the environment and the rise in temperature, with the growth of human population and industrialisation. The coincidence of the curves made it perfectly clear we have left the period of natural climatic oscillation behind and have begun on a steep curve, in terms of temperature rise, beyond anything in terms of increases that we have seen over many thousands of years."

I think it would be incredibly helpful to have a link to this graph so that we can tell the ignorant nay sayers that the debate IS over and start talking about solutions. I will send a Makin Waves T-shirt to the first person who can find this graph online.

I didn't manage to see the second part of the series but am pleased to find that the BBC has put some short videos on climate change on their website.

Lisa.

Posted by wavemaker at 04:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)