Cruise line has a whale of a system

[Jason]

Cruise line has a whale of a system

Some cruise lines set more than a nice table.

Source: Arline, Sam Bleecker: The Chicago Tribune

Holland America, for example, sets an industry standard for whale safety and has won recognition for its leadership by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA ) National Marine Fisheries Service.

The line is the first to garner the NOAA Stewardship and Sustainability “Conservation Partnership” Award for its work on “Avoiding Whale Strikes,” an hour-long educational CD training program.

Since 1972, approximately 300 to 400 whales worldwide are known to have been injured or killed by collisions with oceangoing vessels, says Gregory Silber, coordinator of Recovery Activities for Endangered Large Whale Species and the Office of Protected Resources of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Of course, the numbers could be larger, Silber cautions, since he suspects that many more whales are hit than are known or reported.

“Collisions with ships and whales are a problem, especially endangered species,” he says, including blue, humpback and right whales.

For certain species, though, it is a major problem, such as the huge right whale, Silber says. Struggling for survival, right whales are among the most endangered species in the world and are highly vulnerable to ship collisions.

“Reducing serious injuries and deaths among right whales due to ship collisions will allow more of these rare animals to reach maturity and to reproduce. That’s a key factor for recovery,” noted Bill Hogarth, NOAA Fisheries Service director, in an agency announcement.

After years of commercial exploitation, only about 300 right whales remain today. Ranging in length up to 60 feet, these gray whales, which can weigh up to 90 tons, were ideal for commercial hunters in earlier times. They are slow-moving and blubberous and thus were an abundant source of oil for a world not yet addicted to petroleum. In fact, they were such ideal targets for whalers, says Silber, that they were given the moniker “right whales” to distinguish them from the less commercially valuable ones.

Right whales mainly populate the coastal or shelf waters off the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada from the Bay of Fundy and Scotian Shelf to Florida, and each loss is considered significant. The whale’s known range includes winter calving and nursery areas off the southeastern United States, and summer feeding grounds in New England waters and north to the Bay of Fundy.

To protect right whales, NOAA Fisheries Service recently published a proposed rule describing regulations to reduce the risk of collisions between North Atlantic right whales and oceangoing vessels. The rule proposes vessel speed restrictions to 10 knots along the U. S. East Coast, a first in the agency’s long-standing efforts to recover right whales. At top speed, cruise ships might attain 18 to 20 knots, says Silber.

These proposed measures are adapted to right whale seasonal occurrence in each area, as well as to commercial ship traffic patterns and navigational concerns. Speed restrictions would apply to vessels greater than 65 feet, except federal agency vessels.

“We believe the measures proposed here will make U. S. East Coast waters safer for right whales,” Hogarth notes.

“Though not the main culprit,” says Silber, the cruise industry nevertheless “stepped up to the problem,” particularly Holland America.

To assist in the recovery and ensure the safety of all whale species, Holland America, in cooperation with NOAA’s Fisheries Service and the National Parks Service, developed and launched a comprehensive and interactive computer-based training program called “Avoiding Whale Strikes.”

The hour-long CD provides basic instruction on identifying whale types.

Sections of the program discuss surface characteristics of each species, such as blow patterns (the shape of the spray when a whale breathes out through its blowhole ), how many times a whale might blow before diving, whether it shows its fluke before diving and how many whales might be in the group. For example, right whales have a distinctive two-column V-shaped blow, typically travel alone or in groups of two or three, usually blow 10 to 15 times before diving and show their fluke before deep dives.

Holland America has freely distributed the program throughout the cruise-ship industry, as well as given the U. S. government copyright to distribute the program to shipping and military interests. The CD also is available to the maritime community to help all ships avoid striking whales.

Holland America also will provide copies to the European Union for the use of the EU governments. The line also was asked by the International Whaling Commission to provide copies for its members.

The most immediate result of the cruise line’s commitment has been the start of a new Holland America-NOAA partnership to develop an onboard “edutainment” program for kids, Silber says. For details, contact Holland America at (877 ) 724-5425 or hollan damerica. com.