Environmentalists want slower ship speeds to protect whales off California coast

A coalition of environmental groups is asking the Obama administration to establish a 10-knot speed limit for ships traveling through California’s marine sanctuaries to avoid fatal collisions with whales, a problem they say has climbed to “unsustainable levels.”

In a petition filed Monday, four environmental groups asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to establish a 10-knot limit for large commercial vessels in California's four National Marine Sanctuaries in the Channel Islands, Monterey Bay, Gulf of the Farallones and Cordell Bank. Some freighters travel through those waters at more than twice that speed.

Read more: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2011/06/whale-ship-speed-limit-slow-california-marine-sanctuaries.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

Article courtesy of The Los Angeles Times Greenspace by Tony Barboza