Collisions with ships can be deadly for right whales.
Image: National Geographic/Getty Images
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By Daniel Cressey of Nature magazine
Human activity is still killing right whales, one of the most endangered animals in the ocean. An analysis of four decades of whale deaths shows that attempts to prevent them have not had a demonstrable impact.
Only around 460 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are thought to be swimming the waters off the eastern seaboard of Canada and the United States. The governments of both countries have implemented several measures to protect whales from becoming entangled in fishing gear or being hit by ships, such as the US ‘ship strike rule’ that limits vessel speeds in certain areas. That rule came into force in 2008 and is due to expire next year.
Marine-mammal researchers Julie van der Hoop and Michael Moore, both at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and their colleagues, analyzed all known deaths of eight species of large whale in the northwest Atlantic between 1970 and 2009. During that time 122 right whales died, along with 473 humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae), 257 fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) and scores of whales of other species. When the authors were able to assign a cause of death, ‘human interactions’ was the most common, appearing in 67% of cases. Entanglement in fishing gear was the main cause of death in this category.
The protection measures seem to have had no impact on whale deaths, according to the study published online in Conservation Biology. Although several of the rules were implemented only towards the end of the study period, Moore still admits that the finding is “hugely disappointing”.
Signs of hope
But Moore also notes that the study was a very “broad brush” analysis. There are specific local efforts — such as moving shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia — that “undoubtedly” helped the conservation of right whales, but which would not show up in a wider view.
The analysis also points out where future protection efforts could be focused. Van der Hoop notes that their estimates of where vessel strikes occur show a large spike in the waters around Cape Hatteras, just north of Morehead City in North Carolina. Almost no measures have been implemented in this region to reduce whale deaths, so a focus on preventing vessel strikes here could be hugely valuable.
Greg Silber, a marine-mammal researcher at the US National Marine Fisheries Service, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, says that this latest work “helps to reinforce the need for thoughtful, science-based and well-balanced approaches to reducing human-caused mortality of large whales”.
Silber and his colleague Shannon Bettridge, also from the fisheries service, concluded in a report earlier this year that it was too soon to tell whether the ship strike rule was effective. Compliance with the rule was poor after it was implemented, Silber notes, but it has improved more recently. Their report called for speed restrictions to be continued, and suggested that these could be extended to include smaller ships.
Although the right whale population experienced some bad years in the mid-2000s when numbers declined, Silber is hopeful that the species is turning a corner. “The North Atlantic right whale population appears to be growing,” he says, “but it is not out of the woods.”
Moore has also seen tentative signs that things have improved since 2009. His team has funding from the US government to perform autopsies on right whales. “I’ve had a hard time spending the money in the past few years,” he says, “and that’s a really positive sign.”
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18 Comments
Add CommentIt would be nice if they could tag the species having more trouble with some tags that show up on a ship's radar. Give the ships a way to maneuver or slow to let the whale pass. It's not that the captains want to hit the whales but, out of site out of mind.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe problem is, the same tags would make them easier to hunt by poachers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah, thought of that later, though with helicopters and giant whaling vessels I am sure it is easy to find them now. Perhaps it comes down to what kills more whales, Japan or ship strikes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUm, it is necropsies...but the fewer of them the better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf there are active whale poachers in the North Atlantic that would be news to all of us. The North Atlantic right whale may have to deal with a whole host of human-created problems (ship strike, entanglement, water-borne and air-borne pollution) but hunting isn't one of them. DTAGS and other tags put on whales are not tapped into illegally by poachers.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are listening buoys in Boston Harbor that detect right whale calls. Notices of the these detections can be sent to mariners. This doesn't interfere with their radar.
bandrews23 is correct. The writer of the article should have used the term necropsies instead of autopsies.
And we all know that if man doesn't kill them they will live forever, then they will fill up the ocean with their offspring and the oceans will rise flooding millions of acres of human land, it's them or us people.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen I read the headline I thought: "That can't really be right...certainly some of them just die from natural causes"...but, perhaps not many of them get that chance because they are more likely to be killed by humans than to have the chance of succumbing to natural causes. That is tragic indeed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOMG...I just read your post. Are you really that cold? I can be quite the cynic, but I've never stooped that low.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf it is not cynicism, but rather that you perhaps actually believe what you said, it is even more tragic.
Whales would extinct lots of other creatures, giant squids for example, given the chance, don't squids have a right to be cynical? the point is that man did not kill the whales, LIFE did. grow up 00100. Death to whales, that we might live.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSome good comments. Humans impact all life, even in the most (seemingly) isolated parts of our fragile planet. Tags could be effective to warm ships.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisps- What are you smoking, MutantBuzzard?
Ambergris, and ground up baby whale bones.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShouldn`t the Japanese pseudo ``scientific whale culling program`` be mentionned in this otherwise excellent article.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs declared by the Cambridge group ( The Cambridge declaration on counsciousness, C Harmon.), some animals have reached a level of counsciousness equivalent to ours or better?; one of these very unlucky creatures could well be the whale. One more reason to be kind to our brothers in misery and not complicate their lives more than necessary.
Japan, I think. It's Japan, then ship strikes, then Inuit ceremonial hunting (which has a negligible effect). Gray whales also suffer major predation on juveniles from orcas.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe concur, death to all who disagree with the left and insult Islam, you did not destroy someone who disagreed with you and had your aneurysms from reading the TRUTH. The TRUTH often does that to those who don't tolerate liberty, free speech, the constitution, ect. Bring it on Bird/tree/dinosaur/etc. geek. Buzzards gotta eat too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe concur, death to all who disagree with the left and insult Islam, you did not destroy someone who disagreed with you and had your aneurysms from reading the TRUTH. The TRUTH often does that to those who don't tolerate liberty, free speech, the constitution, ect. Bring it on Bird/tree/dinosaur/etc. geek. Buzzards gotta eat too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishope you get that aneurysm fixed soon Bird/tree/dinosaur/etc. geek. It is a symptom of stupidity and it is exposing your liberal intolerance. At least you no longer want our life ended but why do you want us "thrashed"? Sadism a symptom of aneurysm? Don't much care for cat, too many bones, but got Odumbass's recipe for dog will that do? Buzzards soar, ignorant, perverted, sadistic haters like you "troll", but since you asked so nice, be seeing you around. We will pray for your hatred to release your soul.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisQuick point of clarification. It's primarily Inupiat (North Slope of Alaska) who still have an annual subsistence hunt. The Inuit have done one, maybe two, in the past several years. Inupiat focus on bowhead whale. The population of bowheads continues to increase. The subsistence hunt has no bearing on these numbers. There is no way to grow protein on the North Slope and groceries are ridiculously expensive. So, they hunt for a large percentage of their nutrition. That includes a few whales per year.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMutantBuzzard, perhaps you're just writing to wind people up. If so, you've succeeded. (Why do you hide behind a pseudonym?) Your argument that too many whales are going to depress populations of other organisms is nonsense. Long before humans started to hunt whales and have other negative impacts on populations of other species, whales coexisted quite well with the things they eat. There was an abundance of all of them. In fact, the drop in the # of blue whales has led to smaller populations of krill, due to the fact that whale feces recycles iron, iron that is critical to the food chains that feed the krill.
"""Quick point of clarification. It's primarily Inupiat (North Slope of Alaska) who still have an annual subsistence hunt. The Inuit have done one, maybe two, in the past several years. Inupiat focus on bowhead whale. The population of bowheads continues to increase. The subsistence hunt has no bearing on these numbers. There is no way to grow protein on the North Slope and groceries are ridiculously expensive. So, they hunt for a large percentage of their nutrition. That includes a few whales per year."""
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDamn. Knew that I was wrong on some detail. Thanks for the correction!