New rules may separate ships, Alaska seals
By Dan Joling
Associated Press
Federal scientists are recommending rules that could restrict cruise ship visits to Alaska's Hubbard Glacier, the longest tidewater glacier in North America, because of the threat they pose to harbor seals, a marine mammal important to Native Alaskan subsistence hunters in nearby Yakutat.
Scientists from the National Marine Mammal Laboratory, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, say cruise ships making their way through Disenchantment Bay on their way to the glacier flush seals from ice floes into chilly sea water during critical pupping and molting periods.
Pups must bulk up on mother's milk during four to six weeks of nursing to have a better chance of surviving their first winter, said wildlife biologist John Jansen, lead researcher for the study. It suggests measures as severe as a blanket exclusion of cruise ships during pupping and molting, covering May through August, a big chunk of the cruise ship season.
NOAA Fisheries rules makers said they "hope to move forward in the near future" on the recommendations, said Aleria Jensen, a marine mammal specialist in the protected resources division. "This is a high priority issue for us."
Cruise ships and other elements of large-scale tourism went from a trickle to a boom in Alaska over the last three decades as tourists lined up to see the state's wonders from the warmth of a train car, a bus or a floating four-star hotel.
Alaska has become a major cruise destination, with 8 percent of the world capacity, the third highest share, according to the study, behind the Caribbean's 36 percent and the Mediterranean's 16 percent.
Southeast Alaska offers whales, fjords, mountain peaks and America's largest national forest. The breathtaking Hubbard Glacier stretches 76 miles to Mount Logan in Canada's Yukon Territory. At water's edge, Hubbard Glacier is six miles wide and more than 300 feet high. Visitors near the face can watch chunks of ice break off, cracking like a shotgun. The slurry of ice provides resting places for one of the world's largest congregations of harbor seals.
