The Chess Game in the Southern Ocean Begins

December is just a few short months away and that means that the famous "Whale Wars" will once again be waged in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. As usual the combatants in this war will be the Japanese Whaling Fleet and Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Over the past two years, Sea Shepherd has by far held an advantage in the war over the whalers. Last year the Japanese whalers caught less than 25% of what their quota was. Japan has directly pointed the finger at Sea Shepherd for this, which Sea Shepherd sees as a victory. This year though, it appears the pieces are already moving as Japan appears more than desperate to get away from Sea Shepherd in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Japan has continued to divert funds from the tsunami relief effort to buff security on it's whaling ships. Japan has also made public statements stating that the whaling fleet will not be going south this year due to repairs that are needed on the factory ship. Sea Shepherd informants however have discovered the whaling fleet's docking area and sure enough the factory ship is getting loaded and ready to head south as is the rest of the whaling fleet. So Japan claiming that they are not going south this year really mounts to nothing but a really poor attempt at getting Sea Shepherd off of their backs for the year. Last year the Japanese whaling fleet consisted of one factory ship, 2 harpoon vessels, and a security vessel. These vessels were opposed by the Sea Shepherd fleet of 2 ships, one high speed trimaran, several unmanned drones, and a helicopter. Odds are the whaling fleet has not increased in size due to the millions and millions of dollars that Sea Shepherd has cost the industry over the past few years. Sea Shepherd however is now ready to match the whaling fleet ship for ship with the addition of a fourth, unknown vessel. 

What I mean by that is that nobody knows what this boat looks like. Nobody knows where it is. Nobody knows how fast it is. Nobody really knows anything about it with the exception of those close to Sea Shepherd founder, Paul Watson. What role this boat will have in the anti whaling campaign remains to be seen, but chances are it could wind up being the final nail in the coffin for the Japanese Whaling Fleet. So why in the world does this war get waged every year?

Every year from December into the Spring the Japanese Whaling Fleet goes down to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to perform what they call scientific research. The claim that research is going on down there is part of a loop hole that exists on the moratorium of commercial whaling. The hole states that whales can be killed for scientific research and only in that case can the meat be sold. Japan has fought feverishly to have the moratorium reversed while still killing whales for profit. There has been no research coming from Japan in the Southern Ocean for years, a big sign that chances are there is no research going on. Another issue lies within the whalers hunting grounds themselves. The hunting grounds are located within an Australia controlled whale sanctuary. So in a sense what the whalers are doing is really not different than what poachers do in wildlife reserves around the world. They go down there, they kill, they make profit. Australia has threatened to take Japan to court over the issue, but so far they have not stepped up to the plate. What the Japanese Whaling Fleet is doing is illegal. There is to be know killing of whales in that whale sanctuary, that is Australian rule. There is to be no commercial whaling. That is the rule of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Japan breaks both of these rules, but Australia won't step up to the plate to do something about it and in the IWC other problems exist. Those problems include Japan threatening smaller nations if they do not cooperate in their bid to see the moratorium overturned. Prostitution has entered the IWC with Japanese representatives offering prostitutes to other representatives in exchange for their cooperation. The most common problem though is bribery. Nothing speaks louder in this world than cash. Japan apparently has enough to throw at other countries in order to keep their dying industry alive while it's own people continue to be homeless after the tsunami. 

So the scene is set for what could be the final act in the whale wars. Sea Shepherd has the Japanese whalers against the ropes, but only time will tell if this will truly be the last stand for the whalers. Both Sea Shepherd and the Japanese Whaling Fleet are set to head down to the Southern Ocean in late November/early December. For Sea Shepherd, the Operation is entitled No Compromise. I will be passing on any news I see about the operation here as a part of Operation Sadistic Truths. I will present both sides of any story that I can find information on and weigh in my opinions. So stay tuned here for more info on Operation No Compromise as it becomes available or check out www.seashepherd.org for more information as well. My next blog will be the first shark blog of Operation Sadistic Truths.

PG&E Seeks to Decimate Wildlife Off of California

Pacific Gas and Electric is seeking to do underwater seismic testing off the coast of California to ensure that the operation of a nuclear power plant continues. The plant, named Diablo Canyon, is situated right on an active earthquake fault. What PG&E is seeking to do is unleash seismic shockwaves for 90 miles along central California's coast to help geologists map out the fault. One PG&E representative stated “the proposal calls for a 240-foot ship to tow a quarter-mile wide array of twenty 250 decibel “air cannons,” along a 90-mile stretch of California’s Central Coast. The cannons will shoot deafening underwater explosions once every twenty seconds, day and night, for 42 days and nights." 

What does this all mean to the wildlife off of California. Devastation. Nothing more, nothing less. Any animal that is anywhere near these air cannons will be basically shredded. This includes whales, dolphins, sharks, rays, turtles, otters, sea lions, seals, and fish. What will these tests do to the animals? It's really simple. In the case of sharks, rays, and other animals with gills the air will blast through them causing massive internal bleeding. Seals, sea lions, whales, turtles, and other air breathers with have their lungs basically burst. At the mouth of the air cannons there is going to be a 240dB blast that would easily take away the hearing of any animal, including humans. This is a huge problem for animals such as dolphins and whales that rely so much on their ability to hear each other and other animals. How do we know that this is a sure thing? Other places around the world have used this type of testing and the results of the maps were only moderate, however, the damage to the wildlife was severe. For weeks after the testing marine animals including dolphins, whales, and various fish washed up with blood coming from their ears, eyes, and mouth. These are major signs of severe internal bleeding that were found to be the result of the tests. 

Within the testing area is the Point Buchon State Marine Reserve. Environmentalists suspect that these tests will wipe out the entire reserve which contains many species of  whale including the incredible rare blue whale, humpback whales, pygmy sperm whales, along with a wide variety of other marine mammals and fish. The fear is that every animal, right down to plankton will be destroyed in the reserve. Outside of the reserve, PG&E have virtually admitted that they will wipe out a ton of marine life. They did this by offering local fishing companies compensation for their impending catch losses. 

These tests are a really ill conceived plan to keep a nuclear power plant operating right on top of an active fault. The tests are not going to be able to map out the fault the way PG&E would like them to, which is evidenced by past tests in other regions. In the end, thousands, if not millions of animals could die for a moderately effective test that will do nothing but ensure that the Diablo Canyon power plant continues to operate a little longer. The tests are scheduled to begin in November and run through December. This is a HUGE threat to all forms of Oceanic wildlife living off the coast of California. Please take the time to contact Senator Sam Blakeslee and ask him to reconsider his bill because seismic testing is too destructive to proceed at: senator.blakeslee@senate.ca.gov
Senator Sam Blakeslee
4066 State Capitol
California 95814  

Visit http://www.seashepherd.org/ for more information on this new threat to the wildlife off of California or stay tuned here for updates on the situation as they become available.


Update: 10/3/2012

Time continues to tick down for the wildlife off the coast of California. As if on cue, there have been a few ominous signs appearing about the fate of the wildlife in the area.  In Uruguay, three orcas have washed up on shore, dead. The large dolphins appear to have been the victims of seismic testing. Seismic testing is taking place in an area where a future oil rig will stand and the death toll on the local wildlife is currently unknown. None the less, the fate of the three orcas is evident. Blood coming from their eyes, mouths, and blowholes. Seismic testing will continue in Uruguay for some time, but there is huge questions as to what will happen to the wildlife in the area. Chances are they will suffer the same fate that the animals of California will face if seismic testing begins there. Unlike the United States, there isn't really a large number of people who are aware as to what is going on in Uruguay. The people of the United States can simply not allow the seismic testing off of California to commence. Please contact the above Senator and help countless sea animals including whales, dolphins, seals, sharks, turtles, and countless species of fish.

Visit http://www.seashepherd.org/ for more information on this new threat to the wildlife off of California or stay tuned here for updates on the situation as they become available.

The World's Largest Humpback Whale Nursery to be Destroyed?

Humpback whales have fought back from the brink of extinction, but they still remain one of the world's most endangered species of whale. Humpbacks are amazing creatures with incredible social lives and a ton of secrets that nobody even knows about. Now, their largest nursery ground is being threatened by take a wild guess... Man.

Woodside, the largest gas and oil producer in Australia now wants to see the largest humpback whale nursery in the world turn into an offshore drilling site. In order to get the go ahead from the Australian Government Woodside undertook what is being called the largest study of humpback whales off of James Prince Point. According to the study, the majority of whales were seen more than 30KM off the coast of Australia. In fact, their study claims just 5% of the whales were seen within 8KM of the coast.

In an effort to save the nursery, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society teamed up with the people of Broome and the Australian Greens Leader, Bob Brown to do their own study. The results were quite different than what Woodside has led many to believe. Contrary to the Woodside Study, Sea Shepherd founded that over 100 whales were seen within 8KM of the coast every day. Many of the sightings were as suspected, mother whales and their calves. Some of the whales were actually swimming and nursing less than a mile away from the proposed construction site. Another study conducted by the Kimberly Community Whale Research Project further confirms the falsehood that Woodside has published. This project counted 1423 individual whales seen withing 8KM of the coast. The time of this study was from July 1st and August 7th. Of the 1423, 95 were nursing calves.

Despite both of these conclusive studies Woodside still seeks to turn the world's largest humpback nursery into another gas/oil rig that will do nothing but destroy the surrounding ecosystem. This includes this humpback nursery. Humpbacks have a lot to deal with in the wild. For one, they were hunted to near extinction from many years of overfishing. To this day they still are hunted by Japan in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Now they are dealing with another problem not of their making. For many years the humpback whales have been trying to survive in a world where people clearly do not care enough for the Oceans. We need to protect this nursery or risk sending humpback whale populations plummeting once again.


In the words of Bob Brown “Seeing the whales off James Price Point, mothers, babies, bull whales, seeing the count, going up into the thousands of these whales, the assurance that they will be ok with a mega port, mega ships and a huge factory ashore, is now clearly proven wrong.”

The Dead Cove is Coming to Life

This image looks kinda pretty doesn't it. To the majority of people in the world this is just a pretty cove in Taiji, Japan. They are pretty accurate in that though, I mean the scenery is beautiful. However this cove holds a horrific and one of the most sadistic secrets in the world. Every year, this pristine little cove is the death place of literally hundreds, if not thousands, of dolphins and other small cetaceans. How does this slaughter happen you ask? It occurs in a few simple steps.

1.) The Japanese fishing fleet finds a pod of dolphins near the cove and scares them in.
2.) The cove is netted off preventing the dolphins from escaping.
3.) The dolphins that appear to be in the best shape, along with baby dolphins that appear healthy are brought into a separate holding area.
4.) Aquarium and Dolphinariums send people to inspect the dolphins in the separate holding area. Any dolphin purchased is shipped off to its destination.
5.) Just a day or so later, the slaughter begins. Any dolphins that were not taken are killed along with the rest of the pod. Infant, juvenile, adult, it does not matter they are killed.
6.) The dolphins are processed and sold for food.



<<<WARNING: VERY GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD. SORRY BUT PICTURES ARE A MUST>>>














Your might be thinking ok, well at least they're killing them for food, but just how are they killing them? Originally the method used to kill the animals was a simple slit to the throat. That has since changed to what Japan considers a more humane way. That way would be driving a iron spear into the back of the neck of the dolphin. Japanese officials claim this brings almost instant death to the dolphin, but video and images of the slaughter suggests a much different story. The fisherman basically stab these animals to death, cut their throats, or just brutalize them to death. It is far, far from a instantaneous death.
        
(Fisherman "humanely killing a dolphin)      (Dolphins being loaded onto a boat)

Now you may be thinking, ok that's messed up, but Japan has to feed itself. Even the sale of dolphin meat has its own dirty secrets. First of all, much like with whale meat, Japan has stockpiles of dolphin meat from past years. The government of Japan got so desperate to get people to eat dolphin that they introduced it to schools for lunch in Taiji. This practice was short lived as the amount of mercury in the dolphins was discovered to be roughly 10 times the Japanese Health Ministry advised. Of course parents did not want their children getting sick from eating lunch at school, so dolphin meat was removed from school menus. As stockpiles of dolphin increased, more attempts to get rid of the meat were and are still being made today. One of those attempts involves what some would consider a cheap trick. Packing industries have packages dolphin meat, but labeled it as something else such as minkie whale meat that sells for a higher price. Don't let this practice fool you, it does not only happen in Japan, for example, in the United States scallops in some supermarkets on the East Coast have turned out to really be stingray parts cut to look like scallops. Still though, further proof that the dolphin meat was just not moving on its own. What that means is that, contrary to what the Japanese Government wants, the vast majority of Japanese people do not eat dolphin. So why is this allowed to happen? Why aren't the people voicing their concerns?


(Dolphin meat labeled as whale meat)

The answer to those questions are simple. It wasn't until the crew of the award winning documentary, The Cove, was released that the Japanese public were truly informed about what was happening in the cove. In other words, the slaughter was hidden from the public. The entire area around the cove becomes fenced off and heavily guarded so nobody can see the killing. While the dolphins are still alive people can come and see from a distance, but the entire area shuts down until the waters run blue again. Since The Cove was released, the consumption of dolphin has dropped even more and the people are becoming more aware of the situation and are starting to rally against it.


(Sign designed to keep protesters and the public out of the cove)

As I type this blog there are roughly 20-22 pilot whales currently trapped in the cove. As with all other animals brought in, these whales will have to wait for a day or two before being brutally slaughtered. Whales and especially dolphins are incredibly smart animals. They know when they are trapped in an are, and just like us, they do have emotions. The panic and despair that has been recorded of these animals is truly heartbreaking. The slaughter of dolphins in Taiji has no place in the world. The majority of people in Japan do not eat dolphin and with the insanely high mercury levels it contains, no one really should for their own health. If you have never seen The Cove, I strongly suggest watching it. It is a very graphic film, but the message is so clear and powerful that it really drives home the fact that something needs to be done.

Think back to the start of this blog. Remember that beautiful little cove? Here is the truth of that cove. Here lives the horror and brutality unlike anything the marine mammal world has ever known.


(The cove just after a slaughter)



(Dolphins being trapped in the cove)


(Dolphins being taken away for processing)


(Another massacre)


For more information on The Cove visit http://thecovemovie.com/

No Whale is Safe

Currently, Japan is working it's annual coastal whaling season. Much like the Antarctic Whaling Season, the Japanese set out to kill a set number of whales. Normally the Japanese target specific species, but it appears this year that that may not be the case. Just a few days ago this image surfaced on the internet from Japan.


What this is an image of is a rare beaked whale being dragged onto a dock to be processed. You can see a spear sill in the head of the whale that had to fight for a long time before dying. The purpose of this kill was just like every other kill Japan makes, profit. Beaked whales are incredibly rare. The conservation status of these whales is largely unknown and conservation dependent. Only a few species of beaked whales has been identified, but there are more out there that scientists have not seen enough of to describe.

Besides the fact that the vast majority of the world opposes Japan's Whaling Operations, beaked whales have another reason that they should not be killed. Unlike the baleen whales, beaked whales have sharp teeth. As you might expect, these whales tend to eat fish and squid. Some of these fish are towards the top of the food chain and as with sharks, this causes toxins to build up inside the whale, causing the animal to become virtually toxic for human consumption.

Commercial Whaling in general is internationally banned by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Japan manages to get around the ban by claiming they are killing whales for scientific research. The IWC allows whales to be killed for research and the meat can be sold. The big issue with Japan is that they are not doing any research. They kill the whale, bring it onto the mothership, process it, and then sell the meat. The organs and other undesirable parts are usually just tossed back into the sea. So Japan continues to exploit the "Research" loophole despite not turning out any kind of research for many years now. Japan will continue it's coastal whaling program until they begin their Antarctic Whaling Campaign in December. It is here that once again, the conservation group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society will intercept the whalers and expose the truth. Sadly though no nation has stood up to the Japanese at the IWC and Japan continues to pressure, bully, and bribe smaller nations to vote their way, causing a lot of nothing to come of the annual IWC meetings.

It's the year 2012, there are warehouses with whale meat from years ago still waiting to be sold. It's more than obvious that the vast majority of Japanese people do not eat whale, yet the Japanese Government continues to allow the Whaling Industry to continue their dying tradition to try and scrape a few more dollars into the country. The issue with this is that the last 2 years, Japan has actually lost a great sum of money by sending its ships down to Antarctica only to return with less that 50% of their quota. So it makes even less sense for Japan to continue whaling. It's 2012, commercial whaling has no place in the world!

Welcome to Operation Sadistic Truths

In our world, there are slaughters going on in the seas. Some of the world's most majestic creatures are being ruthlessly hunted down for money. This campaign will expose these slaughters for what they really are, an series of unsustainable practices that really have no place in the world today. The main focus of this campaign will be on three different animals, dolphins, whales, and sharks. All three of these animals are being hunted to extinction. It is up to man to fix this, but first, they all must become aware of these slaughters. For right now, I will give a brief overview on each slaughter and from now through March 2013, I will go into more and more detail about the slaughters and current events regarding each of them.

Dolphins: Several days ago in the small town of Taiji, Japan, the annual dolphin slaughter began. Every year, hundreds of dolphins are slaughtered in this one town for multiple reasons. Following the documentary, "The Cove", more and more people have become aware of what is truly going on in the town of Taiji. The dolphins are slaughtered for consumption. Most people see no problem with killing to eat, but there are some  major issues with how this slaughter happens, its sustainability, and exactly what the true objective of the slaughter is. This will become a trend in all three slaughters, that of course would be for profit. The barbaric way in which the fisherman go about killing these creatures is simply cruel and in all counts unusual.

Whales: Every year, Japan sends a whaling fleet down to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary to pillage it of its Minkie Whale population. Along with the Minkies, the whalers also target endangered fin and humpback whales. Whaling has been a part of the culture of Japan for many years, but over the last decade the vast majority of the country have gained a new view on whaling. Currently sitting in multiple warehouses in Japan rests the meat of whales that were killed two years ago. Simply put, whale meat is no longer selling in Japan, so the question is what is the motivation now behind the whaling fleet? Again... Money.

Sharks: Around the world, millions of sharks are being killed exclusively for their fins. The primary motivation behind this slaughter is again money. Many species of shark are now threatened with extinction while others have become endangered species. This slaughter is largely unregulated and virtually any shark that is caught by sharks finners will be finned regardless of species or age. Shark fin soup, a soup that is chicken or beef flavored, is usually the end result of shark finning. The shark's fin adds a gelatinous texture to the soup, but adds no nutritional value at all. Previously served only by the Emperor of China, shark fin soup has exploded into a major issue in the world today. People are now only starting to realize the damage shark finning is causing. The race is on to save these animals.

All of these animals desperately need our help before they are lost forever. Join the fight to save these animals by spreading the word about their plights. Stay tuned as the sadistic truths of the seas are revealed.