Ship Strike Season Begins

LNG opponents say whale’s death shows need for restrictions
By Douglas A. Moser , Staff writer
Gloucester Daily Times

ROCKPORT – Opponents of the liquefied natural gas ports proposed off Gloucester said yesterday the dead whale that washed up on Cape Hedge Beach on Monday highlights their concern about increased vessel traffic threatening whales.

If the projects come to fruition, large tankers filled with supercooled liquefied natural gas would be travelling regularly to the ports, planned for about 10 miles southeast of Gloucester Harbor, to unload the fuel and send it through an underwater pipeline to the mainland.

“I think it highlights the concerns we and a lot of other people are raising in our comments” to the state and federal governments, said Roger Fleming, a senior attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation. “Any time you introduce something that’s going to increase vessel traffic, it emphasizes the importance of making sure there are appropriate rules in place to try to prevent these types of interactions from taking place.”

According to a necropsy report completed by Dr. Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, a vessel struck and killed the 2-year-old, 30-foot humpback whale, which washed ashore at Cape Hedge Beach and was discovered Monday at 7:30 p.m.

More … Click on Title

Right whale spotted with 10-foot gash in flank

Thursday, March 15, 2007

PROVINCETOWN, Mass. (AP) — An aerial survey team has spotted a North Atlantic right whale off the Cape Cod coast with what appears to be a 10-foot long propeller wound along its right flank.

The wound, probably suffered when the mammal was struck by a ship, appeared to be about two feet wide, but it could not be determined whether it had penetrated through the whale’s protective blubber.

Despite the wound, the whale appeared to be behaving normally, said Cynthia Browning, aerial survey coordinator for the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.

Charles Mayo, the center’s senior scientist, called the wound “gruesome.”

The approximately 35-foot-long juvenile would likely die as a result of the injury, he said, but held out some hope for the whale’s survival. There was nothing scientists could do to help the animal, he said.

The wound was several weeks old and could have occurred anywhere between the Canadian Maritimes and Florida, Mayo said.

Scientists think only about 350 of the sea mammals survive.

——

Information from: Cape Cod Times, http://www.capecodonline.com

Right whale calf found dead off the Florida coast

01/30/2007 09:37:03 AM

WDCS is devastated to learn of the death of a newborn North Atlantic right whale which has been reported by the American press. The young animal, a 4 metre long male, still showed foetal folds in his skin, indicating that he may have been just days old. The young animal’s death is thought to have been due to natural causes, including the possibility of birth trauma.

WDCS senior biologist, Regina Asmutis-Silvia comments, ‘There have been 10 documented calves born so far this season and it’s not yet clear as to whether this was one of them but I suspect it wasn’t as it doesn’t appear this calf was alive long enough to have been included in any photo documentation. Genetic testing may help determine who its mother was and we hope to find she is alive and well.”

Historically, thousands of right whales roamed the waters of the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada. However, over-hunting took its toll and the population has dropped to an alarming level. While protection from hunting was enacted in 1935, other human generated threats continue to pressure this species including those from vessel strikes, entanglements in fishing gear, pollution, habitat degradation as well as the increasing industrial development of our oceans.

Experts believe there are now fewer than 400 North Atlantic right whales left in existence, making them one of the most endangered of all large whales. Concern for right whales was highlighted late last year when the US Wildlife Trust aerial survey observers spotted a dead 41’ foot, juvenile male right whale off the coast of Georgia making it the 6th known dead right whale in 2006. At least five of the last six right whales have died prematurely- four were killed by vessels and one died entangled in fishing gear. These numbers do not reflect the animals that die, and are lost at sea or can not be recovered for operational safety reasons. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agency charged under the Endangered Species Act with protecting these animals, even a single unnatural death each year will contribute to the demise of this species. Since 2004 at least 15 right whales are known to have died, most as a result of vessels strikes and of which two-thirds were female of breeding age and in three cases were pregnant with full term calves.

Proposed regulations which include mandating the use of modified fixed-fishing gear throughout the east coast and reducing the speed of vessels in key habitat areas have been prepared, but are still not yet enacted. WDCS continues to ask all interested and concerned citizens to repeatedly contact U.S. senators and congressional representatives (http://whales.org/USgovContacts.asp) and tell them these regulations need to be put in place before it is too late and the right whale joins the list of species humans have eradicated forever.

Source: WDCS / news-press.com

Whalestrike Video

Whale Seriously Injured In Shipstrike

Mar 14, 2007 11:32 pm US/Eastern

(WBZ) PROVINCETOWN An endangered North Atlantic right whale suffered deep cuts after it was struck by the propellor of a ship in the Atlantic Ocean.

Experts with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies say the wound on the whale’s right flank appears to be 12 feet long and 2-to-3 feet wide.

The whale was last spotted west of the Wood End Lighthouse off Provincetown.

The PCCS says shipstrikes are a leading cause of right whale deaths.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

Video and more at: http://wbztv.com/local/local_story_073123955.html

FUNDY SUPERPORT IS HAPPENING – A GRIM REALITY FOR RIGHT WHALES

Photo from capecodonline.com.

In 2006, we lost 6 whales, most of them in or near the Bay of Fundy. Now there is a serious entanglement and another death off Georgia. One wonders if there is indeed any hope for the embattled 300 or so Northern Right Whales left in North Atlantic waters.

Mark Dittrick of Sierra Club Canada currently is lecturing up and down the coast on this very topic. His point is that the increasing numbers of ships entering the Bay of Fundy to service refineries, aggregate quarries, and LNG terminals represents a huge increase in the pressure on Right Whales, particularly in the Bay of Fundy. Since ship strikes are the primary cause of mortalities for Right Whales, it is clear that there will be a simple relationship: more ships – more ship strikes. More ship strikes – more mortalities.

Today’s Telegraph Journal out of Saint John, New Brunswick announced the doubling of Irving Oil’s refinery capacity. Check out the present shipping into Saint John and you will see that Port traffic is already steady, significant and apparently growing. Double the refinery ships, add a few hundred more ships going into the new LNG terminal, another 100 or so to the quarry at Digby Neck, and as many as 400 LNG tankers projected for two proposed terminals in Passamaquoddy Bay, and this spells real trouble for Right Whales in their summer home at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy.

Fundy Superport will be a reality it seems and no amount of PR or strategic alliances between the “Whale Set” and industry will offset the grim reality of what will be coming if this occurs. DAMN THE WHALES! LET THE MONEY FLOW!

Art

Endangered Right Whale Killed by Ship Off of Georgia Coast

Description
One of the few hundred remaining North Atlantic right whales was killed by a ship strike off the coast of Georgia, emphasizing the need for rule changes regarding shipping lanes in the whales’ habitat.

Newswise — With the clock ticking down on the close of 2006, whale biologists are concerned that the extinction clock might be ticking down on the North Atlantic right whale as a species. On Saturday, December 30, an aerial survey team in waters off of Brunswick, Georgia discovered a floating two-year old male right whale that had been killed by a ship strike. 2006 proved to be an exceptionally bad year for what might be the world’s most endangered large whale as six of these giant creatures that migrate up and down the East Coast were found dead. Five of the deaths were the direct result of human caused interactions including four deaths due to ship strikes and one from a fishing gear entanglement.

The dead juvenile whale was first spotted floating belly up at 10:30 a.m. Saturday by an aerial survey team with the Wildlife Trust about 10-12miles east of Brunswick, Georgia. Later on Saturday and overnight, the carcass was towed to Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island in Florida. On Sunday, a multi-organizational team led by Dr. Michael Moore of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution of Massachusetts performed a necropsy on the whale. The animal had twenty large propeller cuts along the right side of its head going down its back. This is the signature injury of a ship strike, and further examination indicated that the massive, deep lacerations did not occur after the death of the whale. The young whale was 41 feet long and probably weighed 15 to 20 tons. Unlike many other right whales, this animal had not yet been given a name by whale researchers who know most of the individuals in the population. However, a unique raised skin pattern on his head allowed biologists to identify him as a juvenile that had been born in 2005 to a mother named Columbine. Right whale calves typically stay with their mothers for a year. Juvenile males occasionally migrate down the East Coast late each autumn as do pregnant females to the calving grounds off the coast of Georgia and Florida.

The 2006 right whale death tally took a particularly heavy toll on very young animals including three calves, a two year old male, and a sub-adult female. On January 10, 2006 a male calf was killed north of Jacksonville, Florida by a ship strike. Less than two weeks later, a female calf was found dead with injuries consistent with entanglement in a gillnet off the north Florida coast. In May, a sub-adult female was found off the coast of Long Island. The carcass was not retrievable, and so a cause of death could not be determined. In July, a female calf was killed by a ship strike off the coast of New Brunswick. In early September, an adult female was found dead off of Yarmouth Nova Scotia due to a ship strike. Saturday’s death of the ship struck juvenile male off of Georgia brings the official total for 2006 to six. However, researchers point out that another calf most likely died early in 2006 after it had been repeatedly spotted with its mother but was never seen again despite many more sightings of the mother throughout the year. These deaths represent just the minimum level of mortality as many more deaths likely go unnoted if the carcass is not seen or sinks upon death.

With less than 400 North Atlantic right whales on the planet, scientific studies have shown that the precarious population cannot withstand this level of human caused mortality. The National Marine Fisheries Service has been in the process of proposed rulemaking to better protect right whales from both shipping and fishing impacts for several years. However, Amy Knowlton, a senior New England Aquarium right whale researcher laments, “The process has been impeded because of internal conflict between federal agencies about whether and how to implement such rules, and strong opposition from affected industries who are resisting the need to change business as usual to protect this beleaguered species. We have an opportunity to show the world that this country is willing and able to take the lead in implementing strong, well-researched, and unprecedented measures to protect an endangered species that lives in our near-coastal waters. The implementation of the proposed rules as quickly as possible is critical to the survival of the species.” Among the proposed rules is a requirement to reduce ship speeds when within 30 miles of port entrances along the eastern seaboard on a seasonal basis when right whales are typically in the area. There are other proposals to reroute shipping lanes around areas where right whales aggregate to feed. This type of measure was implemented successfully in 2004 in Canada’s Bay of Fundy, which is the principal late summer feeding ground for many right whales. A similar proposal is in the works to move the shipping lanes going into Boston, which has America’s only whale feeding marine sanctuary, just 25 miles east of its port.

“We know how to reduce human caused right whale deaths through common sense measures that are not onerous to industry. Now we need to implement these solutions in a timely fashion. The urgency of the situation is obvious. The extinction time clock on North Atlantic right whales might be rapidly winding down,” stated Tony LaCasse, the spokesperson for the New England Aquarium.

New England Aquarium scientists have been conducting field research on right whales for over 25 years.

HIGH RESOLUTION IMAGES OF THE DEAD WHALE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD AT http://www.neaq.org/about/pressrelease/