Saving Seafood

Over 75 right whales – 20% of endangered population – spotted off Maine coast

January 16, 2025 — Dozens of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales were spotted in the Gulf of Maine this week, researchers from the New England Aquarium said Thursday.

An aerial survey team from the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life spotted the whales on Jan. 12 and 13, counting more than 75 unique individuals. Only around 370 right whales remain in existence, meaning the sightings account for around 20% of the population. The whales were gathered and feeding near the western edge of Jeffreys Ledge, where they’ve been seen in the past.

Many of the whales are known to researchers, including Millipede,” an adult female who had a calf in 2021, and “Loki,” an adult of unknown sex who has been seen just six times in 20 years and only in New England waters, and “Nimbus”, a 16-year-old male who was entangled in fishing rope in 2023.

Read the full article at NBC Boston

MASSACHUSETTS: More than 160 whales spotted in waters off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, NOAA reports

June 12, 2024 — More than 160 whales were spotted in the waters off Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in what researchers called a “dazzling array of sightings” during a recent aerial survey.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shared pictures of the whales in a social media post on Monday. The agency said members of its North Atlantic Right Whale team reported sightings of 161 whales that comprised seven species, including 93 sei whales, “one of the highest concentrations of sei whales they’d ever seen during a single survey flight.”

The research team also reported seeing two killer whales, “which they don’t often see during this survey,” the NOAA post said. One of the killer whales was seen swimming with its dinner as a tuna dangled from its mouth.

Read the full article at The Boston Globe

Whales v. wind turbines? Opponents hope to shut down Virginia Beach offshore wind farm project

March 23, 2024 — A legal battle is brewing in Virginia Beach waters. A collection of conservative groups filed a lawsuit this week to put a stop to Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Turbine project. They’re arguing the project could impact endangered whales.

Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm plans caused a stir in Virginia Beach in weeks past.

“Essentially they’ve created an industrial complex next to a residential community,” Patrick McClaughlin of Virginia Beach told News 3 in early March

Read the full article at WTKR

A dead whale raises a fresh question: Should you eat lobster?

February 16, 2024 — The young whale never had it easy.

Only 1½ years old, the whale struggled to swim nearly from the start. A rope corkscrewed around the base of its fluke in 2022 dug into its skin and made every fin stroke punishing. Researchers knew the whale would eventually die of exhaustion if nothing was done.

When scientists spotted the female whale — dubbed #5120 — in Cape Cod Bay in Massachusetts last winter, they wanted to intervene. But bad weather made any attempt at disentangling it impossible.

By this winter, it was too late. Its carcass washed ashore on Martha’s Vineyard last month. That’s when scientists were able to pinpoint where the trouble started.

Purple markings on the rope around the whale indicated it came from Maine waters, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service, also called NOAA Fisheries. It is the first time a North Atlantic right whale, one of the most endangered marine mammals on Earth, was found dead while entangled in rope from the state’s famed trap pot fishery for lobster and crab.

 

Examination Continues into Cause of Whale’s Death on Martha’s Vineyard

February 6, 2024 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

On January 28, 2024, NOAA Fisheries was notified of a deceased female North Atlantic right whale near Joseph Sylvia State Beach on Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. We worked closely with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Stranding Network partners, and local responders to recover the carcass and conduct a necropsy.

Preliminary observations indicated the presence of rope entangled near the whale’s tail. State law enforcement officials collected some of the rope and turned it over to NOAA’s Office Law Enforcement. It is now being examined by gear experts.

Whale Identified as #5120

Last week, scientists at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life reviewed several images of the dead North Atlantic right whale. They matched it to whale #5120 in the right whale catalog based on clear matching features, such as callosity patterns and markings. This right whale, the only known calf of Squilla (#3720), was born during the 2021 calving season.

Necropsy Confirms Chronic Entanglement

A stranding response team completed the necropsy of North Atlantic right whale #5120 on February 1, 2024. From the necropsy, experts confirmed a chronic entanglement, with rope deeply embedded in the tail, and thin body condition. The necropsy showed no evidence of blunt force trauma. Cause of death is pending further histological and diagnostic testing of collected samples, which can take weeks to complete. We will share more information as it is available.

Large whale experts at the International Fund for Animal Welfare led the necropsy, with the assistance of more than 20 biologists from:

  • Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah)
  • Atlantic Marine Conservation Society
  • Whale Dolphin Conservation
  • New England Aquarium
  • Center for Coastal Studies
  • Marine Mammals of Maine
  • Virginia Aquarium
  • Canadian Wildlife Health Cooperative

Previous Entanglements

Aerial survey teams had previously seen right whale #5120 several times with entanglements, including August 2022 and January 2023.

Whale #5120 was last seen in June 2023 by Northeast Fisheries Science Center aerial observers, 60 miles northeast of Shippagan, New Brunswick. She was feeding with other whales. Her overall condition had declined and the wounds from the wraps of rope at the peduncle appeared to be more severe. No trailing line or buoys were seen.

Studies suggest that more than 85 percent of North Atlantic right whales have been entangled at least once. About 60 percent have been entangled multiple times. Entangling rope can cut into a whale’s body, cause serious injuries, and result in infections and mortality. Even if gear is shed or removed through disentanglement efforts, the time spent entangled can severely stress a whale, weaken it, and prevent it from feeding. It can sap the energy it needs to swim, feed, and reproduce.

MAINE: Scientists report high level of whale activity off Maine coast this fall

November 18, 2023 — Several North Atlantic right whales have been spotted in the Gulf of Maine in recent weeks, including a mother and her 10-month-old calf. The New England Aquarium said it also recently sighted a third right whale about 35 miles southeast of Portland.

The aquarium is reporting the appearance of dozens of humpback whales and endangered fin whales in the Gulf of Maine this fall, along with an endangered blue whale just south of Boothbay.

“The amount of wildlife we’ve seen feeding has really been quite astounding,” Orla O’Brien, a scientist who leads the aerial survey team for the New England Aquarium, said in a statement. “From fin whales lunge feeding on krill, to right whales and basking sharks skim feeding side by side, to groups of humpbacks, pods of dolphins and a blue whale — all brought here by a large amount of prey in the Gulf of Maine.”

The locations of critically endangered right whales are of interest to scientists, because warming waters in the northern Atlantic Ocean have changed the species’ traditional distribution patterns.

Read the full article at Maine Public

Could wind turbines affect right whales’ food source? More study needed, says new report

November 16, 2023 — More research is needed to determine whether offshore wind turbines will affect North Atlantic right whales’ food source around the Nantucket Shoals, scientists have concluded in a new report. And it may be challenging to divorce those impacts from those brought by climate change.

Right whales, a critically endangered species, are using the shoals, an area of shallow waters, for breeding and feeding. The shoals lie east of several planned offshore wind projects. Last year, federal scientists expressed concern that wind projects could disrupt right whales’ food supply: dense collections of tiny organisms, called zooplankton.

In response, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the lead agency on offshore wind development, convened an independent committee in April to evaluate what impacts wind turbines might have on the shoals and the whales’ prey.

However, due to knowledge gaps and a lack of research on this side of the Atlantic, the answers remain elusive.

“The studies available about the effects and implications of wind farms on local ecosystems are not sufficient to say with absolute certainty whether the turbines would have effects,” said committee chair Eileen Hofmann, a professor at Old Dominion University and chair of the scientific committee, which worked under the National Academies of Sciences.

Read the full article at the New Bedford Light

Offshore wind power impact on right whales uncertain, says National Academies study

November 13, 2023 — Wind energy projects under construction off southern New England could have effects on the endangered North Atlantic right whale and ocean ecosystem in the Nantucket Shoals region. But it is difficult to determine how those impacts are different from ongoing climate change and other ecosystem trends, according to a report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

“The report recommends further study and monitoring of the oceanography and ecology of the Nantucket Shoals region to fully understand the impact of future wind farms,” according to a summary from the academies.

Right whales have increased their use of Nantucket Shoals waters in recent years, and some scientists have recommended setting buffer areas around wind energy development areas to ensure future turbine operations don’t alter the local ocean ecosystem.

The National Academies study was commissioned by the federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to address those concerns. The resulting 106-page paper released Oct. 13 concludes that much more detailed study and modeling is required to predict how operating massive wind turbines may change wind and water currents, and food available for whales.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Threat to whales cited in wind project appeal

September 27, 2023 — A group of Nantucket residents opposed to an offshore wind installation that is nearing completion want another round in their long-running legal fight.

The Nantucket Residents Against Turbines organization, which refers to itself as ACK RATS, late last week filed an appeal challenging a federal judge’s ruling in May that effectively dismissed the group’s prior complaint against the Vineyard Wind project.

Plaintiffs continue to argue that federal regulators including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management failed to consider risks the wind turbines pose to North Atlantic right whales, an endangered species with only a few hundred animals remaining in the wild. Citing the threat of vessel strikes and whales experiencing hearing loss from turbine pile-driving and operation, the group alleges that allowing Vineyard Wind to proceed will push the whales closer to a “watery grave.”

Read the full article at WWLP

$82M will help protect whales from vessel strikes after over 60 strandings on Atlantic Coast

September 19, 2023 — The tragic and recurring trend of large whales washing up on the Atlantic Coast has not stopped.

Nor have investigations to determine why they keep happening — although ship strikes have been to blame in many cases.

In the meantime, officials hope new federal money will help to surveil and protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale and benefit other ocean species in the process.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division, or NOAA Fisheries, on Monday said $82 million from the Biden-Harris Administration’s Inflation Reduction Act will help “to conserve and recover” endangered North Atlantic right whales.

Read the full article at NJ.com