Indonesia Protects Blue Whale Hotspot

Many of my posts on this site have been critical of various aspects of life here in Indonesia, but I also believe in giving positive feedback and noting when a nation, government, people or group does an outstanding job too.  Here is a BIG KUDOS for Indonesia's work in establishing Marine Sanctuaries and for protecting whales !!

Excerpts from Article below:

The Indonesian Marine Affairs and Fisheries Minister Freddy Numberi has announced the designation of the Savu Sea National Marine Park — a blue whale hotspot that becomes the 15th largest MPA in the world. The announcement came at the World Ocean Conference in Manado, Indonesia, in May 2009. Located in the Lesser Sundas of East Nusa Tenggara in eastern Indonesia, the new national marine park is 35,000 sq km. Although it is only 1/10th the size of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, it is an extraordinarily rich area and has the potential to contribute to coral reef, fish and marine mammal conservation in the region.

The Savu Sea MPA forms the largest MPA to date in the so-called Coral Triangle which many conservation groups and governments are working to protect. For nearly a decade, researcher  Benjamin Kahn has been carrying out whale and dolphin studies here, and whale protection is a key part of the designation. Situated at the crossroads between the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where strong currents and steep underwater cliffs combine to create seasonal but predictable  upwelling zones, the area attracts endangered blue whales as well as sperm whales rated vulnerable by the IUCN. There are also more than a dozen tropical dolphin and small whale species found in the area.

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The Importance of the Indonesian Seas to Whales and Dolphins
 

Whales and dolphins are versatile marine mammals and inhabit Indonesia's major rivers, mangroves, reef and open ocean environments. These diverse habitats are often in close proximity to one another because of Indonesia's narrow continental shelf, abundant oceanic islands and extreme depth gradients.
 

In addition to this, Indonesia is uniquely located as the only tropical region worldwide where an exchange of marine life between the Indian and Pacific Ocean occurs - in this respect the Indonesian Seas are a huge melting pot. Each year whales and dolphins travel from the Pacific and Indian Oceans through Indonesian waters, and vice versa. To do so, most will have to pass the narrow yet deep inter-island passages of the Nusa Tengarra island chain in eastern Indonesia. Komodo National Park includes three of these sensitive bottleneck passages: Selat Molo, Selat Linta and Selat Sape.
 

This means that cetaceans are especially vulnerable to numerous regional and local environmental impacts that may occur near the passages, such as habitat destruction, subsurface noise disturbances such as reef blasting, net entanglement, marine pollution and over fishing of marine resources. Most, if not all, of these impacts may occur in the waters of Indonesia, and would affect both residential populations as well as transient species that include these waters in their long-range movements. The Komodo whale surveys, as well as similar surveys in North Sulawesi and Alor, help to identify and minimise these threats and safeguard the exceptional diversity of Indonesia's marine heritage.

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See also these related articles:

Indonesia Expels Japanese Whaling Vessel "Yushin Maru"

United Nations Sanctions (approves) Traditional Sperm Whale Hunts from Lamalera Village on Lambata Island

Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN)