Recovering Humpbacks Arrive at Critical Point

LAHAINA, Hawaii (March 1) -- From the research boat in the waters off Maui, we could see humpback whales in all directions. A few yards from the boat, a calf surfaced to breathe as its mother rested close by. Other humpbacks spouted in the distance, sending up large plumes of mist over the calm sea. Occasionally, a whale leaped into the air or slapped its giant tail on the water.

"There are a lot more whales, and there are a lot more young whales, which are the future of the population," researcher Mark Ferrari of the Center for Whale Studies said as he piloted the boat to track a mother, a calf and their male escort.

But now, a healthier humpback population has given rise to a new question: Has the huge animal recovered to such an extent that it should be taken off the endangered species list?

Some researchers and whale advocates worry that changing the humpback's status could reduce protection measures and open the door for the resumption of hunting by other countries. And they fear it could relax safeguards for other endangered great whale species that also are recovering.

"If you take humpbacks off the endangered species list, what does that say to whaling nations such as Norway and Japan?" asked Ferrari, who has been studying the humpback in Hawaii with his wife, Deborah Glockner-Ferrari, for 35 years. "If you say they have recovered, why not hunt them?"

There are an estimated 60,000 humpback whales worldwide, including about 21,000 in the North Pacific. A federal panel of experts is conducting a detailed review of the species to determine if its recovery warrants removing its "endangered" designation or downgrading its status to "threatened."

The federal assessment was triggered by a provision in the law that requires a review of a listed species' status every five years, said Shannon Bettridge, co-coordinator of Endangered Whale Recovery Activities for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The last review for the humpback was in 1999.

Federal officials say the decision to review the species' status is not driven by a desire to reduce its protection. Nor was it prompted by the lobbying of any interest group seeking to remove it from the endangered species list, they say.

"The reason we are doing this is, we routinely conduct evaluations of listed species," Bettridge said in a telephone interview from her office in Silver Spring, Md.

Even so, she and other federal scientists involved in the review recognize they must proceed cautiously.

"This is an opportunity to bring together the experts who have been doing research for a long time," said Greg Silber, also a co-coordinator of Endangered Whale Recovery Activities. "We don't take this lightly. We want to make sure we do this very, very carefully."

I have known the Ferraris since 1985, when they inspired the rescue of Humphrey, a wandering humpback whale that got stuck in California's Sacramento River 90 miles from the ocean. During a recent trip to Maui, I spent two days aboard their boat as a volunteer research assistant and had the chance to watch them at work.

The Ferraris are passionate about the whales and believe in observing them close up to understand their behavior. They have spent much of their research time swimming with the whales to observe them underwater. They have taken hundreds of thousands of photos of the whales and netted hundreds of floating skin samples.

Hawaii is an ideal place to observe the humpbacks, and several groups of researchers are based here. The islands of Maui, Molokai, Lanai and Kahoolawe form a large protected basin where the whales gather during the breeding season to give birth and mate. Members of the public are not allowed to approach within 100 yards of a humpback, but researchers operating under permits are allowed to get close.

"This is the biggest biological laboratory in the world," Mark Ferrari likes to say.

The humpback gets its name from its high, arching back. Measuring about 45 feet long and weighing 40 tons, it is among the most acrobatic of whale species. The male's protracted, complex song carries many miles through the water. The humpback also can be distinguished from other whales by its long, slender pectoral fins, which are about a third of its body length.

They migrate thousands of miles annually from their wintertime breeding grounds in the tropics to colder waters that offer an abundant food supply during the summer. Most of the whales found during the winter in Hawaii spend their summers off Alaska.

Commercial whalers slaughtered hundreds of thousands of humpbacks in the 20th century and brought the species to the verge of extinction before the International Whaling Commission banned its hunting in 1966. Japan continues hunting whales under the guise of scientific research. The country proposed taking 50 humpback whales in 2007 and 2008 but backed off because of international opposition.

In addition to the threat of whaling, many other dangers remain for the humpback, including pollution, collisions with ships and ocean noise that can interfere with their ability to navigate and communicate. One of the greatest dangers is getting tangled in fishing gear, which can cause serious injury or death.

Recent research shows that more than half the humpbacks in Hawaii have scars from getting caught in nets or fishing lines, said Edward Lyman, the large-whale disentanglement coordinator for the federal Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. And those are just the survivors.

The global humpback population is divided into three main groups: the North Pacific, the North Atlantic and the Southern Hemisphere oceans. Scientists are only beginning to understand the complex relationships within each of these groups.

David Mattila, science and rescue adviser to the federal humpback sanctuary, said genetic analysis of the North Pacific group identified at least six distinct subpopulations that breed separately off Central America, Hawaii and Asia but mix with other groups in the feeding grounds off Canada, Alaska and Russia.

Some of the subpopulations are more threatened than others, particularly three small groups that spend their winters off Asia. When the Asian humpbacks mix with whales from healthier subpopulations in the Bering Sea, it can create the illusion that the entire species in the North Pacific has recovered.

"They don't fall into tidy populations," Mattila said during an interview at the agency's Kihei office overlooking the sanctuary. "What do you do when a whale from an unrecovered population goes to areas of a healthy population? What happens if you relax management?"

Federal scientists are hesitant to take steps that would endanger the humpback. But they remain mindful that the goal of the Endangered Species Act is to help species recover to the point where they can be taken off the list.

"Biologists acting in good faith speak up when they see a population doing quite well," Silber said. "Under the law, we need to take steps to at least consider that."

The Ferraris have pushed for regulations that have helped protect the species in Hawaii waters during the breeding season from December to May, including a ban on Jet Skis and parasailing in coastal waters. They worry that such activities could return if the humpback loses its protected status.

As we motored slowly through an area about half a mile off Maui that was once a playground for Jet Skiers and speedboats, we watched mothers and their calves relaxing in the calm, shallow waters.

"I think it's safe to say the humpbacks in the North Pacific are in pretty good shape," Ferrari said. "Whether we should take them off the endangered species list is another question. It's not just a biological question. It's a moral question. It's a loaded question."