A Glimmer of Hope for the Invisible Whale
by Mary Jane Scramm
On June 15, 2021, Canadian fisheries scientists off British Columbia were peering intently at a pewter sea and sky, betting on a long shot that this final day of their weeks-long cruise would produce a miracle. Instead of plankton and fish, they were hoping the “catch” of the day - figuratively speaking - would be among the world’s rarest whales, a North Pacific right whale. Astoundingly, their luck held: they sighted one feeding and diving lustily off the Haida Gwaii Archipelago. This “invisible” animal, one of perhaps only 30 to 50 alive in our Eastern North Pacific (ENP) waters, had bucked incredible odds to survive. In the entire world, fewer than 500 remain.
Eubalaena japonica, like its higher-profile cousin, the North Atlantic right whale of the Eastern Seaboard, remains critically endangered due to 19th and 20th century whaling. As desirable targets, the 60 to 70-foot leviathans were second only to sperm whales: an easy catch, given their ponderously slow speed, buoyancy and surface-skimming feeding habits. Their thick blubber generously filled rendering kettles with oil. Their 15 ft.-long flexible baleen plates hanging from arched upper jaws to filter plankton from water, fetched a premium price for their many uses that plastics now replace. International law halted their “take” in 1935, but illegal Soviet whaling continued into the 1960s, actions that could prove irremediable.
Nonetheless, this sighting and a handful of others off Southern California and in Alaska in recent years are sending shivers of excitement and hope through conservationists. Bay Area whale researcher Jim Scarff reported that as of 2017, “There have been only 18 confirmed records of right whales off California (including two sightings off Baja) since 1955.” Happily, one was a youngster. A 2017 joint International Whaling Commission survey in the eastern Bering Sea - their core habitat - used acoustic monitors (sonobuoys) to locate 15 right whales; photos revealed that four were new individuals, and one was a juvenile. This indicated at least one reproductive-age female was in their area, a near miracle in such a small population.
North Pacific right whales still face a gauntlet of threats including increased risk of ship strike, fisheries entanglement, and food chain disruption from climate change and an increasingly acidic ocean. The Marine Mammal Commission indicates this species may be “at extreme risk of extinction” citing “inbreeding and the potential for random events to affect a large portion of the population.” Climate change has already disrupted their food supply of krill and copepods, with the melting of the ice cover that boosted food productivity on their Arctic feeding grounds.¹
Still, scientists hope against hope that they may somehow be saved. Researchers and agencies are ramping up their conservation strategies and policies. NOAA’s Alaska Fisheries Science Center has satellite-tagged six whales to learn more about their movements and critical habitats and what these whales need to survive. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) may create a national marine sanctuary on their core Bering Sea feeding grounds, Alaska’s St. George/Unangan Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. ²
See coverage on the June 2021 sighting³ and species facts.⁴
1. https://www.mmc.gov/priority-topics/species-of-concern/north-pacific-right-whale/
2. https://unangansanctuary.net/.
3. https://tinyurl.com/NRW-Can-062021
Watch how Atlantic rights skim-feed: https://youtu.be/scoJ6IsU7B0 NOAA/NMFS scientific Permit #15415
4. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/species/north-pacific-right-whale
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
[a] https://nmsfarallones.blob.core.windows.net/farallones-prod/media/archive/manage/pdf/sac/13_11/usfws_sefi.pdf
[b] https://www.pointblue.org/science_blog/farallon-islands-restoration-how-you-can-help/
[c] https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/close-to-home-eradication-of-mice-on-farallon-islands-is-right-move/.
PHOTO: North Pacific Right Whale Veeblow. Credit: NOAA_Flickr.
