|
|
Plight Of Whales And Dolphins Worsens
By Paul Brown - Environment Correspondent, Guardian
Unlimited
5th Dec 2000
Conservationists yesterday set up an action plan to save the whales
and
dolphins which frequent European waters and which are being poisoned,
killed in nets, and deliberately harassed by people in fast boats. Despite
international agreements, cetacean numbers are continuing to fall and
threats to them are growing. The action plan is focused on getting
modifications to fishing nets so that whales, dolphins and porpoises
can
avoid entanglement and drowning. It also aims to stop the oil industry
using explosions and seismic echoes in cetaceans' home waters, and to
ban the chemicals that accumulate in cetacean body fat causing illness
and infertility. At the launch of the campaign yesterday by the Whale
and
Dolphin Conservation Society and Dive magazine, the periodical of the
British Sub Aqua Club, Mark Simmonds, WDCS director of science, said:
"Chemical pollution, fishing nets, offshore oil and gas industry,
are all
substantive threats to the marine wildlife." There are 24 species
of
dolphins and whales remaining around Britain's coasts, but since the
first
WDCS review of these mammals in UK waters, in 1997, their plight has
worsened. This year's report notes that young people on jet skis and
power boats have been herding and even killing dolphins in Torquay,
Devon. Under the Countryside Act a new offence of "reckless harassment"
is coming into force. Whales and dolphins are also disturbed by low
frequency sounds emitted by ships to detect submarines and for communication
purposes. The noise disrupts their ability to navigate and their "conversations",
and can drive them away from their home territory. Manufactured chemicals
such as PCBs which stay in body fat, preventing reproduction and causing
disease, are now recognised as a serious threat, too. The International
Whaling Commission has been investigating the problem. Dead porpoises
washed up on beaches show a clear link between body fat pollution and
disease. One population of dolphins on the Moray Firth, Scotland, is
affected by
pollution and expected to die out in the next 50 years. About 2,000
of the
once common harbour porpoise are also killed each year in nets. The
WDCS wants conservation areas established in Cardigan Bay and Bardsey
Island, in Wales, for the mammal, which is now listed as endangered.
Helen Brinton, Labour MP for Peterborough, has criticised the Countryside
Act for doing little for marine life. Yesterday Graeme Gourlay, Dive
magazine's editor, added that real protection was needed "for the
fabulous diversity of cetaceans" or "we'll be the last generation
to enjoy such a natural wonder".
|
Earth
Environment
Health
Interviews
Lost Civilizations
Mysteries, UFOs, etc.
Sacred Sites
Sci/Tech/Nature
Space
Ascended
Masters
Merkabah Meditation
Sacred Geometry
Live
Seismic Monitor
Wild
Weather 2000-2001
More
Informer News ... |
