February 21, 2009
Ben Cubby talks to the political conservative who flew the anti-whaling flag inside the Howard government....
...In January Campbell joined the board of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, a group sometimes avoided even by Greenpeace. Over the summer Watson's vessel engaged in cat-and-mouse interference with Japan's Southern Ocean whaling fleet, employing stunts that included hurling rancid butter on to the deck of a Japanese whaler. But the whale kill was severely disrupted.
Campbell says he admires this sort of direct action, provided it can be done safely, but he never needed a conversion to the cause. His passion for whales goes back to 1970 when a 16-year-old Campbell discovered a tape of whale songs in the Brisbane Grammar library.
"It was quite captivating … It's something that's been close to my heart all my life."
The next year he had his first sighting of a humpback off the Western Australia coast while sailing with his father. He was hooked, and became determined to see that whales were not....
This is a photo from 2004. Supposedly, the stranding took place because of seimic testing for gas and oil. There are mass strandings every year in Australia and New Zealand during the summer months when the whales and dolphins are feeding in the plankton rich arctic waters. (click here). There is no reason for Japan to continue its annual hunt while there are so many of these mammals driven out of the water by drilling companies and the whalers themselves ! It would seem there needs to be a moritorium on drilling exploration as well as whaling until the issues that beset these mammals are more fully known. Just one season without trama and interruption for these mammals will reveal these strandings as a natural phenomena or one caused by human activity. If scientists are unclear to the reason of these strandings, the IWC should be demanding a complete investigation before there are any more hunts or seimic testing while they are seasonally feeding.
...Bob Brown, leader of Australia's Greens party, said earlier on Tuesday that ocean seismic tests for oil and gas should be stopped until the whale migration season ends.... (click here)
The Japanese hung dolphins all the time.
Nearly 200 whales, some dolphins stranded on Tasmanian beach (click here)
By Associated Press
4:05 PM CST, March 1, 2009
SYDNEY (AP) — Nearly 200 whales and several dolphins are stranded on a beach in the southern Australian island state of Tasmania, the latest in a string of beachings in recent months....
...Strandings happen periodically in Tasmania as whales go by during their migration to and from Antarctic waters. However, Arthur said it was unusual for whales and dolphins to get stranded together....
