A juvenile endangered North Atlantic right whale carcass washed ashore last month in Martha’s Vineyard, in the US state of Massachusetts. The event provided undeniable proof that Maine’s lobster fishery gear is involved in entanglements that, along with boat strikes, is the primary threat to the survival of the beleaguered population.
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For years, Maine’s lobster fishing industry has denied that there was proof that rope associated with their traditional rope-and-buoy lobstering gear was involved in the entanglement and subsequent deaths of North Atlantic right whales. Although Maine had not been directly implicated, a 2021 entanglement report produced evidence that 86% of observed right whales bore scars from entanglement with fishing gear.
A legal wrestling match has been going on for years between Maine’s lobster fishery and federal agencies tasked with right whale management.
The fishing industry contends that they have not seen whales in waters where the fishery sets its gear, arguing that rules meant to protect whales from entanglement unfairly target Maine’s fishers. The industry further contends that proposed or already required changes to their gear makes it more dangerous to operate.
One regulation passed in 2020 required Maine’s fishers to add a colored rope – purple in this case – to their gear as a way to identify the geographic source of the gear. It was a purple rope marker that implicated Maine lobster gear in the entanglement that resulted in the death of the juvenile North Atlantic right whale carcass that washed ashore in Martha’s Vineyard in January.
Impact of Entanglements
On its website, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association (MLA), an organization founded in 1954 to represent its members on issues related to lobster fishing, posted a response to the news of the death of the young right whale, saying the organization was “deeply saddened by the death of a juvenile right whale that NMFS has attributed to the Maine fishery.”
Valued at roughly US$1.5 billion and thus an important contributor to the state’s economy, the industry lobbies hard at attempts by federal agencies to institute any regulations meant to protect the whales when these could have economical or operational consequences for the fishery.
The post went on to state that MLA believes that “entanglement in Maine gear is extremely rare,” and argues that the right whale was the first reported entanglement in Maine lobster gear in the past 20 years.
However, research data offers a different perspective.
The likelihood for entanglement is greatest during the right whales’ annual migration, which occurs in the waters off the coast of Maine. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries designates the coast of New England including Maine as critical habitat for foraging as the right whales travel to and from southern coastal waters. The area from Cape Fear, North Carolina to below Cape Canaveral, Florida, is deemed a critical habitat as the whales congregate in winter to breed and calf.
When the body of a three-year-old female North Atlantic right whale washed ashore in Massachusetts, its fluke or tail had more than 100 feet (30.48 meters) of rope deeply embedded in it. The animal had been entangled in the rope for about a year. Previous attempts to remove the rope had been unsuccessful so that the rope had dug deeper and deeper into the whale’s flesh.
Regina Asmutis-Silver, executive director of Whale and Dolphin Conservation USA, observed that the situation must have been incredibly painful for the whale.
“Half her life was spent in pretty chronic pain,” she said.
Heather Pettis, a research scientist with the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at the New England Aquarium in Boston, counted the death of the whale known as No. 5120 as being of more significance than the loss of a single right whale. Pettis noted the impact of the individual to the survival of the entire population.
“She could have added into the population in her own calves, and then their calves and so on,” Pettis said.
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A Population in Decline
According to NOAA, entanglement and vessel strikes are the primary causes for the decline of the North Atlantic right whale’s population. Since 2017, 78% of the 123 known incidents that have killed or seriously injured right whales are due to confirmed vessel strikes or gear entanglements. The deaths of female right whales have the greatest implications for the long-term survival of the population. Less than 70 of the estimated 360 living right whales are breeding females.
Because right whale females are not sexually reproductive until the age of ten and produce one calf every six to ten years, the loss of a single female is a significant blow for the species. It is unclear whether the remaining 70 reproductively active females, roughly 20% of the current population, is sufficient to maintain the population if deaths attributed to entanglement and boat strikes were reduced or eliminated. Between 2010-2020, the right whale population declined about 25%.
This winter, 17 calves have been observed off the Florida and Georgia coasts. Two are presumed dead because their mothers have been spotted without their calves. Another calf was observed critically injured as a result of a vessel strike and, according to NOAA, its prognosis for survival is poor. Moreover, on February 13, 2024, the carcass of another North Atlantic right whale was discovered. This female born last year was found floating off Tybee Island east of Savannah along the coast of Georgia.
As the number of deaths continues to rise, Kathleen Collins, senior marine campaign manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said the eastern coast of the US has become a graveyard. It is her contention that the “inaction from the administration is digging the graves.”
Prognosis for Survival
According to NOAA, the number of known fatalities and injuries of right whales since 2017 has been high. The two juvenile deaths recorded since the beginning of the year bring the total since 2017 to 38 known fatalities.
A solution that assures the North Atlantic right whale survival may not come in time to prevent the population from passing into oblivion.
Environmental groups are seeking assistance from federal courts. They want to force the US government to finalize rules and require compliance in order to halt any further anthropogenic pressure on the population. The suits are often countered by the fishing industry and, in the one recent case, a federal appeals court sided with New England commercial fishermen. The court ruled that federal restrictions could cause the industry’s collapse, leaving a question about the impending collapse of the whale population.
Featured image: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Research/Flickr
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