Saving Seafood

Fishermen, Feeling Blamed for Right Whale Entanglements, Say #ShowUsTheRope

March 31, 2021 — Conservationists say that every North Atlantic right whale counts, as the population has fallen to around 360. But one entangled right whale found in Cape Cod Bay—named Snow Cone—has triggered an outcry of frustration from fishermen, who say they’re being unfairly blamed for the decline of the critically endangered species.

The uproar started with a Facebook post.

On Wednesday, March 10, a team from Provincetown’s Center for Coastal Studies freed Snow Cone from 300 feet of rope. Though some rope remained, possibly embedded in her jaw, the team felt they gave her a fighting chance to shed the rest on her own.

“We’re going to keep an eye on her, and help her out if she needs more,” said Scott Landry, who oversees disentanglement efforts. “We think we did our best by her.”

Shortly after, the center described the team’s success on its Facebook page, and used a photo from an aerial survey that shows the whale and the telltale rope from 1,000 feet in the air.

“So, I remember seeing this,” said Nick Muto, who’s been catching lobsters out of Chatham for the last 20 years. “They posted something, you know: ‘Right whale number 3560; Snow Cone; 16-year-old breeding female; partially disentangled.’”

Read the full story at WGBH

MASSACHUSETTS: Whale Rescued in Cape Cod Bay a Decade Ago Spotted with Calf

December 29, 2020 — A right whale rescued in Cape Cod Bay a decade ago was recently spotted with a newborn calf in the waters off of North Carolina and Florida, a good sign for the critically-endangered marine animal.

The Center for Coastal Studies said that the calf was one of the first two right whales of the 2021 season, and the mother is right whale #4040, Chiminea.

Chiminea was found entangled in Cape Cod Bay by the Center’s aerial survey team in April 2011, in the waters west of Truro.

The Marine Animal Entanglement Response team cut the entangled then-juvenile whale free of a long line caught in the mouth, after which she swam away free.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

3 more right whale calves spotted

February 6, 2020 — Three more right whale calves have been spotted off the coasts of Georgia and Florida, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

A 28-year-old mother named Calvin was spotted swimming off Georgia with her calf, the statement says. In 2000, Calvin was found entangled off the coast of Cape Cod and was disentangled by the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team.

A 24-year-old mother named Echo was seen with her calf off Atlantic Beach in Florida, and an 18-year-old mom called Arrow was spotted with her calf off Amelia Island in Florida.

These sightings bring the total number of right whale calves this season to nine, up from seven seen all of last year, according to a statement from the Center for Coastal Studies.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Lobsters, fish fall victim to low oxygen levels in Cape Cod Bay

October 4, 2019 — Two weeks ago, lobstermen working off Scorton Creek started seeing something they had never experienced. Lobsters, in fact everything in their traps, were coming up dead.

Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries senior biologist Robert Glenn started fielding phone calls from puzzled fishermen Sept. 23. The fishermen were worried there might be something in the water that was killing the lobsters, fish, shellfish, even sea worms.

It turns out, it was something missing from the water: oxygen.

For the past two weeks, division researchers and scientists from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown have boarded vessels and taken water samples, gathered temperature data at various depths and measured the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. Preliminary results from testing on dozens of dead lobsters found nothing toxic in the water that could have killed them, and the focus was on a phenomenon that occurs every year — low oxygen in the layer of water along the ocean bottom, Glenn said.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

MASSACHUSETTS: Provincetown team disentangles humpback whale off Chatham

August 19, 2019 — The Marine Animal Entanglement Response team (MAER) from the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) disentangled a humpback whale yesterday afternoon off of Chatham, MA.

A charter vessel discovered the whale early yesterday morning; they reported it to the CCS Hotline, then stood by the whale until they were relieved by a crew from USCG Chatham. USCG Chatham stood by until the CCS team, accompanied by trainees from Cascadia Research Collective and SR3, arrived on scene.

The female humpback, identified as the 2015 calf of Jabiru, had a buoy line lodged in her mouth and wrapped over her head; the trailing end of the line extended about 40 feet behind her flukes.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Young humpback whale sighted in Boston shipping lanes

August 7, 2019 — A young humpback whale has been reported swimming for the past three days in the shipping channel in Boston Harbor, according to a statement issued Tuesday by New England Aquarium.

The 30- to 33-foot whale was born in 2018 to the well-known humpback Whirlygig and would likely have been weaned by its mother last fall, the statement says. It has probably been on its own since early this year. The young whale has been seen feeding alongside one of the dredge barges that is deepening the channel.

“It actually isn’t a calf, but rather a yearling, meaning it was born last year and no longer with a mom,” humpback expert Jooke Robbins, with the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, said. “We just haven’t named it yet and so we are still referring to it as Whirlygig 18 calf. It really isn’t unusual for young whales to wander into nearshore habitats.”

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

CCS Team Frees Minke Whale from Entanglement, Shark

August 7, 2019 — The Center for Coastal Studies’ Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team freed an entangled minke whale last Thursday off Rockport and saved it from a great white shark.

The 18-foot whale was anchored by gear with rope through its mouth and around its tail.

The whale had a deep cut from the rope and minor bleeding had attracted a great white.

A video showing the extent of the entanglement can be viewed below.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

MASSACHUSETTS: Right whales extending their stays in Cape Cod Bay

May 21, 2019 — With the count of North Atlantic right whale sightings in Cape Cod Bay down to zero Thursday, the end-of-season findings by the Center for Coastal Studies indicate what could be new realities: More animals are showing up each year, and the length of time they’re staying in the bay is longer.

“There are two trajectories,” said Charles “Stormy” Mayo, the center’s right whale ecology program director. “Our trajectory is going up while the total number of right whales is going down, fairly steeply.”

The center has studied the right whales in the bay for several decades, currently with airplane surveys for population counts and boat surveys to identify food densities in the water. The data collected is used, in part, to help the state Division of Marine Fisheries place and lift restrictions in the bay on trap gear fishing and vessel speeds.

The right whales — now considered at risk of extinction in the coming decades along the Atlantic coast due to deaths and injuries from being caught in fishing rope and hit by ships — have a current population of around 411. They typically arrive to feed in Cape Cod Bay in late winter and leave by the end of April, along an annual migratory path that stretches from Florida to Canada.

So far, the center has confirmed 267 individual right whales seen by either plane or boat for the current season, making that roughly 65 percent of the estimated total population. Considering the complete range of the whales’ migration along the East Coast, the concentration in the relatively small area known as Cape Cod Bay is “remarkable,” Mayo said.

Read the full story at the New Bedford Standard-Times

Seven right whale calves seen this season

April 17, 2019 — There were no known births in the 2017-2018 calving season for the North Atlantic right whale, so each new calf spotted with its mother so far in 2019 has been greeted with extra enthusiasm.

On Thursday, April 11 the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) right whale aerial survey team spotted two right whale mother/calf pairs in Cape Cod Bay, bringing the number of calves observed off Cape Cod this season to three. In all, seven calves have been seen swimming off the coast.

The mothers have been identified as EgNo 4180 and EgNo 3317.

Read the full story at the Mount Desert Islander

Endangered right whale experiencing mini-baby boom off New England

April 15, 2019 — The critically endangered North Atlantic right whale is experiencing a mini-baby boom in New England waters, researchers on Cape Cod have said.

The right whale is one of the rarest species of whale on the planet, numbering only about 411.

But the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass., said Friday its aerial survey team spotted two mom-and-calf pairs in Cape Cod Bay a day earlier. That brings the number seen in New England waters alone this year to three.

That’s big news because the right whale population has been falling, and no calves were seen last year. In all, seven right whale calves have been seen so far this year.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at CBC