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Warning Buoy Network Protects Right Whales
coondoggie alerts us to a story that is actually a few weeks old now about a network of sonic buoys to listen to right whales, in order to warn ships away from them. On April 10, 22% of the known population of right whales in the world — 79 out of 350 — were gathered at Stellwagen Bank, off of Massachusetts, to feed on a bumper crop of the tiny crustaceans called copepods. The network of smart buoys helps to protect the whales from the roughly 1,500 ships per year that go through this feeding ground on their way to and from Boston.
What about the whales that are lefty, or even wrong?
I haven't read TFA, but assuming the summary is accurate, this system warns ships away from whales. This, of course, relies on the fact that ships WANT to get away from whales - but couldn't a whaling ship use this to home in on its prey?
A far more interesting system would be one which warns *whales* away from *ships*. If someone could come up with a cheap system which, upon detection of a largish ship, transmits the whalian equivalent of "Japanese/Norweigan ship approaching!!! Dive! Dive!", then instead of ridiculous chases across the Southern Ocean environmental activists could simply charter a plane and drop thousands of the things around known whale migratory zones. Make the whole thing solar powered and super-long-lasting, too.
This would be a nice, passive way to fight whaling. I particularly like the idea that we could give whales some technology to fight back against the huge, fast, explosive harpoon-armed whaling technology presently employed by Japan.
Read Pynchon.
DNA studies apparently show that the Right Whales around Australia and New Zealand are not a single species, as had been thought, but two genetically distinct species. This has been found to be the case of other cetaceans - Hector's Dolphin, I think, is another where they had to re-estimate populations because there were multiple species counted as a single one. I don't know if DNA studies have been carried out on the populations of Right Whales of the US coast. Because there are multiple species involved, though, the term "Right Whale" only refers to a physiological description, not a biological one, and should go the way of other dead labels. Problem is, labels are used to define what is protected, so doing that might be harmful by removing essential protections, even though it should be helpful by allowing an accurate description of what is in the sea.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Present day whaling by Japan and Norway is from plentyfull stocks and government oversight. Right whales are actually endangered and in the US by shipping. Guess who Greenpeace is going after.
There are not 350 right whales in the world. There are approximately 8000-8500 of them.
There are about 350 right whales in the north Atlantic.
I live on the Outer Cape in Cape Cod Massachusetts. Herring Cove Beach is about 7 miles from my home. You can just drive to the beach and see them off shore. Now, the bulk of the whale are off shore and can't be seen, but there were about 40 there on Saturday. The whale watch boats are often kept at bay by the Provincetown Police, but even if the police aren't there, the boats do the right thing and stay a bit off. I've seen countless dolphins in a single field of view of my binoculars.
If you are in the area, you really should go see this. Bring the best binoculars you can, but even if you don't have any, you might see tens of blows per minutes. Long time locals suggest that the shore whales will disappear once the fast ferry starts up, which is in about 2 weeks.
It is truly amazing. I can't imagine what it is like off shore.
P