The entangled North Atlantic right whale in this photo was spotted approximately one mile off Crescent Beach, Florida; researchers were able to disentangle the whale the next day.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission / NOAA Research Permit # 594-1759
Many fish, marine mammals and seabirds that inhabit the world's oceans are critically endangered, but few are as close to the brink as the North Atlantic right whale ( Eubalaena glacialis). Only about 411 of these whales exist today, and at their current rate of decline, they could become extinct within our lifetimes.
From 1980 through about 2010, conservation efforts focused mainly on protecting whales from being struck by ships. Federal regulations helped reduce vessel collisions and supported a slight rebound in right whale numbers.
<p>But at the same time, growing numbers of right whales died after becoming entangled in lobster and crab fishing gear. This may have happened because fishing ropes became stronger, and both whales and fishermen shifted their ranges so that areas of overlap increased. Entanglement has caused <a href="https://www.int-res.com/prepress/d03376.html" target="_blank">80 percent of diagnosed mortalities</a> since 2010, and the population has taken a significant downward turn.</p><p>This comes after a millennium of whaling that decimated the right whale population, reducing it from perhaps between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12664" target="_blank">10,000 to 20,000</a> to a few hundred animals today. And entanglement deaths are <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/230653" target="_blank">much more inhumane</a> than harpoons. A whaler's explosive harpoon kills quickly, compared to months of drawn-out pain and debilitation caused by seemingly harmless fishing lines. We believe these deaths can be prevented by working with the trap fishing industries to adopt <a href="https://ropeless.org/" target="_blank">ropeless fishing gear</a> – but North Atlantic right whales are running out of time.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTU1NjEyMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTI0NDk4Mn0.zsySYd9Ut55nDlrBVakH6oZVV7TqerOlCvupjw-YKdk/img.jpg?width=980" id="7717a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1fcf38e8775ab2beae02515b1e408174" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Deadly Encounters
<p>Whalers pursued right whales for centuries because this species swam relatively slowly and floated when dead, so it was easier to kill and retrieve than other whales. By the mid-20th century, scientists assumed they had been hunted to extinction. But in 1980, researchers from the New England Aquarium who were studying marine mammal distribution in the Bay of Fundy off eastern Canada were stunned when they <a href="https://www.canadianwhaleinstitute.ca/habitats" target="_blank">sighted 26 right whales</a>.</p><p>Conservation efforts led to the enactment of regulations that required commercial ships to <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/endangered-species-conservation/reducing-ship-strikes-north-atlantic-right-whales" target="_blank">slow down</a> in zones along the U.S. Atlantic coast where they were highly likely to encounter whales, reducing boat strikes. But this victory has been offset by rising numbers of entanglements.</p><p>Adult right whales can produce up to an estimated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12230" target="_blank">8,000 pounds of force</a> with a single stroke of their flukes. When they become tangled in fishing gear, they often break it and swim off trailing ropes and sometimes crab or lobster traps.</p><p>Lines and gear can wrap around a whale's body, flukes, flippers and mouth. They impede swimming and feeding, and cause chronic infection, emaciation and damage to blubber, muscle and bone. Ultimately these injuries weaken the animal until it dies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsu008" target="_blank">which can take months to years</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTU1NjEyMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNDE3OTAyNH0.W5agEwKjibM2AyhELkXhzKSssFMYXh-ubMFKApinqp0/img.png?width=980" id="9ab7d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="1c03b11cfd3e2ef2603f1ea300ec75d4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Fishing rope furrowed into the lip of Bayla, right whale #3911.
Michael Moore / NMFS Permit 932-1905-00 / MA-009526 / CC BY-ND
<p>One of us, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=DQ-fD1QAAAAJ" target="_blank">Michael Moore</a>, is trained as a veterinarian and has examined many entangled dead whales. Moore has seen fishing rope embedded inches deep into a whale's lip, and a juvenile whale whose spine had been deformed by the strain of dragging fishing gear. Other animals had flippers nearly severed by swimming wrapped in inexorably constricting ropes. Entanglement injuries to right whales are the worst animal trauma Moore has seen in his career.</p><p>Even if whales are able to wriggle free and live, the extreme stress and energy demands of entanglement, along with inadequate nutrition, are thought to be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2615" target="_blank">preventing females from getting pregnant</a> and contributing to record low calving rates in recent years.</p>
Solutions for Whales and Fishermen
<p>The greatest entanglement risk is from ropes that lobster and crab fishermen use to attach buoys to traps they set on the ocean floor. Humpback and minke whales and leatherback sea turtles, all of which are federally protected, also become entangled.</p><p>Conservationists are looking for ways to modify or eliminate these ropes. Rock lobster fishermen in Australia already use <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeeieRr7sTw" target="_blank">pop-up buoys</a> that ascend when they receive sound signals from fishing boats. The buoys trail out ropes as they rise, which fishermen retrieve and use to pull up their traps.</p><p>Other technologies are <a href="https://www.wnpr.org/post/innovations-fishing-gear-could-change-lobster-industry-help-endangered-right-whale" target="_blank">in development</a>, including systems that <a href="https://ropeless.org/november-6th-2018-presentations/" target="_blank">acoustically identify traps on the seafloor</a> and mark them with "virtual buoys" on fishermen's chart plotters, eliminating the need for surface buoys. Fishermen also routinely use a customized hook on the end of a rope to catch the line between traps and haul them to the surface when the buoy line goes missing.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0ea6135b2648717554e2de7efd027ca9"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ylQ5q7Ivs2o?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Transitioning to ropeless technology will require a sea change in some of North America's most valuable fisheries. The 2016 U.S. lobster catch was worth <a href="https://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/commercial-fisheries/commercial-landings/annual-landings/index" target="_blank">U.S. $670 million</a>. Canadian fishermen landed <a href="http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/stats/commercial/land-debarq/sea-maritimes/s2016av-eng.htm" target="_blank">CA$1.3 billion</a> worth of lobster and <a href="http://www.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/stats/commercial/land-debarq/sea-maritimes/s2016av-eng.htm" target="_blank">CA$590 million</a> worth of snow crab.</p><p>Just as no fisherman wants to catch a whale, researchers and conservationists don't want to put fishermen out of business. In our view, ropeless technologies offer a genuine opportunity for whales and the fishing industry to co-exist if they can be made functional, affordable and safe to use.</p><p>Switching to ropeless gear is <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/lobster-trap-aims-protect-endangered-whalesand-fishers-livelihoods-180971208/" target="_blank">unlikely to be cheap</a>. But as systems evolve and simplify, and production scales up, they will become more affordable. And government support could help fishermen make the shift. In Canada, the federal and New Brunswick provincial governments recently awarded CA$2 million to Canadian snow crab fishermen to <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/snow-crab-right-whale-fishing-gear-research-1.5143321" target="_blank">test two ropeless trap designs</a>.</p><p>Converting could save fishermen money in the long run. For example, California Dungeness crab fishermen closed their 2019 season three months ahead of schedule on April 15 to settle a lawsuit over whale entanglements, leaving crab they could have caught still in the water. Under the agreement, fishermen using ropeless gear will be <a href="https://www.nationalfisherman.com/west-coast-pacific/dungeness-drag/" target="_blank">exempt from future early closures</a>.</p>
A Rebound is Possible
<p>The <a href="https://www.fws.gov/endangered/laws-policies/" target="_blank">Endangered Species Act</a> and <a href="https://www.fws.gov/international/laws-treaties-agreements/us-conservation-laws/marine-mammal-protection-act.html" target="_blank">Marine Mammal Protection Act</a> require the U.S. government to conserve endangered species. In Congress, the pending <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1568/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22H.R.+3729%22%5D%7D" target="_blank">SAVE Right Whales Act of 2019</a> would provide $5 million annually for collaborative research into preventing mortalities caused by the fishing and shipping industries. And an advisory committee to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently recommended <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/feature-story/team-reaches-nearly-unanimous-consensus-right-whale-survival-measures" target="_blank">significant fishing protections</a>, focused primarily on reducing the number of ropes in the water column and the strength of the remaining lines.</p><p>Consumers can also help. Public outcry over dolphin bycatch in tuna fisheries spurred passage of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and led to <a href="https://swfsc.noaa.gov/textblock.aspx?Division=PRD&ParentMenuId=228&id=1408" target="_blank">dolphin-safe tuna labeling</a>, which ultimately reduced dolphin mortalities from half a million to about 1,000 animals annually. Choosing lobster and crab products <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/icesjms/fsy194" target="_blank">caught without endangering whales</a> could accelerate a similar transition.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTU1NjEyNS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMzkyOTY5NX0.8G1DWmV8X9s37jlPBPxbY2X99EwZ8hdzxupVLrjghDc/img.png?width=980" id="e380d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="b95b1987283f474ecab6e95fabe1093d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Population trends in the North Atlantic and southern right whale species (estimates for North Atlantic species prior to 1990 are unavailable; southern estimates prior to 1990 on decadal scale). Illegal whaling caused a downturn in the southern species in the 1960s.
Michael Moore / data from Pace et al., 2017 / North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium / International Whaling Commission / CC BY-ND
<p>North Atlantic right whales can still thrive if humans make it possible. The closely related southern right whale (<em>Eubalaena australis</em>), which has faced few human threats since the end of commercial whaling, has rebounded from just 300 animals in the early 20th century to an <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/resource/document/southern-right-whale-eubalaena-australis-5-year-review-summary-and-evaluation" target="_blank">estimated 15,000 in 2010</a>.</p><p>There are real ways to save North Atlantic right whales. If they go extinct, it will be on this generation's watch.</p>
<p class="">
<em>Reposted with permission from our media associate </em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/high-tech-fishing-gear-could-help-save-critically-endangered-right-whales-115974" target="_blank">The Conversation</a></em><em>.</em>
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Jason Schreiber @Schreibernews / Twitter
This week, a video of a failed attempt to put a dead, 4,000-pound whale into a tiny dumpster made the rounds on the internet, garnering chuckles and comparisons to Peter Griffin forklifting and impaling a beached sperm whale on Family Guy.
The juvenile minke whale washed up on Jenness Beach in Rye, New Hampshire on Monday morning, NBC 10 Boston reported. It was found with entanglement wounds, so researchers with the Seacoast Science Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) wanted to move the carcass from the beach to a lab for a necropsy to study its death.
<p style="">But efforts to transport the whale took an unfortunate turn. The state-provided dumpster was too small to contain and transport the 16-foot whale, as seen in a Twitter
<a href="https://twitter.com/Schreibernews/status/1041753585766285313" target="_blank">video</a> posted by Jason Schreiber, a reporter for the New Hampshire Union Leader.<br></p><p>
The clip shows a front end loader lowering the animal into the dumpster before it flops off the side and lands on the ground.
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="cb9eb" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="E3IE851576662692"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1041753585766285313" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Yikes. The dead minke whale found on Jenness Beach didn’t fit in the dumpster. @UnionLeader https://t.co/hXuukJyeMA</div> — Jason Schreiber (@Jason Schreiber)<a href="https://twitter.com/Schreibernews/statuses/1041753585766285313">1537208384.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>
Schreiber
<a href="http://www.unionleader.com/animals/dead-whale-spends-night-in-rye-parking-lot-after-movers-realize-theyre-going-to-need-a-bigger-tote-20180918" target="_blank">reported</a> for the New Hampshire Union Leader that the whale was covered, barricaded for protection and spent Monday night in the parking lot where it was dropped. The next morning, a larger dumpster arrived. A crew successfully transported the carcass to marine biologists for a postmortem examination on Wednesday.<span></span>
</p><p style="">
Ashley Stokes, manager of the Seacoast Science Center's Marine Mammal Rescue Team, explained to the publication that a dumpster is ideal for transport because it keeps the whale contained and its bodily fluids from leaking. She added the whale's remains will be composted.
</p><p style="">
Although the whale's transportation is a debacle, its death is no laughing matter. Katie Pugliares-Bonner, a senior biologist and necropsy specialist at the New England Aquarium, told
<a href="https://www.livescience.com/63634-how-to-dispose-dead-whale.html" target="_blank">LiveScience</a> that researchers have noticed an usual spike in large whale deaths in the Atlantic, especially for minke, humpback and the North Atlantic right whale.
</p><p style="">Entanglement in fishing gear, vessel strikes, underwater sounds and anthropogenic noise are an increasing concern for baleen whales such as minke, according to <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/minke-whale" target="_blank">NOAA</a>.</p><div id="0a74d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="X3E1YP1576662693"><blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-version="4" style=" background:#FFF; border:0;
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<a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BV3bLAlhQ7i/" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif;
font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;
word-wrap:break-word;" target="_top">#thisisqueensland on Instagram: “Swimming with minke whales in @tropicalnorthqueensland 🐋 = speechless 😳 You can spot these gentle giants on the #GreatBarrierReef between…”</a></p>
</div></blockquote></div><p style=""><a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/insight/frequent-questions-2017-2018-minke-whale-unusual-mortality-event" target="_blank">Earlier this year</a>, NOAA declared an "Unusual Mortality Event"—a significant die-off—for minke whales from in the North Atlantic from Maine to South Carolina. This event began in January 2017 and strandings remain high, NOAA reported. Minke whales are not listed as threatened or endangered, but they are protected under the <a href="https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/topic/laws-policies#marine-mammal-protection-act" target="_blank">Marine Mammal Protection Act</a>.<br></p><p style="">
So when a dead whale washes ashore, biologists use it as an opportunity to study how it died, LiveScience wrote. A necropsy can reveal if the animals were entangled or died of an infectious disease, Pugliares-Bonner explained to the publication. This information can then help inform conservation and wildlife management efforts.</p>
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NOAA
By Michael Jasny
On Thursday, the House Natural Resources Committee passed a bill, called the "SECURE American Energy Act" (H.R. 4239), that can only be described as an oil industry wish-list. The bill's purpose is to mow down environmental concerns that stand in the way of the complete exploitation of fossil fuels in this country. For the oceans, this would mean an end to national monument designation and to some of those pesky safety regulations that were put in place after the Deepwater spill, among other things. And although it hasn't received much attention—yet—one late addition to the bill targets marine mammals in a very big way.
<p style="">H.R. 4239 would eviscerate one of the core provisions of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the law that for more than 45 years has been the bulwark of conservation for many of our most iconic ocean species. The Protection Act works by placing safeguards on human activities, like offshore oil exploration, that harm whales, dolphins and other marine mammals. Simply put, H.R. 4239 would gut a whole lot of those safeguards.</p><p style="">What would this mean for marine mammal protection? For starters:</p><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>H.R. 4239 would allow industry to harm huge numbers of marine mammals, by killing the safeguard limiting its impacts to "small numbers."</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>It would eliminate the requirement that activities have the "least practicable impact" on marine mammals, allowing industry to proceed without attempting to minimize harm.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>It would prevent the wildlife agencies from requiring industry to monitor the long-term consequences of its actions.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"> <li>It would establish an impossibly short timeline for the wildlife agencies to review industry activities for their marine mammal impacts, and automatically permit those activities if the agencies fail to meet it.</li></ul><ul class="ee-ul"><li>And, having turned much of our marine mammal law into a dead letter, it would exempt industry from having to comply with Endangered Species Act protections for marine mammals as well.</li></ul><p style="">Destroying the Marine Mammal Protection Act would pave the way for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/seismic-airgun-blasting">seismic blasting</a>—the first big step in oil and gas development—off the East Coast. As my colleagues and I <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/new-science-seismic-blasting-devastates-oceans-zooplankton" target="_blank">have</a> <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/atlantic-seismic-will-impact-marine-mammals-and-fisheries" target="_blank">written</a>, the industry's blasting is known to seriously compromise marine life from zooplankton to fish to the great baleen whales, and scientists have warned of "<a href="http://news.neaq.org/2015/03/full-text-letter-urging-president-to.html" target="_blank">significant, long-lasting and widespread impacts</a>" on entire species and populations if the oil industry gets the green light. Blasting the Atlantic is broadly opposed by <a href="http://www.protectourcoastnow.com/" target="_blank">more than 120 coastal communities</a> from southern New Jersey to Florida, by <a href="http://protectingtheatlanticcoast.org/" target="_blank">more than 40,000 coastal businesses</a>, by fishing associations, Chambers of Commerce, and more. But the oil industry doesn't care what the coast thinks.</p><p style="">Nor, of course, does it care about the love that people in this country have for whales and other marine mammals. In a recent poll, some 76 percent of Americans said they want to protect marine mammals from threats, including from offshore oil and gas exploration, and 73 percent said they support the Marine Mammal Protection Act. When the Committee released its bill, there was no mention of its bid to gut the Act in <a href="https://naturalresources.house.gov/newsroom/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=403321" target="_blank">its press release</a>, and that's not surprising. If I were them, I wouldn't want to let folks know what I was doing here either.</p><p style="">The "SECURE American Energy Act" (H.R. 4239) may come to a vote on the House floor this week. Please demand that your representatives strongly oppose this legislation and its attack on marine mammals. <a href="https://act.nrdc.org/letter/marine-mammals-171107" target="_blank">You can sign our petition here</a>; and <a href="https://www.callmycongress.com/" target="_blank">you can go here</a> to find the office number of your Congressional representative and give them a call.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xNDUzNDA2Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjk4OTIyNH0.SSz8CwUBGH74c7URTMi0bXvIVCjMfvyGrqI5cwV1hWU/img.jpg?width=980" id="ced4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e3737b2ee279d5f0beae44b97ba107fb" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small placeholder="add caption..." class="image-media media-caption">Save the MMPA!</small></p>
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