Right whales (& relatives) get reprieve
A federal judge in Washington has ordered the National Marine Fisheries Service to reinstate rules aimed at protecting right whales, humpbacks and fin whales from becoming fatally entanged in fishing gear. The court issued a preliminary injunction Friday in a lawsuit brought by Defenders of Wildlife and the Humane Society of the United States.
For details on the groups' lawsuit and their concern about fishing gear trapping and killing whales, go here. Right whales were hunted almost to extinction for their oil and their baleens, which once provided the support in corsets.
For more background on right whales, which migrate along our Atlantic coast, I recommend an article by Douglas Chadwick in this month's issue of National Geographic. The photos by Brian Skerry are not to be missed, either. The one at right is not his, but from NOAA.
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I report on the environment and Chesapeake Bay. A native of West Virginia, I have focused mainly on Maryland's environment since moving here in 1983. Along the way, I've crewed aboard a skipjack in the bay, canoed under city streets up the Jones Fall from the Inner Harbor, and gone deep underground in a western Maryland coal mine. Recently, I have been covering the growth and development transforming the landscape. I love seafood, rambles in the country and good stories. I hope to share some here.
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I especially liked the photo of Skerry's assistant with the right whale checking him out on the ocean floor. Skerry talks about the experience in an interview here:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/10/right-whales/skerry-field-notes?pid=MT
Posted by: Marilyn Terrell | October 2, 2008 7:13 AM