IMAGE: Southern right whale exhaling

North Atlantic Right Whales which number no more than 300 face significant risk not only from economic interests, interaction with commercial fishing gear, government inaction and ship strikes but air pollution where industrial pollutants may “be slowing their recovery rates.” This is gravely problematic for the species which have a potential biological removal of zero, meaning that given many factors such as birth rates, zero animals may be removed form the overall population – naturally or unnaturally if the population is to recover. It is interesting to see how the federal laws which protect these animals will act to mitigate the pollutants. This study and in addition to the whales act as a warning and indicator to our own health.

From the Portsmouth Herald News, NH:

‘I don’t see how you get levels this high in skin without breathing it in,” Wise said. “The whales are close enough to shore that they’re getting essentially urban air coming off land. They suck in a lot more air than we do, so we’re thinking air pollution may be a bigger hazard than we ever thought about for whales.’

A Washington Post article, The Wrong Way to Save Right Whales? Plan to Slow Ship Speeds in East Coast Waters Stalls as Agencies Fight Over One of World’s Most Endangered Mammals recently noted on ship strikes:

The proposed ship strike rule has proved more problematic. Since Feb. 20, the OMB has been analyzing the rule’s economic impact, which NOAA officials estimated at $116 million a year — less than four-hundredths of one percent of the $300 billion East Coast shipping trade. The OMB extended its usual 90-day review another 30 days in May, but did not release the rule after that first extension expired.

Furthermore the Washington Post article goes on to note that significant evidence exists to show that speed kills:

A 2007 paper published by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the New England Aquarium suggested that the risk a conventional ship poses to right whales drops 40 percent if the ship’s speed drops from more than 20 knots to 10 knots.

On the Net: The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium
On the Net: Marine Mammal Protection Act – Office of Protected Resources – NOAA Fisheries
On the Net: Endangered Species Recovery Plans | Northern Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) – Office of Protected Resources – NOAA Fisheries
On the Net: NOAA Fisheries Service Northeast Ship Strike Reduction Program

—
Photo source for attribution. The author or licensor of this image does not endorse me or my work and their image is protected under an attribution license.