Feature Creature: Eubalaena glacias

Feature Creature: Eubalaena glacias Courtesy of Georgia Aquarium Imagine you are a young whale swimming in the Bay of Fundy near Maine. The water is cold, but nutrients from your mother s milk allow you to put on a thick layer of blubber, or fatty insulation, to keep you warm. You spend your days swimming along by her side, exploring the wonders of the things in and above the ocean. But one day, your mother is hit and killed by a boat that doesn t see her in time. Suddenly, you re an orphan in a big, strange, and dangerous world, and there is no one to protect or feed you. The chances that you will survive without her are practically zero. This is the story of a young whale named Calvin in 1992. When she was only eight Jr. National Geographic 1

months old, her mother was killed by a ship that struck her in the Bay of Fundy near Nova Scotia. Somehow, she managed to survive. Marine biologists named her Calvin (they didn t actually know she was a she until later) after the character in the Calvin and Hobbes comic because by her feisty spirit, she survived against all odds. 1 Bout the Whales Calvin is one of only a few northern right whales in the world today. Northern right whales are baleen whales, or Mysticeti, meaning that they lack teeth, and instead they have large bristles called baleen plates or whale bone, and they belong to the Balaenidae family. 2 There are ten other types of baleen whales, including the humpback and blue whales, and two other kinds of right whales- the southern right whale and the bowhead whale. because they share these two characteristics also, but unlike any other whale, northern rights have random growths of thick, hardened skin on their heads called callosities, which kind of look like warts or callouses. 4 Each whale is born with a unique pattern of these callosities that allows scientists to easily distinguish the whales between each other. 5 Whales might even use their callosities to recognize each other. 6 Imagine what it would be like if we recognized each other by warts on our faces instead of features like facial structure, eye color, and hair! Female northern rights are always larger than males, and they can grow to be 18 meters long, with the average grown up weighing 50 tons. 7 That s half as long as a soccer field, and equivalent to the weight of about ten large elephants! Unlike their close relative, the southern right whale, who lives in the southern There are a few specific characteristics that make northern right whales unique. They have no dorsal fin, and a V-shaped spout due to two nostrils instead of one. 3 Sperm whales can be confused with northern right whales hemisphere, northern right whales only live in the northern hemisphere. 8 Most of the northern right whales today live close to shore in the western North Atlantic Ocean, but there Jr. National Geographic 2

are also a few that still occupy the eastern North Atlantic and Northern Pacific Oceans. 9 Bay on the Massachusetts coast are two major feasting grounds for these whales. 17 Where are all the whales?: Threats to the Survival Northern right whales are one of the most endangered species of whales today. 18 But why? Let s begin with a little bit of history. Courtesy of Grand Manan Whale and Seabird Research Station Females usually have their first calf at 9 to 10 years old, and give birth every three to four years. 10 In the first few weeks of its life, a calf will put on at least 125 lbs. a day! 11 Northern Atlantic right whales give birth to their young off the coast of Florida and Georgia between December and March. 12 Calves stay with their mothers for about a year after their born. 13 In the summer, they generally migrate to the colder waters up north in the eastern Canadian and U. S. coasts to feed. 14 Northern right whales mostly eat tiny zooplankton called copepods. 15 As mentioned earlier, baleen whales can t chew their food because they don t have any teeth. Instead, they eat by swimming with their mouths slightly open, and as the water filters through, the baleen traps these tiny organisms in the water like a strainer. 16 The Bay of Fundy and Brown s Bank off the coast of Nova Scotia and Cape Cod From the 11 th century when they were first hunted off the coast of France and Spain in the Bay of Biscay through the 20 th century, right whales were continuously slaughtered. 19 They got their name because their baleen is more flexible than that of other whales and could be used for things like umbrellas and horse whips, their bodies contain a large amount of useful blubber and oil, they re easy to catch because the swim very slowly and close to shore, and they float when dead. 20 These characteristics made them easier to hunt and more profitable than any other whale, so early whalers began to call them the right whales to hunt. 21 So many whales were killed, especially in a wave of industrial whaling in the 1800s, that they were scarcely seen by the year 1900. 22 In 1931, the International Whaling Commission (IWC), a committee made of various countries that regulates whaling worldwide, began taking steps to protect the right whales from vanishing entirely by banning anyone from hunting them. 23 Northern rights are also protected under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, which works to protect endangered or threatened species and their habitats. 24 Thanks to the whaling ban by IWC, the Endangered Species Act of 1973, and support from environmentalists and whale-friendly organizations, 97% of all commercial whaling is Jr. National Geographic 3

eliminated. 25 So whaling is really no longer a real threat to northern right whales. Nowadays, the right whales face new enemies caused by humans. Entanglement in fishing gear, as well as boat collisions are the two main threats to the species survival today. The fact that they re slow-moving, live near the surface of the water, and swim in busy shipping lanes make them extremely vulnerable to getting hit by ships. 26 In 1970, over half of the 40 whales that died that year were killed by boats, and the majority of the rest died trapped in fishing gear. 27 Getting caught in fishing gear can cause drowning or prevent them from feeding, and ship collisions can break the whale s jawbones, ribs, and crack their skulls, and the propellers can shred their tough skin, causing them to bleed to death. 28 Whales like Stumpy suffered this terrible fate. In 2003, they found her dead on a beach in North Carolina. 29 She was pregnant with her sixth calf and when she was killed after being hit by a ship. 30 Courtesy of Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station Another reason that the whales are having difficulty recovering is a lack of genetic viability. Scientists have found the low frequency microsatellite alleles are rare in the present species, meaning that genetic diversity in right whales is decreasing. 31 They suspect that inbreeding may be one reason why whales aren t having as many young. 32 Inbreeding occurs when organisms that have very similar genes mate. When thousands of whales were killed by early commercial whaling, the gene pool shrunk drastically, and genetic diversity was lost. For example, imagine we have a huge bowl of evenly mixed grape and strawberryflavored jelly beans. Let s also say that the bowl has mostly grape jelly beans, and only a few strawberry. If we scoop out a handful of jelly beans from the bowl, and throw the rest out, there s a chance that there would be even fewer or no strawberry jellybeans in that handful. This same concept can be applied to the right whales gene pool. When most of the whales were killed, some genetic traits became extinct or rare. Less genetic diversity is bad news because certain traits may be more favorable against diseases and environmental changes. When these traits disappear, the species cannot evolve against the disease, and the chances that the species will not survive increases. We want to reduce the number whale deaths by boat collisions and entanglement in fishing gear because it makes the gene pool even smaller. The number of surviving northern right whales today is so small, it s crucial to preserve every single individual whale that we possibly can. 33 Research shows that saving just a few females every year could determine whether or not the species will recover. 34 Preserving females is especially important because it takes them several years to become sexually mature, and they only produce offspring every three to four years. 35 If they die young, they produce only a few or no offspring. Jr. National Geographic 4

Saving the Whales Scientists predict right whales will become extinct in the near future if reproduction rates stay as low as they are now. 36 Since the greatest threat to these magnificent animals is human-caused, it s up to us to alter our behavior in favor of their survival! There are several actions underway to protect North Atlantic rights. One is moving shipping lanes away from areas where the whales like to hang out, especially off the coasts of Florida and Georgia, where mothers raise their calves. 37 In July of 2003, Canada shifted its well traveled shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy, one of the most popular feeding places, to try to lower the chances of ships colliding with the whales. 38 feet or longer only travel at 10 knots where the right whales like to hang out. 40 Unfortunately, it s not as easy as simply asking ships to lower their speed. Shipping companies are very opposed to the idea because in the commercial shipping industry, time=$$$. 41 It would cost them an additional $10 to $15 million a year to navigate the new routes that avoid areas heavily populated with right whales, and to travel at half the speeds they normally do. 42 The World Shipping Council also argues that there is no evidence that ships going a faster speed cause more severe injuries to whales. 43 Other efforts to preserve the whales include technical improvements in fishing methods such as using fishing lines that break when a whale becomes caught in it. 44 Scientists are also using technology to construct buoys that detect the whales and relay their location to scientists and ships near them. 45 What You Can Do! You may feel like there s nothing a kid can do, but the truth is that you can make a difference! Here s a few ideas: Courtesy of NOAA Fisheries: Office of Protected Resources Researchers have found that about 70% of commercial ships traveling through right whale territory cruise at speeds that are dangerous to them. 39 Because these gentle giants move too slow to dodge ships coming at them, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) proposed that ships 65 Write a letter to congress. Laws and regulations that will protect northern rights from ship collisions, death by fishing gear, and preserving genetic variability by preventing more deaths are crucial to the survival of Calvin, her calves, and the rest of the North Atlantic right whales. Sponsor or adopt a whale. Your gift will help protect whales and fund Jr. National Geographic 5

research to learn more about the whales o The Whale Camp: Fun, Adventure & Learning on Grand Manan Island http://www.whalecam p.com/adopt.htm o The Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station http://www.gmwsrs.or g/main.htm Calvin and One of Her Calves! Join or create a Save the Whale group. You can join a group online, or make a club or your own. In 2000, Calvin, the orphan whale became caught in some fishing gear. 46 Luckily, it was not fatal to her and scientists were able to remove it in 2001. 47 Today, Calvin is alive and well in the North Atlantic Ocean! She s given birth to two calves, one (named Hobbes!) in 2005, and another in 2009. 48 Courtesy of Coastal NC We must act to prevent more valuable whales from dying like Stumpy did. Their delicate future lies in our hands. So let s fight for the save the whales before these magnificent creatures vanish from our oceans altogether. 1 GMWSRS, The North Atlantic Right Whale, GMWSRS Online [home page on-line]; available from http://www.gmwsrs.org/main.htm; Internet; accessed 19 Apr. 2009. 2 Phillip Clapham, Sharon Young, and Robert Brownell, Baleen Whales: Conservation Issues and the Status of the Most Endangered Populations, Mammal Review, March 1999, 37. 3 Robert Payne, Among Whales (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 93. 4 Ibid. 5 Ibid., 96. 6 Ibid. 7 William Dawbin, Baleen Whales, in Whales Dolphins and Porpoises, ed. Mark Carwardine (New York: Checkmark Books, 1999), 51.; Amy E. Nevala, What Does It Take to Break a Whale? Oceanus, July 2007, 17. 8 Robert Payne, Among Whales (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 94. 9 William Dawbin, Baleen Whales, in Whales Dolphins and Porpoises, ed. Mark Carwardine (New York: Checkmark Books, 1999), 47. Jr. National Geographic 6

10 NOAA Fisheries: Office of Protected Resources, North Atlantic Right Whales, NOAA Fisheries: Office of Protected Resources Online [home page on-line]; Internet; accessed 29 Apr. 2009. 11 Robert Payne, Among Whales (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 99.. 12 Ibid. 13 Ibid. 14 Phillip Clapham, Sharon Young, and Robert Brownell, Baleen Whales: Conservation Issues and the Status of the Most Endangered Populations, Mammal Review, March 1999, 42. 15 Ibid. 16 William Dawbin, Baleen Whales, in Whales Dolphins and Porpoises, ed. Mark Carwardine (New York: Checkmark Books, 1999), 46-47. 17 Ibid., 47. 18 Phillip Clapham, Sharon Young, and Robert Brownell, Baleen Whales: Conservation Issues and the Status of the Most Endangered Populations, Mammal Review, March 1999, 42. 19 Ibid., 41. 20 William Dawbin, Baleen Whales, in Whales Dolphins and Porpoises, ed. Mark Carwardine (New York: Checkmark Books, 1999), 46. 21 Ibid.; Robert Payne, Among Whales (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 95. 22 Phillip Clapham, Sharon Young, and Robert Brownell, Baleen Whales: Conservation Issues and the Status of the Most Endangered Populations, Mammal Review, March 1999, 41. 23 Robert Payne, Among Whales (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 93.; Gregory Rose, International Law and the Status of Cetaceans, in The Conservation of Whales and Dolphins: Science and Practice, eds. Mark P. Simmonds and Judith D. Hutchinson (West Sussex: John Wiley and Sons, 1996), 27. 24 NOAA Fisheries: Office of Protected Resources, North Atlantic Right Whales, NOAA Fisheries: Office of Protected Resources Online [home page on-line]; Internet; accessed 29 Apr. 2009. 25 Robert Payne, Among Whales (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 302. 26 Phillip Clapham, Sharon Young, and Robert Brownell, Baleen Whales: Conservation Issues and the Status of the Most Endangered Populations, Mammal Review, March 1999, 38. 27 Amy E. Nevala, What Does It Take to Break a Whale? Oceanus, July 2007, 17. 28 Ibid. 29 Ibid. 30 Ibid., 18. 31 Stephen R. Palumbi, and Joe Roman, The History of Whales Read From DNA, in Whales, whaling and ocean ecosystems, eds. James A. Estes, Douglas P. DeMaster, Daniel F. Doak, Terrie M. Williams, and Robert L. Brownell, Jr. (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California, 2006), 111. 32 Julie Flaherty, Efforts to Save the Whales Turning From Looking to Listening, New York Times, 11 Nov. 2000, A9. 33 Peter Kareiva, When One Whale Matters, Nature, 29 Nov. 2001, 493. Jr. National Geographic 7

34 Ibid. 35 Ibid. 36 Sharon Levy, What s Wrong With the Right Whale? New Scientist, 6 Nov. 1999, 38. 37 Peter N. Spotts, Can We Really Save the Whales? Christian Science Monitor, 8 Jan. 2004, 14.; Peter Kareiva, When One Whale Matters, Nature, 29 Nov. 2001, 493. 38 Peter N. Spotts, Can We Really Save the Whales? Christian Science Monitor, 8 Jan. 2004, 14. 39 Janet Raloff, Warning: Slow Down for the Whales, Science News, 15 Jul. 2006, 45. 40 Ibid. 41 Amy E. Nevala, What Does It Take to Break a Whale? Oceanus, Jul. 2007, 17. 42 Mike Carlowicz, In and Out of Harm s Way, Oceanus, Sep. 2005, 14. 43 Speed Limit Proposal Gets Additional Review, Oil Spill Intelligence Report, 13 Sep. 2007, 4. 44 Peter Kareiva, When One Whale Matters, Nature, 29 Nov. 2001, 494. 45 Peter N. Spotts, Can We Really Save the Whales? Christian Science Monitor, 8 Jan. 2004, 14. 46 Grand Manan Whale & Seabird Research Station, The North Atlantic Right Whale, GMWSRS Online [home page on-line]; available from http://www.gmwsrs.org/main.htm; Internet; accessed 19 Apr. 2009. 47 Ibid. 48 Ibid. Jr. National Geographic 8