[ Plan to reintroduce gray whales off UK ]
Thursday, July 21, 2005; Posted: 9:57 a.m. EDT (13:57 GMT)
LONDON, England (Reuters) — Squadrons of Gray whales could be winging their way across
the Atlantic within a decade to restock British waters under plans put forward by two conserva-
tion scientists.
—————————————————————–
Andrew Ramsey and Owen Nevin of the University of Lancaster’s School of Natural Resources in northern England floated the idea at a meeting in Brazil earlier this week.
“Some people will say it is impossible but we are deadly serious about this,” Nevin said on the university’s Web site.
“It’s ecologically, logistically and economically feasible and whale watching could regenerate struggling fishing communities around our coasts,” he added.
Gray whales, known for their tranquil nature, were once common in the seas around northern
Europe but have been extinct for 400 years.
But the 50-feet long, 40-ton leviathans are in plentiful supply off the coast of California.
Ramsey and Nevin propose airlifting 50 surplus gray whales from the Californian population for release off the coast of northern England, starting in 2015.
Ramsey said cargo aircraft can easily accommodate adult gray whales and the journey from
California to Britain would take less than 12 hours.
“Providing the whales are kept moist at all times they are more than capable of surviving the
long haul flight,” he said.
But other conservationists said the plan was impractical.
“The notion of taking whales from one place and reintroducing them somewhere else is far
more complex than it might appear and very unlikely to be in the best interests of the animals,” said Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
However, Ramsey and Nevin noted that gray whales did not compete with fishermen for food
because they fed on worms not fish and said whale watching tourism would be a boon for the coastal population.
“The gray whale is an incredibly charismatic species and it can ignite the imagination of the
public in a way few other animals can,” Ramsey said.
—————————————————————–
대서양에서 멸종된 귀신고래를 영국해안에 다시 풀어놓겠다는 계획이 나왔다고 합니다. 2015년부터 캘리포니아에 사는 귀신고래를 화물전용기로 수송해서 영국 북부 해안에 놓아주겠다는 계획입니다. 비행시간은 12시간 이하로 걸리고 습기만 유지해주면 충분히 실행가능한 작전이라고 합니다.
그러나 불가능하다는 반론도 나오고 있습니다. 어떻게 진행될지는 두고 봐야겠죠? 어떻게 생각해야될지… ^^;
기사는 CNN에서 가져왔습니다.
