Listening for right whales

Erin Burke

Protected Species Specialist, Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF)

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Each winter and spring, the endangered North Atlantic right whale returns to the productive waters of Cape Cod Bay to feed and socialize. During this time, biologists like me from the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries (DMF) and a group of collaborators monitor the population and protect them from human impacts such as entanglement in fishing gear and vessel collision. One way we do this is by listening for the whales.

Last week, two acoustic monitoring buoys in Cape Cod Bay were deployed to capture right whale vocalizations. The buoys shed light on right whale acoustic behavior and allow us to monitor the presence and location of the whales 24/7. Click here to listen to an audio clip of a right whale sound but clicking on "sounds" then "see the sounds" on the top right side of the page. 

DMF partners with the Center for Coastal Studies, Cornell University, and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute on the Cape Cod Bay Right Whale Surveillance Program. We use a combination of aerial surveillance, habitat sampling, and acoustic monitoring to study and protect the whales. Since aerial surveillance is limited by daylight and weather, the acoustic buoys help fill gaps in monitoring by operating continuously and providing data independent of weather or time of day. Click here to find out where in Cape Cod Bay the buoys have detected whales.

In 2008, 187 individual right whales were spotted in Cape Cod Bay over the course of the season – that’s 49 percent of the known population! Sightings of right whales in Cape Cod Bay typically begin in December and slowly ramp with to a peak of sightings in March and April.

Often the whales can be seen from shore. Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown and Sandy Neck Beach in Barnstable are great places to spot right whales (and other large whales) as they skim feed on the water’s surface like lawnmowers in mid-to late April. Be aware there is a law that prohibits approaching a right whale within 500 yards!

I’ll keep you posted about the whales’ whereabouts and the best places to spot them from shore.

Comments

[Erin Burke]

@Caitlin: Special permits, training and authority are required to disentangle endangered marine animals (whales and turtles). The Division of Marine Fisheries collaborates with the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and the National Marine Fisheries Service on this work in our area.
-Erin Burke

[Caitlin @ Link Building Services]

Hi,

I'm just curious. If they do get entangled in a fishing gear, how do you let them lose when the law is restricting you to approach them?

Thanks!

[Olin]

And this is the main reason I lovs environment.blog.state.ma.us. Killer post.

[Phil Brady]

@Tony Demick - Blueback herring, which along with the alewife are collectively referred too and managed as River herring, are receiving a lot of interest from both local, state and federal resource agencies and the general populace. In Massachusetts waters, this resource falls under the jurisdiction of GML Chapter 130 and the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries a member of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. When outside of state waters alewife and blueback herring falls under the management of the federal government through NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The National Marine Fisheries Service listed the alewife and Blueback herring as a Species of Concern in 2006. Below is a link to a two page excerpt from the ASMFC Fisheries Focus which may be helpful. http://www.asmfc.org/speciesDocuments/shad/riverHerringProfile.pdf -Phil Brady

[Erin Burke]

@Tony Demick - Hi Tony: My colleague Phil Brady, Senior Marine Fisheries Biologist at the Division of Marine Fisheries works on blueback herring issues. His answer is above. -Erin

[Tony Demick]

Hi Erin,

As a recreational fisherman, I've noticed that the blueback herring seems to have disappeared from the Connecticut River.

Is anything being done to determine the status of this little guy? What state agency would be concerned?

Thanks very much,

Tony Demick
Hancock, MA