Dead right whale identified as 6-month-old calf

By Doug Fraser
Posted June 30, 2020

A right whale that was struck by two ships and died off last week off the coast of New Jersey has been identified as a 6-month-old calf born in January.

The calf was towed to shore Saturday and a necropsy was completed over the weekend.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released the necropsy results Monday night and said the male right whale calf had been hit twice by different vessels. He was first hit several weeks ago, causing propeller wounds across his head and chest and a rudder injury to his back. Researchers believe that may have left him impaired, and the second vessel collision left a series of propeller wounds and a rudder wound across his tail stock which were the likely cause of death.

An aerial team from the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown was flying in the New Jersey area Thursday when the dead calf was reported to NOAA. The team was able to take photographs that showed wounds that suggest a vessel collision.

An underwater robot glider capable of detecting whale sounds was in the shipping lanes headed into the Port of New York and New Jersey and heard whales near the spot where the calf was found, according to a statement from the New England Aquarium.

The North Atlantic right whale is the world’s most endangered great whale, with around 400 individuals remaining. Fewer than 90, perhaps as few as 70, of those whales are sexually mature females.

Normally, right whale mothers give birth every three to four years. But a combination of food loss as plankton species shift the time and location of blooms due to ocean warming and the stress of injuries from entanglements in fishing gear has drawn that birthing interval out to six to 10 years.

Amy Knowlton, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, said that every lost calf lessens the species’ odds of survival. While scientists determined that rebuilding a healthy population requires that less than one right whale a year die from human causes, 41 have died since 2017.

“It’s been a challenge for the right whale community to see so much loss,” Knowlton said. “We fear for the future of this species.”

The calf was the first of 10 born during the 2019/2020 calving season. The mother is 15-years-old and this was her first calf, NOAA reported. Her condition was unknown.

NOAA is working on a review of their 2008 speed rule that requires ships to slow down at the heavily trafficked port entrance lanes up to 20 nautical miles out from shore during the winter and spring months of migration along the East Coast, and during feeding periods off Cape Cod and in the Gulf of Maine. But Knowlton felt those time periods were dated now that right whales are showing up in unexpected places looking for food.

The mother and calf were off New Jersey last week when they should have been farther north. Knowlton said many mothers and calves have been spotted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, an area they were not known to congregate until recently, with tragic results. Many of the right whale deaths since 2017 have occurred in Canadian waters where there was almost no protection in place three years ago.

“If whales keep moving around, it’s harder to draw a (protective) box around them,” said Sharon Young, marine issues field director at the Humane Society of the United States.

Nursing mothers stick close to the busy shipping lanes along the coast, and spend a lot of time at the surface. They need a lot of calories to sustain themselves and right whales have been taking advantage of large plankton blooms south of Cape Cod and all the way down into the Mid-Atlantic at times after protections have lapsed, Young said.

“We think broader measures should be considered,” Knowlton said of NOAA’s review of the 2008 speed rule. That may include year-round speed restrictions and an extension of the protective zone to 30 nautical miles from shore around port entrances.

“We recently assessed the right whale vessel speed rule and will soon be releasing a report on the rule’s conservation effectiveness, economic impacts, compliance, and navigational safety,” NOAA spokeswoman Allison Ferreira said. Young believes that will include a white paper on vessel speed that makes the case for time and area expansion, with a public comment period.