Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Wednesday 4 april 2018
As whales fade, movement they spawned tries to keep up hope

By PATRICK WHITTLE and animal lovers of all tainly am." on the warming of the At- are not finding food," he
Associated Press stripes are rallying to re- The decline of right whales lantic Ocean. The whales told fishermen at the Maine
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. new interest in saving right dates back to the whaling migrate from Georgia and Fishermen's Forum in early
(AP) — Regina Asmutis- whales, but many admit to era of centuries ago, when Florida to New England March.
Silvia, a biologist who has Last year, there were 17
dedicated her career confirmed right whale
to saving right whales, is deaths — a dozen in Can-
cleaning out a file cabinet ada, the rest in the United
from the early 1990s, and States. Scientists haven't
the documents inside tell a observed a single new right
familiar story — the whales whale calf this year, anoth-
are dying from collisions er dire development.
with ships and entangle- Advocates for right whales
ments in commercial fish- have turned to touting in-
ing gear, and the species novations, engaging with
might not survive. commercial fishing groups
Fast forward through a and calling for expedit-
quarter-century of crawl- ing new protections in the
paced progress, and it's all U.S. and Canada. But it's a
happening again. hard fight greeted by gov-
"It's a little scary to think if ernment bureaucracy and
we hadn't been working on skeptical industries con-
this all these years, would cerned about their own
they have been relegated survival.
to history instead of Cape Baumgartner spent some
Cod Bay?" said Asmutis- of his presentation at the
Silvia, of Plymouth, Mas- Maine Fishermen's Forum
sachusetts-based Whale talking about a new tech-
and Dolphin Conservation. nology that uses a modem
"We're standing on the to locate and retrieve lob-
cliff and going, 'It matters, ster fishing line from the
they're still here, they're still ocean floor. The innovation
something to fight for'." In this Wednesday March 28, 2018 photo, the baleen is visible on a North Atlantic right whale as it could reduce the number
Despite eight decades of feeds on the surface of Cape Cod bay off the coast of Plymouth, Mass. of fixed fishing lines that
conservation efforts, North Associated Press can cause right whales to
Atlantic right whales are become entangled and
facing a new crisis. The feeling close to defeated. they were targeted as the and Canada every year, slowly suffocate.
threat of extinction within a Charles "Stormy" Mayo, di- "right" whale to hunt be- seeking food. They are aid- There were grumbles from
generation looms, and the rector of the right whale cause they were slow and ed by a complex system of fishermen who doubted
movement to preserve the ecology program at the floated when killed. They protected areas, shipping the viability of the new
whales is trying to come up Center for Coastal Studies were harvested for their oil regulations and commer- gear. One called out: "You
with new solutions. in Provincetown, and oth- and meat, and might have cial fishing restrictions that ever been on a lobster
The whales are one of the er scientists have said the dwindled to double digits try to ensure safe passage boat?"
rarest marine mammals in species could be extinct until international protec- as they gorge on cope- Conservation groups filed a
the world, numbering about as soon as 2041. Mayo, a tions took hold in 1935. pods, crustaceans the size federal lawsuit this year ac-
450. The 100,000-pound an- ninth generation resident Preserving the whales be- of a flea. cusing the National Marine
imals have been even clos- of Cape Cod whose an- came an international But as waters have Fisheries Service of not do-
er to the brink of extinction cestors harpooned whales cause, championed by warmed, the tiny organ- ing enough to protect right
before, and the effort to in the 18th and 19th centu- environmentalists, scientists isms they need to survive whales from fishing gear.
save them galvanized one ries, now leads expeditions and the U.S. government, appear to be moving, Still, advocates see some
of the most visible wildlife to find the animals and try and their population grew and the whales are fol- reasons to be optimis-
conservation movements to learn how to save them. to about 275 in 1990 and lowing, sometimes putting tic. Canada recently an-
in U.S. history. "There's a fair amount of 500 around 2010. But then themselves in harm's way, nounced moves to protect
But the population's falling sadness, dealing with these things changed. said Mark Baumgartner, a the whales by changing
again because of poor re- creatures. They are on the Scientists are still trying to scientist with Woods Hole the dates of the snow crab
production coupled with brink of extinction now, and figure out why the whales Oceanographic Institution. season and establishing a
high mortality from ship their future is truly in doubt," have lost about 10 per- They also just aren't eating permanent speed limit in
strikes and entanglement. he said. "I don't think any cent of their population enough, he said. the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Scientists, environmental- of us are discouraged, but in just eight years, but one "The whales are moving And this winter, scien-
ists, whale watch captains many of us are fearful. I cer- hypothesis places blame around a lot more and they tists observed a behavior
called a "surface active
group" for the first time in
a year. The whales gather
at the surface for males to
compete to mate with a fe-
male, which scientists hope
augurs for a baby whale in
the future.
"They can recover. They're
not a hopeless species,"
said Asmutis-Silvia. "We just
have to stop killing them."q