Chile's Blue Whales.
Beware the Japanese.
Padagonia has some darn interesting but diminishing Icefields as well as percise scientists. It is a long story but Icefields and Baleen Whales belong together in harmony. It has to do with algae, plankton, diet, returning living carbon to the seas and keeping Earth cool. I know it sounds crazy but it's true.
The baleens eat vast amounts of phytoplankton, algae and krill. In the food web, they eat primary producers and keep carbon from the troposphereic gases where the primary producers obtained their carbon. The Baleens keep over abundance of carbon from the air that causes Global Warming; in the seas as livng carbon for decades.
Everyone wants to Rescue Earth by removing carbon dioxide and injecting it into the ground. That is completely wrong and un-natural. The Baleens are the natural harbor for excess carbon on Earth. When they die they fall to the bottom of the ocean after decades of life and eating primary producers that live on tropospheric carbon.
The seas need to be teeming with these animals. These Marine Mammals that have body temperatures the same as humans or nearly so. It is the one sure way of reversing and preventing Global Warming. It's the only viable solution, if the truth be known. Anything else is temporary and ill conceived. Dangerous.
Baleen whales.
The mature male Blue Whale is 100 feet long. That is a lot of living carbon. With big appetites for primary producers chocked full of gas called carbon dioxide obtained from the tropsophere. Remove the Carbon from Carbon Dixoide and all that is left is oxygen. Pure, breathable oxygen.
If you blieve in God. Then realize God provided well for Earth's balance and it was human greed that is and has destroyed it.
Oh, yeah, the Icefields? They exist to maintain a livable biotic troposhere. They only exist when Earth's gaseous layers are in balance. Global Warming destroys them. I find it most interesting we are losing our global thermostats along with the largest creatures on Earth. That is not a coincidence. It is a very intersting puzzle though, isn't it? You might say. An appreciation of God and/or living with Earth's balance reveals a lot of interesting puzzles.
For the sake of clarity. I do believe in evolution. But, then. So does the Holy Roman Catholic Church.
The International authority over seeing whales is the IWC. International Whaling Commission where whaling nations and scientists that monitor the populations of whales come together.
CHILE’S BLUE WHALE POPULATION RECOVERING, SCIENTISTS SAY
Up To 200 Blue Whales Now Swimming In Chilean Waters
(Feb. 2, 2006) Chile’s blue whale population is recuperating and growing rapidly, according to researchers studying the population off the coasts of the country’s southern islands.
While blue whales have always occupied waters along Chile’s coast, worldwide whaling operations severely diminished their numbers during the 1900s, leaving Chile with very few of the giant mammals swimming in coastal waters. It was only in 2003 that marine scientists discovered a blue whale nursery in Chile’s ocean waters, leading to cautious optimism among the scientists that the population may be able to recuperate.
“We suspect that the blue whale population is increasing, because sightings are much more common than they were before,” said marine biologist Francisco Ponce. “We have seen whales in Chañaral, off the coast of Choros-Damos and Chiloé islands … in numbers that we never saw 20 or 30 years ago,” said Ponce.
Blue whales are the largest mammals ever to inhabit the earth, reaching lengths of over 100 feet. To give their massive size some perspective, adult whales weigh between 100 and 120 tons, as much as about 2,000 people and more than 25 elephants.
During the early 1900s, the blue whale’s huge size made it a principal target of the whaling industry throughout the world. Approximately 330,000-360,000 blue whales were killed during the 20th century in the Antarctic alone and their populations were severely depleted to less than three percent of their original numbers.
In 2003, Chilean Professor Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete surprised the world by announcing the discovery of the blue whale nursery off the coast of Chiloé Island in southern Chile. There are estimated to be between 150 and 200 blue whales now inhabiting these waters from December to April each year.
“We were astounded to find such a large population of blue whales making their home in Patagonia,” said Hucke-Gaete. “The biological richness of the area and low levels of contamination make it vital to the global efforts to protect this magnificent animal for future generations.”
These whales remain in danger, however. The Canadian company Noranda plans to build a massive aluminum smelter in Aysén, near the Gulf of Corcovado, a project that has drawn the ire of environmentalists.
The proposed project would carve a smelter, six dams, three hydro-electric installations, access roads and power lines into the heart of the region. The smelter would release 1.5 million tons of solid and gaseous waste each year into waterways and forests.
All of the smelter’s raw materials would have to be brought in on ships, dramatically increasing the traffic through the pristine coastal habitat of the blue whales.
While strong opposition from civilians, local, national and international groups, and the salmon industry have forced Noranda to put the project temporarily on hold, the company has not canceled its plans.
Because of threats like this one, international environmental groups have lobbied Chile’s President Ricardo Lagos to designate the area a protected marine park since the nursery’s discovery.
On July 28, 2005, President Lagos received a letter signed by over 40 environmental groups, including the environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) in the U.S. and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), urging him to “create a marine protected area in the waters lying off Chiloé Island and the Gulf of Corcovado, Region X.”
The letter reminded President Lagos that “one of the primary continuing threats to marine mammals such as the blue whale is the lack of safe feeding, reproduction, and socialization areas.” The proposed marine park would provide this kind of protection for the blue whales (ST, July 19, 2005).
Although 19 percent of Chilean land is protected, the nation has largely ignored its ocean. Chile has only one national marine reserve along its 4,000 miles of rugged coastline.
The man who discovered the whale nursery in Chile is also leading the way in the fight for marine protection. Dr. Hucke-Gaete is the founder of the Blue Whale Center, an NGO whose mission is to undertake scientific research, to educate the public, and, in the near future, to establish a scientific station in the community of Melinka, a small village perched over the blue whale waters.
According to Dr. Hucke-Gaete, the Blue Whale Center has several projects underway. “We are promoting and proposing the establishment of … the Marine and Coastal Protected Area (MCPA) …, environmental education in the local areas, as well as the regulation and promotion of associated ecotourism activities,” Hucke-Gaete said.
Another marine biologist from the Universidad Austral, Antonio Molina, is directing a documentary about the blue whales. He expects to capture the first underwater images of these whales, the largest creatures on earth.
Molina hopes that the film will create awareness about the conservation effort. He said “what is important is their protection and the implementation of ways to protect them.” (ST, Jan. 20) Filming of the project, entitled “Giants of the Sea,” began last Friday.
SOURCE: EL MOSTRADOR, LA NACIÓN, BBC NEWS, NRDC ONLINE, GREENPEACE NEWSLETTER. By Geoff Burt (editor@santiagotimes.cl)
