Man and Whales: Just Too Close for Comfort? : Nature: Humans may be driving humpbacks from breeding grounds. A U.S. agency weighs guaranteeing the mammals 100 yards of privacy.

Hawaii’s humpback whales, known for their lively stunts and haunting songs, attract people from around the world. But the feeling doesn’t seem to be mutual.

As jet skis and motorboats crowd the west Maui coastline, the humpbacks seem to be leaving the balmy near-shore waters they once favored as calving grounds.

“It’s like having chain saws in your nursery,” says Mark Ferrari, executive director of the Maui-based Center for Whale Studies, which has documented a precipitous decline in cow-calf sightings off Lahaina over the last decade. “It keeps you from going in there.”

With whale watching gaining popularity around the country, one question keeps surfacing: From a whale’s point of view, how close is too close for comfort?

The debate divides scientists and has hampered efforts to protect the mammoth mammals from their fast-growing human fan club. But a federal agency may settle the matter this summer by guaranteeing whales 100 yards of privacy wherever they roam in U.S. waters.

The protective zone already applies in Hawaiian waters. Only scientists with federal research permits are allowed to get closer to the humpbacks, which migrate here from Alaska for winter and spring. Along coastal stretches of Maui and Lanai favored by mothers and calves, the minimum distance is 300 yards. Aircraft may approach no closer than 1,000 feet. Violators are typically fined from $400 to $1,500.

The set-back regulation was imposed in Hawaii in December, 1987, by the National Marine Fisheries Service out of concern that people were inadvertently pushing the humpbacks from vital breeding grounds. The boisterous beasts are among the world’s most endangered whales, with a population estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 in the North Pacific.

Like all whales, the humpbacks depend heavily on their acoustic sense and are sensitive to noise. When boats approach, studies show that whales may stay underwater longer, change breathing patterns and direction and have difficulty communicating. “They are wild animals and they need space,” says Gene Witham, enforcement agent in the Fisheries Service Honolulu office. “These whales were hunted up until 1966 in the Pacific. It’s very possible that some of the adults can remember.”

The agency is poised to extend the 100-yard rule nationwide, although it may grant a few exceptions, according to Margaret Lorenz, marine resources management specialist at National Marine Fisheries Service headquarters in Washington, D.C. The move would unify widely varying regional guidelines and give them the force of law.

That could mean big changes for some whale watch operators and other boaters around the country. In California, the guidelines now set no minimum distance, but simply recommend how to handle vessels within 100 yards of a whale. In New England, they allow boats to get as close as 100 feet.

Bob Fletcher, president of the San Diego-based Sportfishing Assn. of California, which includes whale watching, says his members consider the 100-yard setback a “reasonable compromise as long as enforcement agents use common sense.” Under the regulation, if a whale approaches a boat, rather than vice versa, the operator would not be cited.

But the proposal alarms some commercial whale watchers in Massachusetts and a few on the West Coast. They consider themselves a key force in educating the public about whales and argue that the new rule could undercut that goal.

“I think it would eliminate whale watching,” says Ronn Storro-Patterson, whose McKinleyville-based company, Biological Journeys, runs whale tours along the West Coast.

“From 100 yards, we don’t see a whole lot. If that’s the way whale watching is going to be regulated, I don’t think people are going to spend the money.”

Critics also point out that imposing a blanket distance ignores the fact that whales react differently to disturbances and that boats emit various levels of noise. But taking such variations into account would be a regulatory nightmare, officials say.

While Lorenz acknowledges that 100 yards is “somewhat arbitrary,” she says simplicity is the name of the game.

“We have to have something we can enforce,” she said. “A hundred yards is an easy distance for people to measure. It’s like a football field.”

Until now, the only recourse for enforcement agents has been to prosecute people under the Endangered Species Act. To do so, they must prove that a whale has been harassed, a tough standard to meet because it is so subjective.

The fisheries service plans to publish the proposed rule this summer, and allow 60 days of public comment before it is made final. “We expect a bloody fight,” she added.

Despite such concerns, the 100-yard rule went over without a splash in Hawaii, where whale watch operators carry an estimated 100,000 passengers a year.

Lahaina, once a support base for commercial whaling, now is a magnet for tourists enchanted by the acrobatic humpbacks. The animals delight onlookers by thrusting their 40-ton bodies skyward and slapping the waves with their long pectoral fins. Some boats use hydrophones to amplify the humpbacks’ complex songs, which can last 20 minutes before repeating.

“People didn’t squawk about the setback,” says Mike Salzer, vice president of Ocean Activities Center, one of Maui’s largest whale watch operators. “It hasn’t affected our whale watching at all. We’ve always given the whale plenty of berth.”

Most violators have been private boaters. Last year, an Austrian was fined $1,500 for gunning his Zodiac repeatedly at a pod of humpbacks. The publicity over that and other cases has helped discourage potential violators, according to Witham.

Local officials are now ready to take whale protection a step further. The Hawaii Legislature is considering a ban on jet skis and parasails in west Maui waters during the December-May whale season. Legislators contend that the noisy, erratic behavior of the “thrill craft” disturbs whales, not to mention people.

Researcher Ferrari supports the thrill craft ban. He remembers identifying a calf that was playing happily, then seeing it a week later with a propeller scar down its dorsal fin and the top of its right pectoral fin chopped off.

“It obviously had been run over by a boat,” he said, noting that parasail boats have unprotected propellers

Calves that have had such run-ins are likely to die at the hands of predators, he said. And whether or not whales are hit directly, the loss of near-shore habitat where mothers rest and nurse their young hurts the species’ chances for survival.

“The whales don’t come down here so we can look at them,” said state Rep. Rosalyn Baker, who represents west Maui. “They come down here to regenerate their species. It’s very important that their activities not be interrupted if we’re serious about protecting them.”