A federal judge has moved the Makah Tribe a big step forward in its 16-year-quest to resume hunting gray whales. U.S. Coast Guard administrative law judge George Jordan largely rejected animal welfare groups’ complaints that the hunt sought by the Makahs would endanger the whales of the eastern North Pacific. He recommended that the Makah Tribe be allowed to conduct a hunt largely as the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration has proposed, though he proposed new restrictions on hunting in the winter and spring to protect a small subpopulation of whales that occasionally wander from the Asian side of the Pacific Ocean into waters off Washington state. >click to read< 10:36
Tag Archives: gray whale
Whale not seen in 200 years spotted in New England waters, scientists say
A gray whale that hasn’t been seen in 200 years has been spotted off the coast of Massachusetts, according to officials with the New England Aquarium. Aquarium scientists said the whale was seen on March 1 while they were flying over the ocean 30 miles south of Nantucket. Orla O’Brien is the associate research scientist in the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium. She said seeing the whale was completely unexpected. “I didn’t want to say out loud what it was, because it seemed crazy,” she said. more, >>click to read<< 13:10
Banner year for gray whale calves
Marine observers spotted 431 pairs of mothers and calves swimming north to the Arctic this year, the National Oceanic Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center reported. That count translates to an estimated total of 1,500 to 1,600 calves born in Baja lagoons this year, said researcher Wayne Perryman, although he said he hasn’t crunched the final numbers. Read more here 10:58
