Ecologist: North Atlantic right whales remain endangered species at sea
BOSTON (AP) — Those endangered North Atlantic right whales cavorting in Cape Cod Bay are fun to watch, but their frolicking doesn't tell the whole story.
Charles "Stormy" Mayo, director of right whale ecology at the federally funded Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass., says ominous signs suggest the global population of 500 animals is slowly declining — not incrementally rebounding as experts had hoped a year ago.
And the whales, it turns out, can be pretty ornery.
The Associated Press asked Mayo about how the whales — some of the rarest creatures on the planet — are really faring:
Q: Right whales are back in Cape Cod Bay for the second spring in a row. That must make you pretty happy?
A: Not entirely. The whole story on right whales is very simple arithmetic: How many die and how many are born? The birth rate this year is extraordinarily low. We've only seen four whales born in the North Atlantic. And the mortality rate is up.
Q: How many have died? A: There have been at least four deaths, but those are whales whose carcasses have been found. We know more whales have died offshore and haven't been found. The result is a decline in the population. It's troubling because we can't seem to control the human causes — entanglements and ship strikes — and we're not sure why more calves aren't being born.
Q: And yet so many of these animals are being seen. Isn't that good news?
A: These are extraordinarily rare animals whose habitat stretches theoretically all the way to Spain, so yes. During a single eighthour spotting flight, we've seen 200 whales. That's 40 percent of the estimated population. But we have to ask ourselves why they're feeding here now. It may indicate that the places they used to feed are failing. When they make these radical changes, it's a little worrisome.
Q: What's the biggest threat to these whales?
A: Vessel strikes seem to have dropped through a collective effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Coast Guard to reduce speed in certain shipping channels. So now, if there are collisions, they're less severe. But entanglements in fishing gear are a big problem. Eighty percent of the population bears entanglement scars. As we speak, somewhere offshore there's a whale that's dragging gear.