|
BALAENOPERA
MUSCULUS
Length:
20–30 meters
Weight: 110–190 tons
Worldwide population: 3–4.000 individuals
Life expectancy: About 90 years
A blue whale lifting its tail
flukes
Blue
whales in Icelandic waters are 22-25 m long.
The female species is larger than the males and weighs
110-190 tons. The
males weigh 100-160 tons. The
life expectancy of blue whales is about 100 years.
The colour is dark- or blue grey and white spots on the
sides. The flippers
are black or black and white on top and white below.
The baleens are dark coloured and the genitals are
situated further forward than the dorsal fin.
The blue whale is
rather rare in Icelandic waters after the overexploitation of
the Norwegians and the Icelanders.
It is quite solitary, but sometimes a few animals are
seen together. It
stays in the open seas during winter and migrates to north to
the ice edge in late winter
Mating takes place from May to September, the gestation
period is 10½ months and pregnancy occurs every two or three
years. Usually the
calf is 6-7 m and 2½ tons at birth and more than doubles its
length during the 7-8 months of sucking, after which it weighs
about 25 tons.
The blue whale mainly feeds on krill off the coast of Iceland
and also squid and octopus.
It sometimes chases schools of small fishes.
It is a slow swimmer, 1-8 nautical miles per hour.
It dives down to 50-100 m for up to 15 minutes at the
time.
Every year the first blue whales appear of the east- and west
coasts of the country in April, but the mainstay arrives at the
end of May and in the beginning of June.
The estimated size of the Iceland stock is 1000 animals
and the world stock 6.000-14.000.
The blue whale was declared totally protected in 1960 in
Icelandic waters and the stock has been recovering very
gradually.
A shoal of blue whales has returned to the same area off the
Breidafjordur Bay, west of the country,
every summer for years, and regular whale watching trips have
been on offer from the fishing town Olafsvik during summer.
The blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales (called
Mysticeti). At 30 metres (98 ft) in length and 180 metric tons (200 short
tons) or more in weight, it is the largest known animal to have ever
existed.
Long and slender, the blue whale's body can be various shades of bluish-grey dorsally and somewhat lighter
underneath. There are at least three distinct subspecies: B. m. musculus of the North Atlantic and North Pacific, B. m. intermedia of the Southern Ocean and B. m. brevicauda (also known as the pygmy blue whale) found in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific Ocean. B. m. indica, found in the Indian Ocean, may be another subspecies. As with other baleen whales, its diet consists almost exclusively of small crustaceans known as
krill.
Blue whales were abundant in nearly all the oceans on Earth until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over a century, they were hunted almost to extinction by whalers until protected by the international community in 1966. A 2002 report estimated there were 5,000 to 12,000 blue whales
worldwide, located in at least five groups. More recent research into the Pygmy subspecies suggests this may be an
underestimate. Before whaling, the largest population was in the Antarctic, numbering approximately 239,000 (range 202,000 to
311,000). There remain only much smaller (around 2,000) concentrations in each of the eastern North Pacific, Antarctic, and Indian Ocean groups. There are two more groups in the North Atlantic, and at least two in the Southern Hemisphere.
A 19-foot-long blue whale skull in the collections
of the Smithsonian Museum of Natural
History
Taxonomy
Blue whales are rorquals (family Balaenopteridae), a family that includes the humpback whale, the fin whale, Bryde's whale, the sei whale and the minke
whale. The family Balaenopteridae is believed to have diverged from the other families of the suborder Mysticeti as long ago as the middle Oligocene. It is not known when the members of those families diverged from each other.
The blue whale is usually classified as one of eight species in the genus Balaenoptera; one authority places it in a separate monotypic genus,
Sibbaldus, but this is not accepted elsewhere. DNA sequencing analysis indicates that the blue whale is phylogenetically closer to the sei whale (Balaenoptera borealis) and Bryde's whale (Balaenoptera brydei) than to other Balaenoptera species, and closer to the humpback whale (Megaptera) and the gray whale (Eschrichtius) than to the minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata and Balaenoptera
bonaerensis). If further research confirms these relationships, it will be necessary to reclassify the rorquals.
There have been at least 11 documented cases of blue/fin hybrid adults in the wild. Arnason and Gullberg describe the genetic distance between a blue and a fin as about the same as that between a human and a
gorilla. Researchers working off of Fiji believe they photographed a hybrid humpback/blue
whale.
The first published description of the blue whale comes from Robert Sibbald's Phalainologia Nova (1694). In September 1692, Sibbald found a blue whale that had stranded in the Firth of Forth—a male 78-feet-long—which had "black, horny plates" and "two large apertures approaching a pyramid in
shape".
The specific name musculus is Latin and could mean "muscle", but it can also be interpreted as "little
mouse". Carl Linnaeus, who named the species in his seminal Systema Naturae of
1758, would have known this and may have intended the ironic double
meaning. Herman Melville called this species sulphur-bottom in his novel Moby-Dick due to an orange-brown or yellow tinge on the underparts from diatom films on the skin. Other common names for the blue whale have included Sibbald's rorqual (after Sibbald, who first described the species), the great blue whale and the great northern rorqual. These names have now fallen into disuse. The first known usage of the term blue whale was in Melville's
Moby-Dick, which only mentions it in passing and does not specifically attribute it to the species in question. The name was really derived from the Norwegian blåhval, coined by Svend Foyn shortly after he had perfected the harpoon gun; the Norwegian scientist G. O. Sars adopted it as the Norwegian common name in
1874.
Authorities classify the species into three or four subspecies: B. m. musculus, the northern blue whale consisting of the North Atlantic and North Pacific populations, B. m. intermedia, the southern blue whale of the Southern Ocean, B. m. brevicauda, the pygmy blue whale found in the Indian Ocean and South
Pacific, and the more problematic B. m. indica, the great Indian rorqual, which is also found in the Indian Ocean and, although described earlier, may be the same subspecies as B. m.
brevicauda.
Blue whale
artwork
Description and behaviour
Adult blue whaleThe blue whale has a long tapering body that appears stretched in comparison with the stockier build of other
whales. The head is flat, U-shaped and has a prominent ridge running from the blowhole to the top of the upper
lip. The front part of the mouth is thick with baleen plates; around 300 plates (each around one metre (3.2 ft)
long) hang from the upper jaw, running 0.5 m (1.6 ft) back into the mouth. Between 70 and 118 grooves (called ventral pleats) run along the throat parallel to the body length. These pleats assist with evacuating water from the mouth after lunge feeding (see feeding below).
The dorsal fin is small, visible only briefly during the dive sequence. Located around three-quarters of the way along the length of the body, it varies in shape from one individual to another; some only have a barely perceptible lump, but others may have prominent and falcate (sickle-shaped) dorsals. When surfacing to breathe, the blue whale raises its shoulder and blowhole out of the water to a greater extent than other large whales, such as the fin or sei whales. Observers can use this trait to differentiate between species at sea. Some blue whales in the North Atlantic and North Pacific raise their tail fluke when diving. When breathing, the whale emits a spectacular vertical single-column spout up to 12 metres (39 ft), typically 9 metres (30 ft). Its lung capacity is 5,000 litres (1320 U.S. gallons). Blue whales have twin blowholes shielded by a large
splashguard.
The flippers are 3–4 metres (9.8–13 ft) long. The upper sides are grey with a thin white border; the lower sides are white. The head and tail fluke are generally uniformly grey. The whale's upper parts, and sometimes the flippers, are usually mottled. The degree of mottling varies substantially from individual to individual. Some may have a uniform slate-grey color, but others demonstrate a considerable variation of dark blues, greys and blacks, all tightly
mottled.
Blue whales can reach speeds of 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) over short bursts, usually when interacting with other whales, but 20 kilometres per hour (12 mph) is a more typical traveling
speed. When feeding, they slow down to 5 kilometres per hour (3.1 mph).
Blue whales most commonly live alone or with one other individual. It is not known how long traveling pairs stay together. In locations where there is a high concentration of food, as many as 50 blue whales have been seen scattered over a small area. They do not form the large, close-knit groups seen in other baleen species.
A blue whale rhythmically diving while swimming
The small dorsal fin of this blue whale is just visible on the far left.The blue whale is the largest animal ever known to have
lived. The largest known dinosaur of the Mesozoic Era was the
Argentinosaurus, which is estimated to have weighed up to 90 metric tons (99 short tons).
Blue whales are difficult to weigh because of their size. As is the case with most large whales targeted by whalers, adult blue whales have never been weighed whole, but cut up into manageable pieces first. This caused an underestimate of the total weight of the whale, due to the loss of blood and other fluids. Nevertheless, measurements between 150–170 metric tons (170–190 short tons) were recorded of animals up to 27 metres (89 ft) in length. The weight of an individual 30 metres (98 ft) long is believed by the American National Marine Mammal Laboratory (NMML) to be in excess of 180 metric tons (200 short tons). The largest blue whale accurately weighed by NMML scientists to date was a female that weighed 177 metric tons (195 short tons).[9] As a whole, blue whales from the Northern Atlantic and Pacific appear to be smaller on average than those from sub-Antarctic waters.
There is some uncertainty about the biggest blue whale ever found, as most data come from blue whales killed in Antarctic waters during the first half of the twentieth century, and was collected by whalers not well-versed in standard zoological measurement techniques. The heaviest whale ever recorded weighed in at 190 metric tons (210 short
tons). The longest whales ever recorded were two females measuring 33.6 metres (110 ft) and 33.3 metres (109 ft), although in neither of these cases was the piecemeal weight
gathered. The longest whale measured by scientists at the NMML was 29.9 metres (98
ft), a female caught in the Antarctic by Japanese whalers in 1946-47. The longest reported in the North Pacific was a 27.1 metres (89 ft) female taken by Japanese whalers in 1959, and the longest reported in the North Atlantic was a 28.1 metres (92 ft) female caught in the Davis
Strait.
Due to its large size, several organs of the blue whale are the largest in the animal kingdom. A blue whale's tongue weighs around 2.7 metric tons (3.0 short
tons) and, when fully expanded, its mouth is large enough to hold up to 90 metric tons (99 short tons) of food and
water. Despite the size of its mouth, the dimensions of its throat are such that a blue whale cannot swallow an object wider than a beach
ball. Its heart weighs 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) and is the largest known in any
animal. A blue whale's aorta is about 23 centimetres (9.1 in) in diameter. During the first seven months of its life, a blue whale calf drinks approximately 400 litres (100 U.S. gallons) of milk every day. Blue whale calves gain weight quickly, as much as 90 kilograms (200 lb) every 24 hours. Even at birth, they weigh up to 2,700 kilograms (6,000 lb)—the same as a fully grown
hippopotamus.
The blow
hole of a blue whale
Feeding
Blue whales feed almost exclusively on krill, though they also take small numbers of
copepods. The species of this zooplankton eaten by blue whales varies from ocean to ocean. In the North Atlantic, Meganyctiphanes norvegica, Thysanoessa raschii, Thysanoessa inermis and Thysanoessa longicaudata are the usual
food; in the North Pacific, Euphausia pacifica, Thysanoessa inermis, Thysanoessa longipes, Thysanoessa spinifera, Nyctiphanes symplex and Nematoscelis
megalops; and in the Antarctic, Euphausia superba, Euphausia crystallorophias and Euphausia valentin.
An adult blue whale can eat up to 40 million krill in a day. The whales always feed in the areas with the highest concentration of krill, sometimes eating up to 3,600 kilograms (7,900 lb) of krill in a single
day. This daily requirement of an adult blue whale is in the region of 1.5 million
kilocalories.
Because krill move, blue whales typically feed at depths of more than 100 metres (330 ft) during the day and only surface-feed at night. Dive times are typically 10 minutes when feeding, though dives of up to 20 minutes are common. The longest recorded dive is 36
minutes. The whale feeds by lunging forward at groups of krill, taking the animals and a large quantity of water into its mouth. The water is then squeezed out through the baleen plates by pressure from the ventral pouch and tongue. Once the mouth is clear of water, the remaining krill, unable to pass through the plates, are swallowed. The blue whale also incidentally consumes small fish, crustaceans and squid caught up with
krill.
Life history
Mating starts in late autumn and continues to the end of
winter. Little is known about mating behaviour or breeding grounds. Females typically give birth once every two to three years at the start of the winter after a gestation period of 10 to 12
months. The calf weighs about 2.5 metric tons (2.8 short tons) and is around 7 metres (23 ft) in length. Blue whale calves drink 380–570 litres (100–150 U.S. gallons) of milk a day. The calf is weaned after six months, by which time it has doubled in length. Sexual maturity is typically reached at five to ten years of age. In the Northern Hemisphere, whaling records show that males averaged 20–21 m (65.6–69 ft) and females 21–23 m (69–75 ft) at sexual
maturity, while in the Southern Hemisphere it was 22.6 m (74 ft) and 24 m (79 ft),
respectively. In the Southern Hemisphere, as adults, males averaged 25 m (82 ft) and females 26.5 m (87
ft). In the North Pacific, photogrammetric studies have shown blue whale adults today average 21.6 m (71 ft), with a maximum of over 24.4 m (80
ft) -- although a 26.5 m (87 ft) female stranded near Pescadero, California in
1979.
Scientists estimate that blue whales can live for at least 80 years; though since individual records do not date back into the whaling era, this will not be known with certainty for many years. The longest recorded study of a single individual is 34 years, in the eastern North
Pacific. The whales' only natural predator is the orca. Studies report that as many as 25% of mature blue whales have scars resulting from orca
attacks. The mortality rate of such attacks is unknown.
Blue whale strandings are extremely uncommon, and, because of the species' social structure, mass strandings are unheard
of. When strandings do occur, they can become the focus of public interest. In 1920, a blue whale washed up near Bragar on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland. It had been shot by whalers, but the harpoon had failed to explode. As with other mammals, the fundamental instinct of the whale was to try to carry on breathing at all costs, even though this meant beaching to prevent itself from drowning. Two of the whale's bones were erected just off a main road on Lewis and remain a tourist
attraction.
Vocalizations
Estimates made by Cummings and Thompson (1971) suggest the source level of sounds made by blue whales are between 155 and 188 decibels when measured relative to a reference pressure of one micropascal at one
metre. All blue whale groups make calls at a fundamental frequency between 10 and 40 Hz; the lowest frequency sound a human can typically perceive is 20 Hz. Blue whale calls last between ten and thirty seconds. Blue whales off the coast of Sri Lanka have been repeatedly recorded making "songs" of four notes, lasting about two minutes each, reminiscent of the well-known humpback whale songs. As this phenomenon has not been seen in any other populations, researchers believe it may be unique to the B. m. brevicauda (pygmy) subspecies.
The reason for vocalization is unknown. Richardson et al. (1995) discuss six possible
reasons:
Maintenance of inter-individual distance
Species and individual recognition
Contextual information transmission (for example feeding, alarm, courtship)
Maintenance of social organization (for example contact calls between females and males)
Location of topographic features
Location of prey resources
Population and whaling
A juvenile blue whale with its mother
History of whaling
Blue whale populations have declined dramatically due to commercial whaling.
Blue whale skeleton at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario.Blue whales are not easy to catch or kill. Their speed and power meant that they were rarely pursued by early whalers, who instead targeted sperm and right
whales. In 1864, the Norwegian Svend Foyn equipped a steamboat with harpoons specifically designed for catching large
whales. Although initially cumbersome and with a low success rate, Foyn perfected the harpoon gun, and soon several whaling stations were established on the coast of Finnmark in northern Norway. Because of disputes with the local fishermen, the last whaling station in Finnmark was closed down in 1904.
Soon, blue whales were being hunted in Iceland (1883), the Faroe Islands (1894), Newfoundland (1898), and Spitsbergen (1903). In 1904-05 the first blue whales were taken off South Georgia. By 1925, with the advent of the stern slipway in factory ships and the use of steam-driven whale catchers, the catch of blue whales, and baleen whales as a whole, in the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic began to increase dramatically. In the 1930–31 season, these ships caught 29,400 blue whales in the Antarctic alone. By the end of World War II, populations had been significantly depleted, and, in 1946, the first quotas restricting international trade in whales were introduced, but they were ineffective because of the lack of differentiation between species. Rare species could be hunted on an equal footing with those found in relative abundance.
Arthur C. Clarke, in his 1962 book Profiles of the Future, was the first prominent intellectual to call attention to the plight of the blue whale. He mentioned its large brain and said, "we do not know the true nature of the entity we are
destroying."
Blue whale hunting was banned in 1966 by the International Whaling
Commission, and illegal whaling by the USSR finally halted in the 1970s, by which time 330,000 blue whales had been caught in the Antarctic, 33,000 in the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, 8,200 in the North Pacific, and 7,000 in the North Atlantic. The largest original population, in the Antarctic, had been reduced to 0.15% of their initial
numbers.
A blue whale submerged
Population and distribution today
Image of a blue whale's tail fluke with the Santa Barbara Channel Islands in the background, August 2007Since the introduction of the whaling ban, studies have failed to ascertain whether the conservation reliant global blue whale population is increasing or remaining stable. In the Antarctic, best estimates show a significant increase at 7.3% per year since the end of illegal Soviet whaling, but numbers remain at under 1% of their original
levels. It has also been suggested that Icelandic and Californian populations are increasing but these increases are not statistically significant. The total world population was estimated to be between 5,000 and 12,000 in 2002, although there are high levels of uncertainty in available estimates for many
areas.
The IUCN Red List counts the blue whale as "endangered" as it has since the list's inception. In the United States, the National Marine Fisheries Service lists them as endangered under the Endangered Species
Act.The largest known concentration, consisting of about 2,800 individuals, is the northeast Pacific population of the northern blue whale (B. m. musculus) subspecies that ranges from Alaska to Costa Rica, but is most commonly seen from California in
summer. Infrequently, this population visits the northwest Pacific between Kamchatka and the northern tip of Japan.
In the North Atlantic, two stocks of B. m. musculus are recognised. The first is found off Greenland, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. This group is estimated to total about 500. The second, more easterly group is spotted from the Azores in spring to Iceland in July and August; it is presumed the whales follow the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the two volcanic islands. Beyond Iceland, blue whales have been spotted as far north as Spitsbergen and Jan Mayen, though such sightings are rare. Scientists do not know where these whales spend their winters. The total North Atlantic population is estimated to be between 600 and 1,500.
In the Southern Hemisphere, there appear to be two distinct subspecies, B. m. intermedia, the Antarctic blue whale, and the little-studied pygmy blue whale, B. m. brevicauda, found in Indian Ocean waters. The most recent surveys (midpoint 1998) provided an estimate of 2,280 blue whales in the
Antarctic (of which fewer than 1% are likely to be pygmy blue whales). Estimates from a 1996 survey show that 424 pygmy blue whales were in a small area south of Madagascar
alone, thus it is likely that numbers in the entire Indian Ocean are in the thousands. If this is true, the global numbers would be much higher than estimates
predict.
A fourth subspecies, B. m. indica, was identified by Blyth in 1859 in the northern Indian Ocean, but difficulties in identifying distinguishing features for this subspecies led to it being used a synonym for B. m. brevicauda, the pygmy blue whale. Records for Soviet catches seem to indicate that the female adult size is closer to that of the Pygmy Blue than B. m. musculus, although the populations of B. m. indica and B. m. brevicauda appear to be discrete, and the breeding seasons differ by almost six
months.
Migratory patterns of these subspecies are not well known. For example, pygmy blue whales have been recorded in the northern Indian Ocean (Oman, Maldives and Sri Lanka), where they may form a distinct resident population.[63] In addition, the population of blue whales occurring off Chile and Peru may also be a distinct population. Some Antarctic blue whales approach the eastern South Atlantic coast in winter, and occasionally, their vocalizations are heard off Peru, Western Australia, and in the northern Indian
Ocean. In Chile, the Cetacean Conservation Center, with support from the Chilean Navy, is undertaking extensive research and conservation work on a recently discovered feeding aggregation of the species off the coast of Chiloe Island in the Gulf of Corcovado, where 326 blue whales were spotted in
2007.
Efforts to calculate the blue whale population more accurately are supported by marine mammologists at Duke University, who maintain the Ocean Biogeographic Information System—Spatial Ecological Analysis of Megavertebrate Populations (OBIS-SEAMAP), a collation of marine mammal sighting data from around 130
sources.
A blue whale seen from above
Threats other than hunting
A blue whale surfaces off Santa Cruz Island in the Channel Islands, near Santa Barbara, CA
Blue whales stop producing foraging D calls once a mid-frequency sonar is activated, even though the sonar frequency range (1–8 kHz) far exceeds their sound production range (25–100
Hz). Due to their enormous size, power and speed, adult blue whales have virtually no natural predators. There is one documented case in National Geographic Magazine of a blue whale being attacked by orcas off the Baja California Peninsula; although the orcas were unable to kill the animal outright during their attack, the blue whale sustained serious wounds and probably died as a result of them shortly after the
attack. Up to a quarter of the blue whales identified in Baja bear scars from orca
attacks.
Blue whales may be wounded, sometimes fatally, after colliding with ocean vessels, as well as becoming trapped or entangled in fishing
gear. The ever-increasing amount of ocean noise, including sonar, drowns out the vocalizations produced by whales, which makes it harder for them to
communicate. Blue whales stop producing foraging D calls once a mid-frequency sonar is activated, even though the sonar frequency range (1–8 kHz) far exceeds their sound production range (25–100
Hz). Human threats to the potential recovery of blue whale populations also include accumulation of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) chemicals within the whale's
body.
With global warming causing glaciers and permafrost to melt rapidly and allowing a large amount of fresh water to flow into the oceans, there are concerns that if the amount of fresh water in the oceans reaches a critical point, there will be a disruption in the thermohaline
circulation. Considering the blue whale's migratory patterns are based on ocean temperature, a disruption in this circulation, which moves warm and cold water around the world, would be likely to have an effect on their
migration. The whales summer in the cool, high latitudes, where they feed in krill-abundant waters; they winter in warmer, low latitudes, where they mate and give
birth.
The change in ocean temperature would also affect the blue whale's food supply. The warming trend and decreased salinity levels would cause a significant shift in krill location and
abundance.
A blue whale skeleton at Long Marine Laboratory
Museums
Blue whale skeleton, outside the Long Marine Laboratory at the University of California, Santa CruzThe Natural History Museum in London contains a famous mounted skeleton and life-size model of a blue whale, which were both the first of their kind in the world, but have since been replicated at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Similarly, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City has a full-size model in its Milstein Family Hall of Ocean Life. A juvenile blue whale skeleton is installed at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California features a life-size model of a mother blue whale with her calf suspended from the ceiling of its main
hall. The Beaty Biodiversity Museum at the University of British Columbia, Canada, houses a display of a blue whale skeleton (skull is cast replica) directly on the main campus
boulevard. A real skeleton of a blue whale at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa was also unveiled in May
2010.
The Museum of Natural History in Gothenburg, Sweden contains the only stuffed blue whale in the world. There one can also find the skeleton of the whale mounted beside the whale.
The Melbourne Museum features a skeleton of the pygmy blue whale.
Whale-watching
Blue whales may be encountered (but rarely) on whale-watching cruises in the Gulf of
Maine and are the main attractions along the north shore of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and in the Saint Lawrence
estuary. Blue whales can also be seen off Southern California, starting as early as March and April, with the peak between July and
September.
In Chile, the Alfaguara project combines conservation measures for the population of blue whales feeding off Chiloé Island with whale watching and other ecotourism activities that bring economic benefits to the local
people. Whale-watching, principally blue whales, is also carried out south of Sri
Lanka.
A blue whale skeleton in the Canadian Natural History Museum
LINKS
Which
way now?
Environmentalists
hope to save the whales - again
Japan
backs Iceland's whaling decision Seattle Post
Intelligencer - 18 Oct 2006
TOKYO -- Major pro-whaling nation Japan on
Wednesday welcomed Iceland's decision to resume
commercial whaling, saying Iceland's catch
won't "endanger the whale ...
Iceland
whaling decision condemned Stuff.co.nz
Greenpeace
'disappointed' by Iceland's whaling plans ABC
Online
Moves
begin on Iceland's whaling BBC News
Monsters
and Critics.com - Radio
New Zealand
Greens
dismayed at Iceland whaling decision
Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand - 17
Oct 2006
News that Iceland is to begin commercial whaling
after a 20-year hiatus is being greeted with dismay by
Green Party Conservation Spokesperson Metiria Turei. ...
Iceland
to Resume Commercial Whaling
Los Angeles Times, CA - 17 Oct 2006
REYKJAVIK, Iceland -- Iceland said Tuesday
it would resume commercial whaling after a nearly
two-decade moratorium, defying a worldwide ban on
hunting the ...
Green
warrior to come to Iceland IcelandReview, Iceland -
20-10-06
... According to RÚV, the US government is also
opposed to Iceland resuming commercial whaling
and has the power to block all imports from Iceland
to USA. ...
Today's
Scoop Just Politics News Summary 17
Oct 2006
Scoop.co.nz (press release), New Zealand - commercial whaling administered by the
International Whaling Commission. See... Greens
dismayed at Iceland whaling decision
Update:
Finnair strike expected to continue next week
International Herald Tribune, France -
hours ago
... "We have received several e-mails from
people saying they have decided not to visit Iceland
as long as Iceland is conducting whaling,"
said Thorunn ...
Tharp She Gets Shot! The Return of Whaling in Iceland
19 Oct 2006
Plenty Magazine, NY -
which Iceland’s whales have been protected from hunters came to an end on Tuesday, when the country’s
lawmakers voted to resume commercial whaling in the ...
Whaling
is affecting tourism IcelandReview, Iceland -
19 Oct 2006
... of Swiss travel agency Baldinger Reisen AG sent a written statement to icelandreview.com yesterday,
expressing his concerns about Iceland resuming whaling.
...
Iceland,
Whales, Politics
FiNS Magazine, Singapore - 18 Oct 2006
... For a good overview on the Iceland
decision and the issues associated with commercial whaling
in general, see this recent article in the Guardian. ...
Iceland
to resume commercial whaling after almost 2
decades
USA Today 17-10-06
Critics say the "scientific" whaling
practiced by Japan and Iceland is a sham. Norway
ignores the moratorium altogether and openly conducts
commercial whaling.
Iceland's
Whaling Comeback
- Preparations for the Resumption of ...
The
Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) is the leading
international charity dedicated solely to the worldwide conservation and
welfare of all ... www.wdcs.org/dan/publishing.nsf/
allweb/B2460680BC28D8F480256D4A0040D97B
BBC
NEWS | Science/Nature | Moves begin on Iceland's whaling
Iceland's
ambassador to Britain is summoned to explain his country's return to
commercial whaling. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6064028.stm
BBC
NEWS | Science/Nature | Iceland bids to resume whaling
Iceland
reveals its plans to catch whales again for the first time since 1989,
despite the international whaling moratorium. news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2910655.stm
Iceland
Whaling v/s Whale watching. Whaling v/s Whale
watching.
The
most commonly used argument in Iceland is that whaling must
be resumed before the whales start ... Yearly report on Iceland
whale watching industry: ... www.global500.org/news_83.html
Iceland
My
opinion: Iceland's reasons for scientific whaling are FUBAR
and if we can ... I wonder how many of you criticising Iceland's
whaling have actually read ... weblog.greenpeace.org/iceland/archives/001530.html
Stop
Icelandic whaling
Stop
Icelandic Whaling: Arctic Sunrise Expedition 2005, Stop Icelandic
Whaling: Arctic ... tourism in Iceland IF Iceland
discontinues whaling. One Icelandic ...
weblog.greenpeace.org/iceland/archives/2003_09.html
Greenpeace
'disappointed' by Iceland's whaling plans. 19/10/2006
Greenpeace
says it is very disappointed Iceland has decided to resume
commercial whaling Iceland has authorised an annual hunt of 30
minke and nine of the ...
www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200610/s1768443.htm
Earth
Island Institute
Iceland's
whaling proposal threatens its growing whale-watching industry.
In 2002, more than 62000 people went whale-watching in Iceland.
...
www.earthisland.org/takeaction/new_action.cfm?aaID=167
Japan
backs Iceland's whaling decision - Yahoo! News
Major
pro-whaling nation Japan on Wednesday welcomed Iceland's
decision to resume commercial whaling, saying Iceland's
catch won't "endanger the whale ...
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061019/
ap_on_re_eu/japan_iceland_whaling
Whales
on the Net - Iceland Whaling Protest Letter
I
am appalled to learn that Iceland has decided to resume commercial whaling
under the guise of scientific research, and plans to kill 38 minke whales
this ... www.whales.org.au/alert/iceletter.html
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