Pacific Spirit Marine Institute
Methyl Iodide May Be Approved by EPA Today
Friday, September 28, 2007
Methyl Bromide has been used by the hundreds of thousands of tonnes to sterilize soils before crops are planted. It's devastating affect on our Ozone layer is well documented.
Methyl Iodide maybe approved as a replacement for Methyl Bromide today by the EPA. Methyl Iodide was researched as long ago as 50 years.
Both compounds are known to be toxins to humans and animals but, methyl Bromide is thought to be far more devastating to the ozone.
Methyl Iodide has been proven to be equal to, and in many cases better than, Methyl Bromide in the control of many detrimental organisms living in the soil. Why, when this compound seems to be a safer alternative, to the Ozone layer was Methyl Iodide not being used for the past 30 years?
Why then has the world used Methyl Bromide instead?
The nature of Methyl Iodide causes it to dissipate far faster in the air than the methyl bromide, a few days rather than several years. It's properties cause it to be used in a liquid form rather than gas, like Methyl Bromide; an advantage that makes it potentially less dangerous to use during application.
Interestingly enough there are claims by the USDA itself that the lack of the iodide portion of the compound is a major cause of mental illness in the world.....DOH! Is it really that easy?
The USDA also states unlike bromide, iodide is a recognized plant and human nutrient. Why would we continue to float this Methyl Bromide into our earth's atmosphere for some 50 years, knowing there may be a suitable substitute that might even be good for us?
Good farming practices went out the window with the coming of the industrialized age. There was a time when plowing a crop under after harvest and rotating crops were the norm. The Hebrew Scriptures (the old Testament) even give detailed instructions as to how to successfully and with good stewardship cultivate the soil. How did we get so far off the track of nourishing the soil and in doing so our bodies? Follow the money.
At some point in our industrialized evolution someone got the bright idea that farming could and should be a mega profitable venture. Mechanized harvests, mechanized fumigation, mechanized fertilization became the mechanics for the mega bottom line profits of farming.
One look at the ever evolving 'food pyramid' and the volumes of food recommend for a balanced diet only proves there are fewer and fewer nutrients in the foods we eat. I'm not even speaking of processed and refined foods. Fresh, wholesome fruits and vegetables now days need to be eaten in quantities that are bordering on the ridiculous. Why? Because these foods are grown in void and vanquished soil. Over farmed, over worked and over sterilized.
I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that to produce nutrient rich food from the earth, the earth needs to be nourished. Sterilization does not enrich. Fertilizing with lab made compounds does not nourish.
The only thing that has been truly nourished on our earth in the last 60 years has been the bottom line of the commercial ventures.
Photo: World Ag Expo-Tulare CA.USA
Labels: Agriculture, Environment, EPA, Global Warming, Methyl Bromide, Methyl Iodide, Ozone
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Methyl Iodide May Be Approved by EPA Today
posted by Pacific Spirit on Friday, September 28, 2007
Replacing Methyl Bromide with the MIDAS Touch?
Thursday, September 27, 2007
In an effort to find an acceptable substitute for Methyl Bromide, Tokyo's Arysta LifeScience Corp is marketing Methyl iodide, a compound they are calling MIDAS (MIDASusda). Was this product named after King Midas? Maybe Arysta plan was to make farmers feel that everything their new product touches will turn to gold?
Then again maybe it's merely a stroke of good luck with the acronym.
In any case at least 54 scientists and physicians feel what this product touches may turn to death and destruction. The Methyl iodide is being called "one of the more toxic chemicals..."
EPA is expected to approve the use of MIDAS, in the US, as soon as tomorrow. 6 chemistry Nobel Prize winners are concerned that people living near, and those working with this product will be at "serious risk"
Methyl Bromide has long been known to be a severe and serious detriment to our fragile Ozone layer, and therefore a contributor to global warming. The EPA is taking the position buffer zones could be created around fields to reduce the risk of nearby residents and neighbors and that farm workers could be protected by using respirators.
The EPA, evaluated studies that linked Methyl iodide inhalation a horrifying array of illnesses and deaths in rats, but concluded the chemical was not likely cancerous in humans! Okie Dokie then!
The Montreal Protocol banned the use of Methyl Bromide and is calling for smaller and smaller usage with a complete fade out by 2010. Though the U.S. is using more Methyl Bromide each year than the rest of the world combined, and has applied for conditional use permits up to 2009, MIDAS may not be a less toxic alternative.
As for the depletion of the Ozone layer, Methyl Iodide is destroyed by light in as little as a few days, where Methyl Bromide can stay in the atmosphere for as long as 2 years.
Methyl Iodide seems to be an affordable alternative when it comes to being more friendly to the ozone, but as 1981 Nobel prize winner, Professor Roald Hoffmann from Cornell says "I wouldn't like to live near a field where it's (Methyl Iodide) applied.
Methyl Iodide was studied as long as 50 years ago...Provided there is no breaking news will have more on that sad subject tomorrow.
Labels: EPA, Global Warming, Methyl Bromide, Methyl Iodide, Montreal Protocol, Ozone
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Replacing Methyl Bromide with the MIDAS Touch?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Thursday, September 27, 2007
Microbiologists Develop Super Salmonella; the regular kind wasn't Virulent enough?
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Microbiologists at Arizona State University launched salmonella into space. Salmonella! Yes, they loaded test tubes with Salmonella bacteria and then sent those tubes to space aboard the September 06 shuttle flight.
I'm not suprised that the microbes came back from their journey even more virulent and dangerous than when they left. I wonder if the biologists, were suprised though.
The outcome of this experiment was published in the National Academy of Sciences.
Apparently spaceflight has an affect on the 'master genetic regulator'. Seeing how an organizm turns 'super' may give some insight into how to turn it weaker than normal? Maybe.
Has common sense taken leave of the planet? Maybe.
I can't help wondering with all the 'super-strains' of bacteria already mutating here on earth, super-strains becoming more and more 'super' on their own, why we need to create even more powerful ones intentionally.
Maybe the Salmonella wasn't supposed to come back to earth 3 times more deadly than when it left but, was that not one of the possibilites in researchers had in mind?
We have to be glad that bottles of 'SARS' or 'EBOLA' or 'AIDS' weren't sent to space. Then again, maybe they have been. Maybe. I'm not excited over the prospect of microbes, or anything else sent to space returning to earth in a 'super-fied' state and I think a huge amount of caution should be used, and I pray there are 'regulations and sane oversights' regarding what is allowed to be shot into space over our heads and our planet.
In my mind there are only 4 ways anything can come back from Space, or War, or for that matter a trip to the Market or a day at the Office:
Changed for the better
Changed for the worse
Unchanged
Dead
Lisa Nowak and Salmonella seem to have come back from space in the same category.
On the topic of War: the first death by 'Cholera' has been reported today by the W.H.O., world health organization, in Baghdad. The outbreak of cholera has spread to 25 districts of Northern Iraq and 4 districts in Southern Iraq and across the center of the country. it is extimated that more than 30,000 people there have fallen ill with Cholera symptoms, but only 2,116 have been identified as positive cholera, this since late August.
Labels: Cholera, Salmonella, Space, WHO
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Microbiologists Develop Super Salmonella; the regular kind wasn't Virulent enough?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Methyl Bromide the Ozone and the USA
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
When you count all the things that are known to cause damage to the earth's protective Ozone layer Methyl Bromide is 50 times more destructive! In fact Methyl Bromide is a deadly neurotoxin. Methyl Bromide has also been linked to gene mutation, chromosome damage, and DNA damage.
More conservative estimates rate this compound at 3 to 5 times more damaging than CFC's but, in either case if there were alternatives to the use of this agent...why in the world wouldn't you use them?
Methyl Bromide is injected into soil before many crops such as grapes, almonds, strawberries and others are planted. The Methyl Bromide sterilizes the ground before crops are planted. After harvest this chemical is used to decontaminate products and storage product areas. It kills nematodes, insects, rodents and weeds. Methyl Bromide also kills the Ozone.
Here we have a deadly neurotoxin, a chemical that is classified as a category 1 compound by the EPA, the most deadly category of substances that is still being used, by the millions of tons, today. Yet in 93% of the applications of Methyl Bromide there are less toxic alternatives available. Why is it still being used?
Though this chemical has been banned under the Montreal Protocol, and there are other products that could be used as an alternative; the U.S. ask for and was granted 'critical use exemptions' by the Montreal Protocol. How much Methyl Bromide does the U.S. use?
The entire developed, in 2006 used 5,000 tones of Methyl Bromide. The U.S. received an exemption to use 8,000 tons. While fewer and fewer nations are requesting 'critical use exemptions' for its use, the U.S. continues to cry, "We need', "We have no other choice". The U.S. is submitting requests into the year 2009.
The U.S. is looking more and more like 'Audry II' from 'The little shop of horrors', screaming "Feed me", and like O.J. still looking for the 'real killers', the U.S. seems still to be looking for 'alternatives' to Methyl Bromide use that other nations have apparently been able to locate.
This is bad stuff folks. Another enormous hole in the Ozone is growing over the Antarctic this week. In the past 2 years a hole the size of Europe has opened researchers fear that as spring comes to the southern hemisphere, so too will more holes in the Ozone.
Follow the money! If there are alternatives available why wouldn't you use them?
The U.S. claims, affordable alternatives are not yet available.
Can we afford the alternative of giving the U.S. everything it cries for?
As Janos Mate of Greenpeace International points out, Italy, Greece and Spain have nearly eliminated their agricultural use of Methyl Bromide.
Photo: USDA.gov nematodes
Labels: Agriculture, EPA, Methyl Bromide, neurotoxin, Ozone, Toxin, USA
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Methyl Bromide the Ozone and the USA
posted by Pacific Spirit on Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Beaked Whales Being 'Blinded' by Sonar
Monday, September 24, 2007
Adm. Robert F. Willard, U.S. Pacific Fleet commander appears to be in lock-step with with an administration that prefers to operate with the wool pulled over his eyes, or worse an administration that believes it can operate freely by pulling the wool over the eyes of its citizens.
In just one more example, that points to the fact George Orwell was a card-carrying-visionary, we are being asked to swallow 'revisionist history'.
Willard has stated there is no scientific basis to believe navy sonar is having any affect on sea mammals! The U.S. navy is funding a portion of a $3 million dollar study to determine what if any affect their sonar has on the Beaked Whales, formerly around the Big Island of Hawaii. Formerly? Beaked whales were only spotted 2 times in 17 days off the Kona coast.
$3 million dollars is approximately the cost of 15 minutes...yes, 15 minutes of war in Iraq. Remarkably we are being asked to applaud a 3 million dollar study!
I challenge the twice-speak being dished out by Willard "The frustration and challenge is that we are being asked to put mitigating procedures into place, or to not operate and restrict our freedom of operations, without any foundation whatsoever," There is a foundation, there is scientific evidence, there is solid and historic data proving military and commercial sonar does have a deleterious affect on sea mammals.
Any 5 year old, would be able to tell you he, wouldn't make it through his preschool class wearing a blindfold.
It has long been known that whales navigate their terrain using a complicated system of sonar. Sounds are analyzed by a structure in their heads called the 'melon'. We know for a fact that the sounds produced by whales are used to communicate as well as navigate. The water amplifies the sounds emitted by the whales and these sounds can carry for many hundreds of miles.
In 2005, after listening to the 'songs' of the whale for 9 long years, Dr. Christopher Clark, Cornell University said, "We now have evidence that they (whales) are communicating with each other over THOUSANDS of miles of ocean...."
The whales use a 'mental' map of the sea beds they have charted by sonar, just in the same way ships map the unseen terrain of the sea.
The notion that navy and commercial sonar is adversely affecting all sorts of sea creatures in not a new one and in fact dates back several decades. For us to be asked to again swallow that this concept is one in its infancy is another insult.
If they say it, it must be so? Give us a collective break!
7 years ago several beaked whales washed ashore in the Bahamas. These whales were hemorrhaging blood into their skulls; they beached themselves and died. Why? Another unsolved mystery? The U.S navy was conducting exercises, at that time, in that area, using high intensity sonar!
Did the use of 'high intensity sonar have anything to do with the injuries and deaths of those whales?
Ask a 5th grader, and save $3 million dollars.
Photo: © Frank Cippriano
Labels: Beaked Whale, Ocean Mammals, Sea, Sea Mammals, Sonar, US Navy, Whales
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Beaked Whales Being 'Blinded' by Sonar
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, September 24, 2007
Mattel Seeks to Pull Their Moo Shu Pork From the Wok!
Friday, September 21, 2007
In what is being billed as Mattel's mea culpa for the unprecedented toy recalls over the past several months Mattel apologizes to China.
Nothing says, 'I'm sorry please don't stop making our products for a fraction of the cost it would take to make them anywhere but in China', like a personalized apology.
There is no question China's reputation of being a nation of pariah has been increasing almost daily; now Mattel wants to mend that perception by telling the world and China that the recent recalls are all their fault.
It's said that fear has a recognizable scent. Is that the odor wafting out of Barbie's Dream House?
Mattel is now claiming the majority of toys recalled were in fact recalled as a result of poor Mattel engineering, and that only a small percentage of the recall involved banned lead-based paint.
80% of children's toys are manufactured in China equaling a mind blowing 7.5 BILLION dollars worth of products. We've held the opinion that regardless of what was going on in China, Mattel, as other toy companies, own the responsibility for producing safe toys.
Mattel has announced plans to upgrade its safety system?
Here is a bulletin Mattel!
The time to upgrade your safety standards is:
frequently and prior to one child being harmed while engaged in the act of play!
Don't wait until your stock values fall. Companies making anything that comes in contact with our most valuable, precious and helpless children owe those children and their wallet carrying parents a reasonable expectation of safety.
When companies are charging obscene prices for their goods, when they are making obscene profits they need to go overboard to make their products safe. These companies spend obscene amounts of money to advertise and bend the minds of their 'target' consumers.
It is time that consumers 'target' these purveyors of hazards and tell them we have had enough! Tell the makers of Polly Pocket to stay out of your pocket until they can prove they have changed their bad practices.
Contact Mattel: http://service.mattel.com/us/contactus.aspx
Labels: China, Mattel, Tainted, Toys
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Mattel Seeks to Pull Their Moo Shu Pork From the Wok!
posted by Pacific Spirit on Friday, September 21, 2007
Bee Attacks Changing First Responders Attire!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Firefighters called to rescue a 57 year old disabled man from a bee attack were also attacked. Elias Saldivar, Alton Texas fire chief said his men were stung repeatedly as they tried to rescue Paul Lee Campton who was covered from head to toe with bees.
Compton died Thursday at the Mission Regional Medical Center after having been stung more than 1,000 times the day before.
These bees were so viscious in their attack and so focused on Paul Campton that they followed after the man en route to the hospital. None of the rescuers sustained serious injuries, but fire and police departments are now begining to aquire sting proof clothing. Expecting a continued rise in these types of attacks rescue workers in many cities are also carrying bee suits for cases just such as this. These attacks are becoming more frequent.
The Alton Fire Department has responded to at least 5 more incidents involving bee attacks so far this year; fortunately these were less serious.
Bee Advised! Wear light-colored clothing when doing yard work; Bees are attracted to dark colors.
Search the yard for signs of bees before mowing; mower noise irritates bees.
Find out if you are allergic to bee stings; discuss antidotes with your doctor. If you are allergic, one sting can kill.
Don't remove stingers with your fingers, use a credit card to scrape stingers off skin; removing them with finger can spread their poison.
Bee advise source: McAllen Fire Department, Lt. Rene Alaniz...Thank you.
There is no mention of what kind of bees attacked Campton. Searching other incidents of bee attacks and deaths also don't identify the type of bees that have been involved.
Are the increasing attacks coming from the more aggressive Africanized Bees?
Are there attacks by European Honeybees?
Africanized honey bees, or killer bees will attack when unprovoked and respond en mass to disturbances. European Honeybees will not attack unprovoked and are more mellow when it comes to being disturbed. Both bees die after stinging and their venom seems to be virtually identical.
The Africanized bees are also highly adaptable to changing and unpredictable conditions. These bees swarm more often to areas richer in resources and collect more pollen. They ues resources quickly and efficiently and they reproduce rapidly.
These killer bees have killed more than 1,000 humans and will chase their victims a 1/4 mile or more!
Yikes!
Labels: Africanized, European Honey Bee, Honeybee, Killer Bee, Texas
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Bee Attacks Changing First Responders Attire!
posted by Pacific Spirit on Sunday, September 16, 2007
Northwest Passage Open
Lief Toudal Pedersen, at the Danish National Space Center is saying we have lost about 1/2 million square miles of Arctic ice since 2005. He is feeling we will loose more ice faster than expected.
The Arctic ice is the at its lowest level since images were first taken in 1978.
Now a lip-smacking development seems to be placed upon the plates of nearly the entire world of commerce. An open Northwest Passage would cut the trip from the eastern Atlantic to the western Pacific in 1/2.
At this point it is believed that the route will not be open all year, but many scientists do believe that will not be the case in the future. There are still vast amounts of sea ice, multi-year ice packs, that remain even throughout the summer. At the rate we are seeing ice disappear this may not be the case in the near future.
Will less miles traveled by ships mean less pollution? This is naturally the case that will be made by commerce. Anyone that has ever passed by the smoking lounge in an airport when the door is being opened can't agree with that notion.
Ships rolling through the small Passage, in large numbers will no doubt have the same effect on the environment as placing 15 smokers in a contained room.
Without having any science to back up my assertions I see a world of problems that will open up when the Northwest Passage is opened up to regular, reliable shipping schedules. In my mind, it isn't a far reach to compare Italian Granita to the Arctic ice. In a granita liquid is poured into a container and placed in the freezer. When ice crystals begin to form a fork is run through the crystals before they have a chance to freeze solid. Running a fork over an ice cube that is already frozen certainly has a very different affect on that ice. The constant scraping and agitation never allows the granita to freeze into a solid hunk of ice.
Would not constant shipping through the Northwest passage produce the same result? Now consider constantly stirring the granita with a hot fork.
Beyond not letting the ice rest so that if it can refreeze it might refreeze; what about the dangers of oil spills, accidents and waste being dropped by ships along the way?
There is no question that the hole in the earths protective Ozone layer is in the same neighborhood as well. Burdening the already weakened Ozone layer in that area will have profound and incalculable results. How could there be any doubt that ship after ship spewing pollutants directly under our already weakened protective Ozone layer will only create more problems?
Good for business, bad for the environment and the entire world. It shouldn't take the worlds scientific community to figure this one out.
Labels: Bisphenol, Environment, Global Warming, Northwest Passage, oil spill
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Northwest Passage Open
posted by Pacific Spirit on Sunday, September 16, 2007
Bee Sidebar...Killer Bees
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Do you know how 'Killer Bee's' came into existance?
Killer Bee's, came into being in 1957 as a result of an experiment to increase honey production in Brazil!
A swarm escaped from a lab in 1957 and traveled north. They mated with native strains of bees and their offspring were as aggressive as their African parents.
They have the same venom as honeybees, but they attack in groups and are very agressive.
The Africanized bees have been recently found in New Orleans, Louisiana. Poor New Orleans. One more item to add to the long list of New Orleans woes.
Africanized bees are actually smaller than the European honeybees. Experts recommend that anyone confronted by Africanized bees find cover quickly. Most times that would be easier said than done.
Labels: Honey Bee, Honeybee, Killer Bee
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Bee Sidebar...Killer Bees
posted by Pacific Spirit on Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Bee T Phone Home. Honey Bee's Are In Real Peril!
Back in January PennState College of Agricultural Sciences issued a warning to growers in Pennsylvania to contact beekeepers and arrange for pollination services well ahead of time.
Why? During the last 3 months of 2006 the college began receiving reports from commercial beekeepers that an alarming number of honey bee colonies were dying the the eastern united states. Since the beginning of the year beekeepers from all over the country had been reporting 'unprecedented losses' of bee colonies.
More than 100,000 honey be colonies have been lost in Alberta over the past several months and there is great concern there are not enough pollinators for farmers dependent upon honey bees for pollination.
Alarming losses of the honey bees are not just a North American problem. Enormous losses have also occurred in 9 European Countries.
There are nearly as many theories as to what may be causing the die-off as there are dead bees. Varroa Mites, pesticides, tracheal mites, Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus, fungus and an array of bacterial disease are only a few of reasons being vestigated.
Once scientists started investigating the puzzling die-off many were surprised to discover the bees were in fact stricken with a large variety of problems; not just one.
There has even been heavy speculation that the dramtic increase in 'genetically modified crops' could even be a contributing factor. One more therory is that an increase in UV radiation has degraded the quality of pollen being produced for the bees consumption and they are becoming malnourished leaving them succeptable to disease and...perhaps even causing them to have problems with their vision.
One study done in Germany even suggested Cell phone may be at the bottom of the disappearing honey bees. Could cell phone signals be interfering with the bees ability to navigate their way back to their hives? Bees refused to return to their hives when mobile phones are placed nearby. This theory is being called unlikely.
What about wireless phones? Geman bees may have a highly developed sense of design aesthetic and merely taken offense at having a wireless phone base inserted into their decor.
Regardless of the reasons for the alarming disappearance of the honey bee one thing is certain. Life as we know it will come to a sudden and disruptive change without them.
It feels odd that so little coverage about this new threat to the worlds food supply has been presented in the news. There are suggestions a media moretorium was placed on reporting about the loss of the bees. Color me dubious on that one. A media moratorium would suggest several nations were in colussion to keep the seriousness of this situation away from the public.
This is a big story with even bigger consequences. Check back, there will be more to come!
Photo credit: USDA
Labels: Disappearance, gentically modified, Honey Bee, Honey Bee's
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Bee T Phone Home. Honey Bee's Are In Real Peril!
posted by Pacific Spirit on Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Gray Whale Update!
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
According to a study published Monday in the National Academy of Sciences the success story of the Pacific Gray Whale seems not to have been a success at all, but a gross miscalculation.
So it seems the Gray Whale should never have been removed from the endangered species list. As we have written about before the Gray Whale really is being starved out of existence. Global warming is taking its toll on the whale's food supply.
The study concludes the original population of the Pacific Gray Whale was probably underestimated and that instead of 20,000 to 30,000 Gray Whales there may have closer to 100,000 whales.
When scientists figured that a population of 20,000 was close to a normal count they removed it from the endangered species list in 1994. They were wrong when in 1999-2000 the Pacific Gray Whales began dying in their assumption it was nature thinning the herd.
Now we have 80,000 Pacific Gray Whales unaccounted for, Jeff Breiwick, from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory in Seattle is left wondering what happened to the 80,000 gray whales mistakenly unaccounted for in the historic population numbers.
Breiwick says computer models and historic documents used to estimate the level of whale hunting since the 1600's would mean about 3 whales a day had been killed for 4 centuries. He wants to know where the evidence of that mortality can be found.
Everyone does agree that the new estimates on past populations indicate something very bad is happening now.
Maybe this new research was one reason for the hold up on granting the Whaling waiver to the Makah tribe!
Labels: Global Warming, Gray Whale, Grey Whale, Makah, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Gray Whale Update!
posted by Pacific Spirit on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
The Makah's, the Gray Whale and the Waiver...
The only US-Indian treaty that expressly gives a tribe the right to hunt whales as well as seals is the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. In the late 1920's the Makah themselves suspended whaling because the population of Gray Whales had become so diminished from commercial whaling that began in the mid-ninetieth century,
The Gray Whale was placed on the federal endangered species list essentially banning the hunt for Gray Whales by anyone. The Makah's had already stopped whaling in the 20's so the ban had no relevant point to the tribe at that time.
When the Gray was removed from the endangered species list, in 1994, the point became one of the US federal government's responsibility to live up to the 1855 Treaty of Neah Bay. As it was determined that the population of the Gray Whales was at a healthy number, a lawsuit was brought against NOAA fisheries in 1997 which led to the Makah's being granted a quota of 5 'strikes' per year until 2002.
The quota of 5 was set by the 'whaling commission'.
The Makah resumed whaling in 1998. It is widely recognized that the tribe has only taken one whale since then, which was an adult female taken in 1999. An agreement was reached that after the quota period expired in 2002 the Makah would have to obtain a waiver before a hunt. So in February 2005 the Makah did just that...The US government is 'reviewing the Tribe's request'.
Is it reasonable for the federal government to take more than 3 1/2 years to review the Makah request to grant or deny the waiver?
Was Saturdays strike on the Gray Whale by some members of the Makah tribe a direct result of the frustration felt by having to wait more than 43 months for the thumbs up or down from the government?
The Makah Tribal Chairman Ben Johnson Jr, is afraid Saturday's killing of the Gray Whale will affect the Makah's case to be granted their waiver, and reaffirms the tribe did not authorize the killing of the whale over the weekend. He promises to prosecute 'those responsible'.
Of the 5 men detained and later released on bail 2 of them were participants in the legal 1999 hunt. One of the men said he wasn't ashamed of what he had done, and he was feeling 'kind of proud' and that he should have done it years ago.
Brian Gorman, A spokesman for the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency that has taken 43 months to review the Makah request for a waiver said he does not believe Saturday's whale killing will affect the tribe's application.
What a sad state of affairs. The whale, now at the bottom of the sea, serving no one and 5 men facing fines of up to $20,000.00 each and a year in prison.
Photo: Museum of History and Industry
Labels: Gray Whale, Makan, Ocean, Ocean Habitat, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals, US Coast Guard, Whales
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
The Makah's, the Gray Whale and the Waiver...
posted by Pacific Spirit on Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Conflicting Stories Over Makah Tribe and Saturday's Killing of Gray Whale
Monday, September 10, 2007
As is common when stories break there are several conflicting sides to this one. More information coming points to the fact that the Gray Whale that was shot by Makah tribe members was in fact intangled in fishing lines at the time it was shot.
As explained at the Makah website, modern day hunting is done with a spear from a 36 foot canoe.which is carved from a single cedar log. A harpooner in the bow of the canoe uses a steel harpoon mounted on a wooden shaft about 7 feet long. This is connected by ropes to buoys and then to the canoe. A rifleman using a .50 caliber rifle is then expected to 'dispatch', immediately kill, the whale by shooting it in the back or base of the skull.
Clearly the manner in which the Makah's have outlined, as their methods for taking a whale, are the same reasons conflicting reports are being recounted by witness's.
In aerial photos taken of this incident there are clearly orange buoys strings behind the injured Gray Whale, also a harpoon is clearly visible. Are these buoys in fact those that would be connected to the actual harpoon, and not a fishing net?
Also are the reports of the whale being shot with a .50 caliber machine gun in fact in error and did the shots come from the Makah chaseboat and a .50 caliber rifle?
In any case reports are that the whale lived an agonizing 10 hours after being shot before dying. Was the slow death of the Gray Whale due to the interrupted hunt by the Coast Guard? All is speculation at this point, but one thing is clear; the whale should never have been allowed by any party to suffer a 10 hour death.
One thing is clear: This is a bad deal for all involved.
Photo Credit: Barney Burke/Special to the P-I
Labels: Gray, Gray Whale, Grey Whale, Makah, Ocean, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals, Whales
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
Conflicting Stories Over Makah Tribe and Saturday's Killing of Gray Whale
posted by Pacific Spirit on Monday, September 10, 2007
California Gray Whale Shot by Machine Gun?
Sunday, September 9, 2007
The AP is reporting that a Gray Whale had been shot by a machine gun near the western tip of Washington State.
The Coast Guard believes members of the Makah tribe shot and harpooned the Gray Whale on Saturday morning. The Whale after having been attacked did not die and is now limping its wounded way back out to sea.
As the Makah's are happy to tell you at their own website "Whaling has been one of our traditions for over 1,500 years and is a right secured to us by treaty..."
The Makah's also believe that many of their health problems come from the lack of Sea Mammal Meat in their diet. Give the Makah the genetic link to 'needing blubber' in their diet, but take the right to their 50-caliber machine guns away from them if this story turns out to be true.
The Makah are allowed to take 5 Gray Whales per year as part of their 'cultural and subsistence rights'. I'm no expert on Makah Culture, but I'll guarantee 1.500 years ago the brave hunters of the Makah Tribe were NOT using machine guns to bring in their hunt.
It seems to me the term 'culture' needs to be revisited and revisited in a HUGE way!
The Makah website is also happy to point out in their FAQ section "We will conduct it (the hunt) in a way that is as consistent as possible with our traditional manner of whale hunting, but also with the requirement of the International Whaling Commission and the Marine Mammal Protection Act that the killing of the whale be done in as humane a manner as possible, and at the same time with as much safety as possible for our hunters."
Sadly many people have been trying to turn up the 'RACE CARD' when it comes to the Makah and whaling. The problem with stirring a pot of waste until it comes to a boil is that more often than not, that waste will splatter back upon the one that is stirring the pot. Cruelty is not owned by any particular Race and should be chided when and where ever it is found.
We can only hope that the initial reports of this incident are in error.
Just as shooting fish in a barrel is part of no ones culture, machine gunning down and wounding an animal without killing it is one of the cruelest acts imaginable and hopefully not a part of any ones culture. We hope this act was committed by 'street gangs running rampant' in the waters off the coast of Washington State.
Labels: accident at sea, Gray, Gray Whale, Grey Whale, Makah, Ocean, Ocean Mammals, Sea Mammals, US Coast Guard, Washington State
© 2007, Pacific Spirit Marine Institute.
California Gray Whale Shot by Machine Gun?
posted by Pacific Spirit on Sunday, September 09, 2007
