Funnies from Sooze :)

GREAT NEWS FOR CANADIAN WILDERNESS AND WATER
At the recent Earth Summit in Johannesburg, Africa, Prime Minister Chretien made two great announcements for Canada's wilderness and waters. The first was that ten new national parks would be created, increasing the size of Canada's national park system by 50 per cent.

On the marine front, it was announced that five new National Marine Conservation Areas are to be created. This comes as great news because although Canada has the longest coastline of any country in the world, less than 0.01 per cent of our water has received official protection.

I got this in the mail from the WWF, I thought it would be great to have somthing positive up here for a change:

THANK YOU! YOU HELPED US STOP THE SLAUGHTER OF MALAYSIAN TIGERS
Thanks to your great response, the order to shoot and kill all tigers in the Tanah Merah and Jeli districts of Malaysia has been rescinded! In last month's e-mail update we informed our members that the Kelantan government in Malaysia had announced that they intended to use the army to kill all tigers within two districts in Malaysia. WWF urged its members to send e-mails to Malaysia's Environment Minister urging him to immediately stop plans to kill these magnificent tigers. Over 7,000 e-mails were sent and on September 11 the announcement was made that the shooting would not take place.

DID YOU KNOW...

The night vision of tigers is six times better than that of humans.
The longest recorded dive by a sperm whale lasted over an hour. These whales can descend to depths of more than a mile.
A blue whale's heart is as big as a Volkswagen Beetle.
The fastest shark is the mako, which can swim for short bursts at over 100 kilometres an hour.

5. Poaching claims at least 8 grizzlies in Alberta

The poaching death of two grizzly bears, whose carcasses were found recently
near Hinton, Alberta, brings the number of grizzly bears killed illegally in the
area to eight over the last two years, and is prompting Albertan's to demand
swift action by Minister of Sustainable Resource Development Mike Cardinal.

"This is yet more proof that we need to begin protecting Alberta's 'threatened'
grizzly bear population," said Tracy Henderson, program director for the Bow
Valley Grizzly Bear Alliance. "Listing the grizzly as a threatened species and
getting a well-funded recovery plan in place is the only real answer."

Alberta's Endangered Species Conservation Committee recently recommended that
Alberta's grizzly bear population be listed as a threatened species, primarily
because of low population numbers and increasing threats to grizzly bear
habitat. There are approximately 500-1000 grizzly bears in Alberta, down from a
high of 9,000 to 16,000 just 200 years ago.

So far the Alberta government has not formalized the recommendation, despite
overwhelming scientific evidence indicating the population is at risk of
disappearing from the Alberta landscape over the next century.

Visit http://www.bowvalleybears.org to press Alberta to list the grizzly as a
"threatened" species, and http://www.wildcanada.net/bighorn.net to protect the
Bighorn Wildland.

4. No moratorium for BC coastal grizzly hunt

The BC government has refused to implement an emergency closure of the grizzly
bear hunt in the Knight Inlet/Kingcome region despite a massive collapse of the
pink salmon run. Coastal grizzlies in the region depend on the pink run as their
primary food source in the fall. The hunt in Knight Inlet/Kingcome began October
1, and runs through November 15.

The pink run in the Ahta, Anhhuati, Kakweikan, Kwalate and Glendale rivers has
crashed from over 4 million in 2000 to just over 33,000 in 2002. Salmon can make
up to 95 per cent of a coastal grizzly bear's fall diet.

When the BC Liberal's opened the grizzly hunt, shortly after taking office, they
made allowances for emergency moratoriums to protect populations of grizzly
bears at risk. The Raincoast Conservation Society has argued that the collapse
of the salmon run will certainly threaten the coastal grizzly population. To
take action to protect BC's grizzly bears, visit wild Canadaand
click on Action Central.