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The 1992 Whaling Commission Meeting in Scotland saw the French Government propose for the establishment of an Antartic Whale Sanctuary. As part of the audio presentation on this issue is an interview with Dr. Roger Pein (Director of Whale & Dolphin Conservation Institute in the US). Dr. Pein comments on the enormous rate at which whales are killed in Russia, and Japan implementing a vote consolidation process by buying votes in 4 Carribean countries and Solomon Islands.|The Papua New Guinea Oil Palm Plantation issue addresses concerns oflandowners regarding the agreement and benefits to be achieved from the project. There is also mention of the environmental impact of this project on the area. This project is controlled by Singaporean company 'Advanced Cynergy'

Rarotonga and Aitutaki form the summits of separate volcanic masses rising from depths of 4000 m, at which depth the cones are 45-55 km in diameter (Summerhayes and Kibblewh 1966, 1967).The lower slopes of the cones average 15-25 increasing to 30 in the upper 750 m and becoming very steep the surface reef is approached. The Mauke-Aitutaki line of islands is thought to be of early Tertiary age: the surface volcanics are much eroded, with a subdued topography, or are capped with limestones (Wood, 1967; Wood and Hay, 1970). On Rarotonga, where the relief is much stronger (maximum altitude 640 m), radiometric ages of 2.3-2.8 million years date the 1 as Pliocene (Tarling, 1967). Mangaia, with a cap of Oligoce Miocene limestones, must be much older (Marshall, 1927). Evi dence from the deep-sea drilling programme indicates that th ocean floor in the area of the southern Cooks is Paleogene (22.5-65 million years) in age (Winterer, 1973), thus provid a maximum age for the islands. It is probable that the gross history of the Cooks resembles that of other, better-known reef-capped Pacific volcanic cones known to have been initia in the early Tertiary.