Shipping Lane Changes Ahead?

Following the release of the new Port Access Route Study for ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the Coast Guard last week recommended that shipping lanes within the Santa Barbara Channel be re-routed to prevent future ship strikes for whales — especially blue, fin and humpback whales. In Fall 2007, five blue whales were killed as a result of ship collisions in the Santa Barbara Channel, which has the world’s most dense seasonal congregation of blue whales. The Port Access Route Study recommends that the existing separation between shipping lanes in the Santa Barbara Channel be narrowed from 2 miles to 1 nautical mile, so that the inbound lane could be moved 1 mile north, away from a “shelf edge” area where whales feed on krill. While environmental activists generally applauded the idea of moving the shipping lanes, the Environmental Defense Council (EDC) said the plan did not go far enough to protect whales. The group is asking for a 10-knot speed limit to be imposed on all vessels that operate around migrating whales or within four California marine sanctuaries. “We support mandatory speed limits, so that whales are less likely to be hurt or killed by a collision...