Innovation and resilience offer hope for the world’s most endangered whale
Snow Cone and her calf. Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA permit 20556-01
Today is Endangered Species Day and we’re highlighting the North Atlantic right whale. With just 336 animals left, they are one of the most endangered whales on the planet. Technological innovation and collaboration between science and fisheries is providing newfound hope for these iconic ocean giants.
Two years ago, Snow Cone – the North Atlantic right whale nicknamed for the pattern in front of her blowholes – was first spotted off the coast of Massachusetts with thick fishing rope dragging behind her and wrapped around her jaw.
A team from the Center for Coastal Studies was able to remove about 30 meters of the heavy rope. But some remained in her baleen when she took off for her summer feeding grounds in Canada. Researchers continued to monitor Snow Cone along her migration route back down the east coast of the United States to the right whales’ calving area in the southeast.
The odds of survival were not in her favour. Besides the difficulty feeding and stress the entanglement could cause, there were other hazards. Just the year before, her calf was struck and killed by a ship.
Then, eight months later, she was spotted off the coast of Georgia – still dragging the heavy rope from her mouth – but this time, with a healthy newborn calf by her side.
Video by Georgia Department of Natural Resources taken under NOAA permit 20556
The news came as a surprise for scientists, who didn’t know she was pregnant, and was cause for cautious optimism. The last few years had been dire for the whales, with some of the most deaths and fewest births in decades – in 2018, there were no new calves born. But they were worried the calf may also become entangled, and it was too dangerous to remove or cut the rope with the baby so close to its mom.
Last month, the pair continued to defy the odds when they were spotted in Cape Cod, after making the 1,600-kilometer journey back north.
A species in crisis
“Snow Cone’s story represents the incredible resilience of the species, but also the daunting challenges they face.” said Chris Johnson, Global Lead of the WWF’s Protecting Whales and Dolphins Initiative.
“Although they've never fully recovered from their pre-whaling numbers, the number of North Atlantic right whales slowly increased throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, reaching a high of 483 whales in 2010. With just 336 left today, the species is now at its lowest number in about 20 years. Among those are fewer than 100 breeding females. In the past 10 years, the species has plummeted by 30%.“
Population estimate of North Atlantic right whales from 1990 to 2020. Credit: New England Aquarium and North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium
Human impacts — specifically entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes — are the two main threats to right whales. But the climate crisis is exacerbating the problem.
Credit: Lenfest Ocean Program
In 2010, warming waters in the whales’ historical feeding areas in the Gulf of Maine had profound impacts on the food web, including a decline in the whales’ main food source. As a result, they began to migrate further north. By 2015, a number of whales were observed foraging in the summer and fall in the Gulf of St. Lawrence — an area of intensive commercial shipping traffic and fishing.
That’s when deaths began to skyrocket. In 2017, 12 North Atlantic right whale deaths were reported in Canadian waters and five in US waters; by 2021, total deaths rose to 34 – all from entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes.
In response to the crisis, the Canadian government implemented new measures in 2018 to reduce the risk of entanglement in fishing gear and ship strikes in the Gulf of St. Lawrence – including seasonal fishery closures and vessel speed restrictions if whales were spotted in the area. Since then, they have continued to take meaningful action to help protect the species.
At the same time, right whale births declined sharply. Becoming entangled in fishing gear can severely stress and injure a whale, and towing fishing lines and heavy gear can sap the energy it needs for growth and reproduction. This is leaving the whales smaller, on average, than 40 years ago, which may be why they are producing fewer calves. Between 2001 and 2009, right whales averaged 24 births a year; over the past decade, that number fell by half.
Fishing ropes wrap around the head and mouth, damaging the baleen of a severely entangled North Atlantic right whale in the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, Canada. © Nature Picture Library / Alamy Stock Photo
Collaborating to save a species
In recent years, broad collaborations across Canada and the US have developed between governments, scientists, conservation organisations, and shipping and fishing industries – proving vital in identifying and implementing science-based solutions to reduce risks to right whales. These partnerships, along with groups such as the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium and the Ropeless Consortium, have brought together thousands of people dedicated to put North Atlantic right whales on the path to recovery.
In 2020, WWF joined over 400 scientists and conservationists to voice an urgent warning about the extinction risk to many of our most vulnerable species worldwide, in response to the reclassification of the North Atlantic right whale from ‘endangered’ to ‘critically endangered’ by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The letter called on countries with cetaceans in their waters to take precautionary action to ensure these species and populations are adequately protected from human activities, and all nations to work with and strengthen the relevant international bodies that seek to address threats to cetaceans.
A juvenile right whale breaches against the backdrop of a ship near the St. Johns River Entrance. The Atlantic coastal waters surrounding the St. Johns River Entrance are part of a network of Seasonal Management Areas (SMA) implemented by NOAA Fisheries to reduce the likelihood of deaths and serious injuries from collisions with ships. Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Research Permit #775-1600-10
In addition to the Canadian government’s ongoing right whale protection measures; in the US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries – the federal management agency responsible for protecting marine mammals – implements slow down zones to reduce the threat of vessel collisions. Studies have found that slowing vessel speeds to 10 knots reduces a North Atlantic right whale’s risk of death from vessel strikes by between 80% to 90%. However, a recent study analysing vessel speeds from 2017 to 2020 in speed zones established by NOAA along the US Atlantic coast found non-compliance was as high as almost 90% in mandatory speed zones, and non-cooperation was as high as almost 85% in voluntary areas.
NOAA has also proposed new regulations to mitigate right whale injury and deaths from entanglement. They’ve mandated weak points or weak ropes be inserted into vertical lines, which increases the likelihood that a whale may free itself from an entanglement. New regulations on minimum trawl lengths — or the number of traps fished per vertical line — took effect on May 1, 2022.
Emerging technologies bring new hope
Technological innovation holds new promise for right whales. Traditional lobster and crab fishing methods – which connect a buoy on the water’s surface to traps or pots on the seafloor with a thick fixed vertical rope – pose a grave threat to whales and other marine life that can become entangled in the ropes. The rope can cut into their flesh and can prevent them from feeding, sometimes leading to a slow and painful death.
The severity of the problem is staggering: it’s estimated 86% of all North Atlantic right whales have been entangled in such fishing gear at least once during their lifetime. According to the IUCN, of the 30 deaths or serious injuries to North Atlantic right whales recorded between 2012 and 2016, 26 were caused by fishing gear entanglement.
Ropeless fishing – using gear that does not involve any vertical lines – could eliminate most of this risk, while allowing fisheries to continue operating. Several kinds of gear are being researched and tested in Canada and the US – some using lift bags or buoys that float the gear to the surface when triggered by remote sensors – with pilot trials showing promising results. And it offers not only a solution for right whales, but other populations of cetaceans, sharks, and sea turtles around the world being impacted by this type of entanglement.
In comparison to traditional designs, ropeless systems do not involve vertical lines. Credit: NOAA
While significant progress on the technology has been made, challenges remain. Transitioning to ropeless gear systems comes at a high cost and will require significant funding to make it a viable option. It will also require more wide-scale testing, as well as continued collaboration between conservationists, scientists, fishers, governments, and other stakeholders.
There are also regulatory challenges. While some crab fisheries in Canadian waters have been testing ropeless fishing methods for the last few years; in the US, the commercial fishing industry has been largely prohibited from using ropeless fishing. However, last month, the federal government authorised a temporary exemption for a five-day period for ropeless lobster fishing in Massachusetts Bay – the first time it’s been allowed in any federal waters. To promote wider use of ropeless gear, NOAA Fisheries is managing the development of a ‘roadmap’, with a draft expected this month.
There are signs of hope for right whales. During the 2021 calving season, researchers spotted 19 calves. During the four previous years combined, only 22 births were observed.
While this news is encouraging, just one death jeopardises the survival of the species. If their population continues to decline, North Atlantic right whales may go extinct in less than 30 years.
“No single solution will immediately eliminate all risk to right whales. But working together and taking decisive action to reduce the mortal risk throughout their range, including implementing mandatory vessel slow downs and investing in innovative fishing solutions, is possible — and critical — to ensure the long-term conservation and survival of the species. But we must act now,” said Johnson.
