I think Senator Kerry likes whales. I know he likes polar bears, as we've noted in previous posts, but he really seems to like whales a lot. I'm not really sure if he prefers one over the other, but it's a good question. I'll have to research that and get back to you. Maybe he just likes saving things, like people and animals that need his help. Right now, it's whales.

Last month, he joined forces with Heroes star Hayden Panettiere at a rally in DC to 'Save the Whales Again'.

This is not a new cause for Senator Kerry, who introduced the North Atlantic Right Whale Recovery Act in 2001. At the time, the population of the North Atlantic Right Whale was 350. Currently, the estimate is 300.

"Right whales are at risk of extinction from a number of sources. These include, ship strikes, the number one source of known right whale fatalities, entanglement in fishing gear, coastal pollution, habitat degradation, ocean noise and climate change."

Last August, Senator Kerry wrote to President Bush about the danger to whales of ship strikes. We reported it here at KV, but difficult as it is to believe, I don't think the President reads KV.  I'll try not to take that personally.

"We call on the Administration to take immediate action to finalize a ship strike reduction rule that will slow ships to protect right whales based on the best available scientific evidence. We also ask that the Administration brief our staff on the expected timeline for implementation, as well as the Administration’s plans for the enforcement and monitoring of new provisions."

I wouldn't be surprised if Bush didn't read that, either. If he did, he certainly didn't do anything about it. It was a good try by the Senator, but since the letter failed to get the President's attention, Senator Kerry has introduced legislation this week to help save the whales from ship strikes.

Senator John Kerry today introduced legislation that would help protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales from injury and death due to ship strikes. The Ship Strike Reduction Act of 2008 would require the Bush Administration to finalize a rule establishing speed limits for specified vessels in migratory paths of North Atlantic right whales. The federal rule enforcing the speed limits, known as "the Ship Strike Rule," was first proposed in February, 2007, but the rule has been buried in the regulatory process for over a year.

His ship strike legislation isn't the Senator's only attempt to save the whale from extinction. Last November, he and several other Senators wrote to Japanese Ambassador Kato, calling for a halt to whale hunting expeditions disguised as scientific studies.

... we join the growing chorus of world leaders and environmental experts in asking Japan to reconsider its decision to conduct this hunt,or, at a minimum, significantly scale back its scope. We also ask that Japan immediately cease the killing of both humpback and fin whales, and only employ non-lethal techniques for studying these populations. By pursuing these actions, Japan can continue to make significant scientific contributions, while conserving and protecting these important species.

You know, maybe it's not 'just' about saving bears or whales or hampsters or even individual people at all. Maybe it has something to do with looking beyond one's self and doing the right thing, living by a rule that guides some people to 'do unto others', and applying that rule in a very inclusive way. Maybe it's not a decision at all, but something inherent in a person's individual makeup that compels some people to look at the plight of the helpless and act to make a difference. Whatever it is that makes people like Senator Kerry and Hayden Panettiere and Pierce Brosnan, who appear to have little else in common but a cause, use their influence and celebrity to save the whales from extinction, it's the right thing to do. But as important as it is to save the whales, it's bigger than that. It's about the next generation who will look to the influence of past activists and be emboldened to fight for future causes, when the fight may be for their own survival.

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photo credit: CelebrityMound
photo credit: Wikimedia Commons
photo credit: Wikimedia Commons