Whales Just Don’t Understand

It’s a very sad and unfortunate situation when technology implemented to protect whales isn’t working the way it should. Commercial grade alarms used to detour whales away from fishing nets and lines in the Indian ocean just aren’t working.

Rob Harcourt, the research leader at Macquarie University, is shocked that these alarms are failing to keep whales safe. The alarms seem to work in other parts of the world, so the utter failure is baffling researchers. What is it with the Indian ocean?

The whales sometimes swim right over the alarms as if they weren’t even there. If there was a net, they would swim right into it.

So why is this such a problem? Apart from the fact that whale entanglements cost fisherman and governments millions of dollars each year, endangered whale species are at risk. Take the South Right Whale for example, an endangered species who is having trouble recovering their population numbers due to entanglement, even after whaling was banned. The number of South Right Whales are so low that the death of a single adult female is enough to reverse their recovery efforts.

For these whales, this is a dire situation.

A bigger and more powerful alarm system has been deployed to help keep these awesome creatures out of nets and fishing lines and swimming freely. This bigger system should be able to be heard by the whales over the sound of ships and other marine life.

It’s awesome to know that technology like this is being used to help whales stay clear of dangerous fishing nets and lines, and once it starts to work properly, it will be even better. We all have to do our part to keep the precious and sometimes endangered species safe.

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/whale-watch/alarms-do-not-deter-whales-from-fishing-lines-and-nets-study-20140809-1022qc.html