YES, as I do every year around this time, I can happily report that we’ve seen our first whales of the season.
It started with a lusty yell from my wife and that first puff of a blow out there, and then the first whale appeared, to be followed by others.
It’s always an exciting time, the first whale of the season, heralding perhaps six months of the intense enjoyment of whale watching – we never tire of it.
Then the sards are apparently back as well, although not the full show just yet, so perhaps we’re in for a good couple of months with the whales and the sards.
As long as those winds and those seas they stirred up is a thing of the past – magnificent to watch, but pretty scary too.
And now, in a surprise, but very welcome move, China has committed to phasing out its legal ivory trade by eliminating the manufacture and sale of ivory products.
The announcement was made at a special gathering in Beijing to which foreign diplomats were invited to witness the crushing and destruction of 662kg of confiscated ivory.
Leading international conservation groups have described the announcement as ‘The single greatest measure in the fight to save the last African elephants from poaching’, but have expressed reservations over the fact that no time limits to the measure have been set by the Chinese. ‘Let’s see it happen’, they are saying.
Regardless, it is another sure sign that attitudes are changing in China, at both the official level and among the people in the streets, as far as ivory and the use of other endangered wildlife products is concerned.
The crush follows a much larger one at the beginning of last year, when the Chinese authorities destroyed 6.1 tons of elephant tusks. Meanwhile, the government of Hong Kong has committed to the burning of 28 tons of stockpiled ivory, with the first batch already having been destroyed.*
It’s all good news from China and although one must be cynical and adopt a ‘wait and see’ approach, we can at least afford to be ‘cautiously optimistic’ as the diplomats say.
There’s even more good news from the remote Galapagos Islands in the eastern Pacific, where just a couple of weeks ago we reported a species of giant tortoise brought back from the brink of extinction.
Well, another giant tortoise, the saddleback, has re-emerged on Pinzón Island in the Galapagos.
Apparently the saddlebacks were all but wiped out by the rats that arrived on the island on ships in the 19th century.
Fifty years ago conservationists launched a programme to save the tortoises by, among other things, starting to eradicate the rats and their efforts are apparently paying off.
Ten tiny hatchlings have been found on the island, indicating that the giant tortoises are again breeding in the wild, good news indeed.**
You’d think we had a correspondent for the South Coast Herald on the Galapagos, we’re getting so much news from there. Cheers!
*Savetheelephants.com News Service.
**The Week: the Best of the British and Foreign Media.
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