Right whales in the news for the wrong reasons

There are two stories in the media this week about right whales and they can’t easily be disentangled.

Until just 30 years ago, scientists believed that the measurably oldest whales had been a fin whale (110 years old) and a blue whale (113 years old). But then a new process discovered that one baleen whale (a bowhead), killed in a so-called subsistence hunt in the 1980s was an incredible 211 years old – a whale that was young when Napoleon was Emperor of France.

This leads us to conclude that when left undisturbed, whales can live for multiple decades, or longer. But given that living with human disturbance is the new normal for cetaceans the world over, what impact has that had?

A new study has analysed the life expectancy of the thriving Southern right whale (SRW) population and the highly endangered North Atlantic right whale (NARW).

SRWs, as might be expected given they are flourishing, have a median life expectancy of 73.4 years, with 10% of individuals surviving past 131.8 years.

However, NARW life spans were an average of just 22.3 years, and only 10% of individuals live past 47.2 years. For a species in crisis, this confirmation that they could reach over 100 years old, but can only hope to get past 20 years old, is another tragic reality.

For many years, there has been recognition of the fact that NARWs needed to be better safeguarded from vessel strikes off the East coast of the USA (their migration corridor). While speed limits on large vessels have been in place since 2008, vessels that are smaller can still cause fatal injuries, so plans were developed to extend the limits to more smaller ships.

So there was dismay and shock at news in the last few days of the Biden administration, that the National Marine Fisheries Service had withdrawn its plans to extend the East Coast speed limit rules to smaller vessels under 65 feet in length. There were, it claimed “..numerous and ongoing requests from the public” to review it. Quite how many of these requests were from bona fide members of the “public” is debatable. The headline in one US publication, “Marine Industry Applauds Withdrawal of Boat Rule” gives some indication of whose lobbying has been the most successful.

Frank Hugelmeyer, president and CEO of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) was clearly very happy……“This is a huge step forward for American boat manufacturers, coastal economies, and outdoor enthusiasts across the U.S.” So in other words, vested interests, businesses, and the fishing industry have won the day – all seemingly more important than a species on the precipice of extinction, which is only there because of our own selfishness and ignorance.

The final, rather chilling words on this latest chapter must go to one of the organisations that has been fighting so hard and for so long to secure this protection for the whales; “Accidental entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes are listed as the primary threats to North Atlantic right whales,” said Regina Asmutis-Silvia, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, “but their actual greatest threat is political inaction and that is what will drive them to extinction.”