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Tourism clash over whale of an idea
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,10295-1700124,00....
July 19, 2005
By Russell Jenkins.
CONSERVATIONISTS are divided over a plan to airfreight up to 50 grey whales from their native waters in California to the Cumbrian coastline to try to
revitalise the area.
Under the plan to be put forward today by two academics the whales? so docile that they are known as the friendlies ? would be released into the Irish
Sea off the Solway Firth. Dr Andrew Ramsey and Dr Owen Nevin, of the University of Central Lancashire?s School of Natural Resources, are convinced
that the grey whale, hunted to extinction in the North Atlantic 400 years ago, can be reintroduced.
They would then spawn a lucrative whale-watching industry, creating hundreds of jobs and helping to regenerate devastated fishing communities on the
northwest coastline.
But the scheme has already received heavy criticism from the Whale and Dolpin Conservation Society, which has branded the idea ?neither feasible nor
sensible?. Their scientists are adamant that whales extinct for hundreds of years cannot simply be replaced by imports. They also claim that the
Pacific whales may not be able to survive in the Atlantic.
Dr Ramsey, who is proposing the plan today at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, in Brazil, said: ?Within a few years
there could be a significant breeding population around the UK.?
Grey whales, the only member of the family Eschrichtiidae, hold a totemic place in the world marine conservation. Each day flotillas of tourists sail
from California and Mexico to the basking grounds to marvel at the 40-tonne mammals who swim at a stately pace close to the shore and allow human
beings to touch them. The academics insist that the Californian population could afford to lose 50 whales by 2015.
Dr Ramsay said: ?Modern cargo aircraft can easily accommodate adult grey whales and make the journey from capture sites off America to release sites
off Britain in less than 12 hours.?
The two conservationists believe that there is no logistical problem to prevent the whales from being netted alive off Baja, hoisted on board a cargo
plane and kept alive on a long haul flight. The vital necessity is for the mammal to be kept moist.
In 1996 Keiko, the star of two Free Willy films, was airlifted via a C130 Hercules from Mexico to Oregon.
A survey conducted in the Lake District last year suggested that 90 per cent of people were in favour of their reintroduction.
Mark Simmonds, the director of science for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: ?We can well appreciate the enthusiasm for trying to
replace the whale species here but the notion is far more complex than it might appear.?
FIGHT FOR LIFE
California grey whales almost disappeared in the 19th century through overhunting. Numbers fell to about 160 before legal protection in 1938
Up to 26,000 grey whales follow a 14,000-mile annual migration route from the Arctic, along the West Coast of the United States, to Baja California,
Mexico, where they calve
In 1988 US and Russian sailors worked together to free two grey whales trapped in ice off Barrow, Alaska
The grey whale is endangered in its only other migratory habitat, off Korea, where about fifty adults are threatened by Japanese commercial interests
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tehag
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whales
Not too sure about the whales, but if somebody hauled me out of Baja California waters and plopped me into the Irish Sea, I would no longer be known
as a "friendly." Brrr.
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Bruce R Leech
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Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
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they Killed all theirs now they want ours
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
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jrbaja
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If the whales were interested
They would have already gone there.
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roundtuit
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Mood: Wife's Job
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Correct me if I'm wrong ,but isn't a group of whales called a pod. So how would you like someone to grab some of your close family members and ship
them around the other side of the world. Think about it....
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jrbaja
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And being called
The "California" Grey whale, well, we all know how a good portion of the world feels about them!
They would all have to add "eh" to everything and pretend they are from Canada!
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