Five North Atlantic Right Whales Have Died In Recent Weeks; Canada Broadens Ship Speed Limits
This group of eight right whales was spotted socializing 30 miles east of Jekyll Island on Feb. 15, 2018. Among the group was a calving female nicknamed Punctuation, left.
Sea to Shore Alliance, taken under NOAA research permit 20556
Canada is slowing ship traffic in some areas after five North Atlantic right whales were found dead in the past few weeks.
The endangered whales spend the winter off the coast of Georgia and northern Florida, where they raise their calves. But the summer range has been shifting; the whales have been increasingly showing up in Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence. That’s where the five dead whales were found.
With just a little more than 400 North Atlantic right whales remaining, losing five of the animals – including a breeding-age female named Punctuation – is a blow, equal to more than one percent of the entire population.
Fewer than 100 of the remaining whales are breeding females, and they are dying younger and having calves less often, Barb Zoodsma, NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Region’s North Atlantic Right Whale Recovery Program Coordinator, told WABE last year.
“You don’t have to be Einstein to figure out that’s a bad situation,” she said at the time.
According to Canadian officials, an autopsy performed on Punctuation suggested she was killed by a ship. In addition to ship strikes, fishing gear, especially the ropes used with crab and lobster traps, poses a threat to the whales.
This past winter, seven calves were spotted off the coast of Georgia and Florida. That’s better than the previous winter, when researchers didn’t find a single calf, but earlier this year, Clay George, senior wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, still called it a “mixed bag:”
“It’s certainly an improvement over zero,” he said. “I think we really
need to see another couple of years of improved calving and a reduction
in mortalities.”
To break even, the whales would need to be producing 15 to 20 calves a
year, he said.
More than 20 North Atlantic right whales have been found dead since 2017.
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