Cetaceans

Radio New Zealand reports on interesting findings about whale strandings:

Scientists researching whale strandings have hit on a new theory that social disruption prior to strandings might be the cause, rather than following sick family members to a shallow beach.

A whale specialist with both the University of Auckland and the University of Oregon in the United States, Scott Baker, says genetic testing has found 120 pilot whales which stranded on Stewart Island were not all closely related.  Read more »

This will upset the green taliban, though what could they possibly object to about biofuels:

Kristjan Loftsson plans to kill 150 fin whales this year (Anton Brink)

AN ICELANDIC entrepreneur has created a new “biofuel” using whale oil — which he then uses to power his whale-hunting ships.

Kristjan Loftsson, who runs a business catching fin whales around Iceland, claims his biofuel, a mixture of 20% whale oil and 80% diesel, is the world’s greenest.

Loftsson says the oil is doubly environmentally friendly because he uses geothermal energy from Iceland’s volcanic vents to melt the whale carcasses to extract the oil.  Read more »

You will be surprised who wrote this about me in a President’s address to members in the monthly newsletter:

Some of you may have read comments on Cameron Slater’s “Whale Oil” blog prior to Christmas. Like me you probably thought – “Why such an unusual name?” Well as it happens it is an appropriate name for this blog – consider some facts about whale oil:

Whale oil is obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil was used as a cheap illuminant, though it gave off a strong odour when burnt and was not very popular. Until the invention of hydrogenation in the early 20th century, it was only used in industrial-grade cleansers because its foul smell and tendency to discolour made it unsuitable for cosmetic soap.

So in short, Whale Oil comes from fat; it is cheap, is unpopular, stinks, discolours and is unsuitable for anything good. An appropriate name for this blog site.

Can you guess?

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Here is your obligatory Whale post:

Visitors to the Bay of Islands were treated to a show they won’t forget when a whale frolicked and leapt from the sea in front of their boat for at least 15 minutes.

The humpback, a juvenile about 12m long, was leaping backwards with almost its entire body out of the water – known as “breaching” – near the Hole in the Rock about midday yesterday.

It was seen by the passengers and crew of the Tangaroa, a Fullers GreatSights vessel on the day-long “Cream Trip”.

Whale expert Jo “Floppy” Halliday, of Opua, was working as a guide on the boat when the young marine mammal put on a “fantastic show”.

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Some pod members have been feeding in Queen Charlotte Sound:

Dolphin Watch Nature Tour guides have been treated to the sight of a pod of orca whales feeding on stingray in Queen Charlotte Sound, Marlborough.

Guide Paul Luxton said staff on board a tour boat spent about 45 minutes watching one big male, three females and three calves feeding on stingrays in Kumototo Bay on Tuesday morning.

The whales swam close to the shore, coming in quickly to catch the stingrays, and the water turned white from all the splashing, he said.

One of the finalists in the Geographic photo competition:

“WASHED UP WHALE”
3rd July 2011. A 12m long humpback whale that was washed up on the harsh Pencarrow Coast near Wellington.
Photo Phil Reid/Dominion Post/Fairfax

Brace yourself…someone has papped Whale having sex and it has exploded all over the internet.

Bloody media.

Image after the break

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ᔥ Andrew Bolt

I’m sure there a re a few pinkos out there that will dance on my grave when I croak…but this is just ridiculous…of course if it was here it would be Maori wailing about the carcass:

When did whales – even dead ones – become sacred objects?

Teenagers who posted Facebook pictures of themselves playing on a 12-metre whale carcass at Warrnambool in Victoria have been threatened with a $32,000 fine…

Department of Sustainability and Environment spokeswoman Mandy Watson told The Standard interfering with a whale, dead or alive, could attract hefty penalties.

God spare me. Stand on a dead whale and you risk a $32,000 fine. Meanwhile, eat a dead cow and you risk only heartburn.

It’s bad enough that green believers are irrational. Worse is that they are totalitarians.

There are two stories in the NZ Herald this morning about Whaling.

Firstly there is some outrage that South Korea wants to resume whaling.

South Korea says that it planned to start whaling through a loophole that allows the killing of whales for scientific research, following the lead of Japan’s controversial expeditions.

At talks of the International Whaling Commission in Panama, South Korean delegates said they would submit future whaling plans to a scientific committee of the global body and were not looking for approval by other nations.

The announcement immediately triggered criticism by Australia, New Zealand and other anti-whaling nations that have long been infuriated by Japan’s whaling expeditions in Antarctic waters.

Then there is outrage that Maori are being prevented from whaling.

Matiu Rei, chairman of Te Ohu Kaimoana which advocates for Maori fisheries rights, addressed the International Whaling Commission earlier this week and discussed the indigenous whaling catch.

The IWC members voted 48-10 to set quotas for the next six years. Caribbean nation St Vincent and the Grenadines will now be able to kill up to 24 humpback whales between 2013-2018 while Russia’s Inuits and other indigenous people can hunt up to 744 gray whales. Native Alaskans can kill up to 336 bowhead whales over the same period.

Mr Rei told the IWC which met in Panama City: “It is ironic that countries that have grossly exploited whales for uses other than food and utensils are now imposing their newly acquired ‘values’ on cultures that continue to suffer the effects and symptoms of colonial exploitation.”

Indigenous peoples were reduced to “groups that must seek permission to continue these traditions – from those whose tastes have changed with the wind – [it] is quite simply degrading”, he said.

“This commission is already a tool for limiting indigenous traditions through its quotas. Please … let them [indigenous peoples] continue to practice their traditions and exercise their customary rights.”

Let me get this straight…we are outraged and condemn South Korea talking of starting whaling, but supportive of whaling if Maori do it?

Riiiight…either whaling is terrible and no one can do it, or we allow whoever wants to go whaling to do so but with set limits. It is stupid to have a halfway house of mock outrage.

ᔥ Stuff.co.nz

Poor old Andrea Vance…she must have plucked a Green press release off the old fax machine for a line this bad:

The Government is permitting petrol and mining exploration in marine mammal sanctuaries – home to rare dolphins, whales and seals.

Hmmm…petrol exploration…best place to conduct that is down at the servo…to date no country in the world has explored for petrol, that is because it is a distillate of oil, which they do explore for.

I could be generous and suggest that her original copy said petroleum but the dumb arse subbie shortened it in the interests of “accuracy”.