A North Atlantic right whale calf was severely injured by a pleasure boat and is expected to succumb to its injuries, according to U.S. scientists who are diligently monitoring the birthing season of this endangered species, which barely counts of 360 individuals.
As of late November, this calf was the first sighting during the 2023-2024 birthing season. He was then swimming in the company of his mother, nicknamed Juno, a female well known to scientists for almost 40 years and who has already suffered four entanglements in fishing gear.
The American Atmospheric and Oceanic Agency (NOAA), however, released on Wednesday a photo taken on January 6 which shows that the calf was very severely mutilated by a pleasure boat propeller off the coast of South Carolina. Experts reported deep head injuries that are expected to cause his death. This expected death reduces the number of calves for this birthing season from nine to eight.
The Center for Biological Diversity responded Wednesday by denouncing the lack of protection measures for right whales during the birthing season, which extends from late November to early March, mainly near the coasts of the states of Carolina South, Georgia and Florida.
Fatalities and injuries
Right whales spend a lot of time near the surface of the water, which makes them particularly vulnerable to collisions, particularly with boaters who sometimes move quickly. Fatal injuries have been recorded on other calves of the species in recent years.
This is 35e case of “severe injury” documented by scientists in the context of an abnormally high sequence of deaths and injuries which has been taking place for several years. Since 2017, 122 North Atlantic right whales have been observed dead, severely injured or sick. Thus, that year, no fewer than 17 adult right whales were found dead, including 12 in Canadian waters. A total of 10 right whales died in 2019.
These animals, which were less present in the waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence just a few years ago, may have chosen to frequent the region more during the summer due to the movement of the zooplankton on which they feed, a change attributable to warming of the waters of the American east coast.
Dangerous decline
For scientists, the bad news of recent years is all the more worrying as the efforts of recent decades have demonstrated that it is possible for the species to regain strength.
In the early 1990s, there were only 275 North Atlantic right whales. But thanks to the implementation of important protection measures in American waters – the modification of shipping routes, the adoption of rules for commercial fishing and the creation of a surveillance system – the population of the species had reached 500 individuals in 2010.
Today it reaches, at best, 364 individuals. The decline is such that births are failing to fill the void left by deaths, a situation that represents an “unsustainable burden on the species,” according to Heather Pettis, a researcher at the New England Aquarium.
According to the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium (NARWC), which brings together Canadian and American scientists, the reproduction rate of these cetaceans has also declined significantly in recent years, so much so that “the low births each year have eliminated the capacity of the population to grow and cope with mortality caused by humans.
According to researchers at the New England Aquarium, it is possible, in some cases, that females who have been entangled in fishing gear may not be able to reproduce due to the significant impact of these incidents on their health. Some drag fishing gear for months or even years.
“Many females may be unable to accumulate enough fat to successfully become pregnant or carry a pregnancy to term due to possible reductions in food availability and increased effort to find food,” also notes. the NARWC.