By
Rebecca Gibson |
Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska is to remove the ten-knot speed limit it recently introduced for cruise vessels in the region’s designated ‘whale waters’.
Following changes in the number and distribution of humpback whales in lower Glacier Bay, the park will allow cruise vessels to operate at the original 13-knot speed limit from 5am on 27 July.
However, they must immediately slow to ten knots or less if they are inadvertently positioned within a quarter of a nautical mile of a humpback whale. In accordance with the park’s regulations, ships must also maintain a steady course away from the whale and avoid shifting into reverse unless an impact is likely.
Designed to protect the high density of humpback whales, the regulations aim to minimise whale disturbance and the risk of whale-vessel collision by giving them more time to react and move away from the vessel.
Current whale waters areas begin at the park boundary in Icy Strait and extend through the Lower Bay to an imaginary line between Netland Island and Willoughby Island. They then continue east of Boulder Island to the Beardslee Islands’ motorless waters boundary. Vessels more than 18 feet long are restricted to a mid-channel course or one nautical mile offshore in the Lower Bay designated whale waters.