Senator tells whale of a tale

Right whales: They're big. They're bad. And they're vicious. Good thing they're just not from here.

That's what S.C. Sen. Paul Campbell, R-Goose Creek, is telling people in Sumter who e-mail him expressing support for naming the endangered creature the state marine mammal. Campbell is one of the local legislators who want to designate the bottlenose dolphin instead — opposing a Sumter school children project.

"These whales are not indigenous to South Carolina and rarely are sighted in our waters. It is also known to be aggressive to humans," read the reply from Campbell's legislative assistant, Carol DuBose.

People who study whales disagree.

"I spend my life with these whales. They are unbelievably docile," said Charles "Stormy" Mayo, whale rescue director for the Massachusetts-based Center for Coastal Studies, who has worked hands-on with the huge whales for 30 years. "They come up to the boat because they're curious. They are very gentle. There is never an issue — and you can underline 'never.' They're big. They're capable and they never do us any harm."

The only incidences of aggression from right whales have been when they were harpooned by whalers in the past, Mayo said. They do thrash when rescuers try to disentangle lines, because the lines have cut into their bodies and are painful.

As for rarely seen, well, they're seen in South Carolina every year, Mayo said, sometimes just off the beach or not far out to sea. Survey flights this winter have counted 24 of the whales off South Carolina's coast so far, after counting 40 last year, said Dianna Schulte, of Wildlife Trust.

Campbell is one of four local legislators sponsoring a dolphin bill as a counter to the whale bill submitted by a group of students at Alice Drive Elementary School in Sumter. Sen. Chip Campsen, R-Isle of Palms, was asked to submit the counter-bill by the State Ports Authority. The authority is struggling to repair an image in the shipping world battered by recent management problems. Containerships that use the port now must slow down near the coast during the whale's winter calving season, under a new federal regulation.

Sens. Larry Grooms, R-Bonneau, and Mike Rose, R-Summerville, also sponsored it. The bills are in a Senate subcommittee.

"I'm horrified that somebody didn't do his research," said Lynn Eldridge, about the e-mail. Her husband received one. She is the teacher working with the students on what has become as school project. The students did their research, she said. And they know better.