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December
2000
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The National Marine Fisheries Service provides guidelines for safe, nondisruptive whale watching. The guidelines protect the whales from harassment and seek to promote a better understanding of the whales. The rules apply to any person whale watching, commercial or private.
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Vessels should not be operated at speeds faster than a whale or group of whales while paralleling them with 100 yards. | |
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Vessels should be operated at a constant speed while paralleling or following whales within 100 yards. | |
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Vessels should do nothing to cause a whale to change direction. | |
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Aircraft should not fly lower than 1,000 feet while within a horizontal distance of 100 yards from a whale. |
A good rule of thumb: a whale’s normal behavior should not be interrupted. If a whale is annoyed, it may change its direction rapidly, swim faster, or swim in an erratic pattern. To interrupt a whale’s normal activity constitutes harassment and is against the law!
Want to learn more about watching marine mammals? Go to NOAA’s site on viewing protected marine mammal species.
Other ways every one can help:
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Help keep the ocean clean! Gray whales are filter feeders, meaning they strain food thorough their baleen (hairlike plates that hang from their upper jaw). Gray whales usually feed along the ocean floor, and garbage and litter there may get stuck in their mouths or be ingested. Gray whales also become entangled in discarded fishing line and nets, or may inhale floating debris. | |
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Learn more about these and other whales. Tell your friends and family about them. The more you learn, the better advocate you become. |
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