For some years now TORN has been donating its excess profits to various charities including the Worldwide Fund for Nature. Our contribution was being channeled towards research on Hector’s Dolphin, the smalles – and one of the rarest -dolphins in the world. It may be that research which has led to the re-classification of part of the Hector’s Dolphin population, with a better identification of the needs of this most endangered species. The WWF press release follows:
Maui’s dolphin classification a positive step
The classification of the North Island Hector’s dolphin as a separate sub-species, Maui’s dolphin, will strengthen efforts to protect it, according to WWF New Zealand.
“Maui’s dolphin is now officially the world’s rarest marine dolphin”, said WWF New Zealand Chief Executive Jo Breese.
“The classification justifies a zero risk management approach; closing the dolphin’s known range to set net fisheries, both recreational and commercial, and fully enforcing that ban. This must include all harbours and river mouths.”
“WWF hopes the Minister of Fisheries will quickly announce complete protection measures, which are long overdue.”
“In particular, it is crucial that the Minister restricts trawling and Danish seining; this is not currently included in MFish’s protection plans.”
“The summer fishing season has already started, and that is when Maui’s dolphins are most at risk of capture. Three died last summer under partial and largely unenforced protection measures. This cannot be allowed to happen again.”
“Maui’s dolphin can no longer be considered as one of four populations of Hector’s dolphin; we expect to see more government effort directed towards protecting it.”
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Nigel sends us a review of the LOTR Guidebook – it sounds even better than I’d hoped. [More] If you’re not the kind of tourist that prefers a fully-guided tour around NZ, then this is THE book to find your way round the set locations.
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News from Poland, Rumania, and Central Europe. [More]
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Poland: Ela writes to correct our dates – TTT will be shown in Poland from 31 January, not 31 December.
Rumania: Gaciu writes ” It finally came here too-God,it was a loooooong time,but finally….Lord Of The Rings DVD and tape [arrived] in Romania!T hey kept it for our national day (Sunday), so it might as well be National LOTR day round here.
Central European DVD Release
Irvo wrote: Just wanted to drop a brief note on oncoming 4DVD FOTR release in Central Europe (still region 2). First on, the release date was pushed to December 6th which is still good enough compared to Warner Bros’ original intention to set the date on the end of January. But today we learnt a grievous news: They dropped the DTS 6.1 sound track!!! Reason? Not enough room on the disk. At least that’s what Warner say. There is 5.1 EX English track, 5.1 Polish track (only voice over – I wonder why they needed to give it the generous 5.1 norm) and 7 subtitles tracks (English, Polish, Czech, Croatian, Slovene, Serbian, Bulgarian). Funny thing is, that in Belgium you can get 4DVD FOTR with all English sound tracks plus French DTS and 5.1 EX plus English and French subtitles. Is it only me who thinks Central European branch of Warner is acting veeeery weird? You lucky western Europeans and Americans cannot imagine how frustrated we are.
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Appearently RingCon is one of these events people keep talking about for weeks and weeks (or is that just me?) Anyway, Ringer Spy Irascian wrote up his fourth and final report: Warner Brothers to license RingCon convention, Haldir and Gil-galad reeanact Aragorn and Arwen’s love scene at Rivendell… and a wraith proposes marriage to a girl in the audience! [More]
And as it so turns out Craig Parker has his own ‘official’ website! It features an interview with the man himself taken during RingCon and can be seen here!
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Tolkien language scholar David Salo’s wife would like to set the record straight. “I just posted an item to my weblog that may be of interest to TORN. It concerns the story told by the design team in their Extended DVD commentary track about a “Tolkien-language scholar” who caused a huge fuss over “irrelevancies” written in Khuzdul (Dwarvish) on the walls of the Chamber of Mazarbul.” [More]
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