Alaska News

Conservation plan demanded for endangered Pacific Right Whale

A conservation group has served notice on the National Marine Fisheries Service to develop a recovery plan under the Endangered Species Act for the endangered North Pacific Right Whale or face a lawsuit.

"North Pacific right whales lead a precarious existence," said Rebecca Noblin, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a formal notice of intent to sue the service last month. "Without the full protections of the Endangered Species Act, including a strong recovery plan, these whales will live on only in history books."

The Right Whale is the rarest of all large whale species, living as long as 100 years. They're huge – with the biggest ones weighing up to 70 tons and measuring up to 55 feet in length.

Humans commercially hunted right whales for oil, meat, and apparel materials (including corset stays, umbrella ribs, and buggy whips) from the 17th to early 20th centuries. They were called right whales because whalers found the whales to be the "right" whales to hunt -- big, slow mammals that float when they are killed.

The 60-day notice of intent to sue is a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit under the Endangered Species Act.

Although the right whale has been listed as endangered as a "northern right whale" since 1973 and since 2008 as a species in its own right, there is no recovery plan in place.

"Recovery plans are essential to saving struggling species and helping them recover to the point where they no longer need to be listed under the Endangered Species Act," she said. "Studies have shown that species with recovery plans are far more likely to be on the road to recovery than those without."

ADVERTISEMENT

"There is still a chance to save them," she said. There are two stocks, including about 30 whales in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, as well as a few hundred in Russian waters, she said.

According to the Associated Press, Connie Barclay, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Silver Springs, Md., said the agency has begun a five-year review on the North Pacific right whale.

"This five-year review is will help the NOAA Fisheries scientists compile the information and recognize the gaps in knowledge that we have," she said. "We really don't know a lot about the whale, and we're trying to learn as quickly as we can."

Increased shipping is believed to be danger for the right whales, who are slow moving and sometimes have trouble getting out of the way of vessels. "The best thing to prevent ship strikes would be to slow ships and have established shipping lanes," Nolin said.

Noises from the ships themselves also cause behavioral problems, and if the whales get too close to the ships, it can damage their hearing, she said.

This article was originally published by The Cordova Times and is reprinted here with permission.

ADVERTISEMENT