Dolphin Conservation: Media Information

2010 Annual Conference of ECS in Stralsund

Poster presentation: "The Return of Phocoena phocoena to North Germany’s Rivers - A case study from the Weser River (2007 - 2009)" by Denise Wenger (pdf 7.5MB)

Petition against Faroese Pilot Whale hunts

-> -> Please sign our petition against Faroese Pilot Whale hunts

Underwater Unexploded Ordnance

Methods for a Cetacean-friendly Removal of Explosives as Alternatives to Blasting

Translation: S. Koschinski
Report by S. Koschinski and K.-H. Kock presented at the 61st Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC); supported by Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Germany) – Abstract: Old sea-dumped ammunition poses a threat to marine mammals and the environment. For cetaceans, the conventional ammunition removal by blasting is a particular hazard. High sound pressure and explosion-related shock waves can lead to severe injury and hearing impairment in marine mammals at considerable distance from detonation sites. Alternative techniques to render old ammunition harmless are available and in order to minimize harm to marine mammals detonations in the marine environment can be avoided in most cases. Advanced techniques for treatment of ammunition are presented comprising freezing, the use of robotic equipment, Water Abrasive Suspension cutting, disposal in a Static Detonation Chamber and photolytic destruction of explosive substances. If underwater detonations cannot be avoided, suitable mitigation measures need to be introduced. Test detonations demonstrated that it was possible to reduce the danger area by over 98 % when using a double bubble curtain.

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Disillusioning Year of the Dolphin 2007/2008

UN Year of the Dolphin 2007/2008 amounts to nothing but a meaningless PR campaign for the TUI travel group

December 2008 – The UN year of the dolphin is drawing to an end. The German Gesellschaft zur Rettung der Delphine (GRD/Society for Dolphin Conservation) considers it an utter failure. “Nothing has been has been achieved for the dolphins. The whole campaign has been mere PR for TUI and its outcome is nothing to be proud of,” says Ulrich Karlowski, a biologist with GRD.

The Year of the Dolphin campaign under the leadership of the UN Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) has largely remained silent on key issues of dolphin conservation such as by-catch in fishing gear, the pilot whale hunts on the Faroese Islands – a big disgrace to Europe - or the barbaric dolphin massacres taking place in the coastal waters of Japan

A sad highlight was the closure of the Secretariat of ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas), rendering the only agreement to protect our native harbor porpoises actually toothless, GRD continues to say.

Each year, fishermen in Japan kill about 23 000 dolphins, harbor porpoises and small whales. A few prime dolphins are picked out to be sold to aquariums around the world. Off the Faroese Islands, some thousand pilot whales are killed each year in brutal mass killings. NGOs who wanted to draw attention to these issues within the framework of the Year of the Dolphin were simply excluded from the campaign out of consideration for the sponsor TUI: TUI’s offers include trips to dolphinariums that keep animals from the Japanese dolphin drive fishery, such as the “Ocean World Adventure Park” in the Dominican Republic.

The Year of the Dolphin has failed to contribute to existing projects to protect our endangered native harbor porpoises, including projects to promote the environmentally friendly removal of World War II ordnance, to reduce by-catch of harbor porpoises in fishing gear, or to implement noise control measures during the construction of offshore wind farms. “Whenever it is a question of dolphin survival or extinction, those in charge have largely remained silent,” says Karlowski. “What they did do, though, was engage in a lot of mutual back-patting and produce a great deal of colorful brochures and other materials.”

The UN has declared 2009 “Year of the Gorilla”. “We can only hope that the highly endangered primates will get more benefits from this campaign than did the dolphins,” concludes Karlowski.

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