Right Whales

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by GordMay

...None can be linked to the Maine lobster industry...

...deaths due to entanglement have increased significantly despite management actions that began in the late 1990s....

These two statements appear contradictory. But I see a pattern.

The National Fisherman article is very specific. It appears other organizations are being deliberately vague.

We won't solve this problem until we know which fishery practices are impacting the whales. If the problem isn't the lobster fishery, then requiring expensive new technologies for just that fishery only won't do any good.

It seems to me researchers should be able to tell which type of gear a whale is entangled with. The fact that the authors of these press releases keep failing to include this detail makes me question their true motives.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by CaptTom

These two statements appear contradictory. But I see a pattern...
... The fact that the authors of these press releases keep failing to include this detail makes me question their true motives.

Indeed.
There are competing narratives.
Which is why I stated: “That may depend upon who, and/or when you ask the question.”
And why I included data from the US MMC-MMPA.

The Marine Mammal Commission [MMC-MMPA] provides independent, science-based oversight of domestic and international policies and actions of federal agencies addressing human impacts on marine mammals and their ecosystems. Our mission is largely driven by the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). The MMPA was enacted in October 1972 in partial response to growing concerns among scientists and the general public that certain species and populations of marine mammals were in danger of extinction or depletion as a result of human activities. The MMPA set forth a national policy to prevent marine mammal species and population stocks from diminishing beyond the point at which they cease to be significant functioning elements of the ecosystems of which they are a part.
➥ https://www.mmc.gov/about-the-commission/our-mission/

See also ,the MMC's
Ropeless Fishing Prototype ➥ https://www.mmc.gov/grants-and-resea...search-grants/

[GordMay]

So who’s lying?

According to the National Fisherman editorial:
"... Once again, the target of a group proclaiming a goal of “guarding” the dwindling North Atlantic Right Whale population zeroes in on Maine lobstermen for no apparent reason...
... If that is the goal, then they might consider targeting changes in practices of the global shipping trade. Like many before them, this organization seems to be taking swipes at the easiest target. Why pick a fight with a massive opponent like global trade when you can punch down at fishermen?..."

They seem to be totally ignoring Canada’s the vessel traffic management measures [1] [for instance], which require that all vessels, more than 13 metres in length, restrict their speed to a maximum of 10 knots:
Throughout much of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, starting April 28.
Temporarily in dynamic shipping zones (zones A, B, C, D, E in the map below) for 15 days following the detection of at least one North Atlantic right whale in the dynamic shipping zone.
In two seasonal management areas (SMA) from April 28 to June 29, and for 15 days if a North Atlantic right whale is detected in the area, from June 30 to November 15.
And more.

[1] See ➥ https://tc.canada.ca/en/backgrounder...right-whales-0

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by GordMay

So who’s lying?

According to the National Fisherman editorial:
"... Once again, the target of a group proclaiming a goal of “guarding” the dwindling North Atlantic Right Whale population zeroes in on Maine lobstermen for no apparent reason...
... If that is the goal, then they might consider targeting changes in practices of the global shipping trade. Like many before them, this organization seems to be taking swipes at the easiest target. Why pick a fight with a massive opponent like global trade when you can punch down at fishermen?..."

They seem to be totally ignoring Canada’s the vessel traffic management measures [1] [for instance], which require that all vessels, more than 13 metres in length, restrict their speed to a maximum of 10 knots:
Throughout much of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, starting April 28.
Temporarily in dynamic shipping zones (zones A, B, C, D, E in the map below) for 15 days following the detection of at least one North Atlantic right whale in the dynamic shipping zone.
In two seasonal management areas (SMA) from April 28 to June 29, and for 15 days if a North Atlantic right whale is detected in the area, from June 30 to November 15.
And more.

[1] See ➥ https://tc.canada.ca/en/backgrounder...right-whales-0

Heading to Plymouth this weekend, where there has been a recent right whale sighting. I'll be sure to ask...

[deblen]

Link to daily sightings Right Whale map.


https://whalemap.ocean.dal.ca/

[Dsanduril]

NOAA also has a couple of interesting pages on the subject. They talk a great deal about the statistics of "vertical line entanglement" vs. net and other types of entanglement.

Where did those numbers come from?
In order to determine the risk reduction needed for U.S. fisheries, we first looked at the minimum average of entanglement deaths and serious injuries from 2012-2016, the most recent years for which these data are available. During this time, an average of 5.15 right whales were killed or seriously injured annually by entanglement in fishing gear.

In about 70 percent of known entanglements, no gear is recovered. Of gear that has been recovered and analyzed, 40 percent of the recovered gear has been attributed to U.S. fisheries and 40 percent to Canadian fisheries. The remainder of the recovered gear was unmarked and could not be identified to a fishery or location.

An entanglement in gear that is not recovered and/or marked, could be from U.S. fisheries, given that right whales spend more of their time in U.S. waters. However, in determining the risk reduction percentage, we assumed the same partition between countries as for entanglements where gear is recovered. Therefore, the U.S. and Canada were each assigned 50 percent of the observed entanglements that could not be assigned to a specific fishery.

Based on this, we then attributed up to 2.5 to 2.6 deaths and serious injuries to U.S. fisheries for each year, 2012-2016. This is more than 2.5 times greater than the goal of 0.9 animals per year. We likely need to reduce death and serious injury by at least 60 percent in U.S. fisheries to achieve the target of less than 1 right whale death per year.

These numbers include only documented deaths and serious injuries. Actual deaths and serious injuries of right whales in U.S. fisheries are likely higher than the observed 2.6 per year. Published research suggests that 40 percent of right whale deaths and serious injuries are unobserved....

Has Maine fishing gear ever killed or entangled any right whales?
We have documented Maine lobster gear on three live entangled right whales in 2002, 2003, and 2004. Two of these whales were disentangled (2002, 2003) and one was partially disentangled and remains entangled in some gear today (Kingfisher, 2004). In 2015, a right whale trailing line was seen in offshore Maine waters. The gear was not retrieved and the original entanglement site was not determined.

It is important to draw a distinction between total entanglements and observed entanglements. In 2009 and 2016, we confirmed that two different right whales were entangled in U.S. lobster gear. In two other cases, we confirmed entangling gear to be U.S. trap/pot gear but didn’t have enough information to attribute it to a particular pot/trap fishery such as lobster gear. There were an additional 22 entanglements where the entangling gear and the location could not be identified.

We have not positively identified any gear recovered from a dead right whale as Maine lobster gear. However, the majority of right whale entanglements go unobserved, so there is little we know about entanglements in most geographic areas—not just in Maine. Gear is rarely retrieved from a dead right whale and, when it is, the majority of the gear cannot be attributed to a specific fishery or geographic location. We are trying to improve our gear marking to reduce the high proportion of this unknown or unconfirmed gear for these reasons.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-e...tiple%20times.

And, while it is not called out specifically, I'd guess that the use of Dyneema and other modern ("stronger") ropes may play a role:

There may also have been unintended consequences of the 2015 vertical line rule. The rule required ‘trawling up’ (using more traps per trawl) in some regions. While this reduced the number of lines, it also meant that lines had to be stronger to accommodate the increased load of multiple traps. This natural adaptation, and the fact that stronger rope was available, contributed to an increase in the severity of entanglements as found by Knowlton et al. (2016), who observed very little evidence of entanglement with ropes weaker than 7.56 kN (1700 lbsf)[emphasis added].

https://archive.fisheries.noaa.gov/g.../tm247__2_.pdf

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by deblen

Link to daily sightings Right Whale map.


https://whalemap.ocean.dal.ca/

What in the name of Poseidon is that right whale doing in the mouth of Plymouth Bay? That's a great spot to get stranded on all the shifting sandbars...

[deblen]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

What in the name of Poseidon is that right whale doing in the mouth of Plymouth Bay? That's a great spot to get stranded on all the shifting sandbars...

I guess they are like most grazing animals-they follow & stay with their favourite foods. https://oceana.org/marine-life/marin...ic-right-whale

[deblen]

In memory of our local whale expert. / Len

[GordMay]

Climate change contributing to decline of North Atlantic right whales

Climate change, and warming ocean temperatures, could be contributing to the decline in the population of North Atlantic right whales, a new study [1] suggests.

Until about 2010, the whales could be found feeding on copepods, like plankton, a common food source for them, in their traditional feeding waters, of the Bay of Fundy, and Gulf of Maine, according to the study [1]. In the past 10 years, however, warmer ocean temperatures have driven the crustaceans to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the right whales have followed.

As right whale numbers, visiting the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence foraging grounds, rose, the risks associated with ship strikes, and entanglement increased, and the right whale population experienced an increasing number of serious entanglements, and mortalities, in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, beginning in 2015.

The problem goes back to climate change, and the impact it has had on ocean currents, namely the Gulf Stream, bringing warmer [± 2 C] water north, into areas of the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine. That, in turn, has driven crustaceans to cooler waters, further north, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where right whales have been at higher risk of getting entangled in fishing gear, and being struck by vessels.

In response to the rise in North Atlantic right whale deaths, the Government of Canada has implemented measures, such as speed limits, for vessels in shipping lanes in and around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as closing fishing areas, where North Atlantic right whales have been spotted.
18 calves have been born, this year [2021].

[1] “Ocean Regime Shift is Driving Collapse of the North Atlantic Right Whale Population” ~ by Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod et al
➥ https://tos.org/oceanography/article...ale-population

[deblen]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Climate change contributing to decline of North Atlantic right whales

Climate change, and warming ocean temperatures, could be contributing to the decline in the population of North Atlantic right whales, a new study [1] suggests.

Until about 2010, the whales could be found feeding on copepods, like plankton, a common food source for them, in their traditional feeding waters, of the Bay of Fundy, and Gulf of Maine, according to the study [1]. In the past 10 years, however, warmer ocean temperatures have driven the crustaceans to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the right whales have followed.

As right whale numbers, visiting the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence foraging grounds, rose, the risks associated with ship strikes, and entanglement increased, and the right whale population experienced an increasing number of serious entanglements, and mortalities, in the southern Gulf of St. Lawrence, beginning in 2015.

The problem goes back to climate change, and the impact it has had on ocean currents, namely the Gulf Stream, bringing warmer [± 2 C] water north, into areas of the Bay of Fundy and Gulf of Maine. That, in turn, has driven crustaceans to cooler waters, further north, such as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where right whales have been at higher risk of getting entangled in fishing gear, and being struck by vessels.

In response to the rise in North Atlantic right whale deaths, the Government of Canada has implemented measures, such as speed limits, for vessels in shipping lanes in and around the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as closing fishing areas, where North Atlantic right whales have been spotted.
18 calves have been born, this year [2021].

[1] “Ocean Regime Shift is Driving Collapse of the North Atlantic Right Whale Population” ~ by Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod et al
➥ https://tos.org/oceanography/article...ale-population

Thanks Gord. This is the best summary that I have read of what is going on with the NA Right Whale population in it's northern feeding grounds.
I am posting this supplement from the above report as it condenses info even more.

https://tos.org/oceanography/assets/...tbrod_supp.pdf

[GordMay]

Off topic, but related:
Carcass of endangered blue whale washes onto N.S. beach
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-...cent-1.6170887

[chrisr]

and in adelaide as well...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-09-...each/100445868

cheers,

[DMF Sailing]

I'll be sailing from Plymouth, MA to Scituate, Ma on Sunday Sept. 19, which is exactly the time of year when I've sighted northern right whales off Duxbury Beach.

I'll let you guys know if I see any! Maybe I'll even get pictures.

https://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13267.shtml

https://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13246.shtml

[DMF Sailing]

Originally Posted by DMF Sailing

I'll be sailing from Plymouth, MA to Scituate, Ma on Sunday Sept. 19, which is exactly the time of year when I've sighted northern right whales off Duxbury Beach.

I'll let you guys know if I see any! Maybe I'll even get pictures.

https://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13267.shtml

https://www.charts.noaa.gov/OnLineViewer/13246.shtml

Crossing Stellwagen Bank on our last voyage a crew member thought he saw "two right whales." A closer look, and a dive by one of the whales that revealed a dorsal fin, revealed that it was actually four humpbacks cavorting around. A minke also surfaced briefly right in front of our bow, and a blue shark followed us lazily for a while (sorry bud, no chum for you!).

So, we struck out on right whales, but still got quite a show.