The Song of the Hunted Humpback Whale - Dot Earth - Climate Change and Sustainability - New York Times Blog

In America/Canada we have a whale problem over “the war on terror”. In the Bay of Fundy there is a right whale nursery, nearby FDR’s beloved Campobello Island, (see the “Red Lobster” wallpaper in their bathroom for the Grand Manan Channel) where Guelph University has studied the DNA and remaining pod of the “right” because harpooned they float instead of sink whales that swim along the US coast from Florida to Canada. Since “war” was declared ships cannot be ordered to slow down by the US Coast Guard, though most of the deaths of the right whales result from collisions these days with ships I read. Irony is they may be driven to extinction by the “war on terror”. Once whales were towed up the Hudson River to Hudson, NY rendered into oil and lit up the northern tier of cities, i.e., Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo, New York. We should show some gratefulness. Many a place on the East Coast has had whaling in its business sphere and the “Nantucket sleigh ride” was known for being towed by a whale from the whaleboat, until it tired. Perhaps Herman Melville lamented that “Moby-Dick” was not placed on every Congressman’s desk instead of “Whitejacket” which, called for the end of cruelty shown to sailors on US ships, another cruelty well described. Slow down!