Cape Cod provides a sanctuary for whales

Humpback sightings are plentiful this season, but activists claim the government is more rhetoric than reality when it comes to protection.

Whales, like the humpback, above, face varying challenges, from commercial hunting to global warming.

CAPE COD, MASSACHUSETTS // Watching a pod of whales arch above the waterline on all sides of a boat an hour's sail out of Provincetown, it is hard to imagine these vast beasts are endangered. With an apparent lack of regard for a 27-metre motor launch full of passengers nearby, the humpback whales and two calves breach the water in turn for a last, large intake of air before diving to feed for up to 10 minutes in the deep.

Mike Bertoldi, a marine biologist who is the guide on this trip run by Dolphin Fleet, recognised some of the whales from the distinctive black and white markings on their tails and fins. He spotted Canopy and Pele first, before adding that a calf can drink each day around 284 litres of whale milk, which apparently has the consistency of "cottage cheese". Cape Cod and this stretch of the north-east United States made its riches until the 19th century from whale oil for lamps before the invention of gas lighting. These days, however, tourists flock to view, not kill, these majestic mammals and to learn about their precarious existence.

"This stretch of the North Atlantic is a giant restaurant for the whales," said Mr Bertoldi, who explained they would soon migrate to warmer waters in the Caribbean where they mate, give birth and nurse. They do not eat during the winter months until they return north in the spring. "It's their Club Med," he said. Humpbacks are the species most commonly viewed off Cape Cod and they were plentiful this summer season. In the 14 years he has spent on the ocean, Mr Bertoldi only once saw a blue whale and that was in 2002. He has had a few more glimpses of the North Atlantic right whale, of which there are only an estimated 300 to 350.

Each of the great oceans has its own population of whales and different species face varying challenges - from commercial hunting by Japan, Norway and Iceland, to pollution, entrapment by large fishing nets, collisions with ships and global warming. "Populations of most whale species are still only around 10 per cent of what they were before commercial hunting," Mr Bertoldi said. "We still know so little about them so to harvest them is just not responsible."

Animal welfare groups say that although the US administration's rhetoric sounds firm on the protection of whales, it has failed to really use its global influence. Leadership on the issue has shifted to countries including the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. "The US started to let things slip under the Clinton administration as it concentrated on building political capital on other issues, such as coalitions for war or in the UN," said Naomi Rose, senior scientist with the Humane Society International in Washington.

"For example, the US is blocking any agreement that would ban or limit sonar exercises that can disturb whales. I'm very concerned for the future of whales over the short-term and a random event or disaster, such as an oil spill or steady pollution of habitat, could push some populations over the edge," she said. Last month, the Bush administration finally agreed to speed limits on ships of 10 nautical miles per hour in a coastal buffer zone stretching to 32km. Groups such as Greenpeace said a 50km zone would have offered maximum protection, particularly to right whales. But campaigners said shipping and business interests prevailed and found a receptive audience in Dick Cheney, the vice president.

"We heard on good authority that the speed limit was held up for months by Cheney," said Phil Kline, Greenpeace USA oceans campaigner in Washington. "With the high price of oil, I've yet to hear a good argument how lower speeds would cost extra to shipping companies." Worldwide condemnation of commercial whaling led to a ban with certain exceptions about 20 years ago, but activists fear prevarication, loopholes and evasions are steadily undermining global consensus in the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

Mr Kline accused Tokyo, which entirely subsidises its whaling industry, of "bribing" poorer African countries to support an expansion of its whaling quotas under the whaling commission. In the meantime, two members of Greenpeace await trial for theft and other charges in Tokyo after they exposed evidence that whale meat was diverted from a supposedly scientific whaling programme in Japan. "We've argued for a long time that the IWC needs to change its charter treaty from seeking to manage commercial hunting to conservation of whales that would at least allow them to recover their population to pre-hunting levels, which could take 100 years," Mr Kline said. "It's amazing we're still dealing with this issue in the 21st century that is an artefact of the 20th century."

Campaigners urged Gulf states and others not traditionally focused on the debate to use their resources and do more to protect whales. "We have the ability to save whale species," said Sharon Young, marine issues field director for the Humane Society USA. "It might cost money, but public opinion says it's willing to pay to save whales worldwide." @Email:[e-mail]