Whales

Consumers looking for Gorton’s seafood will have limited access on the Mendocino Coast, where at least eight stores have emptied their shelves of the products environmental activists say are manufactured by a business with whaling ties. “Japanese parent company Nissui annually slaughters hundreds of whales,” said Cindy Arch, who is working with Susan Nutter and […]

A New Study Finds a Declining Food Supply for Large Marine Animals in Bering Sea The Bering Sea – which lies just south of the Arctic Circle between Russia and Alaska – is getting warmer, and the heat is already having a huge impact on marine wildlife there, say scientists in a study published today […]

Baja deal would mark an unusual alliance It is one of Mexico’s most remote regions, a vast landscape of water and earth where migratory birds feed, mangroves thrive and gray whales migrate to breed and bear their young. For years, conservation groups from both sides of the border have fought to preserve the Laguna San […]

WASHINGTON – The House Resources Committee on Wednesday gave a boost to the Makah Tribe’s bid to resume whale hunting off the coast of Washington state. The panel approved a nonbinding resolution urging the Bush administration to uphold whaling rights guaranteed to the tribe under an 1855 treaty with the federal government. The resolution, sponsored […]

Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy, on Wednesday downplayed his involvement with a group that sent him to New Zealand and Japan in recent years, possibly in violation of U.S. tax law. The International Foundation for the Conservation of Natural Resources paid more than $23,000 for the trips in 2000 and 2002, but apparently didn’t pay taxes […]

When I was researching my book, Eye of the Whale in 1999, I traveled to one of the most remote places on earth: Piltun Lagoon, off Sakhalin Island in the Russian Far East. This is the feeding ground for the Western gray whale, a critically endangered species with a population now under 100. It’s also […]

“Yes, abruptly, magically, there they are, only a few feet away from the starboard side….The mother dwarfs our boat….The calf is nearly one-third her size….The mother uses her body as a natural breakwater for her calf, seeming to coax it toward the boat. Slowly, the baby makes the rounds of each person’s outstretched hands….It’s a […]

I’ve about had it with Japan. Ever since a hard-fought moratorium on commercial whaling worldwide went into effect back in 1987, Japan (and Norway) have contined to hunt whales – and sell whale meat – under the guise of “scientific research.” Japan has since killed approximately 7,900 minke whales, 243 Bryde’s whales, 140 sei whales, […]

Tiptoeing through the giants’ Baja nursery fosters awe and an improbable bond. The moment the rose-colored peaks of the Sierra Santa Clara mountains come into view from the highway, I envision the phenomenon they embrace: the sanctuary of the gray whales. It is the end of March, three years since my last visit. This time, […]

 Gray whales cradle boats in a Baja sanctuary thought to be safe after plans for a salt plant dried up. Now activists see a threat resurfacing.   SAN IGNACIO LAGOON, Mexico – The day was like any other and Francisco “Pachico” Mayoral was out fishing for black sea bass. Then the head of a whale […]