Vol. XXIV No. 1 A publication o f Cetacean Society International Spring 2015

Although it has only been a little over six monthssince the International Whaling Commission (IWC)met in Slovenia, there continue to be many interest-ing developments related to whaling and the IWC.

Norway has announced that the 2015 quota forits commercial hunt of minke whales in the NorthAtlantic would remain the same as 2014 at 1,286whales. Although Norway only killed 736 minkesin 2014, they continue to increase their slaughterlittle by little each year. Recently, Norwegian whalemeat exported to Japan was found to contain suchhigh levels of pesticides that the contaminated meatwas dumped by the Japanese. The Norwegianscountered that the contaminant levels found in thewhale meat were low enough that the meat wouldbe acceptable for consumption in Norway.

In 2014, Iceland killed 24 minke whales, whichwas down from 35 minkes killed in 2013. ButIceland shows no signs of slowing down given thatthe Icelandic government announced a five-yearquota in December 2013 to slaughter 2,000 minkeand fin whales. Even more disappointing is the factthat Iceland continues to illegally ship fin whalemeat to Japan through Canada. It should be notedthat Icelandic whaling companies are closely linkedto Icelandic fishing companies exporting seafood tothe U.S. Please check out the websitehttp://dontbuyfromicelandicwhalers.com/ for moreinformation on how you can keep the pressure onIceland to stop whaling by making informed con-sumer decisions.

For the first time since 1985, the Japanese

whaling fleet is not killing whales in the SouthernOcean Sanctuary this winter. After having theirscientific whaling program in the Antarctic declaredillegal by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) inMarch 2014, Japan was sent a clear message inSlovenia when the majority of member nations ofthe IWC voted in favor of a resolution supportingthe ICJ’s decision and calling for stricter measureswhen assessing any future Special Permit (scientificwhaling) proposals. But rest assured that Japanhasn’t given up on whaling in the Southern OceanSanctuary. In November, Japan announced theirlatest whaling scheme for the 2015/2016 seasoncalled New Scientific Whale Research Program inthe Antarctic Ocean (NEWREP-A). This latest lethalwhaling plan from Japan would involve the killingof 333 minke whales annually over twelve years inorder to assess the impact minkes are having on theAntarctic ecosystem (translation – minke whales areeating all the fish that other whales and marinemammals need, so let’s kill them and check theirstomachs). Unfortunately, the plan will be reviewedin Japan at an IWC-sponsored scientific workshopand a report from this workshop will be presentedto the full IWC Scientific Committee at theirmeeting in San Diego in May, which could ulti-mately result in the ICJ ruling being ignored andJapan whaling by the end of 2015.

And lastly, an excellent paper on the impact ofindustrial whaling in the 20th century, written byresearchers Robert Rocha Jr., Phillip Clapham andYulia Ivashchenko, recently revealed that close to

Whaling Update – Early 2015By Heather Rockwell, CSI Representative to International Whaling Commission

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Whales Alive!A publication of Cetacean Society International

Editor: Brent S. Hall

CSI is an all-volunteer, non-profit, tax-exemptorganization with contacts in over 25 countries. Ourmission is to advocate for and protect cetaceans fromharm and harassment, to increase public awareness,and preserve their well-being and that of the marineenvironment. We support and promote benign activitiessuch as regulated whale watching, nonlethal andhumane research, and widespread educational,environmental programs relating to free-roamingcetaceans internationally. Our ultimate objective is theglobal acceptance of peaceful coexistence and mutualenrichment for both humans and cetaceans.

Cetacean Society InternationalP.O. Box 953, Georgetown, CT 06829 U.S.A.

Phone: 203-770-8615 Fax: 860-561-0187E-Mail: info@csiwhalesalive.org

Web: csiwhalesalive.orgCSI is a member of WhaleNet

President: A. Daniel KnaubVice-President: Brent S. HallTreasurer: Rachel DeCavageSecretary: Patricia Sullivan

Executive Director: William W. Rossiter

three million whales were slaughtered throughout the1900’s by whalers. It wasn’t until the mid-1980’s whenthe moratorium on commercial whaling came into effectthat the number of whales being killed decreaseddramatically. Unable to rely on the numbers of whalesreported in the databases of the IWC, the researchersdelved deeply into the incredibly high numbers ofwhales slaughtered by the Soviets that were neverdeclared to the IWC. The Soviets were responsible forkilling over 500,000 whales and over 175,000 of thosewhales were never reported as catches to the IWC.Particularly disturbing is the revelation that the relent-less hunting of sperm whales and blue whales decimatedtheir pre-whaling populations by one-third and ninetypercent, respectively. To read the entire paper, go tohttp://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/mfr764/mfr7643.pdf.

President’s Message2015 started with snow and more snow. In the 41

year history of CSI, we never had to cancel the annualmeeting three times in a row. We elected our Officersand Directors on February 23 with a one year term. We

have a very experienced Board of Directors with justone new addition in 2015.

Cynde McInnis joins us from Gloucester, MA. Ilook forward to working with Cynde and her life-sizewhale Nile that accompanies her to schools and libraries.

CSI has several goals for 2015 and with hard workand dedication we will meet them all. Public events arehigh on the list and we expect to have more beachcleanups than in past years. Plastics and other wastecoming off the beaches at high tide pose a hazard to allwildlife, not just whales.

We are planning several meetings and events at theChildren’s Museum in West Hartford, CT. The staff isvery personable and professional and made our AnnualMeeting one of the best in recent memory. Publicoutreach is essential to spreading our message andhelping whales around the world. We may even havespecial plans to celebrate CONNY, the life-sized spermwhale at the Museum.

Our Humpback Whale Adoption Program will beupdated with additional whales to choose and the kitswill include even more fun items for our supporters.

We would like to increase the number of member-ships and are looking to younger people to take aninterest in what we do. We have added Sena Wazer toour growing list of contributors and at the age of 10 shecertainly is the youngest writer to contribute to "WhalesAlive!".

These are exciting times at CSI and I invite everyreader to contact me with ideas and suggestions. Thanksto all of our members and donors for your generous giftsand support last year.

Dan Knaub

Bioacoustics and CSI GrantsBy William Rossiter

Did you hear that! Sound may be vital to your life,but how often do you stop to appreciate hearing laugh-ter, conversations, life-saving alarms and other life-essential sounds around you? What if you couldn’t hearyour children, the incoming phone call, or bird songssignaling the end to this difficult winter many of us haveendured? What if sounds important to you weredrowned out by machines, construction, traffic, sirens,airplanes and boom boxes? You have some solutions toyour noise problems. Cetaceans don’t.

You know that sound is even more essential to the

life and survival of every cetacean than to us, and thatsome of the greatest challenges these creatures facecome from the noise we make. How do you know that?Because of the work of bioacousticians, scientists thatconverge from many disciplines, combining biology andacoustics to give anyone of us that will listen anunderstanding of what sounds whales, dolphins andporpoises make, and maybe why. They are trying to tellus what sounds cetaceans hear, and must hear for theirsurvival. For some the focus is on the impact of humansounds in the ocean. These anthropological acousticalimpacts are increasing across the spectrum of whatcetaceans need to hear for their survival, but the battleto mitigate that impact only starts after the bioacousti-cians and many other scientific disciplines demonstratethe harm we do. We and the whales are losing that battlebecause the cost to our society and the purported needsof national security are blocking adequate mitigation. Ithas become a war, really, and CSI has committeddecades to fighting it.

That’s one of the reasons I attended the WatkinsMemorial Marine Mammal Bioacoustics Symposiumin late March. I need to learn more to help CSI continueto fight for cetaceans in this noise war. My secondreason was propelled by forty years of fascination withwhales and their kin. I relish any opportunity to learnthe latest facts from experts. The Watkins Symposiumhonored a legendary scientist from the early days of thisnow-exploding discipline. Many attending were legendsthemselves. Some were contemporaries of Bill Watkins;their careers span the lifetime of modern bioacoustics!You can see more, including who presented the latestfacts from their research, at http://www.whalingmuseum.org/programs/watkins-symposium2015.

I wanted clues about sperm whale acoustics, includ-ing their cultures and dialects, and the “bent horn”

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physiology that powered the astonishingly loud click Iheard from this whale in 1981.

I needed a better understanding of what cetaceanshear, whether diving thousands of feet below the surfaceto find food in utter darkness, or an Amazon riverdolphin hunting between trees in a flooded forest, andhow false killer whales may spread out over hundredsof miles of ocean to forage, but somehow come togetheragain. What is communicated by a Maui’s dolphinconversing with group-mates at frequencies over tentimes above our maximum range, or a blue whalesinging at frequencies that must be speeded up ten timesfor us to hear the song? With a hearing loss reducingmy barely adequate human range I can only imaginewhat their sounds mean to them, unless I understandwhat the bioacousticians tell me.

More urgently, I needed to know if a deaf whalereally is a dead whale, because we’re deafening a lot ofthem. Is there any way to alarm right whales about tobe struck by a ship? Might oceanic dolphins panic at thefirst scream of mid-frequency sonar that may be ahundred miles away? Do they think a monster is afterthem, and in panic flee an essential habitat? Do some ofthem end up dying in a mass stranding? And, as theNavy truly doesn’t care, what can be done to stop theharm and killing the Navy admits causing? Well, no, Idon’t expect the experts to go there. To engage directlyin this war may add a credibility risk to scientists’careers, but all we really need are the facts they find.Using those facts to save whales is the responsibility oforganizations like CSI, and you, an informed andconcerned public. This is why CSI now is engaged intwo military sonar lawsuits.

My best reason for being at the Watkins Symposiumwas to meet several Latin American bioacousticians Iknow through CSI’s grant program. Professor MarcosCésar de Oliveira Santos of the University of São Paulo,Brazil and UMASS in the U.S, was among the first inthe new generation of aquatic mammal scientists thatemerged in the early 90’s, when we first met, and is nowworld famous for his expertise. His superb teachingabilities were obvious from the start. When he washiking into a nature reserve to study the tucuxi dolphinsthat foraged along the shore, he used the opportunity toeducate local people to their dolphin. When I asked whyhe made the long journey out of the reserve everyevening, instead of camping on the beach, he said “Bill,at night the snakes own the beach”. CSI recently helpedUruguay’s Veronica Iriarte with a travel grant to attendMarcos’ bioacoustics course in Brazil. Vero’s Master’s

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subject is Integrated Coastal Management, but her PhDwill be on offshore marine mammals, with a focus on“the overlapping of oil and gas seismic surveys/drilling/future exploitation in the Uruguayan EEZ withkey ecological areas for marine mammals”.’ But Veron-ica has done much more than that; see below. Since webegan to apply CSI’s grant program to Latin Americawe have identified several researchers focused onanthropogenic noise; what we learn from them can beapplied to similar conservation issues worldwide.

Three grantees I met for the first time at the Sympo-sium were: Laura May-Collado, PhD, of Costa Rica;Christina Perazio of Colombia; and Braulio Leon-Lopezof Mexico. Laura May-Collado presented “The effectof changing ambient noise levels on the whistle acousticstructure of dolphins in Bocas del Toro, Panama." Irecall her 2008 grant from CSI to study that bottlenosedolphin population, because of the then-threat by theOcean Embassy Project to capture dolphins for display.She gave a foundation of science to CSI’s advocacy ina campaign waged by many organizations that did stopOcean Embassy. In 2010 she documented Guiana(smaller, higher frequency) and bottlenose dolphins(larger, lower frequency) modifying their whistles to anintermediate form when swimming together. A prolificauthor, Laura has many skills, most recently leading aworkshop on drones.

Christina Perazio presented "Humpback whale songduring the breeding season in Tribugá’s Gulf, Colom-bian Pacific". If you wish to hear her presentation asgiven in English to the Colombian Society of Zoology,please email info@csiwhalesalive.org. One CSI Direc-tor with a special interest in these songs is Paul Knapp,Jr., who recently completed his seasonal recording ofhumpbacks off Culebra, Puerto Rico (see his article laterin this issue).

Braulio Leon-Lopez presented "Bottlenose dolphinsignature whistles: do sex, age and size matter?" at theSymposium. I took the opportunity to learn more aboutone of his innovations, a hydrophone that costs less thanUS$100 that might help many researchers with smallbudgets. CSI in 2011 was pleased to help him travel tothe University of St. Andrews in Scotland for a researchpostgraduate program in the School of Biology on the“geographic variation of delphinid vocalizations”, atheme of his continuing research. CSI is unique forgiving travel grants, because few others do, but whenmajor events occur our budget can shrink rapidly. Toour regret, late last year we could not help him attendthe major regional conference in Colombia.

Another regret is that we don’t publicize CSI’sgrant program enough, because the workload tomaintain it takes all the time our volunteers have. Theprogram began in 1982, funded by foundation grantsand directed donations. On a yearly basis everything weget is directed to about 75-95 recipients, focusing onpeople near the start of their careers in cetacean science,conservation and education. From the early 90’s webegan to focus on Latin America, because of theregion’s new generation of graduate students and theirpotential to study populations and habitats at relativelylow cost before significant human exploitation. We helpemerging experts local to a need by giving small cashgrants with minimum formalities or delay; we don’t tellthem how to do it, we demonstrate faith in their knowl-edge and potential. Besides cash we purchase or loanequipment, share resources, and provide expert contacts.Sometimes the most helpful aspect is the recognitionthat someone cares; we often hear that CSI was the firstorganization that showed interest or gave assistance.

No one becomes an expert on cetaceans to be richand famous. They do it because they want to make adifference through science, education and conservation.Many now-established experts have stories to tell ofwhy they became compelled to commit many years toschooling, how they struggled for funding, and thepersonal satisfaction from making that difference thatflows through their careers. CSI is always looking forfuture experts near the start of such a career, a particu-larly difficult period for most. We believe so much inthe future generation that we’ve been pleased to helpmany education projects. One example is helpingColombia’s Natütama Foundation expand their educa-tional programs to river communities in Brazil and Peru,especially the children.

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These children are learning the wonders of riverdolphins and their local environment from a fishermanassociated with Natütama’s Interpretive Centre, now inits 14th year. We are not crazy idealists to hope that oneof these children will someday be an expert on riverdolphins; this is the way it starts! Yes, they’re a bityoung for a grant, but give them time.

Since last July CSI has granted over $70,000 to 74people or projects in ten countries. Because CSI is ananimal welfare organization we do not assist invasiveresearch or projects involving captive display, but ourgrants have gone to any other subject we felt would helppeople help cetaceans, from aerial surveys by airplaneand drone to necropsies of dolphins accidentally killedin nets (300,000 cetaceans die by entanglement world-wide every year), from studying fossils to the effect ofclimate change on habitats, from heavy metal analysisto life histories as told by teeth, from blue whales to tinyfransiscana dolphins, from website development tospecialty courses taught by leading authorities, frompeople working alone in remote locations (we honorespecially Veronica Iriarte for courageously samplingillegal piracatinga traps at night to determine thenumbers of dolphins killed for bait) to associations likeProjeto Toninhas, bringing together scientists fromArgentina, Uruguay and Brazil to study fransiscana andGuiana dolphins. Our list is long, and very gratifying,because CSI has witnessed an explosion of talent andresults that truly have helped cetaceans.

If you wish to know more or to help someone makea difference please contact us at info@csiwhalesalive.org.

Will You Help Right WhalesBy William Rossiter

Will you help North Atlantic right whales? Thisis one of only about 500 of these critically endangeredwhales that survive today, competing for space inhuman-crowded waters. The whale was photographedon a Center for Coastal Studies research cruise in thecritical habitat of Cape Cod Bay, where about 1/3 of theentire species had congregated for just a few days togorge on zooplankton. The whale’s flukes show distinc-tive scars from an entanglement in a fishing line or net.83% of the species have these scars, 26% show newscars every year, and these are the survivors!

To help them survive the National Marine Fisheries

Service (NMFS) is proposing to expand the species“critical habitat”, after considerable effort by manyscientists and NGOs identified new areas essential tothe whales’ conservation and recovery. The areaincludes feeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine andGeorges Bank and calving grounds from the shores ofNorth Carolina to the middle of Florida, a total criticalhabitat area of 29,945 square nautical miles.

The government is soliciting public comments ontheir proposal until April 21, 2015. A summary of theproposal, including maps showing the proposed newboundaries, is at: http://tinyurl.com/nl65emr

The proposed rule in its entirety and information oncommenting is in the Federal Register at:http://tinyurl.com/oe7qxd2

Why is your comment important? Because unlessthe American public tell NMFS that the species’ survivaljustifies some economic impact the powerful voices ofindustries and commerce will protest any responsibilitylaid on them. For example, the shipping industry willoppose anything interfering with their proposed expan-sion of the shipping channel into Charleston, where theport continues to oppose ship speed regulations provento reduce right whale shipstrikes.

Please be sure to thank NMFS for enlarging the area,which is based on the best available science definingthe areas critical to the species’ recovery. But please addyour support for areas not included, such as the whales’historical migratory route in the mid-Atlantic, increas-ingly threatened by seismic surveys, oil and gas produc-tion and even offshore wind farms. The inshore watersof Maine were not included, where the lobster industryhas been excluded from risk reduction measures toreduce entanglements, and the “tail” of Florida’s currentcalving ground critical habitat was cut off the proposal.

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Georgia and Mystic Aquari-ums’ Beluga Blues Update

By William Rossiter

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) isdue to announce soon whether or not to designateRussia’s Sakhalin Bay-Amur River stock of belugawhales as depleted, an action that will affect Connecti-cut’s popular Mystic Aquarium. This action resultedfrom the April 2014 Petition by CSI, the AnimalWelfare Institute (AWI), Whale and Dolphin Conserva-tion (WDC), and Earth Island Institute (EII), which hadbeen granted Intervenor status in April, 2014, in supportof NMFS in the case of Georgia Aquarium, Inc. v.Pritzker. Georgia Aquarium wants to overturn a decisionby NMFS to deny the Aquarium’s application for apermit to import 18 wild-caught beluga whales fromRussia’s Sea of Okhotsk for purposes of public display.

The Aquarium plans to loan some of these belugasto several aquariums, including the three SeaWorldparks in Florida, Texas, and California, the John G.Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and Connecticut’s ownMystic Aquarium. This consortium of beluga displayfacilities wants to replenish their stock as currentbelugas die, as one did recently at SeaWorld Orlando,and strengthen the beluga gene pool they will share toprolong the life of their displays, and profits.

In mid-March AWI, CSI, WDC and EII filed ourjoint response to Georgia Aquarium’s “motion on themerits”, which seeks to have a federal judge orderNMFS to not only overturn the decision but also orderthe agency to grant the permit. A press release on ourresponse is posted to CSI’s website. For a more detailedreview of this critical issue please see:https://awionline.org/cases/protection-beluga-whales.

Why is it critical? Because this permit “would notonly undermine the statutory requirements of theMMPA, it would signal U.S. endorsement of an unsus-tainable and expanding international trade in live-cap-tured beluga whales,” according to Courtney Vail,campaigns and programs manager for WDC. On behalfof CSI Bill Rossiter added that “It would also open thefloodgates rightly closed since 1993, allowing manywild caught cetacean species to be imported fromnations with laws and regulations that fall far short ofU.S. standards.”

The contentious and condemnable beluga import ispart of the reason some in CSI will be at Mystic on June

6, 2015, as part of the worldwide Empty the Tanksprotest/public education event. Join us!

When Will The VaquitaVanish?

By William Rossiter

Mexico in late February announced the nation’s“final” effort to save its tiny, vulnerable and endemicporpoise from extinction, but will these men boast intheir old age that they were among to last to see thevaquita?

Fewer than 100 living vaquita now are left on theplanet, after two decades of decline, ineffectual “solu-tions”, and dire warnings from a diverse cadre ofscientists and organizations. What is the minimalnumber of vaquitas that might find each other in anenormous space of water and stop their extinction?

If it’s on schedule the plan will have begun inMarch, banning gillnets for two years over 5,000 squaremiles of the northern Gulf of California. Over those two

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years several thousand shrimp fishermen and others whodepend on the shrimp harvest from that area will befinancially compensated for their loss from a US$72million dollar fund. But the vaquita’s recovery will takeover twenty years, has yet to start, and there’s nomention of an extension.

Paying someone not to do something for which theyshould be arrested may be a solution, but nothing willbe done to compensate the 40-50% of the fleet ofgillnetters who fish illegally for totoaba, a large andendangered fish whose dried swim bladder is worth$10,000 a kilogram after being smuggled throughCalifornia into China, destined to be cooked in soupwith reputed medicinal properties. The long nets set tocatch the totoaba also catch the vaquita, and betweenthe nets and China is a sophisticated smuggling opera-tion controlled by organized crime and drug cartels.

Mexico’s plan calls for increased enforcement forthe relatively small area essential to the vaquita’ssurvival, with Mexico’s navy assisting with drones,satellite coverage and patrol boats. But the illegaltotoaba fishery operates at night, working anchored netsleft for several days. Effective enforcement to stop thevaquitas from being killed demands an expensivemilitary commitment to blockade all fishers from thecritical area or interdict boats before their nets aredeployed at night. Once the nets are in place the onlyreason they won’t kill vaquitas is that no vaquitas passby. Stopping boats from retrieving their nets will infestthe waters with hidden ghost nets that will kill vaquitasuntil none are left.

What will signal that Mexico’s latest plan is failing?China knew the baiji was vanishing long before allow-ing a last-ditch effort to capture some before theybecame extinct, but by then none could be found to

capture. When will some official suggest Mexico’s“final, final” solution is to capture a few vaquita andkeep them in restricted waters far from the totoaba? Noone knows if the tiny, sensitive porpoise then mightsimply give up and pine away when taken from theirnative habitat.

There may be a better way, a win-win for allconcerned. An experienced and versatile fleet existswith the resources and skills to hunt for and find totoabafishers before they deploy their nets, a fleet withcommitted crews willing to risk all manner of peril atsea and a famous no-nonsense reputation for puttingthemselves in harm’s way to save cetaceans in peril, afleet that deserves some time in the tropical sun insteadof the coldest seas on earth. The Sea Shepherd Conser-vation Society has focused on saving the largest whales;why not save the smallest?

CSI 2014 Annual MeetingBy Patricia Sullivan

CSI’s annual meeting was held on Monday, Febru-ary 23, 2015 at The Children’s Museum, 950 TroutBrook Drive, West Hartford, Connecticut, postponedseveral times since January due to an extremely snowy,cold winter. Food and drink, generously donated byHarry’s Pizza Bishop’s Corner, West Hartford, wereenjoyed beginning at 6:00 PM.

Via conference phone, President Dan Knaub calledthe meeting to order at 6:35, welcomed all, called for avote to elect the nominated Officers and Directors,presented a Year in Review, highlighting CSI achieve-ments, answered Why Whales? followed by a thirteen-minute DVD of whales with names. Directors werevoted in unanimously. There were no nominations fromthe floor or by phone.

President Dan Knaub summarized CSI's activities:

Sent representative Heather Rockwell to the Inter-national Whaling Commission (IWC) in Slovenia; helda 40th Anniversary Trashion show/fundraising gala atthe New London Custom House Maritime Museumunder the direction of Treasurer Rachel DeCavage;developed a generic newsletter highlighting our achieve-ments; organized beach cleanups along the Connecticutshoreline; developed an improved, more user-friendlywebsite; provided dozens of grants to protect the most

Photo courtesy Alejandro Robles

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endangered cetacean species; involved in the Cape Windand Navy sonar suits.

CSI celebrated NY4Whales' Taffy Williams for hertireless campaign to expose Dolores tuna, advertised asdolphin safe, as dolphin deadly. She was able to nego-tiate with Supermarket Conglomerate, Wakefern, andits banner stores, Shop Rite, to pull dolphin deadlyDolores tuna from its shelves.

CSI was instrumental in supporting the MiracleMarch for Lolita in Miami, Florida in January; DaniellaRooslund attended, and as of this writing Daniella isrepresenting CSI at the World Cetacean AllianceWhaleFest in Brighton, UK. CSI is a proud foundingpartner, co-sponsoring the first WCA gathering inGloucester, MA in November, 2013.

We welcomed The Whalemobile’s Cynde B.McInnis to the Board of Directors. Cynde brings a richand varied background: she developed and led CapeAnn Whale Watch’s Field Research and Marine Educa-tion Internship, has led almost 2000 whale watch tripsand taught tens of thousands of people about whales andthe threats they face in our ocean today. Cynde’sexpertise was instantly apparent; she educated us byexplaining the original process of naming whales foundin Stellwagen Bank, off the coast of Massachusetts.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:15 PM.Officers and Directors

Officers: President: A. Daniel Knaub; Vice President:Brent Hall; Treasurer: Rachel DeCavage; Secretary:Patricia Sullivan.Board of Directors: Deborah Adams; Brian Benito;

Jessica L. Dickens; Paul DiGangi; David Kaplan;Barbara Kilpatrick; Cynde B. McInnis; Gary Pon-telandolfo; Heather Rockwell; Daniella Rooslund;William Rossiter; Leesa Sklover-Filgate; George Upton;Taffy Williams.

CSI Renews Its FriendshipWith Museum

By David Kaplan, CSI Board

It may be noted that there was a change in venue forthe CSI Annual Membership Meeting. Per the CSIBylaws, a meeting is to be convened in the first monthof each year to elect the Officers and the members ofthe Board of Directors to serve a one year term. All ofthe membership of CSI is invited to attend and partici-pate in the election process. This year, the meeting wasconvened on Monday, February 23rd (after a number ofdates cancelled by heavy snow) at The Children’sMuseum in West Hartford. For many years now, thisannual event was held at a local restaurant. This year,quite by design, the group decided to try somethingdifferent.

The goal was to make the Annual MembershipMeeting not only more welcoming and accessible to themembership but to be more accessible to non-members,people who may have interest in whales but have notmet CSI. It was a chance to reconnect with the roots ofCSI. The Children’s Museum was a natural choice.

It was in 1975 that the Museum and CSI united. Atthe time CSI was the Connecticut Cetacean Society, alocal grass roots organization with a strong local follow-ing and intense energy to advocate for the well-being ofCetaceans. The Museum, then known as The ScienceCenter of Connecticut, was the only public sciencecenter in the Greater Hartford area with a small campusin West Hartford. The joint project initiated was toconstruct a life size replica of a Sperm whale on the frontlawn of the Museum, visible to museum guests and alltraffic on the busy Trout Brook Drive. The magnificentresult, a life size but children friendly whale namedCONNY. Friendly in that it spouts water on guests inthe warm months and has a door for access to visit hisinsides where children love to play.

The institution has reinvigorated itself as The Chil-dren’s Museum. It has taken on CONNY as its officialmascot and most prominent feature. The Connecticut

CSI Board members at the Annual Meeting: George Upton,Jean Rioux, David Kaplan, Cynde McInnis, Gary

Pontelandolfo, Daniella Rooslund, Patricia Sullivan, PaulDiGangi, Rachel DeCavage, Brent Hall, William Rossiter,

Brian Benito.

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Cetacean Society became CSI and in many ways forgotits roots, but never entirely. Beth Weller, Director ofOperations for the Museum, met with David Kaplan,Patti Sullivan and Paul DiGangi of CSI and a friendshipwas renewed. The warm feelings were apparent andremarkable. The Museum donated their conferenceroom for the Annual Meeting. Ms. Weller notified themembers of the Museum of the event with an openinvitation to attend. Weller and Jay Kaplan (no relation),program director for the Museum and the Roaring BrookNature Center, both attended the Meeting. At theMeeting, an impromptu vote by those present madeCSI’s David Kaplan the liaison to the Museum.

There are already tentative plans for joint programs,including the celebration of CONNY’s 40th birthday,soon to come. Most heartening is that CONNY remainsthe symbol of the Museum and a most favorite exhibit.The families of the area, generations of children, allknow the Museum as the place with the ‘whale’. Ourvision, our project, has evolved to be a most lovedlandmark and attraction. When approached to help caterthe Annual Meeting, Kevin Plaut of Harry’s PizzaBishop Corner offered to help CSI without hesitation.After all he grew up knowing CONNY, and now hiskids know CONNY as well. CSI is reconnected with itsroots with the hope of reconnecting with a local follow-ing. CONNY is a most important ‘ambassador of thesea’ just inland in West Hartford.

BIG OIL: ALIVE AND WELLAND OUT OF CONTROL

By Taffy Lee Williams

“One gallon of oil pollutes one million gallons ofwater.” (Clean Water Education partnership

http://www.nccwep.org/help/did_you_know.php)

In its unrelenting quest for Big Profits, theoil/gas/fracking industry has lobbied and recently wona string of troubling victories. It can’t be denied that thisfeels like a war. The theatre of action? Two battles areraging over the NY/NJ Bight, more over the AtlanticCoast, Outer Continental Shelf, and even parts of theArctic Ocean, all areas rich with marine life, especiallycetaceans. Meanwhile, the long-term struggle for sur-vival continues after the crippling BP disaster in the Gulfof Mexico.

BIG GAS and LIQUIFIED NATURAL GASLiberty Natural Gas - a company with nameless officialsand obscured origins, has applied for a permit to builda Liquified Natural Gas import terminal at Port Ambrosein the New York/New Jersey Bight. The Bight is thetriangular-shaped ocean region of the eastern Atlanticcontinental shelf, specifically from Cape May, NJ toMontauk, NY, an area that includes Sandy Hook andRaritan Bay, Gateway Nat’l Rec. Area, the lowerHudson River and NY Harbor.

“Port Ambrose is a deepwater port consisting of asubmerged buoy system for natural gas deliveriesthat will be located in federal waters approximately19 miles from the New York shore. LiquefiedNatural Gas (LNG) supplies will arrive at PortAmbrose via specially designed Shuttle & Regasifi-cation Vessels (SRVs). Once the SRV is connectedto the submerged buoy system, the LNG will bere-gasified on board and natural gas will be trans-ferred into a new twenty-two mile subsea pipelinethat will connect offshore into the existing TranscoLower New York Bay Lateral pipeline serving LongIsland and New York City.” (http://portambrose.com/project-description/)

Here are the US Coast Guard/US Maritime Administra-tion’s DEIS impact assessments:

“Proposed Action: Water quality impacts duringconstruction would consist primarily of short-termincreases in turbidity associated with bottom sedi-ment disturbances during proposed Mainlinelowering/backfilling and during the installation ofthe STL [submerged turret loading] Buoy systems.Other short-term minor water quality impacts wouldbe anticipated in association with routine dischargesfrom the construction vessels and the discharge ofproposed Mainline hydrostatic test water at thePLEM locations in federal waters. Operation of theproposed Port facilities would be expected to resultin short-term minor adverse water quality impactsresulting from sediment disturbance and turbiditycaused by riser pipe movement and STL Buoyanchor chain movement, as well as accidentalreleases of petroleum products, LNG, and/or otherchemicals.... Vessels used during decommissioningwould have routine vessel discharges and the poten-tial for accidental releases, but since the proposedMainline would be abandoned in-place, the extentof the impacts would be over a much smaller area

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than that associated with the original construction.”(DEIS ES21: Executive_Summary_Port_Ambrose_DEIS-Volume_1-3.pdf)

There are many problems with this project. The NYBight has served as a dumping ground for roughly 200years, receiving raw sewage, garbage, contaminateddredgings, sewage sludge, acid waste, incinerated toxicwaste, and other nasty chemical refuse convenientlydumped from local industries.In 1984, with eight ocean dumpsites, the Bight was the“Ocean Dumping Capital of the World.” The eightdumpsites included those for contaminated dredgedspoils, sewage sludge (two sites), acid waste, woodincineration, construction rubble, incinerated toxicwastes, and industrial wastes. (https://cleanocean.wordpress.com/bight/)What sediments will be churned up during the 22 milepipeline’s construction?

“Some pollutants derive from past dumping, whichis documented in the sediment by persistent com-pounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons(PAHs) and dicarboxylic acids. Sites located closerto the Dredged Material Dump Site are richer inhydrocarbons, whereas sites located closer to theSewage Sludge Dump Site are richer in plasticizers(dicarboxylic acids).... Styrene (straight-chainhydrocarbon) and plasticizers present in the sedi-ment samples originate from sewage sludge. Highamounts of PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocar-bons) originate from both ash and petroleum.... Thehighest concentrations of organic matter and fine-grained sediment were found in cores located closeto Sandy Hook and in Hudson Shelf Valley. Thesediment samples are predominantly sandy withonly a minor amount of silt, clay and gravel. Thesolid particles of the waste such as ash, syntheticfibers, pieces of bricks, porcelain, plastic, and glassintroduced into the sediment changed its naturaltexture. Most of the sediment samples represent areducing to strongly reducing environment causingthe depletion of oxygen and of aquatic life as wellas the increase in time of pollutants decomposition.The presence of hydrogen sulfide makes the envi-ronment toxic for most of the biota. Some of thedetected hydrocarbons are polycyclic aromatichydrocarbons (PAHs) which have been shown to becarcinogens and/or mutagens.” (Moch Aleksandra;Friedman Gerald M., 1999: The impact of organic-

rich waste released into New York Bight sediment.Northeastern Geology and Environmental Sciences21(1-2): 49-101)

Construction at this site and dredging through 22 milesof seabed for the pipeline will resuspend the settledtoxins, causing them to migrate throughout the region’swaters creating a hazard to biological life. This shouldnot be considered a minor impact, as the detriments ofthe materials found in these sediments is well-known.Particulates churned up from sediments will be carriedthroughout the Bight and beyond to wreak an unknownbut anticipated havoc.

IS THIS ABOUT INCREASING FRACKING?Opponents ask why we need an LNG import terminalin the first place, citing a falling demand for LNG, andmore than adequate supply here in the US from frackedgas. Prevailing suspicions are that after construction theport will be converted (with an amended application)into an export terminal. As an export facility, PortAmbrose will send LNG to foreign markets for higherprices. The source: American fracked gas! If LNG isexporting fracked gas there will be a rise in demand,i.e., increased domestic fracking! Although there isplenty of resistance to an LNG import terminal, therewould be even more against an export facility dependenton increased fracking in the US! Building Port Ambroseas an import facility with a quick paper conversion toexport, will cause a rise in demand for fracked gas, asdomestic gas is liquified and sent oveseas. This in turnwill cause domestic gas prices to rise. No doubt aboutit, this LNG port represents a big win for Big Oil andBig Gas.What will happen to the 26 cetaceans species, thefisheries, the marine life abundant in these waters? Howwill they cope with the admitted “routine discharges”and “accidental releases of petroleum products, LNG,and/or other chemicals”? These threats are unacceptable.It is well known that ~half of the oil pollution in ouroceans originates from these “minor” operation acci-dents, infrastructure (pipeline, valve, fittings, joint)failings as well as the ballast water exchanges that are“routine” (whether they are legal or not). If one gallonof oil contaminates one million gallons of water, and“one quart of motor oil can create an oil slick two acresin size” (ibid), our shoreline, the local fisheries, themarine life, from the plankton to the whales will writhethrough an increasingly sickly soup that will certainlyresult in a new and very large dead zone - right at the

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place that has been the livelihood, economic life andbeach playground of tens of millions of people livingon the east coast. This one facility will cause aneconomic failure as the effects of operation hit thebeaches of New Jersey and New York, includingAtlantic City, Asbury Park, Wildwood, Cape May, thesouth shore of Long Island and the Hudson Rivercoastline.The amount of pollution generated by this project is sogreat it defies calculation. 3.5 million gallons of chem-ically treated saltwater will be discharged into theAtlantic Ocean just for the purpose of testing theintegrity of the pipeline! As ocean water becomesincreasingly polluted, dead zone(s) that grow in size aregenerated. This pollution should not be tolerated by theUSCG, MARAD, or any of the cooperating agencies asit will lead to ruin. What about the marine mammals,seabirds, wildlife along the shores and the all-importantfisheries? While the DEIS tells us effects will be shortterm and minimal, the public isn’t buying it.To learn more visit http://www.cleanoceanaction.org/and http://saneenergyproject.org/port-ambrose-lique-fied- natural-gas-off-long-islands-shores/

MORE ASSAULTS AT THE JERSEY SHOREWhile activists were busy fighting the guns of Big Oilon fronts that include Port Ambrose and the ArcticOcean the National Science Foundation quietly grantedresearch funds to Columbia University’s Lamont-Do-herty Earth Observatory (LDEO), to work with Colum-bia, the University of Texas and Rutgers University toprobe seabed sediments from the past 60 million yearsvia seismic airgun arrays that blast low frequency soundas much as 20 miles into the seafloor. Although theproject’s directive is to uncover evidence of sea levelfluctuation and climate change, the data retrieved willalso locate deep oil and gas deposits, and even methylhydrates. The airgun arrays will operate for 30 dayswithout ceasing, that is for 720 hours just 15 miles eastof Barnegat Bay. Legal challenges and equipmentfailure put a welcome end to the project in the summerof 2014. However, despite intense objections from thosedependent on the local marine-based economy, and eventhe NJ state officials, a U.S. District Court in Trentondenied the N.J. Department of Environmental Protec-tion’s application to temporarily stop the seismic survey.Unfortunately for the whales, sea turtles and fish thateither call this area home or routinely traverse throughit the project is now planned to begin in the summer of

2015.Interestingly, this isn’t the first time that the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has been the focus of protest.The NSF and its ship, Maurice Ewing, are not unfamiliarwith seismic and sonar mapping controversies. In 2002the NSF was sued by the Center for Biological Diversityas the vessel was conducting seismic mapping in theGulf of California and whales were found dead. A judgeruled that the sound blasts disrupted marine life in theocean. (http://www.reefrelieffounders.com/drilling/2014/03/20/several-articles-about-seismic-testing-in-gulf-of-california-and-beached-whales-including-lawsuit-to-stop-nsf-owned-ship-from-testing/) Seismictesting has been implicated in a number of mass whalestrandings during seismic exploratory and mappingactivities around the world, including 100 melon-headedwhales in Madagascar in 2008, and pilot and minkewhales in New Zealand, Australia, West Iceland andScotland in 2013. (http://news.mongabay.com/2013/0925-sonar-testing-whale-stranding.html) and http://www.huff ingtonpost .com/candace-cal loway-w h i t i n g / t e r r i f y i n g - a n d - d e s t r u c t i v e - t owhales_b_3901738.htmlThe Marine Mammal Commission weighed in as well,noting that the the NSF’s “take” numbers for marinemammals were underestimated by the applicants:

“Enumerating takes for surveys in a small areaTo determine the numbers of marine mammals thatcould be taken incidental to the proposed geophys-ical survey, LDEO multiplied the total ensonifiedarea of 2,502 km2 (which includes a 25 percentcontingency) by the applicable densities. However,LDEO would be conducting the survey, consistingof 4,900 km of tracklines (spaced 150 m apart), inan area of 12 by 50 km. The survey would occur inthat small area for approximately 30 days, 24 hoursper day. At the March 2013 meeting, the Commis-sion discussed with NMFS and the other relevantentities the fact that a simple area*density methodis not appropriate in such circumstances. Rather, theapplicant should be determining the total ensonifiedarea in a given day, which then should be multipliedby the number of survey days (30) and the applicabledensities. Otherwise, the method LDEO used in thecurrent request (and has used in the past) very likelyunderestimated the numbers of marine mammalsthat could be taken. Therefore, the Commissionrecommends that NMFS require LDEO to estimatethe numbers of marine mammals that could be taken

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based on the total ensonified area in any given daymultiplied by 30 and the applicable densities.”(Marine Mammal Commission, Letter to NMFS/Ms.Jolie Harrison, Appendix G, Page 6, 31 March2014.) https://www.nsf.gov/geo/oce/envcomp/nj-seismic-research/appendix-g-nmfs-iha-publiccomments.pdf

How many whales have to strand and die at the handsof the scientists at the NSF, Columbia U, Rutgers U,and the U Texas? The next Big Question: will Big Oilstep in, and profit from this marine-devastating project,and be granted access to the NSF research data? Let’ssee how the NSF answers that:

“NSF will launch a Public Access Initiative that willmake the results of NSF-funded research broadlyavailable with minimal barriers. NSF’s public accesspolicy will accelerate progress in scientific research,encourage citizens to become scientifically literate,and foster creative partnerships with the privatesector.” https://www.nsf.gov/about/budget/fy2014/pdf/45_fy2014.pdf

For more on this topic, visit http://www.cleanoceanaction.org/.

OBAMA’S BIG GIFT TO BIG OIL: THEATLANTIC OCEAN OUTER CONTINENTAL

SHELF AND THE ARCTICThis one just rips the heart out of any sense of hope forour future. Well, dead zones and dead wildlife bedamned, Obama has given Big Oil its coveted dream:the Atlantic Ocean’s Outer Continental Shelf. Then hegave Big Oil a bonus, well, just for being Big Oil: partsof the Arctic.It would be easy to rant about the hundreds of thousandsof marine animals at risk, including whales, dolphins,seabirds, sea turtles, fish and nektonic and planktonicspecies that will be impacted to death by living in anocean permeated with the oil exploration and extractionindustry. Or to ramble on about the demise of marine-based local economies, fisheries, the commercial andrecreational use of the vast areas of ocean that willbecome a canvas dotted with oil rigs... but that wouldbe overstating the risks. Or would it?Let’s consider the expected impacts from the industry.There are a broad range of activities, from seismicexploration that blasts the seafloor with high-decibellow frequency sound and can drive marine mammalsout of the water, to routine maintenance and operations

that are considered “minor” and are ignored by regula-tors and environmental impact statements despite theirserious impacts. Various stages of well drilling, leakinginfrastructure, testing pipelines (then releasing millionsof gallons of polluted water), typical vessel ballast waterexchange (whether legal or not), accidents that get littleor no publicity, waste water laden with drilling fluids,runoff water from platform operations, pipeline andflowline leaks, leaking storage tanks, well failures andof course, transportation. Even more frightening, theprospect of a BP-like Deepwater Horizon blowoutaccident along the Atlantic Coast that will surelydecimate wide swaths of the shoreline. Seems a lot toworry about; seems there’s a great deal at stake.Since the Interior Department’s announcement that itwould open the mid and south Atlantic coasts to oil andgas exploration, a coalition of 75 scientists called onPresident Obama to reject the plan outright.

“Opening the U.S. east coast to seismic airgunexploration poses an unacceptable risk of seriousharm to marine life at the species and populationlevels, the full extent of which will not be under-stood until long after the harm occurs. Mitigatingsuch impacts requires a much better understandingof cumulative effects, which have not properly beenassessed, as well as strict, highly precautionarylimits on the amounts of annual and concurrentsurvey activities, which have not been prescribed.To proceed otherwise is simply not sustainable.”http://docs.nrdc.org/wildlife/files/wil_15030401a.pdf

The scientific community dismissed the assessment ofnegligible impact on marine animals as not based onsound science. Speaking of airgun arrays:

“Airgun surveys have an enormous environmentalfootprint. For blue and other endangered greatwhales, for example, such surveys have been shownto disrupt activities essential to foraging and repro-duction over vast ocean areas. Additionally, surveyscould increase the risk of calves being separatedfrom their mothers, the effects of which can belethal, and, over time, cause chronic behavioral andphysiological stress, suppressing reproduction andincreasing mortality and morbidity. The InteriorDepartment itself has estimated that seismic explo-ration would disrupt vital marine mammal behaviormore than 13 million times over the initial six-to-seven years, and there are good reasons to consider

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this number a significant underestimate.“The impacts of airguns extend beyond marinemammals to all marine life. Many other marineanimals respond to sound, and their ability to hearother animals and acoustic cues in their environmentare critical to survival. Seismic surveys have beenshown to displace commercial species of fish, withthe effect in some fisheries of dramatically depress-ing catch rates. Airguns can also cause mortality infish eggs and larvae, induce hearing loss and phys-iological stress, interfere with adult breeding calls,and degrade anti-predator response: raising concernsabout potentially massive impacts on fish popula-tions. In some species of invertebrates, such asscallops, airgun shots and other low-frequencynoises have been shown to interfere with larval orembryonic development. And threatened and endan-gered sea turtles, although almost completelyunstudied for their vulnerability to noise impacts,have their most sensitive hearing in the same lowfrequencies in which most airgun energy is concen-trated.” (Ibid)

Disrupting marine mammal behavior 13 million timesfor the initial 6 or 7 years? Believe it or not, this isacceptable to the Obama government.

SPEAKING OF OIL SPILLS: DOLPHINDEATHS CONTINUE AT SITE OF THE BP

GULF OIL DISASTERAs we ponder the future of the Atlantic coast ourthoughts return to the Gulf of Mexico, 2010, the site ofthe largest oil spill in US history. What has been soquickly forgotten today? How could the BP disasterhappen? Could it happen again?

“The BP disaster has exposed the insidious andepidemic collusion between big business - in thiscase the oil industry - and the US government toessentially nullify the laws that impede their profitsand progress. In order to save time, BP skippedcertification of the blowout preventer, which wasfound to have design flaws, leaks in the hydraulicsystem and even a dead battery. A litany of deep seaequipment failures and faulty wiring plagued the rig,and conflicting pressure test results indicated poorpipe integrity. BP failed both to redirect the flow offlammable gases and remove drilling fluids neces-sary for accurate readings. (Gulf Oil Rig Plagued byproblems, Probe Finds. CBS News. May 12, 2010.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/12/national/main6476337.shtml) Where was oversight in theface of so many problems on the rig, and in light ofBP's dismal safety record? (BP has been fined byOSHA 760 times!) Now, despite the resultingecological nightmare in the gulf, fearing littlegovernment interference, BP is choosing to simplywalk away. With so much at stake, the future healthof the gulf and all its residents who must deal withthe remaining 4 million barrels of oil dispersedthrough the region, the abandonment should betreated as one of the highest level crimes against theAmerican people.” (Whales Alive, Vol. XIX No. 4October, 2010.)

We are being asked to trust a industry that showed itstrue parasitical nature during the horrendous blowout ofthe Deepwater Horizon that poured 5 million barrels ofoil and 2 million barrels of Corexit, an equally toxic“dispersant” into the gulf. We are being asked to trustemployees of a company that functions through decep-tion and lies. One former BP spill engineer was chargedwith obstruction of justice after he deleted text messagesto his superiors warning that the well was leaking630,000 gallons of oil per day, three times the amountBP had publicly stated, 210,000 gallons per day.(http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/dec/18/bp-oil-spill-engineer-obstructed-justice-text-messages) Wewill never know how much oil actually leaked into theGulf of Mexico, thanks to BP. Yet this is an industryactually protected by the government. One recalls thenews blackout of information, while officials forbidscientists from publicly discussing results of investiga-tions into the impact of the BP oil spill!The gulf oil spill is not over. Over 1300 dolphins,including young and aborted fetuses, have died in thegulf since February 2010. Dolphins show lung andadrenal lesions consistent with exposure to petroleumproducts. One study has shown that clusters of dolphindeaths have occurred in places affected by long termand heavy oil contamination in the gulf.http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/03/science/gulf-of-m e x i c o - t u r n s - d e a d l y - f o rdolphins.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&_r=1 Gulf ofMexico Turns Deadly for DolphinsThe BP oil spill thoroughly unmasked how environmen-tal laws and public health and safety mean little to BigOil. Facing up to $17.6 billion in fines under the CleanWater Act, BP has been whining that it cannot affordthe penalty, despite pulling in $3.6 billion in profits per

Whales Alive! • Spring 2015 • Published by Cetacean Society International • Page 14

quarter in 2014! (http://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/press/press-releases/bp-second-quarter-2014-results.html). The federal judge assigned to the casecame down hard on BP, stating that gross negligenceand willful misconduct resulted in the massive oil spill.

“Barbier said that drilling rig owner and operatorTransocean and oil services giant Halliburton werealso “negligent” in the events that led to the blowoutof BP’s Macondo well that set fire to Transocean’sDeepwater Horizon rig, killed 11 workers andtriggered the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Barbierapportioned 67 percent of the fault to BP, 30 percentto Transocean and 3 percent to Halliburton. Trans-ocean last year agreed to pay the government $1billion to settle its Clean Water Act liabilities relatedto the oil spill, and it paid an additional $400 millionin criminal penalties. But Barbier had harsh wordsfor the company, saying that it “was aware that itscrews lacked training about the proper use ofdiverters” that should have directed dangeroushydrocarbons away from the rig. He also said thatTransocean had not lined up the diverter properly.”(http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/bps-gross-negligence-caused-gulf-oil-spill-federal-judge-rules/2014/09/04/3e2b9452-3445-11e4-9e92-0899b306bbea_story.html)

Who could forget the image of the sperm whale and itscalf swimming through an orange, boiling sea laden withthick, burning oil and smoke billowing, as nearby flameswhipped out to the skies. The gulf was on fire, andwhales and dolphins were swimming through it. Heart-breaking scenes still haunt us: pelicans covered head totoe with oily brown goo, the oil-bathed fish gasping itslast breath on the beach, the marshes bleached blackwith oil. Where will the birds go now, where will theyfind food? We grieved as we wondered how whales anddolphins or birds could breathe the petrochemical-fumedair, how they are surviving now. What will become ofthe Atlantic coast?Today, bottlenose dolphins and sea turtles are amongthe many species struggling to recover, dying in recordnumbers. Although BP has left the “scene of the crime,”oil permeates the marshes and beaches, while some ofthe “missing” oil - some 10,000 gallons - has been foundon the seafloor of the Gulf of Mexico. Studies haveshown dolphins swimming through oiled waters areanemic and underweight, with signs of lung and liverdisease.

—An oil chemical from the spill has been shown tocause irregular heartbeats in the embryos of bluefinand yellowfin tuna. That's a critical stage of devel-opment for the fish, so there's a lot of concern thatthe damage could cause heart attacks or deaths,Inkley said. (Related: "Odd Animal Deaths, Defor-mities Linked to Gulf Oil Spill?")—Loons, birds that winter on the Louisiana coast,are carrying increasing concentrations of toxic oilcompounds in their blood.—Sperm whales that swam near the BP well havehigher levels of DNA-damaging metals in theirbodies than in the past. The metals in their bodies,such as chromium and nickel, are the same ones thatwere present in the well. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/04/140408-gulf-oil-spill-animals-anniversary-science-deepwater-horizon-science/

We can expect to see the consequences of this spill fordecades.Are we really supposed to trust an industry rife withnegligence, lack of compliance with environmentallaws, and blatant criminal activity? How can one believethis kind of willful disregard is not systemic, not typicalthroughout the industry? BP’s blowout showed us withcertainty that Big Oil cannot be trusted. Some havechosen to learn this lesson - some except, it appears, ourgovernment’s highest officials. Knowing Big Oil’srecord and what’s at stake, the Obama Administration,the Interior Department, the Bureau of Ocean EnergyManagement, et al, prefer to go ahead anyway and openthe Atlantic Ocean and parts of the Arctic to Big Oil.With governance like this, can we even hope to win thistragic and so unnecessary war?

Hearing Humpback Whalesin the Caribbean

By Paul Knapp, Jr.If you spend some time on one of these Islands, where

divers are hearing Humpback whales in winter; and if youlike these beautiful sounds, and have a boat to take friendsout to listen, soon you may find yourself in demand as alistening guide. Anyway, it happened to me. Anyone witha boat can do it to some degree. Mostly you just need ahydrophone and a speaker, and a protected shore whereyou can comfortably find shelter from the trade winds.Or maybe you want to do it from a sailboat in the open

Whales Alive! • Spring 2015 • Published by Cetacean Society International • Page 15

sea, using a towable hydrophone. Either way, it's a verybeautiful thing to do, as great as any ocean experienceyou can think of. Hearing them is just as great as seeingthem, and in the winter in the Caribbean, humpbacks aremost enjoyable and reliable, since you can hear themunderwater for about 10 miles or so.

I did this for 26 seasons in the British Virgin Islands,before sailing 35 miles to Culebra, Puerto Rico to visitfriends; I'm still here two years later; it's fun to be startingup the whole thing again, and enjoying another spot wherewinter divers hear the humpback whales.

My big improvement for listening this year is thespeaker system I put together in a dry-box - similar to acooler. There's a very good amplifier; and 7.7" wooferfor the lows, 3/4" tweeter for highs, all run off the boat's12 volt battery. I'm still hoping for a close whale buteveryone is enjoying the clear listening.

Upcoming EventsCompiled by Paul Knapp, Jr.

March, April and May starts whale watching some-where, hope you go!March 14-22, 2015: Pacific Rim Whale Festival,Tofino, Vancouver Island B.C. celebrating the north-bound migration of gray whales from Baja California tothe Bering Sea and beyond.http://www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com/http://www.tofinoapp.com/profile.asp?memID=271&catID=93March 21 & 22, 2015: Fort Bragg California WhaleFestival. Watch whales from Pomo Bluffs in FortBragg. http://www.mendowhale.com/March 23-25, 2015: European Cetacean Society (ECS)29nd Annual Conference, St Julian’s, Malta in the Med-iterranean Sea. http://www.europeancetaceansociety.euMarch 28 & 29, 2015: Whale Festival, Rincon, PuertoRico. http://www.rincon.org/calendar-of-rincon-events/upcoming-rincon-events/ (787) 823 5024April - May, 2015: Whale & Jazz Festival, Mendocinocoast California.http://www.gualalaarts.org/Festivals/2015WhaleJazz.html Sounds to me like much more jazz than whales, butthe combination still must be great.April 18, 2015: Orca Network announces: Welcomethe Whales Parade and Festival, Langley, WhidbeyIsland, Washington. Welcoming the spring arrival ofgray whales to Whidbey,http://www.orcanetwork.org/Main/index.php?categories_file=EventsJune 28, 2015: Walk for Whales with WDC and SeaLife, at Sea Life Centers across the UK:http://uk.whales.org/events/walk-for-whales-2015

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