June 8, 2022 — Yesterday, we reported a story about a new era for Maine’s lobstermen, who face new gear rules designed to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales.
Today we look at how the whales themselves are faring with the changing patterns of their seasonal migration.
All in all, it’s been so far so good this year.
No dead right whales have been spotted. Fifteen calves were born — the second-largest number since 2015. And observers were impressed by the saga of one whale, a mother who, injured and entangled in fishing gear, managed to escort her calf a thousand miles up the coast
And researchers continue to keep tabs on how the species is doing.
Michael Moore, a senior scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, recorded a recent encounter with a right whale off Massachusetts.
“Now the swells have dropped down and it’s a couple hours before sunset and now the whale’s leveling out a little bit, it just blew. You can see a little bit more of its back,” he says in the recording.
Read the full story at Connecticut Public Radio