Spain issues whale warning
Sperm whales feast on squid in the Gibraltar Strait
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Monday, 26, Feb 2007 03:12
Spain has asked ships sailing through the Strait of Gibraltar to slow down and watch out for whales.
The channel between Europe and Africa is home to sperm whales, which travel to the area to eat squid.
Each year a number are killed by ships that are travelling too fast to see them or fail to swerve to avoid them.
The speed reduction initiative is the first of its kind in Europe; a similar one is in place in the US. Vessels are now being asked to reduce their speed to no faster than 13 knots (15 mph).
Marine biologist Renaud de Stephanis, head of Cadiz-based Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRC), said that he hoped the speed reduction would help to raise awareness amongst crews sailing into or out of the Mediterranean.
"If they're not going to slow down, at least they may go a little bit to the right, a little bit to the left," he said in comments reported by the Reuters news agency.
According to the CIRC, two sperm whales and three fin whales died between 2001 and 2005 in the strait.