Humpback comeback? - Hawaiian whale sanctuary and politics

Sunset, Nov, 1995 by Jeff Phillips

The endangered species' Hawaiian sanctuary is imperiled by politics. But for now, whale-watchers on Maui can still spot the singing cetacean

The months from November to May are a critical season for the North Pacific population of Megaptera novaeangliae, the endangered humpback whale. It's when they migrate from their feeding grounds in Alaska to breed in the warm waters of Hawaii. It's when calves are born, and when female humpbacks entertain the attentions of 40-ton "escorts" who battle each other for "primary" position. It's the season when male humpbacks not occupied courting mates suspend themselves head down, with their long, graceful pectoral fins spread, to sing their ancient song to the inky depths.

It is also the season when legions of whale lovers flock to Maui for some of the most accessible, dependable, and spectacular whale-watching in the world.

This coming whale season may be the most important one for humpbacks - and Hawaii visitors, for that matter - since commercial whaling was banned in 1965. In the next few months the state of Hawaii will decide whether to approve one of the nation's newest marine reserves, the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary. Unlike the nation's 13 other marine sanctuaries, each of which was designated to protect an entire marine environment, this one is dedicated to a single species. Lack of approval by the state - which has jurisdiction over 80 percent of the waters within the sanctuary boundaries - would effectively kill the sanctuary just as its work is beginning.

BACK FROM THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION?

Humpbacks were hunted relentlessly from the late 1800s until 1965, when their numbers in the North Pacific had shrunk from an estimated 15,000 whales to fewer than 1,000. Humpbacks may not have been regular visitors to the Islands until very recently: native Hawaiians didn't hunt them, and few were seen in these waters even during whaling's early heyday, when the west Maui town of Lahaina was the Pacific hub for ships on their way north to hunt sperm whales. (Early whalers ignored humpbacks because the carcasses would sink.) One theory is that humpbacks may have "discovered" Hawaii as a breeding area when whaling disrupted their coastal migrations from Alaska to California and Mexico.

That is, however, just speculation. The fact is that in spite of two decades of research, scientists still know very little about humpbacks. Aside from their sheer size (an adult can measure 50 feet in length and weigh about 40 tons) and gracefulness in their element, their mystery intensifies our fascination with them.

Male humpbacks are the only whales that sing, but we don't know how (they have no vocal cords) or why, although it was recently confirmed that all North Pacific whales sing essentially the same evolving song. We also don't know why humpbacks' pectoral fins are so long or how these whales find their way across the open ocean between Alaska and Hawaii. And researchers can still only surmise why humpbacks engage in most of the fin-slapping antics one sees on whale-watching trips in Hawaiian waters. (One scientific guess as to why humpbacks breach - a spectacular full-body launch into the air that ends in a thunderous splash - is a simple "Because they can.")

Biologists don't even agree on how many humpbacks are in the North Pacific today. While tourist brochures quote the number 3,000 and "a recovering population," whale researcher Debbie Ferrari, founder of the Center for Whale Studies in Lahaina, believes the real number may be only half that - a dismal indicator that even after 30 years of protection, the humpback is in critical condition. If the federal sanctuary protecting the whales' winter breeding grounds is not approved, both research into humpback biology and the whale population itself may never recover.

SANCTUARY UNDER FIRE

The whale sanctuary, established by Congress in 1992, currently encompasses all the waters surrounding Lanai, Maui, and Molokai to a depth of 100 fathoms. While most Hawaii residents favor protecting whales, an increasingly vocal group of interests (among them developers, the shipping industry, and segments of the tourism industry) opposes the new sanctuary for fear of tighter regulations on pollution and on such ocean uses as fishing and boating.

The state's decision to either approve or scuttle the whale sanctuary could come before the humpbacks head back to Alaska next spring. At our deadline, the draft management plan for the sanctuary was to be released in time for public hearings scheduled this month. Based on public input, a final plan should be sent to the governor early next spring.

For more information on the sanctuary, or to comment on the sanctuary and humpback whale protection as part of the final planning process, write to Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary, 726 S. Kihei Rd., Kihei, HI 96753.

RELATED ARTICLE: WHERE AND WHEN TO WATCH THE WHALES

Humpbacks begin arriving in Maui waters this month, but the commercial whale-watching season doesn't really get under way until December, with the best watching from late December through March, when you're almost guaranteed to see humpbacks. Whale numbers begin to drop in April as the return migration gets under way, although whale-watching boats sailed well into May last season.