Dominica creates whale sanctuary

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP):

The tiny Caribbean island of Dominica is creating the world's first marine protected area for one of earth's largest animals: the endangered sperm whale.

Nearly 300 square miles of royal-blue waters on the western side of the island nation that serve as key nursing and feeding grounds will be designated as a reserve, the government announced yesterday.

"We want to ensure these majestic and highly intelligent animals are safe from harm and continue keeping our waters and our climate healthy," Dominica Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said in a statement.

Scientists say the reserve not only will protect the animals, but it will also help fight climate change.

The government of Dominica said the reserve will allow sustainable artisanal fishing and delineate an international shipping lane to avoid more deaths of sperm whales, which have the largest brain in the world and can grow up to 50 feet. Once the reserve is created, the prime minister said his administration will appoint an officer and observers to ensure the area is respected and that whale tourism regulations are enforced. Visitors can still swim with sperm whales and see them from a boat, but in limited numbers.

Sperm whales can produce a single calf every five to seven years.

In waters around Dominica and elsewhere, sperm whales have been hit by ships, entangled in fishing gear, and affected by agricultural run-off, limiting their survival. In the pre-whaling days, an estimated two million sperm whales roamed the Earth's deep waters before they were hunted for oil used to burn lamps and lubricate machinery.

Shane Gero, a whale biologist and founder of the Dominica Sperm Whale Project, said 800,000 are believed to exist now. Less than 500 sperm whales are estimated to live in the waters surrounding Dominica, part of a population that moves along the Lesser Antilles chain, swimming as far south as St Vincent and the Grenadines, north into Guadeloupe.