Japanese whale hunters kill 122 pregnant minke

30 May 2018

Japanese hunters caught and killed 122 pregnant minke whales as part of its Antarctic summer "field survey".

A report sent to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) reveals hunters caught 333 minkes in total.

The team left Japan in November 2017 for the Southern Ocean and returned in March 2018.

Japan says its whaling programme is for scientific purposes, despite a 2014 UN ruling against its "lethal research" and widespread condemnation.

In a new research plan published after the UN ruling, Japan said it was "scientifically imperative" to understand Antarctica's ecosystem through collecting and analysing animals.

How many whales did Japan catch?

The country's New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A) sent a report to the IWC detailing the 333 minkes caught, 152 male and 181 female, during its "third biological field survey" in the area.

Japan cut down its catch by two-thirds under its new research plan, and has stuck to taking about 330 whales each year.

The data shows that in the 2017/18 hunt, 122 of the female minkes captured were pregnant, while 61 of the males and 53 of the females were not yet adults.

Read on 

Japan confirms whales killed during 'scientific' expedition to Antarctica

Four ships in the region also capture 333 minke whales, including pregnant females

Australian Associated Press

Thursday 24 March 2016 07.57 GMTLast modified on Thursday 24 March 201607.59 GMT

Japan has confirmed whales were killed on its most recent “scientific” expedition in the Antarctic region.

Four survey ships from Japan’s Institute of Cetacean Research were in the Antarctic region over a period of 115 days from 1 December last year.

The institute’s report said 333 minke whales were captured, including pregnant females.

Japan’s actions are in defiance of international criticism and despite a 2014 UN legal decision that ruled so-called scientific whaling activity in the Southern Ocean was a front for commercial hunts.

The Australian government has described Japan’s decision to resume whaling over the southern hemisphere summer as “deeply disappointing” and says it has raised concerns at the highest level of the Japanese government.

It had said it would consider sending a customs patrol vessel to the Southern Ocean as well as exploring options for legal action.

But conservation group Sea Shepherd said in February that the Japanese fleet had faced little or no scrutiny over the summer and Australia and New Zealand seemed unwilling to send a ship to intercept them.

Source …

Japan plans to restart whaling despite ICJ ruling

Japan has announced plans to kill 333 minke whales as part of a new ‘scientific’ whaling programme in the Antarctic.

The news comes just eight months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled its whaling activities in the Southern Ocean was illegal and must stop.

The Japanese government has revealed details of a new proposal, called NEWREP-A, which targets just one species of whale, the Minke Whale.

Although Japan initially vowed to respect the ruling of the ICJ, it soon pledged to pursue a new programme for scientific whaling in the Southern Ocean.

“This proposal is an audacious step in the wrong direction and actually increases whaling the ICJ ruled illegal, said Patrick Ramage, Global Whale Programme Director for International Fund for Animal Welfare.

“The World Court judgment said Japan cannot go it alone and decide itself what represents legitimate ‘scientific’ whaling. This plan should be dead on arrival when it arrives at the IWC Scientific Committee next year.

“We are carefully reviewing this 100-page document, but it's immediately clear this plan will mean more blood in the water, an expanded Antarctic killing zone, and a sharp increase over the actual number of whales taken in recent years. It is time for Japan to finally end its outdated, cruel and unscientific killing of whales.”

Continued ...

Japan kills 30 minke whales in ‘research’ campaign following intl court ban

Published time: June 14, 2014 18:22 

Edited time: June 16, 2014 11:43

Japan has caught and killed 30 minke whales in the country’s annual northwest Pacific “research” whaling campaign, officials said on Friday. The trip is the first since an international court banned such activities earlier this year.

The minke whales were caught off Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture as part of the country's annual northwestern Pacific hunt – which takes place form April to June – according to Japan's Fisheries Agency. A second group of whalers is still at work. 

In March, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found that Japan’s Southern Ocean efforts in the Antarctic whale hunt were illegal under international law. It was ruled that no further permits should be issued under Japan’s scientific whaling program, saying that the campaign produced little actual research. The ruling also urged Japan to re-examine the program. 

Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said in April that it would submit a new plan for Antarctic whaling to the International Whaling Commission in 2015 for the purpose of resuming whaling in the region. 

Japan has been conducting whaling research in three areas – the Antarctic Ocean, off the coast of the northwestern Pacific Ocean, and along the coast of the northwestern Pacific. The latter two are not as widely known as the Antarctic hunt and were not specifically mentioned in the court ruling. 

Continued

Fishy Numbers? Minke Whales Hide in Ice, Fooling Scientists

Elizabeth Howell, LiveScience contributor | March 21, 2014 02:29pm ET

Conventional population surveys of minke whales are flawed because the whales hide in broken-up sea ice, far from where boats can usually go, a new study says.

The finding points to the need to use aerial and boat surveys in this challenging environment, the researcher's lead author said, but he worries the expense will make it difficult to convince authorities this is the preferred method to seek out the whales.

Minke whales are small baleen whales that live in all oceans, but typically prefer chilly waters. The International Whaling Commission estimates that Antarctic minke whales have declined throughout the Southern Ocean by about 30 percent.

read on

Japanese whaling fleet filmed with dead minke whales in Southern Ocean

At least three dead whales have been spotted aboard a Japanese vessel in the Southern Ocean.

New Zealand's foreign minister condemned the whaling but disputed claims by conservation group Sea Shepherd that the fleet had been operating in New Zealand’s territorial waters, in the Ross Sea in Antarctica.

Murray McCully, foreign affairs minister, called the Japanese operation "pointless and offensive", adding: "New Zealand has responsibility for co-ordinating search and rescue operations in a large area in the Southern Ocean, however these are international waters and not within New Zealand's maritime jurisdiction.'' Japan says the whale hunts are for scientific purposes.

Read on

Iceland signs death warrants of 770 endangered fin whales

Last Friday the Icelandic government quietly signed off the quota of whales to be killed over the next five years. The total includes 770 endangered fin whales and 1145 minke whales. Despite Iceland’s only whaling company having increasing difficulty in finding a market for whale meat the government has decided to continue to issue annual quotas for the killing of whales.

The quota which will run from next year will see the whaling company run by Kristjan Loftsson able to harpoon and kill 229 minke whales each year and 154 fin whales each year. The market for whale meat in Iceland is shrinking and new markets are having to be found for the whale meat including for use as dog food in Japan.

Continued

Minke whales being spotted more often off north east England

North Sea erupts with marine life

August 2013. Yet, last month seven Minke whales, an impressive 10 metre long migratory species were seen off England's north-east coast. The length of an average London bus, this whale has also been sighted in good numbers from shore and during small vessel surveys off the in recent weeks, including off the Farne Islands. A record number of Harbour Porpoises, up to 108 individuals, were also spotted.

Ferry sightings

The whales were spotted in July by MARINElife conservation researchers aboard DFDS Seaways freight ferry service from Immingham on the east coast of England to Esbjerg in Denmark. Land-based observers have also been reporting their sightings to the North East Cetacean Project (NECP). It was only a short way into the journey when researchers were treated to a pod of four Harbour Porpoises. These docile marine mammals are surprisingly numerous in this expanse of water, having been spotted on every outing by MARINElife surveyors in this area since the winter of 2012. However, as the numbers rose to a staggering 108, it was clear this was the largest number of these creatures spotted since the charity began surveying the area over a year ago.

Why has it been so good for whales and porpoises?

Dr Martin Kitching, North East Cetacean Project Coordinator at MARINElife, says "a rapid increase in sea surface temperatures and the appearance of huge shoals of Sand Eel and Mackerel (whale and porpoise food), combined with near perfect conditions for observation, have shown just how extraordinary the marine environment is. All of the sightings in recent weeks provide an excellent addition to our North Sea database, which has been critical in the ongoing debate about Marine Conservation Zones."

Continued

Large group of Minke whales spotted in the Irish Sea

Minke whales alert for those on Irish Sea 

July 2013. Sailors and leisure craft users of the Irish Sea are being urged to keep an eye open for Minke whales and to report any sightings to Sea Watch Foundation, after an exceptionally large group of 15 was spotted in the Irish Sea. 

The call comes after boat operator and Sea Watch regular observer, Jon Shaw, who is based on Anglesey, came across the group while sailing across the Irish Sea, and is made as Sea Watch prepares to host the National Whale and Dolphin Watch from 27 July- 4 August.

Juveniles and a calf

The group included three juveniles and a calf, 19 miles east of Ireland's Eye on the Dublin Coast. The animals were loosely grouped in a relatively small area and were associating with flocks of Manx shearwaters. 

Jon said: "They were within a in a mile radius of the boat; some were a little distant but others just 100 metres from us, and the group included both large ones and small animals. I stopped the engines for a while and listened to the blows and sound of the water as they dived and surfaced."

Continued

South Korea drops scientific whaling plan

South Korea prime minister criticises fishing ministry

July 2012. In an apparent about turn, South Korea has ditched plans to launch a scientific whaling programme. Korea announced at the recent IWC meeting that it planned to launch a scientific whaling programme, which caused outrage in many parts of the world, and was described by on erudite media outlet as ARSE! A brief announcement seem to blame the South Korean Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries for announcing a decision that they had not discussed with the prime minister.

Already catching 200 whales per year as ‘bycatch'

Korea already catches an estimated 200 Minke whales per year by ‘accident' (They must be incredibly careless).

Read more details in 'The Age' 

Close encounters with a Minke whale

Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch

May 2012. Summer may just have arrived in Manx waters, if the survey with the Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch recently is anything to go by. It was a beautiful day & the sea was alive with wildlife.

There were thousands of sea birds, including diving gannets, guillemots, razorbills and Manx shearwaters. We also saw dozens of harbour porpoise. Then we saw a basking shark - the first of the season for the Manx Basking Shark Watch and Manx Whale & Dolphin Watch team, and the first ever for our volunteers.

Naughty Minke
We thought the day couldn't get much better, until we had a truly amazing encounter with a Minke whale. This Minke was curious and came right up to the boat. It was circling us, surfacing right alongside us and swimming underneath us. We could see the white bands on its flippers and its triangular shaped head.

The fish-finder showed that we were right over a big ball of fish and it seemed like the Minke was using us to help feed on them. None of us had ever been that close to a Minke before, even our very experienced skippers on the boat. I can't imagine that we will be that lucky again, but it was an incredible experience which will stay with all of us for a long time.

Hopefully, this is the start of a great summer for marine wildlife on the Island. Time spent at the coast or on the water should reward you with some fabulous sightings of sharks, whales, dolphins and porpoises. We look forward to getting your reports, hearing your stories and seeing your pictures. Sharks can be reported to www.manxbaskingsharkwatch.com and whales & dolphins to www.mwdw.net.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/manx-minke.html

Norway whalers take first whales of hunting season

Norway has set a quota of 1,286 Minke whales for this year's season, though its whaling fleet is expected to have trouble meeting it.

OSLO — Norwegian whale hunters have harpooned the first three whales of the year, nearly a month after the controversial hunting season began, the country's Fishermen's Sales Organization said on May 2.

 

"Three whales were taken off Bear Island on Sunday (April 29)," Per Rolandsen, of the sales organization's division in Norway's Arctic Lofoten archipelago, told AFP.

 

Norway's whale hunting season started on April 1 and is set to last until August 31, but Rolandsen explained that weather conditions had been poor and the vessels had been tied up until now with other fishing activities.

 

"The whale hunt is very weather dependent (but) we expect now that the hunting conditions will improve," he said.

 

Norway and Iceland are, with Japan, the only countries to defy the 1986 international moratorium on commercial whaling, claiming Minke whale stocks are large enough to merit limited hunts.

 

Japan uses a loophole that allows killing the animals for "lethal research," but a large portion of the meat also makes it to commercial markets.

 

Norway has set a quota of 1,286 Minke whales for this year's season — the same as last year — even though the country's dwindling whaling fleet is having trouble filling the quota.

Stranded baby whale rescued in Humber

A novel rescue by 50 emergency staff and marine specialists has saved a stranded whale and seen it safely out to sea.

Firefighters dug a trench in mudflats on the Humber estuary and then worked with other specialists to turn the 15-tonne minke whale round and gently heave it loose.

Boats were used alongside the rescuers to create wakes that helped the 30ft (9 metre) mammal's escap e after eight hours on the edge of Immingham, one of the UK's largest docks.

The alarm was raised when the stranding was spotted by a passing ship at 8am on Tuesday, an estimated four hours after it is thought to have grounded. A second, larger whale was seen circling nearby and rescuers believe that ship movements may have confused the younger one.

Torrential rain also eased the animal's plight although it stretched the rescue team and monitors who are now stationed round Immingham in case the minke turns back inshore. This has happened previously with disorientated whales and the RSPCA said the minke had initially tried to resist the turn-round effort.

A witness of the operation, a 58-year-old local man who did not wish to be named, said: "The teams waited until high tide but that was still quite low so there wasn't enough water. They turned the whale to face the sea but it kept wanting to come back in.

"To make the water deeper, they had boats running up and down alongside the whale to make a wave so the water was high enough to get it out. They then basically walked it out towards sea and then it just swam out. Hopefully, it will able to make its way down the Humber now."

Geoff Edmond, of the RSPCA, said: "We got on the scene this morning when coastguard and RNLI crews were already in attendance with a vet. We waited until about 1.30pm when it was high tide to attempt to re-float the whale.

"With a lot of effort and advice from the vet everyone managed to re-float it. It hung about for a bit before finally disappearing from view. It still needs to get back into the North Sea so I think the next 24 hours will be crucial."

Earlier Mike Puplett, of Humber coastguard, said low tide had hampered initial approaches and raised concern that the whale might be crushed by its own weight as water levels sank to cover only some 10% of its bulk. But rescuers were heartened by continuing signs of life as the tide came back in.
Minkes prefer the open sea but are occasionally drawn close to land where they become vulnerable to unfamiliar tidal movements.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/sep/06/whale-rescue-stranded-humber

articles on misidentifications of mystery aquatics (2) (Via Chad Arment)

Orleans man delves into sea serpent `mystery'

Wicked Local Cape Cod
Posted Jul 20, 2011

ORLEANS —
During the 1800s and early 1900s eyewitness reports and newspaper articles about a sea serpent in the waters off Gloucester and the South Shore abounded. The serpent, said to be 100-feet in length, so fascinated folks that a scientific commission was formed to study it.

No credible explanation for the accounts ever surfaced and in the last 60 years there has been little mention of the creature.

But a man looking out his enormous plate glass windows that provide a panoramic view of Nauset Beach may have unraveled the mystery late last month.

Edward "Kin" Carmody, who lives on Callanan's Pass on a bluff overlooking the beach, is a talkative, engaging man who has found time for various hobbies since he retired as a top marketing man for Kraft Foods 10 years ago. And if he isn't working in his garden or creating new varieties of day lilies he'll relax by sitting in a particular white wicker chair in his living room, look out at the Atlantic and watch for whale spouts. And on June 29 around 3 p.m. he saw something that is now etched in his memory.

"I saw, slightly to left," he said pointing, his binoculars on the table beside him. "Quite a commotion of whales."

He knew they were minke whales because they have a dorsal fin.

That was when he saw a common animal exhibit and uncommon behavior. It was a behavior that just may explain why people over the centuries have sworn they have seen a snakelike creature swimming in the water.

"As soon as I saw it I said `Oh my God, that may be the answer to a 1,000-year old mystery'," Carmody recalled.

Then taking out a pad of paper on a recent sunny morning he sketched out what he saw that day: a chain of minke whales, nose to tail, whose backs looked much like the coils of the iconic sea serpent.

"They were in a chain line, they curved. It was synchronized exactly," he said. "It was just like a gigantic snake."

And then he pulled out another drawing.

"That is the classic sea monster that people see," Carmody said, having quickly sketched the undulating body and dragon-like head.

The obvious difference between the two pictures is the missing head and tail in the whale drawing, but, said Carmody, the mind is a powerful thing. It will often create what you want to see, as evidenced by various mind games where your brain fills in missing words and the famous unreliability of eyewitness accounts.

First he thought the six, maybe eight, whales were playing, but then thought that was something that happened often. This ritual would need to be unusual, so he believes it may determine who the leader of the pod will be.

"That's my hypothesis," he said.

Scott Landry, director of the disentanglement program for Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, said there are an abundance of minke whales around. But, he explained after the caveat that the whales are poorly studied, they are usually solitary creatures – mainly because they have to eat so much a day – and don't have a herd structure.

Still, it's quite possible that the minke whales were in a group because there was a lot of fish or sand lance around. The line could have been "coincidental," Landry said.

Sightings such as Carmody's are probably one of the reasons myths develop, he added.

Carmody's fascination with the sight may have stemmed in part from his knowledge of paleontology, another of his hobbies. (In fact he has a few fossils in his basement.) He knows there is no fossil record of anything resembling a sea serpent and he also knows that when snakes swim they swim left to right, just as they coast across the land. They don't propel themselves up and down as a sea serpents have been depicted.

Carmody isn't professing that he is made one of the greatest scientific discoveries of the century; he is in fact concerned, he admitted with a chuckle, that his wife will be less than pleased that he has given folks the opportunity to say he is a little nutty. But there has been nothing that has been able to explain why so many people have thought they have seen a sea serpent.

Until now perhaps.

http://www.wickedlocal.com/capecod/news/cape_cod_news/x1797075497/Orleans-man-delves-into-sea-serpent-mystery#axzz1T2aAEAfN

Blood-sucking fish feed on whales

Blood-sucking sea lampreys feed on prey as big as minke whales, according to new research.


Scientists studying whales in Canada have challenged previous theories that lampreys attach to whales purely to "hitch a ride".

Photographs show bloody lesions after lampreys detached from whale hosts, indicating feeding.

Sea lampreys are parasitic fish that feed on others' blood, attaching to the skin with a suction-cup like mouth.

Sea lampreys (Petromyzon marinus) are known to feed on a wide variety of fish using a funnel-like mouth filled with teeth and a razor-like tongue.


In the past lamprey teeth-marks have been identified on whale and porpoise bodies.

Sea lampreys have also been photographed attached to Pacific humpback and North Atlantic right whales.

Based on these rare glimpses, certain scientists theorised that sea lampreys feed on cetaceans, but it was not possible from this evidence to say conclusively that they were drawing blood.

Others in the scientific community argued that P. marinus could merely be using cetaceans for transport, biting into their flesh in order to travel long distances.

However, during studies in the St Lawrence estuary, where the Great Lakes enter the Atlantic Ocean in eastern Canada, researchers resolved the debate.


The long-term study of minke whales in the area provided the first ongoing observations of sea lamprey and whale interaction.


Their findings were published in the Journal of Fish Biology.

"We and others had long had reason to believe that the lampreys were feeding," said Owen Nichols, Director of the Marine Fisheries Initiative at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies in Massachusetts, US.

"The high frequency of minke whale observations coupled with their behaviour in the estuary, frequent surfacings with much of their bodies visible, made these observations possible."

Ursula Tscherter was responsible for the fieldwork during which the research team photographed whales before, during and after lamprey attachment.

"Little is known about lamprey fish on cetaceans especially on minke whales," said Ms Tscherter.

"To document the presence of lamprey fish on individually identified minke whales, which use the St Lawrence estuary as a summer feeding ground, helps to put the topic into a broader context."

The images of bloody lesions on the whales provided the first evidence that the parasites fed on cetacean blood.

"To our knowledge these are the first in-situ observations of such behaviour during which one can convincingly state that lampreys attached to whales are rasping through the skin and feeding rather than just 'hanging on for the ride'," explained Mr Nichols.


Sometimes dubbed the "vampire fish", P. marinus was accidentally introduced to North America's Great Lakes in the 1800s.

Like salmon, sea lampreys are "anadromous", meaning they are born in fresh water, migrate to the sea for their adult life and eventually return to freshwater to spawn and die.

Efforts are now being made to better understand the species in order to control the invasive population that threatens native fish species.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9281000/9281424.stm

By Ella Davies

Earth News reporter
http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4348728589329576621