Whales Killed by Ships off the California Coast

This article can be found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/10/BALQ1FPRM7.DTL

    This story covers the most recent in a trend of whale killings due to busy shipping lanes along the California coast (and across the globe). “At least five dead whales have been sighted or have washed ashore around the [Bay Area] region since late July.” This particular story focuses on the deaths of a mother and her “17-foot-long fetus…released by her body as she decomposed.”
    This is a big problem, and the writer, Kelly Zito, proves so by describing a number of different whale strikes that have happened recently along the West Coast. Zito calls attention to the endangered status of blue, humpback and fin whales, and she says that whale protection organizations around the globe are discussing solutions, but she doesn’t spend much time on those. The purpose of this article is just to be a simple news story that doesn’t delve into the larger issues. But she does do well in starting with the specific story and then zooming out, putting the big picture into focus. She uses a lot of very short paragraphs, most of them limited to one sentence, which helps her get the facts across efficiently and quickly. Though she could have said more on the topic, such as why whales don’t seem to be able to get out of the ships’ way, Zoti stays concise and appropriately objective.