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American Morning

Scientists Continue Effort to Free Snared Whale

Aired June 26, 2001 - 09:36   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Today, marine scientists are again trying to help an endangered whale off Cape Cod. The North Atlantic right whale is one of only about 300 of its kind left in the world, and it's entangled in a fishing line. Scientists say the rope is causing an infection that could eventually kill the whale.

For more on this situation and so many others like it, we turn now to Nina Young, director of Marine Wildlife Conservation at the Ocean Conservancy. She joins us live from Washington. Nina, thanks so much for being with us.

NINA YOUNG, THE OCEAN CONSERVANCY: Good morning. It's my pleasure.

PHILLIPS: A lot of serious discussions going on about saving this whale. Why?

YOUNG: There are only 300 right whales remaining, and every whale counts in this situation. If we lose this whale, which is a male, critical to the continued existence of this population, it is going to mean that we may see the extinction of this species. Perhaps not in this generation, but in the very near future.

PHILLIPS: Let's talk about the equipment that they're using right now to try to help the whale and do you agree with the kind of equipment that they are using or is it outdated? Talk to about that because I know you said something about the lobster gear.

YOUNG: Well, the type of equipment that they're using to save the whale is really state of the art, and they manufacture it specifically for the purpose of disentangling whales, and the rescue portion of this is very critical, but The Ocean Conservancy believes that what we need to be looking at is prevention, and that means we need to change the way that we use fishing gear and lobster traps or gill net gear. If we don't, we're going to continue to see this type of entanglement with right whales.

PHILLIPS: So, you've seen the footage. How does the condition look right now of the whale?

YOUNG: I think it looks pretty serious, and in fact, it may be pretty grave. We don't know that if they are actually able to rescue this animal, remove the line that is going through the mouth and over the head, if the whale will actually survive. And some of the rescue efforts that they're talking about to try to treat potentially the infection have never been tried in the wild before.

PHILLIPS: Wow. How common is this, a situation like this?

YOUNG: It's not very common, but the important point here is that one-third of the mortality that we see for right whales is associated with some type of human activity, whether it be fishing or shipping. And so if we're really going to save this endangered species, we need to attack the problems and do so aggressively.

PHILLIPS: Well, are there efforts right now in place to try to prevent this from happening?

YOUNG: Absolutely, and tomorrow, I'll be going up to Portland, Maine to work with the fishing industry on a set of ongoing talks that we've been having, and it's there that we hope to devise and continue to refine our efforts to develop gill net gear and lobster gear that if a whale does become entangled, the animal can break free and reduce the risk of injury or mortality to the animal.

PHILLIPS: If you had a chance to talk to this medical team right now, Nina, what you would tell them?

YOUNG: Godspeed.

PHILLIPS: Well put. Nina Young, director of marine wildlife and conservation at The Ocean Conservancy. Thanks for being with us this morning.

YOUNG: Thank you.

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