... but ...
It's a (gasp) watered down version of the regulation.
Since the average speed of fatal right whale collisions is well documented at about 18 knots, the speed limit of 10 knots wasn't easy for the World Shipping Council to argue against. What they could argue against was the distance from shore where ships would be required to obey that speed limit. Even though there are extensive population distribution maps showing right whales 30 nautical miles from shore, the WSC pleaded the speed limit down to 20 nautical miles from shore.This is a population with less than 400 individuals left. As Amy Knowlton (who's research is cited along with the rest of the Aquarium's North Atlantic Right Whale Research Program in NOAA reports) points out in the Post article, it's not time to cut corners with protective measures:
"It's disappointing that it can't be all that it could be," said Amy Knowlton, a researcher at the New England Aquarium in Boston. "If we didn't lose one or two females a year" because of the expanded speed zones, she said, "that could be the difference between letting this population recover, and letting this population continue into extinction."
Just today NEAQ researchers identified a calf with entanglement scars. People, and governments, need to start taking the risk of extinction seriously. You can't negotiate away the death of an entire species.
1 comment:
That is uncool in the extreme!
A calf with entanglement scars. I thought all gear was supposed to be sinking this year?
As for the 20 vs 30... If they want to play let's make a deal then I say we up the offer to a 50 mile radius.
Then maybe they'll agree 30 is quite generous.
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