Saving Seafood

Why Scientists Are Counting Whales from Space

January 7, 2020 — Scientists from the New England Aquarium and the Massachusetts-based engineering firm Draper are teaming up to save the whales. The researchers are weaving together a myriad of data in order to create a probability map of where whales might travel to and why. Knowing where whales go can help scientists better understand the environmental conditions that most impact the various species, reports 90.9 WBUR.

Changing water temperatures, for example, can shift where populations of krill, plankton, and fish—common food sources for whales—may go. Shipping lanes can also impact how whale populations travel: From 2010 to 2014, there were 37 reported ship strikes along the east coast of Canada and the U.S. and in the Gulf of Mexico, according to NOAA Fisheries data. Recent evidence has suggested that the ocean is getting noisier, which can stress whales and alter their behavior. (Luckily, groups like the U.S. Navy are taking note.)

In order to track these whales, the team plans to tap reliable sources of sonar, radar and satellite data to keep a watchful eye on our planet’s largest mammals. Eventually, the team hopes to input this data—collected from European Space Agency satellites to amateur radio operators—into an algorithm that will process that data and then track whales’ movements.

Read the full story at Popular Mechanics

Ropeless Science Advances, Aiming to Save Right Whales

November 1, 2019 — With the North Atlantic right whale population inching ever closer to extinction, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association has awarded $350,000 in grants to help reduce large mammal bycatch in the heavily fished waters off the coasts of New England and Canada. The grants, which will go to the New England Aquarium and a research-based nonprofit called the Sea Mammal Education Learning Technology Society (SMELTS), were awarded last week to develop and study ropeless or breakable rope fishing technology for lobstermen and other trap fishermen. Although the technology has been in development for some time, a slew of money and research has been poured into making ropeless gear a commercial reality — especially as right whale mortalities continue to climb and many lobstermen have to halt their fishing operations due to federally-mandated area closures.

“We’re cranking on this,” said Richard Riels, an engineer with SMELTS who invented his organization’s ropeless fishing technology after seeing one too many entangled sea mammals. “I’m hoping to do more testing in the next couple of days with the grant money.”

With 30 deaths in the last three years, there are now approximately 400 right whales left in the Atlantic Ocean. According to data from NOAA, seven of the 21 deaths in Canadian waters showed evidence of gear entanglement. So did five of the nine in American waters—- meaning that nearly half of all mortalities in recent years resulted from fishing gear.

Read the full story at The Vineyard Gazette 

RWU Law, URI among institutions to share $1.2M grant to help local aquaculture

October 16, 2019 — The Marine Affairs Institute at Roger Williams University School of Law and Rhode Island Sea Grant Legal Program, housed at the law school, has been included in a $1.2 million grant to promote the growth of southern New England shellfish aquaculture, as part of a National Sea Grant initiative.

The University of Rhode Island will also be a partner in the program, which will aim to promote collaborative aquaculture projects in the region using science-based tools and information, while educating the public, news media and decision-makers about the social, economic and environmental effects of aquaculture.

The project will be led by Connecticut Sea Grant and the University of Connecticut. In addition to RWU Law and URI, partners include Rhode Island Sea Grant; Woods Hole Sea Grant; the New England Aquarium; the UConn Center for Land Use Education and Research; the National Marine Fisheries Service office in Milford, Conn.; Clark University; and the George Perkins Marsh Institute.

Read the full story at the Providence Business News

Scientists blast Maine lobstermen’s whale safety stance

September 24, 2019 — Eighteen scientists who work in North Atlantic right whale research and rescue have said the Maine lobster industry is “significantly underestimating” the harm their equipment causes.

The scientists have called on the state of Maine to support the National Marine Fisheries Service in developing new rules to protect the whales from lobster gear injuries.

“Reducing entanglement in East Coast waters of the United States is a critical part of a comprehensive strategy for right whale survival and recovery,” Scott Kraus, chief scientist for marine mammals at New England Aquarium’s Anderson Center for Ocean Life, and Mark Baumgartner, associate scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and chairman of the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, said in a letter Tuesday to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.

In addition to Kraus and Baumgartner, other scientists at WHOI and the Anderson Center for Ocean Life in Boston signed the letter, as well as leaders from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown and the International Fund for Animal Welfare, which has an operations center in Yarmouth Port.

Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times

Dead whale found in LI waters was last seen caught in fishing line, NOAA says

September 20, 2019 — The North Atlantic right whale whose decomposed body was found floating in the waters off Fire Island earlier this week was seen alive last month caught up in fishing line, officials said.

Wounds likely inflicted by plastic rope confirmed he was the rare leviathan seen in the August video. Scientists had previously named him “Snake Eyes” for the twin eye-shaped scars on his head, said Philip Hamilton, a research scientist at Anderson Cabot for Ocean Life at Boston’s New England Aquarium.

The fishing line that may have ended the whale’s life — after he had swum in the Atlantic for more than four decades — ran through his mouth and possibly anchored his tail to the sea bed, Hamilton said.

Read the full story at Newsday

Watch as a response team helps partially untangle a right whale

August 8, 2019 — A right whale received some extra help off the coast of Cape Cod as a response team partially disentangled him Aug. 2.

“Despite a horrific entanglement, the whale was highly mobile,” according to the Center for Coastal Studies.

This particular whale, a male, was initially discovered July 4 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada. He was spotted again July 19, and a team from the New England Aquarium was able to attach a telemetry buoy to the whale to track his movements, the center said.

Read the full story at the Bangor Daily News

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

Cape Cod lawmakers push for right whale protection

July 30, 2019 — Advocates and legislators gathered Monday to discuss the threats facing North Atlantic right whales and to call for more conservation efforts.

Rep. Dylan Fernandes and Sen. Julian Cyr hosted a briefing on efforts to protect the right whale with “Calvin,” a life-size 42-foot long inflatable right whale. Right whales are one of the most endangered whale species, with only an estimated 411 whales remaining, according to the New England Aquarium, and most right whale deaths are caused by fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes.

Advocates called on Congress to pass H.R. 1568, the Scientific Assistance for the Very Endangered Right Whales Act, which was introduced by Congressman Seth Moulton. The bill would authorize funding to develop technology to reduce entanglement and vessel strike deaths. The bill was introduced March 6, and the House Natural Resources Committee voted it out favorably on May 1.

Read the full story at the Daily Hampshire Gazette

Rescue team foiled in first attempt to disentangle right whale

July 11, 2019 — A North Atlantic right whale rescue mission has failed in its first attempt because of how difficult it is to track the endangered animals.

On Tuesday, the Campobello Whale Rescue Team headed out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence to try to locate and disentangle one of the three entangled North Atlantic right whales spotted in recent weeks.

Philip Hamilton, research scientist with the New England Aquarium, said the rescue team lost track of the whale because the plane that was monitoring it needed to refuel and had to go back to dry land.

“They didn’t have aerial support to help relocate the whale,” he said.

Read the full story at CBC News

Scientists Sound Alarm After 6 Rare Whale Deaths in a Month

July 5, 2019 — A half-dozen North Atlantic right whales have died in the past month, leading scientists, government officials and conservationists to call for a swift response to protect the endangered species.

There are only a little more than 400 of the right whales left. All six of the dead whales have been found in the Gulf of St. Lawrence off Canada, and at least three appear to have died after they were hit by ships.

The deaths have led scientists to sound the alarm about a potentially catastrophic loss to the population. The deaths are especially troubling because they include females, said Philip Hamilton, research scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium.

“If we’re going to have deaths, they just can’t be female,” Hamilton said, adding the population is down to only about 100 reproductive females. “We need a different system.”

Right whales have suffered high mortality and poor reproduction in recent years, particularly in 2017. The whales appear to be traveling in different areas of the ocean than usual because of food availability, said Nick Record, senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in Maine.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at The New York Times