Monthly Archives: September 2015

Walrus Slaughter in Alaska Raises Ivory Poaching Concerns

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By Samantha Mathewson
Sep 23, 2015 02:11 PM EDT

Pacific Walrus

25 walrus were found dead in Alaska. This raises concerns of poaching. (Photo : Flickr: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters)

A total of 25 walrus along an Alaskan beach were found decapitated. This large-scale slaughter prompted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to investigate, and while the cause of death has not been determined, they believe it could be linked to the illegal ivory trade. Walrus tusks are made of ivory.

“We can’t say with any certainty what the cause of death here was. You know, these animals, from the photos, do appear to have their heads taken off, but we can’t make any assumptions that that’s why they were killed, if they were, in fact, killed,” Andrea Medeioros, of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. “You know, people can take the heads if they find a dead walrus on the beach.”

Under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, it is illegal to hunt walrus solely for their ivory and not their meat.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/16936/20150923/illegal-ivory-25-walrus-killed-alaska-raise-poaching-concerns.htm

Smoke from Indonesia fires puts Singapore’s air at ‘hazardous’ level

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http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/9/24/singapore-air-quality-worsens-to-hazardous-levels.html

Pollution hits worst level this year as Indonesia land-clearing fires pump smoke into other parts of Southeast Asia

September 24, 2015 12:28PM ET

Air quality deteriorated to officially “hazardous” levels Thursday in Singapore — a key Southeast Asian business and transit hub — as choking smog blew in from Indonesia’s neighboring island of Sumatra, where forests and brush are being illegally burned to clear land for oil palm plantations and other farming.

The Singapore government’s three-hour Pollutant Standards Index (PSI) hit 319, its highest level so far this year, around midnight local time. The country’s National Environment Agency lists a level of 201-300 as “very unhealthy,” and above 300 as “hazardous.” Thick gray smoke shrouded the island city-state’s gleaming skyscrapers and crept into homes, even as many residents were staying indoors in attempt to escape the pollution.

Singapore, which prides itself on its clean environment, has been cloaked by the haze in varying degrees this year for about three weeks, the worst such episode since mid-2013.

“The hazy conditions in Singapore have further deteriorated since last night, as denser haze from Sumatra has been blown in by the prevailing southerly winds,” Singapore’s National Environment Agency said in an advisory.

The agency advised healthy persons to “avoid prolonged or strenuous outdoor physical exertion,” and urged the elderly, pregnant women and children to minimize outdoor exposure.

The conditions also cast a shadow over festivities for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, as people headed to mosques to celebrate the culmination of the annual Hajj pilgrimage. While some covered their mouths to block out the haze, none wore masks, as prayers conducted inside the mosque required them to wash their faces. Mustafa Muhamad, 61, said the bad air quality was causing some of his friends to say prayers at home instead for the festival of sacrifice.

“The haze is very bad, there are less people in the mosque this year. Coming to the mosque to pray used to be very nice because we would mingle around after,” the teacher explained. Housewife Asnah Mohamad, 62, said she and a friend used their headscarves to cover their faces as they travelled to a mosque.

“My husband cannot leave the house because he has a heart condition so I represented him to collect the meat offerings,” she told news agency Agence France-Presse, referring to the traditional practice of sharing the meat of a sacrificed goat or sheep. “We hope it gets better soon. But what can you do? Go over there (to Indonesia) and pour water on the fire?”

Businesses complained of low customer turnout, especially for a holiday, local media reported. The Singapore Sports Hub complex suspended all outdoor activities.

Minister for Social and Family Development Tan Chuan-Jin called for calm in a Facebook post late Thursday.

“At all times refer only to official channels for information and do not circulate speculations,” he wrote.

For the past two decades, smoke from Indonesia has been spreading to other parts of Southeast Asia during the region’s annual mid-year dry season, when plantation owners and other farmers deliberately start brush and forest fires to clear land.

Southeast Asia’s most damaging cross-border haze came in 1997 and 1998, when the smog caused an estimated $9 billion in losses in economic activity across the region. Parts of Malaysia and Thailand have also occasionally been affected.

The haze situation has been made worse this year by an El Niño weather system, which produces tinder-dry conditions.

Under pressure from neighboring countries, Indonesian President Joko Widodo has pledged to crack down on companies and individuals behind the burning —a cheap but illegal way of clearing large tracts of land. During a visit to the haze-stricken islands of Borneo and Sumatra this week, Widodo called on local residents to do their part.

“I’m taking this opportunity to ask the community not to carry out burning, whether at the farms, in their own yards or on the streets,” Widodo told reporters.

He said the government was trying its best to extinguish the fires by dropping water from helicopters and inducing rain through cloud-seeding.

Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency told AFP that 2,081 fire “hotspots” were recorded on Thursday in the worst-affected region of Indonesia’s Kalimantan territory on Borneo, and 290 on Sumatra.

A total of 27 companies are being investigated in connection with the forest fires, Indonesian authorities said, while 140 individuals are being questioned. A Singapore-listed company is among those under investigation.

NM “Game” Commission caters to hunters, ranchers

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Letters to the editor

Published: Tuesday, September 8th, 2015 at 12:02am
Commission caters to hunters, ranchers
AT THE N.M. Game Commission hearing on Aug. 27, opponents of increased mountain lion and bear killing outnumbered the hunters, trappers and ranchers at least 4 to 1. Yet, while some of the environmental/animal groups were allowed to speak, many of us individual citizens were not.
It was obvious to many that the commission was changing the rules to fit its biased needs. Not only are numerous ranchers and hunters on this commission, but there are two Safari Club International members as well.
Anyone surprised that the “vote” was unanimous in favor of more killing?
We cannot help wildlife by changing these game (commission’s) names, or funding structure, or by continuing to accept their barbaric “game management policies” as something worthy of support.
Game agencies were started in the early 1900s. Aldo Leopold – a longtime wolf killer – literally wrote the textbook on game management. Yes, he was “sorry” for killing one wolf too many, but he was responsible for the atrocious model of today’s “modern game management,” which views wild animals as “commodities and resources.”
Terms such as “harvest” and “game quotas” are designed to artificially maintain wild species for trophy/trapping – keeping just enough of them for human exploitation/killing.
The N.M. Game (and Fish) Department comes up with pseudo-statistics to rationalize its use of wildlife. Some so-called wildlife groups are collaborating with the enemies of wildlife – the hunting, trapping and livestock industries – to establish a so-called sustainable level of wildlife killing. The wildlife of New Mexico has enough to contend with without wildlife organizations joining the killing machine.
The World Wildlife Living Planet Report states that populations of fish, birds, mammals, amphibians and reptiles measured for the report have declined by 52 percent since 1970; and freshwater species have suffered a 76 percent decline – an average loss almost double that of land and marine species.
We are developing a campaign against trophy hunting, and the state game departments that support it, on our EARTH for Animals website.
ROSEMARY LOWE
Santa Fe
Protect our wildlife from trophy hunters
I FIND IT despicable that the N.M. Game Commission could be dominated by the lobbying of hunters. Bears, cougars and other native species are magnificent wildlife creatures that have no voice, no vote, no money and no guns with which to fight back.
Shame on the commission for considering any killing, let alone killing by traps. Anyone with a degree in biology knows that predator/prey populations enter population equilibrium if humans do not interfere by hunting. It is unnecessary to kill them.
I will work to defeat those on the commission with my time, effort and money if they refuse to protect our wildlife from trophy hunters.
Hunting is not motivated by a need for food but by a need for power and satisfaction of personal ego. Allowing these kills satisfies the self interest of the few over the common interest of the many, the greater public.
Listen to the people who support the common interest, people who want these creatures to live, not die.
LORNA DYER
Santa Fe
Game Commission OKs exterminations
SHAME ON THE New Mexico Game Commission for its continued assault on our wildlife. It is tragically pathetic that even though the taxpaying public has loudly voiced opposition to the commission’s plans to exterminate all forms of wildlife from our lands (commissioners) continue their quest to do so and get away with it.
How sad for the rest of us.
RUTH CONNERY
Albuquerque
All commissioners ignored will of people
A PERVERSION OF democracy in order to kill cougars. Just one fact makes that statement sadly accurate.
Seventy-five percent of voters (polled) don’t want trapping of cougars, and furthermore, 75 percent of voters (polled) don’t want trapping of cougars, even considering it would bring in revenue. And yet, the N.M. Game Commission voted, unanimously, to allow trapping of cougars.
Let that sink in. Seventy-five percent of voters polled don’t want trapping of cougars in New Mexico, and yet, the N.M. Game Commission voted unanimously to allow it anyway. Unanimously.
All of the game commissioners ignored the will of the people.
And while maybe the Game Commission doesn’t have to adhere strictly to democratic principles, the fact that all commissioners ignored the will of the people shows that absolutely none of them give democracy any consideration.
It seems like that would be impossible. Impossible that none of the commissioners would vote according to the will of the people. This, folks, is a sad commentary on the arrogance of these officials. Ignoring democratic principles. Surely one would think that at least one commissioner would acquiesce to the will of the people, but no. Not one considered democracy when voting.
Add to that the petition results opposing trapping of cougars and the questionable handling of public comments, it is accurate and fair to say that the decision to allow trapping of cougars in N.M. is a perversion of democracy here in New Mexico. Just so a few people can torture and kill.
How sad.
DAVID J. FORJAN
Tularosa
Time to get some new commissioners
THE NEW MEXICO Game Commission is charged with managing wildlife for all of us. Recent decisions show there is no representation for those of us who think wildlife, including the top predators, should be protected from slaughter. We are the majority yet completely unrepresented on the commission.
The terms of three of the commissioners expire on Dec. 31. All New Mexicans who believe wildlife has a right to more than a brutal death should implore Gov. Susana Martinez to appoint at least one commissioner to represent the majority.
MARK JUSTICE HINTON
Albuquerque
JOURNAL

Oregon town seeks solutions to droves of fearless deer

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/22/us-usa-oregon-deer-idUSKCN0RM2UO20150922

Tue Sep 22, 2015 7:14pm EDT

Related: Oddly Enough, Environment

PORTLAND, Ore. | By Shelby Sebens

PORTLAND, Ore. A town in southern Oregon will hold a public meeting to discuss how to deal with droves of fearless deer that wander the streets, occasionally acting aggressively toward residents, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

The “Deer Summit 2015” will be chaired on Wednesday by Ashland Mayor John Stromberg as part of efforts to address deer that have stalked people, pawed at them with their hooves and even stomped on small dogs.

“The deer have no fear of humans,” said Mark Vargas, District Wildlife Biologist for the382304_10150410245381489_1896442457_n Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The confident deer are a product of a long tradition in the town of 21,000 people of feeding and befriending them, Vargas said.

For the last two or three decades, the black tailed deer have been known to roam into yards and stroll the downtown area of Ashland, which lies in the heavily forested foothills of the Siskiyou and Cascade Mountains.

“Deer just live there,” Vargas said. “They live amongst all the people and when that happens there’s going to be conflict.”

Stromberg said on the city’s website that he wants to hear from community members with ideas about what to do.

The mayor could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, but city officials have urged residents not to feed the deer, and to put up deer fencing or deer resistant plants.

In a statement, the officials said a recent attack on a homeowner by a deer protecting its fawn was a reminder that locals share their community with all manner of wildlife.

“No matter how cute and seemingly domesticated, these are wild creatures.  Their behaviors are unpredictable,” they said on the city’s website.

Vargas said there is no easy solution. Giving the does birth control would be costly and ineffective, he said, and one would have to kill between 40 and 50 deer a year to have an impact that way. Trapping and moving them would just transfer the problem to another community, as the deer have become acclimated to city life, he said.

Vargas encourages people to stop feeding the deer and to yell or make loud noises if they enter their yard.

“In reality we encourage folks, look don’t feed the deer,” he said. “They don’t need food. They don’t need water. If you can, don’t even be friends with them.”

Parks & Wildlife: Hunter’s Injuries Not Caused By Bear

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GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (CBS4)– Wildlife officers say that a hunter was not attacked by a bear, despite claims that he was injured when a bear attacked him.

Officers with Colorado Parks and Wildlife investigated reports of the bear attack and mauling on the Grand Mesa on Saturday evening.

A hunter in his late 60s was parked on his ATV on Forest Service Road 105 above Powderhorn Ski Resort when he said a bear approached and attacked, causing him to drive over a small cliff into large rocks below. He suffered extensive but non-life threatening injuries.

“We investigated this incident thoroughly over the last three days, including the use of specially trained dogs from the USDA’s Wildlife Services, examination of the injuries, and forensic crime scene examination and we found conclusive evidence that a bear did not attack this individual,” said Colorado Parks and Wildlife Area Wildlife Manager JT Romatzke in a statement. “This individual is certain that he saw a bear. We are not discounting that he saw something that caused him to react.”

(credit: CBS)

“People get very concerned about wildlife conflicts, and it is not helpful to cause unneeded alarm,” said Romatzke. “Just like a typical crime scene, all possible conflicts with wildlife require extensive investigation to come to accurate, factual conclusions. It’s important for the public to get the right information, especially when it comes to issues that potentially affect their safety.”

The hunter’s name is not being released.

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/09/22/parks-wildlife-hunters-injuries-not-caused-by-bear/

Wolf Killing Time Upon Us Once Again

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Nabeki's avatarHowling For Justice

Echo NPS

Echo murdered by trophy hunter – 2015

Sadly it’s wolf killing time again in Montana and Idaho. They’ve suffered under the Obama admins. delisting since 2009. Thousands have died and continue to be murdered by trophy hunting thrill killers. Montana now allows individual ranchers or farmers to kill up to 100 wolves annually.

“Private landowners may kill up to 100 wolves a year they believe are threatening livestock, dogs or people under a new state law that doesn’t count toward Montana’s wolf-hunting season.”

The good news is Wyoming, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan wolves are once again protected under the ESA due to a ruling in December 2014 by “U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell.  Judge Howell stated their removal from the ESA was “arbitrary and capricious” and violated the federal Endangered Species Act.”

Federal judge: Great Lakes wolves return to endangered list

By John Flesher, Associated Press5:52 p.m. EST…

View original post 638 more words

Marine population halved since 1970 – report

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http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34265672?SThisFB

Northern bluefin tuna. File photoImage copyright Science Photo Library
Image caption The report analysed more than 1,200 species of marine creatures in the past 45 years

Populations of marine mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have declined by 49% since 1970, a report says.

The study says some species people rely on for food are faring even worse, noting a 74% drop in the populations of tuna and mackerel.

In addition to human activity such as overfishing, the report also says climate change is having an impact.

The document was prepared by the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London.

A sea cucumber feeds on algae. File photoImage copyright PA
Image caption Sea cucumbers – seen as luxury food throughout Asia – have seen a significant fall in numbers

“Human activity has severely damaged the ocean by catching fish faster than they can reproduce while also destroying their nurseries,” said Marco Lambertini, head of WWF International.

The report says that sea cucumbers – seen as a luxury food throughout Asia – have seen a significant fall in numbers, with a 98% in the Galapagos and 94% drop in the Red Sea over the past few years.

The study notes the decline of habitats – such as seagrass areas and mangrove cover – which are important for food and act as a nursery for many species.

Climate change has also played a role in the overall decline of marine populations.

The report says carbon dioxide is being absorbed into the oceans, making them more acidic, damaging a number of species.

The authors analysed more than 1,200 species of marine creatures in the past 45 years.

We Need to Stop Eating the Oceans

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Yana Rusinovich Watson

by Captain Paul Watson

For centuries, the oceans have fed humanity. But in the last century, humans has destroyed oceanic eco-systems with an ecological ignorance that is insane.

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, and hard-working fisherman working courageously to feed society and support his family.
No longer does the typical 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 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 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.

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.

Recently 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 based 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. 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.

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.

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

It looks like the fish are turning the tables on humanity. Not by choice but because ecological realities have boomeranged back upon humankind.

Tins of tuna fish now contain warnings that the product should not be eaten by pregnant women or young children because of high levels of mercury and other toxic heavy metals.

Farm raised salmon contain antibiotics, growth hormones and even a dye to colour the flesh a pleasing pink while still alive.

Long-living fish like halibut, cod, orange roughy and swordfish contain large amounts of heavy metals. When you can live over a century like a halibut, you accumulate decades of toxins. When you live high up on the food chain, you build up mercury and other heavy metals.

Orcas in the Pacific Northwest of the United States are the most chemically contaminated animals in the world. Beluga whales in the St Lawrence River are treated as toxic waste when they die.

We treat the oceans like sewers and then act surprised that the fish that is eaten is polluted.

Humans can be wilfully blind and deliberately ignorant when it comes to food. We would never eat a piece of fish sitting in a bowl of mercury, arsenic and PCBs garnished with a lump of human fecal material on top.

Yana Rusinovich Watson's photo.