As deaths mount, have right whales reached a 'tipping point'?

JULY 8, 2019

by Dinah Voyles Pulver

In February 2016, East Central Florida animal lovers were riveted by an endangered right whale nicknamed Clipper and her baby. Clipper gave birth to the calf off Florida's east coast, then found her way into Sebastian Inlet, giving many people their first look at two of the massive, endangered whales.

This week, right whale biologists and scientists gathered around her body on a distant beach at Grand Etang, Quebec. She is one of six whales found dead in June in Canada's Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Clipper's story illustrates the highs and lows of the efforts in the United States and Canada to save the critically endangered animals.

Jim Hain, senior scientist and program leader for the Marineland Right Whale Project, fears the whales may have reached "a tipping point."

A network of 200 volunteers in Volusia, Flagler and Brevard counties eagerly watch the ocean each winter hoping for a glimpse of any whale, but especially a female right whale with a new calf.

Word of a sighting or a new calf ripples quickly through the community. Whale calving has dropped off dramatically off Florida's coast in recent years, bottoming out with no new calves in 2018. but seven calves were reported this winter, raising hopes that perhaps the whale calving would begin returning to its former numbers.

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Climate driving new right whale movement

MAY 29, 2019

by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences

A North Atlantic right whale breaches. New research shows that rapid warming in the Gulf of Maine's depths is changing food availability and increasing risk to these whales -- one of the world's most endangered animals. Credit: Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, New England Aquarium

New research connects recent changes in the movement of North Atlantic right whales to decreased food availability and rising temperatures in Gulf of Maine's deep waters. Right whales have been showing up in unexpected places in recent years, putting the endangered species at increased risk. The study, which was published in Oceanography and conducted by scientists from more than 10 institutions, provides insights to this key issue complicating conservation efforts.

"The climate-driven changes rippling throughout the Gulf of Maine have serious consequences for the small number of remaining right whales," said Nick Record, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and lead author on the paper. "Climate change is outdating many of our conservation and management efforts, and it's difficult to keep up with the rapid evolution of this ecosystem."

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Seven rare right whale calves spotted off Florida coast but ‘still isn't enough’

Encouraging sign for the critically endangered species

Only about 450 North Atlantic right whales remain

Associated Press in Daytona Beach, Florida

Sun 17 Feb 2019 17.22 GMTLast modified on Sun 17 Feb 2019 17.26 GMT

Seven rare right whale calves have been spotted so far this winter off Florida’s Atlantic coast, an encouraging sign for the critically endangered species but one which one expert said “still isn’t enough”.

No newborns were spotted during the last calving season and just five calves were counted during the previous year.

Jim Hain, senior scientist and project coordinator for the Marineland Right Whale Project, told local newspaper the Daytona Beach News-Journal: “Every calf that gets us closer to 10 or a dozen is very encouraging.”

But Katie Jackson of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said seven calves “still isn’t enough”.

Scientists estimate only about 450 North Atlantic right whales remain. Jackson said right whales need to deliver 16 to 18 calves a year just to maintain their current population.

The latest whale to give birth had not done so since 2011, researchers said. Usually right whale mothers give birth every four years or so.

Right whales typically migrate from the North Atlantic to give birth off the coasts of Georgia and Florida from December through March.

Threats include collisions with large vessels and entanglement in lobster and snow crab fishing equipment.

Source

Right whale calf, mother spotted in Atlantic off Florida

December 29, 2018

Florida conservationists are reporting a right whale calf sighting off the state's Atlantic coast.

In a Facebook post , the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's Fish and Wildlife Research Institute said it's the first calf sighting of the critically endangered whale's winter calving season.

Wildlife officials said the calf and its mother were spotted Friday offshore near the mouth of the St. Johns River. The commission said the mother had been spotted five days ago off the Georgia coast.

Right whales typically migrate from the North Atlantic to give birth off the coasts of Georgia and Florida from December through March.

Scientists estimate only about 450 North Atlantic right whales remain. No newborns were reported during the last calving season, and just five calves were counted during the previous year.

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Mission to untangle female right whale highlights species' precarious plight

Removing a thick fishing rope from a highly fertile whale’s jaw was a priority for scientists who fear the species may be in terminal decline

Oliver Milman in New York

Sun 22 Apr 2018 07.00 BSTLast modified on Sun 22 Apr 2018 21.27 BST

A mission to disentangle a particularly important North Atlantic right whale from a thick rope wrapped around its jaw has proved a partial success, amid growing fears that the endangered species is approaching a terminal decline.

The individual female whale, known as Kleenex, is considered one of the most productive North Atlantic right whales left in existence, having given birth to eight calves. Its condition has deteriorated, however, since it was spotted off the coast of Delaware in 2014 with a thick fishing rope wrapped around its head and upper jaw.

Conservationists, aware that the right whale population has dropped alarmingly due to a spike in deaths and a birth drought, attempted to remove the rope last week, after Kleenex was seen near the Massachusetts coast. A pursuing team used a crossbow to fire a bolt with razor blades attached at the rope, but did not successfully sever it.

“The line was damaged and then the whale became more evasive and the weather got worse, so that was our best go at it,” said Bob Lynch, of conservation group Center for Coastal Studies, who was part of the rescue team.

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Endangered right whale population threatened by entanglements and dramatically declining birth rate

New study finds recovery success in jeopardy

Date: September 1, 2016

Source: New England Aquarium

The most endangered large whale species in the Atlantic is threatened by increasing rates of lethal and debilitating entanglements and a dramatic 40% decline in birth rates since 2010. About 500 North Atlantic right whales still survive after two decades period of modest annual growth, but the two new emerging trends are casting doubt on the species overall recovery.

That is the conclusion of a new study published in Frontiers in Marine Science by Dr. Scott D. Kraus, Vice President and Senior Adviser, Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium, along with researchers from the University of Rhode Island, Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies, University of North Carolina, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and Duke University.

"Right whales need immediate and significant management intervention to reduce mortalities and injuries from fishing gear," the authors concluded in the study. "Managers need a better understanding about the causes of reduced calving rates before this species can be considered on the road to recovery. Failure to act on this new information will lead to further declines in this population's number and increase its vulnerability to extinction."

Since 1935, when North Atlantic right whales neared extinction and whaling for this species became illegal, right whales rebounded to about 295 living whales in 1992. The number of whales then increased by about 2.8 percent a year, to an estimated 500 right whales in 2010.

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North Atlantic right whale spotted off Cornwall?

Cornish mystery whale could be one or the most endangered species- scientists appeal for more sightings

May 2012. Sightings of a large whale off the Cornish coast near Lizard Point are causing a stir amongst scientists who say it could have been a North Atlantic right whale, one of the most endangered species in the world. Other possibilities are the Gray whale which went extinct in Atlantic Waters in the 17th century, though one was seen in 2010 in The Mediterranean, or a humpback whale.

Peter Evans, Research Director of the marine mammal research and conservation charity Sea Watch has described the sightings as ‘exciting and intriguing'. He is appealing for anyone else who has seen the whale to contact Sea Watch - a national marine conservation charity and holder of the largest data base of whales and dolphins in Europe - with descriptions, and, if possible, pictures.

Since the whale was seen in April discussions between local experts, eye witnesses and the marine research and conservation charity Sea Watch suggest that the North Atlantic right whale is the most likely species.

Seen off The Lizard
The whale was seen by a group of teenage anglers, Jim Cave, a local resident, and by a canoeist off Hot Point, just east of Lizard Point. It may also have been the same one seen in the same area last autumn.

Sea Watch Research Director Peter Evans has described the sightings as ‘exciting and intriguing'. He is appealing for anyone else who has seen the whale to contact Sea Watch - a national marine conservation charity and holder of the largest data base of whales and dolphins in Europe - with descriptions, and ,if possible, pictures.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/cornwall-right-whale.html