Dive Bombing-An Article About The Navy/Whale Conflict
Editor's Note-
I thought that this was an interesting story -- rather than just a report of the of situation. Wanted to share more about the contrevesial sonar testing of the Navy and its effect on marine mammals.
NOT FAR OFF the coast of Georgia, the North Atlantic right whale cruises the blue deep as it’s done for centuries. In tow, scientists, researchers, environmentalists, bureaucrats and animal-lovers hope to glimpse one of only several hundred remaining, to document their movements, and to discover how to keep them alive.
The precarious state of this baleen whale comes at odds with countless seafaring industries and competing uses of the bustling Atlantic seaboard, none more alarming to critics than the U.S. Navy’s proposed Undersea Warfare Training Range (USWTR), which could be in operation off the Georgia/Florida coast as early as 2013.
The Eubalaena glacialis, as it is scientifically known, was named because it was supposedly the “right” whale to hunt, for the oil lucratively harvested from her blubber. She was easy prey due to her tempered and shallow group swim and the thick layer of blubber that kept her afloat postmortem — thus facilitating retrieval.
Large-scale whaling began in the 11th Century, and by the mid-1500s, sailors would travel as much as 3000 miles a year in search of the profitable kill. Centuries later, American whalers continued the tradition, harvesting whale bones for corsets, umbrellas and whips until the late 1800s when it was no longer commercially viable.
By this time, the North Atlantic right whale was near extinction. Where they once numbered hundreds of thousands, there remained only a few dozen.
The right whale still hasn’t managed to rebound in numbers, despite advancements in science, protection under the Endangered Species and Marine Mammal Protection Acts, increased tracking capabilities, improved navigational technologies, and heightened public awareness. The population has held fast, stubborn, since the sunset of the whaling era.
“The North Atlantic right whale is considered to be one of, if not the most endangered of the great whales in the world. At present the population seems to be holding at 300-400 individuals,” says Cathy Sakas, Education Coordinator at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Gray’s Reef National Marine Sanctuary. Sakas communicates regulations and protocols as they relate to North Atlantic right whales.
