Gossypium in Umbilico » Milko

200 Ballenas Piloto varadas en Tasmania

Chico — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 20:36:54 +0000

Ayer estaba hablando con Milko (Greenpeace Argentina) sobre el varamiento de ballenas piloto (o calderones) en Tasmania. El me perguntaba “que crees que este pasando en el mundo? según parece cada vez hay mas varamientos, mayoría en Tasmania y Australia. Es algo que cada día me intriga mas, a veces se sabe que es por el sonar de baja frecuencia, o por mucha contaminación sónica. Puede ser que siguen a un compañero de manada perdido o enfermo. Pero seguro que hay otras causas, como la contaminación que les baja las defensas, la falta de oxigeno en el agua en algunas regiones etc.”

Es muy raro lo que pasa con estes animales y estes varamientos en massa. Especialmente en Australia en que este verano los varamientos fueran mas que muchos. A fines de noviembre quedaron varados 187 calderones en Sandy Cape Beach, de los que sólo pudieron ser salvados 32. Una semana antes la gente había logrado salvar a 11 de las 64 ballenas atrapadas en la playa de Anthony’s. En enero murieron 48 cachalotes en un banco de arena frente a la isla de Perkins.

Puede esto ser debido a los ruidos por actividades sísmicas como las perforaciones submarinas para extraer gas o petróleo?

Leer otras fuentes de información: ámbito.com y El Universal (Caracas)

A graveyard for Nicaragua

Chico — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:55:04 +0000

Just arrived from Lisbon and the Nicaraguan Consulate in Cascais.
It was a cloudy, yet quite warm day, the morning was spent finishing the last bits of the tails left and around 1100 I departed to Lisbon.
The Consulate was quite hard to find, but finally we manage to get hold of it around 1500. There was no one at the event apart from me and a friend, Nídia.
We set up the symbolical Graveyard and “knock knock”… a man on his 30′s came at the door. We asked to talk to Ian Imrie the supposed consul, and he told us that Ian Imrie was his father and he couldn’t come at the door because he was sleeping. I guess that is what happens when you spent more than 3 decades living in Latin Countries, siesta starts to be part of your life!

I asked if I could speak to him about Nicaragua and its position on whaling. Well it happens that the Consulate of Nicaragua was no longer there!! That is only the residence of his family and because they lived in Nicaragua for a long time and had connections with the government, his father was asked to be the consul in Portugal. They are not Nicaraguans even, they are British. We delivered the letter we had prepared to his father and he said that since his father still has connections with the government, he will ask him to convey our message to Managua.
Well, Nicholas the son of the supposed Consul told me that he personally is against whaling and he thought the idea of making the action in 14 different countries would help to change Nicaragua’s position (and apparently it did http://www.elnuevodiario.com.ni/2007/04/10/nacionales/45840 – it says that Nicaragua will no longer vote for whaling!) after a chat, and some exchange of ideias, he invited us for a tea, but we were running late, so we politely said no.
We got his contact and of his father to send him some news of the actions around the world and its repercussions, what I’ll do after finishing this text, that is right about now…

Congratulations to Milko Schvartzman from Greenpeace and everyone involved. I’m looking forward to know that Nicaragua voted NO when Japan voted YES :-) also many thanks to Catarina a friend of mine that helped me to manufacture the whale tails.

Click here to read about the government change of position regarding whaling.

Milko Schvartzman

Chico — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:00:23 +0000

Este video es una pequeña presentación de Milko Schvarztman, un Argentino, coordinador de la campaña océanos de Greenpeace y activista ambiental. Yo conocí Milko en los últimos meses de 2005 en Uruguay. Estaba trabajando como voluntario en una organización Uruguaya llamada Organización para la Conservación de Cetáceos de Uruguay (OCC), que hacia parte de la campaña para la readmisión de Uruguay a la Comisión Ballenera Internacional (CBI). Mi conexión con Milko fue más allá de Uruguay, yo seguí laburando en el tema de la carecería de ballenas y tuve la oportunidad de mantener contacto con Milko e reunirme con el también en Argentina antes de dejar Sud América, después en el Caribe, en la reunión de la CBI y más recientemente en Italia.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gu6YJDlPlQ

Milko para mi es un maestro, un orientador, un consejero y más que nada un amigo. Una persona íntegra y austera que yo tengo en alta consideración y estima. Es una ayuda impagable en mi actividad como activista y “campaigner” en la lucha contra la carecería comercial de ballenas. Bueno antes que me llame de chupamedias y para conocerlo mejor hace “click” en play …

IWC – International Whaling Commission

Chico — Tue, 16 May 2006 10:29:28 +0000

The environmental movement is facing one of its biggest-ever reverses, over one of its most cherished causes: Save The Whale.
The leading pro-whaling nation, Japan, with a remarkable diplomatic “coup d’état” is self-assured to clutch control of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), formed in order to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry, and so hasten the return of commercial whale hunting, which has been officially banned worldwide since 1986.
Despise the international moratorium and the instituted southern ocean whale sanctuary in 1994 whales are still hunted down and killed, in the cruel and inhumane same ways as ever

Apart from the whaling concern Roger Pain wisely sated in a press release by the IFAW that “military sonar, fishing gear entanglements and global warming all pose a huge threat to whale populations struggling to recover from historic commercial whaling. The added toll of Japan ‘s growing commercial whaling will simply be too much for many whale species. This continuing slaughter, and the ominous Japanese effort to gain international approval for commercial whaling, are serious threats to the survival of whales, and should be opposed in every way possible before it’s too late.”

I have a personal and professional interest in the subject, I always felt attracted by all the debate about the whaling issue, after met Sidney Holt in Ireland who later revised and article of mine published last year about the IWC its history and controversy and reading the book Whaling Season by Keiran Mulvaney I felt like I had definitely bitten the hook.
Convening with Milko Schvartzman from Greenpeace and accompanied him on our dusk to dawn encounters with the politicians and media of Montevideo (Uruguay ‘s Capital) set the ground for the work I’m doing now in Europe with the campaign I’m trying to lead in the best way I can. The outcome of our efforts is still to be known, but we are up against a ghastly adversary – Japan.

Next IWC meeting will be on the 16th June at St. Kitts, where not only the future of whales will be decided but also from the oceans and science has a total.