Federal officials have asked spring breakers not to get any closer than 500 yards of a right whale. The whale is endangered and there is only an estimated 450 to 500 whales worldwide, according to USA Today. Right whales have given birth to 17 calves so far this year, so moms and their offspring could be migrating along southeastern Florida.
Airplane banners are being used to remind beachgoers. "We're trying to reach those kinds of crowds," Cheryl Bonnes, a marine mammal outreach specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), told USA Today. "Just give whales space, too."
The 500-yard rule applies to swimmers, watercrafts, aircrafts, paddle boards and surfboards. Anyone caught violating the right whales space can face thousands of dollars in fines.
Right whales are hard to tag because they don't have dorsal fins, so researchers shoot small orange-colored tags on titanium darts from an airgun 20 feet away, according to USA Today. The darts lodge three inches into the whale's skin and blubber.
Right whales are getting badly injured and killed by run-ins with ships. Researchers hope that tagging the whales can help identify where the whales are going and where they run into problems.
Right whales got their name because they were considered the "right" whales for early whalers to hunt. Right whales stay close to shore and float when dead. They were hunted for oil and baleen - an elastic substance once used in buggy whips and corsets.
