My wife’s sister and her husband are on Maui this week.
Yesterday they sent this text:
The whale watch was fantastic! A few came about 15′ from our pontoon boat (close to the water). And lots of other close by activity too.
So they had a great tine.
But compare that to what the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary’s website has to say.
All boaters are advised:
Follow federal regulations that prohibit approaching (by any means) within 100 yards (90 m) when on or in the water, and 1,000 feet (300 m) when operating an aircraft. These regulations apply to all ocean users throughout the Hawaiian Islands.
And whale watchers are reminded of the same rule:
~ Once whales are sighted, slowly approach and carefully parallel along side, while maintaining more than 100 yards distance.
If their boat was in fact just 15 feet from a whale, that’s only about 5% of the federally required distance.
Were there special circumstances to explain or excuse this apparent violation of federal regulations? I don’t know.
But in the apparent absence of enforcement, it seems to me that one approach would be to advise everyone going on a whale watching tour of the federal requirement that they stay at least 100 yards away from the whales, stay out of their paths, etc. And also be provided a telephone number to tour operators when they appear to violate those regulations.
Tourists shouldn’t be excited about how close their boat got to the whales. They should be upset at the disregard for the whale’s safety and comfort.
Just my thought on it.
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Yes, those whales should definitely be cited for approaching the boat.
But if a boat improperly approaches a whale, the boat operator should likewise be cited.
A number of Maui businesses catering to tourists appear to ignore regulations pertaining to them. Most notoriously, the surf school and rental operators in and around Kalama Park in Kihei.
The State and County seem uninterested in enforcement.
How does one distinguish between the boat getting too close to the whale and the whale getting too close to the boat? Is the boat operator obligated to do what might turn out to be radical maneuvers to avoid getting too close?
Has anyone informed the whales about this distance requirement?!
Ian,
You have an excellent idea. “In the apparent absence of enforcement, it seems to me that one approach would be to advise everyone going on a whale watching tour of the federal requirement that they stay at least 100 yards away from the whales, stay out of their paths, etc. And also be provided a telephone number to (report) tour operators when they appear to violate those regulations.”
I think environmental volunteers should anonymously spot check these offenders by joining tours and reporting violations of this Federal law to the US Coast Guard.
Or…what if in trying to manuever away from one whale approaching a boat, the vessel would start coming closer to another whale?
I don’t think every single violation of the 100 yard rule should result in a tour company getting their license automatically yanked, as there could be circumstances that are out of the operator’s control. But a record could certainly be kept for any close calls. And if there appears to be a pattern with a certain operator, then maybe an investigation could be conducted.
Reading every law literally should be illegal.
i know; in my dreams, in my dreams……
Hi Ian, the Hawaiian population of Humpback whales has been growing at a pretty good rate (around 7%) for many years now, and some scientists and many others are asking the federal government to consider de-listing the whales as an endangered species. Eventually they will reach the carrying capacity of the islands for their species.
Boat strikes from a tour boat running at idle speed are a pretty low risk to the whale, and given their population success and growing numbers, they seem to be thriving with all of the human attention. Similar to the green sea turtles on the North Shore, who ignore the humans fawning over them, sometimes literally over them.
The NOAA people who used to man the “Hot line” for reporting turtle harassment by humans took the phone off the hook; the turtles don’t mind the humans taking pictures of them in the shallows or resting on the beach. I suspect the whales are the same.
To me, the benefit of positive interactions had by Meda’s sister and husband mean more to the species in terms of support for future actions to protect ocean ecosystems, than the enforcement of a protective halo around each whale. Many of the reports to authorities are from competitive tour operators trying to cull their competition.
I don’t want to see us return to the times where tour operators sped to each spout and chased mothers and calves, but slowly motoring around a pod of whales doesn’t seem to have a negative impact on the Hawaiian whale population, in my experience and opinion.
Rob
What I do every time I see pictures posted that clearly show a violation is to email NOAA. These folks are out chasing whales not sitting in the water when they swim by.
Have been on many whale watching trips, and if the whale approaches you, nothing you can do about it but enjoy. Have experienced this several times. Don’t get so fussy about it. All the trips I have been on are very careful about the distance.
Just went on a tour from Honolulu on a multideck ship. I think the captain was careful not to approach too close, but I am pretty sure that the whales came closer to us, maybe even less than 100 yards. My thought was that if I was on a catamaran or other smaller boat, I would not want the whales coming much closer!
I’ve been to Maui every winter since the 80’s, and watched how seriously the locals took to protecting the whales. There are spotters up the hillsides reporting any boats approaching within 100 yards of any whale or pod. Tour companies are subject to massive fines once a report is made. Some operators such as Pacific Whale Foundation have multiple boats on the water all day, and will confront private operators harassing whales. If a whale gets curious and approaches a boat, the engine must be set to idle, and cannot be put back in gear until the whales are out of the 100 yard range. The boat captains take this very seriously over there.