SOUTHEAST US
A total
of 18 right whale mother/calf pairs have been identified so far this season. Seventeen
were sighted in the SE US and one in Cape
Cod Bay.
Approximately 17 other adult/juveniles have also been identified.
BEACHED RIGHT
WHALE OF 19 DECEMBER
We have learned
that this whale was identified by the New England Aquarium’s Right Whale
Catalog curators as the 2011 calf of Whale #3293, named Porcia. The small size
of the beached whale had led investigators to initially conclude that it was a
yearling. When no matches to last year’s calves could be made, the Catalog
staff began looking at 2-year-olds and made the match to this juvenile.
Although we did not sight Whale #3293 and her male calf in our area (between St. Augustine and Ponce
Inlets) in 2011, Jim Hain and crew encountered them in the acoustic research
vessel about 10 nm ENE of St. Augustine Inlet on 14 February (Valentine’s Day).
The final
report on the cause of death for this whale is still pending.
CAPE COD BAY MOTHER
In the
nearly 30 years of monitoring whale populations in Cape Cod Bay,
this is the first time that a mother and calf right whale pair has been
documented in the Bay in winter. First discovered on 12 January in Plymouth,
the calf was determined to be too small, and thus too young, to have been born
in the Southeast and migrated north with its mother, Whale #1140, Wart. Mother
and calf were spotted again and confirmed on 21 January in the Bay. On 29
January, scallop fishermen reported the two, but confirmation was not possible.
At that time, the water temperature in the Bay was 41˚F, cause for concern for
the long-term survival of the calf, but reports suggest that mother and calf
appear healthy.
On a local
note, Wart is the mother of Whale #3540, Blackheart, who we saw from the AirCam
on 19 December off Crescent
Beach with her first calf—two
more generations.
DISENTANGLEMENT
SUCCESSES
Right
whales are the least cooperative and most difficult of the great whales to
assist when they are entangled in fishing gear. Braving certain risk to attempt
disentanglement, the highly trained teams often do not know if the benefit to
the whales outweighs the significant stress caused by the procedure. This
season there are three examples of benefit to the whales individually and to
the species as a whole, as three previously entangled whales gave birth to
calves. They are; Whale #1140, Wart (see above), Whale #3294, Equator, whom we
have not seen in our area, and Whale #2753, Arpeggio, a whale quite familiar to
us, who became our record-holder for the earliest whale to arrive in our area,
making an appearance on 29 November 2012. There has been concern that
entanglements affect calf production, but here are three examples where
disentangled females have continued on.
GREAT WHITE
SHARKS
Tagged
last September in Cape Cod Bay, the great white shark given the name “Mary Lee”
made headlines in early January when her satellite tag showed her to be along
the shoreline in Jacksonville Beach.
Her presence in the area at the same time as right whales raised the concern
that she may have been drawn by the presence of the calves. Although photos
have documented great whites scavenging a dead right whale carcass, there
hasn’t been evidence gathered of an attack on a healthy right whale calf. When
tagged, Mary Lee was 16 ft. long and weighed 3,456 lbs., which could present a
threat to a calf were it not for its, on average, 50 ft. long and 60 ton
mother, who would be a formidable obstacle to any shark attack. As it happens,
Mary Lee did not stick around. Less than a month later, on 3 February, her
satellite tag showed her on the edge of the continental shelf offshore from New York. You can follow
Mary Lee and other tagged great white sharks at www.OCEARCH.org.
MARINELAND
PROJECT SIGHTINGS
Our
survey season began in the best way possible, with a mother/calf sighting on
the morning of the first day, 6 January. Whale #2413 with her fourth calf was
spotted in Crescent
Beach. As reported
earlier, she lost her third calf in 2011. We saw her in December 2010 with that
calf, as well as in 2005 and 2003 with previous calves. One of the many
benefits of a long-term research effort is the opportunity to develop a history
with returning whales and their offspring.
After a
significant dry spell, two juveniles turned up on 23 January. We have seen both
whales in previous seasons. Whale #3860, a female born in 2008, was here in
2009 and 2010, but we did not see her as a calf, nor have we seen her mother,
Whale #2040 in our area. Naturally, it is possible that we missed seeing them
if they happened to be here when the weather was too poor for surveys or they
remained far enough offshore. The other juvenile, Whale #4057 and gender
unknown, we saw six times in 2010 as the first calf of Whale #3157.
The
AirCam crew spotted a humpback whale on 28 January, north of SR206 in Crescent Beach. In past seasons, humpbacks tended
to appear in December and May, following the humpback migration to Silver Bank
offshore from the Dominican
Republic. This season, humpbacks are being
sighted through January, so it’s a good idea to be aware of the differences
between them and right whales. When surfacing, humpbacks roll much like a
dolphin and have a dorsal fin about 2/3 of the way down their backs. These are
the characteristics you are most likely to see. They also have long white
pectoral fins.
On 3
February, a late afternoon call to the Marine
Resources Center’s
Hotline alerted us to a mother and calf in front of the boardwalk in the Town
of Marineland.
These were identified as Whale #1612 and her sixth calf. We also learned that
the calf, sometime between 21 and 29 January, had been struck by a vessel, as
evidenced by scarring on its back. When the pair appeared off Beverly
and Flagler Beaches
on 5 February, then Ormond Beach
on 6 February, we took great care to document these wounds. If you look closely
at the photo to the right where the arrow is pointing to the calf’s back, you
will see the short white parallel marks of the prop and the long, perpendicular
line of the engine’s skeg. It appears that the injuries were relatively minor
and are healing well. The calf looks robust and was acting normally, a good indication
that it will recover in time.
Early on 8
February, a MRC hotline call turned up a single right whale in Daytona Beach. Jim
Pearson, Sector 5 surveyor, was able to locate the whale and follow it as it
dashed south. By the time the response team arrived with the camera, it was in South Daytona and headed out to sea. Although we
confirmed it as a right whale, it was too far out for photos.
BUY4
MARINELAND RIGHT WHALE PROJECT
Many thanks
to those of you who have contributed to the Marineland Right Whale Project by
making your online purchases using the website www.Buy4MarinelandRightWhale.com.
Since we began using this website in April 2012, your contributions have
amounted to $670 that otherwise would have gone to web search engines like
Google, Yahoo, and Bing as a commission. We appreciate these donations that
help to fund the Project’s operating expenses such as fuel for the AirCam. Using
this website won't cost you a penny more for your online purchases and it is
considered a charitable donation!
If you
haven’t used this website for your online purchases and would like assistance,
or have questions, please call Becki Smith on 703-304-7832, beckismith703@gmail.com. She will
gladly assist you.
WHALES
AND WEATHER
Seeking
to better understand what influences right whale movement, we have become
attuned to the weather. We review forecast maps, looking for high pressure
centers that signal good survey weather. We study jet stream charts, that high
altitude wind current that can channel cold Canadian air into our area and
lower water temperatures. Published reports suggest that right whales seem to
prefer 15˚C to 16˚C water. In 2010, when Florida
experienced one of its coldest winters on record, we had our highest number of
sightings in a season, 63. Last season, coastal temperatures in our area
averaged around 18˚C and we had two sightings. Our temperatures for this season
have been similar, and we have had nine sightings so far. The greatest number
of right whale sightings is north of us, near the Florida
and Georgia
border, where colder water appears to be developing, but it not yet in the 16˚C
range.
The
question of climate change is a definite issue. We wonder whether we are seeing
a warming trend or a short-tem variation. Whichever it is, a variety of species
are definitely being affected. Butterflies and birds are shifting their
distribution. So, the question about right whales could be the same - will we
see a change in the trend of right whale distribution? Our work is getting more
challenging.
RIGHT
WHALE BIRTH RATES
In the
current recognized population of 509 right whales, there are now about 100 potential
reproductive females. So, there should be 25-30 new calves born each season.
The number of births this year is certainly well below that number. The reasons
for this low birth rate are not fully understood and are under investigation.
THE
PROJECT’S WORK IS PUBLISHED
The
culmination of scientific investigation is to publish results in peer-reviewed
journals. We recently published an article titled “Swim speed, behavior and
movement of North Atlantic right whales (Eubaleana glacialis) in coastal waters
of northeastern Florida, USA,” J. Hain, J. Hampp, S. McKenney, J. Albert, and R.
Kenney, PLoS ONE 8(1): e54340. PLoS (Public Library of Science) is a wholly
electronic-based collection and represents a growing trend of publishing
scientific journals online.
VIDEOS
We are
interested in the behavior of right whales, particularly in the learning and
development of calves. We would like to better understand how the mother
imparts important life skills to her calf. Video is a more effective way to
capture play and other behaviors, along with how close approaches from humans
(i.e. paddleboarders, surfers, kayakers and boaters) may impact mother/calf
interactions. Cameras that attach to our very long lens are now much better at
shooting video. We will be incorporating more video recording during sightings.
The
Marineland Dolphin Adventure staff called at 13:55 to report sighting right
whales, heading south. Jim and Sheila dashed across the street to the
Marineland River-To-Sea boardwalk and picked them up immediately. The mother
and calf were just beyond the surf line and slowly making their way south, as
seen in the photo above. They were very likely the same pair reported in
the morning, but, from a scientific perspective, we cannot conclusively make
that claim. 
