ASMS -- Dolphin-safe Monitoring in Switzerland.SWITZERLAND -- Since its inception in 1990, the Swiss Working Group for the Protection of Marine Mammals marine mammals mammals inhabiting the sea; generally taken to include the cetaceans (whales, porpoise, dolphin), the sirenians (sea-cows, including manatees and dugong) and the pinnipeds (the carnivores of the group, seals, sealions, walruses). (ASMS ASMS American Society for Mass Spectrometry ASMS Association of Salaried Medical Specialists ASMS Advanced Satellite Mobile Systems ASMS Alabama School of Mathematics and Science ASMS American Society for Mohs Surgery ASMS Arkansas School for Math and Science ) has become a major player among conservation organizations. ASMS has participated as a non-governmental observer in meetings of the International Whaling Commission International Whaling Commission (IWC) An intergovernmental organization created in 1946 to control the rapid escalation of whaling. The original purpose of the IWC was to preserve whale stocks for commercial whalers. (IWC IWC International Whaling Commission IWC Industrial Welfare Commission IWC Iowa Wesleyan College IWC International Watch Company (Swiss watch manufacturer) IWC Ice Water Content IWC In Which Case IWC Indianapolis Water Company ) and has been successful in shifting the Swiss government's position on whales -- which was neutral in the past -- toward conservation, ASMS has worked with International Marine Mammal Project (IMMP IMMP Information Management Master Plan IMMP Integrated Maintenance Management Program IMMP Information Mission Management Plan IMMP International Mountaineering Memorial Park (Nepal) IMMP Integrated Maintenance and Modernization Planning ) on several campaigns, including whaling, dolphin captivity, and "dolphin-safe" tuna. Last autumn, IMMP Assistant Director Mark Berman and European representative Paolo Bray joined ASMS President Sigi Luber on a visit to Migros and Coop, the two major tuna retailers in Switzerland. The two companies have signed on to IMMP's dolphin-safe policy and have agreed to support IMMP's international monitoring program -- making 85 percent of the Swiss tuna market dolphin-safe. ASMS and IMMP have contacted the remaining Swiss companies and agencies trading in canned tuna products to make Switzerland 100 percent dolphin-safe. Mark Berman also visited Connyland, Switzerland's last remaining dolphinarium dolphinarium Noun an aquarium for dolphins, esp. one in which they give public displays . Connyland, which currently houses several US-caught bottlenose dolphins, has a high mortality rate among its captive dolphins and sea lions and has been under investigation by ASMS for animal cruelty. Inside one building, an inspection revealed a small tank incarcerating five dolphins with no access to sunlight or fresh air. The captive dolphins also were subjected to a large amount of noise because part of the tank's glass wall faces a discotheque! In 1989, the US National Marine Fisheries banned the capture of dolphins in US waters. But dolphins captured before the ban still can be exported for sale to traveling amusement parks and shopping malls. IMMP and other US organizations are pushing for a ban on the export of marine mammals to foreign dolphinariums This is a list of known dolphinariums worldwide. Many of these places are more than just a dolphinarium, but are themeparks, marine mammal parks, zoos or aquariums that also have one or more dolphinariums. . Also in the works, a campaign to return captive cetaceans to their native US waters for retirement and possible rehabilitation-and-release -- a strategy now being attempted with Keiko the orca. |
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