animal welfare
Because of endangered whales: Shipowners’ Association recommends other routes
Ships are to bypass the areas of the threatened whales in the future. Photo: Special/NOTIMEX/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
In order to avoid collisions with the marine mammals, ships should avoid their areas in the Mediterranean and Indian Oceans. Busy shipping routes pose a high risk for whales.
Out of consideration for threatened whales, the German Shipowners’ Association (VDR) has recommended its members to slightly change two routes in the Mediterranean and in the Indian Ocean.
This is intended to reduce the risk of collisions with the threatened mammals, the association announced in Hamburg on Tuesday. The decision was taken after a coalition led by the
Environmental protection organizations OceanCare and the International Fund for Animal Welfare had approached the shipowners’ association with scientific information, it said.
In the Mediterranean, environmental organizations consider the Hellenic Trench south of the Peloponnese and southwest of Crete to be critical habitat for the last 200 to 300 sperm whales there. Many sperm whales feed and give birth to their young in this area. There is currently a busy shipping route there – which means these whales are at high risk of being hit by ships. In the Indian Ocean, a small year-round population of blue whales stay offshore off the southern tip of Sri Lanka.
In both places there are ways to circumnavigate the areas of the whales safely and legally without any effort: “The detour is only a few nautical miles, that should be possible without problems and major additional costs,” said Christian Naegeli from the VDR.