New Dutch trawler aims to cut fish suffering with electric shocks

DutchNews, November 1, 2019 

Photo:Depositphotos.com 

A new type of trawler fitted with equipment that stuns fish using electric currents when caught joins the Dutch fleet on Friday. 

The UK 205 Spes Nova is the brainchild of the Ekofish Groep and will ‘contribute to efficient fishing with a low ecological footprint,’ company director Jacob Kramer says in the invitation to Friday’s launch ceremony. 

The trawler is 32 metres long and costs €7.5m. Fish are cooled in a water tank, stunned with an electric shock and then stripped for processing automatically. 

Femie Smit of animal rights group Dierenbescherming says she hopes more fishermen will switch to the new vessel on a voluntary basis. 

Mooi dat er weer nieuwe schepen bijkomen op Urk #Moed #Vertrouwen #Visserij #UK205 #LT295 pic.twitter.com/8YYAh9Hmkh

— Albert Hartman (@AlbertVCU) 10 september 2019

Currently fish are left to suffer for minutes, even hours, before they die, but some are processed while still alive, she said. ‘We don’t cut open live chickens to take out the fillets, but we do it to fish,’ she said. ‘This apparatus stops that, so make use of it.’ 

The boat’s owner Louwe de Boer told local broadcaster Omroep Flevoland he believed that this sort of equipment ‘is the future’ and will become law within a few years. 

The trawler was built by Damen Maaskant Shipyards.

Thailand's orphaned baby dugong becomes conservation star

Yahoo – AFP, 3 July, 2019

Female dugongs usually breastfeed their babies while they are swimming, so vets
at Phuket Marine Biological Centre cradle the oprhaned baby Mariam instead
(AFP Photo/Sirachai ARUNRUGSTICHAI)

Trang (Thailand) (AFP) - Cuddles at feeding time are one of many techniques vets in Thailand are using to raise an orphaned baby dugong named Mariam, and which have helped spread interest in ocean conservation in the process.

Found stranded on a beach in May at six months old, the ocean mammal has been receiving daily care from park officials, local conservation groups, and veterinarians at Phuket Marine Biological Centre.

Her star took off after photos showing her being cradled by the vets went viral on social media, and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources (DMCR) has posted frequent updates on her condition.

Vet Pathompong Kongjit told AFP that Mariam -- who now lives in the waters around Ko Libong island of Trang province -- has become a symbol of the dire need for a clean-up in Thailand's plastic-choked seas.

"Mariam has ignited the interest among Thai people to care about marine animals, Thai seas and nature in general," he said.

But so far, her biggest challenge is feeding herself, as she has trouble digging out the seagrass buried in the ocean floor.

"Mariam can only eat the protruding seagrass," he told AFP, adding that she's "getting better" at it.

Female dugongs also usually breastfeed their babies while they are swimming -- something the vets cannot do.

Mariam the baby orphan dugong swims in the waters around Libong island in 

southern Thailand (AFP Photo/Sirachai ARUNRUGSTICHAI)

"So we hold her while feeding her milk, and after that we have to get her to swim around to exercise her digestion system," Pathompong said.

Her caretakers also use an orange canoe -- nicknamed "Mother Orange" -- for her to follow around in the water for exercise.

Despite Mariam's seeming dependence on her human friends, Pathompong said she's "learned to adjust to the environment" and no longer gets stranded on the beach.

But "it doesn't matter how many marine animals we can save... if their sea homes are in bad conditions," said the vet, adding that Mariam will likely be under their care for at least another year.

The avalanche of public interest in Mariam's progress has prompted the DMCR to set up a livestream for the growing baby, expected to be broadcast at the end of this week.

Another baby dugong was also found stranded in Krabi earlier this week.

The Phuket Marine Biological Centre said in a statement that dugongs get stranded on beaches because of fishing and other human activities.

Southern Thailand's waters are home to about 250 dugongs.

Russia to release killer whales in new habitat, despite expert advice

Yahoo – AFP, Maria ANTONOVA, May 15, 2019

The animals are being kept at a holding facility in Srednyaya Bay in the Far
Eastern town of Nakhodka (AFP Photo/Sergei PETROV)

Moscow (AFP) - Russia is to free captured killer whales over the next month, but will not return them to their original habitat despite expert advice, a scientist said Wednesday.

The animals will instead be released from their pens in Russia's Far East and may "disrupt vacationers" at resorts nearby, said Vladislav Rozhnov, who was involved in talks over their fate.

Nearly 100 belugas and orcas were captured last summer and kept in small pens by commercial firms who had planned to deliver them to aquariums, including in China where the industry is booming.

Ten killer whales, or orcas, will be released "in late May to early June", Rozhnov said during a briefing at the Russian environment ministry.

He said it would be more ideal to transport them to where they had initially been captured, as Russian and foreign scientists have advised, but this was deemed too costly.

Instead they will be freed in the bay where they have been held near the town of Nakhodka -- more than 1,300 kilometres (800 miles) south from where they were actually caught in the Sea of Okhotsk.

There is a risk that the whales will "stay near the pens where they were fed" and bother humans, he said.

"Science gives recommendations, but the decision is taken by government authorities," said Rozhnov, who heads the Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Environment and -- with other agencies -- is part of a council on the fate of the whales.

Last month Greenpeace activists produced an image of an orca in Moscow in 

protest against keeping orcas and beluga whales crammed into small enclosures 

in the Far Eastern town of Nakhodka (AFP Photo/Yuri KADOBNOV)

"We hope that the released animals will go north and return to their native waters," he said.

'Aggressive' orcas

The environment ministry said in a statement that transporting the animals to the Sea of Okhotsk could injure the animals and cause stress. Constructing rehabilitation enclosures at a faraway release site would be too complicated, it added.

"Due to constraints of time, the realisation of this is difficult," the ministry said.

Russian officials last month met with US-based conservationists Jean-Michel Cousteau and Charles Vinick, who visited the facility with the killer whales and 87 beluga whales, also captured last year.

Rozhnov said there was no precise decision on the beluga whales, but that scientists now were looking into genetic evidence of family ties between the captured juveniles and known beluga groups in the wild.

In a statement Wednesday, Cousteau's team warned that releasing the killer whales near the facility where they were being held carried a "high number of significant risks". They included potential conflict with people and boats in the area due to "aggressive behaviours observed in some of the orcas".

Such a release "leads to likely long-term costs and diminished potential for survival", the team said. They said the whales should be taken to where they were captured following an "acclimatisation period" in remote enclosures.

Russia is the only country still catching wild orcas and belugas. The controversial trade of marine mammals has boomed in recent years together with the aquarium industry in China, which uses Russian animals in its new marine parks.

Although some fisheries officials have defended the capture as a legitimate industry, scientists argue it threatens the species' populations.

Smiling at danger, China’s finless porpoise fights to survive

Yahoo – AFP, Kelly WANG, December 20, 2018

Pollution, overfishing, hydroelectric dams and shipping traffic have rendered the
Yangtze finless porpoise critically endangered, worse off even than China's
best-known symbol of animal conservation, the panda (AFP Photo/Johannes EISELE)

In an oxbow lake along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, a breathy sigh pierces the surface stillness as one of China’s most endangered animals comes up for a gulp of hazy air.

A slick black back with no dorsal fin arches briefly above the water line before plunging back down.

Such glimpses of the shy Yangtze finless porpoise, the only aquatic mammal left in China's longest river and known in Chinese as the "smiling angel" for its perma-grin, are increasingly rare.

Pollution, overfishing, hydroelectric dams and shipping traffic have rendered them critically endangered, worse off even than China's best-known symbol of animal conservation, the panda.

China's government estimates there were 1,012 wild Yangtze finless porpoises in 2017, compared to more than 1,800 giant pandas, which is no longer endangered.

But researchers see signs of hope.

Porpoise numbers fell by nearly half from 2006-2012 to an estimated 1,040. But the rate of decline has slowed markedly since then, suggesting that conservation may be making a dent.

A central component of the rescue effort is the introduction of porpoises to several conservation areas off the busy river, where researchers say numbers have been actually increasing.

One of the world's few freshwater porpoise subspecies, the Yangtze finless 

porpoise is considered a natural barometer of the overall health of China's 

most important river (AFP Photo/Johannes EISELE)id.

Encouraging signs

At the Tianezhou Oxbow Nature Reserve in central China's Hubei province, a curving lake linked to the Yangtze by a stream, around 30-40 porpoises were brought in beginning in the 1990s. There are now around 80.

"We found out animals can not only survive but also reproduce naturally and successfully at Tianezhou. That's very encouraging," said Wang Ding, 60, a porpoise expert with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Researchers also credit official clampdowns on polluting activities and fish overharvesting, artificial reproduction projects, and growing environmental awareness among China's emerging middle class.

"The voice and supervision of the public has played an important role," said Zhang Xinqiao, the species' project manager at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Chinese officials are keen to avoid a repeat of the "baiji", or Yangtze dolphin, the river's only other aquatic mammal, which since 2006 has been considered extinct in a huge conservation setback for China.

Losing the "smiling angel" would be a further tragedy, conservationists say.

One of the world's few freshwater porpoise subspecies, it is considered a natural barometer of the overall health of China's most important river.

Factfile on the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise. (AFP 

Photo/Gal ROMA)

'River pig'

The finless porpoise is mentioned in ancient Chinese poems and has been considered a harbinger of rain. Some locals call it the "river pig" for its plump body and rounded headed.

Adults can reach two metres (six feet) long and were sometimes eaten, despite not being considered particularly tasty. Their livers were used in traditional medicines.

Since China re-opened to the world four decades ago, living standards have soared, but so have air and water pollution.

The Yangtze contributes more to ocean pollution than any other world river, according to Dutch NGO Ocean Cleanup.

Hydroelectric dams built on the river to satisfy soaring energy demand have also been disastrous for biodiversity.

But in January 2016, President Xi Jinping called for a river protection push. Steps have included curbs on development, stricter fishing rules and other protection projects.

Later that year, a formal porpoise action plan was launched, including increased relocations away from the river, more reserve sites, and research on artificial breeding.

The Tianezhou reserve, established in 1992, claims to be the world's first and only example of cetaceans -- which include dolphins and porpoises -- surviving and reproducing after relocation.

Local fishermen near the lake were encouraged to change professions and Wang Hesong, 46, became a patrolman at the reserve.

"Look over there, a mother and a baby," Wang said, as his pilot cut their patrol boat's engine at the sight of two arched backs breaking the silvery surface. The shy mammals quickly submerged.

"They only come up for a couple of seconds to breathe... We go out patrolling every day and we see them every day," Wang said.

A Yangtze finless porpoise in a pool at the Baiji dolphinarium in Wuhan (AFP 

Photo/Johannes EISELE)

The 21-kilometre-long (13-mile) lake offers sanctuary, but porpoises within the river face intense pressure.

The WWF's Zhang said the species' days in the river may be numbered.

"They have nowhere to hide in the river," he said.

"As long as danger exists, such as a further deterioration of natural habitat, it's very likely their numbers could drastically decrease again."

Clock is ticking

With the clock ticking, a research facility in the nearby industrial city of Wuhan hosts six finless porpoises for research, breeding, and to engage the public.

Two gracefully circled by an observation window that looks into their huge tank, playfully tilting their bodies to glimpse the human visitors.

"They are saying 'hi' to us," said Liu Hanhui, a volunteer. "I think they understand human feelings."

The WWF says adult Yangtze finless porpoises have the intelligence of a three-to-five-year-old child.

Just before feeding, they are coaxed to open their mouths on cue, show off their smiles, and shake hands by extending a flipper.

Yet they are difficult to breed in captivity.

A calf born in June at the dolphinarium -- founded in 1980 -- is just the second produced there to survive more than 100 days, while wild calves often die before adulthood due to human impact on the environment.

Liu, an aquaculture student at a nearby university, and 40 other volunteers help feed them on weekends and holidays, and take part in various activities to promote awareness.

Conservation programmes and events in the region have proliferated in recent years, backed by scores of businesses and NGOs aiming to instruct the public and encourage greater government protection efforts.

"Our development has caused a species to rapidly disappear. I feel like I'm atoning for mankind's crimes," Liu said.

Thomas Cook drops SeaWorld holidays over animal welfare concerns

Yahoo – AFP, July 29, 2018

Thomas Cook will stop selling trips to animal parks which keep captive killer
whales, including SeaWorld in Florida and Loro Parque in Tenerife

British holiday firm Thomas Cook will stop selling trips to animal parks which keep captive killer whales, including SeaWorld in Florida and Loro Parque in Tenerife, their CEO announced Sunday.

"We have actively engaged with a range of animal welfare specialists in the last 18 months, and taken account of the scientific evidence they have provided", Peter Fankhauser wrote in a blog post.

"We have also taken feedback from our customers, more than 90% of whom told us that it was important that their holiday company takes animal welfare seriously," he added, confirming that tickets to such attractions will no longer be sold from next summer.

Animal welfare concerns over the treatment of orcas in captivity have been amplified since the critically lauded 2013 documentary Blackfish, which argued that the highly intelligent animals are psychologically traumatised in tourist attractions such as SeaWorld.

Fankhauser said the decision came after an introduction of a new Thomas Cook animal welfare policy which recognises "that customer expectations were changing when it comes to animal attractions" and "the important role tourism has to play during the transition to ending practices that are known to harm animals."

Animal rights campaigners People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) have been campaigning for Thomas Cook to drop the holidays for the past 12 months, with 150 protests around Britain.

"This momentous victory means that Thomas Cook has now become the world-leading travel provider for animal welfare that it had claimed to be," wrote PETA manager of special projects Elisa Allen.

"If other travel providers hope to maintain a shred of credibility with animal-loving British holidaymakers, they must follow its lead," she added.

"There's no humane way to keep these highly intelligent animals in captivity, let alone force them to perform cruel circus-style tricks for food."

In 2016 SeaWorld announced it will stop breeding orcas and no longer keep any in captivity after the current generation dies.

Morgan the ‘Dutch’ orca is pregnant, in breach of agreement

DutchNews, December 5, 2017 - By Hanneke Sanou

Under EU law Morgan, highlighted, cannot be used for mainly commercial
purposes or breeding. Photo: www.freemorgan.org

The wild orca found in the Wadden Sea in 2010 and now kept at the Loro Parque amusement park in Tenerife is pregnant, in contravention of the conditions of her transfer to Spain. 

Loro Parque earlier refused to comment on the pregnancy rumours when contacted by DutchNews.nl but has now confirmed the pregnancy in a statement on its website. In the statement, the park says it ‘considers it a natural right of every animal to reproduce which must not be repressed under any circumstance.’ 

The orca, nicknamed Morgan, was found in a severely weakened state in the Wadden Sea in 2010 and sent to the Dolphinarium in Harderwijk to recover. The then-junior economic affairs minister Henk Bleker, who was responsible for Morgan, decided she could not be returned to the wild and she was sent to the Loro Parque in Spain instead. 

The original European CITES certificate approving the transfer stated that Morgan would be used for research purposes only. However, the orca has since become part of a show of performing animals and, according to the Free Morgan Foundation (FMF), which is fighting to release the animal back into the wild, her health is suffering. Breeding the killer whale would also be in breach of the certificate. 

‘For us this news doesn’t come as a surprise. Loro Parque has been busy for years trying to get Morgan pregnant. They have done this despite the ban on breeding and her young age when a pregnancy can be dangerous to both mother and calf,’ FMF vice chair Hester Bartels said in a statement to the press. 

Morgan is now 11 years old, with an expected average life span of 50. 

Court 

The news about Morgan’s pregnancy comes only weeks before a court hearing on January 23 in which the decision by the junior minister not to intervene regarding Morgan’s situation at Loro Parque goes to appeal. 

The foundation says new evidence has emerged concerning Morgan’s welfare at Loro Parque, including the failure of the Dutch and Spanish CITES management authorities to abide by the terms of Morgan’s exemption certificate. 

They also failed to take affirmative measures to ensure that Morgan is not subjected to breeding, the foundation said. Morgan’s pregnancy will result in a hybrid calf. While this would do nothing for the maintenance of the wild orca population, a calf with a new bloodline would be financially advantageous for the park, the FMF said. 

The park, however, says breeding programmes are in line with the European guideline and the Spanish law on zoos.

Vegan streaker jailed in Japan for disrupting dolphin show

DutchNews, October 23, 2017

A Dutch animal rights activist known as the ‘vegan streaker’ has been jailed in Japan for disrupting a dolphin show. 

Peter Janssen, 32, and a Belgian woman reported jumped into the Adventure World pool during the show holding a placard protesting at the organised slaughter of hundreds of dolphins near the city of Taiji every year. 

Both Janssen and Belgium’s Kirsten De Kimpe were arrested and the show was halted, according to local news website Japan Today. According to Belgian media, both are members of animal rights campaign Vegan Strike Group. 

Japanese paper Japan Today said police officers were on alert at the park at the time ‘due to information that foreign activists opposed to dolphin hunting could obstruct the show’. 

Janssen, who was arrested in 2008 for releasing 2,500 mink on a fur farm, first hit the headlines in 2007 when he disrupted filming of the Paul de Leeuw tv show, wearing only underpants. That appearance gave rise to his nickname. 

He has also been caught streaking at the ABN Amro tennis tournament, a Champions Trophy hockey match and the Tilburg Ten Mile road race. In recent years he has turned his attention to bull fighting and has disrupted at least 22 tournaments.

Humpback whales around the globe are mysteriously rescuing animals from orcas

Scientists are baffled at this seemingly altruistic behavior, which seems to be a concerted global effort to foil killer whale hunts.

Mother Nature Network, Bryan Nelson, July 30, 2016

Humpback whale to the rescue? (Photo: Wiki Commons)

Humans might not be the only creatures that care about the welfare of other animals. Scientists are beginning to recognize a pattern in humpback whale behavior around the world, a seemingly intentional effort to rescue animals that are being hunted by killer whales.

Marine ecologist Robert Pitman observed a particularly dramatic example of this behavior back in 2009, while observing a pod of killer whales hunting a Weddell seal trapped on an ice floe off Antarctica. The orcas were able to successfully knock the seal off the ice, and just as they were closing in for the kill, a magnificent humpback whale suddenly rose up out of the water beneath the seal.

This was no mere accident. In order to better protect the seal, the whale placed it safely on its upturned belly to keep it out of the water. As the seal slipped down the whale's side, the humpback appeared to use its flippers to carefully help the seal back aboard. Finally, when the coast was clear, the seal was able to safely swim off to another, more secure ice floe.

Another event, involving a pair of humpback whales attempting to save a gray whale calf from a hunting pod of orcas after it had become separated from its mother, was captured by BBC filmmakers. You can watch the dramatic footage here:

Perhaps the most stunning aspect of this behavior is that it's not just a few isolated incidents. Humpback whale rescue teams have been witnessed foiling killer whale hunts from Antarctica to the North Pacific. It's as if humpback whales everywhere are saying to killer whales: pick on someone your own size! It seems to be a global effort; an inherent feature of humpback whale behavior.

After witnessing one of these events himself back in 2009, Pitman was compelled to investigate further. He began collecting accounts of humpback whales interacting with orcas, and found nothing short of 115 documented interactions, reported by 54 different observers between 1951 and 2012. The details of this surprising survey can be found in the journal Marine Mammal Science.

In 89 percent of the recorded incidents, the humpbacks seemed to intervene only as the killer whales began their hunt, or when they were already engaged in a hunt. It seems clear from the data that the humpback whales are choosing to interact with the orcas specifically to interrupt their hunts. Among the animals that have been observed being rescued by humpback whales were California sea lions, ocean sunfish, harbor seals, and gray whales.

So the question is: Why are humpback whales doing this? Since the humpbacks seem to be risking their own well being to save animals of completely different species, it's hard to deny that this behavior seems altruistic.

There is also some reason to believe that the behavior isn't entirely selfless. Mature humpback whales are too large and too formidable to be hunted by orcas themselves, but their calves are vulnerable. Orcas have been witnessed hunting humpback whale calves in much the same way that they hunt gray whale calves. So, by proactively foiling orca hunts, perhaps the humpbacks are hoping to make them think twice about messing with their own calves.

Then again, maybe it's just as simple as revenge. Even if it has more to do with revenge than altruism, though, the behavior would represent evidence of an intense and complicated emotional life among humpbacks that is unprecedented in the animal world, outside of primates.

One common feature among many humpback whale rescue efforts is that the humpbacks often work in pairs. Scientists will need to do more research into this behavior, though, to truly understand the significance of it.

Until then, these beautiful animals, which are perhaps best known for their majestic songs, have certainly earned some additional respect. They might just be the ocean's most ferocious and selfless first-responders.

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