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NEW THREATS

Unfortunately, there's bad news as well. After a decade of compliance, several nations have decided to defy the International Whaling Commission: Japan, Iceland, and Norway filed notice that they will ignore the ban on the use of the nonexplosive ("cold") harpoon on minke whales, which was to take effect after this whaling season. The cold harpoon—which has already been banned for use on other whales—is widely considered to be inhumane, since it takes a considerable length of time to kill a hit mammal.

Moreover, Japan has announced its intention to continue harpooning sperm whales, despite the 25 to 1 vote against doing so taken here in last summer's IWC meeting.

We do have a possible course of action, though, because there are laws on the U.S. books which permit (but do not force) the federal government to impose penalties on nations that break such rules, and one such piece of legislation grants the power (recently exercised against Poland) to ban fishing within our 200-mile limit. The Departments of Commerce (Dept. TMEN, 711 14th Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20230) and State (Dept. TMEN, 2201 C Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20520) will decide about action against the three countries, but it won't do any harm to let those agencies know how you feel!

At the EPA, proposed budget reductions have reached such proportions that even administrator Anne Gorsuch (who offered to cut her budget more than the Reagan team requested for 1982) has cried out in protest. Close observers say that if the trimming continues, Gorsuch won't have much left to manage by the end of 1983. (Budget worries didn't deter Ms. Gorsuch from leasing one of the biggest, most polluting cars still made in Detroit, however ... or from paying nearly four times as much for it as her predecessor did for his "company" car.)

Interior Secretary Watt, the EPA's Gorsuch, and Robert Jantzen—the new Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service —have taken the first steps toward resuming legalization of the coyote poison Compound 1080. The Nixon Administration originally suspended use of the chemical because it was killing too many nonpest species .. . including golden eagles. But now, sheep ranchers have persuaded the Interior, EPA, and Fish and Wildlife people that the substance is needed to reduce the loss of stock to predators. Many neutral observers, however (including the former EPA director, Russell Train), are vehemently opposed to 1080 because of its effects on wildlife. Letters to the EPA are in order .. . write to Anne Gorsuch, Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency, Dept. TMEN, 401 M Street S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460.

NUCLEAR NOTES

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