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.

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.

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/

Great Right Whale Photos - Slow calving Season

Calving has been slow this winter for right whales.  Unfortunately, this was feared because of the lack of right whales in the Bay of Fundy in 2012.  We had hoped the whales were finding enough food elsewhere, particularly the potential mothers.  Mothers require sufficient blubber to nurse the calf following its birth and will not get pregnant unless this is reached.

So far six calves have been photographed with their mothers and there is still about a month and a half left in the calving season so there might be more and some can be missed on the calving area and not seen until they swim to the Cape Cod area or the Bay of Fundy.

With a much colder and an early start to winter, we are hopeful that perhaps the Bay may return to a more "normal" state and the copepod biomass will return.  We had thought that perhaps 2013 might be better but it was actually worse.

Each winter several groups survey the calving area for right whales and photograph as many as they can.  The Georgia State Wildlife Resource Division has a Flickr site with some of their best photos.  Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildliferesourcesdivision/sets/72157628191087789/wi th/11205752344/

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.

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'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.

Reflections on the Summer in the Bay of Fundy

Right whales were hard to find in the Bay of Fundy in the summer of 2012.  Those that were found were often travelling.  Few settled in the Bay for any length of time other than the mother 3390 and her calf.  They were seen for over a month and were the only right whales to remain for any length of time.

Calf of right whale 3390.  The calf opened its mouth and the baleen can be seen hanging down.  Baleen in calves is very light in colour.  Adult baleen colour is much darker.

Why the instability when the Bay of Fundy is a designated critical habitat for North Atlantic right whales?  Right whales come to the Bay of Fundy for many reasons but an important one is the availability of huge patches of zooplankton, primarily copepods.  When in large quantities, these copepods provide enough energy for the whales to add to their blubber layer for winter months when food may be more scarce and they may need to fast, relying on the blubber reserves.

It is important to photo-document young right whales so they can be followed throughout theirs lives. Each right whale has a unique pattern of callosities on its head, rough patches of skin where we have facial hair. This calf's mother, 3390, was not photographed as a calf and we, therefore, do not know when she was born or to whom she is related. 

The copepod patches were sporadic, never seemed to develop into large patches, and also appeared pale in colour, indicating low energy reserves in the copepods.  Why the change from most years when the copepod patches develop in the Grand Manan Basin, the deepest area in the Bay of Fundy?  The 2011-2012 winter was one of very mild temperatures and hardly any snow.  This resulted in very little runoff into the ocean and, therefore, lower nutrient input for phytoplankton.  Warmer winter temperatures and little cold water runoff from snow melt also meant warmer ocean temperatures.  The counter current gyre that sets up each summer in the Grand Manan Basin and accumulates zooplankton, is temperature dependent and may not have occurred where it normally does in 2012.

Right whale stretching after a nap between dives.  This whale was been down to the bottom because of the muddy head.  It is not sure why right whales and also humpback whales rub in the muddy bottom, whether it is for feeding, relieving an itch or as a mud facial!

Warmer water temperatures can result in many changes.  It is a suggestion of why Atlantic herring didn't come inshore, preferring the deeper, colder waters.  There were several sightings of leatherback turtles, the largest sea turtle.  While the occasional sighting is normal in the Bay of Fundy, there did seem to be more this summer, including one that swam up a tidal river.  Unfortunately, the turtle died despite efforts to rescue it when it stranded on the muddy river bank several times.



Small Atlantic herring (brit) leaping out of the water after being pursued by Bluefin Tuna from below and great shearwaters from above.  Herring are a keystone species in the Bay of Fundy, providing food for many species.  They eat copepods as do right whales.

 What do low copepod resources in the Bay of Fundy mean for right whales?  It can affect calving success.  Right whale females need to have a good fat reserve to get pregnant because of the high energy demands of nursing a calf.  This is the reason right whale females take a resting year after weaning their calf so they can adequately recover their blubber reserves.  If the right whales found large patches of zooplankton elsewhere, then calving may not be affected.  In 2010, few right whales were seen in the Bay of Fundy and this past calving season had only seven calves born.  Low resource availability one summer is reflected in calving rates not that year but the following year.

Right whale 3390 and her calf diving in the Bay of Fundy off Grand Manan Island in August 2012.

Still Waiting

We are still waiting to see right whales.  We did have a distant sighting of a possible mother and calf but the pair were not seen again.  On a cruise today to see which whales had been seen in an area typical for right whales, revealed sperm whales instead.



Sperm whale seen in the Bay of Fundy off Grand Manan, July 21, 2012 (Whales-n-Sails Adventures)



With only seven calves born this year (one calf died and the newest discovered mother hasn't been seen in the Bay of Fundy) we don't expect to see many mothers and calves.  The water temperature has been warm so far and we don't know what this will mean for zooplankton accumulation which right whales depend on for their feeding.

The New England Aquarium will begin their surveys in early August and we will have a better idea about right whale occurrence in the Bay of Fundy in 2012.  We will also be conducting zooplankton surveys to determine zooplankton abundance.

Great Photo



Photo credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission



This is a wonderful photograph taken by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission during one of their aerial surveys of the right whale calving area.  The right whale mother (with the white belly) is upside down with her calf on her belly.  We see this sometimes in the Bay of Fundy as well but the calves are much bigger by the summer. 

Unfortunately, the last memory of a right whale mother, also with a white belly, who died in the Bay of Fundy in 1992, Delilah, was of her upside down with her calf, Calvin (one of our adoptive whales), on her belly, wiggling back and forth, and surrounded by several males in a courtship group.

 

Kleenex's Daughters

Both Echo (#2642) and #3142, 1996 and 2001 calves of Kleenex #1142 were seen in the Bay of Fundy by the New England Aquarium this August and/or September.  Both were mothers in 2010 and both brought their calves to the Bay as they were also brought by their mother Kleenex when they were calves.

Right whale mothers take at least a year to recover the weight they lost nursing their calves for a year, plus a year pregnancy which gives a minimum three year calving interval.  The New England Aquarium are concerned about both of Kleenex's daughters because they have not adequately recovered their weight and are showing signs of stress: leaner bodies and with Echo, rake marks below her blow holes.  These are parallel white marks that are only present in under weight, sick or stressed animals.

Photograph taken by the New England Aquarium in the Bay of Fundy in 2011 showing a thin right whale
 "Echo" #2642 with white rake marks below her blowholes.

It may be that zooplankton patches have been harder to find or fewer patches were found last year when they were nursing their calves, and both females lost more weight than usual during nursing.  Hopefully, this will improve and the health of these sisters will improve. 

A similar problem occurred in the 1990s when many of the right whales were under weight.  Odd white skin patches developed on many individuals and calving intervals increased to over six years between calves.  Lack of adequate food (zooplankton) was suggested.  There was much concern for the right whale population because, combined with high accidental mortalities, the population began to decline.  That trend was reversed for the last ten years when the population began increasing when the number of calves born rose dramatically (an average of 22 calves as compared to just over 11 calves prior to 2001).  Are we heading for lower numbers of calves again because females are thinner?  Or is this a blip that will disappear quickly as food resources recover, if that is the problem? We shall have to wait and see.

Radiator Update

Last photographed July 18, 2009 on George's Bank at the mouth of the Gulf of Maine, Radiator was trailing rope with a yellow buoy.  The attachment point for this was unclear.  He hasn't been photographed since but that is not unusual with some right whales who sometimes avoid areas where researchers or others are more likely to be.  Right whales are constantly on the move even when they are in feeding areas.  The shifting zooplankton patches and their never ending cruising around the North Atlantic makes it difficult to always know where they are or may turn up.  While in general whales move northward during the summer to feeding grounds and southward to wintering areas - this can be as far as Florida for pregnant females and young whales, or further north for males and non-pregnant females, these areas are fluid and can change yearly.

Right Whale lifting tail flukes in a dive off Grand Manan Island, Bay of Fundy

The New England Aquarium maintain the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog (http://rwcatalog.neaq.org/) which is a great source of information about where individuals have been photographed, as well as photographs of each whale.  The Center for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, MA, keep files on right whale entanglements.

Calvin is Back

Two right whales involved in a "surface active group".  The
V-shaped blow is characteristic of right whales.

The New England Aquarium right whale research team found Calvin in the Bay of Fundy this week.  She had been seen last in March in Cape Cod Bay by the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies.  It was appropriate that she arrived in the Bay to coincide with a visit from the Calvineers, Grade 7 and 8 students from the Adams School in Castine, ME.  They focus on Calvin and her unique story:  Here is a quote from their website, http://thecalvinproject.weebly.com/ :

"Hello! Welcome to the first official website of the Calvineers! We're a small group of seventh and eighth graders who are dedicated to saving the endangered North Atlantic Right Whale. This species of whale migrates every year, from Florida, where their calves are born, to the Bay of Fundy, in Canada. There are only around four-hundred of these whales left. Together, we believe that by educating the public, we can help save the Right Whales." 

It was a pleasure to take them out on the Whales-n-Sails Adventure whale watch vessel on September 21, 2011 to find right whales.  Despite the fog closing in and extending our trip, we were able to find some right whales and had a great time with them, but, alas, not Calvin.

Calvineers aboard the "Elsie Menota" after viewing right whales

Calvineers under "Delilah's"skeleton and life size model in
the New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, NB. Delilah was
Calvin's mother and died in 1992 leaving Calvin to fend for herself
prematurely.

Gemini Update

September 17 there was a large group of right whales engaged in a Surface Active Group (SAG) or courtship group.  These SAGs usually consist of a focal female and a range of number of males from as few as one to as many as 50!  This SAG was about 20 whales and we caught the end of it when the female dove and the males started to mill about.

Gemini's head as seen from the right

One of the pair of scars on Gemini's back which resulted in his name.

New entanglement scars on Gemini's tail.

One of the males was Gemini, seen earlier in August in the Bay of Fundy by the New England Aquarium research team.  He has relatively recent new entanglement scars on his tail that have healed and turned white.  Scarring in right whales is often with white scar tissue which is easy to see against their dark skin.

Slalom, her 2011 Calf and Gemini

Wart has a large family and daughter Slalom, born in 1982, with her 2011 calf has been sighted in the Bay of Fundy by the New England Aquarium research team.  In addition, they have also spotted Gemini, a large male named for the pair of scars on his back.

The right whale numbers are up this year compared to 2010 when food resources seemed to be limited and the right whales did not stay long in the Bay when they did come in.  There have been more right whales seen this year already than all the sightings from last summer.

Right whale diving in the Bay of Fundy

Drippy-nose and her 2011 Calf

Drippy-nose and her 2011 calf were seen for the first time in the Bay of Fundy on August 27 just before tropical storm Irene moved through the area.  She and her calf were seen again August 30 by the New England Aquarium research team.  She was not seen on the calving ground in the winter but was seen off the Cape Cod area in the spring with her several months old calf.  In 2008 she also wasn't seen on the calving area off Florida/Georgia, but was first seen with her calf in the Bay of Fundy with a large calf probably six to eight months old. 

The calf's callosity pattern on its head, cornified skin that forms unique patterns on the head of all right whales, was photographed and the calf can be followed for the rest of its life using these unique patterns.  Whale lice do live on the callosities giving them a more colourful appearance but the callosities themselves do not greatly change over time, other than the head growing in size.  Calves also loose the concave shape to their head and it becomes convex.  Right whale calves often have more orange whale lice than adults.  This species of whale lice tend to be more prevalent on slow moving calves and adults that are compromised by injury or illness.  Whale lice eat the constantly sloughing skin on right whales.  Calves are growing quickly and probably slough more skin; the skin of sick animals often turns grey and sloughs in large sheets, promoting the growth of whale lice.

Drippy-nose's 5th calf born in 2011, left side of head

Drippy-nose's 5th calf born in 2011, right side of head

Drippy-nose's callosity pattern.  The white mark in the coaming callosity
(immediately before the blowholes is distinctive).

White scarring on Drippy-nose's tail from an entanglement in fishing gear.

Drippy-nose, AKA Sonnet, was first seen as a calf with her mother Kleenex in the Bay of Fundy in 1981.  At 30 years of age, this is her fifth calf.  She had her first calf when she was 10.  Calves are generally spaced at three years or more (one year pregnancy, one year nursing, one year recovering weight lost during the year of nursing).

Bayof Fundy weather

It has been a difficult August this year with weather.  Lots of fog and rain and now post-tropical storm "Irene", making survey days limited.  There are definitely more right whales in the Bay this year than last year which was an unusually low number year for right whales. Several mothers and calves have been seen, as well as some surface active groups, indicating that males numbers are also good this year.

Hopefully, there will be a few more better weather days in the next month so the calves can be photo-documented.

Right whale calf seen August 27, 2011

Many Right Whales Seen by New England Aquarium Research Team

The New England Aquarium Research Team were able to get out on August 9 and found over 25 right whales, two sei whales and one sperm whale.  Our researchers were also out the same day to do some plankton tows, confirming that large quantities of copepods, the preferred food of right whales, are present in the Bay.  Sei whales also eat copepods which makes sense why they are also here.

The sperm whale sighting is exciting since this is now the second year that they have been in the Bay after only one other sighting in the past 30 years before 2010.