#International Whaling Commission

[frnwhcom]

The Remarkable Recovery of Humpback Whales: From Near Extinction to Thriving Populations

The story of the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is one of the most heartening tales of marine conservation. Once teetering on the brink of extinction due to extensive whaling, humpback whales have made a significant recovery over the past few decades. This article delves into the factors that contributed to their decline, the measures taken for their conservation, and the current status…

[ranbling]

There is no complete list for legalisation regarding whaling and I hate it

[mariacallous]

Fishing is an inherently international business, and so fishers inevitably brush up against the lines of geopolitics. In recent years, Norwegian fishermen have defied Russian Navy vessels conducting exercises in Norway’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). But now, Norway faces a particularly nasty piscatory threat, one that has been growing over many months: Russian fishers doubling as spies and saboteurs.

For decades, the international community has been trying to bring order to fishing, which is a multibillion-dollar industry that simultaneously feeds millions of people and threatens its own future if left unchecked. Overfishing has devastated marine life; waters that once teemed with fish now have just tiny fractions of the catch they once provided.

Since the oceans belong to no one, managing fishing stocks is a classic problem of the commons and a good indicator of the state of the international order. A 1946 convention brought some manner of order to whaling. The 1971 Ramsar Convention regulated wetlands. A 1980 convention regulated krill catches. In 1982, countries passed the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which is considered the constitution of the oceans and provides a framework for their governance. And a 1993 compliance agreement sought to tackle rule-breaking fishers’ practice of regularly reflagging their vessels.

Similar efforts have continued since then, with more conventions signed and others being negotiated. But something is changing: The global fishing order, like the postwar order in general, is deteriorating.

Recently, China’s vast and menacing long-distance fishing fleet has been picking the waters clean. Its 17,000 ships park themselves, blitzkrieg-like, just off countries’ territorial waters. When they depart a short time later, the trawlers leave behind a maritime environment so stripped of life that local fishers can say goodbye to feeding themselves and their families.

And off Norway’s coast, foreign fishers are making unwanted visits of a different kind. Russian fishers are not banned from Norwegian waters; on the contrary, Russia and Norway allow each other’s fishers to fish in their EEZs in the Barents Sea. Together, the two countries also operate the Joint Norwegian-Russian Fisheries Commission, which sets the Barents Sea’s fish quotas each year. Last November, both agreed on this year’s fish quotas, the lowest in more than three decades. Declining fish stocks are an enormous worry, but, miraculously, the joint commission continues to function.

But all is not well. For several years, Russian fishing vessels have been behaving suspiciously in Norwegian waters. In April 2021, Russian fishing boats crossed an undersea cable off the coast of Norway multiple times—and when they left, the cable had been severed. In fact, a 3.6-mile chunk was gone. In January 2022, a cable linking Norway and Svalbard was damaged and went dark—just after Russian fishing boats had spent days crisscrossing it.

Since then, Norwegian authorities and journalists have witnessed all manner of mysterious visits by Russian fishing boats. They arrive in Norway’s EEZ, linger (usually on top of undersea cables or pipelines), and leave. They call at Norwegian ports despite having no business there, since they deliver their catch at Russian ports.

Investigative journalists at NRK, Norwegian public broadcasting, have documented how mysterious people board such boats in Norwegian harbors. They found that at least 50 Russian fishing vessels constantly appear and conduct mysterious business in Norwegian ports and waters. But the ships don’t just loiter in ports and on top of cables; they also appear near visiting NATO submarines, in oil and gas fields, and by naval training areas and strategic bridges. They even appear to seek weather refuge in areas where Norway and its allies conduct naval exercises.

Last summer, the Norwegian government had had enough. It announced that Russian fishing vessels will only be able to stay in Norwegian ports for five working days, after previously limiting them to three designated ports. The government also limited the areas of each port that Russian fishing boats could use and said it would introduce more rigorous checks on them.

The Kremlin was not pleased. “In the event that further unilateral restrictions will apply to the Russian fishing vessels’ access to ports in Norway are introduced, the Russian party reserves the right to suspend this protocol without regard to the deadlines set in §7 of the Rules of Procedure for the Norwegian-Russian Joint Fisheries Commission,” it said. In other words, if Norway tries to curtail espionage and subversion by Russian fishers, Russia will cancel its maritime agreement with Norway, which would trigger disorder in the Barents Sea that would end up harming both countries by potentially destroying fish stocks.

Such threats would make any government nervous, and Norway seems unsure how to tackle the dilemma. The new regulations “take care of both sustainable (fishery) management and better control in ports,” Norwegian Fisheries Minister Marianne Sivertsen Naess told the Barents Observer, but Russia is visibly ready to pounce as soon as Norway introduces further measures—or detains the crew of a fishing-cum-espionage ship. In another odd maritime twist, Russia recently launched a cruise route from its Arctic port of Murmansk to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Traveling by ship allows passengers—who, on the ship’s inaugural journey, comprised a few Russians—to circumvent flights via mainland Norwegian airports. (Norway no longer issues tourist visas to Russians.) One wonders, though, what makes it so important for Russian tourists to visit Svalbard and for Ildar Neverov, who is the CEO of the Russian mining company Arktikugol and functions as Svalbard’s Russian leader, to receive them.

Europe is already feeling the pain. In May, the European Union sanctioned Norebo and Murman SeaFood, two of the largest Russian fishing companies that harvest in the Barents and Norwegian Seas. “Vessels owned and operated by Norebo JSC show particular movement patterns that are inconsistent with regular economic practices and fishing activities. The movement patterns align with malign objectives, such as repeatedly being in the vicinity of or loitering near critical infrastructure and military sites,” the EU explained, while Murman SeaFood’s Melkart-5 ship “has repeatedly shown untypical behavior inconsistent with its regular economic practices and fishing activities, including its presence in close vicinity to an ongoing NATO military exercise, and regular presence close to Norwegian critical infrastructure and military sites.”

Melkart-5 is one of the ships that repeatedly crisscrossed the Norway-Svalbard cable just before it suddenly malfunctioned. Ordinarily, Norway acts in lockstep with the EU, but if it implements this small part of the EU’s 17th sanctions package, Russia’s wrath awaits. Given Russia’s expertise in gray-zone aggression, the retaliation would be just below NATO’s Article 5 threshold.

Through Russia’s malice, Norway has to choose between its security and the health of marine life. A crumbling international order endangers not just the safety of humanity, but the agreements that keep a fragile and damaged global ecology intact.

[veganism]

Letter to Denmark's PM regarding Paul Watson's extradition

To the attention of:   Mrs. Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark   Christiansborg Palace   1218 Copenhagen K   Denmark

Dear Prime Minister,

I am writing to you today to express my deep concern and strong opposition to the extradition of Paul Watson, founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd, to Japan. Mr. Watson was arrested on Sunday, July 21, in Greenland while making a refueling stop with his ship. He is now in detention and faces the risk of being extradited to Japan, following a 2012 arrest warrant for "conspiracy to board." This warrant, however, is fundamentally flawed and abusive, as it targets Mr. Watson for his courageous efforts to prevent the illegal whaling activities that contravene international conventions.

It is crucial to recall that Captain Paul Watson and his crew were headed to the North Pacific to prevent the Japanese ship Kangei Maru from illegally killing whales. His intervention, though radical, has always been peaceful and aimed at enforcing the 1986 international moratorium that bans whaling. Thanks to his actions, approximately 5,000 cetaceans have been spared from harpoons. Whaling is an outlawed and illegal practice that only three countries shamefully continue: Japan, Norway, and Iceland.

Paul Watson has devoted his life to protecting endangered marine animals. The Japanese arrest warrant is an abuse of Interpol's "red notice," originally intended to track international criminals, now being used to suppress a political and environmental opponent. Extraditing Paul Watson to Japan would be tantamount to a death sentence. At 73 years old and a father of three, he would face harsh imprisonment conditions.

For the past year, Paul Watson has been residing in France, where he continues his fight alongside Sea Shepherd France, traveling across the country to give lectures and tirelessly advocate for ocean conservation. It is imperative that France, represented by President Emmanuel Macron, formally request that Denmark refuse this extradition.

### Legal Argumentation

It is also essential to highlight the following legal aspects, which render this extradition not only morally reprehensible but potentially illegal and an abuse of law:

1. *Violation of International Moratorium*: Japan continues to practice whaling in blatant violation of the 1986 international moratorium, an interdiction supported by the International Whaling Commission (IWC). By extraditing Paul Watson, Denmark would indirectly support this illegal activity.

2. *Non-Refoulement Principle*: Under international human rights law, notably Article 3 of the Convention Against Torture, Denmark is obliged not to extradite a person to a state where they risk being subjected to torture or inhumane or degrading treatment. Given the harsh detention conditions and potential treatment Paul Watson might face in Japan, his extradition could violate this fundamental principle.

3. *Abuse of Procedure*: The use of an Interpol red notice by Japan in this context constitutes an abuse of procedure. Interpol’s mission is to combat international crime, not to pursue individuals for actions aimed at enforcing international law. The arrest of Paul Watson on this basis is legally questionable and could be considered an abuse of law.

4. *Defense of International Public Order*: The extradition of Paul Watson contradicts the principles of international public order, which include respecting international conventions on the conservation of endangered species. By protecting Paul Watson, Denmark would demonstrate respect for these principles and support the fight against illegal whaling practices.

By choosing not to extradite Paul Watson, you would powerfully affirm your commitment to justice and environmental protection. Your decisive action can make all the difference. Extraditing Paul Watson would not only be unjust but also send a disastrous message to all those fighting to preserve our planet.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this urgent matter. I sincerely hope you will intervene to prevent this unjust and inhumane extradition.

Yours sincerely,

YOUR NAME

[smellyidiot]

Because of trumps recent villainous antics, I have decided to make an archive post for animals that risk extinction and are considered vulnerable. I will include websites to donate, ways to help, constant updates to the list, and fun facts about each animal because i cant donate! 💖 :D

------------------------------------------------ Vaquita

The vaquita (Phocoena sinus), a critically endangered marine porpoise with a population of only 6 and 8 as of 2024, also happens to be one of the smallest cetacean species. Vaquitas are endangered due to illegal and unsustainable fishing practices, particularly for the totoaba fish. Vaquitas are caught and drowned in gillnets set for totoaba, which share their habitat in the upper Gulf of California.  Male vaquitas typically measure 140 cm in length, while females are slightly larger, reaching 150 cm. Interestingly, despite females being larger overall, males have a proportionally taller dorsal fin! Vaquitas can also weigh between 60 to 120 pounds as fully-grown adults! The vaquita is well adapted to its very specific habitat, able to tolerate temperature fluctuations from 14 to 26 degrees Celsius. It is thought that its dorsal fin is used to help regulate its body temperature in warmer waters. Vaquitas are only found in the shallow waters which are less than 50 meters deep and where the Colorado river empties into the northern Gulf of California, Mexico. This area happens to be abundant in both fish and shrimp, which is very convenient as Vaquitas are recognized for the important role they play in maintaining the balance of the marine ecosystem in the Gulf of California. They’re an essential part of the food chain, as both a predator and prey. Vaquitas are predominately carnivores, with their diet consisting mainly of various fish and squid species, as well as crustaceans. They’re preyed upon by top predators including sharks and killer whales. They are sometimes referred to as ‘sea pandas’ due to their distinctive facial markings that include darker rings around their eyes and curved black lips that resemble a smile and their skin is usually a dark grey to black color on their back, which fades into a paler grey on their underside. Newborn vaquitas also tend to have a darker coloring that fades over time!

Where to donate ; - Vaquita CPR directly routes donations to ELI, which fights environmental and wildlife crime through intelligence, investigation, and media production. - Porpoise.org's website includes a petition, ways to buy sustainable sea food, ways to support the local community of baja outside of fishing, addresses for sending your letters to officials in california, a symbolic ''adoption'' of a vaquita, how to send a letter to the Mexican president showing your support for his efforts, and of course constant updates! - Viva Vaquita's website links a way to donate to the VRF (Vaquita Recovery Fund), w way to write to the Mexican commission of natural protected areas to thank them, ways to boycott, where and how to support non profit organizations, how to write to the officials in Canada and the U.S, and where to do volunteer work.

Ways to help! - Follow organizations like Sea Shepherd, which actively works to protect vaquitas in the Zero Tolerance Area of the upper Sea of Cortez. You can volunteer for their onshore or at-sea programs to support their conservation efforts - Watch documentaries like "Sea of Shadows" to learn more about conservation efforts - Write to government officials urging them to enforce gillnet bans and protect the vaquita's habitat - Share information about the vaquita's plight on social media - International Save the Vaquita Day: This annual event, scheduled for September 7, 2024, offers both in-person and virtual volunteering opportunities. Volunteers can help raise awareness, assist with crafts, and interact with the public to educate them about vaquita conservation - Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA): Many AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums participate in vaquita conservation efforts. You can check with your local AZA institution for volunteer opportunities related to vaquita awareness campaigns - Don't eat seafood caught by gillnets. ==========================================

Giant ant eaters

Anteaters are the four extant mammal species in the suborder Vermilingua! There are roughly 5,000 giant anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) left in the wild. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists the giant anteater as vulnerable. Things like fires, hunting, and road accidents have destroyed much of the giant anteater's habitat. And Giant anteaters are sometimes taken from the wild to be kept as pets as well as hunter for their meat as a form of trophying. They are sadly already considered extinct in parts of Belize, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Uruguay. Being the largest of the four anteater species, giant anteaters reach 6-8 feet (1.8-2.4 meters) in length, including both nose and tail. They weigh between 60 and 100 pounds (27 and 45 kilograms). However, it is nearly impossible to differentiate the adult male from the female using external anatomy alone. Giant anteaters can also run up to 50 kph or about 31 mph! They have poor eyesight much like moles, But a powerful sense of smell! Giant ant eaters are insectivores that primarily eat ants and termites. However, they may also be found to eat fruit, worms, beetle larvae, grubs, and occasionally honey bees. Anteaters have one of the longest tongues in the animal kingdom with sun bears coming in close, Even larger than their own jaw, so reaching a length of 2 feet in total! Despite having no teeth, their tongues also have thousands of tiny hooks that help them scoop up their food. Ant eaters cant produce their own stomach acid either, So they rely on their diet consisting of ants to give them formic acids! Sometimes ant eaters will eat a little bit of soil and sand to help things go down easier! Giant anteaters are preyed upon by jaguars and pumas. They are shy and usually try to avoid humans, but they can inflict serious wounds with their front claws! Speaking of claws, did you know that the reason Giant anteaters walk on their knuckles is because their large claws make it difficult to walk normally? Interesting! Anteaters sleep up to 15 hours a day, That time is spent largely digesting their food due to the rate of their slower than normal metabolism! Anteaters are important to the balance of their ecosystems because they control the insect population (Keeping termites at bay which in turn helps farmers keep crops safe and reduce pests), Aerate the soil (Which promotes nutrient cycling), Disperse seeds (Anteaters eat fruits, and the seeds they ingest pass through their digestive system and are dispersed in different areas, This contributes to forest regeneration and plant species diversity), Create water holes (They dig for waterholes when there isn't any available, Creating critical watering holes for other species), And provide food to predators,

Where to donate ; - Nashville Zoo's Giant Anteater Conservation Program Participates in breeding programs to support the vulnerable species, is recognized as a leader in giant ant eater conservation, and conducts research on anteater biology and reproduction. - Rewilding Foundation's Giant Anteater Reintroduction Program Offers ways to volunteer, A place to donate to fund them, Rescues & Rewilds giant ant eaters, and has successfully reintroduced over 90 anteaters and established self-sustaining populations. - ICAS (Wild Animal Conservation Institute) in Brazil Conducts research on threats like roadkill and habitat loss, Implements education programs to improve public perception of giant anteaters in schools, Hosts events for volunteer work, Includes a live cam, Includes a gallery of their work, has constant news, and allows donations from the U.S.

Ways to help! - Participate in research projects, like those conducted by Cornell University's Giant Anteater Conservation Initiative -Use AmazonSmile through ZCOG's link, where a portion of your purchase will be donated to giant anteater conservation - Sponsor a GPS collar: A $3,000 donation covers the purchase and delivery of one GPS collar for tracking anteaters - Spread awareness on social media - Do volunteer work as listed on donation websites - Support the building of wildlife corridors for animal passing.

=========================================== (will update when im not lazy again)

[ranticore]

I saw the zeta post and I adored the concept and it left me with a million questions. If the zetas lack tongues are they incapable of speech? the post also mentioned that a kattakani's bodies don't comunicate with each other much, is that part of the reason why? Do they have some kind of sign language? Also I 've realized that the company that was settling Siren with all these GMO's was wildly unethical at best (love sticking a guy in a dream and then making him turn into a whale) -but what the hell was even the reasoning behind trying to make a sentient sapient human derived creature incapable of community empathy or solidarity? Was there a running office game of 'who can think up the experiment that crosses the most moral lines'?

Hiii

zeta had to re-evolve speech all on their own because it wasn't just a lack of tongues holding them back but also a lack of certain language centres in the brain - they could understand speech but struggled to produce it. they use sign language now due to a lack of tongues (it's why they wear hand-guards, their hands are very important to their social functioning so they get protected well). but the reason the kattakati bodies don't talk much is the same reason why most people don't talk to themselves anyway (some do ofc it's impossible to make really sweeping statements about a whole population); they tend to turn their communication outwards to other people than keep it internal.

Honestly there was an effort in the company's HQ to think up the worst stuff they could do and still turn a profit because they found Siren a perfect place to experiment without any oversight so if they were going to need to do something horrible in the future, they might as well test it out here. The dream thing is just an example of corporate penny-pinching - sure they could commission a bespoke dream for Ishmael and the beta phocids that matched their future lives a bit more, but that costs a lot of money and they really just needed the bare minimum, why not just use one of the pre-made dreams. It's not like they'd remember the dreams anyway. They were not interested in the minds of their first three design iterations (or the harpies), only their bodies. Even though they had a massive budget and were seeking huge profits they still did everything as cheaply as they could get away with; the pilots who surveyed the planet even had to bring their own equipment from home because it was barely provided.

As for the zeta and why they were made like that, well, it's basically just preemptive union-busting on a genetic level. Workers who only follow orders but never talk amongst themselves, never show curiosity towards their neighbours. A hyper-atomised taskforce.

[the-obsessed-lcbe]

how'd the fishing session go

There are several distinctions to be made between fish and whales. While fish as an identification of animals is a poorly held together string board of vague similarities, those of the infraorder Cetacea are of the class Mammal.

Despite being fully aquatic they are warm-blooded, breathe air, and give live birth to their young.

Expanding further on the topic:

While the majority of cetaceans live in marine environments, a small number reside solely in brackish water or fresh water. Having a cosmopolitan distribution, they can be found in some rivers and all of Earth's oceans, and many species inhabit vast ranges where they migrate with the changing of the seasons.

Cetaceans are famous for their high intelligence, complex social behaviour, and the enormous size of some of the group's members. For example, the blue whale reaches a maximum confirmed length of 29.9 meters (98 feet) and a weight of 173 tonnes (190 short tons), making it the largest animal ever known to have existed.[5][6][7]

There are approximately 89[8] living species split into two parvorders: Odontoceti or toothed whales (containing porpoises, dolphins, other predatory whales like the beluga and the sperm whale, and the poorly understood beaked whales) and the filter feeding Mysticeti or baleen whales (which includes species like the blue whale, the humpback whale and the bowhead whale). Despite their highly modified bodies and carnivorous lifestyle, genetic and fossil evidence places cetaceans as nested within even-toed ungulates, most closely related to hippopotamus within the clade Whippomorpha.

Cetaceans have been extensively hunted for their meat, blubber and oil by commercial operations. Although the International Whaling Commission has agreed on putting a halt to commercial whaling, whale hunting is still going on, either under IWC quotas to assist the subsistence of Arctic native people or in the name of scientific research, although a large spectrum of non-lethal methods are now available to study marine mammals in the wild.[9] Cetaceans also face severe environmental hazards from underwater noise pollution, entanglement in abandoned ropes and nets, collisions with ships, plastic and heavy metals build-up, to accelerating climate change,[10][11] but how much they are affected varies widely from species to species, from minimally in the case of the southern bottlenose whale to the baiji (Chinese river dolphin) which is considered to be functionally extinct due to human activity.

Cetacean bodies are generally similar to those of fish, which can be attributed to their lifestyle and the habitat conditions. Their body is well-adapted to their habitat, although they share essential characteristics with other higher mammals (Eutheria).[18]

They have a streamlined shape, and their forelimbs are flippers. Almost all have a dorsal fin on their backs, but this can take on many forms, depending on the species. A few species, such as the beluga whale, lack them. Both the flipper and the fin are for stabilization and steering in the water.[citation needed]

The male genitals and the mammary glands of females are sunken into the body.[19][20] The male genitals are attached to a vestigial pelvis.[21]

The body is wrapped in a thick layer of fat, known as blubber. This provides thermal insulation and gives cetaceans their smooth, streamlined body shape. In larger species, it can reach a thickness up to one-half meter (1.6 feet).[citation needed]

Sexual dimorphism evolved in many toothed whales. Sperm whales, narwhals, many members of the beaked whale family, several species of the porpoise family, orcas, pilot whales, eastern spinner dolphins and northern right whale dolphins show this characteristic.[22] Males in these species developed external features absent in females that are advantageous in combat or display. For example, male sperm whales are up to 63% percent larger than females, and many beaked whales possess tusks used in competition among males.[22][23] Hind legs are not present in cetaceans, nor are any other external body attachments such as a pinna and hair.[24]

Whales have an elongated head, especially baleen whales, due to the wide overhanging jaw. Bowhead whale plates can be 9 metres (30 ft) long. Their nostril(s) make up the blowhole, with one in toothed whales and two in baleen whales.[25]

The nostrils are located on top of the head above the eyes so that the rest of the body can remain submerged while surfacing for air. The back of the skull is significantly shortened and deformed. By shifting the nostrils to the top of the head, the nasal passages extend perpendicularly through the skull.[26] The teeth or baleen in the upper jaw sit exclusively on the maxilla. The braincase is concentrated through the nasal passage to the front and is correspondingly higher, with individual cranial bones that overlap.[citation needed]

In toothed whales, connective tissue exists in the melon as a head buckle. This is filled with air sacs and fat that aid in buoyancy and biosonar. The sperm whale has a particularly pronounced melon; this is called the spermaceti organ and contains the eponymous spermaceti, hence the name "sperm whale". Even the long tusk of the narwhal is a vice-formed tooth. In many toothed whales, the depression in their skull is due to the formation of a large melon and multiple, asymmetric air bags.[27]

River dolphins, unlike most other cetaceans, can turn their head 90°. Most other cetaceans have fused neck vertebrae and are unable to turn their head at all.[citation needed]

The baleen of baleen whales consists of long, fibrous strands of keratin. Located in place of the teeth, it has the appearance of a huge fringe and is used to sieve the water for plankton and krill.[28]

Sperm whales have the largest brain mass of any animal on Earth, averaging 8,000 cm3 (490 in3) and 7.8 kg (17 lb) in mature males.[29] The brain to body mass ratio in some odontocetes, such as belugas and narwhals, is second only to humans.[30] In some whales, however, it is less than half that of humans: 0.9% versus 2.1%.[citation needed]

In cetaceans, evolution in the water has caused changes to the head that have modified brain shape such that the brain folds around the insula and expands more laterally than in terrestrial mammals. As a result, the cetacean prefrontal cortex (compared to that in humans) rather than frontal is laterally positioned.[31]

Brain size was previously considered a major indicator of intelligence. Since most of the brain is used for maintaining bodily functions, greater ratios of brain to body mass may increase the amount of brain mass available for cognitive tasks. Allometric analysis of the relationship between mammalian brain mass (weight) and body mass for different species of mammals shows that larger species generally have larger brains. However, this increase is not fully proportional. Typically the brain mass only increases in proportion to somewhere between the two-thirds power (or the square of the cube root) and the three-quarters power (or the cube of the fourth root) of the body mass. mbrain ∝ (mbody)k where k is between two-thirds and three-quarters. Thus if Species B is twice the size of Species A, its brain size will typically be somewhere between 60% and 70% higher.[32] Comparison of a particular animal's brain size with the expected brain size based on such an analysis provides an encephalization quotient that can be used as an indication of animal intelligence.[33]

The neocortex of many cetaceans is home to elongated spindle neurons that, prior to 2019, were known only in hominids.[34] In humans, these cells are thought to be involved in social conduct, emotions, judgment and theory of mind.[35] Cetacean spindle neurons are found in areas of the brain homologous to where they are found in humans, suggesting they perform a similar function.[36]

[starheartworkshops]

Hi, everyone. Unfortunately, I am not here with an exciting new update, although I do have future projects on the horizion.

Today I got evicted from my apartment. I don't know exactly where I'll go, or what I'll do.

But what I do know is that I will need funds if I'm going to make anything happen. I will be running sales until I have to close up the Etsy shop for vacation when I move - I promise it won't be for too terribly long - and not only do I have to find somewhere else to live, but I need to maintain my Star Seller status as well.

An order of ANY size, a 5 star review, and a share would help me out greatly. These sales are 30% off, and if you buy from them, like my Halloween sale, you will recieve 2 randomized bracelets in your order - 4 for international orders.

I'm so scared. But I need to find a place to live and house my bird, I don't know what I would do without him. So this is something I can do to help us. Below are some of my most Etsy works:

My Aristotle the Axolotl Billie Bust Up stim and fidget pal:

My rainbow axolotl charm bracelets:

My Godzilla and Mothra kandi, of which there are many other Godzilla characters featured in the listing:

My Flight Rising Kandi of each Flight, Wind Flight bracelets are coming soon:

My Whale shark school bracelet:

My Resident Evil S.T.A.R.S. bracelet, of which there are many more bracelets for the fandom in its section:

My Gilbert Baker Pride Flag Kandi - in my Pride Flag Kandi section, I currently have 72 active flag patterns - there's something there for everybody:

Some of my Acrylic Star Jelly Pride Flag bracelets: I've finally found the perfect vendor for my star jelly beads, so there will be new and returning designs coming soon:

And I have so, SO much more - 161 active listings, and I promise you, that if you just take a look, you will find that there is something that you are going to want if you don't see it already.

Use code STARHEARTSUPPORT at checkout to recieve 30% off - below are the links to my Etsy, PayPal, and Ko-fi, where I will probably be taking emergency commissions soon after I rework my prices.

Every US order $35 has free shipping, I ship internationally, all international orders get 2 free randomized additional bracelets, my inbox is always open if you have questions, and boosts are appreciated.

💫 PayPal / Ko-fi 💫

Thank you for reading. Love from me and (a slightly soggy) Buddy 💖

[unepjpmun2025]

Mama a ship in Antarctica… it’s fishing??????

BREAKING NEWS: Gigantic Chinese Fishing Vessels Caught Red-Handed in Antarctica—Penguins File Official Complaint!

Antarctica—In a shocking turn of events, a massive Chinese fishing vessel was spotted illegally trawling the icy waters of Antarctica, blatantly ignoring international Conservation laws, and more importantly, deeply unsettling the local penguin community.

Krill-ing the Ecosystem, One Net at a Time

Eyewitness reports (mainly concerned scientists and very disgruntled seals) confirm that the ship, dubbed the “Krill Killer 3000” by frustrated marine biologists, was seen hauling up enormous quantities of Antarctic Krill—a species so vital to the ecosystem that even the whales are side-eyeing this operation in disbelief.

Sources claim that when confronted, the ship’s crew gave the classic “Who, us? We’re just sightseeing” excuse—despite the fact that their “sightseeing” involved industrial-sized nets and more seafood theft than a pirate-themed buffet.

Penguins Demand Justice—March in Protest

In a historic move, hundreds of furious Adelie penguins were seen gathering on the ice, flapping their wings in what the experts are calling a “undeniable act of protest”. One particularly enraged penguin, who we can only assume is their leader, was seen dramatically pointing his beak at the ship while making aggressive honking noises—an unmistakable sign of discontent.

International Response: “Seriously? Again?’’

The discovery has sparked global outrage, with conservation groups calling for immediate action. Officials from the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctica Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has reportedly sent a very strongly worded email (which will, as usual, be ignored). China’s Foreign Minister, Mr Wang Yi, however has given a typical unfazed response: “China has always been a responsible global partner in environmental protection and marine conservation. We strongly reject any baseless accusations regarding illegal fishing activities in Antarctica. The vessel in question was merely conducting scientific research—a routine and entirely peaceful operation to study krill migration patterns… using nets. Large nets. Very large net, but purely for research, of course. Furthermore, China remains committed fully to upholding international maritime laws and strongly supports sustainable fishing practices—as long as they align with our economic interests. We are open to engage with all parties in constructive dialogues, and to our penguin friends: if there is truly an issue, we are open to mutually beneficial discussions—perhaps over a nice seafood dinner.”

The Secretary of State for United States, Mr Marco Rubio has given a rather critical response of China, by saying: “Once again, we witness a blatant disregard for international law as a foreign fishing vessel, conveniently flying Chinese colours, depletes Antarctica’s marine ecosystem for profit. We stand in full solidarity with the affected environmental organisations and most importantly—the penguin population. The United States is prepared to work with our allies to strengthen enforcement in Antarctic waters and we urge China to reflect on its actions, respect international agreements, and for, once, leave the krill alone.”

What’s Next?

As pressure mounts, authorities are scrambling to take action, while the fishing vessel remains conveniently “unreachable” for comment.

Stay tuned for updates… and if you see a suspiciously large pile of krill, you know who to blame.

[rjzimmerman]

Where Compassion and Conservation Meet. (Sierra Club)

Tango, a humpback whale calf, was killed by a ship strike off Juneau, Alaska. | Photo by Heidi Pearson

For 13 years, marine biologist Heidi Pearson has spent her summer weekends aboard a research vessel near her home in Juneau, Alaska—a long-lens, rapid-fire camera at the ready. The Iowa-born professor keeps tabs on humpback whales returning to their feeding grounds from Hawai‘i and Mexico. Her computer contains thousands of images of giant, dripping tails set against the backdrop of Sitka spruce and hemlock trees ringing Southeast Alaska’s bays.

Last summer, Pearson took pictures of things she didn’t want to see. A whale calf named Tango was swimming alongside his mother with bloody lacerations on his back from a ship strike. An adult named Manu was tangled in a crab pot. She spotted Herbert, another calf, trailing a jumble of twisted rope, making it hard for him to swim. Then, in August, Tango was struck again by a boat. His body washed up on a beach two days later with gruesome damage to his flank from the ship’s prow.

Pearson photographed Tango’s mother, Sasha, shortly after her calf’s death, feeding in her usual spots alone. “This summer has been a hard time to be a whale researcher in Juneau,” Pearson said at the time.

That expression of compassion reflects an ethos that some biologists are identifying as essential to their work. Known as compassionate conservation, the approach has a simple premise: It’s just as important to protect and live harmoniously with individual animals as it is to prevent the extinction of their species.

Compassionate conservation is not a new methodology, but it does differ from the established wisdom that drives most conservation efforts, according to Arian Wallach, an ecologist at Queensland University of Technology in Australia. Traditional conservation is focused on preventing extinction. If a species is not in danger, the thinking goes, then all is well. But for scientists like Wallach and Pearson, the well-being of individual animals, not just their species, is equally important. They argue that our ability to successfully protect a species hinges in part on our capacity to understand, relate to, and know individual animals and their stories. Humans, Wallach said, are naturally empathetic creatures. If we focus that empathy on the animals we study, we’ll learn more about their species and how to protect them.

This is not just sentimentality. Personal knowledge of particular whales, Pearson said, is essential to the study of behavioral ecology. Researchers need data on how a whale responds to its environment over time. After all, natural selection works at the individual level. Camera-trap images, cellphone videos, and GPS data from around the world make it easier to tune in to the lived experience of individual animals.

In addition to tracking humpbacks’ movements and behaviors, Pearson looks for underweight whales with their shoulder blades poking out. Climate change is altering the behavior and biology of prey, making it harder for whales to find the herring and krill that make up their diet. That’s one possible reason there’s been a spate of recent whale deaths up and down the Pacific coast.

Lawful commercial whaling ended with the International Whaling Commission (IWC) ban in 1986. But despite the ban and the decades of public affection showered on whales, humans have not stopped killing them. Ship strikes, fishing-gear entanglements, and noise pollution take the lives of thousands of marine mammals annually. Ropes and plastic webbing can tangle up and weigh down a whale to the point where it drowns or starves. The IWC estimates that fishing gear and other marine debris kill 300,000 whales and dolphins each year. As many as 20,000 are killed in collisions with boats.

[a-modernmajorgeneral]

It takes an hour to drive from Tórshavn all the way up north to Hvannasund, a fishing village of 248 people. Marshfield and Østrem won’t tell me if someone tipped them off, or if there’s another way they heard about the hunt. But they do share their plan: to document everything, even if it means breaking the law by flying a drone over the site of the hunt.

The roads are drilled straight through mountains to save the trouble of climbing up or around, and each time we exit a tunnel, I catch my breath. Waterfalls flush down emerald hills, dotted with small sheds for sheep, and tumble into glittering fjords. Marshfield talks about how nervous he is. It’s his first grind; he’s unsure how he’ll handle the blood.

Østrem has more experience with it. He was here for a couple of months in 2022 after several years of volunteering with other animal rights organizations in Oslo, Norway. He’s horrified by the way people treat animals around the world, including at fish farms in Norway. To him, the grind is just one example of the way humanity abuses other beings.

Marshfield is similarly resolute. He got involved with Sea Shepherd about eight years ago, after seeing an online photo of a slaughtered whale that left him deeply upset. His activism gradually scaled up; he started by donating, then sharing things on Facebook and selling T-shirts. Eventually, he joined Sea Shepherd campaigns in Sicily and Iceland. Now, he’s here. He grows more solemn as we drive, steeling himself to see a dead whale in person.

Watson’s followers have a long history of fighting the grind. Activist groups, including Sea Shepherd, first started protesting the tradition back in the 1980s, putting the archipelago under global scrutiny. “People were telling us it didn’t look nice,” says Bjarni Mikkelsen, marine mammal specialist at the Faroe Marine Research Institute.

According to Mikkelsen, environmentalists grew troubled over whether the hunt was hurting pilot whale populations. “People walked around with banners, saying it was unsustainable,” he says. Around the same time, sighting surveys were launched to estimate population levels. The North Atlantic Marine Mammal Commission, a body comprising the Faroe Islands, Greenland, Iceland, and Norway, has since carried them out every six years.

Using standard international sampling techniques, surveyors most recently estimated the population of pilot whales in the Faroes–Iceland area to be around 380,000. Survey to survey, this number changes, depending on timing and coverage. But scientists consistently report abundances that can sustain the Faroese catch. “The population is high compared to other species in the North Atlantic,” Mikkelsen says, and there’s no significant downward trend.

Greenpeace eventually abandoned their opposition. But Sea Shepherd held firm. In 2014, under Watson’s leadership, around 70 volunteers descended on the islands for Operation GrindStop, donning black hoodies stamped with Sea Shepherd’s distinctive Jolly Roger insignia and physically intervening in hunts by jumping into the bay. The following year, the organization returned with the same conduct, resulting in fines, arrests, and court cases.

Resentment for the disturbances lingers among many of the Faroese, especially since Sea Shepherd Global continues to fight the hunt, though in softer ways. “Sea Shepherd’s history with the Faroe Islands has been quite aggressive and colorful,” says Valentina Crast, the group’s current Stop the Grind campaign coordinator. Now, she’s working on a tamer strategy, focused on building a local community of supporters.

Watson’s new foundation, meanwhile, wants to maintain the same level of pressure Sea Shepherd once brought. “We’re living in a world where there is no enforcement of international conservation laws,” Watson says. “The high seas are the Wild West. And we’re sort of vigilantes.”

The 73-year-old self-proclaimed pirate (a title confirmed by a United States Court of Appeals in 2013) is against the killing of whales on moral grounds, no matter who does it, or how. He has carried out his brand of vigilantism for nearly 50 years. Talking to him is like talking to a buccaneer who shares stories of sirens and sword fights, except Watson’s tales consist of ramming Portuguese whaling vessels, sinking Icelandic ships, and tricking Soviet soldiers. He’s been criticized for targeting Indigenous peoples over their traditional subsistence hunting practices, including seal hunters in Canada and teenage whalers in Alaska.

After the crackdown by the Faroese government, protests quelled for a while. But in recent years, social media and an increase in tourism have put the grind back in the spotlight. The Faroe Islands now receive about 100,000 visitors a year, and the nation is often included on top destination lists for its dramatic landscapes. During the summer when seabirds breed, bird lovers flock to spot puffins, guillemots, and other species that nest by the thousands on the steep cliffs. Hilton opened a hotel here in 2020, and the local airline is testing out a weekly direct route from New York. Unaware tourists might encounter a whale hunt occurring in the harbor, as those on a docked cruise ship did last summer; in that instance, most were not happy about the spectacle. Such stories, along with rather gruesome photos of the hunt itself, can be shared worldwide. The Captain Paul Watson Foundation seeks to capitalize on this.

Seizing its moment after splitting from Sea Shepherd, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation sent its first vessel—the John Paul DeJoria, registered in Jamaica and named after the cofounder of John Paul Mitchell Systems hair products—to the Faroe Islands in July 2023 to stop the whale hunts. But the Faroese government barred the ship’s entry to the archipelago via executive order. Ultimately, Watson made only two brief, albeit dramatic appearances, entering the nation’s waters once in an unsuccessful attempt to reach a grind and again 10 days later at news that someone had spotted a pod.

After the second breach, Jamaica stripped the ship’s registration at the request of the Faroese government, and the John Paul DeJoria was ported in the United Kingdom. Land crew, including Marshfield and Østrem, remained in Tórshavn to document what they could.

[warningsine]

Centuries of industrial whaling left only a few hundred Antarctic blue whales alive, making it almost impossible to find them in the wild.

New research suggests the population may be recovering. Australian scientists and international colleagues spent two decades listening for their distinctive songs and calls, and have found the whales – the largest animals ever to have lived – swimming across the Southern Ocean with growing regularity.

Analysis of thousands of hours of audio, collected with underwater microphones and secondhand military-issued submarine listening devices, suggests whale numbers are stable or on the rise, according to the Australian Antarctic Division senior research scientist Brian Miller.

“When you look back to before this work was started by the AAD, we really just had so few encounters with these animals – and now we can produce them on demand,” Miller said.

“We can tell you where they’re frequenting, we can tell you that we’re hearing them more often. So that’s progress.”

The whales were heard increasingly often in the Southern Ocean from 2006 to 2021, according to a new paper collating the findings of Australian and international researchers’ seven voyages across the period.

“Either they’re either increasing in number or we’re increasing in our ability to find them, and both of those things are good news,” Miller said.

The Antarctic blue whale nearly became extinct before whaling’s decline in the mid-20th century, with the most latest estimates from 1998 suggesting there were fewer than 2,000 alive.

Researchers have spent hours listening for repeating songs about 20 seconds long, termed Z calls, along with shorter, higher-pitched D calls, in an effort to track and study the critically endangered species.

“We think the message is: ‘I’m a blue whale, I’m here,’” Miller said.

“If you think about … us almost wiping them out, and extinction, then it becomes more poignant to think about them saying, ‘I’m still here, here I am.’”

The scientists travelled nearly 150,000km across the Southern Ocean tracking the whales’ appearances around Antarctica. Other Australian researchers say the study’s geographical and temporal range provides a rare insight into the state of the species.

“This is the first indication of what’s happening with Antarctic blue whales … for a good 20 years,” said Prof Robert Harcourt, a marine ecologist at Macquarie University. “All of the earlier work was based back in the 1950s when we were killing them.”

A Griffith University whale researcher, Dr Olaf Meynecke, said: “Having so many years [of data] over several seasons … and then having it over thousands of kilometres – that’s really unique.”

The whales spend half the year in Antarctic waters but are global travellers – heading north towards Australia, South Africa, South America and even across the equator.

Their distribution means scientists around the world have been drawn to the project, which Miller hopes will be a step forward for the International Whaling Commission’s conservation efforts.

“Only an international collaborative effort is going to be able to piece together the puzzle of where they are and whether they’re recovering,” he said.

[ranbling]

It's soo funny to me how there are soo many landlocked countries in the International Whaling Commission

Where are you gonna ever meet with whales????

[democracyunderground]

Susi Newborn — one of the most skilled and effective activists in Greenpeace’s 52-year history — passed away on the last day of December 2023. She is remembered fondly by her beloved children, Brenna, Woody, and Naawie; her granddaughter Toody; by her ex-husbands, Martini Gotje and Luc Tutugoro; and by friends, colleagues, and shipmates around the world. 

In 1977, when Susi arrived in Canada for her first Greenpeace action, to protect infant harp seal pups in Newfoundland, she was already something of a legend. Journalistic tradition would have me refer to her as “Newborn,” a name that rang with significance, but I can only think of her as Susi, the tough, smart activist from London. 

Susi was born in London in 1950, from Argentine parents. Her mother had grown up among the Buenos Aires elite and knew famous artists such as Raul Soldi and Mexican muralist Don Sequeiros. Susi’s godmother was a founding member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in the UK, and a colleague of Bertrand Russell. Susi grew up meeting writers, philosophers, and artists. 

Susi’s father was an Argentine Embassy diplomat, whom she described as “a deeply spiritual man.” He told her about meeting Mahatma Gandhi and urged her to “work for peace.” At the age of five, she stopped her father from chopping down a tree near their London home, her first ecology action, and in 1970, at the age of 20, she attended the world’s first Earth Day protest in London’s Trafalgar Square.

Argentina at the time suffered under a series of military dictators, and Susi’s father quietly opposed the Junta headed by General Alejandro Agustín Lanusse. When her father died, the tragedy radicalised her and she embarked “on a personal journey of activism.”

Hosting the film star

Susi worked for Friends of the Earth in London for two years, and in the summer of 1975 she attended the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting in London, where she met Greenpeace members Paul and Linda Spong. Greenpeace Foundation in Canada had spent two years planning our first global ecology action, after protesting US and French nuclear weapons tests for four years. We were tracking Russian whalers off the coast of California in a fishing boat, and our campaign depended on confronting the whalers during this London IWC meeting. 

Paul and Linda Spong informed Susi about the planned confrontation, and she helped organise London ecologists and media for the coming drama. In June, two days before the IWC meeting would close, we located and blockaded the whalers. The next day, we announced the confrontation by marine radio; and Susi, Paul, Linda, Greenpeace filmmaker Michael Chechik, and a team of activists stormed the IWC meeting with the news. 

In 1976, Susi met Greenpeace co-founder Bob Hunter in London. Hunter returned to Vancouver with tales of “the amazing Susi Newborn” in London. He called her “a hard-core, grassroots ecologist who could help lead the next generation of Greenpeace actions in Europe.” Six months later, she arrived in Canada to participate in a campaign to halt the slaughter of infant seals on the Labrador ice floes. Susi told me that the direct action tactics and Earthy spiritual style of Greenpeace appealed to her. 

In May 1977, Susi pitched her tent on icy Belle Isle, 32 kilometres off the coast of Labrador, surrounded by ice floes, awaiting the arrival of the Norwegian sealing ships. Susi and David “Walrus” Garrick explored frozen caves and wrote a “Declaration of Freelandsea,” a free-spirited manifesto of ecology.

Three days after Susi and the Greenpeace team pitched camp on the ice, French actress Brigitte Bardot arrived to help bring attention to the Norwegian infant seal slaughter. Bardot wrote in her account that she had been “terrified” flying through a storm in the helicopter, and she arrived at the camp stifling tears and clutching her frozen fingers under her arms. Susi made her a cup of hot chocolate, warmed her in the tent, and explained practical tips such as how a woman could pee at night on frozen Belle Isle. “They give me courage,” Bardot wrote in her journal. 

Rainbow Warrior

Back in London, Susi next wanted to disrupt Icelandic whaling. She recruited Denise Bell from Friends of the Earth and set out to find a boat to confront the whalers in the North Atlantic. I sent her a file of photographs from the nuclear, whale, and seal campaigns. Like us in Canada, Susi had no money. She started fundraising, using Michael Chechik’s documentary film of the first two whale voyages, which was aired on the BBC with an introduction by British naturalist David Attenborough.  Susi and Denise met Charles Hutchinson from London and Allan Thornton from Canada, and the group opened the first Greenpeace office in the UK at 47 Whitehall Street. Simultaneously, French activist Rémi Parmentier and Canadian David McTaggart opened another office in Paris, where they were protesting French nuclear testing in the South Pacific.

Susi and Denise Bell scoured maritime journals, looking for ships for sale. On the Isle of Dogs, in the Thames Docklands, they found a rusting, diesel-electric, 134-foot trawler that had been converted to a research ship by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food. The Sir William Hardy was available to the highest bidder. Charles Hutchinson introduced them to the manager at Lloyds of Pall Mall bank. They received a bank loan, secured by the life insurance policies of Hutchinson and Bell. The Department of Trade accepted their bid of £42,725, and they put down a 10 percent deposit, £4,272, on the ship. This was the first ship that Greenpeace actually owned, and Susi sent us photographs of the sad looking trawler that within a decade would become one of the most famous ships of the 20th century. 

Newborn, Bell, and an army of volunteers cleaned the ship, stem to stern. Susi recruited her childhood friend Athel von Koettlitz and Australian boyfriend Chris Robinson to tackle the restoration. They clambered down into the pitch-black engine room with a flashlight. The hovel was a rust bucket, and the 800-horsepower engine had not been fired in years. They wiped moisture off gauge glass, tightened loose fittings, and got the two-stroke diesel engine running. Susi and the team removed trawling gear, scraped off rust, painted the ship, and shopped for second-hand parts.

In the fall of 1977, they negotiated with the Ministry to reduce the final price of the Sir William Hardy to £32,500, about £182,000 today. To raise this money, they toured Europe with the documentary, The Voyage to Save the Whales. In the Netherlands, the World Wildlife Fund financed a fundraising campaign. Bob and Bobbi Hunter departed for Amsterdam to accept the money for Greenpeace. On the way, they stopped in London to see the new ship, and there Bob Hunter gave Susi a copy of Warriors of the Rainbow, a book that had inspired Greenpeace in Canada, with a prophecy about how all the people of world — people of the rainbow — would come together to save the Earth from ruin. The crew later agreed to rename the ship Rainbow Warrior. The crew added rainbows to the ship’s deep green hull, a white dove copied from the book cover, and painted Rainbow Warrior at the bow, the vessel’s glorious new name.

Whales and nuclear waste

Susi saw Greenpeace as an integration of ecology, the Gandhian satyagraha she had learned from her father, Quaker direct action, and a deep respect for Indigenous Earth-informed spirituality. She was naturally inclusive and realised that the hard-edged punks of London appreciated ecology as much as the hippies, peace activists, and affluent conservationists. She recruited nuclear campaigner Peter Wilkinson, who had grown up around the South London docks, and had good relations with the dockworker unions, whom he convinced to “turn a blind eye” to the non-union Greenpeace team working on the ship. Susi built alliances with everyone. “Our gut reactions to injustice are the same,” she told her colleagues. 

By January 1978, the Rainbow Warrior was ready for its first ecological campaign, and on 2 May, they slipped down the Thames and into the North Sea. The seasoned crew included skipper Nick Hill; chief mate Jon Castle; Peter Bouquet, a mate off a tanker; cameraman Tony Mariner; and Von Koettlitz assisting Chief engineer Simon Hollander. Devonshire nurse Sally Austin served as medic, Hilari Anderson from New Zealand as cook. Bob Hunter and Fred Easton joined the crew from the Greenpeace Foundation in Canada. Remi Parmentier and David McTaggart joined from the Paris office; and Bell, Hutchinson, Thornton and Susi Newborn form the UK core of the crew. Others came from Holland, Scotland, South Africa, Switzerland, and Australia. 

Crowds welcomed the ecologists in Calais, Amsterdam, Hamburg, and Aarhus, Denmark, where Susi and the crew showed films from earlier Greenpeace missions. Greenpeace organisations emerged in some of these cities. Susi understood that to spread the ideas of peace and ecology we needed to not only take action, but also build the movement itself.

The Rainbow Warrior crew confronted Icelandic whalers, then put into Reykjavik to release film to the media. Pete Wilkinson joined the crew in the UK and told Susi he had found evidence that the European nuclear industry was dumping radioactive waste into the Bay of Biscay, off Spain. The crew decided to expose the toxic dumping scheme, and pushed south. They would soon blow the lid off one of Britain’s nastiest secrets.

At Falmouth Bay, Susi and Denise Bell returned to London to issue media releases and handle inquiries. Easton and Mariner travelled north to Sharpness, where the nuclear dumping ship Gem sat in port, loading large drums labelled: RADIOACTIVE WASTE. 

Later, off the coast of Spain, the Rainbow Warrior interrupted the dumping. A 600-pound drum dropped from the Gem and flipped a Zodiac, throwing Gijs Thieme into the water, as the film crew captured the event. Later, in London, Susi and the European media teams released the film and photographs and organised a debate with nuclear industry representatives on the BBC. The activists revealed that each year, approximately 80 kilograms of plutonium-239 had been dropped into the Atlantic trench. In a few weeks, the Rainbow Warrior team had opened a new era of scrutiny for the entire European nuclear industry.

Greenpeace International

For the summer of 1979, Susi and the London activists organised new confrontations with the Icelandic whalers and the nuclear garbage scow Gem. Susi, the alliance builder, offered the Rainbow Warrior to Amnesty International, CND, Greenpeace New Zealand, and to other activists for campaigns. When crews returned from campaigns, Susi later told the New Zealand Dominion Post, “it’s like they’ve been to a war zone. You feel like you’ve gone to some bloody killing field somewhere.” In 2015, she recalled, “I still have injuries from those experiences.” 

As Greenpeace became more famous, power struggles naturally arose, and in 1979, Susi fled London to get away from the conflicts. She retreated to the Greek island of Samos, but didn’t rest for long. In Ayios Konstantinos, she heard from fishermen about an annual massacre of Aegean monk seals in the Mediterranean. In her typical fashion, Susi organised “Greenpeace Aegean Sea,” recruited young environmentalist William Johnson, launched a monk seal crusade, and made an alliance with Dr. Keith Ronald from Guelph University in Canada, who brought in the World Wildlife Fund. The ad hoc group successfully ended the marine mammal massacre. 

I next met Susi in November 1979, when we gathered in Amsterdam to create an International Greenpeace Council to coordinate the fast-growing organisation. Susi arrived on the Rainbow Warrior with Jon Castle, Tony Mariner, Athel von Koettlitz, Pete Wilkinson, and others from Europe. The council included representatives from Canada, UK, US, France, Denmark, and the Netherlands. New Zealand, Denmark, Australia and Germany joined soon thereafter, and Greenpeace now operates in 55 countries.

Susi was a fearless activist, more interested in the ecological vision of Greenpeace than in organisational manoeuvring or who would have power. During the week in Amsterdam, I met with her frequently, and the talk was always about our next actions and what we might achieve with Greenpeace tactics. Susi was the real deal, an activist to admire and emulate.

Kia ora

Susi moved to the US and received a degree in Human Ecology from the College of the Atlantic in Maine. In 1985, in New Zealand, during a campaign to stop French nuclear tests at Moruroa Atoll in the South Pacific, the French Secret Service bombed the ship Susi had loved and laboured over. The bombing broke her heart. “Not in a month of Sundays,” she said, “would I ever have expected a major European country to blow up a peace boat.” 

In 1986, she moved to New Zealand (Aotearoa), where she stayed active in ecology and justice campaigns. In 2003, her Rainbow Warrior memoir A Bonfire in My Mouth was published by HarperCollins. 

In New Zealand, in the 1990s, Susi served on the Board of Greenpeace New Zealand. She worked for Oxfam as their climate campaigner, for the NZ Refugee Council, and for the film union. Susi was a poet and a grand storyteller. She loved to talk about her days with Greenpeace and the importance of nonviolent direct action in changing our world for the better.

In the late 1990s, she moved to Waiheke and remained active in campaigns from protecting sensitive ecological regions to supporting Palestinian civil rights. In 2014, Susi helped create a Climate Voter initiative, encouraging New Zealanders to use their vote to make change. The following year, she joined her friend, Greenpeace Aotearoa executive director Bunny McDiarmid, in a march to stop deep sea oil drilling in the region. 

In 2022, Susi began treatment for breast cancer. “I know there is something in the world that is creating a giant cancerous tumour,” she said at the time, “that is tearing us apart, commodifying the air we breathe and the water we drink. I also know that this tumour is interspersed with flowers and song birds and the salty waters of the tears we shed.”

Susi Newborn passed away on 31 December 2023, at the age of 73. The Maori community of Waiheke hosted a memorial for her at Piritahi Marae on Waiheke Island, on the tribal lands of the Ngāpuhi and Ngāti Paoa Māori people. Piritahi means, fittingly, “coming together as one.” The community gave her a tangi, a Māori farewell. Friends who worked and sailed and battled with Susi over 50 years, attended and offered fond memories. 

“Susi, had a strong sense of injustice,” said McDiarmid, “and never gave up hope it was possible to make change in the world. She believed in the strength of people to make change. She was also really funny, clever and incredibly good company.” 

“Susi was brave and fearless,” said her friend Bianca Ranson, “but that was balanced with her kindness and her generosity. Susi showed us how to be fearless and brave and calculating. She taught us how to keep ourselves safe while pushing the line as hard as we could. What she was doing decades ago, if only people had taken that seriously then we’d be in a very different situation now.  She was a pillar, a pou, of the island community. What are we supposed to do without her?” 

“What I loved in the early Greenpeace years was the feeling that anything could happen anytime, anywhere,” wrote Rainbow Warrior photographer Pierre Gleizes Nicéphore. “On board, life was never dull, and Susi was part of that story from day one.”

“Susi and I have been the best of mates since we met in 77,” said former Rainbow Warrior cook, Hilari Anderson. She called Susi “a feisty sister Warrior.”

I corresponded with Susi and spoke with her by phone many times while she was in New Zealand. She always signed off with “Kia Ora,” a Māori greeting of wellbeing that means “have life.” 

Indeed. Kia Ora, dear Susi. 

[anumberofhobbies]

Every July 23, World Whale and Dolphin Day is celebrated, an event promoted in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) with the aim of stopping their indiscriminate hunting and raising awareness of their crucial role in the health of the ocean and the planet. Since the beginning of the 20th century, commercial whaling has led to the disappearance of nearly three million whales, leaving them on the brink of extinction. Despite the moratorium decreed in 1982 and in force since 1986, countries such as Japan, Iceland and Norway continue to hunt these cetaceans through programs that present themselves as scientific or under commercial quotas. Dolphins are also threatened, both by direct hunting in places such as Taiji (Japan), and by accidental capture in industrial fishing nets. Whales and dolphins are essential to the balance of marine ecosystems. According to the United Nations, these mammals act as “climate allies” as they store large amounts of carbon in their bodies during their lives and, when they die, that carbon is sequestered on the seafloor for centuries, helping to mitigate climate change. In addition, their nutrient-rich feces stimulate the growth of phytoplankton, the base of the oceanic food chain and responsible for at least 50% of the oxygen we breathe.