How Can Right Whales Be Wrong???
Students from the Alice Drive Elementary School in South Carolina spent months learning about the plight of the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. And then they tried to do the right thing by nominating the species to become South Carolina’s official State Marine Mammal.
However, the State’s Port Authority is opposing the Bill. Why would the Port Authority challenge a bunch of school kids and say that right whales are “wrong” for South Carolina?
Could it be that the South Carolina Port Authority (SPA) is angry because, like the rest of us, they are required to abide by the law? When SPA applied for a permit to expand operations, they were legally required to consider any and all endangered species that may be impacted, including right whales. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the agency charged with protecting right whales, felt that SPA needed to do more, and that the potential increase in vessel traffic could impact the right whales.
North Atlantic right whales are a critically endangered species with fewer than 400 remaining world wide. Vessel strikes are a persistent, well documented threat to this species. Right whales are a slow moving whale, often traveling near or just below the surface – a behaviour that has left them particularly vulnerable to the increasing levels of traffic along the eastern seaboard of the United States. NMFS has indicated that the loss of one female NA right whale each year, from human causes, may jeopardize the existence of the entire species.
Furthermore, Mother-calf pairs have been extensively documented off South Carolina indicating the waters off of South Carolina are important to right whales not only as a migratory corridor, but also as a calving area, with some mothers having been seen there with newborns and nowhere else. Mothers and calves are considered to be the most vulnerable sector of the population with calves spending appreciably more time at, or near, the surface than adults, thereby increasing their risk of being hit by passing vessels.
As a result, NMFS required the SPA to conduct aerial surveys during the winter months, a time when right whales are known to be in the waters off South Carolina. The SPA was also asked to address the routes that ships entered the port to reduce the risk of vessel strikes to right whales.
Then, in December of 2007, NMFS implemented a rule to reduce the speed of vessels greater than 20m in length, to 10kts, in specific right whale habitats on a seasonal basis. This included waters off of South Carolina.
“There is no legal, nor legitimate, concerns that have been presented indicating that the South Carolina State Marine Mammal should not be a North Atlantic right whale” said WDCS Senior Biologist, Regina Asmutis-Silvia. “South Carolina represents and important part of the only known calving area for this species. These kids have worked hard to learn about right whales and raise awareness for this species. WDCS fully supports their efforts.”
Historically, whaling was an important economic industry to South Carolina. According to the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s Library, South Carolina timber and cotton were routinely transported to northern states for building ships and manufacturing sails. Public fascination with right whales in South Carolina has been documented as far back as 1880, when Harper’s Weekly reported a "Whale Captured in the Harbor of Charleston... a huge ‘right whale, which had probably been driven from his usual haunts in the sea by the stress of weather.... The news of the capture soon spread everywhere, and thousands of persons came to see the monster."
WDCS believes that designating North Atlantic right whales as the State Marine Mammal provides South Carolina with the opportunity to embrace history as well as progress and knowledge. A place that once contributed to an industry that led to the demise of this species can now increase awareness to ensure its survival.
Vote for right whales!