Global Courant 2023-04-15 20:12:47
On a windy spring day, scientists and conservationists methodically conducted experiments near 15 North Atlantic right whales that occasionally spouted and surfaced in a bay south of Boston.
The group of adults and calves is about 4% of the global population of a marine mammal that has almost disappeared from the planet after many decades of commercial whaling. There are now only a few hundred behemoths left, which can weigh 70 tons and feed on tiny ocean organisms.
Although whale numbers are declining, conservationists attribute their survival to the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
The groundbreaking federal law – half a century old this year – has forced the fishing and commercial shipping industry to take important steps to help protect critically endangered whales. And it has spurred government agencies and scientists to do research.
David Wiley, a research ecologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, was part of the crew that tested the waters off Cape Cod in late March and early April for the presence of a naturally occurring chemical that could help predict where whales congregate.
That knowledge, Wiley said, could help create new rules that protect the whales from threats such as entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes. While Wiley’s crew was at work, a whale was found entangled in Cape Cod Bay.
“They will go extinct in our lifetime if we don’t act,” he said. “The goal of my research is to protect animals, whales and humpback whales.”
Numerous whale species are protected under the Endangered Species Act, including the blue, fin, and sperm whale. Some, including the North Atlantic right whale, have been on the list since the law was passed in 1973. The law also protects other marine mammals, including some seal species, and ocean inhabitants such as sea turtles.
Few animals have brought more change to marine industries than the right whale, and conservationists say the persistence of the species, which number about 340 worldwide, is testament to the importance of this act.
MYSTERY OF WHALE DIETS RAISES ALARM: WE MUST ‘PAUSE AND INVESTIGATE’
“While they continue to decline right now, I’m convinced they wouldn’t be here without the Endangered Species Act,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Massachusetts-based Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA.
But as federal regulators devise new protections for the whale and other declining marine animals, the fishing and shipping industries, transformed by decades of conservation laws, are digging into another round of fighting for their own interests.
The US lobster fishery, one of America’s most lucrative fishing industries, supports the law, said Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association. But she said fishermen also need reasonable rules and some recent proposed restrictions on fishing go too far.
In recent years, disagreements over the proper way to apply the law have increasingly taken the industry to court. “We need to have a realistic approach to how environmental management is treated,” Casoni said. “It will be extremely costly for the industry to fight the pending lawsuits brought forward by the environmental groups.”
Maritime industries are subject to numerous restrictions to protect the rare whales. Rules cover how fast vessels are allowed to go and where commercial fishermen are allowed to fish. There are slow zones, protected zones and restrictions on gear types.
The law has permanently protected thousands of square miles of ocean habitat to provide a haven for the animals from disturbances from human activities. The law has led to innovations such as ropeless fishing designed to prevent whales from becoming entangled. Compliance with the law primarily drove the use of nets with escape hatches to protect turtles from the Gulf Coast shrimping industry.
A North Atlantic right whale surfaces on March 27, 2023 off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The species has long been at the center of a dispute between regulators and the commercial fishing and shipping industry. (AP photo / Robert F. Bukaty, NOAA permit #21371)
Fishing for lucrative fish species, such as scallops and groundfish, has also made changes to comply with the law. The law has put observers on fishing boats to make sure fishermen are following the rules, and it has banned fishing in places that are home to vulnerable species.
BIDEN ADMINISTRATOR FACES BACKBACK OVER CONSTRUCTION OF WIND FARM THREATENING LIFE IN THE SEA: ‘WAKE UP WHALES ACROSS!’
“I feel like it’s driving technological innovation, and it’s also protecting a whole host of other species by reducing risk for whatever species is on the list,” said Janet Coit, assistant fisheries manager at NOAA’s National Marine. Fisheries Service, which regulates commercial fishing. “The law has stood the test of time.”
The protection of the law will be expanded in the coming years. On the East Coast, NOAA is enacting new and broader fishing restrictions to reduce the likelihood of whales being injured or killed by fishing gear entanglement. The agency is also considering expanded speed limit zones that will apply to many shippers.
On the west coast, new protections for endangered whales are being built off the coast of California. The International Maritime Organization has adopted a proposal from the US that will take effect this summer, expanding restrictions on shipping traffic to give endangered whales such as blue and fin whales a more undisturbed sea.
Lobster anglers have vowed to fight new restrictions on fishing off the East Coast that many believe will bankrupt the industry. Proposed restrictions necessitate new ropeless gear that is not yet widely available, said David Cousens, a lobster man in South Thomaston, Maine.
“The technology isn’t there. Common sense is what has to prevail here, no castles in the air,” Cousens said.
Ship collisions and entanglements are two of the biggest threats whales face. But expanding restrictions on shipping traffic has also met resistance from shippers who fear compliance will be difficult, said Kathy Metcalf, president of the Chamber of Shipping of America.
“All we’re trying to do is put in some reasonable restrictions and still be able to serve the people waiting for their Nike sneakers and fuel oil or whatever and still provide some level of protection for the animals,” Metcalf said.
The plight of whales, long a focus of conservationists, helped inspire the Endangered Species Act. Many species were devastated during the era of commercial whaling, when they were hunted for meat and oil.
Ranging from Mexico to Alaska in the Pacific, the gray whale is often regarded as one of the act’s greatest success stories since it was delisted in 1994 after populations recovered. The U.S. government also removed most humpback whale populations from the list after recovery.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“The Endangered Species Act has legal ramifications. A tangible result,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, a senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Massachusetts, which is dedicated to marine conservation. “The Endangered Species Act has increased our sensitivity to rare species.”
Others, such as the North Atlantic right whale, recover more slowly. The whale population is declining in part due to climate-related ocean warming, which scientists say is pushing the animals out of protected zones and endangering them in search of food. They have lost about 30% of their population since 2010.
The rapid decline shows that the law can’t save an animal if it isn’t aggressively enforced, said Michael Moore, director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Marine Mammal Center in Massachusetts. “That level of collapse can hardly be considered a success,” Moore said.
If the whale is to survive, the law will have to play a vital role, said Gib Brogan, fisheries campaign manager for the conservation group Oceana.
“The Endangered Species Act is a great hammer … which has forced action, necessary action, to ensure that the needs of these species are met, both in fisheries management and other activities where they would otherwise be ignored, Brogan said. .
