![]() Ocean scientists are hoping for new policies on rope-free fishing gear, vessel speed limit enforcement and money for monitoring and ecosystem forecasting.įunding for this research was provided by the Lenfest Ocean Program. "Protective policies must be strengthened immediately before this species declines past the point of no-return." "Right whales continue to die each year," said lead author Erin Meyer-Gutbrod, assistant professor at the University of South Carolina. Ten right whales were found dead in 2019, while for 20, four deaths have occurred thus far. This has led to an Unusual Mortality Event declared by NOAA in 2017, when 17 right whale deaths were confirmed, mostly in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there were no protections in place to prevent ship strikes and fishing gear entanglement. Since 2015, scientists have witnessed an increased number of right whales feeding in the Gulf of St. ![]() ![]() Instead, the whales have headed north to the cooler waters of the Gulf of St. This has reduced right whale calving rates and forced the whales to abandon their mid-summer feeding grounds in the Gulf of Maine. The warming Gulf of Maine has reduced the abundance of copepods, the tiny crustaceans that serve as the right whales' favorite snack. "Due to a warming climate, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is slowing down, causing the Gulf Stream to move North, injecting warmer and saltier slope water into the Gulf of Maine," Greene said. Human impacts, specifically entanglements in fixed fishing gear and vessel strikes, remain the biggest threats to the survival of this species. In the past 10 years, the species has declined by 30. As the tail end of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, the Gulf Stream has changed its trajectory dramatically during the past ten years. North Atlantic right whales have been on a downward trajectory since 2011, when the species was at its highest estimate of 481 whales. The warm slope water entering the Gulf of Maine at depth derives its heat from the Gulf Stream. The species is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. Now, the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium estimates the population at just 356 whales. At the beginning of the decade, the North Atlantic right whale population had numbered over 500. ![]() Since 2010, the calving rate has declined and the right whale population has dropped by an estimated 26%, according to the paper. "It is coming from invading slope water many hundreds of feet below the ocean surface, forcing the right whales to abandon their traditional habitat." "Most of the warming in the Gulf of Maine is not coming from the atmosphere or ocean surface, as one may think," said senior author Charles Greene, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell. Without improving its management, the right whale populations will decline and potentially become extinct in the coming decades, according to a Cornell- and University of South Carolina-led report in the journal Oceanography. ![]()
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