right whale Archives - Page 3 of 3

FISHY BUSINESS: Tracking whales with mobile app

May 20, 2016 — SCITUATE, Mass. — The weather is getting better and many people are thinking about getting out on the water. A few sail boats can be seen offshore in the brisk springtime wind and more than a few recreational fishing boats are at mooring in Scituate Harbor.

This is also the traditional time for the North Atlantic right whales to leave their wintertime home in Cape Cod Bay and head for the Great South Channel southeast of Nantucket. This year the right whales are acting differently and scatting more than their normal migration.

Dr. David (Dave) Wiley, research coordinator at the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, suggests that the change in behavior is probably due to warmer than normal waters in the Gulf of Maine, a change that is having effects on many species.

We are lucky to have a variety of whales that make their home in the Gulf of Maine or are seasonal visitors. Watching a whale breach or play with other whales is a truly amazing experience that many of us can enjoy simply by boarding a private vessel in Scituate Harbor. Along with the joy and excitement of observing the whales comes responsibility.

Read the full story at Wicked Local

Right Whale, Wrong Place

April 20, 2016 — Whale watchers spent the day yesterday in Nahant looking for Mr. Right.

A wayward North Atlantic right whale made a splash just off the shore for most of the afternoon.

The endangered species is known to hang out near Cape Cod Bay this time of year, according to Charles “Stormy” Mayo, senior scientist at the Center for Coastal Studies in Cape Cod and director of the right whale ecology program.

“Anytime a few whales go up the shore it’s really a special thing and a rare occasion,” he said.  “Every time, in the case of the right whales, their travel depends on the concentration of food; they’re grazers.”

Mayo added he thinks the whale frolicking off Nahant is likely to return to the Cape, where there is the highest concentration of North Atlantic right whales. Fewer than 500 are thought to exist.

Read the full story at the Boston Herald

Habitat Designation Key to Right Whale Recovery

February 2,2016— There is reason to be optimistic that the recent move by the federal government to expand the protected habitat of the North Atlantic right whale will protect the endangered species without harming its equally at-risk ocean neighbor, the commercial fishing industry.

The mammals and fishermen have historically been at cross purposes. The whales were given their name because they were the “right” whale to kill, thanks to their proximity to shore and the fact that they floated when dead, allowing them to be easily towed behind a whaler. The modern fishing industry no longer targets the whales, of course, but the mammals can get tangled in lost or discarded fishing line and gear, which often leads to their death.

Commercial whaling decimated the once-thriving right whale species in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Just a few decades ago, only 300 or so remained. Over the last three decades, however, conservation efforts have brought the number to around 500.

“We have made progress,” David Gouveia, the marine mammal and sea turtle conservation coordinator for the Greater Atlantic Region of the National Marine Fisheries Service, told the Associated Press. “We are on a positive trajectory but there is still plenty of work to be done.”

Last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it was expanding its list of right whale habitat, adding calving grounds off the coast of the Carolinas and feeding grounds off New England. The move designates more than 30,000 square nautical miles as critical.

The designation, set to go into effect at the end of the month, means projects that require federal permits — such as dredging or building oil rigs or wind farms — will now be measured at least in part on how they affect the whales’ habitat.

“It’s a very important move,” Charles “Stormy” Mayo, director of right whale habitat studies at the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, told the Boston Globe. “It’s pretty tough to put a small box around a wild animal, especially a whale that travels many thousands of miles each year of its life. … What we have here is an adjustment that recognizes the wide use of the environment that supports these whales.”

The measure is not expected to affect fishing or lobstering operations. Both industries have scrapped with the federal government in the past over how best to help the whales rebound while keeping hundreds of small businesses afloat. Those negotiations have often been complicated by lawsuits from environmental groups looking to force a solution, generally at the expense of fishermen.

“It’s a very real fear among the fishing industry,” Patrice McCarron of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association told the Bangor Daily News. “The right whale issue has been a very litigious issue — period.”

Read the full editorial at Gloucester Daily Times

NOAA Expands Critical Habitat for Endangered North Atlantic Right Whales

January 26, 2016 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:

Using new information not previously available, NOAA Fisheries is expanding critical habitat for endangered North Atlantic right whales to cover its northeast feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region and southeast calving grounds from North Carolina to Florida.

This final rule, which was initially proposed in February 2015 and received 261 general comments over a 60-day comment period, does not include any new restrictions or management measures for commercial fishing operations.

North Atlantic right whale mother and calf. Credit: Christin Khan/NOAA

“With two decades of new information and improved understanding since we first designated critical habitat for the species, we believe the expansion will further protect essential foraging and calving areas to further improve recovery of this animal,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant NOAA administrator for NOAA Fisheries. “We’re making significant progress in reversing the population decline of the species, and are seeing signs of recovery – up to about 500 animals from the estimated 300 in 1994. But we still have a long way to get to complete recovery. “This rule is based on 35 years of aircraft and ship borne surveys of right whale distribution, research into foraging and prey availability to better understand right whale movements and life history. Together, these data provide a far more robust understanding of the factors critical to species recovery. Based on this information and public comments, NOAA scientists and managers determined a critical habitat expansion associated with feeding in the North and calving in the South is necessary for species recovery.

Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat within the range of the species consists of areas that contain physical or biological features essential to conservation of the species. The new designation does not create preserves or refuges or any other restrictions that directly affect the public. However, federal agencies conducting, funding or permitting activities in these areas, and project proponents that need federal permits or funding for such activities, are required to work with NOAA Fisheries to avoid or reduce impacts on critical habitat.

Figure 1: Comparison of 1994 and 2016 Right Whale Critical Habitat Designations

Read the final rule, along with comments and responses, as filed in the Federal Register this morning.

Read the whole press release on our website.

Inflatable vessel to help Maine improve disentanglement efforts

December 24, 2015 — With recent funding from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Maine Department of Marine Resources has taken another step forward in its ability to lead whale disentanglement efforts.

The $20,000 grant will be used by the DMR to purchase a soft bottom inflatable boat that can maneuver more safely and effectively when Maine Marine Patrol, along with key DMR staff, respond to entangled whales.

“Often, responders have to pull alongside an entangled whale which might surface underneath the boat,” said DMR Scientist Erin Summers, who is coordinating the purchase. “A soft bottom boat will move and form to the body of the whale, making injury to the whale less likely. A hard bottom boat is also more likely to tip when hit from below, which could endanger the responders.”

Read the full story at Wiscasset Newspaper

Maine to acquire soft-bottom boat for whale entanglements

December 20, 2015 — ELLSWORTH, Maine — The Maine Department of Marine Resources is getting a $20,000 grant that it will use to help make it safer for its staff members to respond to whale entanglements along the coast.

The grant from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund will be used to purchase an inflatable, soft-bottom boat that will be used by Marine Patrol to help free whales from ropes in the ocean, the state agency announced in a prepared statement released this week.

The agency currently uses one or more boats with rigid, v-shaped hulls to deal with entanglements, but such boats can pose a hazard both to whales and the people in the boats if the whale should surface underneath the vessel, according to Department of Marine Resources staff. The hard bottom is more likely to injure the whale, which already could be sick or injured, than a soft-bottom boat. A hard-bottom boat also is more likely to tip or capsize if the whale pushes it up out of the water.

Read the full story at Bangor Daily News

Drones for Good: Tiny Flying Robots Help Protect Endangered Whales

August 7, 2015 — A crowdfunding project called Snotbot, which aims to fund quadcopter-enabled research of whales by collecting their projectile exhalations, has been getting a lot of attention.

It hasn’t hurt that Snotbot has a high-profile fan and patron: Patrick Stewart, the actor best known for helming the Starship Enterprise and leading the X-Men on small and big screens worldwide, appears in the project’s fund-raising video.

But Snotbot is not alone. Since 2013, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been using multi-copters to collect whale snot and high-resolution full-body images of endangered great whales.

After testing multiple iterations of drone hardware and software designs on expeditions off the shores of New Zealand, Chile, and New England, the team has arrived at their current flier of choice: a six-propeller multi-copter 32 inches in diameter, equipped to collect both images and breath samples from endangered humpback and right whales while the creatures are swimming at sea.

Read the full story from TakePart