Eleventh calf for 2014 - Baldy's a mother again

Here is a great blog post about sighting Baldy and her ninth calf in the Great South Channel. She was not seen with this calf in the typical calving area. She joins her grand daughter Boomerang, who also has a calf this year. http://rightwhales.neaq.org/2014/06/baldy-brings-calf-count-to-11.html?m=1.  We are still waiting to see a right whale this summer. Hopefully, the copepod patches will be more abundant in the Bay of Fundy this summer.

Wart's and Baldy's Families Continue to Grow

This seems to be the season for Wart and her family.  As reported, Wart's daughter Naevus (#2040) was the first mother and calf pair seen this calving season.  Now her grand calf #2645 has been spotted with her fourth calf. Her other calves were born in 2005, 2007 and 2010.  Her 2005 calf died that year.  She is the daughter of Slalom #1245 who has had five calves.

This grows Wart's family to twelve grand calves and five great grand calves.  Wart had her seventh calf last year which created quite a stir because she turned up off Cape Cod, foregoing the southern calving area.  Wart and her calf were seen later.

Interestingly, another female, Loligo #1246 also multiple generations with calves, a daughter #3546 and a grand daughter #2746.  This is her grand daughter third calf.  Her mother is #1946, Loligo's 1989 calf.  This is the first calf for #3546, Loligo's 2005 calf.

Baldy #1240 has a new great grand calf.  Her grand daughter Boomerang #2503 has been seen with her third calf.  She is the daughter of Trilogy #1503, Baldy's third calf of eight.  Baldy now has ten grand calves and three great grand calves.  Boomerang caused quite the stir in 2006 when she took her calf all the way to Corpus Christi, Texas.  It is unusual for right whales to swim around the southern end of Florida and into the Gulf of Mexico.

The number of right whale calves is now eight for the season.  The Marineland Right Whale Project. a group of volunteers who monitor right whales in the Marineland area of Florida, has a great blog to help you keep up with the latest right whale news in their area of calving.  http://marinelandrightwhale.blogspot.ca/

Baldy's family grows

On the 4th of January the Georgia Department of Natural Resources aerial survey team photographed Orion with her first calf.  Orion #3240 is the 2002 calf of Baldy #1240.  Baldy now has at least 11 grand calves from three of her daughters and one son.  Bugs has had five calves, #1503 has had four calves, Orion her first calf and son #2140 has fathered a calf.

Orion gets her name from three callosity islands on the left side of her head between the bonnet (at the tip of the rostrum) and the coaming (before the blowholes) that are reminiscent of the three stars in the constellation Orion's belt.  Names that reflect a characteristic of the callosities or other markings or scars are helpful in trying to remember particular whales.  Right whales do not all have names but there is a concerted attempt to name 15 or so a year.

Baldy's 2009 Calf Seen Off Florida

Baldy is one of our more prolific mothers with a large family of at least eight calves, plus grandcalves and great-grandcalves. She was seen several times in 2009 in the Bay of Fundy with her calf. Unfortunately her calf had suffered from an entanglement somewhere along the migration route from Florida to the Bay of Fundy. With no rope or other gear on the whale, the calf appeared okay. It was obvious that an entanglement and escape had occurred because of the type of cuts across her head, back and tail stock (see September 4 post, http://adoptrightwhales.blogspot.com/2009/09/baldys-eighth-baby.html).

On January 25, 2010, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission aerial survey team spotted Baldy's calf off Ponte Vedra, FL. They also responded with a vessel to get a closer look at the calf. No longer with Baldy, the health of the calf has deteriorated with many whale lice or cyamid amphipods on the tail stock. The whale lice population explodes when whales become unhealthy. Sick whales often turn a greyish colour from increased sloughing skin and the skin provides abundant food for the whale lice. Whale lice may also provide a role in keeping wounds clean. The whale also seemed to be moving unusually suggesting the entanglement may have caused spinal damage when the whale struggled to free itself from the entanglement.

The research teams will be on the lookout for this whale and hope that the injuries are not life-threatening.

Our adoptive right whale families continue to grow

I received the latest right whale calving numbers from the New England Aquarium and was pleased to see that both Kleenex's and Baldy's families have new members.

On December 22, Bugs was seen with her fifth calf. Bugs is the daughter of Baldy, born in 1982 and this now means that Baldy has ten grand-calves, as well as at least eight calves herself (the latest in 2009) and two great-grand-calves. Baldy was seen many times this summer in the Bay of Fundy but Bugs hadn't been photographed since 2006 in both Cape Cod Bay and the Bay of Fundy, which is not unusual if right whales avoid areas when surveys are being conducted. Bugs is named for a scar on her back that looks like the cartoon character "Bugs Bunny". Bugs had her first calf in 1989, her second in 1995, her third in 2002 and her fourth in 2005.

Right whale #3142, daughter of Kleenex born in 2001, was seen with her first calf also on December 22. This gives Kleenex six grand-calves, as well as at least eight calves (the latest in 2009) and four great-grand-calves. Interesting, #3142 was also last seen in 2006 in the Bay of Fundy. The year #3142 was born was also the beginning of the right whale baby boom with 32 calves born that year. Since 2001 over 200 right whale calves have been born bringing the estimated total of right whales to 438 in 2008 as calculated by the New England Aquarium. This is a complicated calculation that takes many factors into consideration and is not considered an exact number but a good estimate.

The weather has not been favourable for right whale aerial surveys in the southeast United States so this number of calves may be low. Let's hope for better survey weather and more calves are found in the next couple of months. We probably won't have numbers like last year (39) but perhaps in the 20s.

Another entangled calf

We had the Calvineers out today. We didn't find Calvin and her calf but hey were happy with the right whales we saw. The Calvineers are grade 7 and 8 students from the Adams School in Castine, ME. http://www.adamsschool.com/

Bill McWeeney, a teacher at the school, initiated the group to help his students understand about right whales, their lives and the issues they face daily in the ocean. The group is named after the right whale Calvin because of her amazing ability to survive despite being orphaned at eight months of age and being entangled at nine years of age. She carries the scars of that entanglement on her right side and tail but the knowledge imparted by her brief existence with her mother, Delilah, has allowed her to become a successful mother herself, following Delilah's fluke prints along the eastern seaboard.

We found a large group of right whales and a surface active group with the focus being Slash. Her calf was outside the group and I managed to get a photograph of the recent wounds from an entanglement. The New England Aquarium research team had seen these wounds and were interested in more photographs. I was pleased that we were able to locate the calf and I could get a few quick shots. This is the second calf that has been entangled this season. Baldy's calf also bears scars across the face and body when it became entangled but managed to break free. A mother has also been entangled, Mavynne, and successfully disentangled by staff of the Center for Coastal Studies. However, the fate of her calf is unknown.

This is a photograph of the right side of the leading edge of the tail of Slash's calf with the skin scraped off. There are also cuts across the tail stock. Calves often don't lift their tails very high so it was fortunate to see this much of the tail.

Entanglements are all too frequent in these whales and the ugly scars are a testament to their pain and suffering. Ship strikes are also a major issue and I was able to capture an image of Slash's partially amputated tail beside a normal, unscarred right whale tail. A boat propeller cut through Slash's tail leaving this massive scar on the underside of her tail and part of the fluke missing:

Boomerang

Quoddy Link Marine made a trip to right whales on September 13 and found Boomerang amongst 40+ right whales. Although the fog was thick, it lifted enough for them to find the whales including Boomerang, Baldy's grand calf, daughter of #1503. A long trip from St. Andrews, NB, to where the right whales are currently located in the eastern side of the Grand Manan Basin, but well worth the trip.

As previously mentioned this triad is three generations, all with calves this year. Thanks Danielle Dion for the photograph of the underside of Boomerang's tail with its distinctive scar. Unfortunately, all too often it is the massive scarring on right whales, usually from entanglement, that make individuals more readily identified when used in combination with the callosity patterns on their heads.

Baldy's calf from 1985 and Baldy's grand calf

We had an absolutely gorgeous, calm day on the Bay of Fundy. When we finally arrived in an area of right whales, it was so calm that the loudest things were whales breathing, after we reminded our passengers that whales can hear them screaming with excitement. It is interesting that it often isn't appreciated that whales have all the senses we do and can be disturbed by loud noises.

#1503 - born in 1985 to Baldy:

We watched several whales, some socializing, some napping, some feeding until we eventually found a mother and calf pair as we were at the end of our time. Fortunately I was able to photograph both the mother and calf and sent the photographs to the New England Aquarium researcher, Philip Hamilton, who spends many hours a day looking at photographs of right whales and matching them to the catalogue for North Atlantic right whales. He emailed me back very quickly and confirmed that the mother was #1503, Baldy's daughter born in 1985. Philip was pleased that the calf was with Baldy's daughter because they hadn't been able to photograph both together. It is not unusual for mothers to separate from their calves for a few hours while feeding in the summer and if you do not see the mother and calf when they are together, you can be left wondering who belongs to whom.

#1503's calf:

This is #1503's fourth calf, her first calf was born in 1995 when she was 10, about the average age for a first calf. She didn't have another calf until 2003 and then in 2006 and now in 2009. #1503's daughter Boomerang is also a mother this year, as is Baldy giving us three generations with calves in 2009.

Baldy's eighth baby

Baldy's eighth baby suffered through an entanglement in presumed fishing gear sometime during the migration from Florida to the Bay of Fundy. Already seen by the New England Aquarium research team, Quoddy Link Marine naturalist Danielle Dion (http://www.quoddylinkmarine.blogspot.com/) provided me with photographs of what she thought was Baldy’s calf taken off Head Harbour, Campobello Island but we have discovered that these photos are actually of another young right whale that has not been identified as of yet that has also been entangled.

Right whales have been very close to Campobello this summer, beginning in late August. This area was used in 1980-1 but is more frequently used in October of most recent years with the most extreme occurrence of right whales in the fall of 2006. This occurrence near the beginning of the lobster season precipitated the Right Whale Mitigation Plan or Southwest New Brunswick, similar to the voluntary Code of Ethics for whale watchers, outlining methods that lobster fishermen can take to avoid entangling right whales and also avoid loosing their fishing gear.

Photos of a young right whale that has been entangled. Danielle Dion photographs.

Danielle has been shocked at the beat up nature of right whales, i.e. very badly scarred whales. Much of this scarring is the result of entanglement in fishing gear. Those not regularly watching North Atlantic right whales are often unaware of their badly scarred bodies. Over 70% of right whales carry scars from entanglement in fishing gear. Because right whales are stronger than many whale species (due to their method of feeding, filtering the water as they swim), when entangled they fight the lines which are anchored to the bottom and usually break free, taking lines with them. In their struggle, they often scrape the skin which when it heals appears white and makes it more visible. They also roll and complicate the entanglement by creating tight wraps. Some right whales carry entangling ropes for five or more years. Right whales also don't slow down when disentanglers are trying to remove the lines which makes it difficult to free them.

Thanks to Danielle for the great photographs of this young right whale.

Baldy's calf

Baldy was seen in the Bay of Fundy August 9th by the New England Aquarium research team during their regular surveys. Baldy's calf has been injured and has marks across the head and also on the tail stock. It is unclear at this time the cause of the injury but is of concern. This is Baldy's eighth calf and she has one of the larger documented right whale families.



Another calf, the calf of 2145, has a large shark bite on its side but although impressive, probably poses no long term problems for this whale.

Another great calving season

The right whale calving season started in December in the U.S. Southeast (primarily Florida and Georgia waters) and has been amazing with at least 22 calves born by the middle of January. Since 2001, the right whale population has been experiencing a baby boom with more than the average number of calves (~11) being born each year. The highest year was 2001 with at least 31 calves born, however, this is still below the biological potential for the population, i.e. there are still many females who are not having calves. It is quite possible this calving year might exceed the high in 2001. This is exacting what this population needs to recover to a more sustainable level. Right whales remain critically endangered with an estimated population of about 400.

Females typically space their calves by three years (unless their calf dies and then they may have a calf within two years), are on average ten when they have their first calf (youngest four, oldest twenty), and only have one calf at a time. Nursing a rapidly growing baby that weighs a ton at birth is very energy consuming, particularly when the females are fasting for the first few months. Female right whales need a resting year to regain weight before getting pregnant again.

Of our adoptable whales, so far:

• Baldy, #1240 was seen with her eighth calf (last calf in 2005)
• Calvin, #2223 was seen with her second calf (last calf in 2005)
• #1503, daughter of Baldy, was seen with her fourth calf (last calf in 2006)
• #2145, daughter of Grand Teton #1145 and Gemini #1150, was seen with her fourth calf (last calf in 2007 but calf died)
• Couplet, #2123, grand-daughter of Kleenex #1142, was seen with her fourth calf (last calf in 2006). Her mother is Drippy-nose AKA Sonnet #1123
• Shenandoah, #1266, mother of one of Baldy's grand-calves with son #2140, was seen with her seventh calf (last calf in 2004)

Another mother of note is Mavynne #1151. She was involved in the only known case of adoption in right whales in 1989 when she swapped her calf with the calf of Stumpy #1004. No one knows the circumstances, but presumably the two mothers gave birth close to each other and for whatever reasons, their calves ended up being exchanged. The association was discovered through genetic analysis of skin samples from the calves and comparison with their mothers. This is Mavynne's sixth calf. Unfortunately, Stumpy was struck and killed by a ship in 2004. She was missing the right fluke tip on her tail and hence her name.

The right whale catalogue is an invaluable source of information about individual right whales. It is maintained by the New England Aquarium's dedicated right whale team. http://rwcatalog.neaq.org/