The North Atlantic right whale is a critically endangered whale. In the 1970s, there were 350 right whales, and the population grew. Then, in 2017, right whales took a turn for the worse. By 2020, the population had fallen to 338 right whales, with only 50 to 70 breeding females. We must now do more to protect and restore right whales.
In 1992, when there were about 370 right whales, the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary was established under the auspices of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). To protect whales in the sanctuary, an agreement was made with the U.S. Coast Guard to increase air and sea patrols. Cooperative work with NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service, conservation organizations, and the whale-watching industry led to the development a set of whale-watching guidelines for the Northeast Region.
The sanctuary established an emergency whale disentanglement network with the Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown and other partners. A sanctuary researcher developed break-away lobster trap lines that sank between pots to avoid entanglements.
Working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the International Maritime Organization, a mandatory ship reporting system (MSRS) was implemented in July 1999. All ships traveling through the Northeast right whale critical habitat (which included the sanctuary) were required to report their location, course, speed, and destination. In return, they received automated messages containing more specific information about whale sightings in the area and precautionary tactics, like changing course and speed, to avoid contact or collision with whales.
At the sanctuary’s urging, the Coast Guard developed a ship collision avoidance system called the Automatic Identification System (AIS). All ships over 300 gross tons were required to carry an AIS transponder and broadcast the ship’s position, course, and heading, as well as its ship particulars and cargo.
Stellwagen Bank is a rectangular threshold, running north to south, between Massachusetts Bay and the Gulf of Maine. Surprisingly, whale sightings were not uniform across the bank but shaped more like a figure eight. Northwest ship traffic to Boston bisected the lower portion of the high-density whale area. Here was the greatest risk for deadly ship strikes of whales.
By working closely with the shipping industry and other partners in NOAA, the sanctuary’s proposed to move the shipping channel 12 degrees more easterly to cross the bank in a shorter distance where whales were less abundant, thus protecting whales from getting struck by ships. Approved in 2007, adjusting the shipping lane resulted in a 58% reduction in the risk of ship strikes for right whales and an 81% reduction for all baleen whales.
In 2008, ten “listening buoys” were located along the shipping channel into Boston. Sounds picked up by the buoys were recorded and sent to Cornell’s Ornithology Laboratory to identify and confirm the presence of whales. A message was sent back to activate a 10-knot slow speed zone around the buoy.
In 2012, the Whale Alert app provided a clearinghouse of information for mariners on the location of whales. The “listening buoys” documented the return of some right whales to Massachusetts as early as January of that year.
By 2013, the right whale population had risen to 476. With an increasing population, some right whales left the Gulf of Maine for the larger Gulf of St. Lawrence. Right whale numbers decreased when researchers reported fewer whales in their usual seasonal haunts until 2015 and 2016, when 40 to 45 right whales were found north of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
In 2017, 100 right whales were counted in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This might not have meant more right whales because efforts and the search area nearly doubled. That summer, I boarded a sailing ship in Corner Brook, Newfoundland, where locals were thrilled to see two right whales feeding in the Bay of Islands. I doubt these whales were counted, as they were outside of the survey area.
We anchored for the night near the mouth of the bay in Lark Harbor. At sunset, a rainbow rose over the table-topped mountain. The next morning, clearing away from Newfoundland, a shipmate from Corner Brook told me a dead right whale had been found in Bottle Cove, which is on the outer side of the peninsula less than two miles west of Lark Harbor. This whale had been examined many weeks earlier, floating dead on the other side of the gulf, and had died of a ship strike off of New Brunswick.
Twelve right whales were found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence that summer. One right whale calf had been found dead in Cape Cod Bay the previous April. NOAA proclaimed 2017 as an Unusual Mortality Event. The tragic event is ongoing.
Right whales are harmed by increased ship traffic, entanglements, and pollution that includes herbicides (glyphosate) from the land that bioaccumulate up food chains. In the Gulf of Maine, phytoplankton, plants at the foundation of ocean food chains, are 65% less productive than 20 years ago.
It is time for community groups, interests, and organizations to call for the MA/RI Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary to protect the right whales and this critical marine habitat.
The lesson of the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary is that right whales benefitted, and the population grew when diverse interests collaborated at all levels of government.
Rob Moir is president and executive director of the Cambridge-based Ocean River Institute. Visit www.oceanriver.org for more information.