Monday, Mar. 29, 2010

Slow-down rule largely ignored by coastal ships

A few hundred container ships rolled into the Charleston harbor this winter, among thousands along the East Coast. None have been fined for violating a federal rule to slow down near the coast to protect the rare right whale.

The rule was widely opposed by shipping interests, and independent trackers say a large percentage of ships don't slow down.

Monitoring by right whale research teams in Virginia and Florida indicated that at least some commercial and military ships violate the rule, at times traveling twice the 20-knot mandated speed, said Sharon Young, Humane Society of the United States marine issues field director.

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Military ships do not have to slow down, but the U.S. Navy agreed to abide by the rule when not engaged in missions, she said.

No U.S. Coast Guard, federal or state wildlife officers are enforcing the regulation in South Carolina. Monitors aboard whale survey flights by Wildlife Trust, an environment group, collect ship speed data electronically and transmit it to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to be processed.

NOAA also tracks ship speed with land-based electronic monitoring, Young said. NOAA officers won't comment on its enforcement methods.

"We are enforcing the rule. However, the Office of Law Enforcement does not comment on operational methods or on ongoing investigations because of the law-enforcement sensitivity of the information," said Lesli Bales-Sherrod, NOAA law enforcement office communications specialist, in an e-mail.

At least six investigations are under way in the mid-Atlantic and Southeast regions for alleged violation of the slow-down, Bales-Sherrod said, but she could not say if any involved the Charleston area.

No penalties have been assessed since the rule took force in the winter of 2008-2009. NOAA has stressed "outreach," she said, sending 86 letters since September to ship owners or operators reminding them of the rule.

"Clearly there needs to be stricter penalties," Young said. "You can't just rely on voluntary cooperation."

Disruption

The right whale is the giant creature of the Atlantic, a 40-ton, 50-foot-long mammal that whalers nearly wiped out in the 19th century. Only about 400 are known to exist today; researchers consider every living whale vital to the survival of the species.

They travel back and forth from their summer feeding grounds off New England to calve in the warmer winter waters off the Southeast coast. Those waters are heavily trafficked by shipping. Ship strikes are considered a leading threat to the whales.

In a record-breaking season last winter, 39 calves were spotted by aerial surveys. Off South Carolina alone, 121 individual whales were spotted - nearly a third of the known population.

With the season drawing to a close this year, only 19 mother-and-calf pairs had been spotted - including a spectacular, unprecedented observation of a birth. Three calves have been spotted off South Carolina, among 55 individual whales overall.

The presence of the whales and rules to protect them are disrupting everything from shipping to naval warfare training. Shipping and ports interests fought the federal rule that slows down large ships within 23 miles of the coast when the whales are around. Shippers say the slowdown costs millions of dollars and the whales are rarely struck.

No right whale has ever been confirmed struck by a container ship off Charleston, said John Cameron, assistant to the president of the Charleston Branch Pilots' Association. Most of the sightings occur in waters south of the shipping channel. He has not heard of any ship pilots being cited for the speed rule coming in or out of Charleston.

Ships have slowed down overall as an economy measure in the wake of the economic slowdown, he said.

"We don't have any real problems," said Sergio Fedelini of Mediterranean Shipping Co. in Mount Pleasant.

Sunset clause

There have been problems elsewhere along the coast. A fin whale and a humpback whale washed up earlier this month in Delaware within a week of each other. Both had fractured skulls, likely from ship strikes, said Young, of the Human Society.

"The good news is we haven't seen a right whale wash up yet. It gives us hope," she said. But most right whale deaths occur at sea and the carcasses don't wash up, she said. "What we find is we have animals disappearing."

Meanwhile there's a 2013 "sunset clause" on the ship slow-down rule, when it will discontinue or be renewed. Young doubts there will be enough data to indicate one way or another whether it's had an effect, she said. The Humane Society wants regulators to give a single warning when a ship exceeds the slowdown speed, then assess an immediate penalty on the second offense.

"This is a really serious issue. You have a species hanging on the brink and ship strikes are a leading cause of mortality. Slower speeds reduce mortality. That's why we don't have cars going 55 mph through neighborhoods," she said.