Sealion

A fisherman from Northern California who took out his frustrations on a sea lion last year, has just been sentenced this past Friday to one month in jail and to pay $51,000 in restitution.

Larry Allen Legans, the fisherman who decided to shoot the poor defenseless animal, was found guilty in a court of law os “intentionally maiming or wounding an animal”. Sgt. Nevis, the name given to the sea lion, was discovered back in November of 2009 with a life-threatening hole in his snout. It was such a bad wound that the sea lion couldn’t even put his head under the water. Luckily for Sgt. Nevis, there were marine veterinarians volunteers available to help take care of him.

Not only does Legans have to spend time in lock-up, he also has to pay restitution to the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. This is to cover the costs of the medical bills, and also to help repay damages done to the animal.

The sea lion, which was named after the person who rescued him, recently underwent a successful reconstructive surgery this past week to help repair the huge hole in his snout. Once he has fully recovered he will become a permanent resident at Seal Cove in Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo.

It is still unknown at this time just why the poor guy was shot in the first place, and Legans hasn’t shed any light on the subject, and is not likely to anytime in the foreseeable future.

Alligator babies - Ianaré Sévi

People from all over the US have been crying foul, over the way an American woman killed a humongous 465 kilogram alligator in South Carolina.

Mary Ellen Mara-Christian, a 48 year old thrill seeker, has really made quite an impact across the US, as the small woman who conquered a huge gator.

However, the way in which she killed it has been getting some rather angry persons lashing back. She took two hours to finally kill the beast.

“This woman should be in jail, not on TV,” wrote one outraged user on carolinalive.com, a new website out of South Carolina.

You see, it took them two hours to tie the gator up, and then proceeded to shoot it 8 times with a .22 calibre gun. However, the 8 shots did nothing to ease the alligator of its suffering, and she eventually killed the poor thing by ripping out its spinal cord.
.
The general concensus of the online world is that her bahavior is nothing more than “senseless brutality”.
“They tortured that alligator for hours. That’s just plain sick,” a commenter wrote on Bostonherald.com.

“This is trophy hunting at its worst,” commented another reader on Cbsnews.com.

However Mrs. Mara-Christian is very proud of herself, and says the act was to do her part to save the alligators, as part of her idea of population control.

“I hunt because I want these creatures to be here forever,” she commented to The Boston Herald.

Well, this reporter, while having no great love for gators, sides with the online readers consensus, there was no need to torture it before killing it.. There is no talk of criminal charges, but there should be…

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has declared March 8 through April 17 hunting season for Burmese pythons living on state lands in South Florida.

If you wish to hunt pythons, you’ll need a hunting license and you must also purchase a $26 management area permit for reptiles. Centerfire rifles mustn’t be used, but shotguns, pistols and ordinary rifles will be permitted. All kills must be reported to FWC within 36 hours.

You will not be allowed to remove living pythons from state lands.

The Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) is the largest subspecies of the Indian Python and is native to south and south-eastern Asia. During recent years populations of Burmese Python has managed to establish themselves in Everglades, Florida. Since the python is a popular pet, these feral snakes are believed to hail from pets set free by their owners, e.g. because the snakes grew too large to handle or expensive to feed. Hurricane Andrew also released an unknown number of pets, including exotic fish and reptiles, into the wild when it wrecked havoc with homes and establishments along the coast back in 1992.

Over 1300 Burmese Pythons have been captured in the Everglades so far and local authorities now feel that it’s time to enlist civilians in the struggle against this invasive species. The Burmese python competes with the native alligator for food and is also known to eat birds, including several endangered species. Although the alligators seem to fend off the pythons pretty well, it is impossible to tell what long-term effects the introduction of such an efficient top-predator could have on the unique ecosystem of the Everglades.

FWC official Chuck Collins said government isn’t always the best solution to stopping the spread of invasive, exotic species.

”Better solutions are developed when we work with people closest to the issue — in this case, the hunters,” Collins said.

Roughly 50 hunters have already participated in ”Pythons 101” courses arranged by FWC officers and local experts, courses where hunters get to know more about python behavior, biology, habitat and diet as well as capture techniques and how to handle a python in safe way. The participants were also offered a chance to practice in the L-67 canal system.

“The quickest and easiest way to euthanize them is with a sharp instrument like a machete,” said Cole, a snake breeder from Haines City who instructed the hunters to kill rapidly and cause as little stress and suffering as possible. “The veterinary association recommends swift decapitation or a bullet. Don’t club these snakes to death”, he added.

The Burmese python is a semi-aquatic species that likes to stay near water but it can also be encountered in trees. Wild individuals normally stay below 4 meters in length but large specimens are nearly 6 meters long. Within its local range it is a popular source of food and Burmese python parts are also utilized by traditional healers.

The rare Gangetic dolphin (Platanista gangetica) has been declared National Aquatic Animal of India. A few days after the formal declaration, which took place at a National Ganga River Basic Authority meeting in New Delhi earlier this week, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar announced that he has directed state authorities to put a halt to dolphin hunting in the Ganga.

“A close watch is being kept on the ghats of river Ganga by the magistrates, police officials and block development officers to stop hunting and fishing of the mammals,” senior officials said.

Patna District Magistrate J K Sinha said that instructions from chief minister has been passed
to senior officials, including sub-divisional officers, magistrates, police officers and block development officers to ensure close surveillance and act swiftly to stop hunting of the aquatic animal.

“Schools will take steps to aware the students about the gangetic dolphin which would

boost eco-tourism in the region,” he added.

Although the Wildlife Protection Act of India mandates dolphin conservation as a priority, little has been done at the government level to implement or enforce the law.

Where is Bihar?

Bihar is an Indian state located in the eastern part of the country. It is bordered by Nepal to the north, Jharkhand to the south, Uttar Pradesh to the west, and West Bengal to the east. The state is bisected by the Ganga River which flows through the middle of the state from west to east.

What is Ganga?

Outside India, the Ganga River is more commonly known as the Ganges River.

What is the Gangetic dolphin?

The Gangetic dolphine, also known as Ganges dolphin, Ganges river dolphin, Blind dolphin, and Side-swimming dolphin, is a dolphin endemic to the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems of Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. Its scientific name is Platanista gangetica and it is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The current population consists of 1,200-1,800 individuals, and roughly half of these are found in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

It is referred to as the Blind dolphin due to its poor eye-sight which is probably an adaptation to the murky waters of the Ganga River.

Australia and New Zealand announced Thursday that they will carry out a six-week long non-lethal whale research expedition in the Antarctic early next year. Dubbing the expedition non-lethal is a direct challenge to Japan’s research program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries openly defying the IWC ban on commercial whaling; Japan is instead using a lope whole that allows for “lethal research”. Whale meat resulting from the Japanese research is sold for human consumption and many critics claim that this is the real motive behind the program.

In a joint statement, Australia and New Zealand announced their intentions to reform science management within the International Whaling Commission, which holds its annual meeting in Madeira, Portugal, next week, and end Japan’s “so-called scientific whaling.”

“This expedition and the ongoing research program will demonstrate to the world that we do not need to kill whales to study and understand them,” said Australian Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

The expedition aims to increase our knowledge of population structures, abundance, trends, distribution, and the ecological role of whales in the Southern Ocean.

During the latest Japanese hunt, which ended in April, 679 minke whales and one fin whale was killed over a period of five months.

The European River Otter (Lutra lutra) which was once almost eradicated from British waters is beginning to make a come-back thanks to improved environmental care and the reintroduction of captive-bred specimens.

Now, anglers and fishing clubs are calling for more research, governmentally funded fences, and – in some cases – even the right to cull otters. Some fishing clubs have already closed down after having their stocks devoured by otters, while others have been forced to lower their fees since they have less fish to offer than before. Clubs are also spending thousands of pounds on restocking their ponds.

Until the 1970s, otters were hunted in the kingdom using special otter hounds, and the population also suffered greatly from the consequences of habitat destruction and pollution. The use of pesticides proved especially fatal and in the 1970s the population was almost completely gone. Thanks to pollution control, habitat restoration, and a ban on otter hunting, the UK has however once again became a favourable country for this aquatic predator and the reintroduction of captive-bred have proven highly successful. Otters are now living even in urban rivers.

Dr Tony Mitchell-Jones, a mammal specialist from Natural England, said that otters had been released into the wild at the rate of more than seven a year between 1983 and 1999, but that no captive-bred otters had been released since then.

When the last large-scale survey was carried out in 2003, the European river otter was found in more than five times as many areas as in 1979.

On June 9, a meeting will take place in Hemel Hempstead were representatives of the Angling Trust, the Environment Agency, Natural England, and the Countryside Council for Wales will discuss the issue of otters competing with anglers for fish. The Angling Trust has announced that they will exact government support for special otter fences in an effort to quieten calls for a cull.

Mark Lloyd, the chief executive, said: “What we need is public funding for fencing because fisheries are important economic units that provide people with their livelihoods. What has to be stressed is that anglers are not anti-otter. If I see one when I’m fishing on a river it makes my day.”

Nick Pottle, secretary of the Lakeside angling club, near Lowestoft, said: “Our lake is now all but empty of fish, we have two families of otters that have cleared the fish out. The Environment Agency say we must put up a fence to stop the otters at our expense as we would not qualify for a grant. That is the end of our club.”

The Angling Times, a journal for sport fishers, are calling for more research into otter predation. Richard Lee, its editor, said: “The slaughter of these animals has been driven underground. It is already going on. If you watch £20,000 worth of stock disappear in just a few days – what are the owners going to do? We are desperate for research so the issue is fully understood. We don’t want random culling. But we want to stop fisheries’ owners taking the law into their own hands. We need some proper research with all the options on the table.”

One of the reasons behind the belligerent situation may be another man-made environmental problem: the disappearance of the eels. During recent years, the number of eels has fallen dramatically in British waters. Eels are the otter’s staple diet and as long as there are plenty of eels the risk of otters attacking trout, salmon, pike, and similar species is low. However, as the eel population wanes the otters are forced to look elsewhere for food – causing confrontations between them and fishermen who do not like to see vast amounts of highly prized fish species ending up in the belly of an otter.

Many anglers refuse to publicly discuss otter hunting, fearing that public opinion will turn against them if they openly call for culling. On of few anglers openly arguing in favour of culling is Ian Chillcott, one of the country’s leading coarse anglers and a fishing writer. “Fisheries are being absolutely destroyed by these cuddly, little murdering blighters”, Chillcott said. “Livelihoods are being ruined but everyone is afraid to use the word ‘culling’. No one wants widespread mass slaughter, but there is a need for very targeted culling. It has to be done in a controlled way and not indiscriminate. No one wants to get rid of them, just for them to be better managed.”

Mitchell-Jones does not think that licensed killing of otters will take place anytime soon.

“Things are looking much better for the otter but it is not yet back everywhere it should be. Control of otter populations is likely to be discussed at the meeting tomorrow. I’m not going to prejudge the situation but there is a presumption against the licensing of killing of protected species unless there are extremely good reasons for doing so. For culling, you would have to show that the control would contribute to the solution of a problem.”

In the mean time, there are indications of some landowners and fishermen taking the law into their own hands. Under the Wildlife and Countryside Act it is an offence to kill an otter, punishable by a £5,000 fine or six months in prison. Otters can only be hunted with a special licence and not a single one of these licenses has been issued. Despite this, some anglers have told reporters of otter hunting taking place in the British countryside.

The 2009 whaling season has now started in the waters off Iceland.

Iceland and Norway are the only two countries that openly defy the international whaling moratorium; Japan is instead using a loop whole, claiming their whaling to be carried out for scientific purposes.

Former Icelandic fisheries minister Steingrimur Sigfusson said in February that Iceland would make no changes to its whaling quotas of 150 Fin whales and up to 150 Minke whales per year.

“The first batch of meat will be in stores by the weekend,” says Gunnar Bergmann Jonsson, manager of the Minke Whaler Association. He said 50 to 60 per cent of the meat will be sold domestically, while the rest is sold to Japan.

The first whales are usually killed in a bay outside Reykjavik, since whaling is prohibited close to the harbour. The prohibition has been imposed to prevent whalers from disturbing whale watchers, since that may cause damage to the Icelandic whale watching business.

The Icelandic whaling season usually runs from May to late September.

Whale facts
Also known as Little Piked Whales or Lesser Rorquals, Mink Whales prefer icy waters but are found world-wide. Once perceived as one single species, the population has quite recently been recognized as consisting of two distinct species: the Northern Mink Whale, Balaenoptera acutorostrata, and the Southern Mink Whale, Balaenoptera bonaerensis. Together, the two species are believed to form a population of over 1 million Minke Whales world-wide. Balaenoptera acutorostrata is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, while Balaenoptera bonaerensi is listed as Data Deficient since it was recognized as a separate species so recently.

The Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus) is also found world-wide, with 40,000-56,000 specimens living in the North Atlantic. Unlike the Mink Whale, the Fin Whale is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Photograph created by Erik Christensen. Taken on the Faroe island not Island.

If you want to learn more about how the charismatic creatures known as stingrays feed, you should check out a new study published in the most recent issue of Neotropical Ichthyology.

While spending days and nights scuba diving and snorkelling in the upper Paraná River of Brazil, researchers Domingos Garrone-Neto and Ivan Sazima made 132 observations of freshwater stingrays and noticed three different forms of foraging behaviour.

Picture of Motoro Sting Ray, Ocellate river stingray – Potamotrygon motoro.
Copyright www.jjphoto.dk

The first hunting technique involved hovering close to the bottom, or even settle on top of it, while undulating the disc margins. By doing so, the stingray would stir up the substrate, unveiling small invertebrates. The invertebrates – typically snails, crabs and larval insects – could not escape from under the ray’s disc and ended up as food.

When using its second hunting technique, the stingray would slowly approach shallow water while keeping its eyes on suitable prey items that concentrate in such environments. When it got close enough, it would make a rapid attack; stunning the prey or trapping it under its disc. This hunting technique did not target tiny invertebrates hiding in the sand; it focused on tetras and freshwater shrimps instead. The studied stingrays only used this method during the night when they could sneak up on prey without being seen.

The third technique observed relied on the presence of vertical or inclined surfaces in the water, such as boulders and tree stumps, including man-made structures like concrete slabs. On this type of objects a lot of different organisms, e.g. snails, like to crawl around or attach themselves. The hunter would simply position itself with the anterior part of its disc above the water’s edge and start picking the animals off the surface, one at a time.

The two studied species were Potamotrygon falkneri and Potamotrygon motoro; both belonging to a genus of freshwater stingrays found exclusively in South America.

As mentioned above, you can find the paper in Neotropical Ichthyology 7.

Garrone-Neto, D and I Sazima (2009) Stirring, charging, and picking:

hunting tactics of potamotrygonid rays in the upper Paraná River. Neotropical Ichthyology 7, pp. 113–116.

As reported earlier , the European Union has decided to ban the import of seal skin and other seal products hailing from commercial seal hunting.

This has upset Canadian seal hunters since Italy and Denmark, both members of the European Union, are two major importers of seal products. Italy imports most of their seal skins from Russia, but Denmark has always been an important trade partner for North American seal hunters, partly due to Denmark’s traditional connection to Greenland.

According to a statement from Canadian Trade Minister Stockwell Day, the federal government is now getting ready to move in with an appeal against the ban, which they see as a clear breach of WTO regulation.

“We’ll go to the WTO because it’s clear in WTO regulations that if one country wants to ban the products of another, it has to have clear scientific, medically acceptable reasons for doing so, and this EU ban is not based on hard science,” Day said.

The Canadin government believes that Canada deserves an exemption from the import ban since it follows internationally accepted guidelines regarding seal hunting, e.g. by prohibiting the clubbing of baby seals while they still have their white coats.

Day claims that the European ban is based on “people’s feelings” rather than hard facts, and says that the trade action will proceed unless the European Union Parliament exempts Canada and other countries that he said practise humane and sustainable seal hunting. According to Day, seal hunt proponents erroneously portray seal hunting as it was 40 years ago.

The suggested seal import ban must still be approved by individual European governments before becoming law but can, if passed, come into effect as early as next year. If the is approved, it will cause an annual 2 million USD loss for the Canadian industry.

Canadian Fisheries Minister Gail Shea agrees supports the government’s planned trade action.

“When you live in small coastal communities, sometimes there’s not many opportunities to make some additional money,” she said. “We have a number of families who make up to 35% of their annual income from the seal hunt. So yes, I do think it’s very important.”

As reported earlier, the proposed European seal import ban will contain some exemptions and seal products resulting from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit and other indigenous communities can still be imported to and marketed in European Union countries even if the ban is approved. Products that result from hunting conducted for the purpose of sustainable management of marine resources on a non-profit basis will also be allowed, and individual travellers will be permitted to bring seal products to the European Union as long as the import is of an occasional nature and consists exclusively of goods for the personal use of the traveller.

Yesterday, the European Parliament voted to ban most seal products from the European market. The legislative resolution was adopted with 550 votes in favour, 49 against and 41 abstentions.

Suggestions from the European Parliament’s will only become law if adopted by the European Council of Ministers, which represents the member states. The legislative report on the seal products ban was agreed with the European Council of Ministers in first-reading.

An exemption is allowed for indigenous communities so seal products resulting from hunts traditionally conducted by Inuit and other indigenous communities can still be imported to and marketed in European Union countries.

“This deal will protect seals from cruelty and protect the Inuit people’s traditional way of life,” said Christel Schaldemose, a Danish Socialist MEP.

Import of seal products will also be permitted where it is of an occasional nature and consists exclusively of goods for the personal use of the traveller or products that result from by-products of hunting conducted for the purpose of sustainable management of marine resources on a non-profit basis.

The legislative report was drafted by UK MEP Diana Wallis of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE). ALDE is the third largest political group in the European Parliament.

No ban on hunting

“Seals are very beautiful marine animals, in fact, I have realized during this process that they have great PR, but to some they are the rats of the sea”, Wallis said in the debate yesterday.

“That is how they are perceived by many fishermen – an adult seal gets through an enormous amount of fish on a daily basis. Therefore, there will remain the need for seals to be hunted to ensure the sustainability of fisheries in some area.“

“But what we have not done here is to regulate hunting,” said Wallis. “If people in any of our

member states wish to hunt, they can still continue to hunt. What they cannot do is take commercial gain from the results of that hunt. But it should be the case that the results of the hunt can be used, and I hope particularly that those parts of seals that can be used by the medical community will be able to be used.”

Today, human heart valves can be replaced with bioprosthetic valves from seals and other marine mammals.

“Great progress has been made in the survival and quality of life of cardiac patients by using the aortic, pulmonary and pericardial tissue of harp seals, the assumption being that they are sustainably hunted or killed and not in a cruel way,” said Irish MEP Avril Doyle of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats, EPP-ED. “I would like assurances on ongoing medical research and bioprosthetic use of products from seals in the context of the compromise,” she added.

The patent holder for the valve replacement process, Efstathios Andreas Agathos of Massachusetts, says the needed seal valves can be supplied by “the annual seal harvesting supported by Canadian government for population control.”

Canada will challenge ban at WTO

Canada‘s Trade Minister Stockwell Day said that Canada will challenge the trade ban at the World Trade Organization, unless an exemption is added for any country that has strict guidelines in place for humane and sustainable sealing practices.

“The decision by the European Parliament lacks any basis in facts,” said Canadian Fisheries and Oceans Minister Gail Shea. “The Canadian seal hunt is guided by rigorous animal welfare principles which are internationally recognized by independent observers. I once again caution my European counterparts about the dangers of pursuing politically motivated bans on other countries’ traditional industries. Our government will stand up for the jobs and communities that depend on the seal hunt.”

The world’s largest seal hunt is conducted every spring off Canada’s Atlantic coast and Denmark, one of the main importers of raw fur sealskins to the European Union, imports seal skins directly from Canada and Greenland. Denmark and Italy are by far the two largest importers of raw fur sealskins for the EU market. Unlike Denmark, Italy imports most skins from Russia, and from the two EU members Finland and Scotland (UK). Greece will also be affected by the trade ban, but not to the same extent as Denmark and Italy since the Greece trade in raw seal skins – predominately from Finland and Scotland – is much smaller.