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Archive - 2010 - blog
Turn clock back 25 years to legalize commercial whaling? 2,039,621 whales killed, <3k fin escaped hunting, protector in cell
Left: Captain Paul Watson & 'Steve Irwin'. Top R: Skipper Pete Bethune. Ignoring 6 crew in sight, the 750-ton iron-and-steel ship Shonan Maru 2 sliced 17-ton fiberglass ecoboat Earthrace/Ady Gil into two when it was idle in the water, waiting to be refueled, 6 crew sitting on the deck, chatting.
Fin whale, the 2nd largest mammal on earth: size comparison against an average human. Scientists calculate that 2,039,621 whales were killed in Antarctica's Southern Ocean during the decades of industrial whaling, including roughly three quarters of a million fin whale.
Top L: In 2006, Iceland killed the endangered fin whale for the 1st time since the 1980s. Top R & Bottom R: free & imprisoned Pete Bethune, skipper of Ady Gil / Earthrace.
Captain Paul Watson leads Sea Shepherd, volunteers & ocean guardians, spending 8 months per year at sea, fighting illegal whalers, sealers, and shark and dolphin fishermen. The latest Sea Shepherd Whale Defense campaign cut Japan whalers’ quota in half & saved 528 whales. 750,000 fin whales, the 2nd largest creature, were killed in the S. Hemisphere alone between 1904-79, & less than 3,000 currently remain. IWC's compromise would legalize commercial whaling. The endangered fin whale would continue to be a target. read more »
Legal battles for Earth: Amazon defenders & James Cameron stall dam; Malaysian Judge gives lands back to rainforest community
Avatar director James Cameron played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon.
Palm oil plantation. Inset: deforestation by a logging company around a Penan village in the Middle Baram region in Sarawak.
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The Avatar director and one of its stars have played a part in halting an industrial development project that threatens indigenous people of the Amazon. Earlier this week, we brought you the story of James Cameron and Sigourney Weaver's trip to Brazil to raise awareness of the indigenous communities’ battles to stop the massive Belo Monte Dam on the Xingu River in the Amazon rainforest. We are now happy to report that the Dam Project Auctions have been canceled, and both stars are now in Washington DC for meetings with US Government officials.
Judge Antonio Carlos de Almeida Campelo granted a preliminary injunction (urgent) seeing “danger of irreparable harm” considering the imminence of the auction. The decision is the result of the assessment of one of two public civil actions filed by federal prosecutors dealing with irregularities of the enterprise. It focuses specifically on the lack of regulation of Article 176 of the Federal Constitution of Brazil, which requires the issuing of an ordinary law for the use of hydraulic potential on Indian lands. read more »
Oceans die, civilizations die. Defend sea, defend cultures. Jailed: Japanese Tokyo 2 & New Zealander Pete Bethune
Bottom L: “Tokyo Two” - Junichi Sato (left), Toru Suzuki (right), and their lead counsel, Yuichi Kaido (center) face reporters at a press briefing following their first pre-trial hearing at Aomori District Court in 2009. United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has already ruled that, in the defendants' attempts to expose a scandal in the public interest, their human rights have been breached by the Japanese government. Top R: New Zealander Peter Bethune boarded Japanese whaling ship Shonan Maru No 2 in the Antarctic Ocean to serve a citizen’s arrest for destruction of his ship (Earthrace aka Ady Gil). He has been held by the whalers since then and was arrested on March 12 when the whaling ship docked in Tokyo.
2010: Russian site of 1940 Katyn massacre of 20000 Poles witnesses deaths of Polish President, top political & military leaders
'A black day for Poland': The death toll included the country's President and wife, its central bank head and the country's military chief along with other senior government and military figures.
A Polish man mourns at the site where Polish government Tupolev Tu-154 plane crashed near Smolensk airport.
Respects: Polish Army soldiers salute the coffin carrying the late Polish President Lech Kaczynski in Warsaw, Poland.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski and wife, Maria both died in Saturday's crash near the site of the 1940 Katyn massacre of 20,000 Poles.
Daughter of the late Polish president Lech Kaczynski, Marta, and his twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski at the coffin containing the body of late Polish president Lech Kaczynski at the Military Airport in Warsaw, Poland, 11 April 2010. read more »
Photos: Worst floods in more than 100 years hitting US east coast, 2-3ft waters swamp local mall, roads cut off, cars submerged
Flood waters engulf the cars and offices of Village Collision and Automed Auto Sales on Aster Road in West Warwick, Rhode Island on April 1, 2010. The state received record rainfall earlier in the week causing flooding in many areas.
You’ll need your boat inside the mall, too.
The Rhode Island Mall in Warwick was flooded Wednesday by 2 to 3 feet of water. The mall's owner told the Providence Journal that the building, which houses about 70 stores, has never flooded in 40 years, and the retailers had very little time to protect the merchandise.
The Pawtuxet River spilled over its banks. A state of emergency was declared in Warwick, residents in Cranston are being evacuated, schools are canceled, and people were told not to flush their toilets.
US Navy Ship, USS Farragut, lets 11 Somali pirates go after sinking pirate ship in Indian Ocean
The guided missile destroyer USS Farragut passes by the smoke from a suspected pirate skiff it had just disabled in this March 31, 2010 photo. USS Farragut is part of Combined Task Force 151, a multinational task force established to conduct anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden.
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A U.S. Navy ship has sunk a pirate "mother ship" in the Indian Ocean and captured 11 pirates, and then promptly let them go. It was the second time within 24 hours that U.S. forces captured Somali pirates. Earlier Thursday, five pirates were taken into custody after they attacked a U.S. warship.
While those five pirates remain in custody, the 11 captured Thursday were allowed to leave in small skiffs after the mother ship was sunk. The action prompted a Pentagon spokesman to deny that the Navy had a "catch and release" policy regarding pirates.
A Naval official told ABC News that the practice of releasing pirates is not unheard of. While piracy is illegal according to international maritime law, it is considered a criminal issue, not a national security one.
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Photos courtesy of Wikipedia and U.S. Navy / Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Cassandra Thompson
Sushi-cide tragedy. Eat bluefin tuna (97% gone) to extinction? Oceans at our mercy. We have a choice...
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The Economist magazine calls CITES suppress- ion of debate on bluefin tuna dis- honorable: IT WAS a moment of some drama when delegates assembled in Doha came to vote on a ban in the trade in bluefin tuna on March 18th. The previous evening many represent- atives of the 175 member nations of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) had been at a reception at the Japanese embassy. Prominent on the menu was bluefin tuna sushi. On the agenda the next day at the CITES meeting was a proposal to list the bluefin tuna as sufficiently endangered that it would qualify for a complete ban in the trade of the species (The Economist supports such a ban). read more »
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