Whales and Wiener Dogs

Sea Shepherd is accusing Japanese whalers of intentionally ramming and sinking their high-tech carbon fiber catamaran Ady Gill (video below). However, it remains unclear if the boat is actually sinking. One of the Sea Shepherd crew appears to have suffered some broken ribs.

Mammalodon colliveri may have been a mud slurping bottom feeder (Brian Choo / Museum Victoria)

The evolutionary track of baleen whales has long been a mystery. It’s been theorized in the past that baleen - ridged plates that filter small creature from the water as whales swim - evolved after whales used their teeth for the same reason. But studies on a bizarre 25 million year old fossil from Australia suggest that baleen whales’ ancestors might have sucked ocean creatures from the muck on the ocean’s floor - a much simpler evolutionary link from teeth to baleen, say scientists.

Sea Shepherd Ship "Bob Barker"

A. It’s no longer a Secret, and
B. Yes, it’s named after Bob Barker (a million dollar donor to Sea Shepherd…The Price Was Right! (sorry)).

It's not a whale, it's whale!

There was some hope, especially in Australia, that the new Japanese government would oppose or il-legalize whaling in Japan. But no such luck.

Japan’s new government has urged the Aussies to do what they can to prevent violent attacks on Japanese whalers by activists, especially Sea Shepherd.

A while back, when I saw “The Cove,” I wondered whether or not the filmmakers would be able to attain their stated goal - to end the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. Well, there have been a couple reasons over the last few days to think that maybe there is such thing as “The Cove” Effect - and keep in mind that the film hasn’t even been released in Japan yet.

First, Broome, Australia is suspending its sister city program with Taiji, Japan. Knowing how Australians feel about Japan and sea mammal conservation, I find it sort of hilarious that Taiji even had a sister city in Australia. I can just imagine the person who runs Broome’s sister city program - “They do fucking WHAT?!?”

Secondly, and more importantly, Ric O’Barry got to Taiji on September 1 - the first day of dolphin killing season - and found the killing cove empty of both dolphin killers and dolphins, but FULL or reporters.

In a post on his blog called “September 1, 2009: A Good Day for Dolphins,” O’Barry says:

Today is September 1st, the first day of the dolphin slaughter season in Japan. But when I arrived today by bus from Kansai Airport with media representatives from all over the world, the notorious Cove from the movie was empty. There were no dolphin killers in sight.

Good for him. We’ll have to see if “The Cove” Effect has real staying power, or if the Japanese will be up to their old tricks next year, or next month, or even next week when the big media retreats. Although, O’Barry does point out that these are Japanese media who have NEVER bothered to cover Taiji at all in the past.

Modest Mouse just released an anti-whaling music video that was conceived and directed by Heath Ledger. In it, the tables are turned, and a boat full of whales hunts and harpoons swimming humans, and then they graphically remove the flesh from their bodies.

According to the official Modest Mouse web sheet:

In January of 2007, while visiting his homeland of Australia, Heath Ledger presented Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse with an idea to direct a video for their yet-to-be-released song ‘King Rat’. Heath’s vision, brave and unapologetic in its nature, would marry his love of bold and original music with his impassioned stance against the illegal commercial whale hunts taking place of the coast of Australia each year. Always one to operate from his heart and take a stand for what he cared deeply about, Heath’s intention was to raise awareness on modern whaling practices through a potent visual piece without having to say a word. It was his way to let the story, in its candid reversal, speak for itself.

The film was completed posthumously by a production company that Heath was affiliated with, and iTunes proceeds from the first month will go to the good people at Sea Shepherd.

You know, no matter how many chances I give Modest Mouse, they never quite turn my crank. Them and Radiohead. Yeah, that’s right. I said I don’t like Radiohead. More precisely, I don’t love them. But this Modest Mouse song isn’t terrible, just like the rest of their work. And the video’s a little heavy-handed, but it hates whaling, and that’s all that matters!

Don’t know why those whales aren’t harpooning human beings who are clearly and obviously Japanese, though.

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.....

If you’ve seen “The Cove,” then you should be pretty familiar with some of the despicable tactics that Japan uses to create a pro-Japan voting block at the International Whaling Commission. In the film, the producers outline how Japan essentially bribes 3rd world and developing countries into joining the IWC and voting with Japan to pass or to block certain measures.

Well, Japan’s latest recruit is the Republic of Ghana, which recently became the 86th voting member of the IWC.

A total of 17 developing African nations have joined the IWC since 2001. These nations frequently support Japan’s laughable (at best) assertion that declining fish stock in the Earth’s oceans is due to the fact that too many whales and dolphins are eating all the fish.

Members of the opposition government in Australia are urging environment minister Peter Garrett to form an international coalition that will act against Japan under the International Law of the Sea. But for now, Garrett has offered to meet with Ghana and the other African nations to outline Australia’s position that the IWC can be reformed into a better conservation body.

A humpback whale calf being propped up by its mother (Micheline Jenner)

Australian researchers captured the above picture of a baby whale taking its first breath of life last week.

According to researcher Micheline Jenner, the “little thing began popping up and down at the surface trying to get a breath, until its mother swam under and lifted it up on her upper jaw. The cow held the calf gently in this position for about 10 seconds while it took what we now understand to be its first breath of life.”

The calf later approached the boat where the researchers could see that the baby as so new that its dorsal fin was still folded.

The mother will feed the baby calf about 300 liters of milk per day.

Bubbie and Flapjack

Australian Olympian Leisel Jones has launched a new cartoon that urges kids to help stop the killing of whales.

The cartoon, which premiered on Australian TV earlier this week, follows the adventure of Flapjack the Sailor who befriends Bubbie The Blue Whale.

Check out this video. The Assuies really don’t like whaling very much. It’s a feature piece on a kids cartoon that shows graphic images of whale hunting and butchering. Jones gives some good interview in the video, and there are also a few bites from Skye Bortoli, founder of Teens Against Whaling.

And let’s none of us forget that Leisel Jones has one of the greatest tramp stamps of all times.

Leisel Jones' Olympic Rings

And if anyone knows what the hell “spruiks” means - or how you say it - please let me know.

To almost no one’s surprise, the IWC meeting this week in Portugal turned out to be a complete waste of time. In fact, so much nothing was accomplished that the meeting actually wrapped a day early. The two sides - nations opposed to commercial whaling and pro-whaling nations (led by Japan, Norway, and Iceland) - agreed only to continue to disagree, giving themselves another twelve months to negotiate some sort of compromise.

During all this, Greenland, with support from Denmark, made a formal request to the IWC to hunt 10 humpback whales per year. The IWC dodged the issue by appointing a scientific committee to research Greenland’s request.

And the New York Times published an editorial on Sunday urging non-whaling nations to press harder than ever for a complete ban, saying that while many whale populations are recovering, they face a growing threat from other dangers like global warming, habitat loss, and commercial shipping and fishing. Their assertion that a ban on hunting is a vital component to the overall survival strategy of whales is a belief shared by many conservatonists.