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SCIENCEWednesday 16 March 2016

Extremely rare whales make big showing in Cape Cod Bay

WILLIAM J. KOLE In this April 10, 2008 file photo, the head of a right whale peers up from the water as another whale passes behind in Cape Cod
Associated Press Bay near Provincetown, Mass.
BOURNE, Mass. (AP) —
Cape Cod is seeing a lot Associated Press
more of some singularly
welcome tourists: endan- pulse in numbers in the of their time in the west- bay, even as the whales’ Researchers out spotting
gered right whales enticed past few years,” said Amy ern Atlantic, and many traditional feeding grounds whales report their where-
by the fine dining possibili- Knowlton, a scientist with are believed to congre- off the Maine coast falter. abouts to state and federal
ties of its plankton-rich bay. the New England Aquari- gate in the Gulf of Maine. “They’re a little like cows in authorities, who in turn alert
Experts tracking the ma- um’s Right Whale Research They’re rarely seen north of a field. They go away from nearby vessels. Federal law
jestic marine mammals — Project. the entrance to the Gulf of places that are not good forbids getting within 500
among the rarest creatures “Right whales are probably St. Lawrence in Canada’s and go to places that are yards of a right whale and
on the planet — say nearly scouting for food all the Maritime Provinces. A few good,” he said. requires ships to slow to 10
half the estimated global time. Maybe when one of venture as far south as Although some right whales knots — roughly 11.5 miles
population of 500 or so them finds it, they call their coastal Florida and Geor- arrive in the bay in early De- per hour. Whale-watch
animals has been spotted friends,” she said. gia, mainly females giving cember and linger as late tours steer clear, focusing
in Cape Cod Bay over the Each whale has a unique birth to calves — something as mid-May, their presence instead on humpbacks and
past few springs. marking on its head, and scientists say doesn’t hap- generally builds in March other comparatively plenti-
They’re back again in what researchers use those to pen often enough. and peaks in mid-April, ful species.
looks like record numbers, identify and catalog in- Their increasing presence in when plankton concentra- “It’s always heartening ev-
thrilling amateur photogra- dividuals. The Aquarium, Cape Cod Bay has caught tions are at their highest. ery time we see individu-
phers and scientists still an- which also closely moni- scientists by surprise. Mayo The busy waters hold clear als and know they’re still
guishing over their future. tors the population, gives theorizes that shifting and present dangers: a risk alive,” Knowlton said. “It’s
“It’s rather extraordinary specific animals amusing ocean currents — possi- of being struck by commer- only through seeing them
and somewhat mind-blow- names such as Kleenex, bly due to global climate cial ships and recreational and their scars that we can
ing,” said Charles “Stormy” Snotnose and Wart. change — are pumping boats or becoming entan- really understand what’s
Mayo, a senior scientist and Right whales spend most more plankton into the gled in nets. going on with them.”q
director of right whale ecol-
ogy at the federally-funded
Center for Coastal Studies
in Provincetown.
North Atlantic right whales
have foraged for centuries
in Cape Cod Bay, where
their numbers were deci-
mated by whalers who
hunted them for their oil
and plastic-like baleen
bone.
But until recently, they were
seldom spotted in the bay.
For a stretch in the late
1990s, fewer than 30 whales
were sighted each year,
said Mayo, who’s been sur-
veying them and their eco-
system since 1984 by boat
and plane.
“There has been a huge