i try my darndest to avoid writing about her

i restrained when she was all over the news the past couple of weeks (note: she was in the news because she has not been getting any press of late and decided she didn't like that. soooooooooooo she has been giving more interviews in the past couple of weeks than the whole time she was running as the republican vice presidential candidate. she's been giving stupid as shite interviews as well. nothing newsworthy. just the same old crap no one cares about).

well i have to post THIS story because it involves something i care about. the earth and it's creatures - both of which are dying due to the human populations.

Palin: Don't Save the Whales
................In 1994, there were some 650 Cook Inlet belugas living off the coast of Anchorage, but their numbers were nearly halved by 1997. This sharp decline was largely attributed to overharvesting by Native hunters, and by 2005 this already small whale population reached an all-time low of 278, by one government estimate. Presently, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimate the number of Cook Inlet belugas at 375.

In 2000, the whales were protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, but government scientists eventually concluded that this wasn't enough. "In spite of protections already in place, Cook Inlet beluga whales are not recovering,” James Balsiger, the acting assistant administrator for the NOAA’s Fisheries Service, said in October, announcing that the whales had received endangered species protection.

Palin begs to differ. Her administration argues that that the belugas are faring just fine under the protections in place, and the population is even beginning to show signs of recovering. For this reason, the state of Alaska contends that additional regulation is unnecessary. “The State of Alaska has worked cooperatively with the federal government to protect and conserve beluga whales in Cook Inlet,” Palin said last week. “This listing decision didn’t take those efforts into account as required by law.”

At the heart of Palin's objections are concerns that additional safeguards will interfere with oil and gas development, among other lucrative projects. “I am especially concerned that an unnecessary federal listing and designation of critical habitat would do serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook Inlet area,” Palin said in 2007. Similar fears led Palin's administration to launch a legal challenge in August to the listing of polar bears as a threatened species. (And it was no surprise when a host of business groups, including the American Petroleum Institute, followed her lead. The cases have have been consolidated, and the litigation is ongoing.) ...............

and this, coincidentially was in the wapo

U.S., Japan Negotiate Over Whaling Limits
New Type of Hunting May Be Allowed
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
The United States is initiating a closed-door negotiation that could open up new areas to whale hunting for the first time in decades, part of an attempt to end a long-standing impasse over whaling limits with Japan, the world's most avid whaling nation.

The tentative plan, outlined in documents obtained by The Washington Post, seeks to achieve a breakthrough in the dispute that has raged since the International Whaling Commission voted in 1986 to ban commercial whaling. Faced with the reality that Japan and its allies have continued to hunt whales and have succeeded in blocking new conservation efforts, commission Chairman William Hogarth -- an appointee of President George W. Bush -- has been trying this weekend in Hawaii to craft a pact that would permit a new type of "coastal whaling" in exchange for a commitment by Japan to scale back its "scientific" whale hunts.

The proposal is running into stiff opposition from whaling opponents, however. ......

and i've posted it SEVERAL times before, but i'm going to continue to post it

ah wicked cool!

(two maine stories in two days)

Right whales gather off coast of Maine

Researchers counted 44 of the endangered mammals about 100 miles offshore – a record winter sighting.

By JOHN RICHARDSON, Staff Writer

Because they are in danger of extinction, North Atlantic right whales are some of the most closely watched creatures in the sea.

Researchers fly over the East Coast looking for them and then, when they find one, zoom in for close-up photos. Many of the individual whales even have names and files containing their photos and life histories.

Until now, however, scientists have had few clues about where many of the whales go in winter, when winds and stormy weather make the search more difficult.

Federal researchers announced Wednesday that an unusually large number of right whales have gathered in recent weeks off the Maine coast in what appears to be a wintering ground, and potentially a breeding ground, for the endangered species. The discovery is expected to enhance efforts to save and restore the population, which now stands at an estimated 325 animals.

Forty-four right whales were seen Dec. 3 in the Jordan Basin area, which lies about 70 miles south of Bar Harbor and 100 miles east of Portland, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Forty-one whales were spotted just west of Jordan Basin on Dec. 14, it said. Bad weather has prevented more recent flights to the area, according to the agency............

(hat tip to americablog)

picture: Right whales' heads and lips are marked by unique patterns of horny bumps, known as callosities, covered with crustaceans. These bumps are the key to identifying individuals. (Photo by Michael Moore, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution) and another article: Endangered North Atlantic Right Whale Study Says Population In Crisis

hey king george

remember what happened in star trek iv, the voyage home. be careful. if you get rid of the whales, the earth will be destroyed (and sure, i do believe that could happen. things are DANGEROUSLY balanced these days)

hey king george there are only about 300 right whales left. 300!!! do you know how small a number that is? do you know how dangerously close they are to nonexistence? wtf are you thinking?

Whale-Protection Cuts Sought

NOAA Scales Back Proposed 30-Mile Speed Limit Zones

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post Staff Writer

The Bush administration yesterday proposed scaling back protected zones for endangered whales in the Atlantic Ocean, yielding to cargo companies' concerns about new speed limits for ships in these areas.

The proposal, unveiled yesterday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, could end more than a year of wrangling between federal fisheries scientists and the White House over new measures to protect the North Atlantic right whale. About 300 of the whales remain, and researchers say their tiny population has been reduced further by fatal collisions with large ships.

In July 2006, NOAA announced plans to create 30-nautical-mile buffer zones off of several East Coast ports, in which ships would be required to slow to 10 nautical miles per hour during certain times of the year.

But cargo companies said that this would cause their ships to lose time and burn more fuel, and the proposal was held up for months by the administration.......

duh

and this is just the TIP of the iceberg (so to speak). we all knew and know this kind of shite is going on. yet, we do NOTHING about it except hold a few hearings. i say MAKE THOSE WHO DID THIS (AND WORSE, COMMIT CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY) GO ON TRIAL, WHERE I AM SURE THEY WILL BE FOUND GUILTY. THEN MAKE THEM DO THEIR TIME

HARD TIME

Climate Findings Were Distorted, Probe Finds
Appointees in NASA Press Office Blamed

By Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer
An investigation by the NASA inspector general found that political appointees in the space agency's public affairs office worked to control and distort public accounts of its researchers' findings about climate change for at least two years, the inspector general's office said yesterday.
The probe came at the request of 14 senators after The Washington Post and other news outlets reported in 2006 that Bush administration officials had monitored and impeded communications between NASA climate scientists and reporters.
James E. Hansen, who directs NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies and has campaigned publicly for more stringent limits on greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, told The Post and the New York Times in September 2006 that he had been censored by NASA press officers, and several other agency climate scientists reported similar experiences. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are two of the government's lead agencies on climate change issues. ...........

no one and i mean NO ONE is a citizen above suspicion

i very firmly believe

we ought to be VERY careful or what almost happened in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Scotty: Admiral, there be whales here.

Sounding Out Whales for Clues to Sonar's Effects

By Marc Kaufman Washington Post Staff Writer
Twenty-two varieties of beaked whales roam the seas, diving as deep as a mile to feed on bottom-dwelling squid and small fish on the dark ocean floor. Shy and seldom seen by man, they are among the least understood large creatures on Earth.
But in recent years, these deepest-diving whales have sent out an unexpected distress signal, alerting researchers and marine mammal advocates, through their confused behavior and beachings, to an environmental hazard that until 10 years ago was not known to exist. The threat comes from very loud noises, especially from Navy sonar, that on at least several occasions have proved fatal to the whales. ..........