Conservation > Fight for Whales Archive

Some unexpected relief for endangered species -- When Viagra came out, biologists hoped demand for endangered animals would drop. New evidence may support this controversial theory

YOKOHAMA, JAPAN, May 29, 2001 (The Christian Science Monitor via COMTEX) --
By Ilene R. Prusher Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The packages on Makoku Kins's shelves come in dragonlady red with gold, or bright blue. Many contain parts from some of world's most endangered species.

Chinese-medicine practitioners around Asia have long placed faith in pu foods, which come from animal parts coveted for their purported aphrodisiac properties. These include bones or other parts of animals - such as bears, tigers, monkeys, and whales - whose survival on earth wasn't a question when they first became used medicinally.

The international trade in endangered species is partially fueled by demand for such animal parts both for medicinal and aphrodesiac purposes. Ever since the drug Viagra came to market in 1998, conservationists have speculated that it might stem the trade in endangered animals. "In Viagra we now have the potential to eliminate the demand for animal potency products," wrote Frank von Hippel, a conservation biologist, in a 1998 article in Science magazine. "Provided that the distribution and availability of Viagra are ensured, the East Asian market in pu foods could soon fall victim to Viagra's success."

Some early signs support this theory, but it remains controversial.

A study released in February by Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans links the advent of Viagra with a decrease in the killing of harbor seals - which aren't endangered - for use in aphrodisiacs in Asia. Seal penises are thought to increase male virility. According to the Canadian scientists, some 91,000 seals were killed off Newfoundland and Quebec last year - just a third of the legal quota - compared with 280,000 a few years earlier. After the researchers at the Eminent Seal Panel discovered the sharp decrease in the number of seals killed, they raised the possibility that the seals had Viagra to thank.

"The reduced hunt in 2000 was the result of a number of factors," they wrote. "The increased use of Viagra, as a substitute for seal penises, may also be a factor." The study also suggests that other factors played a role in the dwindling numbers, including a decreased demand for seal meat and a cut in Canadian government subsidies for seal hunting.

In a new, unpublished study, Professor Hippel and his brother, an Ohio State University psychologist, offer an extensive analysis of which species are likely to benefit from Viagra. "We found in that analysis that rhinos, bears, and tigers will not benefit, but that many other species will, including ... seals," says Mr. Hippel, who teaches conservation biology and environmental science at the University of Alaska, in Anchorage.

But some conservation groups suggest that such theories are in need of a cold shower.

Not enough evidence
Nathalie Chalifour, the acting national representative for TRAFFIC Canada, the wildlife-trade monitoring program of the World Wildlife Fund, says that the seals in question are primarily killed for their pelts and meat.

While there has been a decline in demand for both, Ms. Chalifour notes, there is little evidence that seals are killed for the express purpose of being turned into Asian philters.

"My understanding to date is that the seal hunt has never been targeted at the seal penis trade. All the anecdotal evidence that I've come across is that the sealers will sell them if they can, but it's not the driver," says Chalifour. "Unless they can show that the hunt is targeted to penises, perhaps there's a link, but it's pretty tenuous."

Meanwhile, dealers in traditional Chinese medicines say they don't think any laboratory-concocted drug will replace demand for their timeworn remedies.

While pu is hardly a household name here in Japan, many come to pharmacies like this one in search of kanpoyaku, or Chinese medicine, the vast bulk of which is purely herbal.

"This is a totally different thing," says Mr. Kin, who wears a pharmacist's white lab coat and a tidy haircut, as he reads over the back panel of one of his more popular products. His shelves are lined with packages, some of which picture snakes and turtles, others a photo of an aging executive in a business suit flexing his arms, muscle-man style.

Kin's pharmacy specializes in Chinese medicines, but also carries many internationally recognized drugs. It is one of many such shops around Yokohama, home to Japan's largest Chinatown and the country's main port.

"Viagra is something to be taken at a particular time, but this," says Kin, holding up a huge bottle of pills that goes for about $170, "this you take every day to make your body stronger. Once you're taking this, you don't have to take Viagra."

No substitute for the 'real thing'
Kin says that Japanese customers often come looking for herbal and animal-based medicines when a trip to a physician yields no results. "In China, it's the opposite," he says of his homeland. But Kin says he isn't losing business to Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra. "I've never heard of anyone quitting this and taking Viagra instead."

Merchants in Chinatown seem to agree. A few blocks away from Mr. Kin's pharmacy is a traditional Chinese foods store where some people come for basic sauces and spices - and sometimes for far stronger stuff. But most aphrodisiac seekers, says shopkeeper Sai Soo, turn to the extract of seal, tiger, and bear in multivitamin-style pills only.

Mr. Soo's shelves are lined with glass jars full of sundry goods such as dehydrated seahorse, snail, and sharkfin - all used to make various medicinal soups and drinks.

"Chinese people have an older way of looking at things - to eat something is a way to cure yourself. It might not be something that the international community accepts, but a lot of people believe shark fins are good for your skin and tiger bones are good for calcium."

But very few, he admits, come looking for the aphrodisiac foods in whole form, "mostly," he says, "because they wouldn't know how to cook with them."

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Monitor

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Dear Officer Fluke and others at Sanctuary Cruises,
I am writing to ask for your help in getting information to people who appreciate whales and other ocean life, and who also might be willing to help. The U.S. Navy has been conducting tests in the oceans, sending sound waves through the waters loud enough to cause extreme harm, and even death, to whales and other ocean mammals. I am attaching a brief letter which gives more information and suggestions as to what people can do to help end this activity. Perhaps you could print this out and post it where people who come for whale watching trips can see it. Please help spread this important information.

Thank you very much,

Marcia Bauman, Ph.D.
Council for Living Oceans

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Sonar blasts have caused hemorrhaging around the brains and ears of stranded whales, but the U.S. Navy still feels saturating the world's oceans with these blasts is worth the damge to marine life and has applied for an exemption to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. "There is no doubt that there will be some harassment of marine mammals," [Navy spokesperson] Joe Johnson said. "We have a very loud sonar system." PLEASE write your representatives and National Marine Fisheries Service to protest this terrible act! Go to this link to learn more and make your feelings heard: http://www.nrdc.org/wildlife/marine/nlfa.asp

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Stop the Navy's Noise Bombardment Of Our Oceans!
LOW FREQUENCY ACTIVE (LFA) SONAR THREAT

The U.S. Navy plans shortly to blast one of the loudest noise-makers ever invented by humans throughout 80% of the world's oceans.

Low Frequency Active (LFA) Sonar is a sophisticated system of underwater speakers and microphones designed to detect "enemy" submarines at long distance by blasting immense sounds into the ocean and detecting the echoes.

Many marine species, such as whales, depend on sound to find their food, to communicate with their mates and young, and to navigate in the oceans.

The Navy has tested LFA Sonar at levels 5000 times below the planned deployment level. Even at these levels, whales deviated from their migratory routes, stopped singing and whale calves were found abandoned.

A number of incidents of whales beaching themselves have been connected with the local use of Navy Sonar systems. Many of the whales died, and were found to have hemorrhaging in and around the ears and bleeding from the eyes. Although the Navy has acknowledged that sonar may have contributed to the deaths of seven whales in the Bahamas last March, plans are still in effect to deploy the LFA system within the next four months.

LFA Sonar not only threatens sensitive marine life such as whales, dolphins, seals and sea lions, sea turtles, and fisheries. It is a threat to humans as well -- divers, snorkelers, surfers, fishermen, swimmers, and the military.

LFA Sonar simply won't work strategically to protect the Navy, as the emission of these loud sounds will act as a beacon for any lurking "enemy." And, it is unnecessary. The Navy has recently developed two new passive listening systems that can detect silent submarines. These newer systems are not hazardous to marine life.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Contact SENATOR BARBARA BOXER, who has been appointed to the Oceans Subcommittee.
A short handwritten letter is the most effective communication, followed by a phone call.

Senator Barbara Boxer
112 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3553

1) Thank Senator Boxer for her past help in protecting dolphins, whales and the marine environment.

2) State your concern that the proposed deployment of low frequency active (LFA) Sonar threatens whales, dolphins and other marine life.

3) Urge the Senator to take the lead in calling for congressional oversight hearings into the U.S. Navy's antisubmarine warfare program, particularly into the development of LFA Sonar.

An excellent 10 minute news video on LFA Sonar is available by donation from:

Council for Living Oceans
P O Box 296
Fairfax, CA 94930
(415) 258-9516

For more information on LFA Sonar: www.oceanmammalinst.org

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." -- Margaret Mead

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If you think of whales as safe from pollutants and the effects of overpopulation, think again. All around the world, they are showing dangerously high levels of cancer causing PCB's and yet they are still being slaughtered and eaten. Because PCB's are stored in the fat, blubber is more lethal than their meat. Norway eats the meat and is planning to export the blubber to Japan because the Japanese eat the blubber. In a sad but good twist of fate, the market for contaminated blubber might dry up. Heidi

Poisons threaten whale exports
Norway's controversial decision to try exporting products from its equally controversial whale hunts may be halted, not by Greenpeace but because of high levels of pollutants found in whale blubber.

Tests of blubber from whales hunted last year and in 1999 have revealed high concentrations of dioxins and PCBs in Norwegian whale blubber.

It already was reported that blubber from earlier whale hunts contained 3.6 milligrams of PCBs per kilo, far exceeding the limit of 0.5 mg set by Japan, for example, where blubber is used as a food product.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has set guidelines warning that a person weighing 70 kilos (154 lbs) should consume no more than 20 grams (four tablespoons) of blubber containing dioxins a week.

Consumer groups in Japan already have expressed fears that Norwegian imports of whale blubber may contain unacceptably high levels of PCBs.

Japan makes up Norway's largest market for blubber,meaning Norway's attempts at whale product exports may be shot down before they really begin.

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Japanese group wants blubber ban
http://www.aftenposten.no/english/business/d186626.htm
Japanese consumer groups sought a ban on the import of Norwegian whale blubber Friday. Japan is one of the few countries that supports whaling, but the groups fear the Norwegian blubber may be toxic.

The five groups asked Norway not to allow the export of blubber to Japan, at the same time they asked Japanese authorities to ban its import.

The groups said tests by a private laboratory showed Norwegian whale blubber on average contained concentrations of toxic PCBs that were 7.6 times the Japanese government's maximum permissible level.

Yoko Tomiyama of the Consumers Union of Japan claimed the Norwegian blubber could therefore pose health risks, especially to pregnant mothers and small children.

A ban on exports to Japan would be a major blow to Norway's defiant whaling industry. Norwegian authorities announced just earlier this week that they would allow exports of whale meat and blubber.

(REUTERS)

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February 24, 2001 - Good News & Bad News: Orca Division

Puget Sound ferry passengers and other mariners have a good chance this weekend of seeing orcas that have moved into the area over the past few days.

The arcing of at least five dorsal fins slowed several Seattle-bound ferries during yesterday's morning commute, with passengers oohing and aahing as they rushed about for peeks.

"Generally, what we like to do is get the captains to try to maneuver behind them," said Pat Patterson, a spokeswoman for Washington State Ferries. "Of course, that depends on where the boat is. I've been on the boats when the size of the pod has made us have to slow down and move around them. It draws a crowd. It is such as cool sight."

Orcas can delay the boats, she said, but people rarely complain.

The whales are probably from J pod, a group of southern residents, said Ken Balcomb, research biologist and director of the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, San Juan County, who saw them in his area earlier this week.

Balcomb has seen whales on and off in this part of the Sound since he started monitoring them in the 1970s, but just why they come and go is hard to say.

"Maybe we're having better weather and everybody's looking at the water more," Balcomb said.

Balcomb suggested that private boaters get no closer than 100 yards from the animals and let them feed in peace. Boat noise is believed to be one of several possible factors in the declining numbers of orcas in the southern population.

The appearance of orcas here comes as the Center for Biological Diversity, an advocacy group, this week released a computer model predicting that the Sound's killer whales have an 81 percent chance of becoming extinct in the next three centuries.

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January 17, 2001 - Commercial Whaling Blow Wide Open Again
Norway has once again declared war on the world's whales. They have killed them and eaten the red meat, but stored the blubber in freezers, hoping to lift a ban on international trade in whale products. Now Norway has decided to sell the blubber to Japan, which considers it a delicacy. With this act, commercial whaling is resumed again. Whales were killed before, but without the hope of selling whale products, they were not nearly as endangered as they are now. Again. This is a rotten cycle that keeps repeating itself and always, at the center, we find Japan and Norway.

Norway lifts ban on whale meat exports
By Doug Mellgren, Associated Press, 1/16/2001

OSLO, Norway (AP) Norway, the only country that conducts commercial whale hunts, said Tuesday that it was lifting its ban on the export of whale meat and products.

''We think the time is right for this. This is the last step in normalizing the whale hunt,'' Fisheries Minister Otto Gregussen said of the decision, which delighted whalers and disgusted conservationists.

Ignoring protests, Norway resumed commercial whale hunts in 1993, despite a total hunting ban imposed by the International Whaling Commission in 1986.

But it barred exports because it feared an international backlash, leaving whalers with as much as 800 tons of frozen whale blubber potentially worth tens of millions of dollars.

Frode Froevik of the pro-whaling High North Alliance called Tuesday's decision ''a triumph for common sense.''

''Japan often wants whale products that are not wanted in Norway,'' he said by telephone from Norway's arctic.

Norwegians eat the red meat of whales as steaks and sausages but not the blubber that is considered a delicacy in Japan.

Environmentalists argued that increasing profits from exports could lead to higher whale quotas and encourage other traditional whaling countries to resume hunts.

''The Norwegian government opening for exports may be even more serious than Norway resuming the commercial hunts,'' said Frode Pleym, of Greenpeace.

Pleym also said he feared an increase in illegal hunting of endangered whale species because poached meat could more easily be sold under the cover of Norwegian exports.

Norway is not bound by the 1986 whaling ban because IWC rules allow members to reject its decisions.

Gregussen said minke whales the smallest of the baleen whales at about 30 feet are plentiful off Norway's coast and can sustain a limited hunt.

''We conduct a hunt that has a sound scientific basis,'' Gregussen said. He said export licenses would be granted under strict conditions.

Norway's whalers were granted a quota of 549 minke whales for 2001, down from 655 last year and 753 in 1999. About 2,000 were killed annually in the early 1980s, before the ban.

Whaling industry leaders said it would take a month or two before exports could begin.

Norway resumes export of whale meat
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

The Norwegian government has decided to allow the export of whalemeat and blubber -- some of it coming from species environmentalists say are endangered.

The Norwegian Foreign Minister, Thorbjoern Jagland, defended the move, saying the current levels of the hunted species are good enough to allow the exports.

Environmental organisations have, however, criticised the decision, and there have been warnings that it may damage the country's international standing and harm its other export industries.

Norway resumed whaling for what it calls scientific purposes in 1993, but because of international pressure it has maintained a self-imposed ban on exports. Most of the exports, especially of blubber, are expected to go to Japan -- another country that has not ratified a convention on trade in endangered species.

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September 22, 2000 - Japan Unmoved by Whale Kill Critics
Copyright 2000 Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) - Beer flowed and cheers went up Thursday as a ship pulled into port carrying Japan's latest ocean catch - 88 whales.

The nation, which consumes whales both cooked and raw as a delicacy, remains unabashedly defiant before growing international criticism, defending the hunt as scientific research.

Next year, Japan plans to catch up to 160 whales - and much of the meat will end up in upscale restaurants.

``All they think is that whales are cute,'' fisheries official Masayuki Komatsu said derisively of Westerners at a ceremony aboard the ship, the Nisshin Maru.

Japan's hunt has drawn international ire. The United States punished Japan last week by denying it some fishing rights in U.S. waters and launched an investigation that could lead to trade sanctions.

Some Japanese feel that consuming blubber is part of their culture and are miffed about having outsiders meddle with their eating habits.

``National dietary habits are products of history and should be mutually respected,'' the Mainichi newspaper said in an editorial. ``The United States and those European states that have turned against whaling used to slaughter whales for their oil.''

The Japanese public has shown little interest in the whaling controversy. TV news programs Thursday were devoted to coverage of the Sydney Olympic Games and showed nothing on the whaling mission.

The International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in the mid-1980s but allows whaling countries to kill whales for research to gather information on migration, eating patterns and pollution levels.

After pulling into a Tokyo harbor ending a monthlong mission, the Nisshin Maru crew celebrated their return by lifting beer cans in a joyous toast. Officials at the ceremony praised the ship's crew and defended Japan's fight against international anti-whaling pressure.

``There's no reason to criticize the mission,'' crew member Katsuo Nemoto said. ``This is biological science.''

The Nisshin Maru and its fleet of research vessels brought back in a refrigerated hull 88 whales caught and killed in the northwest Pacific Ocean - 43 Bryde's whales, five sperm whales and 40 minke whales.

It was the first time in more than a decade that the catch included not just minke but also Bryde's and sperm whales - two species protected under U.S. law.

Tokyo says both are plentiful, putting estimates at 100,000 for sperm whales and 22,000 for Bryde's whales.

The hunt is in no way endangering the species, fisheries officials say, adding that the whales are hurting the livelihoods of Japanese fishermen by eating too much fish.

Activists say the research is no more than a guise for satisfying Japan's taste for whale meat.

``They're simply trying to revive commercial whaling,'' said Sanae Shida of Greenpeace Japan. ``Do you normally have to kill animals to do this kind of research?''

Kazuo Shima, an official with the government-linked Institute of Cetacean Research, said Japan's efforts benefit the entire world.

``This research is not just for Japan,'' he said. ``If Japan doesn't do this research, who will?''

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September 13, 2000 - US Denies Japan Fishing Access Over Whaling
Copyright © 2000 Reuters Limited.

Fifteen Nations Ask Japan to Stop Research Whaling

TOKYO (Reuters), August 21, 2000 - Representatives of 15 countries have urged Japan, the world's largest consumer of whale meat, to halt its research whaling, Kyodo News Agency reported on Monday.

Japan has drawn fire from non-whaling nations and conservationist groups for killing hundreds of minke whales each year.

Whale meat has become gourmet food in Japan in the last decade or so, as prices have risen in line with falling supplies after an international moratorium on whaling took effect in 1986.

Kyodo quoted the group's leader, the Irish ambassador to Japan, Declan O'Donovan, as asking Foreign Ministry officials that Japan refrain from whaling in the northern Pacific and in the Southern Ocean sanctuary, in line with resolutions of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

A Foreign Ministry official replied that Japan's current whaling program follows that of the international whaling convention and that he would convey the group's request and concerns to all government sections involved, Kyodo said.

The group included representatives of the Netherlands, New Zealand, Austria, Brazil, Britain, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Monaco, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States, it said.

Last month, a whaling fleet departed for a Pacific hunt to take minke whales, which were hunted without a break even when whales were at their most protected.

The fleet will also seek out the larger Bryde's and the huge sperm whale, which have been safe from harpoons for years.

The IWC says minke whales are no longer endangered, but debate simmers over the numbers of Bryde's and sperm whales.

Japan gave up commercial whaling in compliance with the 1986 ban but has carried out what it calls "scientific research'' whaling since 1987.

At an IWC meeting in Adelaide last month, Japan and Norway blocked an attempt to establish an ocean sanctuary to protect whale breeding grounds in the South Pacific.

In 1965, Japan caught a record 22,000 whales in coastal and Antarctic waters. The number fell to 2,700 by 1987, partly as a result of quotas set by the IWC and partly because of the availability of cheaper sources of protein.

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The United States is growing ever weaker as an anti-whaling nation. Time and again, we learn that Japan is planning to kill more whales and dolphins. Surely we don't hear of all the killings, though, because few can be out there on the oceans of the world, watching.

Japan and Norway are encouraging the resumption of commercial whaling by funding First Nations and others to return to killing whales. This is how the Makah Indian gray whale hunt got started in Northwest Washington and we are sorry to say that our government, headed by Clinton and Gore, jumped right in with a thumbs up, giving the Makah well over half a million dollars to press their case and fund the hunt.

How did this happen? Because Japan wants it. Japan admitted recently that it wants to resume the commercial slaughter of the Eastern Pacific gray whale stock, the very gray whales that pass by our coast twice a year.

If you would like to do something for cetaceans, send an email to our government and a fax to the Japanese government. Tell them how you feel about their slaughter of whales and dolphins. Links to them are below.

Lodge your complaints with our elected officials. Stress the illegal nature of the Makah whale hunt, the money wasted, the terrible abuse of power by the Coast Guard, the fact the citizens of this country do not want to return to whaling. Tell them that the disgust felt by non-Indians and Indians alike will not help the Makah, but hurt them. Tell them who you will vote for in the future and why.

Next, write your state representatives. To find out who represents you and to send them emails, click on

Mere Mortals

or

I've Been Gone, Who's My Rep?

Next, contact the International Whaling Commission and demand they stop this hunt. Remind them that while they did not approve it, they also never issued a general press release to this effect. News agencies such as Associated Press used this to say the IWC did in fact condone the hunt. Tell the IWC (which is meeting in July 2000 in Australia, which is a very strong anti-whaling nation) that the world community condemns whaling and the IWC owes it to the world to support that sentiment with action.

International Whaling Commission

Also, inform Japan of your sentiments regarding their inhumane capture of dolphins for theme parks and zoos. Be polite, but be firm. If Japan's actions on the seas make you re-think your purchases of Japanese cars, televisions and stereos, tell them!

Fax your letters to:

Mr. Keizo Obuchi
Prime Minister of Japan
FAX: 011-81-3-3581-3883

Mr. Tokuichiro Tamazawa
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
Fax: +81-5512-7651

Mr. Isao Nakasu
Director General of the Fishery Agency
Fax: +81-3-3502-8220

Mr. Yuya Niwa
Minister of Health and Welfare
Fax: +81-3-3595-2020

Health and Food Department Ministry of Health and Welfare
FAX: +81-3-3503-7965