Live on the homepage now!
Reader Supported News
Until Democrats tell it like it is, their electoral majorities will continue to be fragile
Despite the Federal Reserve’s most aggressive campaign in generations to slow the economy and bring price increases under control, prices continue to climb.
This could have severe political consequences for Democrats in the midterm elections in a little over two weeks. The economy is the most important issue on voters’ minds.
Prices rose at a brutally rapid pace in September, with a key inflation index increasing at the fastest rate in 40 years. For this reason, investors expect the Fed to announce another rate increase at the end of its next meeting on 2 November, just six days before election day.
Republicans are focusing on inflation because voters see it as their biggest immediate problem, and it’s easy to pin blame on the Democrats because they’re in charge.
But the Biden administration and the Democrats aren’t responsible.
Inflation is worldwide. It’s being propelled by continuing global supply shocks – including Putin’s war in Ukraine and China’s Covid lockdowns – which are contributing to shortages of energy, food and hi-tech components.
The shortages are coming just at a time when consumer demand is soaring in the wake of what is hopefully the end of the worst of Covid.
Inflation in the United States is also being caused by corporations raising their prices faster than their costs to fatten their profit margins.
The evidence of this is now all around us. Corporate profit margins are at record highs.
“The companies who set prices are really reluctant to stop increasing them,” says Jeanna Smialek, who writes about the Fed for the New York Times. “What we saw was that corporations were actually pocketing quite a bit more profit off this …. They’re still putting up prices very rapidly, even in instances where their own costs are starting to fall.”
Corporate profits continue to climb even as consumers are taking it on the chin. It’s a giant redistribution from consumers to corporations.
This would seem to be a natural issue for Democrats to be sounding off about.
The Fed’s rate hikes aren’t working because they’re based on the anachronistic idea that slowing consumer demand automatically causes prices to fall or to climb more slowly.
But with global shortages of supplies, and monopolistic corporations raising prices to preserve or enlarge their profits, the Fed would have to raise interest rates far higher before having the desired effect. The Fed would very likely bring the economy to a crawl, by which time the human cost will be overwhelming.
Better to wait out the global supply shocks and deal with corporate power with a temporary windfall profits tax and more vigorous antitrust enforcement.
Why aren’t Biden and the Democrats hammering away with this message?
Nine months ago, the White House’s National Economic Council was putting out research papers on the relationship between corporate power and inflation, but then abruptly stopped.
The reason was conventional economists claimed the theory didn’t hold water. They argued that monopolistic corporations would have exercised their pricing power all along, not just during this burst of inflation.
That conventional view is being proven wrong. Corporations have been more willing to exercise monopoly power over the past year because inflation has given them cover to do so. While telling retailers and consumers they have no choice but to raise prices because their own costs are rising, they’ve been raising prices higher than their rising costs in order to expand their profit margins.
Another reason the White House stopped blaming inflation on big corporations is that the corporate funders of Democrats have made it clear they don’t want the White House or Democratic candidates to blame this inflation on them.
That’s a pity, because until Democrats tell it like it is – and talk accurately and clearly about such abuses of corporate power – their electoral majorities will continue to be fragile. And they’ll never get the political mandate they need to take on corporate power as directly and forcefully as it must be taken on.
And in two weeks, they may lose control over Congress.
Clarence Thomas. (photo: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The move comes after Graham on Friday filed a request to Thomas, who handles emergency matters arising from Georgia, and follows a ruling by a lower appeals court declining to halt Graham’s testimony before a Fulton County, Ga., special grand jury.
The court this weekend requested a response from Fulton County, which is due on Thursday, so it is likely the Supreme Court will act again in the case soon. Thomas has the option to handle the application himself or refer the matter to the full court.
In court papers filed Friday, Graham urged the court to find that constitutional protections for lawmakers should shield him from being forced to comply with a subpoena issued by District Attorney Fani Willis (D).
Graham’s emergency application came after the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit last week said that questioning of Graham, within certain limits, could proceed.
Willis has expressed interest in phone calls between Graham and Georgia election officials following the 2020 election. Graham contends those calls related to fact-finding for his own vote on certifying of the 2020 election, and that forcing him to answer questions would violate the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause.
“Without a stay, Senator Lindsey Graham will soon be questioned by a local Georgia prosecutor and her ad hoc investigative body about his protected ‘Speech or Debate’ related to the 2020 election,” Graham’s lawyers wrote. “This will occur despite the Constitution’s command that Senators ‘shall not be questioned’ about ‘any Speech or Debate.’”
U.S. President Joe Biden attends a meeting of the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force in the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, U.S., October 4, 2022. (photo:Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters)
The question has been whether it would carry through to the general election. And Republicans and conservatives increasingly believe they might mitigate the issue — in part by keeping focused on other issues like the economy, but also by pitching Democrats as being extreme on abortion.
But what does the evidence show on the latter?
A case in point in recent days was a Republican poll shared widely in conservative circles. The headline from the National Review read, “On Abortion, Voters View Democrats as More Extreme Than Republicans by Two to One.”
But that’s quite misleading. What the poll actually tested were two views on abortion — “allowing abortions up until nine months of pregnancy for any reason,” or “restricting abortions to only in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is in danger” — without ascribing either to a political party. It found 57 percent viewed the former as more extreme, while 29 percent picked the latter.
The idea is that the former summarizes the Democratic position, more or less, while the latter summarizes the GOP position. But it’s not nearly so simple.
This GOP angle of attack — casting Democrats as the real extremists — has shown up repeatedly in campaign ads seeking to explain Republicans’ past abortion positions and recently in debates. Many Democratic politicians will be asked whether they support any limits on abortion, and they will demur by saying something like “the government shouldn’t be involved” or that “that should be up to a woman and their doctor.” Democrats also cast it as a manufactured issue, rightly noting that abortions in the third trimester are very rare and are often pursued for medical reasons.
President Biden was asked that question Thursday. Unlike many in his party, he actually said “yes,” that there should be limits on abortion. But when asked what those limits should be, he said merely, “It’s Roe v. Wade. Read it, man. You’ll get educated.” (In fact, Roe did not limit abortion, but rather provided a window in which it was constitutionally protected.)
Democrats have increasingly avoided addressing any limits on abortion rights in recent years, and the reason is readily apparent: They don’t want to get bogged down in the details. While most Americans support abortion rights and oppose Roe being overturned, polls also show clear majorities often support banning abortion sometime around the window Roe provided (which is viability, or around 22 to 24 weeks). But drawing a line is a recipe for alienating outspoken portions of the base, and it undercuts that talking point that this a women’s rights issue, full stop.
The main issue with the poll question is that, as with many such surveys from partisan pollsters testing issue positions, it’s skewed.
While abortion being available at any time is a logical extension of saying the government should stay out of it, that hasn’t been the explicit position of the Democratic Party. Nor has there been an extensive push in blue states to allow abortion at any point in a pregnancy, even though Democrats could have done so (given, as noted above, that Roe didn’t restrict that). Just a half-dozen states have no time limit in state law, but later abortions remain very rare, and in some of those states, they aren’t performed at all on an elective basis, according to PolitiFact.
That’s a contrast to the many recent efforts in red states to actually ban abortion both before and after Roe was overturned. And unlike the terms laid out by the poll question, most of them do not include rape and incest exceptions. PolitiFact noted this summer that 15 of 22 bans that had taken effect or would soon take effect after Roe was overturned included no such exceptions.
So the poll was effectively comparing a view on the left that hasn’t really been pursued on any broad basis, with a view on the right that actually isn’t as extreme as the policy that actually has been pursued in many red states.
And indeed, you need only look to the same pollster to see how this issue breaks down when you ask about the parties specifically. In that case, its poll of battleground states last month showed the results flipped: 51 percent said the GOP was more extreme, while 32 percent said Democrats were, NBC News reported.
It’s possible that views could have changed since then, with Republicans trying to turn the focus on Democrats’ punts. Few things are as effective in politics as attempts to muddle an issue and make voters throw their hands up, believing both sides are some version of wrong.
But so far there’s little evidence that such efforts have substantially recast the issue. An Associated Press-NORC poll last week showed Americans favored Democrats on the abortion issue by 22 points. That echoes not just the battleground poll from last month, but also a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted around the same time.
It seems more likely that, if anything, the issue might simply have lost some salience given the passage of time since Roe was overturned and as inflation and gas prices have reemerged as bigger issues in the election. It’s also true that Republicans were always unlikely to suffer on this issue in the general election as much they did in special elections, given special elections feature lower turnout and tend to involve bigger swings.
It’s probably wishful thinking to think Republicans can flip this issue on its head; but that doesn’t mean it will be the silver bullet Democrats hoped.
Workers at UPS Worldport on 3 January 2022 in Louisville, Kentucky. (photo: Jon Cherry/Getty Images)
Revealed: UPS workers tell the Guardian that intense quota pressures, injuries, an unclean and unsafe environment and understaffing take a heavy toll
But for all its impressive stats, working conditions at UPS Worldport have recently come under scrutiny in the wake of a recent workplace suicide of a pregnant worker, with claims from workers that she had recently been fired.
No one can ever know the true reason why someone takes their life. Workplace suicides in the US have risen dramatically in recent years and reached a record level in 2019, the last year for which the Bureau of Labor Statistics has data. The worker’s death, which happened on 5 October, is under investigation by Louisville Metro police.
In a statement Teamsters Local 89, the union representing package handlers, drivers and other rank-and-file UPS workers in Louisville, said: “Although we do not know the cause behind this heartbreaking decision, our Local Union grieves for this terrible loss. To all of those affected, our hearts go out to you as you mourn.”
After news of the death broke, workers at UPS Worldport spoke to the Guardian about conditions at the site under anonymity for fear of retaliation for speaking with the media. They claim intense productivity and quota pressures on workers, common injuries on the job, an unclean environment, worn-out equipment, and understaffing of sections all take a heavy toll on staff.
“The working conditions are tragic,” said a UPS worker who has been at the site for a year. “She was pregnant, I believe she was in her second trimester, and she got fired because she fell asleep on the job and instead of being walked out, because whenever a person gets fired, the manager who fires them has to walk them off into the property and that manager didn’t do that. She said that she has to collect herself in the bathroom and he didn’t make sure that she came out of the bathroom, so she was given free rein of the property.”
She was found dead at the facility later that evening.
The company declined to comment on the specifics of the case. “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our employee and extend our sympathies to her family and friends. We do not share personal employment and health-related information about our employees, although you should know that there are a number of inaccurate posts on social media about this tragedy.”
One worker who spoke to the Guardian said they weren’t surprised something like this had happened at the facility. They said workers at the site were under immense pressure, with threats of termination for being late, for going to the bathroom one too many times, all while under constant surveillance and scrutiny. The worker is recovering from having their hand smashed by heavy packages. They said losing fingernails, smashing fingers and bruised toes from heavy package loads are a common occurrence that workers have to work through.
“We’re constantly being watched and scrutinized and everything that we do is never good enough,” they added. “I have walked out of the building in tears before because I’m just so physically and mentally exhausted.”
A second UPS Worldport worker emphasized the need for better mental healthcare services for workers, especially in grueling work environments like at UPS.
“A lot of people talk about how the younger generation seems like they can’t keep a job or that they’re lazy or they don’t want to work. But the thing is, a lot of us are exerting every ounce of our mental energy to go to work every day and deal with the work conditions that we’ve been put into,” they said. “If workers are not in a good mental state, they cannot work, and if they are forced to continue to work in those conditions, things like this will continue to happen.”
Another worker argued that UPS Worldport, as the biggest employer in Louisville, has a lot of power over workers because it offers the highest paying opportunity for entry level work and many workers are initially hired part-time, with benefits such as healthcare coverage not kicking in for months into their employment.
“They’re just taking people off the street just to be potentially abused by supervisors unless you really put your foot down and say no, I cannot do this, but some people don’t have that power because they’re worried they’re gonna get fired. They don’t realize that they have the power to stand up for themselves,” the worker said.
An additional worker said management is constantly hounding workers to increase productivity, despite already handling heavy workloads without enough staff.
“Supervisors are constantly on the employees about not doing enough when most of us are running two to four lanes of packages coming through already as best as we could. Some people can’t handle that and there’s nothing wrong with it, but UPS makes it wrong,” they said.
A fifth UPS Worldport worker claimed supervisors dismissed or neglected issues workers have brought up and said poor working conditions were compounded by the physical demands of the job, understaffing, and the rough working environment.
“I blow my nose sometimes and what comes out is brown and black from the dust that does not get cleaned up in there,” they said. “The machinery is old. Stuff falls on people. Stuff is always breaking like guardrails, lockdown belts have holes in them.”
They also said there is no air conditioning in the building, which makes heat unbearable during the summer months and that they’ve experienced mental health problems and pushback on requested accommodations.
“People at UPS don’t feel like they have any power over their lives or ability to sustain themselves with their work and that with how demanding, physically and emotionally, it is to be working at a place with zero accountability, thankfully I have mental healthcare but there are other people who live with conditions like mine who are at a greater risk of suicide and in workplace conditions like this, it can only exacerbate that,” they added. “I would like to see UPS actually take better care of its employees and treat them like human beings instead of robots that just shuffle packages all night at enormous volumes.”
UPS denied understaffing complaints, asserted the facility is maintained and cleaned on a regular basis, and that all employees are provided with mental health resources and counseling. They did not provide comment on heat or complaints about productivity pressures and quotas or complaints about not enough breaks.
A spokesperson added in an email: “The health and safety of our employees is our first priority, and Worldport has best-in-class safety standards. In addition to our dedicated health and safety, and occupational health teams, we also have a dedicated employee-led health and safety team through our comprehensive health and safety process (CHSP). The CHSP provides our employees with a formal way to share their concerns, ask questions, and take an active role resolving their concerns about work practices. This is a very collaborative process between our front-line employees and management.”
Venezuelans Yeysy Hernandez, left, and Candy Cegarra speak during an interview with The Associated Press, Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022, in New York. (photo: Mary Altaffer/AP)
“It was a fake building. I didn’t understand what it was,” he said.
Molina was among 13 migrants who recently arrived in the U.S. who agreed to share documents with The Associated Press that they received when they were released from U.S. custody while they seek asylum after crossing the border with Mexico. The AP found that most had no idea where they were going — nor did the people at the addresses listed on their paperwork.
Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, did not respond to repeated questions about families and individuals interviewed and the addresses assigned to them.
But the snafus suggest a pattern of Border Patrol agents, particularly in Texas, sending migrants without friends or family in the United States to offices that get no notice. The places often don’t have space to house migrants. Yet because those addresses appear on migrants’ paperwork, important notices may later be sent there.
“We believe that Border Patrol is attempting to demonstrate the chaos that they are experiencing on the border to inland cities,” said Denise Chang, executive director of the Colorado Housing Asylum Network. “We just need to coordinate so that we can receive people properly.”
Addresses on documents shown to AP included administrative offices of Catholic Charities in New York and San Antonio; an El Paso, Texas, church; a private home in West Bridgewater, Massachusetts; and a group operating homeless shelters in Salt Lake City.
A Venezuelan family that came to the American Red Cross’ Denver administrative offices was referred to multiple shelters before someone volunteered to take them in. Migrants who came to New York ended up in shelters, hotels or temporary apartments that the city helped them find and pay for.
A surge in migration from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua brought the number of illegal crossings to the highest level ever recorded in a fiscal year. In the 12-month period that ended Sept. 30, migrants were stopped 2.38 million times, up 37% from 1.73 million times the year before and surpassing 2 million for the first time.
The year-end numbers reflect deteriorating economic and political conditions in some countries, the relative strength of the U.S. economy and uneven enforcement of Trump-era asylum restrictions.
Many are immediately expelled under the asylum restrictions, a public health order known as Title 42, which denies people a chance at seeking asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
But others — including people from Cuba and Nicaragua, with which the U.S. has strained relations — are released with notices to appear in immigration court or under humanitarian parole. Those migrants must tell agents where they will live, but many can’t provide an address.
“It almost seems as though, at the border, officials are simply just looking up any nonprofit address they can or just looking up any name at all that they can and just putting that down without actually ever checking whether that person has mentioned it, whether there’s beds or shelter at that location, or whether this is even a location that can provide legal assistance,” said Lauren Wyatt, managing attorney with Catholic Charities of New York. “So clearly, this is not the most effective way to do this.”
Most of the migrants interviewed in New York had hopped on taxpayer-funded buses that Texas and the city of El Paso have been sending regularly to the northeast city.
Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida, Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey of Arizona also have been sending migrants released at the border to Democratic strongholds, including Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. They have been criticized for failing to notify local officials of plans. Republicans say they are highlighting issues with President Joe Biden’s immigration policies.
The Biden administration recently agreed to accept up to 24,000 Venezuelans at U.S. airports if they apply for asylum online with financial sponsors, similar to how Ukrainians have been admitted since Russia’s invasion. Mexico has said it will take back Venezuelans who cross the border into the U.S. and are expelled under Title 42 authority.
Yeysy Hernández, a Venezuelan who reached New York after taking one of El Paso’s buses, says the address in her documents is for an El Paso church that wasn’t expecting migrants and where she slept just one night. Now she worries immigration notices might be sent there.
Hundreds of immigrants have shown up at one of the offices for Catholic Charities of New York with documents listing the address. Wyatt said the group complained and the government promised to put an end to the practice by Aug. 1 — something that “obviously, hasn’t happened.”
The group also has received more than 300 notices to appear in immigration court for people the organization does not know, Wyatt said. It’s also received deportation orders for migrants who failed to appear in court because their notices were sent to a Catholic Charities address.
Victor Quijada traveled with relatives last month to Denver after border agents sent the Venezuelan family to an American Red Cross office building. Once there, they were referred to a city shelter that also turned them away. They eventually found a shelter that took them in for a few days, but they felt unsafe.
“It was tough what we had to go through; from the things we had to eat to being on the streets — an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” Quijada said.
Chang, from the Colorado Housing Asylum Network, eventually took the family into her home and her organization helped them lease an apartment. She said she knows of several migrants assigned to addresses of groups that can’t help them.
“The five families that I’ve worked with in the last three months, all five were picked up off the street, literally sitting on the sidewalk with children,” she said.
The building in midtown Manhattan where Molina went is an International Rescue Committee refugee resettlement office, but it provides only limited services to asylum-seekers there, said Stanford Prescott, a spokesman for the group.
Only one of the IRC’s U.S. offices — in Phoenix — operates a shelter for asylum-seekers and most stay less than 48 hours. Yet its Dallas and Atlanta offices also have been listed on migrants’ documents.
“We are deeply concerned that listing these addresses erroneously may lead to complications for asylum-seekers who are following a legal process to seek safety in the U.S.,” Prescott said.
One of Haiti's most powerful gang leaders, Jimmy 'Barbecue' Cherizier presents himself as a revolutionary fighting a corrupt system. (photo: Matias Delacroix/AP)
Rights groups and United Nations accuse head of powerful Haitian G9 gang alliance of deadly attacks on civilians.
The resolution on Friday established a mechanism to punish individuals and groups that “threaten the peace, security or stability of Haiti” – and Cherizier was the first person to be sanctioned under the scheme.
The leader of the so-called “G9 Family and Allies” gang alliance has become one of the faces of the multi-layered issues plaguing the country, which is suffering from political turmoil, a cholera outbreak and chronic insecurity.
Here, Al Jazeera looks at Cherizier’s background, alleged abuses and professed goals:
Ex-police officer
A former officer of the Haitian National Police (HNP), Cherizier has been linked to various human rights violations and fatal attacks against civilians, according to multiple reports by media outlets, international observers and rights groups.
The United Nations also has blamed the powerful confederation of gangs that he leads for one of Haiti’s most pressing and recurring problems over the last months: severe fuel shortages.
The gang alliance is blocking a major fuel terminal in the capital, Port-au-Prince, which has forced hospitals to cut back on services and pushed the country towards a major humanitarian disaster.
Last year, Cherizier said the tactic of blocking fuel terminals aimed to force Haiti’s acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, to resign from office.
“If Ariel Henry resigns at 8:00, then at 8:05, we remove all the barricades, so the trucks can come to the fuel depot and fill up, and then the crisis will stop,” Cherizier told Al Jazeera in an interview that aired in October 2021.
Henry came to power after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July of last year. While he enjoys Western support, Haitian civil rights groups have questioned his legitimacy, especially after Henry indefinitely postponed presidential and legislative elections last year.
Cherizier has presented himself as a revolutionary, fighting a system of inequality and the elites who control it. “We are fighting for another society – another Haiti that is not only for the 5 percent of the people who keep all the wealth, but a new Haiti where everyone can have food and clean water, so they can have a decent house to live, another Haiti where we don’t have to leave the country,” he said in the same interview last year.
‘Coordinated, brutal attacks’
But the gang leader is accused of a host of abuses against Haitians, dating back to his days with the security forces.
The UN and the US have said Cherizier was an HNP officer when he was involved in a 2018 massacre in the Port-au-Prince neighbourhood of La Saline that killed dozens of people.
The attack was coordinated between Haitian officials and local gangs to “repress political dissent” in the capital, the US Department of the Treasury said in a 2020 statement announcing sanctions against Cherizier.
“During this attack, at least 71 people were killed, over 400 houses were destroyed, and at least seven women were raped by armed gangs,” a US government report said in 2021. “Throughout 2018 and 2019, Cherizier led armed groups in coordinated, brutal attacks in Port-au-Prince neighborhoods.”
According to local news reports, Cherizier was fired from the police late in 2018, and months later, an arrest warrant was issued against him on accusations he participated in the execution of civilians during a police raid in the Grand Ravine area of Port-au-Prince in 2017.
Cherizier has denied the accusations. “I’m not a gangster. I never will be a gangster,” he told Al Jazeera last year. “It’s the system I’m fighting against today. The system has a lot of money; they own the media. Now they try to make me look like a gangster.”
Demand of amnesty
Amid the current turmoil, The Associated Press reported this month that Cherizier had “proposed his own plan for Haiti’s future — even seeking seats in the Cabinet — while demanding that the [Henry] administration … grant amnesty and void arrest warrants against the group’s members”.
In an interview with the news agency in 2019, the gang leader said he was born close to La Saline as the youngest of eight children, and his father died when he was five.
Cherizier also told The AP at that time about the origins of his alias, “Barbecue”, denying that it was about burning people. He said he acquired the name as a child when his mother was a fried chicken street vendor.
During the past year, Cherizier has spoken regularly to reporters. During his conversation with Al Jazeera, he walked through the desolate streets of La Saline and had friendly interactions with residents. He often has a large rifle strapped around his body during public appearances.
But the image that Cherizier has tried to project as a leader on the side of the poor stands in stark contrast with some of the accusations levelled against him and the gangs he leads.
Haiti’s National Network for the Defense of Human Rights released a report (PDF) in August documenting “mass and repeated rape perpetrated against women and girls” during violence between Cherizier’s followers and rival gangs in Cite Soleil, an impoverished area of Port-au-Prince.
An earlier report by the group last year also accused Cherizier of ordering killings and the burning of homes in various attacks in the country.
That was echoed by Friday’s UN Security Council resolution, which stated that “throughout 2018 and 2019, Cherizier led armed groups in coordinated, brutal attacks in Port-au-Prince neighbourhoods.
“In May 2020, Cherizier led armed gangs in a five-day attack in multiple Port-au-Prince neighborhoods in which civilians were killed and houses were set on fire,” the resolution said.
It added that his actions, including the blocking of the fuel terminal, “have directly contributed to the economic paralysis and humanitarian crisis in Haiti“. The UN sanctions against Cherizier include an assets freeze and a global travel ban.
This Jan. 19, 2021 photo provided by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources shows a North Atlantic right whale mother and calf in waters near Wassaw Island, Ga. Scientists recorded 17 newborn right whale calves during the critically endangered species’ winter calving season off the Atlantic coast of the southeastern U.S. (photo: Georgia Department of Natural Resources/NOAA/AP)
The 2021 population estimate is down from an estimated 348 the previous year, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, which announced the news today, ahead of its annual meeting.
The latest estimate of 340 includes a modeling range of +/- 7 right whales.
Heather Pettis, a research scientist at the New England Aquarium and executive administrator of the Consortium, said the species has been drawing closer to extinction every year for the past decade, and this latest population estimate is discouraging.
“We are at a point with this species where we have a limited amount of time to turn things around,” Pettis said. “There's some point that you get to in a species where recovery is exceptionally challenging, which it is right now. But it only gets more challenging, the more animals that we remove from the population.”
The reproduction rate for the critically endangered species has remained low as entanglements in rope and fishing gear and collisions with boats have proven to be the leading causes of death for the animals. The so-called “vessel strikes” can leave right whales suffering from blunt force trauma and deep cuts, often from propellers.
“What we've seen over the last two decades is, simply put, mortality caused by humans is outpacing reproduction in the species,” Pettis said.
According to the report, 18 calves were born in 2021, which is well below the average of 24 calves per year produced in the 2000s. The population estimate for 2022 won’t be released until next October, but already scientists are concerned that just 15 calves were born this year. In addition, at least one whale was stuck by a boat and 10 were entangled in fishing gear in 2022.
No whales have been found dead in 2022, but scientists believe most right whale deaths go undocumented, considering the whales’ extensive range from their feeding grounds off the coast of the northeastern United States and Canada down to calving grounds in the warm waters off South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
“There has been a lot of focus on the fact that no right whale mortalities have been detected in 2022, which is certainly a good thing” said Dr. Scott Kraus, chair of the Consortium. “While we can be cautiously optimistic about this, we know that only one-third of right whale deaths are observed, so it is likely that some whales have died this year that were not observed. Additionally, we continue to see unsustainable levels of human-caused injuries to right whales. A lot of work by many stakeholders has gone into protecting these whales, but the hard truth is it hasn’t been enough.”
Hope for stabilization
However, the report contained one bright spot.
“The good news,” Pettis said, “is that [the decline] wasn't as dramatic as we've seen in the last few years. And so that certainly gives us hope that we may be seeing the floor of this decline.”
Scientists have been closely tracking the whales’ population since 1990. The worst year-to-year change came in 2017, when the population estimate was 430. In 2018, it dropped to 388 — a decrease of nearly 10 percent.
In fact, with this new population estimate, the species number is now roughly equal to what it was around 2001.
“In the ensuing decade, the population increased by 150 whales,” said Philip Hamilton, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium and the identification database curator for the Consortium. “That tells us this species can recover if we stop injuring and killing them.”
Pettis said she has some hope for population stabilization in part because federal and state officials have imposed stricter limits on lobstermen and other fisheries whose gear has historically been found to cause entanglements.
Seasonal fishing closures, the required use of rope that breaks more easily when a whale gets entangled, and experimentation with so-called “ropeless” fishing gear could help the whales make a comeback.
All of those conservation efforts have created tension between right whale advocates and lobstermen, who say the strict rules are putting them out of business. Lobster fishing groups often point fingers at other fisheries for entangling the whales.
The latest population numbers represent another difficult chapter in a long history for North Atlantic right whales, which were named during the whaling period that began in the 1700s because their high fat content caused them to float quickly after death, making them the “right” whales to kill.
“Human impacts have to be reduced,” Pettis said. “If that happens — when that happens — the whales know what to do. They will find food. They will find each other. They will reproduce.”
Follow us on facebook and twitter!
PO Box 2043 / Citrus Heights, CA 95611
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.