Can NMFS Find the Right Way to Save Right Whales?
Perhaps 325 North Atlantic right whales are still alive. Extinction is certain unless fewer than four whales per decade die from human causes. But the numbers keep slipping down. Do we give up? CSI has always supported a maximum effort to save this population, and we are as frustrated as anyone at the way things are going. Only one calf was known to be born this year, amplifying the latest research that suggests that this population is failing to reproduce, and causing speculation about the role of human pollution in this failure. One whale is known to have died this year from entanglement in fishing lines. Two whales were also known to have been killed last year, one from a ship strike, one from gill nets. A 20-year old male right whale, with a probably fatal entanglement from a lobster pot line, eluded the heroic efforts of the rescue team led by the Center for Coastal Studies in early March. The Center also takes a very active role in mitigations of the major threat, ship strikes. H
