Saving Seafood

North Atlantic right whale researchers spot 21 right whales south of Nantucket during winter field work

March 10, 2022 — North Atlantic right whale researchers recently spotted more than 20 right whales while exploring southern New England waters during winter field work.

For the very first time, the New England Aquarium scientists are surveying this region by boat as they try to better understand climate change impacts on this critically endangered species.

The researchers went out on the water for four days from mid-January to early March, looking for right whales about 70 miles south of Nantucket. The scientists spotted 17 individual right whales by boat, or about 5% of the population, which is estimated to be less than 350.

Aquarium scientists worked in tandem with the New England Aquarium aerial survey team, as well as with teams from the Center for Coastal Studies and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center, which helped navigate the boat to whale sightings. In total, the aquarium teams identified 21 unique right whales from either the air or the water.

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

Baby whale genetic testing may help save species, study says

January 27, 2022 — Greater reliance on genetic testing of baby whales and their mothers can provide more accurate information about a rare species and increase the chances of saving them from extinction, according to the authors of a new scientific study.

The scientists, led by researchers at the New England Aquarium in Boston, studied critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, of which there are fewer than 340 in the world. Their numbers have dropped precipitously in recent years because of high mortality and poor reproduction.

The study’s authors analyzed decades of data about the whales and found they had more success tracking the animals’ survival, growth rates and life histories when they had access to genetic samples. They published their findings in the journal Mammalian Biology on Jan. 20.

The scientists focused on 13 right whale calves that were identified via genetics. They said they were able to determine the age of 12 of the whales and match 11 with their mothers — and even found that four believed to be dead were actually still alive.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The Washington Post

These whales are so decimated that a single birth was cheered by scientists

December 6, 2021 — In the ocean off South Carolina, researchers spotted something attached to Slalom the North Atlantic right whale, and for once, it was a good thing. She had a baby.

A sigh of relief spread across the community of Atlantic whale watchers who know critically endangered right whales are as likely to die as they are to give birth. On her path to motherhood at age 39, Slalom — named for a series of callous-like patches on her head that swoop like a ski slope — has survived at least six fishing net entanglements that are known to kill whales.

Over the past decade, the right whale population fell from more than 500 in 2010 to about 335, largely because of entanglements, boat strikes and slicing propellers. Fewer than 100 adult females remain. By comparison, endangered southern right whales that swim between Australia and South America number in the thousands.

“If you look at a graphic of what the North Atlantic right whale population looks like, it can seem like there’s no hope. It’s really alarming how quickly the population has declined in the last 10 years,” Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist for the New England Aquarium, said in an interview Friday.

Read the full story at The Washington Post

More endangered right whales using New England wind energy areas

August 4, 2021 — North Atlantic right whales, one of the most endangered species in the world, are spending more time in southern New England waters where immense offshore wind energy installations are to be built.

A new analysis, published in the July 29 edition of the journal Endangered Species Research, shows how measures to protect the whale population – estimated at only around 366 animals – will be crucial if the Biden administration’s drive to develop offshore wind is to succeed.

“We found that right whale use of the region increased during the last decade, and since 2017 whales have been sighted there nearly every month, with large aggregations occurring during the winter and spring,” said Tim Cole, lead of the whale aerial survey team at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study, in a summary of the findings issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Marine mammal researchers at the New England Aquarium and colleagues at NEFSC and the Center for Coastal Studies examined aerial survey data collected between 2011–2015 and 2017–2019 to quantify right whale distribution, residency, demographics, and movements in the region.

The New England Aquarium used systematic aerial surveys, and NEFSC and the Center for Coastal Studies directed surveys conducted in areas where right whales were present, to document aggregations of right whales. Aerial photographs of individual right whales to help estimate the whales’ abundance and residency times, and the photos identify individual whales by distinctive patches of raised tissue on their head, lips, and chin, and by scars on their body.

Read the full story at National Fisherman

Right Whales Increase Activity in Ocean Waters Slated for Offshore Wind Farms

August 2, 2021 — Critically endangered North Atlantic right whales are increasing their presence in waters south of Martha’s Vineyard, according to a recent study, including large swaths of ocean slated for wind energy development.

Conducted by scientists with NOAA Fisheries, the New England Aquarium and the Center for Coastal Studies using aerial survey data from 2011 through 2019, the study found that 327 unique right whales have been spotted in the waters of southern New England, making the area a crucial habitat for a species teetering on the edge of extinction.

Scientists estimate the North Atlantic right whale population at less than 400 total specimens, including approximately 100 breeding females.

Meanwhile, the study comes just as the country’s first industrial-scale offshore wind farm, Vineyard Wind 1, has cleared federal approvals and is scheduled to go online by 2023, jump-starting a nascent offshore wind energy industry that could lead to the construction of hundreds of underwater wind turbines in the region.

According to Vineyard Wind, the project will include 64 turbines approximately 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. Additional leaseholders in the area, including Mayflower Wind and a second Vineyard Wind project, would significantly increase turbine counts.

In the study, scientists noted that the presence of right whales has been sighted in the area south of the Vineyard every month in recent years, with large aggregations occurring during the winter and spring.

Between December and May, almost a quarter of the right whale population may be present in the region, and the individual residence time for whales has increased to 13 days during the period, the study states. Visual and acoustic monitoring, from flight surveys and photography, showed consistent use of the wind energy area by a third of the species, including 30 per cent of breeding females.

Read the full story at the Vineyard Gazette

Right Whale Use of Southern New England Wind Energy Areas Increasing

July 30, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Right whales are increasing their use of southern New England waters, including regions slated for offshore wind energy development, according to aerial survey data collected during the last decade. Offshore wind energy installations are proposed in waters off the south coasts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Understanding and minimizing the potential impacts from construction noise, increased vessel traffic, and habitat alteration will be crucial to protecting and conserving this endangered species. This research supports the Administration’s goal of deploying offshore wind while protecting biodiversity and promoting ocean co-use.

The study was published July 29 in Endangered Species Research. Marine mammal researchers from NOAA Fisheries and colleagues at the New England Aquarium and the Center for Coastal Studies examined aerial survey data collected between 2011–2015 and 2017–2019. The data was collected in offshore waters including the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Wind Energy Area. The data from these two time periods were used to quantify right whale distribution, residency, demographics, and movements in the region.

“We found that right whale use of the region increased during the last decade, and since 2017 whales have been sighted there nearly every month, with large aggregations occurring during the winter and spring,” said Tim Cole, lead of the whale aerial survey team at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center and a co-author of the study.

Read the full release here

Saving the Seas: Smarter Hooks and Nets

July 15, 2021 — Last year, fish consumption reached a global annual average of 37.5 pounds per person. Meanwhile, cod and bluefin-tuna populations have collapsed, and animals ranging from whales to turtles have been added to the Endangered Species Act. Our voracious appetite isn’t the only problem. Fishermen catch a lot of things unintentionally, in what Tim Werner, director of the New England Aquarium’s Marine Conservation Engineering program, calls the “collateral damage” of commercial fishing: bycatch.

Compared with the more intractable problem of overfishing, technological solutions to bycatch abound. Bycatch ensnares coral, sponges, starfish, sharks, whales, turtles and even birds. It is “one of the more immediate threats that marine diversity faces,” Werner says. It has led to the assumed extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin, has nearly wiped out the Gulf of California’s vaquita porpoise (fewer than 200 remain), and threatens the survival of the North American right whale (400 remain) and the short-tailed albatross. A United Nations report estimates bycatch at 7.5 million tons a year, or 5 percent of the total commercial-fishing haul. Because most available data is self-reported, Werner says that the U.N.’s numbers “woefully underestimate” the problem. A more representative statistic, he says, comes from Gulf of Mexico shrimp fisheries, some of which dredge up to five pounds of bycatch for every pound of shrimp.

The good news is that compared with the more intractable problem of overfishing, technological solutions to reduce bycatch abound. Shrimp companies, for example, have begun using “turtle-excluding devices,” metal grates at the front of a trawl net that let the shrimp in and keep the turtles out. Fishermen who use long subsurface “gillnets” have begun to deter porpoises by equipping these nets with battery-powered acoustic “pingers.” In the best cases, pingers have reduced casualties from 25 porpoises per net to one. At Florida Atlantic University, associate professor Stephen Kajiura is trying to protect sharks by affixing rare-earth elements to the lines that fishermen use to catch tuna. The metals react with seawater to create an electromagnetic field that repels sharks (as well as skates and rays).

Read the full story at Popular Science

Two endangered right whales entangled in fishing gear in Gulf of St. Lawrence

July 14, 2021 — A New Brunswick-based whale-rescue team says two North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence are entangled in fishing gear, a dangerous situation experts say risks killing the endangered animals.

Mackie Greene, director of the Campobello Whale Rescue program, said Wednesday the group tried last week to free Snow Cone, a female who had been originally spotted entangled off Cape Cod, Mass., last spring. Greene said an American crew removed some of the rope at the time but had to call off their efforts because of bad weather, adding that the whale continued north into Canadian waters.

“She was spotted in May in the Gulf and we responded and were able to get 30 feet of rope off of the whale, but she still has rope wound in her mouth, in her baleen and some trailing lines,” he said.

Greene said his team was able to remove three pieces of rope last week, adding that the animal appears healthy and is feeding; however, he said, more rope needs to be removed. “Snow Cone has a pretty sad story,” Greene said. “She’s a female, born in 2005. The year before last she had a calf and was coming north and the calf was run down and killed.”

He says a larger, mature whale that’s also entangled in gear has been spotted about 80 kilometres northeast of Shippagan, N.B., in an area where all the right whales appear to be congregated. Unlike Snow Cone, Greene said it appears the whale likely became entangled in the Gulf — perhaps the result of fishing gear that had been lost.

Read the full story at The Toronto Star

Gulf of Saint Lawrence snow crab fishery withdraws from MSC, launches new FIP

June 16, 2021 — A new comprehensive fishery improvement project (FIP) has been launched by New Brunswick and Quebec seafood processors and fishermen associations, which they hope will lead to reduced entanglements with North Atlantic right whales.

The main objective of the new FIP is to regain Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification for the fishery, which was suspended for Area 12 and Sub-Areas 12 E and 12 F in 2018 due to incidents resulting in right whale deaths. As part of the launch of the new FIP, the fishery has “decided to withdraw” from the MSC program to focus its efforts on the improvements needed to regain certification – in part because the FIP would run past the expiration date of the suspended certification – according to a release by the recently launched “snow crab zone 12.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Births among endangered right whales highest since 2015

April 5, 2021 — North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than scientists have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all.

Survey teams spotted 17 newborn right whale calves swimming with their mothers offshore between Florida and North Carolina from December through March. One of those calves soon died after being hit a boat, a reminder of the high death rate for right whales that experts fear is outpacing births.

The overall calf count equals the combined total for the previous three years. That includes the dismal 2018 calving season, when scientists saw zero right whale births for the first time in three decades. Still, researchers say greater numbers are needed in the coming years for North Atlantic right whales to rebound from an estimated population that’s dwindled to about 360.

“What we are seeing is what we hope will be the beginning of an upward climb in calving that’s going to continue for the next few years,” said Clay George, a wildlife biologist who oversees right whale surveys for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “They need to be producing about two dozen calves per year for the population to stabilize and continue to grow again.”

Read the full story at the Associated Press