Read this story from the Toronto Star on Captain Paul Watson of Sea Shepherd's arrest in Germany and possible extradition to Costa Rica over outstanding charges stemming from an alleged 2002 incident while confronting illegal shark finning activities of the coast of Guatemala. (May 18, 2012)

Animal rights and anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, facing extradition to Costa Rica for a decade-old attempted murder charge, will be released on bail from a Frankfurt jail next Monday.

German authorities arrested the Toronto-born president and founder of Sea Shepherd Conservation Society last Sunday on an international arrest warrant issued by Costa Rica.

In 2002, Watson allegedly tried to intimidate and kill the crew of a Costa Rican fishing boat, the Varadero, which Sea Shepherd said was illegally cutting shark fins off the coast of Guatemala.

Watson’s bail is set at 250,000 Euros (roughly $325,000), but must remain in Germany until the conclusion of the extradition proceedings, according to Frankfurt’s higher regional court.

The extradition case will now go before the Ministry of Justice, Sea Shepherd spokesman Peter Hammarstedt said.

Before he was arrested, Watson, 61, had been en route to Paris to promote the French-language book Interview with a Pirate, its author and Sea Shepherd France president Lamya Essemlali told the Star earlier this week.

In the days since Watson’s arrest, Sea Shepherd, known for its violent encounters with whalers and poachers, has waged a virulent campaign against its founder’s detainment and Costa Rica’s “bogus allegations.”

Captured on film and shown in the 2007 documentary Sharkwater, Watson’s boat confronted the Costa Rican poachers, spraying water from high-power hoses to frighten off the ship. The boats later collided, prompting claims Watson intentionally endangered the lives of crewmembers.

After reviewing the documentary footage, a Costa Rican judge dismissed the charges. They were re-issued in October, 2011.

Read original article: http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/1180744--paul-watson-granted-bail-as-sea-shepherd-founder-faces-extradition-to-costa-rica

 

John Donne's "for whom the bell tolls” has another relevance today that is more poignant, one encapsulated by a visitor to Hawaii who casually noted that the islands' coral reefs are dying. Indeed, they are. And they are dying elsewhere, too: throughout the South Pacific, the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mediterranean, the Red, the Indian — everywhere there are coral reefs. Perhaps the most spectacular casualty is Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Scientists give it another 10 years before its corals will no longer be able to adapt to warming oceans.

Check out this new short documentary sponsored by DeSmogBlog.com on the killing of wolves in Alberta - connected to a misguided plan to conserve caribou populations being impacted by Tar Sands operations. (April 10, 2012)

Over the last several years, Alberta has killed more than 500 wolves using aerial sharpshooters and poisoned bait in order to conceal the impact of rapid industrial development on Canada’s iconic woodland caribou...A team of DeSmogBlog researchers traveled to the Tar Sands region to investigate the dirty oil politics behind this fool’s errand. Here is our first report: Cry Wolf: An Unethical Oil Story.

Read article on video: http://www.desmogblog.com/cry-wolf-unethical-oil-story

Read this story from CBC.ca on the recent discovery of a battered juvenile Orca discovered on a beach in Washington State, whose death may be linked to Canadian naval war exercises being carried out in the region around the suspected time of the whale's death. (April 9, 2012)

The bloodied and battered corpse of a young killer whale whose death may be linked to Canadian war games has prompted an investigation by U.S. authorities.

The body of the southern resident orca — an endangered species in the United States — was discovered on Long Beach in Washington state in February, just days after HMCS Ottawa conducted sonar training exercises in the waters off Victoria, B.C.

A preliminary examination indicated significant trauma around the head, chest and right side of the orca known as L112, but results of necropsy and pathology tests and a scan of the animal's head are incomplete.

Just hours after the navy sonar tests were heard, southern resident killer whales were spotted in the same area in the Haro Strait that divides Canada and the United States.

The law enforcement office of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, has launched an investigation into the death.

Brian Gorman, with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service, said investigators haven't made a connection between the naval exercise and the death of the whale.

"That's the first thing we have to determine. Depending on where this investigation leads, I suspect [the investigation] may extend to the Canadians or it may not."

Gorman said the investigation will attempt to determine if there's been a violation of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Read article: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/04/09/killer-whale-military-investigation.html?cmp=rss

 

 

Read this story from BCLocalNews.com on retired NHL star Scott Niedermayer's support of the campaign to stop the controversial Jumbo-Glacier Resort in the Kootenays.

VICTORIA – Opponents of the long-proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort near Cranbrook went on the offensive in the B.C. legislature Tuesday, with retired hockey star Scott Niedermayer joining a local aboriginal group to press for its rejection. Niedermayer joined Kathryn Teneese, chair of the Ktunaxa Nation council and NDP leader Adrian Dix to urge the B.C. government to reject the proposed resort, on Jumbo glacier in the Purcell Mountains​.

The project has been studied for more than 20 years, and received a provincial environmental certificate in 2005. The last step is approval of a master development agreement, which Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson could make at any time. Teneese showed a video with testimonials of aboriginal and other local residents, and released a study by Simon Fraser University economist Marvin Shaffer that questions the economic viability of adding another ski resort to the region." (Dec. 8, 2011)

Read full article: http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/133922293.html?fb_ref=sidebarActivityFeed

Read this story from the Guardian on the ecological tragedy developing off the east coast of New Zealand as a supertanker loaded with 1,700 tonnes of fuel oil and 200 tonnes of diesel recently run aground on a reef full of rare marine life.

"Conservationists have warned of an impending wildlife 'tragedy'...with populations of penguins, whales, seals and seabirds set to be hardest hit...A severe weather warning for the Bay of Plenty area on Monday has heightened fears that the stricken cargo vessel Rena...will start to break up, with grim consequences for the local marine wildlife." (Oct. 10, 2011)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/10/new-zealand-oil-spill-wildlife-tragedy

If spreading sea lice, diseases and pollution weren't justification enough for removing open net-pen salmon farms from BC's wild West Coast waters, the latest outrage is the slaughter of California sea lions and their marine cousins. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans reported that between January and March, 2011, salmon farms were responsible for the killing of 141 California sea lions, 37 harbour seals and two Stellar sea lions...All these magnificent marine mammals were shot - another four animals got entangled in netting and suffered the horror of drowning - because they trespassed on salmon farms

Editorial from the Ottawa Citizen: Environment Minister Peter Kent has acknowledged that only a drastic recovery plan can save some of the threatened herds of woodland caribou across the country. Kent, calling growing environmental concerns about the migratory animals legitimate, says the federal government is responding. A recovery plan is expected in the next few weeks.

What this wolf kill demonstrates is not only the complete lack of understanding of wolves by the Campbell/Clark government but their willingness to pander to their supporters without any science to support them at the expense of an environment which, to them, is a nuisance and a hindrance to development by their corporate donors.

Ray Grigg discusses Sandra Steingraber's Raising Elijah: Protecting Our Children in an Age of Environmental Crisis. "As a conscientious and protective mother living in the 21st century, these are the concerns flooding over her. If sex and the mystery of procreation are difficult to explain to a child, how does a parent explain climate change, species extinction, ocean acidification and global pollution, all of which are stories of de-generation and de-construction, of de-creation rather than re-generation?"