Help save Dolphins

[Darius11 12]

For three decades, whales and dolphins have been protected from being accidentally caught by commercial fishermen, thanks to the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Today, though, influential members of Congress Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) are moving to add a loophole to that law that would allow thousands more dolphins, whales, and other marine mammals to be killed every year.


http://www.oceana.org/flipper/index_wm.html


Please move this to SC if it is in the wrong place, but all i am asking for is help.
Thank you

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[Jib 0]

In a nutshell, what is the act supposed to take away?? Some of the references change dates to go through 2009 albeit with less money.

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the depth of his depravity sickens me.
-- Jerry Falwell, People v. Larry Flynt

[nanook 1]

What is this loophole? is it some law passed for something else that allows it?

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"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[Darius11 12]

To promote healthy populations of marine mammals and stop this needless killing, Congress enacted the Marine Mammal Protection Act in 1972. In 1994, Congress set a goal of significantly reducing marine mammal bycatch (the zero-mortality rate goal) and added a target date to the MMPA to achieve this goal. That deadline, April 2001, was missed.


Influential legislators in Congress, led by Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R-Md.) and Rep. Richard Pombo (R-Calif.) in the U.S. House of Representatives, who favor the commercial fishing industry might have an opportunity to use the next few days and weeks, when Congress is back in session, to bring a bill -- H.R. 5104 -- to the floor for a vote which would seriously weaken the MMPA and derail efforts to significantly reduce marine mammal bycatch.

Without a deadline to compel action, the fishing industry and the lead federal ocean agency -- the National Marine Fisheries Service -- will likely take little action to reduce marine mammal deaths during commercial fishing operations

Here is a link to the bill

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.05104:

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[DJL 235]

The only way for us to peacefully coexist on this planet is a strick diet of cannibalism. Chinese anyone or are we more in the mood for Mexican?

Also, we must ban dihydrogen monoxide, which makes up the largest percentage of acid rain. Sign the petition here.

And to finish, if those guys want people to sign a petition then they need to explain the how and why of it. I'm not going to just blindly sign something.

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[JohnRich 4]

When I search the Congress web site for "Marine Mammal Protection Act" I find *23* Bills containing that phrase. The web site you reference never says to which of those many Bills they object. So, there is no way to find the specifics of what they are talking about. This leads me to believe that this petition is really just a generic fear-based fund raiser...

Cross-referencing the subject with the listed sponsors, it seems to be Bill H.R.2693.

See here for the actual Bill summary.

It doesn't look all that evil to me. And I don't sign anything where the organization can't give me facts to support what they are saying.

[Bolas 5]

You can already buy dolphin meat. I had dolphin in Key West this past Sunday. I sure hope it was "tuna safe".

Seriously, is the only way you can catch dolphins, porpoises, etc is if you "accidently" catch them. That sounds like a big loophole right there.

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[SpeedRacer 1]

um do you mean dolphin, the fish that's related to the marlin,

or do you mean dolphin, the cetacean that's related to the porpoise?

Speed Racer
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[cocheese 0]

Save the Manatee !
(The Freefly Manatee)

[Darius11 12]

It is not about eating Dolphins. It is about accidentally killing marine mammals.
It is a total waist of life that can be prevented.

Again this is not posted in SC for a reason. You can read the information page. If you would like to help please sign the petition if not don’t.

I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not." - Kurt Cobain

[Granimal 0]

Cartman said it best when Kyle told him that dolphins were good.

"Yea, on rye with mayo."

[nanook 1]

What do they want to do with the bill? I cant find anthing in the petition that tells how they want it fixed. Do they want the bill dropped or do they want the paticular portion of the bill being brought up to change?

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"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[tkhayes 348]

also see www.nrdc.org for petitions to stop high-intensity sonar harming whales and dolphins alike.

[tweak 0]

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um do you mean dolphin, the fish that's related to the marlin,

or do you mean dolphin, the cetacean that's related to the porpoise?

I've always seen it spelled Dauphin (one ugly fish!), but a lot of people like to call it Mahi-Mahi to avoid confusion.

[coconutmonkey 0]

Hey,
Does that mean they'll now be available on the Sushi Bar menu?

Hearts & Minds
2 to the Heart-
1 to the Mind-
Home of the Coconut Lounge, Spa, & Artillery Range

[nanook 1]

Nah, that stuff isn't dangerous to marine life. Whales, dolphins and seals, ect expeienced a lot more powerful stuff than that several times their lives. like underwater seismic activities, lightning strikes (not the shock, teh actual noise it create) other whales ect. ect. Just another group of enviromentalists who won't read our studies.

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"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[tkhayes 348]

who is the 'our' in 'our studies'

'Our' studies show that the whales tend to be in distress, beach themselves and die when such sonar testing is going on.

[nanook 1]

(this is what i get for opening my mouth) Personally, Im not a good arguer and I hope this doesn't get sent to SC I just wanted to know about the bill that's being talked about. I love dolphins. When underway, my job puts me an a place most people won't experience. I spend hours sometimes days listening to mirgrating (and often hanging out) dolphins. this argument cannot be won online. I don't want to try. So, just the facts.

"Our" is the U.S. Navy. We've been studying whale behavior and high power sonar for decades. the particular sonar system I have used(all surface combantants have this) is actually louder than the LFA. It doesn't bother the dolphins. Sometimes they come over to us when we are active and giveus their version of their interrogative. other times they just continue on with their chatter like if nothing happens. Again 200+ decibles is easy to create in nature underwater.

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"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that you can never know if they are genuine" - Abraham Lincoln

[JohnRich 4]

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It is not about eating Dolphins. It is about accidentally killing marine mammals. It is a total waist (sic) of life that can be prevented.

If we're eating Dolphins, then that causes the *intentional* killing of Dolphins to provide that food supply. So, since you're only interested in stopping *accidental* killing, does that mean that you approve of intentional harvesting of Dolphins for food?

You've yet to tell us what the "loophole" is that you deem dangerous.

The only exceptions I see in the bill are for legit things, like Eskimos doing subsistance hunting. You don't want Eskimo children to starve to death do you?

[kamih 0]

People always think they know what others can stand or not.
Someday (if we don't kill them off first), we might be able to communicate with dolphins (who are one of the most intelligent species on Earth!). It will be interesting to see their point of view.
In the meantime, how would you like it if someone flew an airline jet over your house at 500ft? Every day?

[Granimal 0]

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how would you like it if someone flew an airline jet over your house at 500ft? Every day?

Some people know exactly how that feels.

[catfishhunter 2]

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It is about accidentally killing marine mammals

Ok explain to me if it was an accident how do you propose to elimanate accidents??????????

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It is a total waist of life that can be prevented.

Again how do you prevent an accident??????

Makes no sense to me maybe I am missing something.

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[kamih 0]

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how would you like it if someone flew an airline jet over your house at 500ft? Every day?

Some people know exactly how that feels.

Sadly.
But you have to realize how much dolphins and whales rely on their hearing. A better equivalent would probably be shining concentrated sunlight into people's eyes every now and then.
Some interesting articles:
http://home.gwi.net/~troberts/greens/News-2003-Nov/bdn_wray_2003_11_03.htm
http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/dossier/id319/pg1/

[billvon 3,006]

> Ok explain to me if it was an accident how do you propose to elimanate accidents?

Same way you eliminate them anywhere else. Through better training, better gear and better rules we've done a decent job reducing accidents in skydiving. Rarely do we hear about a gear failure or training-related accident and say "Hey, it was an accident; nothing to be done" - we fix the problem.

[jumpwally 0]

Oh thank God,,I thought you were talking about the "dolphin" rig. whew......

smile, be nice, enjoy life
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