High-tech fishing gear could help save critically endangered right whales

MAY 28, 2019

by Michael Moore And Hannah Myers, The Conversation

Many fish, marine mammals and seabirds that inhabit the world's oceans are critically endangered, but few are as close to the brink as the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis). Only about 411 of these whales exist today, and at their current rate of decline, they could become extinct within our lifetimes.

From 1980 through about 2010, conservation efforts focused mainly on protecting whales from being struck by ships. Federal regulations helped reduce vessel collisions and supported a slight rebound in right whale numbers.

But at the same time, growing numbers of right whales died after becoming entangled in lobster and crab fishing gear. This may have happened because fishing ropes became stronger, and both whales and fishermen shifted their ranges so that areas of overlap increased. Entanglement has caused 80% of diagnosed mortalities since 2010, and the population has taken a significant downward turn.

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As whales fade, movement they spawned tries to keep up hope

April 3, 2018 by Patrick Whittle

Regina Asmutis-Silvia, a biologist who has dedicated her career to saving right whales, is cleaning out a file cabinet from the early 1990s, and the documents inside tell a familiar story—the whales are dying from collisions with ships and entanglements in commercial fishing gear, and the species might not survive.

Fast forward through a quarter-century of crawl-paced progress, and it's all happening again.

"It's a little scary to think if we hadn't been working on this all these years, would they have been relegated to history instead of Cape Cod Bay?" said Asmutis-Silvia, of Plymouth, Massachusetts-based Whale and Dolphin Conservation. "We're standing on the cliff and going, 'It matters, they're still here, they're still something to fight for'."

Despite eight decades of conservation efforts, North Atlantic right whales are facing a new crisis. The threat of extinction within a generation looms, and the movement to preserve the whales is trying to come up with new solutions.

The whales are one of the rarest marine mammals in the world, numbering about 450. The 100,000-pound animals have been even closer to the brink of extinction before, and the effort to save them galvanized one of the most visible wildlife conservation movements in U.S. history.

But the population's falling again because of poor reproduction coupled with high mortality from ship strikes and entanglement. Scientists, environmentalists, whale watch captains and animal lovers of all stripes are rallying to renew interest in saving right whales, but many admit to feeling close to defeated.

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'Truly alarming': No babies for endangered right whales

March 26, 2018 by Russ Bynum

The winter calving season for critically endangered right whales has nearly ended with zero newborns spotted in the past four months—a reproductive drought that scientists who study the fragile species haven't seen in three decades.

Survey flights to look for mother-and-calf pairs off the Atlantic coasts of Georgia and Florida are scheduled to wrap up when the month ends Saturday. Right whales typically give birth off the southeastern U.S. seacoast between December and late March. Researchers have recorded between one and 39 births each year since the flights began in 1989.

Now experts are looking at the possibility of a calving season without any confirmed births.

"It's a pivotal moment for right whales," said Barb Zoodsma, who oversees the right whale recovery program in the U.S. Southeast for the National Marine Fisheries Service. "If we don't get serious and figure this out, it very well could be the beginning of the end."

Zoodsma said she doesn't expect any last-minute calf sightings this week.

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Canada limits crab fishing to save right whales

January 23, 2018

Snow crab fishing in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence will be curtailed to protect endangered right whales from tangling in fishing gear, a Canadian official said Tuesday.

Twelve North Atlantic right whales have been found dead since June 2017 in the busy seaway.

The area is home to nearly one quarter of the world's last 458 right whales, which conservation officials say are among the most threatened species in the world.

Autopsies showed that several whales had bled to death after what were likely collisions with ships, or drowning or starving to death after getting caught up in fishing nets.

Fisheries Minister Dominique Leblanc told reporters that the new measures, which include reducing the amount of rope floating in the water and mandatory reporting of lost fishing gear, will be enforced "very aggressively."

Additional measures would be announced in the coming months, he said.

Ottawa last summer announced a speed limit of 10 knots for boats travelling in the Saint Lawrence seaway.

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Right whales, already an endangered species, may face a dim future

Date:  October 30, 2017

Source:  University of California - Santa Barbara

When 15 North Atlantic right whales turned up dead in U.S. and Canadian waters in the summer of 2017, it was declared an unprecedented mass mortality event. For a highly endangered species with slightly more than 500 animals remaining, the crisis signals a major shift in the population's recovery -- corresponding to a 3 percent loss.

Of the seven whales necropsied, six deaths were caused by humans -- four by ship strike, two by fishing gear entanglement -- and one was inconclusive. In addition to the staggering number of deaths, scientists also are puzzled by the location where most of the whale carcasses were discovered: Twelve were found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, well north of the species' typical distributional range.

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Seven right whales found dead in 'devastating' blow to endangered animal

Carcasses found off Canada in recent weeks in what may be biggest single die-off of one of world’s most endangered whale species, expert says

Ashifa Kassam in Toronto

Saturday 8 July 2017 11.00 BST Last modified on Saturday 8 July 2017 11.01 BST

Seven North Atlantic right whales have been found floating lifelessly in the Gulf of St Lawrence, off Canada, in recent weeks, in what is being described as a “catastrophic” blow to one of the world’s most endangered whales.

The first whale carcass was reported in early June. Within a month, another six reports came in, leaving marine biologists in the region reeling.

“It’s devastating,” said Tonya Wimmer of the Marine Animal Response Society, a charitable organisation dedicated to marine mammal conservation in the region. “This is, I think, the largest die-off they’ve ever had for this particularly species, at once.”

The global population of North Atlantic right whales – which live along the eastern seaboard of Canada and the US and can reach up to 16 metres in length – is thought to be around 525, meaning that more than 1% of the population has died in the past month. “So it is catastrophic in terms of potential impact to this population.”

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Right whales threatened by planned seismic surveys along Mid- and Southeastern Atlantic seaboard, say scientists

Date: April 14, 2016

Source: Wildlife Conservation Society

A series of seismic surveys for oil and gas planned for the mid- and southeastern Atlantic coastal areas of the United States pose a substantial threat to one of the world's most endangered whale species, according to a group of renowned marine mammal scientists urging a halt to the surveys in a statement released today.

In an open letter sent to President Obama, the 27 leading right whale experts -- including scientists from Cornell Lab of Ornithology, New England Aquarium, the Wildlife Conservation Society, Duke University, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution -- stated that seismic oil and gas surveys planned in the waters between Delaware and Florida would significantly impact the acoustically sensitive North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species numbering no more than 500 animals, and "would jeopardize its survival."

Last month, the administration excluded oil and gas leases in the same regions for the next five years, but the controversial seismic surveys may continue as planned.

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What was killing the young right whales? New research finds a suspect

Study links mysterious deaths of right whale calves to harmful algal blooms

Date:October 26, 2015

Source:NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region

The baby whales suddenly began dying in 2005. And continued for several years running.

Scientists had never seen anything like it around Peninsula Valdes, an important calving ground for southern right whales on the coast of Argentina, or anywhere else for that matter. The average number of right whale deaths per year at Peninsula Valdes jumped more than 10-fold, from fewer than six per year before 2005 to 65 per year from 2005 to 2014.

Even more striking, 90 percent of the deaths from 2005 to 2014 were very young calves fewer than three months old. The mystery killer appeared to be targeting the nearly newborn, sometimes more than 100 calves of the endangered species each year.

Now researchers have closed in on a prime suspect: Blooms of toxic algae, the same kind that sometimes force the closure of clamming and other shellfish harvesting.

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500 Right Whales Could Face the Wrong Fate (Op-Ed)

Sarah Young, Oceana | May 16, 2014 02:49pm ET

Sara Young is a marine scientist at Oceana, the largest international advocacy group working solely to protect the world's oceans. She contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.

Even before the heyday of whaling in the mid-1800s, whalers knew which whales were the "right" and easiest ones to hunt — three species that float when killed, are fairly slow moving, feed near the surface and live close to shore. Unfortunately, these creatures now face a new, more modern threat — a proposal to use seismic airguns off the U.S. Atlantic coast to search for oil and gas deposits beneath the ocean floor.

Today, Endangered Species Day, is a day marked for raising awareness of such amazing creatures and to help bring them back from the brink of extinction.

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Right whales continue feeding close to Herring Cove Beach

By Mary Ann Bragg

mbragg@capecodonline.com

March 18, 2014

PROVINCETOWN - A half-dozen North Atlantic right whales are in the second day of skimming for food very close to the shore of Herring Cove Beach, a spokeswoman for the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies said this morning.

The rare whales can be seen from the northern parking lot of the beach, which is in the Cape Cod National Seashore.

Each year the whales come to Cape Cod Bay to feed during the winter and early spring from their summertime breeding and calving grounds along the Atlantic coasts of Georgia and Florida.

There are 510 right whales in the world, according to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, which compiles population estimates from the latest research.

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Whales' Foraging Strategies Revealed by New Technology

Jan. 9, 2013 — Marine biologists are beginning to understand the varied diving and foraging strategies of filter-feeding whales by analyzing data from multisensor tags attached to the animals with suction cups. Such tags, in combination with other techniques such as echolocation, are providing a wealth of fine detail about how the world's largest creatures find and trap their prey.

Recent studies on the behavior of baleen whales -- which filter small fish or invertebrate animals from seawater -- are described in the February issue of BioScience. Jeremy A. Goldbogen of the Cascadia Research Collective in Olympia, Washington, and his colleagues point out that tags can report not only the depth but also the acceleration of the animal carrying them, which reveals information on its pitch and rolling motion. Together with special software, this can allow foraging dives to be visualized in three dimensions, along with the timing. Studying whale behavior is logistically challenging, as it may be necessary to coordinate the actions of several research vessels and large research teams. Yet despite the difficulties, patterns are becoming clear.

Right whales and bowhead whales have a very different feeding strategy from rorquals -- the group that includes the biggest animal on earth, the blue whale. Right and bowhead whales filter-feed by swimming relatively slowly through prey patches, a mode called continuous ram feeding. This keeps their energy expenditure low and makes possible dives of 10 minutes or longer, but means they miss out on prey able to take evasive action. Rorquals, in contrast, make high-speed lunges at prey patches that enable them to catch elusive species. They must then pause to filter water engulfed in their large mouths, however, and they have to surface more often to breathe than continuous ram feeders. The new tools available mean researchers can study the efficiency of diving and foraging in different whales and relate it to the availability of prey of different types. Because whales are considered keystone predators that structure oceanic food webs, such insights will shed important light on ocean ecology.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130109110606.htm

FLESH EATING GULLS DEVOUR WHALES ALIVE

Right whales (Eubalaena australis) off the coast of Argentina face the gruesome threat of being slowly eaten alive by birds every time they take a breath. The menace has become so great that local officials are planning to declare open season on the gulls and allow hunters to knock problem birds out of the sky, reported the AP.

The macabre torment of the whales sounds like a punishment from vengeful gods in a Greek myth or the plot of a Edgar Allan Poe story, but the real reason gulls have turned on the whales may be a bunch of garbage. Open air trash heaps near coastal cities have fueled a massive population boom in gulls. Fishermen add to the problem when they throw fish parts back into the ocean.

About eight years ago, the burgeoning gull population around the city of Puerto Madryn learned that they can get fresh meat from the whales. As more gulls learned the trick, the problems for whales increased. The gulls wait until a whale surfaces for air, then tear holes in the whales’ flesh and rip off pieces of skin and blubber. Each time the whales come back up, the gulls go in for more.

“It really worries us because the damage they’re doing to the whales is multiplying, especially to infant whales that are born in these waters,” Marcelo Bertellotti, of the National Patagonia Center, a government-sponsored conservation agency, told the AP.

Continued:  http://news.discovery.com/earth/flesh-eating-seagulls-devour-whales-alive-120829.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

First Paternity Study of Southern Right Whales Finds Local Fathers Most Successful

ScienceDaily (June 22, 2012) — The first paternity study of southern right whales has found a surprisingly high level of local breeding success for males, scientists say, which is good news for the overall genetic diversity of the species, but could create risk for local populations through in-breeding.

Results of the study, by researchers at the University of Auckland, Oregon State University and the New Zealand Department of Conservation, have just been published in the journal Molecular Ecology.

The study found that most of the right whales born near the remote sub-Antarctic islands of New Zealand were fathered by males from the same local population, according to lead author Emma Carroll, who recently completed her doctorate at the University of Auckland.

"This finding gives us information on the breeding behavior of right whales, but more importantly it shows that the New Zealand population is relatively isolated from other populations in the region, including that of neighboring Australia," Carroll said.

In other words, male southern right whales don't get around much -- and that kind of behavior is surprising.


Continued:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120622163710.htm

Ships face fines for speeding in Right Whale zones

THE US authority, NOAA has announced it is issuing notices of violations (NOVAS) proposing fines against seven vessels for allegedly violating seasonal speed limits designed to protect one of the most endangered whales in the world.


These civil administrative penalties are the first assessed since the Right Whale Ship Strike Reduction Rule was enacted on Dec. 9, 2008.

Because there are as few as 350 North Atlantic right whales still in existence, the whales are protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of 1973 and the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972. The Right Whale Ship Strike Reduction Rule restricts vessels of 65 feet or greater to speeds of 10 knots or less in seasonal management areas along the East Coast.

The NOVAs issued this week focus on vessels that allegedly traveled multiple times through the seasonal management areas for right whales at speeds well in excess of the 10 knots allowed under the regulations.

Penalty assessments in these NOVAs range from $16,500 to $49,500, depending on the frequency of the violations. The ships' owners and operators have 30 days to respond to NOVAs by paying the assessed penalty, seeking to have it modified, or requesting a hearing before an administrative law judge.

These seasonal management areas went into effect Nov. 1 in areas from Rhode Island to Brunswick, Ga., and went into effect yesterday for areas from Brunswick, Ga., to St. Augustine, Fla. Designed to reduce the chances of right whales being injured or killed by ships, the speed restrictions are based on the migration pattern of right whales and are in effect through April 30 each year. Maps of these areas and a compliance guide are available at www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/shipstrike

NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement (OLE) focused on outreach during the rule’s first season, sending letters to alleged violators to educate them about the new federal regulation.

The Notices of Violation and Assessment (NOVAs) issued by NOAA’s Office of General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation yesterday involve alleged violations of the speed restrictions during the second season the regulations were in place, November 2009 through April 2010.

“Right whales are a highly endangered and important species,” said special agent Stuart Cory, OLE's national program manager for protected resources. “It is important to remind those that use and share the same habitat as right whales that this rule was put into place to protect these mammals. Compliance with this rule is one way NOAA is striving to prevent right whales from extinction. The species' recovery is dependent upon the protection of each remaining whale.”

http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/world/4709-ships-face-fines-for-speeding-in-right-whale-zones.html