North Atlantic right whales have returned to their calving grounds along the South Carolina coast earlier than expected. Well, at least two of them did.
Anglers took video of the pair of endangered whales off of Hilton Head on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Lowcountry Marine Mammal Network. Two right whales were also reported near Cape Lookout, N.C. on Saturday but researchers couldn’t determine if they were the same whales.
North Atlantic right whales are one of the most imperiled large whales, with a population estimated last month at 384 individuals. These bus-sized mammals migrate more than 1,000 miles each fall from Canada and New England to the Southeast. The waters off of South Carolina, Georgia, north Florida are considered their main calving area, but they usually arrive in late November or early December.
The NOAA Fisheries reports that the North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whale species, and fewer than 70 are reproductively active females. Right whales are baleen whales, feeding on shrimp-like krill and small fish by straining huge volumes of ocean water through their baleen plates, which act like a sieve.
“Only 380 right whales remain. Every successful birth is crucial,” the LMMN posting said, in a warning to the public, and to boaters who might see them.
“Mothers and new calves often swim slowly, close to shore, and just below the surface, making them extremely vulnerable to vessel collisions. Vessel strikes can be deadly to the whale and dangerous to your boat.”
By the early 1890s, commercial whalers had hunted right whales in the Atlantic to the brink of extinction. Whaling is no longer a threat, but human interactions still present the greatest danger to this species. Entanglement in fishing gear and vessel strikes are among the leading causes of North Atlantic right whale mortality.
On top of a lack of births, the right whale population has experienced an unsettling number of deaths. A technical memorandum issued by NOAA in September 2018 said that 19 right whales had died in 2017 and 2018.
Only 5 calves were born during that same period.
According to that same NOAA report, “an encounter with fishing gear is the most frequent cause of documented right whale serious injuries and deaths in recent years.” For the 19 recent whale deaths, NOAA could determine a cause of death for 10. And of those 10 fatalities, five were caused by ship strikes and five were caused by entanglement in fishing gear.
One study cited by NOAA showed that nearly 85 percent of right whales have been entangled in fishing gear. For 59 percent of right whales, it has happened twice. And the number of entanglements has been trending upward.
A dwindling population
The NOAA memorandum says right whales, like other large whales, live for a long time and can breed multiple times over a lifetime. That makes them resilient. But the memo also points out the obvious fact that if a species fails to replace its dead with new births over time, it will have a difficult time recovering a dwindling population.
So reproduction – or rather, a lack of reproduction – is a major area of concern for researchers. And for reproduction, healthy mothers are required. According to NOAA, right whales now have greater distances to travel from their feeding grounds, which have shifted farther north, down to the areas off the coasts of South Carolina Florida and Georgia where their calving grounds are.
Recent good news
A rare bit of good news about right whales was released last month when the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium announced the population had increased by eight individuals to 384 animals.
Eleven babies were identified in last year’s calving season, which runs through March. Scientists warn, however, that birth numbers must increase to about 50 per year if the species is to survive given the rate of human-caused mortality and serious injury.
Whether you’re along the S.C. coast or Georgia or Florida, people who spot a right whale should also call 1-877-WHALE-HELP so NOAA can alert other ships in the area.
