How can whale populations be preserved?

The worldwide campaign against commercial whaling really took off in the 1970s, although the industry was already in decline by this time. However, despite many years of pressure by governments around the world, and by environmental protection organisations such as Greenpeace, whaling does still take place and there are other threats to a number of whale species. It is therefore too early to assume that the battle has been won.

Public opinion had much to do with turning the tide in favour of whales. The 1970s campaigns, which included direct action by people in small boats who disrupted whale hunts, were broadcast across the world and attracted considerable attention. This is turn put pressure on politicians who were forced to pass legislation to ban commercial whaling. In particular, the International Whaling Commission was pressured into passing a moratorium on whaling in 1982 which came into force a few years later.

However, this was not the end of the story, mainly because some of the countries that made most money from whaling either ignored the moratorium or found ways round it. The biggest loophole was the provision that allowed whales to be killed for the purpose of “scientific research”, and this term has been exploited, particularly by Japan, to justify the taking of large numbers of whales.

An important step was made in May 2014 when the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan’s claim to be undertaking whaling in the Southern Ocean for scientific reasons was bogus. Japan’s factory ship owners had no choice but to stop their operations, although they have threatened to resume whaling, presumably after they have come up with another justification that they hope will get round the rules.

Apart from Japan, the only other nations with substantial whaling operations are Iceland and Norway, but those operations are small in comparison with those of Japan.

Other Threats to Whales

Even if no nation undertook commercial whaling, whale populations would still be threatened by human activity and those threats apply to all whale species and not just those (such as fin and minke) that have been subject to whaling in recent years.

Global warming, leading to disruption of the marine food chain, is an obvious threat, as is the dumping of waste at sea. The massive amounts of plastic waste that have found their way into the Pacific Ocean are particularly worrying, as this is a growing long-term problem for which there does not appear to be a short-term solution.

Commercial fishing for other species also harms whales, many of which become entangled in nets that stretch for miles in open oceans.

What is the Answer?

Whale species will be preserved if they are given a fighting chance. The elimination of commercial whaling would help enormously, but this will only happen if the demand for whale products is removed. Whale meat is eaten in only a few countries, with Japan being the main culprit – many of the whales killed by Icelandic whalers are processed into meat that is exported to Japan. If Japanese people can be persuaded to change their dietary habits, the main incentive behind commercial whaling would be removed.

Because economic drivers are the most difficult to overcome, thought should be given to how the people who make a living from whaling can be given alternative ways to do so. Just as most “big game hunting” has given way to “big game watching” the same could be done for whales. There is money to be made in “whale tourism”.

Other moves that will help include reforms of fishing practices, similar to those being undertaken to protect sharks and turtles that are taken as the “bycatch” of the tuna fishing industry. It is also important to establish areas of ocean as “whale sanctuaries” in which the whole ecosystem is allowed to thrive without destructive human interference.

Above all, urgent steps must be taken to reduce worldwide carbon emissions and pollution of the oceans. Unless this is done, it will not just be whales that face the threat of extinction.

© John Welford

Six coastal canaries

With so much climate change scepticism around, it is useful to have indicators that anyone can observe and which will point directly to rises in overall temperature. The “canaries” concept is one that fits this particular bill.

Canaries as indicators of danger

In times gone by, coalminers used to take caged canaries down the mine with them, not for the company but as a safety device. It was known that canaries were highly susceptible to gas poisoning, so if your canary fell off its perch you knew that there was methane gas seeping into the mine and it was high time that you moved to somewhere safer. (The canaries often recovered when taken to a place with better air, although this was not always the case).

The United Kingdom’s National Trust has taken the “canary” concept a stage further by announcing a set of six “coastal canaries” that, should their populations show a sudden decline (or in one case a rise), will provide a warning that global warming has reached a dangerous level. These are species that are highly dependent on such things as sea temperatures and weather patterns for their survival and which will react most quickly when these factors change.

Six coastal canaries

The canaries chosen by the National Trust are:

1.       .Glanville fritillary butterfly. The range of this butterfly has got gradually smaller over the years, and it is now confined to the western chalk cliffs of the Isle of Wight. It will therefore be relatively easy to spot its complete disappearance, should that occur.

2.       Oysterplant. Grows on shingle beaches in northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It will suffer if the sea becomes more saline or if higher sea levels mean that it has to spend more time submerged.

3.       Cliff tiger beetle. As cliffs crumble as a result of rising sea levels and increased storm activity, it becomes necessary to carry out more cliff stabilisation projects. This disturbs the cliff tiger beetle, which can only fly short distances and will find it difficult to find new hunting grounds.

4.       Puffin. Warmer seas are affecting populations of sand eels, which supply the puffin’s chief source of food. They breed in cliff-top rabbit burrows which can flood if there are too many heavy rainstorms.

5.       Little tern. This bird breeds on beaches just above the high-water mark. Too many exceptionally high tides and summer storms will have a significant effect on the little tern’s breeding pattern.

6.       Triggerfish. Aptly named for this purpose, the triggerfish is a warm water species that is beginning to be seen in greater numbers in British waters, notably off North Wales. There are other “trigger” species for the same reason, such as basking sharks, certain species of jellyfish, and zebra mussels, all of which are being seen more frequently.

As climate change continues to affect the coasts of the United Kingdom, many species will doubtless be affected. The above “canaries” are likely to be only the first of many.

© John Welford

Kiritimati's corals are dying

Kiritimati is one of the world’s largest coral islands, located near the centre of the Pacific Ocean and part of the island nation of Kiribati (formerly the Gilbert Islands). It is also one of the Line Islands, which is one of the world’s longest island chains. The name Kiritimati is a re-spelling of Christmas, which was the name given to the island by Captain James Cook when he landed there on Christmas Eve in 1777, although he was not the first European to discover it.

Despite being created from coral, the phenomenon known as coral bleaching threatens the future of the island in terms of its ecology and economy. It has been estimated that 95% of its coral reefs may die within the next few years, and it could take decades for them to recover, if they ever do. A recent survey has shown that 80% of the giant table-top corals around the island are already dead and another 15% are dying.

The problem is that rapid increases in water temperature cause the tiny algae that nourish coral and give it its colour to be expelled, leaving behind ghostly white skeletons that are subject to disease and erosion. The algae are at the base of the food chain of a coral reef, so without them there are no fish, which are unable to escape to other islands because of Kiritimati’s remoteness. Without the fish, there is no livelihood for the human population of the island.

At the heart of the problem is the El Nino phenomenon, which is a periodic shifting of warm water within the Pacific Ocean that has worldwide consequences for weather patterns. El Nino events have been known about for centuries and can be expected every three to seven years, but their intensity has been increasing in recent decades, with global warming being a prime suspect. The warming of the ocean around Kiritimati, for example, has been measured at around 3.5⁰ C.

Short-term rises in water temperature can lead to the temporary bleaching of coral, from which a relatively rapid recovery can be expected as things return to normal in non-El Nino years. However, it is expected that future El Ninos will be more intense and more frequent, which means that coral reefs will find it very hard to recover.

Coral bleaching is a worldwide phenomenon, with the Caribbean being another region that has suffered badly. However, the problem at Kiritimati is particularly bad and few scientists are optimistic about its prospects if ocean temperatures continue to rise, as seems likely given current trends.

© John Welford

Can the ivory trade be stopped?

This is an African forest elephant that is native to the Congo basin of Africa. It is different in several ways from the bush elephant of the savannahs of Eastern and Southern Africa; it is smaller, has more rounded ears, and has straighter tusks. It is the tusks that are the reason why the forest elephant is an endangered species.

The ivory trade is illegal across the world but that does not stop it continuing, and on a stupendous scale. Markets in Angola, Nigeria and Sudan blatantly offer for sale thousands of items made from ivory, and there are plenty of willing buyers. An investigator recently came across a market in Luanda, the capital of Angola, where at least 10,000 ivory trinkets were openly displayed.

The trade in ivory claims around 33,000 African elephants every year. The species cannot afford to lose this many animals without being put under serious threat of extinction.

So who is buying the ivory and therefore fuelling the trade? In Angola, it is almost exclusively Chinese expatriate workers who buy the items to take home with them. Ivory has enormous significance as a status symbol among the China middle class, and people will gladly pay ten times the price that is charged by the market traders in Luanda.

There is therefore a very strong temptation for Chinese workers to smuggle small ivory articles out of the country and sell them to eager buyers back home in China. There are around 250,000 Chinese workers in Angola at any one time, so if only a small proportion take this course when they leave, the amount of ivory leaving the country could still be enormous.

The way to stop the trade is to curb the demand. This has been done very successfully in the west, with potential consumers realising the harm that was being done in the wild by their desire to own ivory artefacts. However, this message has still not got home in China. Governments do not like to criticise China, for fear of losing valuable contracts and export markets, so the protests being made are low-key or completely absent.

It is high time that this attitude changed. The Chinese government has it within its power to enforce bans on ivory imports. Searching all workers at the airport as they return from Africa, and punishing anyone found with ivory items on them, would be a good start.

© John Welford

Lady's mantle

Lady’s mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris) grows all over the British Isles, apart from the Channel Islands.

The plant grows to about 18 inches (45 cms) high, with some stems growing upright while others sprawl along the ground. Each leaf has up to 11 toothed lobes.

Lady’s mantle flowers from June to September, the flowers being unusual in having no petals, only sepals in two rings of four. The hairy fruits ripen in loose clusters.

The plant exhibits an unusual feature called guttation. When humidity is high and water cannot be lost from the leaves as vapour, lady’s mantle forces the water out through its “breathing holes”. This gives the impression of large drops of dew which are not found on neighboring plants.

This phenomenon gave rise in medieval times to the notion that this “dew” was “celestial water” that had magical properties. Alchemists would collect it at dawn in the hope of using it in their experiments aimed at turning base metals into gold. One wonders why they kept on trying, given that every experiment must have been a dismal failure!

This usage is the reason behind the botanical name of the plant.

The name “lady’s mantle” has a different origin, in that it is supposedly dedicated to the Virgin Mary. That has led to the plant being used to treat women’s ailments. One notable past use was to help middle-aged women to restore their breasts to the shape and pertness they once had. Did this work? Presumably enough people must have thought so, otherwise the usage would surely not have entered folklore as it clearly did.

© John Welford

Parsley piert

Parsley piert (Aphanes arvensis) grows on arable land and wasteland throughout the British Isles. Despite the name, it has nothing to do with parsley. The name is a corruption of the French “perce-pierre”, which means “stone piercer”.

Parsely piert is a sprawling plant that grows to no more than 8 inches (20 cms) high. The leaves, which grow on short stalks, have three segments that are lobed at the tip.

It flowers from April to September, the tiny flowers being green and having no petals but only sepals. The fruits are oval in shape.

Because the plant often grows in stony ground it was often assumed that it had broken through solid rock to reach the surface, hence the name. However, this is simply not true. This belief led to the notion that a medicine made from parsley piert would break up gallstones and kidney stones. One has to assume that any cures were purely coincidental!

Anther medicinal use in former times was to treat intestinal complaints. This led to the alternative names of “colicwort” and “bowel-hive-grass” (hive is another word for inflammation).

© John Welford

Ermine (stoat)

The ermine (Mustela erminea) is a member of the weasel family that is best known (in Great Britain at least) for supplying the black-spotted white fur that has traditionally trimmed the ceremonial robes of members of the House of Lords.

It is a small animal measuring up to 12 inches (30 centimetres) in length which includes its black-tipped tail (up to 5 inches or 12 cms).

Somewhat confusingly, the ermine only exists during the winter months! At other times its fur is similar to that of the larger weasel, being reddish-brown above and on the head and white below. This is when it is known by the more familiar name of stoat.

The ermine has short legs, a long neck and a triangular head.

In order to survive, an ermine must eat every day. It is therefore a fearsome hunter of small mammals, which it will kill by trapping it with its legs and biting it on the back of the neck. The female ermine is roughly half the size of the male, which allows it to feed its young by hunting underground in burrows where a prey animal might have thought it was safe.

The ermine is sometimes forced to diversity its diet and will take small birds, eggs, fish or insects if necessary.

The fur of victim mammals is used to line the ermine’s nest, where a litter of four to nine offspring will be raised. The young are ready to join their mother in the daily food hunt when they are around two months old.

© John Welford