Saving Seafood

Northern Right Whales Are on the Brink, and Trump Could Be Their Last Hope

July 9, 2020 — When boaters spotted a dead North Atlantic right whale off Elberon, N.J., on June 25, marine biologists quickly established the identity of the hulking gray carcass.

With only about 400 such whales left in the world, every individual is known to researchers and cataloged. This one, the six-month-old calf of whale No. 3560, had been struck several times on the head, suggesting one or possibly two vessel collisions.

On Thursday, such whales, which got their name because they float after being killed and thus were considered the “right whale” to hunt, were placed on the Red List of critically endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the last classification before they are gone from the wild. The task of responding will fall to an unlikely champion, President Trump, whose recent appeals for support from Maine lobstermen could clash with the task of saving the right whale.

Peter Corkeron, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium who spent nearly a decade chronicling the gruesome deaths of right whales as the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s research program for large whales, said he feared the listing would have little impact.

Read the full story at the New York Times

Six Right Whale Deaths In One Month: ‘Panicking Seems Appropriate’

July 3, 2019 — Five North Atlantic right whales have been found dead in the past week, and six in the last month. With just over 400 remaining and calving rates low, that’s a death toll the critically endangered population can’t afford.

“Panicking seems appropriate, yes,” said Peter Corkeron, who leads the large whale research program at NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The whales’ death toll is similar to that of the summer of 2017, when there was one death in early June, and then, later in the month, five deaths in the span of a week, all in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. That summer went on to become catastrophic for the whales, with a total of 12 documented fatalities in Canadian waters and another six in U.S. waters.

There are notable differences, as well, though. In 2017, some whales were hit by ships, but many of the deaths were due to whales getting tangled in fishing gear. This year, ship strikes seem to be the primary problem.

Large numbers of North Atlantic right whales have been sighted in the western Gulf of St. Lawrence in recent summers. Corkeron says that may be because of a subtle shift in where the animals are spending their time. Right whales have only started showing up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in significant numbers in the past few years, a change in their migration patterns that researchers attribute to climate change.

Read the full story at WGBH

NOAA Calls for Protection of Female North Atlantic Right Whales

December 20, 2018 — NOAA Fisheries researchers and colleagues are taking a closer look as to why the endangered western North Atlantic right whale population is growing at far more slower rate than that of southern right whales, a sister species also recovering from near extinction by commercial whaling.

Researchers and colleagues looked at the question and have concluded that preserving the lives of adult females in the population is the most effective way to promote population growth and recovery.

Most of these deaths are attributed to entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships. The findings are reported in Royal Society Open Science.

“Had North Atlantic right whales increased at the annual rate that we show they are capable of, the population number would be almost double what it is now and their current situation would not be so dire,” said Peter Corkeron, who is lead author of the paper and heads the large whale research effort at NOAA Fisheries’ Northeast Fisheries Science Center.

The North Atlantic right whale is one of three species of right whales. Of the three, it lives in the most industrialized habitat and migrates close to shore.

From 1970 to 2009, 80 percent of all North Atlantic right whale deaths (70 of 87) for which the cause is known were human-induced, mainly from entanglement in fishing gear and collisions with ships.

Read the full story at CapeCod.com

Human activities are impeding population growth of North Atlantic right whales

November 20, 2018 — On October 14, the crew of a US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) ship called the Henry B. Bigelow reported a whale carcass floating about 100 miles east of Nantucket, a small island off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. The carcass was later identified as a sub-adult North Atlantic right whale.

After reviewing data collected from the deceased whale, scientists determined the probable cause of death was “severe acute entanglement,” according to NOAA. “The whale had multiple wounds indicative of a wrapping line entanglement, including pronounced ligature impressions with related deep concave defects indicating severe constricting abrasions. Entanglement wounds were strongly suggestive of numerous transverse body wraps involving the thorax (chest) and flippers.”

This is the third North Atlantic right whale known to have died this year — one died in January and another in August — and all three appear to have been the victims of entanglement in fishing gear left behind by humans or collisions with ships. The North Atlantic right whale is listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.

New research finds that these deaths caused by human activities are not just impacting individuals and their immediate family units, but actually impeding population growth among North Atlantic right whales altogether.

Like many other baleen whale species, North Atlantic right whales were nearly exterminated by historical commercial whaling. Their numbers gradually increased up until around 2010, when they started to decline once again. 2018 has actually been far less deadly for the whales than 2017, when NOAA confirmed 17 North Atlantic right whale deaths, which is equivalent to about 4 percent of their total estimated population of 450 individuals. It is believed that there are only about 100 females of breeding age left in the population.

There are three species of right whales in the world, the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), the North Pacific right whale (Eubalaena japonica), and the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis). Peter Corkeron, head of a whale research initiative at NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, led an international team that studied the western North Atlantic population and three populations of southern right whales, which are listed as a species of Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, in order to determine whether or not the slow growth rate of North Atlantic right whales is attributable to humans.

Read the full story at Mongabay

 

Susan Larsen: What’s causing right whale decline?

January 30, 2018 — There is no argument that the North Atlantic Right Whale is in dire straits. Dr. Mark Baumgartner, a biologist from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, gave a compelling presentation on “The Plight of the Right Whale” this past Tuesday evening, Jan. 23, at the Vineyard Gazette office. Since it was advertised, it was well attended.

One point of interest was that the right whales were making a healthy comeback, a two-decade period of modest annual growth; the population rebounded from 270 living whales in 1992 to 483 in 2010. From 2010, the numbers began to decline rapidly, with 2017 being a particularly devastating year, a loss of 17 whales. Dr. Baumgartner stressed the main focus was on whale entanglements with snow crab and lobster gear, and the urgent measures needed to be taken immediately within the fishery. Massachusetts fishermen are leading the way with break away links at the base of surface buoys (to 600lbs in 2001), sink rope (mandated in 2003), gear reductions and seasonal gear restrictions in Cape Cod Bay. He also touched on ship strikes as being a cause of death. However, the Marine Mammal Commission stated on their website, “other potential threats include spills of hazardous substances from ships or other sources, and noise from ships and industrial activities.”

But what Dr. Baumgartner could not explain was the scarcity of food that these leviathans need to feed on and their low birth rate. He showed the audience slides on the Calanus finmarchicus, known as copepods and remarked that this type plankton, sought after by these whales, are basically comprised of fat, or as Dr. Baumgartner called them “buttersticks.” Each adult whale needs to consume between 1,000-2,000 a day to remain healthy. The birth rate has dropped 40 percent from 2010-2016 and all five calves that were born in 2017 were to older mothers. “Since about 2011, we’re not seeing those sub-adults and juveniles in Florida and the question is, well, where are they?” asks Jim Hain, senior scientist at Associated Scientist at Woods Hole. Scott Kraus, a marine mammalogist from the New England Aquarium in Boston says, “Females are having young just every 9 years or more, compared with every 3 years in the 1980’s.”

Perhaps the decline is linked to the environmental disaster on April 20, 2010, the Deep Water Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. From April 20, 2010, to July 15, 2010, more than 200 million gallons of oil spilled into the Gulf followed by another one million gallons of Corexit, a dispersant mixture of solvents and surfactants that break down the oil into tiny droplets. It is documented that for 3 months, marine microorganisms have ingested these toxins, which are carried along the Gulf Stream, a strong underwater current that flows through the Gulf of Mexico, skirts around Florida, flowing between Cuba and up the Eastern seaboard. Since the right whale gives birth off the coasts of Georgia and Florida, could these toxic chemicals be part of their decline?  “The chemicals in the oil product that move up through the food web are a great concern for us,” said Teri Rowles, coordinator of NOAA’s marine-mammal health and stranding response program. It is also documented that female mammals including humans who have been in contact with these toxins have suffered from irregular menstrual cycles, infertility, miscarriages and stillborns, along with premature aging and other debilitating side effects. John Pierce Wise Sr., co-author of the 2014 study and head of the Wise laboratory of Environment and Genetic Toxicology at the University of Southern Maine says, “To put it simply, after a sudden insult like an oil spill, once it’s over, it takes a long time for the population effects to fully show themselves.” This same article states “research has shown that the calves of other baleen whales (other than Bryde’s whale) may be particularly vulnerable to toxins that build in their tissues.”

A letter dated Aug. 17, 2017, from the office of the Massachusetts Attorney General in “Reference for information and comments of the 2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program,” refers to the Deepwater Horizon disaster and its “harm to coastal communities and marine environment” and “long ranging impacts on marine mammals. The impacts on sea turtles could span the Atlantic.” The letter also states, “from 2010 through September 2016, there were 43 significant oil spills.”

In an article dated Dec. 5, 2017, ecologist Peter Corkeron of NOAA’s Northeast Fisheries Center in Woods Hole at the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium’s annual meeting, “They’re (female right whales) dying too young, and they’re not having calves often enough.” This study found the females are struggling to reproduce. Dr. Baumgartner is the president of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.

Read the full letter at the Martha’s Vineyard-Times