Are whale-watch boats really endangering whales?
According to a New England-based study in the journal Conservation and Biology, the answer is yes. Researchers went undercover on nearly four dozen whale-watch boats in New England during 2003 and 2004, and said they found that every boat went too fast, sometimes exceeding the voluntary speed limits set in 1999 for such trips by three times.
This, they said, puts the whales in danger.
Except, it doesn't.
The study, in fact, presented no hard evidence that it does. Since 1999, when the voluntary speed limits were imposed, there has been no known collision with a whale by a New England whale-watching boat. Indeed, the investigation that led to the report in Conservation and Biology didn't even attempt to study the effect of whale-watching on whales.
A long-term study that did do so, conducted by the Gloucester-based Whale Center of New England and running from 1980 to 2006, concluded that whale-watching was not a danger or even a major stress factor to whales.
So while it may be legitimate for researchers to be "concerned" about the speed of boats being a danger to whales, the findings of the recent study should not be used in any way to sanction an industry that is vital to the region, and that brings delight and wonder, not to mention natural awareness, to more than a million people throughout New England during the spring and summer of every year.
Federal law forbids whale-watching boats from harassing the huge sea mammals. That is as it should be. But, as whale-watch operators point out, they don't want to harass whales. The last thing they want to do is drive them away or collide with them, since that will undermine their business.
They also note, as the Whale Center does, that the major threats to whales come from other sources — entanglement in fishing gear, collisions with larger ships and other boats, and the degradation of their environment. Last year, there were three whale deaths attributed to collisions with shipping vessels.
The goal should be peaceful coexistence between humans and some of the grandest, most graceful creatures in all of creation. Whale-watch operators should strive to do their best to make their trips what they were designed to be — a chance to see whales in their own habitat without disturbing them.
The evidence shows that they are already doing a pretty good job.
