June 16, 2022 — It isn’t high gas prices that changed the travel plans of right whales.
A new study in Global Change Biology by nine authors discovered that over the last couple of decades North Atlantic right whales are most active in Cape Cod Bay 18 days later than before.
That’s a shift — with a longer stay in the month of May — that could potentially bring the whales further into conflict with the region’s annual boating and lobster season and require an extended season of protections.
“The state has a flexible rule in place — where they can extend fishing closures and small boat speed restrictions — that now is in place up the coast to New Hampshire,” the study’s lead author, Dan Pendleton of the New England Aquarium, said. “Massachusetts Bay has seen more right whales than it used to.”
“One of the problems with migratory animals is they can get into big trouble moving into shipping lanes so if we can move and adapt the protections as (whales) adapt to climate change, that would be ideal,” Pendleton said. “So much seems out of our control but one thing we can do is push for regulations that are responsive to the needs of an endangered species.”
Beth Casoni, executive director of the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association, hadn’t yet seen the study, which was published June 7. Casoni said, therefore, she couldn’t comment until she has been able to read it.