Nations Seek to Increase Whale Hunting by Expanding Loopholes in International Ban

Stock photo.

Whaling as a way of life and industry can be traced back to prehistoric times through archeological evidence such as harpoons dating back to 6000 BC, petroglyphs (rock engravings) depicting whale hunts, and whale bones in ancient settlements.

Historically, whales were hunted for uses including: meat, bones for corsets, wax for candles, and oils for industrial lubricants and fuel for lamps and lanterns.

“By the 1920s, whale oil fed increasing demand for animal feed, machine lubricants, glycerin-based explosives, soap, detergents, and margarine; spermaceti from the sperm whale became a staple in cosmetics, and later, even as a lubricant for the (NASA) aerospace programme,” according to Reinventing the Whale, a report published in May 2010 by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society in the United Kingdom.

Right whale. Graphic courtesy of BBC News.

Reaching up to present times, this excessive international hunting has brought many species to the brink of extinction, such as the right whales, gray whales, and blue whales, just to name a few.

What’s being threatened now is the worldwide commercial whaling moratorium (ban) that was put into effect in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission. Countries are allowed quotas - which can change yearly - on catching and killing whales for scientific research purposes. After the research data is obtained from the animals, their meat and other useful parts can be sold to market.

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Closing in Loopholes in Organic Meat and Dairy Regulations

A modern dairy farm. Photo courtesy of TriangleJr.com – North Carolina Child Care & Family Resource.

What do we expect when we see that green and white USDA organic label on meat and dairy products? We expect that those animals are treated humanely; allowed to graze on open pastures; and not given poor quality feed with synthetic filler, hormones, and antibiotics.

For the most part, this is what we’ve gotten every since the National Organic Program went into effect a decade ago, requiring that animals be given access to outside pastures.

The festering problem in the industry has always been the regulation’s vaguely written language. The National Organic Coalition has complained that, “in recent years, it has become clear that some organic dairies have been permitted to sell milk as ‘organic’ even though the cows have not had access to pasture.

“When challenged about why they are permitting some dairy operations to skirt the pasture standards, the USDA’s National Organic Program has stated that the regulation is too vague for them to adequately enforce.”

In response to widespread protest - from consumers, organic certifiers, public interest groups, and dairy producers who comply with the rule - the USDA opened the issue for public and industry input to amend the regulation.

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Relentless Tiger Poaching Brings Activists and INTERPOL Together

Photo courtesy of Brian Scott.

On the Chinese lunar calendar 2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which commences on February 14, 2010 and ends on February 2, 2011. The tiger is the third sign in the Chinese Zodiac cycle, symbolizing fighting courage, which was admired by the ancient Chinese as the sign that keeps away the three main tragedies of a household — fire, thieves, and ghosts.

Things are currently a little different in real life. The tiger is not fairing so well against both the destruction of its habitat and poachers.

In the early 1900s, tigers roamed throughout Asia and numbered over 100,000, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Its current estimates indicate that less than 3,500 of these remain as a whole in the wild. Tigers today are pouched for their skins, but almost every part of their bodies can be used for either decorative or traditional medicinal purposes.

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Oregon Loggers Outraged Over Secretary’s Decision to Cut the WOPR

Odell lake sits along the crest of the Oregon Cascades, near Wilamette Pass. Courtesy of Flickr.com.

Not everyone is cheering Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s decision to “withdraw” the Western Oregon Plan Revisions, which rezoned 2.6 million acres of federal public forests in Oregon as part of conserving the habitat of the northern spotted owl. The rezoning- now gone- was also a boom for the region’s logging industry.

Jim Geisinger, executive vice president of Associated Oregon Loggers, said, “We really believe what the secretary did was a breach of public trust. That Bureau of Land Management plan was five years in the making and complied with all of the requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act as well as the National Environmental Policy Act.

“There was extensive public input and for the secretary to just withdraw the record of decision arbitrarily really is unprecedented. It is unfortunate that the secretary wouldn’t even allow the plan to be presented to a court for a decision.”

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