CONSERVATIONISTS are divided over a plan to airfreight up to 50 grey whales from their native waters in California to the Cumbrian coastline to try to revitalise the area.

Under the plan to be put forward today by two academics the whales— so docile that they are known as the friendlies — would be released into the Irish Sea off the Solway Firth. Dr Andrew Ramsey and Dr Owen Nevin, of the University of Central Lancashire’s School of Natural Resources, are convinced that the grey whale, hunted to extinction in the North Atlantic 400 years ago, can be reintroduced.

They would then spawn a lucrative whale-watching industry, creating hundreds of jobs and helping to regenerate devastated fishing communities on the northwest coastline.

But the scheme has already received heavy criticism from the Whale and Dolpin Conservation Society, which has branded the idea “neither feasible nor sensible”. Their scientists are adamant that whales extinct for hundreds of years cannot simply be replaced by imports. They also claim that the Pacific whales may not be able to survive in the Atlantic.

Dr Ramsey, who is proposing the plan today at the 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Conservation Biology, in Brazil, said: “Within a few years there could be a significant breeding population around the UK.”

Grey whales, the only member of the family Eschrichtiidae, hold a totemic place in the world marine conservation. Each day flotillas of tourists sail from California and Mexico to the basking grounds to marvel at the 40-tonne mammals who swim at a stately pace close to the shore and allow human beings to touch them. The academics insist that the Californian population could afford to lose 50 whales by 2015.

Dr Ramsay said: “Modern cargo aircraft can easily accommodate adult grey whales and make the journey from capture sites off America to release sites off Britain in less than 12 hours.”

The two conservationists believe that there is no logistical problem to prevent the whales from being netted alive off Baja, hoisted on board a cargo plane and kept alive on a long haul flight. The vital necessity is for the mammal to be kept moist.

In 1996 Keiko, the star of two Free Willy films, was airlifted via a C130 Hercules from Mexico to Oregon.

A survey conducted in the Lake District last year suggested that 90 per cent of people were in favour of their reintroduction.

Mark Simmonds, the director of science for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: “We can well appreciate the enthusiasm for trying to replace the whale species here but the notion is far more complex than it might appear.”

FIGHT FOR LIFE

The grey whale is endangered in its only other migratory habitat, off Korea, where about fifty adults are threatened by Japanese commercial interests

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