The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "whales" ...
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Marine Attractions: Below the Surface
This investigation examined more than 3,850 deaths of marine animals since 1972. The authors found that animals are often mistreated during captivity, and that thousands have died under human care from clorine posioning, heat exposure, capture shock and stress. This in-depth look at the $1 billion - a - year marine mammal industry reveals that not only is it riddled with problems, but also that the government is doing very little to correct them.
Tags: zoo; National Marine Fisheries Service; computer-assisted reporting; Department of Agriculture; dolphins; whales; Sea World; aquariums
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The Whale and the Supercomputer
"The Whale and the Supercomputer" looks at the accuracy and understanding that the indigenous people often have regarding nature and climate. The book focuses on how these people, along with native whalers, are being impacted by the climate change on the Arctic. From the questionnaire: "This finding has far-reaching implications for our response to climate change, which is coming first and most strongly in the Arctic, because it shows how human perceptions can show the right path rather than a top-down scientific decision making."
Tags: BOOK; Alaska; Inupiat whalers; Eskimos; artic science
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Russian Roulette
Pitch Weekly series about endangered gray whales. "Biologists fear their research is providing cover for massive oil drilling that threatens to wipe out this lost tribe once and for all."
Tags: whales; gray whales; biologists; Siberian sea; oil drilling; conservation; environment
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Russian Roulette
In this New Times investigation, Dougherty examines how a billion dollar oil and gas development by the U.S. and Russian on a the Russian province of Sakhalin threaten to decimate the dwindling population of Western Pacific Gray Whale. The species of whale was thought to be extinct for 30 years until the 1980s when Russian scientists identified a small group of whales who migrated to Sakhalin each summer. But in 1994 a multinational oil agreement was formed between the U.S. and Russia, combining money and resources to tap energy fields in Russia, one such area was a small offshore drilling project in Sakhalin. A small group of scientists, biologists and environmentalist have been lobbying the government to protect the endangered whales, but Dougherty reports that the group's pleas have been largely ignored.
Tags: Environment; whales; oil; Russia
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Ground zero
Amicus examines how drilling and other activities of oil companies in Alaska have disturbed the people Nuiqsut, an Inupiat Eskimo village an Alaska's North Slope. "Big oil offered a village of Inupiat Eskimos jobs and economic boom. All it asked for in return was their way of life," the magazine reports. The story reveals that the environmental problems in Alaska include water quality changes, air pollution, land use conflicts, oil spills, increased traffic and noise, and disturbance to fish and wildlife species. The latter has forced Eskimos to give up some of their traditional food. For example, a huge arctic caribou's herd has moved away from the oil development area, and a bottom fish - an Eskimos' delicacy - now has elevated levels of toxics.
Tags: Alaska Wilderness League; Arctic Refuge; Trustees for Alaska; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Alaska Whaling Commission; drilling; politics; President Bush
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Sea Sick
Discover investigates why "killer whales that live near Seattle are dying too soon and too often." The report reveals that "there are three proposed culprits" causing the spate of premature deaths - "boat traffic,... reductions in certain preferred prey species ... [and] pollution." The story sheds light on a scientific finding that some whales are "carrying staggering concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), long lived industrial compounds that accumulate in fat and have been linked to cancer..." The author suggests that listing the killer whales under the Endangered Species Act can reduce some of the human-induce threats, but not the pollution.
Tags: biologists; orcas; Pacific Northwest; fish; health; contamination; marine mammals
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No title (id: 8384)
Forbes Magazine looks at the environmentalist organization Greenpeace; asserts it is not only a scrappy protest group in rubber boats protecting whales, but is a multinational organization accountable only to itself, with large revenues and an ability to manipulate the press and the public, Nov. 11, 1991.
Tags: None
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No title (id: 8189)
WFLA-TV (Tampa, Fla.) reports on the abuse of dolphins and orca or killer whales in captivity; laws put in place to protect the sea mammals are not enforced, April - May 1991.
Tags: TAPE