Doc Allows Rough Treatment Of Rare Mammals

“The Department of Conservation has given permission for scientists studying Hector’s dolphins to attach transmitters to three of the animals in a manner which is guaranteed to be traumatic, said New Zealand First’s conservation spokesman,” Edwin Perry.

“DoC has explained the procedure as identifying the dolphins from the air, then lifting them into a boat, tagging them and releasing them.

“In real terms this apparently involves catching the dolphins by their tails, dragging them into a boat, anaesthetising their dorsal fins, attaching the tags and then dropping them back into the water, said Mr Perry.

“This is rough treatment by anyone’s standards and has been condemned by marine mammal researchers.

“If this is the way DoC treats rare dolphins it is just as well the New Zealand storm petrels have been in hiding for 150 years – smart birds” said Mr Perry.

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>