New Study: Scientists unravel whale entanglement damage
Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution have released a new study documenting how much damage entanglements in fishing gear does to North Atlantic right whales — one of the most endangered of all the large whale species. Their migratory routes take them through some of the busiest commercial fishing areas along the East Coast of the United States — including the Gulf of Maine — and into . According to the institution scientists, entanglements with fishing gear represent the leading cause of death for endangered whales. Read the article here, 18:32
Dear Woods Hole, were the anonymous “institution scientists” able to comparatively study the effects of oil exploration sonic blasting, the effects of oil spills, wind farm construction, ship strikes and ocean pollution and general degradation from worldwide industrialization on these animals as well?
Or is it the usual overly publicized “over-fishing and destructive fishing gear” that’s responsible for the ocean’s and its inhabitants’ stressors as per NOAA’s Jane Lubchenco?
Is it the so easy to scapegoat local fishermen right in your own back yard that makes for such great copy and publicity and fund-raising, and a Ph.D. here and there, that prompts studies and articles like this one? Diverting funds and public awareness away from the dangers of ocean industrialization is what actually jeopardizes the ocean and its animals.
By all means lets help the whales wherever and whenever possible; but oil and wind energy ocean industrialization pose more serious threats to our oceans and its creatures than fishing gear ever has or ever will.