The Canadian government has issued a $6,000 speeding ticket to a Canadian Coast Guard ship for travelling over the posted speed limit in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence. Since August 11, 2017, Transport Canada has been imposing a 10-knot speed limit for larger vessels operating in designated areas of the Gulf of St. Lawrence due to the increased presence of right whales in … [Read more...]
Canada Orders Ships to Reduce Speed to Prevent Whale Strikes
TORONTO, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Certain ships are being ordered to reduce speed because of the deaths of at least 10 North Atlantic right whales in Canada's Gulf of St Lawrence during the past two months, the government said on Friday. The deaths have made 2017 the deadliest year for the endangered marine mammal since scientists began tracking their numbers in the 1980s, … [Read more...]
High Number of Deaths Among North Atlantic Right Whales Puzzles Scientists
TORONTO, July 31 (Reuters) - North American conservationists are scrambling to find out why North Atlantic right whales are dying in unprecedented numbers, with nine deaths in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence in two months, according to Canadian authorities. The nine deaths make 2017 the deadliest year for the endangered marine mammal since scientists began tracking their … [Read more...]
NOAA Announces Plan To Silence US Oil Rigs, Dredges and Ships
(Reuters) The ocean has gotten noisier for decades, with man-made racket from oil drilling, shipping and construction linked to signs of stress in marine life that include beached whales and baby crabs with scrambled navigational signals. The United States aims to change that as a federal agency prepares a plan that could force reductions in noise-making activities, … [Read more...]
Blue Whales Can’t Avoid Large Ships, Says Stanford Biologist
BY BJORN CAREY, Stanford University For millions of years, blue whales have cruised the world's oceans with hardly a care, their sheer size making them largely free from predator attacks. The downside to being the largest animals in history, however, is that the species was never pressured to evolve defensive behaviors. Now, the first direct observations of blue whales … [Read more...]