THE GREAT WHALE CHASE

No, this wasn’t about whaling in the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries, it’s about now, this year, and just this past March. During most of March there was an ongoing saga of attempts to track down “Kingfisher” a young male Right Whale that apparently was traveling north from the Florida coast with some rope wrapped on him. The daily reports noted his progress and those of an 87-foot Coast Guard cutter, a plane and a disentangling team as they tried to follow the whale and get close enough with the right weather conditions to cut the rope off. They had managed to attach a telemetry buoy to the whale. These daily accounts on what was going on and what was not continued giving the whale’s location based on the attached tracking device and the corresponding actions of those involved in the chase until some vessel ran over the trailing signal buoy line and cut it off somewhere off the mid-Atlantic coast. Apparently, through all of this, Kingfisher was not too tied down because he continued to move up the entire east coast making remarkable progress. The last word received was a sighting that placed him off the New England coastline. We’re sure that efforts will continue to catch up with him as he moves toward Canada.

We certainly support efforts to disentangle any whale that somehow might have managed to wrap himself up in some line. We also support the efforts by those dedicated people who have taken on the task of trying to save these magnificent creatures. It can be frustrating and at many times a dangerous adventure. We also believe that almost everyone, including fishermen, want to do whatever is possible to save these whales and allow the numbers of Northern Right Whales to continue to increase as they have over the past several years.

Looking back at this particular whale chase, however, one might wonder about a few of the aspects that seem to have drifted off the radar screen in everyone’s mind. The Endangered Species Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act, both federal laws, in one way or another, prohibit the “harassment” of whales. What constitutes harassment? The provision was designed, in general, not only to protect the whale itself physically but also to reduce the stress level for the whale. Less stress has been determined to be better for the whale. Okay, that makes sense. We wonder, however, if being chased by a big white boat, tailed by a plane, approached by a harpoon raft, the whale might not know the difference and having a signal buoy attached to him might have also stressed this whale a bit. This type of “harassment” is permitted under the Acts and we do understand the reasoning of all this activity but for the whale, does it understand this? It could be akin to what we humans go through when we go to a doctor ourselves and he may do some procedure that hurts or causes us stress but it’s done in order to make us well again. We may understand this but the poor whale may not. While we support this type of activity for the sake of the whale’s well-being, we raise this issue just because we may fail to consider this side of the picture in our eagerness to be helpful to the whales plight.

The biggest aspect that seems to get lost amid the waves of the crusade is the cost. How much of the taxpayers and some other group’s money is being used in the effort? How much was used just for this one east coast journey. Let’s see, one Coast Guard cutter for how many trips, a “Twin Otter” plane flying up and down the coast for a month and the pay, equipment and travel expenses for a disentanglement team! It was estimated that the Right Whale “Churchill” chase that unfortunately failed to save him cost in excess of $250,000 and that didn’t include the costs associated with the deployment of the Coast Guard vessel.

Saving the whales is a noble goal and as we have said we support that goal. We should, however, at the same time, be cognizant of the staggering costs involved. If we’re alright with that – then so be it.

Under the provisions of the federal laws, how much are we willing to spend to save the whales? Is it one million dollars per whale? Is there a limit? Is this the best use for our nation’s money? These thoughts surfaced this spring as we followed this latest and perhaps the longest whale chase up the entire east coast. It seems these issues disappear in the frenzy that accompanies each whale alert.