From our community:
"We're in a bad spot with right whales, there's no doubt about it. Everybody's anxious to see more calves and the calves aren't coming." Barb Zoodsma, U.S. Southeast for NOAA Fisheries
Last year was devastating for North Atlantic right whales. They suffered a loss of 17, about 4 percent of their population. This is depressing news for such a critically endangered species. Their population is currently estimated at only animals with only 100 females of reproductive age. NOAA notes that the majority of deaths in 2017 were female and that live births have been declining in recent years they say.
Whale necropsies have confirmed that blunt force trauma (being struck by shipping vessels), and drowning from entanglement in fishing gear were the reason for the deaths.
Russ Bynum of the Associated Press writes on the 2017/2018 calving season:
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- Scientists watching for baby right whales off the Southeast U.S. coast have yet to spot a single newborn seven weeks into the endangered species' calving season - the longest researchers have gone without any sightings in nearly 30 years.
Bad weather that has limited efforts to look for whales could be to blame, rather than a reproductive slump. But scientists also worry it could point to another low birth year for the imperiled whales after a grim 2017, when 17 confirmed right whale deaths far outpaced a scant five recorded births.
"We basically right now should be at the peak of the season and we haven't seen anything, so that's concerning," said Clay George, a wildlife biologist who oversees right whale surveys for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. "I'm going from being the optimist I normally am to being pretty pessimistic about it."
NOAA reported that the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Program had “received notification of a dead right whale, along with a photo of the carcass, on Wednesday, January 24. The whale has been positively identified as a North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis), and appears to be wrapped in line in a manner that, based on past observations of entanglements, suggests the whale was alive and swimming when it encountered the line”. This is the first confirmed death of the species in 2018.
Researchers hoped for signs of a robust reproductive year soon after the right whale calving season began Dec. 1. But no calves have been reported off the Atlantic coasts of Georgia and Florida, where the whales typically migrate to give birth each winter. It's still relatively early in the calving season, which has about three months to go.
Clay said it's the longest scientists have gone into the season without any calf sightings since 1989, when they began comprehensive surveys using trained spotters in planes to look for mother-and-calf pairs. Previously, the latest initial sighting was Jan. 1 - and that was during the dismal birthing season a year ago.
Right whales have averaged about 17 births per year during the past three decades. Since 2012, all but two seasons have yielded below average calf counts. The five births recorded last year were the lowest since 2000, when surveys found only one newborn whale.
Besides the critical roles that NA right whales play in the marine environment, and the fact that they are just a magnificent species, they also have been beneficial for expanding human knowledge. From whales, science “has discovered and developed many things including sonar, wind turbine blade design, and possibly synthetic blood”.
The threats to North Atlantic right whales include, ship collisions, entanglement in fishing gear, habitat degradation, contaminants including microplastics, climate and ecosystem change, noise from shipping and seismic blasts for oil exploration according to NOAA.