The planet: Dolphin protest

Published on Saturday 6 September 2008 19:36

CAMPAIGNERS demonstrated outside the Japanese embassy in London last week as part of an international protest against dolphin hunting.

Protesters claim Japan kills 20,000 small whales, dolphins and porpoises each year in "appallingly cruel" hunts which get less attention than the country's controversial "scientific" whaling expeditions.

Dozens of campaigners, including one dressed in a dolphin costume, gathered outside the embassy in Piccadilly, London, to hand in a petition.

POLLUTED GULLS

A SMALL Arctic gull has set a record as the bird most contaminated by two banned industrial pollutants.

Eggs of the ivory gull, which has a population of about 14,000 from Siberia to Canada, were found to have the highest concentrations of PCBs, used in products such as paints or plastics, and the pesticide DDT. The Norwegian Polar Institute said: "Environmental poisons are threatening ivory gulls."

FIERCER CYCLONES

SCIENTISTS have found the clearest evidence yet that warming oceans are whipping up more powerful cyclone storms.

The strongest tropical cyclones appear to be getting stronger, a study of satellite data spanning 25 years has shown.

With the exception of the South Pacific Ocean, the same pattern was seen all round the world.

The greatest changes occurred in the North Atlantic and northern Indian oceans, both of which have been lashed by violent storms this year.

STRONSAY BEAST

A MYSTERIOUS sea creature washed up on the shore in Orkney two centuries years ago could be identified by pioneering DNA techniques.

The remains of the creature, dubbed the Stronsay Beast, were found on Orkney in 1808.

Some have suggested it was a basking shark, but this has been disputed due to its unusually large size.

Geneticist Yvonne Simpson, who has been studying the remains since 2001, believes newly recovered bone fragments from the creature may hold the key to solving the mystery.