A new report recently said most ships are going beyond limits in sites designated to shield critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, of which just roughly 360 have remained.
Specifically, a Phys.org report specified, Oceans, a non-profit organization, analyzed speeds of ships and boats from 2017 to 2020 in speed zones which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA established along the United States Atlantic coast.
Non-compliance was as high as nearly 90 percent in required speed zones, according to the study, while non-cooperation was as high as nearly 86 percent in the voluntary sites.
Collisions with vessels are two main causes of injury and death for North Atlantic right whales. Research reveals that slowing vessel speeds to 18.5 kilometers per hour decreases the danger of death by 80 to 90 percent.
Speeding Vessels
A similar MSN News report said, according to Whitney Webber, campaign director at Oceana, vessels are speeding, "North Atlantic right whales are dying," and there is no adequate accountability.
NOAA has developed two zone types to protect endangered species. One is the permanent Seasonal Management Area or SMA speed zones in areas where whales are expected to be.
The other zone is temporary voluntary Dynamic Management Area or DMA peed zones when a whale is detected. Essentially, SMAs are mandating a 10-knot limit while DMAs are suggesting the same.
The assessment was based on speed and location data gathered by an international nonprofit organization, Global Fishing Watch, which Oceana founds in alliance with SkyTruth and Google.
It found that the highest level of compliance involved only two-thirds of vessels in a required zone close to Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
The zone with the highest non-compliance levels of 90 percent was situated in a corridor between Georgia and North Carolina.
Both the New York and New Jersey ports, according to Barron's report, had 70 percent non-compliance rates. Two-thirds of vessels that went beyond the speed limits operated under foreign flags and cargo vessels as the primary offenders.
The 'Right' Kind of Whale
The research focused on vessels 65 feet and huger since they are mandated to continuously have their signals broadcasted, although smaller vessels can be fatal, too.
Early this year, NOAA reported the death of a calf due to propeller wounds, broken ribs, and a fractured skull caused by a collision with a 54-foot recreational fishing vessel.
Webber explained that killing even just one is a problem. Scientists approximate that even a single human-caused North Atlantic right whale death each year threatens the chance of recovery of the whale species.
North Atlantic right whales are called as such for being the "right" kind of whale to hunt since they were found near the shore, swimming slowly and floating when dead.
The population of this whale species was once recorded at 21,000, although they were hunted near extinction in the early 20th century, with just roughly 100 remaining by the 1920s.
This report specified that whaling North Atlantic right whales was prohibited in 1935, resulting in their numbers bouncing back to as many as 483, as stated on the NOAA site, although the progress has since been overturned.
In addition, entanglement in the fishing gear used for catching crab and fish is the other main cause of death of North Atlantic whales.
A report about ships exceeding speed limits that is causing the North Atlantic Right whales' death is shown on Oceana's YouTube video below:
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