Mark Palmer’s Posts

• Victory at Sea

  David Brower leaves a legacy for dolphins 0

  Posted 7 years, 10 months ago

  The one-year anniversary of the death of environmental legend David Brower has come and gone, just a week after the U.S. Department of Justice decided not to appeal a dolphin protection lawsuit the Earth Island Institute filed with Dave back in 1999.

  

  Dolphins on the run.

  Photo: NOAA.

  For reasons that are still unknown, a small portion of the world's tuna swim with dolphins in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean. Ever since the late 1950s introduction of mile-long purse seine nets, fishing fleets have deliberately chased and netted dolphins in… Read More

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  Response to dolphin comments

  DavidinTokyo claims the dolphin hunts are for food, but that is not quite accurate.  A lot of dolphin meat does wind up on the market in Japan for food (often mislabeled as "whale meat"), but a lot is also used for pet food.  Dolphin meat has very high levels of heavy metals, mercury, PCB's and other toxins -- often at levels higher than recommended by Japan's health service for public consumption.  And the Taiji fishermen have told us that the main reason for the dolphin kill is to protect their fisheries, which of course is nonsense from a scientific standpoint.  More importantly, in Taiji the drive fishery for dolphins is mainly used to supply aquariums with "prime specimens".  These best-looking dolphins are removed from the herd, and the balance are slaughtered for food.  But while the fishermen get a few hundreds of dollars for dead dolphins, they get the equivalent of US $50,000+ from aquariums for "prime specimens."  The dolphin hunts in Japan are the largest direct killings of dolphins left in the world, so stopping these hunts is indeed a legitimate conservation goal for environmentalists.  (And yes, our groups are indeed working on protecting dolphins in Mexico and China as well.  Japan should step forward and support these conservation efforts instead of promoting slaughter of whales and dolphins for dubious political gain.)  -- Mark J. Palmer, Associate Director, International Marine Mammal Project, Earth Island Institute  On Japan eradicates dolphins as form of 'pest control' posted 3 years, 2 months ago 8 Responses