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Up to the minute news is available in the enviro-community's pro-whale newsletter ECO.  It is now being posted on Earth Island Intitute's website.  Please visit http://www.earthisland.org and click on ECO.  ECO brought us daily news during the IWC meeting and continues to update their information daily

Tensions are rising between St. Lucian authorities and the crew of the Sea Shepherd Conservation International vessel Ocean Warrior.  The Ocean Warrior arrived in Castries, St. Lucia on Wednesday, July 18. The purpose of the visit is to focus international attention on the six Caribbean nations that have been recruited by Japan to support whaling. Last year, the Caribbean slaughterhouse six helped Japan to defeat the Southern Whale Sanctuary. This year, the six nations of Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Dominica are expected to support Japan's efforts to overturn the global moratorium on commercial whaling.

On July 19, the same day that St. Lucian Fisheries authorities told Sea Shepherd activists that "St. Lucians do not kill whales," one of the fishing boats Sea Shepherd crew had under surveillance returned to Castries harbor with a dead baby pilot whale on board. The whale was landed and butchered only a few hundred feet from the St. Lucian Department of Fisheries office. On June 21, the entire front page of the largest St. Lucian newspaper the Star carried the story under the headline "Bloody Proof." Page 3 carried the story entitled "Conservationists Witness St. Lucia Whale Slaughter." On page 6, the same newspaper ran a story where Sea Shepherd Conservation International called on the United States to counter Japanese aid with U.S. aid for eco-tourism. Another article also on page 6 was entitled Japan Admits Buying Whaling Votes In Exchange for Aid. In this article Japanese whaling spokesperson Mr. Niro Hyugaji refers to the whales as "cockroaches of the oceans."

Fundacion Delfin de Costa Rica (The Dolphin Foundation of Costa Rica) is working to create a National Marine Sanctuary on the Osa Peninsula, on Costa Rica's South Pacific side.  This area boasts over 25 species of dolphins and whales, and yet, commercial fishing is rampant.  It is more important now than ever to create sanctuaries throughout the world in order to protect the dolphins and whales.  Click below to sign our petition and help create a sanctuary to protect the dolphins, whales and other sea life in this incredible area.

http://www.fundelfin-costa-rica.org/fundelfinpetition.htm

The message below, is an open letter from James Taylor, Pierce Brosnan and Jean-Michel Cousteau from the Natural Resources Defense Council's website (http://www.nrdc.org).

Dear Friend,

The three of us have never teamed up like this before. But we all share something in common: a deep love of the ocean and marine mammals. That's why we're very disturbed by a U.S. military program that, if approved, will soon be bombarding millions of whales and dolphins around the world with intense noise.

You may have read about the U.S. Navy's "Low-Frequency Active" (LFA) sonar program. The military has been testing this new, high-powered system in secret for years. Now, the Navy wants to deploy it across 80 percent of our planet's oceans. LFA sonar is designed to detect enemy submarines by flooding vast expanses of the oceans with sound. Leaving aside the military wisdom of this sonar -- which is still in dispute -- the environmental dangers are becoming increasingly clear.

Here's the problem: LFA noise is billions of times more intense than that known to disturb whale migration and communication. Whales and dolphins depend on their sensitive hearing for survival. To put it simply, a deaf whale is a dead whale. Deafening noise from the LFA system will interfere with the vital biological activities of marine mammals. Scientists fear that long-term exposure to LFA could push entire populations over the brink into extinction.

Inevitably, there will also be marine mammals unlucky enough to swim too close to LFA loudspeakers. Imagine an acoustic wave so powerful that, even at substantial distances, it can destroy your hearing, cause your lungs or ears to hemorrhage, or even kill you.

We've already seen a glimpse of the resulting carnage. Last year, whales from four different species stranded themselves and died on beaches across the northern Bahamas during a Navy military exercise. All but one of the dead animals examined by researchers had suffered hemorrhaging around the inner ear -- the telltale sign of acoustic trauma. The U.S. Navy's own report concluded that it is "highly likely" that the stranding was caused by the use of mid-frequency active sonar. But despite this tragic event, the Navy now wants to deploy LFA, the most extensive active sonar system ever devised.

We know that different frequencies will affect different marine mammals and that the lower the frequency, the farther it penetrates the ocean. We believe it is unconscionable to expose marine mammals around the world to more high intensity sonar. If you agree, then please join us in taking immediate action; it will take you only a few seconds.
Just go to http://www.nrdcaction.org/index.asp?step=2&item=515. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Ocean Futures Society (OFS) have set up this web page to make it easy for you to send electronic messages of protest to your U.S. senators and representative. Congress is now deciding the Navy's funding for next year -- tell them to "Turn Off LFA Sonar" by cutting off its funding.

And please forward this message to your family, friends and colleagues. NRDC used web activism to help generate a million messages of protest to Mitsubishi and, just last year, stopped the company from destroying the last unspoiled birthing ground of the Pacific gray whale.

Congress cannot ignore millions of us. Together, we can keep whales and dolphins safe from high-powered sonar.

Thank you for your time and your concern.

Sincerely yours,
James Taylor
Pierce Brosnan
Jean-Michel Cousteau

PRESS RELEASE, July 23, 2001
Contacts: Earth Island Institute
Mark J. Palmer (415) 788-3666

Victory for Dolphins and American Consumers

(San Francisco) The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has, in a unanimous decision by the three-judge panel, upheld Judge Thelton Henderson's decision in "Brower v. Daley",
which maintains the current strong standards for the "Dolphin Safe" label on tuna cans - no chasing and netting of dolphins.  "This is a tremendous victory for dolphins and for U.S. consumers," stated Mark J. Palmer, Assistant Director of Earth Island Institute's International Marine Mammal Project, one of the plaintiffs in the case. "It is also a
serious defeat for the U.S. State Department in their efforts to mislead consumers on behalf of a handful of Mexican tuna millionaires in the name of free trade."

The finding by Secretary of Commerce Richard Daley in 1999 to weaken the "dolphin safe" label standards was "contrary to law and an abuse of his discretion," according
to the 9th Circuit decision. "(A)ll of the evidence indicated that dolphins were adversely impacted by the fishery."

The successful lawsuit, filed by Josh Floum, Esq., and Ariela St. Pierre, Esq., of Legal Strategies Group of Emeryville, CA, contended that the U.S. Commerce Secretary's decision, which claimed that the chasing and netting of millions of dolphins in tuna nets is not causing significant adverse impacts on depleted dolphin populations, was arbitrary and capricious, and illegally ignored research supplied by the Commerce Department's own scientists. Earth Island and other groups, who developed the "Dolphin Safe" label in 1990,
charged that the Clinton/Gore Administration's weakening of U.S. dolphin protection laws to accommodate tuna millionaires in Mexico and other countries in the name of free trade would result in more dolphin deaths. It is unclear how the new Bush Administration will handle this issue in the future.

Earth Island Institute, nine other environmental groups, and 87-year-old environmental activist David R. Brower (who died last fall) filed the lawsuit last August in U.S. Federal District Court in August 1999 to overturn the decision by the government to weaken the "Dolphin Safe" label on American tuna cans. Additional plaintiffs included biologist and dolphin activist Samuel LaBudde, Humane Society of the United States, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Defenders of Wildlife, International Wildlife Coalition, Animal Welfare Institute, Society for Animal Protective Legislation, Animal Fund, Oceanic Society, and Environmental Solutions International.

Before the illegal finding by the Commerce Secretary, the "dolphin safe" label could only be used for tuna caught without any chasing and netting of dolphins. Tuna fishermen in the Eastern Tropical Pacific (ETP) target dolphins because tuna often swim below dolphins. More than 7 million dolphins have been drowned in tuna nets over the past 4 decades. But since 1990 and the advent of the "dolphin safe" tuna program, dolphin deaths have decreased by 98% in the ETP.

However, on April 29th, 1999, U.S. Commerce Secretary William Daley ruled, contrary to all available scientific information, that chasing and netting dolphins by the tuna industry does NOT cause significant adverse impacts. This action automatically weakened the standards by which tuna is judged to be "dolphin safe," instead allowing chasing, harassing, netting, injuring, and even killing of dolphins when catching tuna, so long as an on-board observer claims he did not see dolphins killed outright or "seriously injured."

Federal scientists have determined that dolphin populations in the ETP are not recovering as expected, even with the dramatically lower reported kills of recent years. Harassment of dolphins by tuna fishermen and problems arising from the consequent physiological stress (some dolphin schools are chased and netted as often as three times in one day) are likely factors which cause harm to dolphin health and reproduction. Many dolphins suffer injuries in the nets and die after release, but are not counted by the on-board observer. Mothers are separated from calves, and undercounting may be occurring on board some Mexican tuna boats.

"Dave Brower fought all his life for the protection of wild animals and wild places," noted Palmer. "We are proud that his legacy lives on in this humane and powerful court decision for the dolphins!"

PLEASE NOTE:  As long as dolphins are still being injured and killed in tuna nets, and the adverse impacts of "dolphin safe" tuna fishing are not fully known (stress, deaths after the fact due to injuries, etc.), Fundacion Delfin de Costa Rica does not condone the eating of canned tuna.  Try Albacore white tuna (which is fished by individual lines and delicious!) or Salmon, but please do not support the death and injury of dolphins by supporting the canned tuna industry.  While this latest victory is very, very important, dolphins are still not completely protected....we have been in the water enjoying a wonderful encounter with Spinner dolphins here in Costa Rica when the helicopter of a large tuna fishing boat circled over us for over 20 minutes, trying to decide what to do.  They finally left.  If we had not been there that day, these beautiful dolphins would have been subjected to being netted, and possibly killed or injured.  On our research tours, we constantly see dolphins who have been injured in fishing lines and nets.  The US is buying tuna caught in Costa Rica.  Until ALL netting of dolphins is stopped, we do not support the canned tuna industry.

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Massive Research Task Gives Country-by-Country Look at Billion Dollar Industry

LONDON, July 23 -- As the 53rd annual meeting of International Whaling Commission (IWC) gets underway today, a new report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW - www.ifaw.org) documents explosive growth in the whale watching industry world wide. Whale Watching 2001 prepared for IFAW by researcher Erich Hoyt includes a detailed, country- by-country assessment of the 87 countries and territories now offering whale watching to tourists. Painstaking research substantiates that whale watching is now a billion-dollar industry with more than 10 million people each year participating around the globe.

"We're delighted," said Fred O'Regan, President of IFAW. "We've always maintained these magnificent creatures are worth far more alive than dead. Now we can prove it. IFAW's mission is finding real solutions that benefit humans and animals. For folks like us who care about both, responsible whale watching is an absolute winner! This report shows the massive economic impact whale watching is having on coastal economies worldwide, even in former whaling communities."

Leading whale watch researcher Erich Hoyt, author of the IFAW report, said the results were even more dramatic than he had anticipated. "Since 1991, when some four million people went whale watching, the number of participants has increased by 12.1 percent per year. Direct expenditures on tickets for the tours have increased from $77 million in 1991 to more than $300 million, an average annual increase of 21.4 percent. I estimate that 10.1 million people are now going whale watching each year, spending a total of $1.253 billion U.S. dollars in direct and indirect expenditures. This industry is taking off and outpacing global tourism growth by wide margins. In the United States alone, more than 4.3 million people went whale watching in 1998, accounting for 47% of the global whale watching industry."

Despite the rapid development of this whale-friendly industry, some countries gathering for this week's IWC meeting in London are eager to resume industrial whaling operations and re-open international trade in whale meat. "It's hard to believe it's still going on," said Mick McIntyre, Australia Country Director of IFAW. "While more and more people
around the world are reaching for cameras when they see a whale, the Japanese and Norwegian governments are still reaching for harpoons. From Southampton to Sydney, communities around the world are reaping great profits without 'harvesting' whales. Japan and Norway need to wake up or they'll miss the boat."

Editors: For more information visit www.ifaw.org or www.stopwhalingnow.com

This newsletter was compiled from information received from Ocean Sanctity, The Sea Shepherd Society (www.seashepherd.org), The Earth Island Institute (www.earthisland.org), National Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace. A special thanks to these organizations and all the work they do to protect our planet and its inhabitants.

Fundacion Delfin de Costa Rica
http://www.fundelfin-costa-rica.org