In loving memory of Slash

It is with great sadness that I must withdraw one of our whales from the symbolic adoption program.  It breaks my heart every time I hear of another dead right whale, particularly when they have become so much as part of the Bay of Fundy summers. 

In the latest Right Whale Research News Volume 20, No. 1, from the New England Aquarium, Marilyn Marx wrote the following:

"There is sad news in the right whale world: The great old whale Slash (Catalog #1303) is dead.  A boat captain discovered her carcass floating off Virginia on March 17, but it was never relocated so we don't know for sure how she died (but shipstrike is suspected).  She was first photographed in 1979, and she was named for her injured right fluke, the result of a shipstrike.  Over the years we saw her with six calves (though she may have had more). She was a protective mother: She rarely came near the boat when she was with a calf: we would see her distinctive flukes lifted in the distance, leading her calf away from potential danger."

Slash (on the left) in a courtship group in the Bay of Fundy, September 15, 2009.  The distinctive white scar on her tail was from a propeller slicing through her tail.  A normal right whale tail is on the right  and the back of another right whale is below. Her 2009 calf was with her in this group.

Her memory will continue with everyone who knew her and her death will be added to the long list of right whales that have died since right whales become valued for their existence, rather than the value of their blubber and baleen.

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:

Slash off the Wolves

On August 30 a courtship group of right whales was spotted off the Wolves, an island group between Grand Manan and Blacks Harbour, just off the ferry route. A number of right whales have moved in to that area, including several mothers and calves, because of a 10 m band of zooplankton concentrated between 80 and 90 m. The focal female of this group was a female with a beautiful white belly. White on the bellies and chins of right whales is only present on 30 % of the population. Because she was upside down, it took a while before she rolled over to breathe and the callosity patterns could be seen but just as she was rolling over, Slash’s very characteristic scar on her tail came in view and I could instantly identify her. The courtship group lasted for many minutes but broke up as a small calf approached the group. I presumed this was Slash’s calf coming to find its mother. During the summer and fall it is not unusual for mothers and calves to separate for an hour or more while the mother does deep feeding dives. Males listen to the calls between mother and calf and sometimes interrupt with their amorous attentions, even though the mother is still nursing and will be taking at least one resting year before possibly getting pregnant again. This may also be a reason mothers and calves are often by themselves or separate from the main group of right whales but courtship groups are very much a part of right whale social bonding and do occur throughout the year even though the females will not be getting pregnant until the winter.

We didn't see Slash again but the calf stayed in the area for awhile. Slash is often difficult to photograph when she has a calf, doing a good job avoiding cameras. Her calves are not always adequately documented but hopefully this year will be different.

CALF THAT APPROACH SLASH AND THE COURTSHIP GROUP:

Slash and calf

August 9th, the New England Aquarium research vessel found Slash #1303 and her calf in the Bay of Fundy during their regular surveys.

This is Slash's sixth calf. Slash last had a calf in 2005. She is often hard to photograph with her calf and many of her calves are not well documented. Slash is identifiable not only with her callosity pattern but also because of a tail injury from a propeller cutting through her tail.