Jennifer Marohasy

a forum for the discussion of issues concerning the natural environment

Archives for November 19, 2006

Has Bad Weather Saved Right Whales from Lobster Fishermen?

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I received a note from a reader of this blog, Lamna nasus, last Wednesday in which he suggested that the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whales are currently threatened by the start of the commercial lobster fishing season in the Bay of Fundy in Canada. He repeated this concern in a recent comment and that we should be more concerned about Right Whales than minke whales.

The commercial lobster season was scheduled to start in the Bay of Fundy last Monday, and about 50 right whales were yet to leave the area as part of their annual migration. It was feared the whales would become entangled in lobster fishing gear.

But by the time I received the note from Lamna, it appeared the start of the lobster season had already been delayed, not by the whales, but by bad weather. It also appeared that the Canadian fisheries department was well aware of the situation and was keeping an eye on the whales.

I agree with Lamna that North Atlantic Right whales are more deserving of our attention and a concerted conservaton effort, than the very common minke whale which captures our attention every year because Greenpeace likes battling the Japanese on the high seas. There are perhaps just 350 Right whales in the North Atlantic while there are perhaps more than a million minke whales in the earth’s oceans.

Boat strikes seem as much a problem for Right whales as fishing gear. So what is the future for this species of whale?

Miranda Devine on ‘Mine Your Own Business’

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It is generally assumed that mining companies are bad and green groups are good. This general impression is so well entrenched within western civilization that many environmental activists have got used to being able to tell stories about mining, logging, fishing and farming operations that are misleading, exaggerated or simply wrong. They have got used to professional journalists just repeating their propaganda.

Of course, not all environmentalists mislead, just like not all mining companies are bad. But gee it can be hard getting people to accept this. Most environmentalists are seen as angels with absolutely no vested interests.

It can also be hard getting people to understand that “making poverty history” is about more than attending a rock concert or making a donation. Development and industry are real solutions to poverty and they often involve some environmental harm. Miranda Devine makes some comment on this issue and also gives the new documentary ‘Mine Your Own Business’ a plug in her column in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

“AT U2’s Sydney concerts last week, Bono urged the audience to text their names to a Make Poverty History phone number. Later he flashed the names on a big screen and sent a thank you text to all those mobile phones in Telstra Stadium. As an act of charity it doesn’t come much easier, unless you count wearing wristbands.

This is not to sneer at Bono for raising consciousness of the world’s poor, or his audience for making a gesture.

But as protesters and green activists gather in Melbourne this weekend to lay the usual blame for poverty on the greed of developed nations, a powerful new documentary shines light on a different villain.

Mine Your Own Business, which opens this week, shows that the “powerful group telling the world’s poor how to live, how to work, even how to think” are not the world leaders gathered in Melbourne. They’re not even wealthy multinational corporations, but wealthy multinational environment groups such as Greenpeace.

Read the complete article here: http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/make-poverty-history-first-by-getting-rid-of-the-greens/2006/11/18/1163266827937.html

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For information on when and where the documentary is screening this week in Australia visit: www.ipa.org.au