Japan 1 Bluefin 0

THE NEW YORK TIMES has a sad report, "U.N. Rejects Export Ban on Atlantic Bluefin Tuna", by David Jolly and John Broder. If you're a polar bear, it's also a bummer, too.

Delegates at a United Nations conference on endangered species in Doha, Qatar, soundly defeated American-supported proposals on Thursday to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears.

Atlantic and Mediterranean stocks of bluefin, a fish prized especially by Japanese sushi lovers for its fatty belly flesh, have been severely depleted by years of heavy commercial fishing, while polar bears are considered threatened by hunting and the loss of sea ice because of global warming. The United States tried unsuccessfully to persuade delegates to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or Cites, to provide strong international protection for the two species.

“It wasn’t a very good day for conservation,” said Juan Carlos Vásquez, a spokesman for the United Nations organization. “It shows the governments are not ready to adopt trade bans as a way to protect species.”

Then there's Japanese whale hunting, aka "research". I hope all those shiny, happy people in their Toyotas, Hondas and Nissans feel warm and fuzzy. Then there's dolphins, and "The Cove". A pox on all their keiretsu. Like Republicans, the only thing they respect is money — so I don't buy Japanese.

Whales - 1; Bush - 0

Via Moderate Man, a federal judge has ruled that President George Bush does not have the authority to grant an exemption to the US Navy from the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act.

The USN had sought an exemption from the requirement to remain clear of whale and dolphin habitats when conducting mid-frequency sonar operations off the southern California coast.

A federal judge rejected on Monday President Bush's attempt to exempt the Navy from environmental laws protecting endangered whales from sound waves caused by underwater sonar blasts during anti-submarine training off the Southern California coast.

Bush issued an order Jan. 15 that sought to override the judge's order limiting the Navy's use of sonar in Channel Islands waters frequented by whales and other marine mammals. The president said the restrictions would interfere with military exercises that are essential to national security.'

But U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of Los Angeles said Monday that Bush lacked authority in this case to suspend the National Environmental Policy Act, on which her earlier order was based.

That law requires federal agencies to examine environmental damage that their actions might cause and propose measures to prevent the harm. Cooper - who had found that the Navy failed to follow those requirements - said federal regulations, in place since 1978, allow the president to override the environmental law only in an emergency.

"The Navy's current 'emergency' is simply a creature of its own making ... its failure to prepare adequate environmental documentation in a timely fashion," Cooper said in a 36-page ruling. The only thing that has changed since environmental groups sued the Navy in March 2007 to protect the whales, she said, is that the Navy lost a court ruling that it wants the president to overturn.

The judge also called Bush's order constitutionally suspect because he cited no new arguments, other than those the Navy had already offered in court, but simply reached a different conclusion from hers - a task that the Constitution assigns to appellate courts, not the president or Congress. But Cooper said she didn't have to decide the constitutional issue because the order was invalid on other grounds, that the president lacked the authority to suspend environmental policy.

The mid-frequency active sonar used by the USN is irritating even at a distance. If you get close enough to an SQS-53 it'll eventually drive you mad. Given that marine mammals, particularly whales and dolphins, rely heavily on sound and echolocation to both navigate and locate food, there is every possibility that the high power emission of a shipborne sonar, particularly the higher powered SQS-53C, would interfere significantly with marine life.

Dolphins and smaller whales use frequencies for echolocation and communications estimated to be in the range of 0.1 to 200 kHz; the AN/SQS 53 sonar uses a frequency range of 3 to 192 kHz.

So, it looks like Bush has just had his imperious ego whacked by a bunch of activist whales.

Brother can you spare a fish

Via Driftglass we learn that newly captive dolphins are adapting really, really well to their new life in captivity - in a Dubai hotel pool.

The five-star Palm Atlantis Hotel bought the wild bottlenose dolphins from the Solomon Islands, the paper reported, despite several international conservation groups decrying the decision by its government to allow the resumption of the live dolphin trade, saying it is inhumane.

Management at the hotel, located on the giant Palm Jumeirah artificial island on the Dubai coast, told the paper the welfare of the dolphins was paramount.

"Bottlenose dolphins are not an endangered species so it is not a problem. They will get good healthcare and good food," said Frank Murru, chief marine officer at the hotel's parent company, Kerzner International.

The Solomon Islands had banned the sale of dolphins in 2003. Then:

Robert Satu, a director of Solomon Islands Marine Mammal Education Centre and Exporters Limited, earlier said the dolphin sale was done with the approval of the United Arab Emirates and Solomon Islands governments.

The tiny Pacific nation had banned the trade in live dolphins in 2003 following an outcry over a shipment to Mexico. But Satu took the government to court, claiming the ban was illegal, and won in a ruling earlier this year.

At least they're getting "good food and medical care". You'd think the rest of the dolphin community would be lining up for a deal like that.