Returning Right Whales May Be Hurt by Arctic Ice Break-up
The break up of the Arctic ice sheet–now at record levels –might make an Arctic crossing much easier for a small group of previously untracked Right Whales. And that’s the problem. The Arctic ice-sheet break up is making the “Northwest Passage” across the Pole much easier for everyone–including commercial fishing ships. If this newly discovered group of whales decides to take this short cut (heading south for the Winter), scientists fear, they could swim headlong into the newly opened shipping lanes. It is estimated that collisions with ships cause one third of all Right Whale deaths world-wide.
In 2007 and 2008, marine researchers tracked over 2000 whale songs coming from the waters of Cape Farewell Ground (Just off Greenland’s Southwest coast). The songs are believed to be those of male Right Whales–a fairly rare baleen (mysticine) whale that was hunted to near extinction here back in the late 1800’s. They were named “right” whales because they were deemed the “right” whale to hunt for their prized oil and baleen content. Researchers studying the new group believe that there must be at least two of them, possibly three. Whales in general tend to be creatures of habit, returning seasonally to the same “grounds” for eating or mating.
Normally, the few Right Whale (Eubalaena glacialis) sightings that there are (in the North Atlantic) have been largely off of Nova Scotia and the New England coasts during the Summer feeding months (the whales feed off off massive up-welling of plankton). Returning to this area (Cape Farewell Ground) is a bit of a surprise, for these were also the former “killing grounds” of these rarest of the large whales. Dr. Mellinger, the research team’s lead scientist, believes that they are indeed a new group, and are either reoccupying this area, or possibly (despite all odds), may have always been here.
The Right whale “songs” were detected using a high-tech network of submerged listening posts. A version of the system was originally used for monitoring the Right whale population off Massachusetts Bay in 2006. Preliminary analysis of this singular, acoustical phenomenon–produced exclusively by younger male whales–indicates that there may be as many as three whales contributing to these songs.
No one knows, however, if there are any females that have joined the group–a factor crucial for the long-term survival of any would-be whale pod. Female Right whales do not sexually mature until 10 years or age, and they give birth to only one off-spring at a time (after a year long gestation). This possibility (of a pregnant female in the group) makes concern over the arctic ice break-up, and any accidental ship strike, all the more pressing. Right Whales have been under international protection since 1949, but the North Atlantic Right whale’s numbers have not seen the same population rebound as other groups of Rights.
Mellinger’s team reported its findings at the annual Acoustical Society of America meeting in Portland, Oregon.
photo: NOAA
Maybe Starbucks coffee is a problem for them as well – or was that Dunkin Donuts? I’m sure I overheard a company ’scientist’ talking about about something terrible.