Will Japan hunt Southern Ocean whales again this year?

According to The Sydney Morning Herald last Monday:

THE RUDD Government's new special envoy on whaling, the former Sydney Olympics chief Sandy Hollway, will try to persuade Japan to curtail its Antarctic whaling this summer.

Mr Hollway has opened a confidential new diplomatic dialogue, and the summer's whaling is high on his agenda.

The fleet is due to leave Japan next month for waters south-east of Australia, and into Antarctica's Ross Sea.

It plans to kill up to 985 whales. The fleet also faces direct action from Sea Shepherd, and possibly Greenpeace.

Mr Hollway told the Herald last night that Australia should keep working for a whaling suspension, and he would visit Tokyo again before the fleet was due to leave.

Will Japan hunt Southern Ocean whales again this year?

It would be nice to answer that question with a negative, however it is highly unlikely that Japan will willingly forgo its annual hunt in Antarctic waters.

So called scientific whaling has become an issue of stubborn pride for the Government of Japan, who curiously continue to endorse the killing and eating of a range of whale and dolphin species even though there is evidence of high levels of mercury contamination.

The Japan Times last Friday:

People who frequently eat pilot whale meat tend to have abnormally high levels of mercury in their hair, according to a study of residents of the whaling town of Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture.
The study was conducted by a team that included researchers from the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido and the College of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Daiichi University in Fukuoka Prefecture.
The team said there were three people whose hair mercury exceeded 50 parts per million, a level that can cause neurological symptoms.
Whales and dolphins tend to have high concentrations of mercury accumulated through the food chain.
Tetsuya Endo, an associate professor at the Health Sciences University of Hokkaido, said it is unlikely the residents will immediately experience mercury-induced health problems, but those with high mercury levels should consider cutting down on the amount of whale they eat.
The group collected hair samples from 30 men and 20 women between last December and July and asked them how often they eat pilot whale meat.
Mercury levels averaged 21.6 ppm among the men and 11.9 ppm among the women, both of which are about 10 times the national average, it said.
The three people whose hair mercury levels exceeded 50 ppm were all men, the team said. The three men ate whale meat more than once a month.
The study found that mercury levels were halved in about two months if the test subjects stopped eating whale meat.

This contamination is not restricted to species within Japanese territorial waters and whales migrating up and down the Australian east coast are currently being monitored for mercury contamination and its effect on species viability and sustainability.

So to remind us all of what is at stake here.

Whales of the Southern Ocean - Australian East Coast to Antarctica

Photographs from Google Images.

But I never was a real investment banker, M'lud

I hear that Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull has been whirling like a dervish down the corridors of power and out into the faces of various media coves in an attempt to establish a global crisis position with traction, and (as a sub text) convince them that he just happened to have previously 'worked' for an investment bank and hadn't really been an true investment banker.
Or if he accidentally was, he was one of the 'good' investment bankers (in itself something of an oxymoron these days).
And it didn't really matter anyway, because he only spent a few years with the firm as Chairman and Managing Director

Too bad, Mad Mel didn't stop to consider whether this would crack most people up, when both Goldman Sachs Australia and Turnbull's own Parliament of Australia biography still list him as having been a partner between 1997-8 to 2001 and that partnership package was understood to come with an additional parcel of shares.
Turnbull and Co having merged with Goldman Sachs Australia in July 1997.

If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck, quacks like a duck - then it's a bl**dy duck!
Turnbull does himself no favours in trying to pretend otherwise.

Barack is my Mr. Right! The NRA told me so

With Barack Obama and the National Rifle Association of America facing off in a battle of political wills in the countdown to the November presidential election day, I took a quick peek at the NRA website and found this silly quiz.

2008 Jacaranda Queen candidates, Grafton Oct 24-Nov 3

Janet Blair of Grafton is the Jacarandah Festival Matron of Honour who will be shepherding these bright young things during the many events at Australia's longest running floral festival which first commenced in 1935.

I'm sure that (clockwise from the top left) Gemma Buckley, Eliz Strydom, Alisha Beaman, Mel Roberts, Verginia Nairn and Alanna Goodwin will have a great time during festival week.

Festival events guide here.

SBS TV will be showing the Jacaranda Festival documentary Once a Queen on Friday 24 October at 7.30pm.

ASIO tales continued...

Robert Merkel over at Larvatus Prodeo last week took umbrage at Victoria's Security Intelligence Group and its domestic spying, after reading Baker and McKenzie's article on the same subject in The Age.

Richard Baker and Nick McKenzie nicknamed the undercover police intelligence operative "Andrew", as they went on to describe his dive into a pit of chicken excrement in pursuit of his spying goals.

Now I find that ASIO may also utilise the services of an "Andrew" and is so proud of him that he features in one of their digital recruitment adverts.

"Those who have made it through our recruitment process have a variety of life and work experience. From teachers, managers and lawyers through to psychologists, engineers and social workers, there's no set mould or magic formula – it's about you as a person.
Hear first hand from our IOs:

Andrew - 'Everyone finds working here rewarding'------

After I'd graduated I applied for a job with ASIO because I liked the diversity that the Intelligence Officer position offered.

The job seemed to demand both analytical and interpersonal skills, so I could get a good balance in my day-to-day work."

No mention of battery hens, but this "Andrew" did say that he's required to undertake a new posting every three years so (remembering his Victorian doppelganger) let's hope that the poor boy stays as far away from livestock as he can get.

Perhaps an assignment shadowing the Quilters Guild of NSW would be just the shot.

ASIO obligingly supplies an advertising agency audio of "Andrew" which hints that he may have hailed from the Indian sub-continent.

Oh goodness gracious me!! Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom Boody-Boom-Boom-Boom.

Recruitment pic from ASIO

Blogging about the Clarence River and water solutions

Excerpts from a watery exchange in the letters blog at The Australian last week:

Letter to the Editor, October 13 2008:

NOWHERE in the Murray-Darling debate have I seen any reference to the logical solution to the issue: to ensure more water in the upper reaches of the system. Over five million megalitres of water flows each year through the mouth of the Clarence River into the sea at Iluka on the north coast of NSW.

Well-engineered and feasible plans have been drawn up in the past to divert one-fifth of this water on a fully regulated basis to the upper rivers of the Darling at a very reasonable cost.

While some would be lost by evaporation and soakage a lot would also reach the Murray. Instead of the interminable hand-wringing, why not actually do something and get the ball rolling?

David Coffey
Bowral, NSW

Online comment:

"Well-engineered and feasible plans have been drawn up in the past to divert one-fifth of this [Clarence river] water on a fully regulated basis to the upper rivers of the Darling at a very reasonable cost."

There was nothing well-engineered or feasible about any of the proposals to dam and divert Clarence River catchment fresh water.

These plans often:
*overestimated freshwater flows
*neglected to recognise that river flows were highly variable
*took no account of the fact that almost one third of the Clarence River was subject to tidal flow and therefore salt
*failed to take into account that strong unregulated flows were required to keep the shipping channels open for the working port, so the timber boats and island traders are able to negotiate the river
*that the highly productive commercial fishing industry relied on 'freshes' flowing freely to produce adequate prawn and fish harvests
*ignored vital endangered fish habitat and international treaties covering migratory birds relying on the river
*did not take into account the two different rainfall patterns across the Clarence catchment which see less rain falling in those areas where most freshwater run-off into the river and tributaries occur or CSIRO predictions of long-term local impacts of climate change
*had insufficient geotechnical information for dams and pipeline and unrealistic proposed siting and estimated costing.

The list could go on and on, but one thing should be apparent - wrecking one catchment to cure the woes in another is NOT the way to go.

Judith M. Melville
Mon 13 Oct 08 (07:03am)

Judith M. Melville, I could kiss you. Where I live, on the Murray, every folkway and strange scheme from the past is seen as superior to any current management strategy for the river. Thank you for letting facts intrude into the sometimes equally bizarre world of the blogosphere.

Indi
Mon 13 Oct 08 (03:31pm)

My thoughts on the McPalin team

It's hard to believe that that an Australian exists who would find most of the pronouncements of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin anything but abhorrent.

When it comes to her political comments, she (along with John McCain) probably deserves a great deal of the flack that is out there in the media and floating about the blogosphere.

However, even I am beginning to feel uncomfortable with the level of bile being directed at this woman and the less than subtle attempts to sexualize her candidature.

This 'photograph' accompanying a recent PollieGraph article was as low as it could go as far as I'm concerned.