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WHALES AHOY
Two anti-whaling activists arrested in the Faroe Islands
by Staff Writers
Copenhagen (AFP) July 22, 2015


Dolphin fertility is harmed by chemical pollutants: study
Miami (AFP) July 22, 2015 - Dolphins are struggling to reproduce because of industrial chemical pollution in European waters that can linger in the animals' bodies for a lifetime, a study out Wednesday said.

Researchers focused on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which were used widely in industrial equipment and paints until they were banned over 30 years ago.

Scientists were surprised to see that PCBs remained in the fat tissue of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) at moderately high levels.

The study led by the Zoological Society of London appears in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

Researchers focused on porpoises in the UK harbor, and found that almost 20 percent of sexually mature females showed evidence of stillbirth, fetal death or recent miscarriage.

"A further 16.5 percent had infections or tumors of reproductive organs that could have contributed to breeding failure," said the study.

When they compared the UK harbor porpoises to those living in much less PCB-polluted regions, they found lower pregnancy rates in the UK harbor group.

The pollution can pass from mother to calf when the babies suckle, leading to problems through the generations.

"UK harbour porpoises are part of a larger northeast Atlantic population and our research suggests a population-level risk from PCB exposure," said lead researcher Sinead Murphy.

Militant conservation group Sea Shepherd said Wednesday that two of its volunteers had been arrested in the Faroe Islands for allegedly interfering with the territory's traditional whale hunt.

"The Sea Shepherd volunteers were arrested on Monday morning following an attempted grindadrap -- the infamous drive hunt of cetaceans in the Faroe Islands," the group said in a statement.

Susan Larsen of San Francisco and Tom Strerath of Bremen, Germany could face up to two years in prison if they are found guilty of breaching the Faroese pilot whaling act.

Two Sea Shepherd vessels had been "investigating" a group of 15 local boats they believed were involved in a grindadrap when police boarded the smaller boat and arrested the two activists.

A spokesman for the Faroese government said the two had been released shortly afterwards and that a court date had been set for Thursday.

"The police are doing their research and the public prosecutor will decide shortly if the case will be submitted to a Faroese court," he told AFP.

Earlier this year the Faroese parliament made it harder for activists to prevent the North Atlantic islands' whale hunt by amending the territory's whaling act.

Sea Shepherd launched its latest anti-whaling action in the Faroes in June by sending two vessels and dozens of activists to the area.

During the whale hunt, the three-to-six metre (10-to-20 foot) sea mammals are driven by a flotilla of small boats into a bay or the mouth of a fjord before being killed by hand -- a "grind" that many locals defend as a cultural right.

The whale meat and blubber are consumed by locals and considered delicacies.

The timing of the killing depends on when the cetaceans are spotted offshore, and Sea Shepherd activists have intervened in the Faroes several times in the past.

Whaling in the archipelago stretches back to the earliest Norse settlements more than 1,000 years ago, and community-organised hunts date to at least the 16th century.

The Faroe Islands, situated between Norway, Iceland and Scotland, are home to just under 50,000 people and have been an autonomous Danish province since 1948.


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