Now that the progressives' "war on Christmas" has been largely successful with big assists from the blue-sky vendors in the Street of Broken Dreams and the Zionists in Israel, US Person offers this small piece of good news to start the new year: A young right whale migrating down the eastern seaboard got ensnared in hundreds of feet of fishing tackle. Such incidents are increasingly common in coastal waters and usually mean a slow, painful death for a whale since they are powerful enough to drag gear until it literally cuts into their bodies killing them. Fortunately members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spotted the whale and NOAA's Fisheries Service mounted a rescue attempt last Saturday. A disentanglement team managed to partially remove the rope loops and reported that the remaining ropes would slough off in the sea. Only 300-350 Wright whales remain in the world, and are severely endangered by ship collisions and entanglements. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are lost each year worldwide due to entanglements in abandoned lines and nets. Based on scarring the Union estimates that 72% of the coastal right whales have had encounters with fishing gear and 10-20 of the population is entangled every year. The eastern Atlantic right whale is extinct. The western population migrates in the coastal waters of North America from Labrador to Florida were the only know calving grounds are located. The whale is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. However, international action must be taken to require labelling of all ocean fishing tackle so that fishing operations deliberately abandoning gear at sea may be held accountable for their dumping. As one animal welfare expert said, "This is a serious animal welfare issue. We're not just talking about animals suffering a protracted death but also a horrifically painful and distressing one. Animals are breaking teeth and jaws, severing fins and suffering deep gashes and internal injuries. If this was occurring on land rather than out of sight, shrouded by the sea, the international community would have taken far stronger and far swifter action to bring an end to this problem." Its the three monkey syndrome at work.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Right Whale Saved
Now that the progressives' "war on Christmas" has been largely successful with big assists from the blue-sky vendors in the Street of Broken Dreams and the Zionists in Israel, US Person offers this small piece of good news to start the new year: A young right whale migrating down the eastern seaboard got ensnared in hundreds of feet of fishing tackle. Such incidents are increasingly common in coastal waters and usually mean a slow, painful death for a whale since they are powerful enough to drag gear until it literally cuts into their bodies killing them. Fortunately members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spotted the whale and NOAA's Fisheries Service mounted a rescue attempt last Saturday. A disentanglement team managed to partially remove the rope loops and reported that the remaining ropes would slough off in the sea. Only 300-350 Wright whales remain in the world, and are severely endangered by ship collisions and entanglements. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature estimates that 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises are lost each year worldwide due to entanglements in abandoned lines and nets. Based on scarring the Union estimates that 72% of the coastal right whales have had encounters with fishing gear and 10-20 of the population is entangled every year. The eastern Atlantic right whale is extinct. The western population migrates in the coastal waters of North America from Labrador to Florida were the only know calving grounds are located. The whale is protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Endangered Species Act. However, international action must be taken to require labelling of all ocean fishing tackle so that fishing operations deliberately abandoning gear at sea may be held accountable for their dumping. As one animal welfare expert said, "This is a serious animal welfare issue. We're not just talking about animals suffering a protracted death but also a horrifically painful and distressing one. Animals are breaking teeth and jaws, severing fins and suffering deep gashes and internal injuries. If this was occurring on land rather than out of sight, shrouded by the sea, the international community would have taken far stronger and far swifter action to bring an end to this problem." Its the three monkey syndrome at work.