OPINION: Alaska oil tankers must adopt whale-strike reduction measures

For the past year, marine scientists have proposed that oil tanker operators in Prince William Sound (PWS) adopt whale-strike risk reduction measures practiced in other waterways. It is more difficult for whales to hear and avoid large oncoming ships, as the sound generated by ship engines and propellers can be hundreds of meters aft of the silent, but potentially deadly, bow. Whales at risk of ship strikes in the PWS region include humpback, fin, sei, minke, gray and others.

Among several proposed measures for ships to reduce whale-strike risk, the most effective is simply for ships to reduce speed through critical whale habitat to less than 10 knots (about 12 mph). This modest speed reduction has been proven to reduce the risk of whale-ship strikes, as whales and ship captains have greater response time to avoid collisions, and lower-speed collisions often cause less injury to whales. Whale-safe speed reductions are currently practiced by large ships, including PWS oil tankers, in other waterways with significant whale populations.

A vessel speed reduction to 10 knots in whale habitat off California has been shown to reduce whale-strikes by approximately 50%. Similarly, the mandatory vessel speed reduction rule to protect the North Atlantic right whale off the U.S. East Coast has reduced whale mortalities and serious injuries by about a third. And vessel speed reductions to protect whales are now being adopted around the world, including in waters off Spain, New Zealand, Canada, and Panama.

Presently, inbound tankers in PWS transit at 14–15 knots, and much of the outbound transit (in the central Sound) is at 12 knots. Slowing to 10 knots in the PWS shipping lanes (out to 17 miles outside Hinchinbrook Entrance) would only add a few hours to the multi-day transit time between ports, and would also result in less underwater noise (a growing concern in the marine environment), less fuel use and less stack emissions.

Other whale-strike risk reduction measures considered include passive acoustic monitoring buoys to detect whales in shipping lanes (such as in use now off San Francisco), posting bow watches, limiting nighttime transits (as it is far more difficult to spot whales in the dark), expanding the Whale Alert notification system now in use in Southeast Alaska, and so on.

While it is unclear how many whales have been struck and killed during the more than 46,000 tanker transits through PWS to date (struck whales generally sink and are unreported), there could have been hundreds. These ships are so massive (more than 100,000 tons, the length of three football fields), crews almost never realize that they have struck a whale, particularly at dark or in heavy seas.

In 2009, a dead whale was found draped across the bulbous bow of an Exxon tanker arriving at the Valdez oil terminal (the whale was not necropsied, and thus it is unclear when it died). And as PWS is now designated critical habitat for two distinct threatened or endangered populations of humpback whales (the Mexico and Western North Pacific populations), it is clearly time to adopt prudent ship whale-strike reduction measures in the Sound.

In October, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) hosted a technical workshop for stakeholders in the PWS issue, including tanker owners, at which experts made the science case that such a vessel speed reduction would significantly reduce the risk of whale-ship strikes in the region.

But after months of discussion, the tanker owners -- Alaska Tanker Company, Crowley and Polar Tankers -- remain silent on the issue, and have taken no action. This sort of oil industry recalcitrance is all too familiar to Alaskans, as it is reminiscent of the industry’s objections to vessel safety measures pre-Exxon Valdez. We all know how that turned out.

Accordingly, we are proposing that NOAA adopt a nationwide rule requiring such whale-strike risk reduction protocols for all large ships (oil tankers, cruise ships and freight vessels) in all areas where these ships transit critical whale habitat. In Alaska, this would include PWS, Unimak Pass, Bering Strait, Cook Inlet and Southeast (including waters of Glacier Bay National Park, where the current 13 knot speed limit for cruise ships needs to be lowered to 10 knots).

If tanker owners and other shippers will not adopt such reasonable whale safety measures voluntarily, it is up to the federal government to require them to do so.

Besides, voluntary vessel speed reduction programs, such as the Blue Whale/Blue Skies program in the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary in California, still have only about 60% compliance. That is clearly insufficient, as well as unfair to those ships that do comply with the voluntary program.

On an issue as important as this, the federal government must issue a mandatory nationwide whale-strike risk reduction rule for all large ships transiting critical whale habitat, coupled with strong enforcement and stiff penalties for non-compliance.

Rick Steiner is a former University of Alaska marine conservation professor and marine adviser for the PWS region; he was co-founder and director of the Shipping Safety Partnership that formed after the 2004 Selendang Ayu disaster in the Aleutians, and he now directs Oasis Earth in Anchorage.

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