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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 6, 1977)
Festival continues battle against whalers By SARAH MCDONALD Of the Emerald "Save the Whale” is the battle cry which will be heard at the first Eugene Whale Festival, May 10-12 in the EMU Ballroom. Ex hibits, art work and music all focusing on whales will be in cluded in the Survival Center's celebration. "This is a consciousness rais ing event to make people aware of what’s happening to the whales,” comments Pete Schubert of the Survival Center. Many whales are near extinc tion and largest whales of existing species are very rare. "It’s like when trees are cut down, they are killed before they can mature,” notes Schubert. Another cause of extinction is that the whales can’t find each other in order to breed. The United States protects whales under the Marine Mammal Act of 1972, but other countries continue to kill them. Russia, Japan and countries in South America, Africa and Northern Europe are the main whalers. They are each allowed a quota of whales by the International Whal ing Commission (IWC). Japan, for example, is allowed 8,900 minke, 1,863 sei, 3,894 male sperm and 894 female sperm whales in the northern hemisphere. They can also take 4,320 male sperm, 2,880 female sperm, and 541 minke a year in the southern hemisphere. "No illegal whales are taken by Japan. We catch within the limit set by the IWC," says Sado Higuchi, Japanese Consul in Port land. They are evading the issue," notes Bruce Walker, director of the Survival Center, "The IWC is made up of the whaling countries, so of course they will allow the killing." He feels this may drive the whales to extinction. The IWC has been asked re peatedly by Greenpeace and other organizations to stop killing the whales. "There is a chance they will this year,” says Schubert, "If the large countries stop, then this will put pressure on the smal ler countries." “The Japanese use the whole whale, unlike European countries who take only the oil,” comments Higuchi. He notes that the Japanese use the meat for food and have been doing so for hun r they will perform outside the EMU. A schedule will be posted. Noon — Exhibit area opens, featuring artwork by local artists and Eugene school children. The General Whale exhibit with art by Larry Foster is also featured. May 11: 9 a.m. — Exhibit area opens until 4 p.m. on the song of the same title by David Crosby and Graham Nash. 2:30 p.m. — Cumulo Nimbus; Meg Stormont and Kevin Barnes with special music and a special song for the whales. 3 p.m. — Bruce Mate of the Oregon Marine Science Center speaking on “Marine Mammals— i Emerald (toeing dreds of years. Whales are used mainly for their oil in most countries. It is the highest tension oil in existence and was used in most auto trans missions before the Marine Mammals Act made it illegal to import the oil. Most products con taining whale parts have substi tutes. Meadowfoam, a plant hyb rid, produced at Oregon State University can be processed to simulate whale oil. Most substi tutes such as this are not econom ically feasible yet, so whaling con tinues. The Eugene Whale Festival will concentrate on the fight against whaling and what is being done by organizations around the world to stop the slaughter of whales. A schedule of the events cover ing the three-day affair follows: May 10:10 a.m. through the even ing — local musicians, poets and artists will be generating good will for the whales. If the sun shines, until 4 p.m. 10 a.m. English professor Barre Toeken, will lecture on “Whales in Mythology,” a look at whales in the white man's mythology and a contrast of that perspective to the whale mythology of the northwest Native American. Noon — Cindy Baker of Green peace Oregon, will present Greenpeace’s activist role in marine mammal issues. They have recently returned from New foundland protesting the harpseal slaughter. Included with the presentation-Encounter 75, film footage of the confrontation with the Russian whalers on the high seas. 130 p.m. — Bill McDonald of the Cousteau Society will speak on “Whales, Men and the Economy of Nature.” The presen tation will include the Cousteau film, “Oasis in Space” and ‘Wind on the Water,” a short film based Six Oregon students receive OSPIRG summer internships Six Oregon University students have been cho sen to serve as 1977 summer interns for the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG). Andy Kerr, an Oregon State University student, will study U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) roadless areas. Energy conservation, the office of the public util ity commissioner and utility rate structures will be studied by Larry Kitchen. Kitchen is a second year law student at Willamette School of Law in Salem. Alean Kirnak, a University student, will study municipal costs of residential development, specifi cally the cost of laying down streets, electricity, and water. Another University student, Dave Tobin, will in vestigate government agency responsiveness to citizen complaints. Cindy Spencer, first year law student at the Uni versity will study juvenile detention policies, proce dures and facilities in Oregon. Nancy (Ned) Duhnkrack, a University student is the sixth intern. She will be studying the Grand Ronde Basin for possible inclusion in the Oregon Scenic Waterway Act. Interns were selected by a committee of stu dents from Portland State University, University of Oregon and Lewis and Clark College. The six interns will work under the supervision of OSPIRG staff. f, EMU Food Service BEER GARDEN TODAY 4-7 p.m. EMU PATIO 1 special Lien iTay *i.uu (meats, cheeses, w/salad) Glass 350 Pitcher $1.50 Entertainment By c Tumalo String Band’ FREE POPCORN!!! Giant Slice of Pizza 50c Ml Where to Now?” His topics in dude the history of whaling and the present status of whale stocks, how long can whaling con tinue? Will existing domestic and international legislation be effec tive in protecting the whales? May 12: 10 a.m. — Exhibit area opens all day. 1 p.m. — Michael Gannon of Oregonians Cooperating to Pro tect the Whales. Active for many months in Oregon promoting Se nate Bill 345 (the Whale Bill), Gannon will speak on Marine mammals as a grassroots issue. 2 p.m. — Bob Schwendinger, author and historian. The Lan guage of the Sea,” a lec ture/concert of songs, readings and slides about whalers, dip pers, Western Ocean packets, schooners, dress and seaiore of the 19th century seafarer. 3 p.m. — After the Whale, a film on whales and whaling by Time Life Multimedia. It is an excep tionally powerful film. 4 p.m. Special Surprise Guest Speaker. 8 p.m. — Flutist Paul Horn. Horn’s music, blended with the music of the sea to produce “a space of peace and hope.” Involvement in whale protection has become very popular in Lane County. The county commission ers recently passed a whale ordi nance, appointed Country Joe McDonald as “Commodore of the Lane County Navy,” and named May 1 as “Whale Day.” They have also been trying to get Gov. Bob Straub and Pres. Jimmy Carter to make Whale Day a state or even a national event. Most acts taken by the commis sioners are symbolic. “It is still significant that the community leaders support the protection of whales,” says Schubert, one of the instigators of the Whale Festi val. He feels they have received a lot of support from the people in Eugene. “They will back you in anything that is good in the long run,” Schubert notes, “they have a long range outlook relating to the land and earth." Whales are not very plentiful along the beaches in Lane County, but they can be observed elsewhere along the Oregon Coastline. The grey whale, which migrates from the Bering Sea to Baja California, is the most plenti ful. They are bottom feeders, so they come dose to shore and are quite visible. Other, less frequent visitors are the sperm, blue, sei and humpback whales. High promitories such as Heceta Head, Cape Perpetua and Cape Foul Weather are the best places to go to observe whales. This is not the best time of year for whale watching but some whales may be coming up from California according to Dale Snow, assistant marine region supervisor for the Fish and Wild life Department. EMU Cultural Forum presents Dudley Riggs’ Brave New Workshop “One of the oldest and most successful satirical revues in the country — In the satire family, they are first cousins to the National Lampoon.” Monday, May 9 EMU Ballroom, 8:00 pm $3.00 — U of O Students $4.50 — General Public Available at EMU Main Desk
