Provide an Ethical Argument against the Use of Dolphins in the US Navy for Military Purposes - Essay Example

Provide an Ethical Argument against the Use of Dolphins in the Us Navy for Military Purposes In 1964, fifty-six Village Councils called for an establishment to work for the benefit of the tribal governments and the people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. The Association of Village Council Presidents, Inc. (AVCP) was created and is one of 12 regional Native non-profit organizations in Alaska. Our region encompasses 43 Million acres, roughly the size of Ohio, is largely dominated by State and Federal lands. The last census estimated the AVCP population to be around 25,000, with predominantly Yup'ik / Cup'ik Eskimo inhabitants. What could be attributed to the slowest Western infiltration in Alaska, (the Y-K Delta's lack of easily extractable resources and remoteness of our region) our region is the least influenced in Western lifestyle in regard to language, art, culture and economy. Our villages are the most avidly practicing customary and traditional Subsistence users in the United States. The socioeconomic characterization of our region is similar to a Lesser Developed Country (LDC). Before the Magnuson Act, our people stood on the shores of their seasonal food camps and watched international fleets fish off our coasts, destroying species and stocks in their wake and affecting our Subsistence needs. Most prevalent were the Japanese; whose economists dubbed our region, "The Fourth World," to describe the phenomena of third world standard of living conditions within a first world country. Since the early 1970's, and prior to the MIAPA, AVCP subcontracted marine mammal studies and traditional knowledge reports through scientific and technical staff of Nunam. Kitlutsisti (Stewards of the Land). We joined in lobbying the UN and the U.S. and Russian governments to ban high seas driftnet fishing and succeeded. Nunam Kitlutsisti was eventually absorbed into the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) of AVCP. Since then, AVCP has been an actively participating in meetings with the Indigenous Peoples Council on Marine Mammals (IPCoMM), the Eskimo Walrus Commission (EWC), and the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee (ABWC). For decades, AVCP has tried to improve the growing-pains of the assimilation process for Yup'ik Cup'ik immersion into Western economy standards, while maintaining an enduring Native culture. AVCP coordinates regional, social, educational, economic and land / resource management programs. The DNR is extensively involved in programs with the Yukon Delta National Wildlife Refuge (YDNWR), and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. On shared resource issues we work extensively with other Native regional groups along with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Department of Fish and Game. AVCP has been co-managing programs with YDNWR and the Togiak National Wildlife Refuge in the following programs: Western Alaska Brown Bear Management Area Agreement, Qauilnguut (Kilbuck) Caribou Herd Management Plan, Lower Yukon Moose Management Plan, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Goose Management Plan (Waterfowl Conservation Committee), Imarpigmiut Ungungsiit Murilkestfit (IUM) (Watchers of the Sea Mammals), Lower Kuskokwim Moose Management Plan, Kuskokwim River Drainage Fisheries Association, Kwethluk Counting Tower (Salmon spawning monitoring), Lower Kuskokwim Moose Management Area. Imarpigmiut Ungungsht Murilkestiit (IUM) (Watchers of the Sea Mammals) AVCP / IUM currently represents 26 coastal villages and voices concerns regarding marine mammal Subsistence and the health and viability of the Bering Sea. With the development of an Iced Seals Commission under our marine mammal program, we are fully prepared to involve all Iced Seals Subsistence user groups in the State of Alaska. AVCP / IUM intends to develop the scientific, traditional and technical expertise we need to become full partners in cooperative management to the benefit of federal partners and for the conservation and Subsistence use of marine mammals. IUM members will conduct harvest and population surveys, take, and samples for scientific studies, determine age and perform necropsies before or during the dressing of our harvests. Essentially, we empower ourselves in the pursuit of our daily bread, and continue to take advantage of and protect the wealth of resources that our lands and waters offers us. Currently, due to funding issues and existing infrastructure of Section 119 of the MMPA, AVCP / TUM do not receive funding. To date, there is only limited data on our region's marine mammal populations and take. The best available data is dated from the mid-1970. It is no secret that in our region exists an information gap that neither the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service nor the Alaska Department of Fish and Game have been able to fill. The creation of IUM intends to address the information gap. We recognize the need for more attention to our people's dependence on marine mammals for Subsistence beyond what the Walrus, Beluga or Steller Sea Lion Commissions affords us. Therefore, after the initial development of a Statewide Iced Seals Commission, we will expand to an ecosystem- wide, multi-marine mammal management group for our region. It is AVCP / IUM's intent to pro-actively manage marine mammal stocks to prevent listings under the MMPA through co-management agreements. We envision a holistic, ecosystem-based organization for marine mammal management within our region. Our species are broad and plentiful; our harvests are responsible and sustainable. We want to integrate traditional knowledge with science and create a technically capable user group. ICED SEALS COMMISSION The most valuable marine mammal group in our region is the Iced Seals; we feel that the best way to achieve the goals of our regional organization is to garner the responsibilities of co - management for Iced - Seals as the foundation of our marine mammal program. We respectfully request your support in helping us achieve this co-management agreement with the National Marine Fisheries Service as we commence our negotiations. With the assistance of The Alaska Sea Otter and Steller Sea Lion Commission (TASSC), AVCP / IUM is developing a funding proposal that outlines our project priorities in an agency acceptable format. When we have finalized the proposal, AVCP / IUM will forward a copy to the Subcommittee for your information. What we have included in this testimony is an example of the costs associated with IUM business in the AVCP region, and a projected 5-year budget for the IUM program. Keep in mind, we do not yet have funding for these projections. We have also included pictures that range from the early 1900's to modem hunts to portray our region's ancient relationship with Marine Mammals. While the Navy has dropped controversial plans to deploy dolphins for underwater surveillance at a Washington state submarine base, it will continue to maintain a longtime marine mammal training program in California. The Navy canceled its plans last month to station dolphins at its submarine base at Bangor, Wash., citing the reallocation of funds within the Defense Department and the need for budget reductions. The Navy said its Naval Ocean Systems Center in San Diego, where many dolphins are trained, will "maintain plans to expeditiously resume" the dolphin deployment program if it proved necessary. Navy spokesman Tom Lapuzza said 109 dolphins are being trained in San Diego, Key West, Fla., and Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii. The battle over the dolphin training began in April 1989 when the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) filed suit against the Navy to prevent it from sending dolphins to its submarine base on Hood Canal in Bangor. "I think we convinced the Navy that the program should be cut," said PAWS dolphin campaign coordinator Laurie Raymond. Animal rights groups, she said, feared that many of the 100 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in the Navy program would die if they were used as underwater policemen in the chilly waters of Puget Sound. "I want the whole program to end," she said. "I don't think animals should be trained for war. The fact that dolphins are not in the Middle East during this conflict seems to indicate that the Navy is not altogether convinced that they're adequate weapons of war." In May 1990, the Navy, in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act, agreed to do an environmental impact statement concerning potential health risks to dolphins if they should be deployed to Puget Sound. It also said it would review environmental studies by animal rights groups. Last September, the Navy conducted a public meeting in Silverdale, Wash., asking for comments on how it might improve its deployment plan. The Navy has said it will release the environmental findings. During the Vietnam War, five dolphins were sent to Cam Ranh Bay for underwater surveillance, and in 1986, the Navy sent six dolphins to the Persian Gulf, where they reportedly were used for mine detection during the war between Iran and Iraq. The Navy said that from 1986 to 1988, 13 dolphins in its program died. One of those deaths came in 1988 during surveillance in Puget Sound, the Navy said. In response to allegations by a former Navy animal trainer and animal rights activists who accused the Navy of mistreating its sea lions and dolphins, the Marine Mammal Commission conducted two investigations. Both times the Navy's program was found to be caring properly for its animals, although the Navy acknowledged there were cases of animal mistreatment by Navy trainers. "In the last year and a half, we have had no deaths in our program," Lapuzza said, adding that over the last seven years the Navy marine mammal program has recorded a 95 percent survival rate. "The {Defense Department} is and has been for several years looking very closely at all of its programs to determine where it can affect budget efficiency . . . this program was the victim of one of those budget cuts." The smart and winsome creatures leap their way into human hearts like no other animal _ and now they're at the center of a dispute that is splitting the animal rights movement. Can a thoroughly trained dolphin, able to delight crowds with sleek acrobatics or guard U.S. Navy ships from enemy divers, be returned to the open sea for life in the wild Judging from the Hollywood Free Willy'' story line, it seems simple. Just jump the fence and go. In real life, it's not so easy. Disastrous results _ both for the dolphins and the freedom movement have resulted from the most recent attempt. The debate is especially intense, because dolphins have such a hold on human emotion. Their intelligence and charm are overwhelming, and few can resist responding to their anatomical smiles and engaging squeals. The Atlantic bottlenose dolphin, a coastal species familiar to anyone who has spent time on the water, is particularly trainable and lovable. Kids who see one on television decide to grow up and become dolphin biologists. Hordes of people want to see them, swim with them _ and free them. The relations between Homo sapiens and Tursiops truncatus are complex. On one side of the debate are people like Ric O'Barry. He started out as a dolphin trainer, working on the old Flipper'' TV series. Now he's a founding father of the dolphin freedom movement. On May 23, O'Barry freed Luther and Buck, two former Navy dolphins who came to Sugarloaf Dolphin Sanctuary in 1994. He carried them in a boat off Key West and dropped them off in the Gulf of Mexico near a pod of wild dolphins, free to fish and play and mate as dolphins like to do. But Buck and Luther showed that old habits die hard. For a week, they were spotted around Key West, popping up beside boats and chirping for handouts. Both were finally scooped up by federal authorities. Both had gashes that might have been from boat propellers. Luther has been flown by the Navy back to California. Buck is at the Dolphin Research Center, fighting an infection. O'Barry says his release was sabotaged by federal agencies and marine park trainers who have a stake in frustrating successful releases. Both dolphins were fed by well-meaning boaters and willingly followed a pinger'' into enclosures. But O'Barry said they would have survived in the wild if they had only been left alone. If you leave them alone, they will catch live fish,'' O'Barry said. They're not stupid. They've been around for 65 million years, and you have to give them some credit for being able to catch a fish.'' O'Barry blames the fate of Buck and Luther on the federal agencies and dolphin trainers who brought them back under human care. He says there is too much at stake millions of dollars in admissions to theme parks, advertising and hundreds of jobs. On the other side of the debate are people like Gregory Bossart. The University of Miami School of Medicine pathologist examined Buck and Luther after their capture. After nearly two weeks in the wild, he says, Buck was so thin that his body was starting to break down essential tissues to survive. A consulting vet to Miami Seaquarium, Bossart has worked with hundreds of dolphins and manatees. He understands their appeal to human emotion. He says release efforts must follow strict scientific rules, with careful preparation and follow-up to make sure the animals are OK. It makes us feel wonderful to release wild animals. It makes me feel good; I release manatees and sea turtles. But it's very important that these animals meet very specific criteria,'' Bossart said. It's tantamount to animal cruelty if we continue to let our feelings get too involved in animal releases,'' he said. Ultimately, it's the animals that suffer. No matter what agenda is being proposed, the animals are the ones that get caught right in the middle.'' In the short term, Bossart's view has prevailed. Luther and Buck are back under human care, and a third Navy dolphin named Jake was seized from the Sugarloaf sanctuary and sent back to San Diego. The National Marine Fisheries Service has a new rule requiring a scientific research permit before any dolphin is released. The agency is also pursuing a case against O'Barry under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Trevor Spradlin, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist who came to the Keys to rescue Buck and Luther, says this case is precedent-setting and the perfect example of why releases must be carefully done. This entire thing is tragic,'' he said. The animals were injured. The animals were emaciated. The animals were starving to death, because they did not know how to forage for food.'' The chaos surrounding Luther and Buck comes during a time of great strides for the anti-captivity movement. After a public outcry about conditions of his containment, the star of Free Willy,'' a killer whale named Keiko, has been moved from Mexico to Oregon (though there is no prospect that he can actually be released in his native waters of Iceland). England has banned captivity for dolphins and whales. So has South Carolina. Animal rights advocates believe that some day dolphin shows will be seen as we now look at bear - baiting as cruel and demeaning exploitation of the animals for our amusement. Nowhere are the stakes higher than in Florida. Of the 326 Atlantic bottlenose dolphins in captivity, 141 of them are in Florida the most of any state. Other groups in the animal rights movement blame O'Barry for their current predicament. The Humane Society of the United States helped get the Navy dolphins to Sugarloaf. Naomi Rose, a Humane Society marine mammal scientist, says she is appalled by the events of the last few weeks. Dana Carnegie of the Dolphin Research Center, a penned lagoon on Grassy Key that offers educational tours and swim-with-the-dolphin programs, said the staff is concerned about Buck, who hasn't been eating well since his return. Rick Trout, who worked at Sugarloaf at the start, then left after clashing with O'Barry, is a frequent critic of the captive industry and the federal agencies that oversee dolphin care. But he said they're not to blame for the fate of Luther and Buck. By any measure, it was an extraordinary response to a worrisome mystery involving one of America's most beloved animals. Scientists and officials from the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Marine Mammal Commission and the Fisheries Service, along with Smithsonian Institution experts, gathered in Virginia Beach, Va., last week to plot strategy and search for clues. The U.S. Navy flew in vital equipment to a hastily established command post. Officials from Orlando's Sea World oceanarium hustled north to join the investigative team. Four federal and private labs around the country stood by to assist. The object of all the concern Dolphins, dying in unprecedented numbers along the East Coast. Since early July, the carcasses of some 200dolphins have washed ashore on beaches from New Jersey to the Virginia-North Carolina border. Uncounted numbers of others have probably been eaten by sharks at sea, creating a chilling mortality rate in a mid-Atlantic bottle-nosed-dolphin population estimated to number 1,500. The cause of the deaths--be it man-made pollution or a natural occurrence --has scientists baffled. "We've never seen anything like this in a dolphin--or a whale--population,' says Dr. Robert Hofman, one of the leaders of the scientific team."At this point, we haven't a clue.' Few sea creatures enjoy a closer hold on the nation's affection than the bottle-nosed dolphin. Gregarious and highly intelligent, these sleek mammals are mainstay attractions at oceanariums, delighting visitors with spectacular acrobatics. They balance beach balls on their noses, toss Frisbees, ring bells and "walk' on water on their powerful tails. Dolphins have such high intelligence that several animal-rights group's campaign against their confinement in any conditions, likening it to jailing an innocent person. Autopsies on several of the emaciated animals revealed fluid in the lungs, chest and stomach along with organ abnormalities, lacerated mouths and necrotic flesh. At week's end, scientists were hoping Sea World's expert dolphin wranglers could catch several live diseased animals to permit more detailed studies, although quick answers aren't expected. Like the suicidal mass beaching by pilot whales that have long puzzled scientists, the cause of the dolphin deaths may remain a mystery as deep as the sea itself. Works Cited ADNAN MALIK, AP World stream; Nov 19, 2004, Associated Press Arieh O'sullivan. Jerusalem Post; Dec 12, 2004 Don Oldenburg. The Washington Post; Apr 7, 2003 Patrick Cockburn in Moscow. The Independent - London; Oct 20, 1999 Seattle Times (Seattle, WA); Mar 29, 2007 The Journal (Newcastle, England); Aug 12, 2003 Read More