Japanese rescuers save finless porpoise stranded in rice paddy by tsunami

Animal rescuers working to save imperiled dogs and cats in the wake of Japan's earthquake and tsunami wound up helping a very different, but just as needy, sort of animal: a young finless porpoise.

The porpoise had become trapped in a flooded rice paddy in Japan's Miyagi prefecture after the March 11 tsunami and was struggling and growing weak in the shallow water.

"A man passing by said he had found the [porpoise] in the rice paddy and that we had to do something to save it," Ryo Taira, a pet-store owner who has been instrumental in rescuing animals affected by the earthquake, told Reuters.

Taira and other volunteers rushed to save the animal, fashioning a stretcher of sorts from objects -- including a futon mattress -- strewn in the area. But they were unable to catch the porpoise with a net.

Eventually, Taira managed to catch the porpoise in his arms -- a feat he speculated to Reuters was possible only because the creature was so exhausted from its ordeal.

According to Agence France-Presse, damage to nearby aquariums caused by the disaster left the rescuers with no choice but to release the porpoise into the ocean. They wrapped it in wet towels for the trip back to open water and set it free.

Taira told Reuters that the porpoise's condition seemed to improve when it was returned to the ocean. "I don't know if it will live, but it's certainly a lot better than dying in a rice paddy," Reuters quoted the rescuer as telling Japan's Asahi Shumbun news organization.

Rare Pacific gray whale tracked on migration from Russia had previously been in North American waters

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Marine researchers say a rare whale tracked across the Pacific Ocean into North American waters this year had been there before.

Photo analysis has confirmed that the highly endangered western Pacific gray whale dubbed Flex -- one of only 130 remaining -- was photographed in 2008 off Canada's Vancouver Island and was assumed to be part of the eastern gray whale population.

U.S and Russian researchers started tracking the male whale Oct. 4 when they tagged him with a satellite tracker off Sakhalin Island, Russia, as part of research into where the animals spend winters.

The whale left Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on Jan. 3 and began swimming east. It swam halfway across the Bering Sea, turned southand swam between Aleutian Islands into the Gulf of Alaska. It continued southeast to shallow coastal waters off Washington and Oregon. Its last confirmed location was Feb. 4 off Siletz Bay, Ore., where researchers believe the satellite tag fell off. The whale had traveled 5,335 miles over 124 days.

The project stirred the interest of other whale researchers, said Dave Weller, a marine mammal ecologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla.

'Cove' director gives copies of dolphin slaughter documentary to residents of Japanese village of Taiji

TOKYO — Copies of the 2010 Oscar-winning film that depicts the slaughter of dolphins in the Japanese fishing village of Taiji have been delivered free to its residents, compliments of the director.

Louie Psihoyos, director of "The Cove," said Monday that the film dubbed in Japanese was delivered via regular mail over the weekend to all households, with the help of a local group called People Concerned for the Ocean.

An official at Taiji city hall confirmed that two copies of the DVD had been received, but no one had looked at them yet.

Psihoyos said he was concerned that many Japanese have yet to see the film, but especially the 3,500 people of Taiji in the southwest of the country.

"The people in Taiji deserve to know what millions of others around the world have learned about their town," said the U.S. director.

"The Cove" received a Best Documentary Oscar a year ago for its scathing portrayal of Taiji's dolphin-hunting tradition. It showed about a dozen fishermen scaring the dolphins with metallic banging noises into a cove, then stabbing them as they bled and writhed in the water.

Japan suspends its whaling expedition after harassment by Sea Shepherd anti-whaling group

TOKYO — Japan has temporarily suspended its annual Antarctic whaling after repeated harassment by a conservationist group, a government official said Wednesday.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society ships have been chasing the Japanese whaling fleet for weeks in the icy seas off Antarctica, trying to block Japan's annual whale hunt, planned for up to 945 whales.

Japan has halted the hunt since Feb. 10 after persistent "violent" disruptions by the anti-whaling protesters, said fisheries agency official Tatsuya Nakaoku.

So far, the attacks have not caused any injuries or major damage to the vessels, he said, but the protesters are throwing rancid butter in bottles and once the protesters got a rope entangled in the propeller on a harpoon vessel, causing it to slow down.

"We have temporarily suspended our research whaling to ensure safety," he said. The fleet plans to resume hunting when conditions are deemed safe, he added, but declined to say how long the suspension will last.

The Sea Shepherd group has been shadowing Japan's whaling fleet for several years, and its campaign has drawn high-profile donor support in the United States and elsewhere and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars."

Dog and dolphin forge an unusual friendship in Ireland

How's this for evidence that we really can all get along? A Labrador retriever named Ben and a dolphin named Duggie inexplicably became the best of friends a few years back, despite the fact that one lives on land and the other lives in the ocean.

Dublin's Independent newspaper reported that locals on Tory Island, off the coast of County Donegal in Ireland, first spotted Duggie the dolphin in the spring of 2006. The dolphin became popular with locals and tourists alike; Duggie was a frequent sight from the decks of incoming ferry boats.

Soon, Ben the Lab started swimming out to meet the dolphin, and the unusual pair would play for hours. Other local dogs even joined in.

Duggie, whom locals named in honor of island celebrity Willie Duggan, hung around Tory Island -- sometimes taking breaks to swim with a traveling pod of dolphins -- for a few years before sightings stopped. We like to think Duggie eventually joined a pod for good. Fortunately, the delightful dog-dolphin friendship was captured on video for posterity.

See more videos of Ben and Duggie after the jump!

Scientists track rare western Pacific gray whale's migratory path to the Gulf of Alaska

ANCHORAGE -- A highly endangered whale that spends summers in Russian waters has crossed from the Bering Sea into the Gulf of Alaska.

American and Russian researchers have tracked the 13-year-old male western Pacific gray whale, dubbed "Flex," from Russia across the Bering Sea, through the Aleutian Islands into the Gulf of Alaska about 400 miles south of the Alaskan fishing community of Cordova.

Bruce Mate, head of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, called the whale's location "pretty darn amazing." No one has documented winter habits of western gray whales, he said. Others of the species may spend winters elsewhere, but a route over deep water in the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska is "something of a paradigm shift" given that eastern gray whales are considered near-shore animals.

"Flex is writing a new chapter for western gray whales, but there may be several chapters to be written yet," he said.

Dolphins' ability to mimic one another is tested in new 'blindfold' study

GRASSY KEY, Fla. — In a lagoon in the Florida Keys, trainer Emily Guarino blindfolds a male dolphin named Tanner with special latex goggles. "You ready, Tanner?" Guarino asks the young dolphin, waiting beside his companion, Kibby.

At a command, another trainer gets Kibby to say "hello" by flapping his fins on the water, splashing noisily in the enclosed lagoon at the Dolphin Research Center here, which houses 22 dolphins and is one of the leaders in dolphin cognitive studies.

"Can you imitate what Kibby is doing?" Guarino asks Tanner. Within seconds, Tanner is splashing "hello" -- a seemingly extraordinary feat given the blindfolded dolphin appears to only be using sound to perceive and imitate the actions of his fellow dolphin.

It turns out dolphins are master imitators that somehow can "see" their environment despite blindfolds. But exactly how such a dolphin can mimic another's action is a matter of ongoing scientific study.

Dr. Kelly Jaakkola, director of the nonprofit marine mammal research center, said the research to better understand dolphin intelligence will surely help further their conservation. She said such studies may also be helpful in better grasping the complexities of human intelligence.

Rare western Pacific gray whale is tracked by scientists on his migration from Russia to Alaska

ANCHORAGE — A highly endangered whale is making good time as it continues its journey east from Russian waters toward Alaska.

U.S. and Russia researchers have tracked the 13-year-old male western Pacific gray whale to a location about 80 miles north of St. Paul Island, part of Alaska's Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea.

Bruce Mate, director of Oregon State University's Marine Mammal Institute, said the whale was detected there Thursday. Foul weather has hampered updates from the satellite-monitored radio tag affixed to the whale by researchers in September.

"The weather out there is really crummy," he said.

Researchers have been tracking the whale since they tagged it off Russia's Sakhalin Island. They had hoped to tag 12 western Pacific gray whales but were limited to one, on the last day of field work, by typhoons and gales.

'Cove' star Ric O'Barry meets with Sting about Taiji dolphin slaughter

Sting wants to help save dolphins still being brutally slaughtered in Japan, but says the best way is by starting a debate, not by forcing foreign opinion.

The British music star met backstage at a Tokyo concert hall Wednesday with Ric O'Barry, the star of the "The Cove," the Academy Award-winning documentary that depicts the dolphin hunt in the town of Taiji in southwestern Japan.

The two have been friends since the Sundance Film Festival two years ago, where "The Cove" had its first major showing.

The film, directed by Louie Psihoyos, shows dolphins driven into a cove and stabbed by fishermen on small boats, turning the water red with blood, as the dolphins writhe in agony.

"I was blown away by the movie," Sting told The Associated Press before his concert. "We should not be eating dolphins."

Sting, in Asia for his Symphonicity tour, said he's sympathetic to the save-the-dolphins view in "The Cove" but that the best approach is "through dialogue," noting that many Japanese are also outraged by dolphin killing.

WikiLeaks releases documents about anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd

Japanese and American officials discussed taking action to weaken a prominent anti-whaling group, with Tokyo insisting that Sea Shepherd's confrontations on the high seas actually hurt efforts to reduce whaling, U.S. diplomatic cables show.

The U.S. representative to the International Whaling Commission, Monica Medina, discussed revoking the U.S.-based conservation group's tax-exempt status during a meeting with senior officials from the Fisheries Agency of Japan in November 2009, according to the documents released by WikiLeaks on Monday.

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's yearly protest campaigns -- which chase Japan's whaling fleet in boats trying to disrupt the hunt by fouling fishing lines and throwing rancid butter at whalers -- have drawn high-profile donors and volunteers, and spawned the popular Animal Planet series "Whale Wars." In Japan, the harassment is seen by some as foreign interference in national affairs, making politicians wary of getting involved.

Action against Sea Shepherd would be a "major element" in achieving success at international negotiations on the number of whales killed each year, the cables cite the director general of Japan's fisheries agency, Katsuhiro Machida, as saying.