Peter Corkeron

Trump’s new foreign aid plan eyes $50mn for Greenland’s polar bears, $25mn for Nepal's snow leopards The Trump administration is considering whether to spend up to $50 million in foreign aid to protect polar bears in Greenland and $25 million for snow...

So on the one hand, the Trump admin is talking about $50 million for polar bears in Greenland. Greenland only, not Svalbard, Canada, Russia, US.

While Repubs want to gut the MMPA that protects polar bears in the US
apnews.com/article/seal...
US intelligence using conservation as an excuse
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Republicans try to weaken 50-year-old law protecting whales, seals and polar bears One of the U.S.’s longest standing pieces of environmental legislation, credited with helping save rare whales from extinction, is the subject of an effort for cutbacks from Republican lawmakers who n...

New piece on the ongoing attempts by Republicans in the US Congress to destroy the US Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Per the new bill "the act has “unduly and unnecessarily constrained government, tribes and the regulated community”"
In @apnews.com by Patrick Whittle
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Though to be fair the translocation one didn't have US *military* intel folks involved.

Knowing that you are is why I mentioned it
If you read the linked articles of mine you will get the story of one of them
The other is the translocation that is now subject of a law suit

Given what’s happened with some elephant “conservation” projects that had US military intelligence people involved this is really quite disturbing

Should have added - article by @mradamtaylor.bsky.social @hannahnatanson.bsky.social and Noah Robertson www.washingtonpost.com/people/noah-... who doesn't seem to be here.

Funny they didn't speak to anyone with a track record on the US IC misappropriating conservation issues

Maybe some of the real conservation NGOs will start to pay attention to this problem now. After years of trying to raise this I'm not holding my breath.

In case anyone reads this, and knows people in the big cat conservation world, please feel free to pass it on.
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One in the refereed literature -
Open Access so free to read
6/n

When the War on Terror Met Conservation | Common Dreams “Project tenBoma” a program of the International Fund for Animal Welfare that ran from 2015 to 2020, exemplified how military intelligence operations found their way into anti-poaching efforts.

My articles, again
One for general readership -
5/n

Kenya's animal detectives – DW – 09/12/2018 Africa's elephants are on the road to extinction. Faye Cuevas founded the tenBonma project to secure their future by stopping poachers before they kill the animals. And that involves a lot of detectiv...

I tried to get Deutsche Welle @corporate.dw.com to correct their piece in which they describe one person's military career in the past tense, after she'd returned to US SOCAFRICA.
They chose not to.

4/n

Faye Cuevas Is Protecting Elephants Using Counterterrorism Techniques Approaching the problem from a military standpoint made sense for Cuevas.

When these "conservation projects" start up, we can expect to see puff pieces in the press about the program leaders - e.g.

Trump’s new foreign aid plan eyes $50mn for Greenland’s polar bears, $25mn for Nepal's snow leopards The Trump administration is considering whether to spend up to $50 million in foreign aid to protect polar bears in Greenland and $25 million for snow...

Version of the article without the WaPo paywall -
2/n

Trump’s new foreign aid plan eyes $50 million for Greenland’s polar bears Documents reviewed by The Post show the administration may spend millions to protect vulnerable wildlife, proposals that stunned critics of its moves to gut foreign assistance.

Interesting development - $50 million for "polar bear conservation" in Greenland.

My articles about how some conservation NGO projects are not what they seem -
www.int-res.com/abstracts/es...
www.commondreams.org/opinion/war-...
show how this will play out
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1/n 🧵

Another great paper on baleen whales & calving
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Great paper led by Martin van Aswegen from @lbejder1971.bsky.social's lab - @meps-ir.bsky.social

Age-specific body length, mass, and energetic cost of growth in humpback whales
"... lactating females, who must support one-third of their offspring’s lifetime growth costs in just 1 yr."
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Could Whale Oil Improve Hair Growth, Focus, and Strength? | JAPAN Forward Researchers in Tokyo say whale oil and meat, long seen as cultural staples, may deliver improved focus, strength, and anti-aging benefits.

For some light relief -
Whale oil is a cure-all better than snake oil!

"Mice treated with whale oil developed thicker, denser hair follicles"
plus
People reported "sharper focus, greater resistance to fatigue, and improved sleep quality"
"even slow the aging process"
#whaling
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Yep

There are so many humpbacks migrating off east Oz now that it's not a conservation problem.
But it's an animal welfare issue - entanglements are horrendously cruel and we wouldn't stand for them happening to terrestrial mammals.
And it's a workplace safety issue for disentanglement teams.

"Why the netting program has been so effective is unknown."

When initially established, the netting programme resulted in a massive kill of sharks. Dramatically reduced shark abundance likely led to reduced fatalities.

Ocean pools were created as another safe option

Twelve whales have been tangled in shark nets off Queensland’s coast so far this year. Here’s why In the worst case, entanglements could cause drowning, one expert says, but whales can also suffer long-term effects from the nets

Great piece in @australia.theguardian.com by @petrastock.bsky.social on all the entanglements in shark nets off Queensland this year. Sensible commentary from @robharcourt.bsky.social and @jessicabolin.bsky.social

The only way to stop entanglement, really, is to take the nets out: Rob Harcourt
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Tasking satellites to get imagery of remote oceanic areas isn’t cheap

Yes it should. Well spotted - my mistake
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I see you noticed my later apology for the mixup. Shame there's no way to edit such things, but by the time I noticed my mistake, so many people had re-posted or liked that I felt I had to leave it as-is.

Oops! Eastern Pacific gray whales.

Apologies

I'm used to thinking of the western ones as the conservation problem
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Concern for the Future of Gray Whales | Gray Whale Research in Mexico

And an Open Letter of Concern from 3 renowned biologists who work on gray whales

The full letter is clear on the importance of climate on their feeding ecology, e.g.:
"This decline is apparently the result of ecosystem scale
changes brought about by Global Climate Change"
3/3

Eastern North Pacific Gray Whales Continue Decline After Downturn During Unusual Mortality Event Continued low calf count indicates that reproduction remains depressed.

Based on 2 #NOAA recent reports
NOAA press release linking to the two reports:
"The environment may now be changing at a pace or in ways that is testing the time-honored ability of the population to rapidly rebound while it adjusts to a new ecological regime."

No mention of #climatechange
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Gray whale population crashes amid climate-driven starvation Once considered a conservation success story, the Eastern Pacific gray whale is now vanishing — a stark warning of climate chaos in motion.

Meanwhile, in conservation reality and #whales -

A good article by Sue Arnold in Independent Australia on the population crash of Western Pacific gray whales.

"The latest estimate of 13,000 animals is less than half of the 27,000 population ten years ago."
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I led the whale research at @noaa.gov NEFSC 2011-2019. Driven out during the last Trump admin.

Been saying for ages that anyone who claims they care about #rightwhales off the NE US & obsesses about offshore wind but never mention entanglements - is either a fool or a liar.

Junior? Both

YouTube video by Don Walker Don Walker - Harry Was A Bad Bugger (Live)

PS
Rumour was that Williams was a bad bugger - to use Don Walker's term

How coastal town's tropical dream became a mud-choked nightmare A glitzy marina resort promised an idyllic lifestyle with everything tropical Queensland had to offer, but successive natural and corporate disasters have dashed those dreams. Could a solution be on t...

Yes, those of us working on dugongs at JCU back then got that experience early in life.

And the problems with the Port Hinchinbrook development that were foretold by those who fought against it?

Well...

D'oh
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YouTube video by 60 Minutes Australia Whale spotting: Witnessing one of nature’s great migrations | 60 Minutes Australia

Nice piece by 60 Minutes Australia on the status of #humpback #whales in Australian waters. Featuring @drvanessapirotta.bsky.social with the #scicomm and some interesting #citizenscience

Well done all