Tag: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration

Is The CIA Manipulating The Weather?

July 8, 2016 / / 0 Comments

Derrick Broze, ContributorIn a recent speech, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency discussed the controversial topic of geoengineering, leading some activists to ask whether the agency is actively and deliberately modifying the weather.​In late June, John Brennan, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, spoke at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting about threats to global security. Director Brennan mentioned a number of threats to stability before di [...]

View Article Here Read More

Will new ruling finally free Lolita after 40 years in captivity at Miami Seaquarium?

February 5, 2015 / / 0 Comments



Excerpt from seattletimes.com

A decision to list the captive orca Lolita for federal protection is expected to set the stage for a lawsuit from advocates seeking the whale’s release.

Seattle Times staff reporter
A Puget Sound orca held for decades at Miami’s Seaquarium will gain the protection of the federal Endangered Species Act, a move expected to set the stage for a lawsuit from advocates seeking the whale’s release.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Wednesday the decision to list Lolita as part of the southern resident killer whales of Puget Sound, which already are considered endangered under the federal act. 

Whale activists, who petitioned for this status, have long campaigned for Lolita’s return to Puget Sound. They hope the listing will provide a stronger legal case to release Lolita than did a previous lawsuit that centered on alleged violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.

“This gives leverage under a much stronger law,” said Howard Garrett of the Whidbey Island based Orca Network, which hopes a San Juan Island cove will one day serve as the site for Lolita to re-enter the wild.

NOAA Fisheries officials on Wednesday described their decision in narrow terms, which set no broader precedents. It does not address whether Lolita should be released from the Seaquarium.
“This is a listing decision,” said Will Stelle, the NOAA Fisheries regional administrator for the West Coast. “It is not a decision to free Lolita.” 

Aquarium officials have repeatedly said they have no intention of releasing the orca. 

“Lolita has been part of the Miami Seaquarium family for 44 years,” said Andrew Hertz, Seaquarium general manager, in a statement. 

“Lolita is healthy and thriving in her home where she shares habitat with Pacific white-sided dolphins. There is no scientific evidence that ... Lolita could survive in a sea pen or the open waters of the Pacific Northwest, and we are not willing to treat her life as an experiment.”

Orcas, also known as killer whales, are found in many of the world’s oceans. The southern resident population, which spends several months each year in Puget Sound, is the only group listed in the U.S. under the Endangered Species. 

The three pods in the population were reduced by captures by marine parks between 1965 and 1975, NOAA says. Among them was a roundup in Penn Cove where seven whales were captured, including Lolita. 

The southern resident pods now number fewer than 80. Possible causes for the decline are reduced prey, pollutants that could cause reproductive problems and oil spills, according to NOAA Fisheries.
Under the Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to cause a “take” of a protected orca, which includes harming or harassing them.
Wednesday, NOAA officials said holding an animal captive, in and of itself, does not constitute a take. 

Orca activists are expected to argue in their lawsuit that Lolita's cramped conditions result in a prohibited take.

There is “rising public scorn for the whole idea of performing orcas,” said Garrett, who hopes Seaquarium will decide to release Lolita without a court order. 

But NOAA officials still have concerns about releasing captive whales, and any plan to move or release Lolita would require “rigorous scientific review,” the agency said in a statement.
The concerns include the possibility of disease transmission, the ability of a newly released orca to find food and behavior patterns from captivity that could impact wild whales.

NOAA said previous attempts to release captive orcas and dolphins have often been unsuccessful and some have ended in death.

Garrett said the plan for Lolita calls for her to be taken to a netted area of the cove, which could be enlarged later. She would be accompanied by familiar trainers who could “trust and reassure her every bit of the way,” he said. 

The controversy over releasing captive whales has been heightened by the experience of Keiko, a captive orca that starred in the 1993 movie “Free Willy,” about a boy who pushed for the release of a whale.

In 1998, Keiko was brought back to his native waters off Iceland to reintroduce him to life in the wild. That effort ended in 2003 when he died in a Norwegian fjord. 

Garrett, who visited Keiko in Iceland in 1999, said he was impressed by the reintroduction effort, and that there was plenty of evidence that Keiko was able to catch fish on his own.

“The naysayers predicted that as soon as he got into the (Icelandic) waters he would die, and wild orcas would kill him,” Garrett said. “He proved that 180-degrees wrong. He loved it.”

Mark Simmons, who for two years served as director of animal husbandry for the Keiko-release effort, has a different view. He says Keiko never was able to forage for fish on his own, and that he continued to seek out human contact at every opportunity. 

Simmons wrote a book called “Killing Keiko,” that accuses the release effort of leading to a long slow death for the orca, which he says lacked food and then succumbed to an infection.

“It’s not really the fact that Keiko died, but how he died,” Garrett said Wednesday.

View Article Here Read More

Experts Say It’s ‘More Unlikely Than Likely’ That 2014 Was Hottest Year on Record

January 19, 2015 / / 0 Comments



Excerpt from theblaze.com

When asked whether 2014 was the warmest year so far on record, scientists within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said it’s “more unlikely than likely.” In its annual “state of the climate” analysis, climate experts could say with only 48 percent certainty that 2014 was the warmest year on record.
However, scientists were 90.4 percent sure it was one of the five warmest years while they were nearly postive (99.2 percent) 2014 was one of the 10 warmest years. Meanwhile, there was no doubt that last year was one of the 20 warmest years on record, nor was there any question of 2014 being warmer than the average in the 20th century and warmer than the average from 1981- 2010:
  • Warmest year on record: 48 percent
  • One of the five warmest years: 90.4 percent
  • One of the 10 warmest years: 99.2 percent
  • One of the 20 warmest years: 100 percent
  • Warmer than the 20th century average: 100 percent
  • Warmer than the 1981-2010 average: 100 percent
Of those percentages, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s National Climatic Data Center gave descriptors that indicate the certainty of such predictions, with 33.3 percent to 50 percent (the degree of certainty with which scientists asserted 2014 was the warmest)  categorized as “more unlikely than likely.”

Image source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Image source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration


View Article Here Read More

Earth Grid Update 2012

April 27, 2012 / / 0 Comments

{mainvote}

a message from The Star Elders channeled by Aluna Joy Yaxk'in

Thursday, 26 April, 2012

Since the beginning of 2012, the energies have gone from feeling stuck, to feeling like we are in an out-of-control spaceship. This pa...

View Article Here Read More

NOAA’s deep-sea acoustic research project, amazing unidentified sounds being heard in our oceans.

March 13, 2012 / / 0 Comments

{mainvote}

Apparently, the beachings of the whales are caused by weaponized sonar...

And there is more... There is an unknown marine mammalian predator out there. Intelligent. It communicates with dolphins and whales but is no...

View Article Here Read More

Have the Weather Rangers been keeping hurricanes away?

August 29, 2011 / / 0 Comments

{mainvote}

David Wells' weather modification researchers apparently have been quietly using their inexpensive, homemade devices to steer and diminish hurricanes. Alberto Feliciano in Puerto Rico appears to have the best position for facilita...

View Article Here Read More

A Compilation of articles about stopping whaling

June 7, 2011 / / 0 Comments

{mainvote}

Sea Shepherd Returns for a Fourth Season of Whale Wars to Put an End to Antarctic Whaling

Animal Planet's Emmy Award-nominated docu-reality series Whale Wars returns for a fourth season beginning Friday, June 3, at 9 PM E/P wi...

View Article Here Read More

Deep Space Leaderboard 728x90

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License.
unless otherwise marked.

Terms of Use | Privacy Policy



— Up ↑ —