WELLINGTON- New Zealand's southern right whale population, thought to have been hunted into extinction early last century, are ``highly likely'' to still be living in sheltered waters off a remote sub-Antarctic island, scientists said on Thursday. DNA analysis indicates about 100 to 150 right whales that breed off the Auckland Islands, south of New Zealand, are the remnants of the once numerous New Zealand population, not of the Australian population as previously thought. ``We know that these whales once migrated up and down the New Zealand coastline, but it has long been thought that the whaling industry slaughtered them to extinction,'' said Conservation Minister Nick Smith. He hailed the discovery, made by Department of Conservation (DOC) and Auckland University researchers, as ``tremendously exciting'' for conservationists, who will be encouraged that the rare mammals have managed to recover from severe over-hunting. ``The reason they're called right whales is because they're slow-swimming and coastal in their migratory patterns, and have a great deal of oil so (they) float when they're dead,'' said Michael Donoghue, a DOC marine biologist. ``So they're exactly the 'right' whale to hunt.'' He said there were only 3,000 to 5,000 right whales left in the world, which is estimated to be just five percent of their original abundance. ``Between the late 1790s and about 1830, the right whales were thought to have gone pretty much to extinction, and that was a generic pattern around the southern hemisphere,'' Donoghue said. ``They were harvested for their oil, which basically lit the streets of Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.'' Per metre of body length, the right whale is the heaviest of all whales and can reach up to 60 or 70 tonnes in weight. ``The males have the largest testes in the world -- two one-tonne testicles each,'' Donoghue said, adding that the penis was three metres long. ``These are fantastic animals -- they're amongst the biggest animals ever, but quite aerobatic and really quite beautiful to view.'' Smith said the study of the right whales highlighted how vulnerable the remaining ones were, and how important it was to put an end to commercial whaling. The next stage in the study was to extract DNA from museum bone samples of the New Zealand right whale and match them with the data collected from the Auckland Island population. New Zealand scientists will present the results of their research to a global workshop on the status and trends of the right whale at an International Whaling Commission meeting in Cape Town in March.
At least five people were missing and feared killed Wednesday after a mudslide buried a small Peruvian town and crashed into two others, leaving thousands of evacuated inhabitants stranded on nearby hilltops. The toll would have been far worse if the towns' combined 2,600 inhabitants had not fled to nearby hills before the deluge of mud and rocks obliterated their homes Tuesday night, local authorities said. Calixto Sanchez, mayor of Santa Teresa, the hardest-hit locality, said his town ``has practically disappeared, has been wiped off the map.'' Fearing such a disaster after days of heavy rains caused by the El Nino weather phenomenon, inhabitants had left their houses before a mountain lake burst to cause the mudslide. The first television images from the scene Wednesday night showed hundreds of residents straggling over nearby hillsides and huddling in makeshift shelters. The only contact with them was by helicopter, since the mudslide cut all road and rail links. It also tore down three electrical pylons, cutting off power to the zone, and destroyed two bridges. ``We have spoken by radio with the people affected, and they have told us that most of the people were saved because they withdrew in time,'' said Jorge Saldivar, a local government official at the nearest major town, Quillabamba. ``However, five people are listed as having probably been swept away by the torrent.'' One body, that of a 10-year-old boy, had been recovered by late Wednesday, authorities said. President Alberto Fujimori promised Wednesday to mount an airlift to the population of Santa Teresa, a few miles from the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru's Cuzco region. But only one helicopter had landed, with civil defense and military officials, by late Wednesday. Although rains were heavy in the Cuzco region Wednesday, preventing Fujimori from flying personally to the zone, transportation for tourists visiting Machu Picchu was unaffected. Sanchez, speaking from a phone near Santa Teresa, urged authorities to send aid and fly people out as soon as possible. ''We managed to evacuate the population to the highlands. ... The entire population is in the hills, terrified because the mud is still coming down,'' Sanchez added. A regional government spokesman, Arturo Menacho, also warned that the situation was still critical. ``The problem is not over. The (nearby) Huaquina River is rising fast. ... This is an emergency,'' he said. Rain caused by El Nino has lashed Peru since mid-December. Mudslides and floods have left more than 30 people dead and thousands homeless while causing more than $12 million in damage.
TOKYO - Heavy snow blanketed the Tokyo area for the third time in a week on Thursday, causing flight cancellations and fender benders on slippery roads. The Meteorological Agency predicted as much as 30 to 50 centimetres (12 to 20 inches) of snow for areas around Tokyo with about 15 cm (6 inches) expected for central Tokyo. As of 10 a.m. (0100 GMT) 148 domestic flights were cancelled or delayed, while international flights from Narita Airport were proceeding with some delays. ``Shinkansen'' bullet trains serving the capital have also been delayed because of the snow, railway officials said. Snowfall of up to 40 cm (16 inches) was expected in Nagano Prefecture, the site of next month's Olympic Winter Games. Thursday is ``Coming of Age Day,'' a national holiday in Japan. Many kimono-clad young women and young men in business suits who turn 20 this year were trudging to ceremonies to mark the day across Japan. Tokyo received its first major snowfall in over two years last Thursday when as much as 30 cm (12 inches) of snow fell in some outlying parts of the Tokyo area. One person died and over 500 were injured because of the snow, police said. ((Tokyo newsroom +813 3432-8018 More to come!
