IFAW was pleased to contribute to a unique project just published by NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) about a memoir written by a now deceased Russian scientist documenting the Soviet Union's whaling activities from roughly the period of 1950-1980 is available from the NMFS site.

The memoir, written by A.A. Berzin is described by the author in the following preface:

I have always condemned (and to do anything more was not within our power or abilities) the illegal and sometimes destructive whaling by the Soviet Union. This opinion was expressed in numerous documents, including reports and records of presentations at scientific and other meetings; these documents are the witnesses to this condemnation. However, none of these documents ever saw the light of day: all of them were marked with the sinister stamp “secret.” When necessary in this memoir, my opinion of the whaling will be supported by data drawn from these documents.

From todays Toronto Sun newspaper

BY ARIEL DAVID, AP

The songs that whales and dolphins use to communicate, orient themselves and find mates are being drowned out by human-made noises in the world's oceans, UN officials and environmental groups said yesterday.

That sound pollution -- everything from increasing commercial shipping and seismic surveys to a new generation of military sonar -- is not only confounding the mammals, it also is further threatening the survival of these endangered animals.

Studies show that these cetaceans, which once communicated over thousands of kilometers to forage and mate, are losing touch with each other, the experts said on the sidelines of a UN wildlife conference in Rome.