NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — December 10, 2012 — The shipping speed limits many experts credit with preserving what's left of the dwindling North Atlantic right whale population are set to expire next year and a group of experts called on the public Sunday to rally and give the massive sea mammals a fighting chance.
"The story of vessel strikes is a passionate one," said Stormy Mayo, a senior biologist at the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, during a panel discussion at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. "This is an animal that fueled the New England economy … Now it's going extinct."
The environmental charity Whale and Dolphin Conservation called together the panel of five experts Sunday to discuss the organization's new campaign to raise public awareness for the animals and the North Atlantic right whale's future, if it has one.
About 500 North Atlantic right whales remain alive, their populations never having recovered after being depleted by whaling in the 1800s and early 1900s. Today, fishing gear, vessel strikes and a changing habitat continue to kill whales faster than they can be replaced, according to information provided by WDC.
The whales also migrate huge distances, with sightings everywhere from New Brunswick south to Florida. The animals' slow speed, their method of eating by "straining" the water's surface with their mouths and their living close to shorelines leave them vulnerable to commercial shipping vessels and fishing lines.
The federal Right Whale Speed Reduction Rule was put in place four years ago to protect the animals by restricting commercial shipping vessels to 10 knots in the whales' habitat. The rule sunsets on Dec. 9, 2013, and the WDC kicked off its campaign to create public pressure on the government, which has not said whether it will renew the rule.
Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard Times