AR-News: Activists seek rules to prevent whale collisions

[jim robertson]

Activists seek rules to prevent whale collisions
Feds eye more stringent regs on East Coast; environmentalists call for 
changes on West Coast

By TARA SIDOR
JUNEAU EMPIRE

Environmentalists looking to protect whales from collisions with ships in 
Alaska and on the West Coast hope to import proposed East Coast 
restrictions.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued an advanced 
notice of proposed rulemaking that calls for tighter restrictions on vessels 
to reduce ship strikes on the North Atlantic right whale along the East 
Coast. The notice was published in the Federal Register June 1. NOAA will 
take comments until Aug. 2.

Environmentalists say NOAA should issue a rule that applies to the coasts 
off Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington because of problems with whale 
strikes.





"We're saying we need to look at a similar strategy for the West," said Teri 
Shore of Bluewater Network in San Francisco, Calif.

Environmentalists want similar speed and routing restrictions, and aerial 
surveys that NOAA is proposing for the East Coast, Shore said.

The cruise ship industry is aware of NOAA's notice, but sees it as an East 
Coast issue for now, officials said Monday.

"They (company officials) certainly pay attention to the environmental 
groups, NOAA and how they will apply to other regions," said Linda Huston, 
Southeast Regional Manager for Holland America Line and Gray Line in Juneau.

Whale strikes are an issue on the East Coast because the right whale is 
endangered there, Huston said.

"Every region needs to stand on its own and how it's unique to itself," she 
said.

The cruise ship industry is likely to oppose blanket restrictions along the 
West Coast, said Don Habeger, director of industrial relations for Royal 
Caribbean Cruises Ltd. in Juneau.

Cruise ships already adhere to restrictions of running at 10 knots or less 
in Glacier Bay because it's a popular whale feeding area, Habeger said.

Vessels automatically slow down for environmental conditions such as weather 
and physical conditions that include the natural lay of a body of water, 
Habeger said.

Twelve whale strikes occurred in Alaska from 1995 to 2001, according to 
NOAA's January 2004 Large Whale Ship Strike Database report. Three whales 
died, three were injured and the status on the others is unknown, the report 
said.

A cruise ship hit a whale May 6 in San Francisco Bay, where the speed limit 
is 15 knots, according to some passenger eyewitnesses. Crew members of the 
ship deny the claim, Shore said.

Environmentalists and the cruise ship industry can come to a compromise, 
said Kyla Bennett, Northeast director of Public Employees for Environmental 
Responsibility in Massachusetts.

Municipalities that want the economic benefit of tourism should not be 
discouraged, but can also act in an environmentally responsible manner, 
Bennett said.

"It shouldn't be painful to them," she said.

Some of NOAA's proposed regulations that environmentalists would like to see 
reach the West Coast are:

• Designated routes established with the greatest possibility of reducing 
the risk of collisions.

• Seasonal speed restrictions of 10 to 14 knots unless it is determined 
there are no whales present.

• Developing an understanding between NOAA and vessel operators that 
primarily transit along the coast locally and between ports. The 
understanding would be that vessels use designated traffic lanes or avoid 
transiting the area to the maximum extent practicable. Those not using the 
lanes would be subject to a uniform speed restriction.

A long-term recommendation, Shore said, is to have aerial surveys of whales 
to chart their location.

http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/060804/sta_roadkill.shtml




"The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak 
the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not 
believe you; your fellow writers will shake their heads." -- Edward Abbey