Speed limits called for in the North Atlantic after whale deaths

• Alarmed by the deaths of eight North Atlantic right whales in the past 16 months, some scientists are calling for immediate protections.
• Listed as endangered by the U.S. government, the whales are now believed to total about 300.
• Four of the right whales were killed by human activities---three by ship collisions and one by fishing gear.
• A fifth whale was probably also killed in a ship collision.
• The deaths were particularly worrying to conservationists, because six of the whales were adult females, three carrying near-term fetuses.
• "This loss is a dramatic increase over recent years," said Scott Kraus, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium in Boston, Massachusetts.
• "The right whale is now in an extremely precarious position, as it appears that deaths are exceeding births."
• Whale advocates say that emergency measures should be introduced immediately to reduce the risk of ship collisions.
• Among those measures could be speed limits for ships traveling through in right whale areas---a move supported by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service but resisted by the U.S. Coast Guard.
• Right whales got their name from whalers who considered them the "right" whales to kill because of their large size, coastal distribution, and slow swimming speed.
• And unlike other whale species, these stocky creatures also float after death, making them relatively easy to retrieve.
• North Atlantic right whales, which are closely related to North Pacific and South Atlantic right whales, were almost hunted to extinction in the mid-1700s.
• A hunting ban was eventually introduced in 1935.
• Today the biggest threat facing right whales is collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear.
• Right whales inhabit the coastal waters of eastern North America, from Florida to Canada's Bay of Fundy---regions that are heavily used by the shipping and fishing industries.