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.

Couplet and calf seen in Cape Cod Bay

Couplet and her calf have successfully made it to Cape Cod Bay from the calving area off Florida and Georgia.

Read more on the New England Aquarium Research blog: http://rightwhales.neaq.org/2014/04/cape-cod-bay-update.html

Hopefully, we may see them in the Bay of Fundy this summer if the zooplankton resources recover.

Couplet is the daughter of Drippy-Nose and grand daughter of Kleenex.

Kleenex has a new great grand calf

Couplet #2123 who is the daughter of Drippy-nose AKA Sonnet #1123 has been seen on the calving ground with her fifth calf.  Sonnet is the daughter of Kleenex #1142.  This increases Kleenex's family to six great grand calves, and, of course, the existing 9 grand calves and 8 calves.

It is nice to see that the daughter (#1301 Half Note) of the first right whale in the right whale catalogue (#1001 Fermata) has a new calf.  Fermata hasn't been seen since 1992 but her daughter has been successfully carrying on the family genes. 

If you have a Facebook account, check out the group Right Whale Research  https://www.facebook.com/groups/155650304506795/ and the Face-ing Extinction: The North Atlantic Right Whale page  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Face-ing-Extinction-The-North-Atlantic-Right-Whale/187505221270322 for great information and updates.

Sighting of Catspaw and Calf

While hopes were initially high that a number of right whale mothers and calves would come into the Bay of Fundy this year after twenty calves were born, such was not the case.  Only a handful of right whales were seen and none spend much time in the Bay.  The culprit - most likely a lack of food in the form of copepods, their preferred diet.  It was disappointing for everyone and confusing as to where the right whales might be.

A couple of sightings were reported from Cape Breton, not an expected location.  The  New England Aquarium were able to do a few surveys in the second critical habitat in Canada, Roseway Basin.  The first survey in the third week in August had only a few right whales but numbers grew for the second survey in the middle of September when Catspaw and her calf were photographed (November 19, 2013).  Catspaw is only seen in the Bay of Fundy when she has a calf so we will have to wait until her next calf to see her again, fingers crossed that the copepod biomass returns to a better level.  Fortunately the New England Aquarium reported that the calf had a big fat roll, indicating a healthy baby and mom.

It will be interesting to see how many calves will be born this year after two bad years in the Bay of Fundy with 2013 being the worse.  Because there is a year delay from a poor food availability year, this year and next will let us know if the right whales have found adequate food elsewhere.  Of course, everyone would like to know where that is so the whales can be monitored in this unknown habitat and users of the area can be educated about right whales if they are not familiar with these endangered whales.

There is much discussion after the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium meeting about the whereabouts of right whales.  Here is a link to an article: http://e360.yale.edu/feature/a_north_atlantic_mystery_case_of_the_missing_whales/2715/

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.

.

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

Drippy-Nose's 2001 calf #3123 seen entangled

The 2001 female calf of Drippy-nose, AKA Sonnet, #3123, was photographed by the Center for Coastal Studies in Provinceton, MA on April 29, 2011.  Recently during analysis of the photos, they realized that the whale had what appeared to be red material near the right side of the mouth or the flipper.  Although the whale had been seen two other times in the previous month, this area of the whale was not observed.  It was very difficult to see the entanglement and the recommendation is to monitor the whale.

This female had her first calf over a year ago.  Calves usually stay with their mothers for a year before separating.  It would have been expected that her calf went its own way this winter.  She was seen by Quoddy Link Marine October 12, 2010 in the Bay of Fundy.  Her calf was Kleenex's fifth grand calf.

Kleenex family grows again with a new grand-calf

2008 calf of Drippy-nose taken August 26, 2008

The analysis of photographs taken by the National Marine Fisheries Service aerial survey team has revealed the 21st right whale mother of this calving season and she is Kleenex's 1981 daughter Drippy-nose, AKA Sonnet (#1123) in the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalogue.  This is Drippy-nose's fifth calf and Kleenex's eighth grand-calf.  Drippy-nose had her last calf in 2008.

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.

Kleenex grand daughter and great-grand calf

On September 6, we went looking for humpbacks and sperm whales and ended up with right whales.   One of the mothers and calves was #3123, daughter of #1123, Drippy-nose or Sonnet, and grand daughter of #1142 Kleenex.  This mother calf pair had been seen by the Center for Coastal Studies research team on August 22 south of the September 6 location. 

Kleenex has one of the larger right whale families with eight offspring, seven grand calves (two born in 2010) and five great grand calves (one born in 2010).  Kleenex's last calf was born in 2009.

Her female offspring keep up the Bay of Fundy tradition by also bringing their calves to the Bay of Fundy in their first year.

This photo shows the mother #3123 behind her calf who is rolled on its side with the eye and eyebrow callosity and chin callosities visible.

Another grandcalf of Kleenex seen in the Bay of Fundy

The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies (PCCS) research vessel "Shearwater" found right whales slightly east of Northeast Banks, below Grand Manan on August 22.  The whales were located at the beginning of the shipping lanes and were skim feeding.  This is when the whales feed close to the surface, swimming through zooplankton patches with their mouths open.  The New England Aquarium research team went down to photograph the whales and found three but missed the mother/calf pair which was identified from photographs from the PCCS team as #3123, the 2001 daughter of Drippy-nose, known in the Right Whale Catalogue as Sonnet #1123, daughter of Kleenex.

We found another mother calf pair the same day, #2430 or Minus One.  They were swimming into the Bay with the mother doing a deep dive once she crossed into water over 500' deep.

2010 calf of Minus One

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.

Right Whale Calf Found Dead

On July 2 a right whale calf was found dead 23 nautical miles from Southern Head, Grand Manan. Allied Whale from the College of the Atlantic photographed and took some samples but the badly decomposed calf was not recovered. The carcass had propeller cuts but without a full necropsy it is not known if this was pre- or post-mortem. It is also not known at this time whose calf this is but everyone will be keeping a lookout for a mother without a calf.

Not many right whales have been seen yet in the Bay of Fundy. The New England Aquarium team will begin surveys August 3 or so depending on weather and a better picture of where and how many right whales are in the Bay will be available.

Another great grand calf for Kleenex

The New England Aquarium saw #2123 and her calf today after the team dried out from heavy rain and wind as a storm moved through the area this morning. #2123 was born in 1991 and this is her fourth calf (2001, 2003, 2006, 2009). She is the daughter of Drippy-nose (AKA Sonnet in the right whale catalogue) and grand daughter of Kleenex. Her first calf died which is why there is only two years between the first calf and the second calf but since then she has been on a regular three year cycle, pregnant for a year, nursing for a year and one resting year.

Philip Hamilton of the New England Aquarium commented that the calf was so large that it looked like a juvenile. The transfer of energy from mother to calf is tremendous with the females loosing a substantial percentage of their body mass while nursing their calves. The resting year is necessary to regain the weight lost.

#2123 is the only grand daughter of Kleenex who is old enough to have calves. Kleenex has only one other daughter who has had a calf but she still has a large family with her eighth calf also born this year.

After I had sent a photograph of a calf that I had taken to Philip, it was determined we had both seen #2123's calf, the calf being alone when we sailed by. This is a head on photograph of the calf's head which can used to track this whale throughout its life:

This is a photograph of the calf lying on its side flipper slapping. This behaviour creates a loud bang and may be used by calves and mothers to alert each other of their presence when they are separated, if their calls go unanswered. During the summer, the mother often goes off to feed while the calf remains at the surface. The calf's eye is clearly visible.

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:

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.

Calvin and her calf

We were fortunate to find Calvin and her new calf September 10th. At first Calvin was by herself, having been feeding and also rubbing in the mud some 180 m below and then she reunited with her calf who also had a bit of mud on its head.

Calvin's 2009 Calf, first sen December 30th off Wrightsville Beach, NC during an aerial survey looking for right whale mothers and their calves:

Calvin's scars from when she was entangled in fishing gear stand out. She has a long scrape on her right side that healed with a long white scar. She also has a scar across the front of her upper lip below her bonnet callosity and several white scars on her tail and tail stock. Many scars on right whales heal with white scar tissue rather than the normal dark skin colour. Calvin and her calf about to dive:

The scar above and the scar on Calvin's upper lip are from being entangled in fishing gear when she was nine:

Calvin's side profile and her distinctive callosities. She is moulting skin on her head which gives the patchy appearance. She also had mud on her head from the bottom.

There are various theories about the mud, humpbacks also come up with mud on them at times. It could be that they are feeding on krill very close to the bottom, sometimes within a metre, or that they are rubbing their heads because of the whale lice or may use mud as we do, for a facial or it may be for some other reason. The mud is very thick and sticky and can remain on the whale's head for several surfacings.

The sighting of Calvin was also fortuitous for the New England Aquarium research team who have been trying to obtain a small skin sample from the calf which will be analyzed genetically and may result in the father being identified and also the sex of this calf.

Entangled mother released

September 4th saw the successful disentanglement of a right whale mother named Mavynne. She had been in the Bay of Fundy on August 28th but Friday morning was spotted by recreational fishermen and reported to the US Coast Guard at 7:30 AM. The disentanglement team from the Center for Coastal Studies responded and with the help of another recreational fisherman, eventually found the entangled right whale at noon.

The whale was free swimming but was moving slowly because of the weight of the gear it was towing and creating clouds of mud around it, probably from dragging the gear across the bottom. There were many wraps of line over the head and through the mouth. After several attempts to approach the whale, the team was successful in cutting a line across the top of the head. The weight of the fishing gear underneath the whale was sufficient to release all of the lines including the ones through the mouth. The team followed the whale for an hour to make check its status and never saw another right whale.

Photographs from the disentanglement attempt were sent to the New England Aquarium for an identification. The whale was quickly identified as a mother from this year, Mavynne, which sent shivers through everyone. We are hoping that her calf eventually found her as she called for her calf.

Mavynne is an interesting mother because she is the first known right whale mother to trade her calf with another right whale mother, Stumpy. In 1989 both were mothers and photographed in the calving area with calves. When the genetic profiles were done for the calves, at first the geneticists thought the samples had been reversed because the calves did not show genetic similarities to their mothers but when compared to the opposing mothers, did. The circumstances of the trade are not known but happened shortly after birth of each baby. This trading of calves will not happen again between these two females because unfortunately, a pregnant Stumpy, with a near-term fetus, were found dead in February, 2004 off Virginia Beach, killed by a collision with a vessel.

These sad stories are all too often in right whales and despite efforts to protect these whales, continue to happen.

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.

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: