SPEED limits for ships could help save the endangered northern right whale,
according to marine biologists.
David Laist of the Marine Mammal Commission near Washington DC and his
colleagues examined 30 reports of dead right whales washed up on the east coast
of the US between 1975 and 1996. They found that 10 of them probably died from
collisions with ships, suffering major bone fractures and propeller lacerations.
And this may be an underestimate, Laist suggests, as casualties do not always
reach the shore.
Right whales are the most endangered large whale, with a population of fewer
than 300 animals.…
