What started as the first day of routine monitoring and surveying of the North Atlantic right whale off Georgia’s coast ended up as a mission to free one that was entangled in fishing gear.
Responders from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, among others, helped disentangle a 3-year-old male known as “Division” over two days earlier this month. Division is one of just 380 North Atlantic right whales believed to be left, making them one of the rarest species on Earth.
State wildlife officials in Georgia and Florida have teamed up for more than two decades to survey the right whales — mostly females — as they migrate to the Southeastern U.S. coast from Canada during the winter months. Here, mothers give birth to their calves in waters that stretch from North Carolina to near Cape Canaveral, Florida.
The core calving grounds are in Georgia, however, around Savannah, Brunswick and points south, said Jessica Thompson, a senior wildlife biologist with the DNR’s wildlife conservation section.
“We are a critical habitat off of our coast: It’s the only known calving grounds for the species,” Thompson told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We’re hoping they are all pregnant.”
The North Atlantic right whale, Latin name Eubalaena glacialis, is one of three species of the lumbering giants. They can grow to more than 50 feet in length. They were hunted to the brink of extinction in the late 19th century, and got their name from whalers who called them the “right” whale to hunt.
Vessel strikes are a common killer of right whales today, but warming ocean waters and gear used in fishing have created new threats.
It’s rare to see male and juvenile whales in the area because they don’t have a food source, Thompson said. But after surveying two adult whales in waters near the city of St. Marys, and a mom and her calf, Thompson said her team got a call over the radio about a whale off Jekyll Island.
A team from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission saw the whale from a plane and began circling it to take photos and transmit them to partner agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“People are analyzing (the images) in real time as we’re moving up the coast,” said Thompson, who coordinates DNR’s marine mammal team.
Within an hour, a second boat was near the whale to support the rescue efforts, she said.
Not all entangled whales need help, and in some cases, taking steps like attaching a satellite buoy or other equipment might hamper the whale from freeing itself on its own, Thompson said.
But it was clear that Division was seriously injured and would die if he were left alone, Thompson said. The fishing lines were around his head and upper jaw and had become embedded in his skin through the blowhole and left front flipper.
Thompson said from the way the lines were configured around Division’s body, he “definitely” brought the fishing gear from somewhere in the Northeast and had been wrapped around him for some time.
Teams attached a satellite buoy to the fishing gear so they could locate the whale later, should the rescue take more than one day. Workers attempted to make cuts to the lines, aiming for one on the left side of the whale’s head.
The goal was to cut that line, which would loosen the gear that was wrapped around his upper jaw, Thompson said.
They spent hours, but because the whale was in distress, it was trying to evade the boats and people around it, she said. After hours of trying to disentangle the whale, it was getting dark, and teams had to try again the following day.
Georgia and Florida state wildlife officials added more vessels to their rescue fleet on Day 2, and workers attached a sea anchor and buoys to the fishing lines. At that point, the whale started breaching — propelling more than half its body out of the water — lunging and doing head stands, Thompson said.
The team waited until the whale relaxed, allowing people to pull themselves up onto its body and successfully cut the line on the left side of his head. There was some tension on the remaining lines at first, but then that tension released, allowing the team to remove the line wrapped around the whale’s flipper.
At that point, Thompson said they hoped the whale would free itself of the remaining gear.
Whale’s fate unknown
Because of its injuries, Thompson said it’s unclear if Division will survive. He hasn’t been spotted since last week because of the weather and other reasons, but she is hoping survey teams will be able to spot the whale soon.
Credit: Special
Credit: Special
More than 85% of the right whale population has been entangled in fishing gear, and some as much as nine times, said Amy Knowlton, a senior scientist in the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life.
Scientists from the center were another key part of the disentanglement effort, studying initial photos to determine the extent of the whale’s injuries.
Knowlton has been studying the right whale for 40 years and has tracked the population’s rise to 487 around 2010 from 295 two decades earlier. But then the numbers started falling, with just 362 in 2020, she said.
“That pretty precipitous drop in 10 years was really disturbing,” she told the AJC.
A key reason is a change in the durability of the rope used by the fishing industry, Knowlton said. A new rope polymer allowed the industry to have much stronger ropes, which made it harder for whales to disentangle themselves, she said.
That, along with the fishing industry expanding and the whales going to other areas to look for food, have combined to threaten its population, Knowlton said.
But, with the help of the U.S. and Canadian governments, changes are being made in the fishing industry. She said it’s taken work from those who want to protect the industry as well as keep the animals safe.
Climate change has led these whales away from their primary habitats, such as the Gulf of Maine and the Bay of Fundi to the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Canada, Knowlton said. The warming of the waters has disrupted the timing and the quality of the blooms of copepods — tiny crustacean zooplankton — from which whales get their food.
But vessel strikes are the key cause of whale deaths, particularly in the Southeast, she said. There’s an urgency to get the word out to mariners, especially ones in smaller boats, to be vigilant.
There are speed limits for boats longer than 65 feet along parts of the East Coast during months when whales typically are in the areas. NOAA has proposed expanding the restrictions to include smaller vessels, as well as creating so-called “slow zones.”
Both proposals have faced opposition from the fishing and shipping industries, which argue the restrictions would cut into their businesses.
A note of disclosure
This coverage is supported by a partnership with Green South Foundation and Journalism Funding Partners. You can learn more and support our climate reporting by donating at AJC.com/donate/climate.
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