When I first read the news that NASA was going to start experimenting on monkeys with radiation to study the effects of deep space travel, my heart sunk. As an anthropologist who has studied non-human primates I have seen up close the emotions, the feelings, and the physical qualities we share with our evolutionary cousins. My mind went back to shooting chimps into space, not caring if they lived or died. To cruel (and now illegal) experiments of all kinds performed on our closest living relative.

Now NASA is planing to irradiate squirrel monkeys. Scientists are particularly interested in studying how the radiation impacts the monkeys’ central nervous systems and behaviors over time. Messing with the monkeys brains. Oh great!

As I kept reading the article though, I started to see that maybe we have made some progress after all. For the new study, 18 to 28 squirrel monkeys will be exposed to a low dose of the type of radiation that astronauts traveling to Mars can expect to encounter. Low dose… well maybe that isn’t so bad.

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Last Tuesday, EcoWorldly Staff Writer Bryan Nelson wrote an article on thesuspension of dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan. The suspension came off of Japanese local media swarming on Taiji, after the award winning documentary film “The Cove” put the spotlight on the small Japanese village that slaughters thousands of dolphins every year.

Ric O’Barry, the dolphin trainer and activist who brought the location to the attention of filmmakers, returned to the site of the slaughter this week, just as the annual “hunt” would normally begin. However, this time with all of the media attention, no dolphins were killed in the first 2 days of the season.

“It has been an exciting morning and the people here are very hostile, but as long as this goes on and we keep the pressure on, they cannot hunt the dolphins.” -Ric O’Barry

Sadly, O’Barry admits solemnly, this is only temporary. O’Barry keeping a watchful eye on the dolphin fishermen, has managed to disrupt the first two days of the annual dolphin hunt in the Japanese town of Taiji, but accepts that as soon as he leaves the fishermen will resume the killing.

“It’s very expensive for me be here and I can’t stay for the whole six months of the season”-Ric O’Barry

According to the Japan Fisheries Agency, around 20,000 dolphins will be killed all around Japan this season. The documentary revealed that dolphin meat is often sold illegally to the Japanese school system, and that school children often have no idea that what they are eating is dolphin meat. Dolphin meat has been shown to have high levels of mercury, which can be a huge problem for developing children.

On the coast of Japan, fishermen set out in dozens of boats and chase down a pod of dolphins. They then surround the pod with their boats, and create loud noises with metal poles, to frighten the dolphins into a net at the mouth of the bay. They leave for the day as the dolphins struggle within the nets frantically. The fishermen come back the next day to find “worthy” specimens. Fishermen tie a rope around the dolphins tail fin, and literally drag the dolphins to the coast for slaughter. The crystal blue ocean water turns crimson with the blood of the dolphins, as their necks are slit one by one and thrown onto an awaiting boat.

Dolphin fishermen will not just give up easily because of a little media attention, as each dolphin sold for meat will net them around $500 apiece. Each dolphin that they believed can be trained for aquariums can net them $150,000.

O’Barry is only staying in town for a week, and has already encountered angry locals at what they perceive to be interference in their industry.  On Tuesday morning, as he tried to enter a grocery store, the head of the fishing union blocked the door and refused to allow him to buy any food. As soon as O’Barry leaves Taiji, media attention will wane, and the dolphin slaughter will continue.

The film “The Cove” has gone a long way in raising awareness. You can check to see if their are any screenings of the film in your area here. Spread the word. If enough people around the world know about what is happening in Taiji, O’Barry will no longer be the lone voice of protest that stands between the dolphins and those that wish to slaughter them.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk, The Cove

Image Credit: Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Originally Published: September 8, 2009 http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/09/08/japanese-dolphin-slaughter-to-continue-despite-current-suspension/

Researchers in California believe they have hit the jackpot in modern medical breakthroughs. The cure for AIDS.

The researchers have published a study in the journal Science,demonstrating two powerful new antibodies which could hold the key to achieving a viable AIDS vaccine. It has been well known for several years that a very small percentage of people are immune to the HIV virus, but it was never discovered quite how. Now, researchers were able to isolate the antibodies that neutralize a high percentage of the virus’s different forms currently in circulation worldwide.

Now that these antibodies have been discovered, it is only a matter of finding out if people at large can produce these antibodies themselves after exposure to the vaccine. The antibodies, described as “broadly neutralizing,” have isolated a new target on the HIV virus that has not been utilized by other vaccine attempts. Just four other broadly neutralizing antibodies have been found to date, and they functioned by binding to places on the virus that have proven difficult to exploit.

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Problem

Almost one half of non-human primates are at risk of extinction, and none more so than gorillas. Gorillas are disappearing at an alarming rate, mostly a victim of their surroundings. Political unrest, wars, poachers, miners, and loggers all converging in a perfect storm of brutality and human depravity, killing one of our closest living relatives. Gorilla’s DNA is 98-99% an exact match for human DNA, just barely trailing our closest living relatives (genus Pan, chimpanzees and bonobos). Unfortunately for the gorillas, they occupy a region rich in tin, diamonds, gold and coltan (a rare mineral used to create capacitors for cellphones, games consoles and laptops).

There are actually 2 different species of gorillas, and up to 6 different sub-species, although there is some debate about lumping or splitting the phylogeny. It makes little difference as all species of gorillas are endangered. All live in tropical or sub tropical areas of Africa. Gorillas are highly intelligent. Famously, the gorilla Koko was taught American Sign Language. She understands over 2,000 words and carries on conversations. Koko also cares for several cats, one of the few non-humans to have pets.

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I will donate each and every dollar generated from this article to charity. That is determined by the number of views that this article receives. So help get this article as many views as possible. On digg, yahoo, reddit, e-mail it, tweet it. Do whatever you can, every view will help. All proceeds will go to one of the charities listed below for cancer research. Thanks for your help.

A few days ago I learned that someone very important to me’s mother was not in good shape. She has been fighting cancer for many years now. Fighting the fight that unfortunately many of us have seen, either first or second hand. This article is dedicated to her. Please send your thoughts, prayers, positive energy or whatever you personally believe her way.

Cancer is defined as any group of cells that display uncontrolled growth. Nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic code that create the cells in our body. These abnormalities could be caused by pollutants, chemicals, sunshine, hormones, microbes, or just random bad luck. There are many ways to damage the fragile DNA that lives inside almost all of the cells in our bodies.

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