Endangered blue whales – the world’s largest creatures – are being killed in shocking numbers because their feeding grounds have become major shipping lanes.
These sentient giants lack the ability to avoid cargo ships. Blue whales have not evolved an evasive response to other creatures because they are the monarchs of the sea.
A whale must dive 100 feet below the surface in order to escape the suction created by a cargo ship’s propeller. Researchers from Stanford found that instead of diving, where the whale kicks its tail up and goes down vertically, they just sink horizontally. This is a catastrophe because a slow dive leaves them highly susceptible to ship strikes.
Betwee 2010-2012 off the coast of Sri Lanka, 11 giants as large as 100 feet long weighing 200 tons were struck and killed.
The climate crisis has shifted ocean currents carrying their food – phytoplankton.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Biosphere Foundation and Wildlife Trust of India are calling on the government to move shipping lanes by 15 nautical miles thereby reducing blue whale fatalities by 95 percent.
Ninety-nine percent of all blue whales were massacred during the dark whaling period (1800-1969); their population never rebounded and may be as low as 5,000.
Blues are most worthy of our protection. All ocean-bound countries can easily protect them by requesting that the International Maritime Organization change GPS coordinates of shipping lanes.
Earth Dr. Reese Halter’s latest book is “Shepherding the Sea: The Race to Save Our Oceans.”