Are there obtainable statistics for ship - whale strikes (collisions)
for North American or European jurisdictions?

Not seeking individual ship-cetacean accounts.

Thank you

The hardest hit group appears to be right whales, and that is what I
found most statistics to be on.

"The New England Aquarium's North Atlantic Right Whale Research
Project is in its 18th year of studying the rarest of the world's
large whales. Fewer than 325 right whales (Eubalaena glacialis)
survive in the North Atlantic."
Source: Right Whales
http://www.marinegis.org/rwhale.html

This appears to be the organization that is "in the know" about
everything regarding whale collisions, and I suggest that you contact
them directly and request the latest statistics at:
http://www.neaq.org

The address and phone number for this organization is:
New England Aquarium
Central Wharf
Boston, MA 02110
617.973.5200

I found an newsgroup post where someone requested the number of ship
collisions for the last three years and the answer was: "Contact Amy
Knowlton or Philip Hamilton at the New England Aquarium for updated
figures."
Source: http://whale.wheelock.edu/archives/info99/0106.html

Excerpt: "Today, human activities, primarily collisions with ships,
still account for about 40% of all right whale deaths. Of the known
human-caused deaths since 1976, collisions with large ships have
killed 14 North Atlantic right whales, and fishing gear entanglements
have killed 2. Inbreeding and pollution may also contribute to low
birth rates."
Source: Seabits Newsletter: May 1999
http://www.neaq.org/community/seabits/newsletters/99may.html

In their spring 2001 newsletter, the number has gone up: "Out of 49
documented mortalities since 1970, 17 have been attributed to vessel
collisions, although in all cases but one, the vessel involved is not
known."
Source: Activities of the Ship Strike Committee
http://www.neaq.org/scilearn/research/rwhale.newsletter/spring2001.pdf
HTML Version: http://216.239.39.100/search?q=cache:Kxe5uf_MkA4C:www.neaq.org/scilearn/research/rwhale.newsletter/spring2001.pdf+site:www.neaq.org+whale+collisions&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

This PDF file shows statistics on Mediterranean Fin Whales:
Source: Evidence of Man-Made Injuries on Mediterranean Fin Whales
http://www.tethys.org/papers/cork-pesante.pdf
The above file shows that they checked twenty-two animals (5.8% of the
total 380 fin whales) and it showed that 9 (60%) showed "wounds from
collisions with boats' hulls;", "4 (26.7%) had propeller scars", and
"2 (13.3%) lost half of their flukes".
The above information appears to be from the Mediterranean Sea only.

Here is a good article worth reading that says that between 20% and
35% of whales have been struck by ships, with some species being more
affected by this (such as the Right Whale).


Search Strategy:

site:www.neaq.org whale
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=site%3Awww.neaq.org+whale&btnG=Google+Search

new england aquarium whale research project

---

Clarification of Answer by tisme-ga on 23 Jan 2003 18:00 PST

Unfortunately, I posted the answer too early by accident. I realize
that the information I have found might not be useful to you, if this
is the case, please let me know and I will request that my answer be
retracted. I have done some more research and have not come up with
much more useful information, so please let me know if my research
helped you.

Here is some information I would like to attach to the original
answer:

European statistics and technical information can be found on this
page: http://www.tethys.org/collisionworkshop.htm

One of my fellow researchers passed along the following information
which you might find useful:

"Since 1970, from an analysis by the New England Aquarium (Knowlton,
1966), 42 mortalities have been recorded. Of these, 12 were natural
calf mortalities, 14 were from ship strikes, 2 from entanglement, and
26 of unknown cause."
Source: http://www.acfonline.org.au/whales/wdcs_pdf/WDCS-Great-Whales-final.pdf

Search Strategy:
new england aquarium whale research project
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=new+england+aquarium+whale+research+project&btnG=Google+Search

whale collisions statistics
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=whale+collisions+statistics

whale collisions reported
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=whale+collisions+reported&btnG=Google+Search

Thanks for going the extra mile!