Contact: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
2/11/97
The most endangered whale found off the Atlantic coast, the northern right whale, will benefit from a 500-yard protection zone to reduce the chances of human activity disturbing or altering its behavior, the Commerce Department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.
Where human activities coincide with right whales, especially where vessel traffic and similar activities occur, there is potential that the animal's normal behavior may be disrupted. Agency biologists and independent scientists believe that human-induced disturbance may be one of several factors impeding the recovery of right whales. The prohibitions within this rule will restrict all vessels and watercraft, swimmers, and aircraft from approaching within 500 yards of a right whale to minimize disturbance to the animal.
If a vessel is within the 500-yard restricted area, it must immediately depart the area at a slow, safe speed in a direction away from the whale. Exceptions to the rule are allowed for emergency situations; for aircraft operations (unless the aircraft is conducting whale watch activities); for certain right whale disentanglement/rescue efforts and investigations; and for a vessel or aircraft restricted in its ability to maneuver and unable to comply with the right whale avoidance measures.
Since July 1995, at least 14 right whales have died, nine of which are known to have died or sustained serious injury from entanglements in fishing gear, ship strikes, or other human-induced activities. This rate is about five times greater than in previous years, when one or two right whales have died annually from human interaction. The fisheries service is working with other federal and state agencies on this 500-yard approach rule and other initiatives to provide greater safety to right whales.
According to agency officials, the 500-yard protection zone should only minimally affect whale watching operations because operators focus primarily on humpback and finback whales, not the right whale. The protection zone will also complement similar regulations already followed in Massachusetts state waters. Currently, agency whale-watching guidelines ask boaters to keep at least 100 feet away from all whales. Fisheries service officials say whale-watching operators are well aware of the precarious status of the right whale and have been supportive of this and other actions taken by NOAA in the past to help protect the species. Listed as endangered, the northern right whale is found off the eastern seaboard, where it starts a yearly trek in October from feeding grounds off the Maine-Nova Scotia coast to Georgia-Florida waters where the animal breeds and nurses calves through the early spring. Historically, more than 10,000 right whales inhabited U.S. waters before commercial whaling of the early 1900s reduced populations. Only about 300 right whales remain today. A right whale generally swims an average of two to three miles-per-hour, making it one of the slowest large whale species and therefore more susceptible to human disturbances. Compounding the problem, shipping lanes run through the right whales' calving and feeding grounds, making their annual migration path a perilous journey. Right whales can be seen within one mile of the coast along much of their annual journey.
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