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/

Wart's family grows

Naevus, Wart's calf born in 1990, was seen with a new born calf, less than three days old, on December 20 off Sapelo Island, Georgia.  This is the fifth calf of Naevus, the other calves born in 2002, 2005, 2008, 2011.  Her calving interval is very regular and the minimum for right whale females, every three years.  The pregnancy is a year, nursing is a year and there is a year to recover the weight lost during the nursing period which can be an incredible 10 tons.  Shorter calving intervals only occur when a calf is lost shortly after birth and the intensive nursing period does not occur.

A news article about the birth can be found in the Savannah Morning News:  http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-12-24/seasons-first-whale-calf-sighted-sapelo-island#.UrxAomx3u70.  Two photos of mom and calf are also included: http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-12-24/seasons-first-whale-calf-sighted-sapelo-island# and http://savannahnow.com/news/2013-12-24/seasons-first-whale-calf-sighted-sapelo-island#.

This brings Wart's family to seven calves, twelve grand-calves and four great grand-calves, with all generations still reproducing.  Wart had her seventh calf this past season.

Fingers crossed that more calves are to come.

Catspaw's Fourth Calf

Catspaw has a new calf this season.  We only see Catspaw in the Bay of Fundy when she has a calf, the same as Wart who also never comes to the Bay unless she has a calf, so we look forward to seeing both of them this summer in the Bay.

This is Catspaw's fourth calf.  She has had calves in 2002, a female, 2005, a male, 2008, another male, and now one in 2013.  We don't know the sex of this calf yet, but because a small skin sample was taken from the calf while it was in the calving area, the sex of the calf will be known once the genetic material is analyzed.

The head of Catspaw.  The callosities or rough patches of skin, are used to identify individuals.  These rough patches of skin develop in the first six months and remain a reliable method to identify individuals throughout their lives.

The New England Aquarium right whale researchers are attempting to get skin samples from every calf.  The newborns are not individually recognizable because they have no callosities.  If they are not seen with their mothers after the callosities emerge, they can not be identified through their mothers except with the genetic fingerprinting.  This will hopefully help when juvenile whales are photographed and a match can not be found in the right whale catalogue.  Getting a skin sample from the juvenile and comparing it to calf samples can determine whose its mother is.  There is still a percentage of the right whale population who have not been genetically profiled so it makes it difficult to work backwards to find the parents.

Catspaw has had an interesting sighting history, identified in 1986, seen for two years and then disappearing from the camera lens until 2000.  She was put on the probably dead shelf but was happily "resurrected" and went on to become a mother.

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Wart and Calf

Wart, #1140, and her calf were resighted during an aerial survey in mid April, again in the Cape Cod area.  While it was very exciting to know about Wart and her new calf being seen in January in Cape Cod Bay, many worried about the calf but the calf seems to be fine, growing and as far as is known, has never been to the calving area in the southeast US.

Right whale occurrence has been unusual this winter with few whales in the calving area, other than calving females, and few right whales in the Cape Cod area from January through March.  In late March, right whales suddenly appeared in large numbers in the Cape Cod area.  This continues the unpredictable distribution of last summer.

We look forward to see what will happen in the Bay of Fundy this summer with 20 new calves, some of which will come to the Bay with their mothers.

Wart and her new calf seen in January off Cape Cod. 
Allison Henry/NEFSC under Center for Coastal Studies NOAA permit #14603

Check out the New England Aquarium's blog with links to newspaper articles about Wart and her newest calf: http://news.neaq.org/2013/05/right-whale-sighting-wart-and-her-baby.html

Wart's New Calf

Calving in right whales can often be a family affair with several generations of females calving in the same year.  This is the case with Wart this year.  She has been seen with a new calf, not in the southeastern calving area as would be expected this time of year, but rather in Cape Cod Bay!  This is the first time she has been photographed since early May 2010 when she was disentangled after first being seen entangled in 2008.

As mentioned in a post on December 31, 2012, Wart's daughter Black Heart and her grand-daughter Millipede both have been seen with calves.  This is Wart's seventh known calf and her first calf since 2005 when she had Black Heart.  

Why is she in Cape Cod Bay with a new calf at this time of year and what was she doing for the last few years is one of the reasons right whales keep everyone on their toes. Right whale mothers have been seen with new calves in areas other than the calving area but it is rare. Usually when a mother is seen with a calf outside the calving area it is because she was missed during the aerial surveys, presuming that she was in the calving area. However, right whale female Derecha, #2360, who gave birth in the Great South Channel in the late spring in 2007, headed south and was seen off Florida on 17 July.  She then turned around and was seen in the Bay of Fundy for the month of September.  It will be interesting to see if Wart will head south as well.

Right whale Derecha #2360 seen in the Bay of Fundy September 4, 2007 after swimming from the Great South Channel to Florida and back with her calf.

Right whale Derecha #2360 seen in the Bay of Fundy September 4, 2007 after swimming from the Great South Channel to Florida and back with her calf.

Two of the females seen on Jordan Basin in the Gulf of Maine just over a year ago have been seen with calves in January.  The Jordan Basin is a proposed mating area for right whales and with these two females, that connection now seems solid, but as with all things to do with right whales is probably one of several mating areas.  It is an excellent reason to protect the area for right whales and make it a critical right whale habitat.

With so few whales, it is amazing that they can do so many unexpected things.

 

Wart's and Kleenex's Families Grow

The 2013 right whale calving season is only a month old and already twelve calves have been seen and two of our adoptive families have grown.

Kleenex has one of the largest right whale families and her daughter, #2042, had her first calf in December.  This is Kleenex's eight grand-calf and the fourth of five daughters to have calves. Kleenex has had eight calves with the earliest in 1977 (unknown sex and never catalogued), followed by two male calves and five female calves. #2042 has yet to be named and is one of the older new mothers, born in 1990.  The age a female has her first calf varies greatly, from as young as five to over twenty, but the average is around ten years of age.

Right whale diving in the Bay of Fundy.

Wart's family has grown by two so far this calving season.  Her daughter, Black Heart #3540, born in 2005, had her first calf, Wart's tenth grand-calf.  Wart's grand-calf, Millipede #3520, born the same year as Black Heart, and the daughter of Wart's calf, Naevus, #2040, born in 1990, also had her first calf in December, Wart's fourth great-grand-calf.

It is not unusual to have several generations of right whale females with calves in the same year.  In fact, #1612 and her daughter #2912 both have had calves this December.  Researchers are still hoping that perhaps some of the females that were seen in the Gulf of Maine a year ago, a suggested mating area for right whales, will be seen with calves this year.

Right whale diving amongst great and sooty shearwaters in the Bay of Fundy.

Injured calf of Wart

The National Marine Fisheries Service aerial survey of Cashes Ledge in the Gulf of Maine found and photographed the 2001 male calf of Wart on December 18, 2010.  There were 28 right whales seen during this flight including #3140 or Lou as he is known.

He was last photographed in April, 2010 and since that time has had a significant injury on his tail stock or peduncle.  It is difficult to assess the injury from aerial photographs but a large section of skin is missing.  It is unknown if this extends completely around the tail stock.

We can only hope that Lou survives this injury.  Right whales do have an amazing ability to survive some gruesome injuries as seen with Ruffian #3530, who incidentally was also seen during this flight.

Ruffian's back scar - white scar tissue

2645 and calf sighting

Insignia's 2010 calf
Insignia

Insignia #2645 and her calf were seen August 7. Insignia was born in 1996 to Slalom (#1245). Slalom is the 1982 calf of Wart #1140.

It was wonderful to see this new member to Wart's family. This is Insignia's third calf and the only granddaughter of Wart to have calves so far. Wart has had eight calves, the last one in 2008.

Wart Free of Entangling Gear

Wart, #1140 who carried rope through her mouth and wrapped around her rostrum for two years is now gear free, thanks to the Center for Coastal Studies and the NOAA aerial survey team who coordinated the cutting of the rostrum wrap which freed the ends of the rope (see May 2 posting). With the rostrum wrap cut, the rope slipped out of her baleen and she was photographed by the NOAA aerial team surveying the Great South Channel gear free. Her mouth has a lot of scarring from the chaffing of the rope but she is otherwise healthy. Let's hope she remains gear free.

Wart partially disentangled

The NOAA aerial survey team spotted Wart #1140 on May 1 in the Great South Channel off Cape Cod. The Center for Coastal Studies team were already on the water and proceeded to the location. The plane was able to stay on site through most of the disentanglement attempt and helped to keep the boat team on Wart as she actively avoided all attempts to get close to her. This avoidance behaviour is very common in right whales and complicates getting near a whale to remove entangling lines but is inherent to right whales to avoid harassment. Their strength and endurance that allows them to feed for hours on end with their mouth open straining zooplankton from the water, also prevents them from tiring easily when pursued. Unfortunately, it was not enough to protect them from the determination of the whalers.

Using a new cutting device, the disentanglement team eventually were able to cut the two lines over Wart's rostrum between her large lower lips and the line fell away. Sinking line still exits the mouth but when the plane had to return to shore for fuel, the boat team were unable to get close enough to try to grapple the sinking line. They were able to get clear photographs that the rostrum line was gone. If Wart is seen again, she will be assessed as to the remaining entanglement. It is hoped that with the two lines gone from the rostrum, the other line may work its way out of the mouth but it is not known how the line is held in the baleen.

Great work to the NOAA aerial crew and the Center for Coastal Studies disentanglement team!

Wart seen again

Wart was seen east of Cape Cod on April 21, 2010 and the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies spent three hours with her to see if they could cut off the wrap of rope that goes over her rostrum, in and out of her mouth. Unfortunately Wart spent most of that time feeding just below the surface or breaching so nothing could be done about her entanglement. She still looks healthy even though she has had the rope entanglement for two years, since at least March 6, 2008 when she was spotted in Cape Cod Bay. This is the third time in 2010 that she has been seen.

Calf count grows as does Wart's family tree

It has been a slow calving season but several new mothers and calves have been spotted and the calf total is now 16 with a few potential mothers still in the calving area. That ties the number in 2004, the lowest number of calves born from 2001 to present, which is much higher than the lowest previous number of one calf in 2000.

Wart has a new great grandcalf. Her granddaughter Insignia #2645, daughter of Slalom #1245 was seen with her third calf on March 5. Her first calf in 2005 died. She had her second calf in 2007 after only two years which is only possible in right whales when a mother looses a calf shortly after birth and she does not loose the tremendous amount of blubber to nursing a rapidly growing calf. The female must regain the weight before she can get pregnant again and this is done during the resting year after the mother and calf separate, approximately a year after birth, is pregnant for a year and nurses for a year which gives a three year calving interval. Not all females are on this interval and there can be great differences between females. When the calf is lost the female can regain the much smaller weight loss more quickly and be ready for her next pregnancy earlier.

Wart's family now consists of six calves, eight grand-calves and three great grand-calves. At least one daughter #1704 is presumed dead, as is her calf #2704. Shackleton #2440 created quite a stir when he swam up the Delaware River, almost to Philadelphia.

Although not one of our adoptive whales, Stumpy was a regular to the Bay of Fundy. She died in 2004 when hit by a ship just prior to giving birth. Her loss was devastating to all that knew her and even more so because of the loss of the calf. Her extremely large size made it very difficult to recover her carcass. Her last calf #2710, born in 1997, has had her second calf this year, her first in 2006. Stumpy's daughter Phoenix is a grand mother again with her daughter having her second calf this year. She had her first calf in 2007.

Wart #1140 Resighted

Wart, #1140, one of our adoptive whales, was reported entangled March 6, 2008. Rope entered and exited from her mouth. She was seen several times in March in Cape Cod Bay and then not again until February 25, 2009, still entangled and again in Cape Cod Bay. On January 24, 2010, she was seen again still entangled but this time further north in the Gulf of Maine in Jordon's Basin, a winter habitat that has been surveyed primarily by plane for the last several years and may be one of the mating areas for right whales. There were other right whales in the area but she was observed alone and probably feeding because of the long dive times.

Calving areas are separate from other activities and usually only a small proportion of the population attend (pregnant females, juveniles and a few non-pregnant adult whales) and are found from North Carolina to Florida along this coast.

The Center for Coastal Studies entanglement website has described the entanglement which continues to change orientation but persists with line coming out of the mouth. It does not appear life threatening but a continuing irritation to the whale. Disentangling right whales is not an easy task. Right whales seldom slow their swimming and show active avoidance and resistance to approaching disentanglers. Wart will continue to be monitored.