Right Whale Research Blog

Showing posts with label sponsorship. Show all posts

11/30/15

Exciting Right Whale Sponsorship News!

For more than 20 years, over 2,300 people have supported our research by participating in the Right Whale Sponsorship Program. As sponsors, they have learned about the plight of this endangered species and our 35 years of research to protect them. The Right Whale Sponsorship Program provides vital support for our work and we are so grateful to all who have taken part in the Program over the years. We have some EXCITING Sponsorship news to share and we hope that in this upcoming holiday season you will consider sponsoring a right whale and/or purchasing one of our great right whale-themed gifts!

UPDATED SPONSORSHIP MATERIALS! All of our sponsorship packages have been updated with a fresh new look and materials! Full color informational booklets, the hardcover book “Disappearing Giants”, a one-year subscription to our biannual newsletter, Right Whale Research News, stickers, and a coupon to the New England Aquarium Gift shop are included in all sponsorships. And don’t forget: Each sponsorship is tax deductible and directly supports our Right Whale Research Program!

NEW WHALES! There are three new whales available to sponsor: Aphrodite, Manta and Gemini! Each whale has a fascinating history and we are eager to share their stories with you! Meet all the Sponsorship whales here.

New Sponsorship Whale, Gemini, one of the oldest whales in the population! Photo: Yan Guilbault/NEAq

CALLING ALL TEACHERS! We now offer a Classroom Sponsorship that's perfect for classroom or service projects. Along with all the other sponsorship materials, the Classroom Sponsorship also includes a single plush right whale for the classroom, stickers for up to 30 students and access to the right whale-themed Smithsonian in your Classroom lesson plans "The Tale of the Whale"

Learn more about our Sponsorship program and the different support levels available here.

RIGHT WHALE THEMED GIFT IDEAS! In addition to sponsoring a right whale, you can shop in support of Right Whale Research by purchasing T-shirts, books or the super soft right whale plushy. Net proceeds go directly toward the annual costs of field research, data analysis and professional collaborations. These all make wonderful gifts for any occasion and shipping is FREE!

Thanks again to our sponsors for all your support over the years!!

~ Marilyn and Heather

6/26/15

Vulnerable Wherever They Go: Death of "Piper"

Hauling the carcass to transport to the necropsy location. Photo: Jean-Francois Blouin, Canadian Whale Institute.

As I type, a long known whale friend of ours is being hauled out of the water on a boat lift in Newport, Quebec on the south side of the Gaspé Peninsula. Two days ago, colleagues of ours at GREMM reported a dead right whale floating off Percé, QC in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada. Right whales are seen sporadically in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and there has been increasing evidence that they may use the area more than previously thought. But this is only the second carcass to be found there in the past 35 years. Knowing the importance of this death, a number of agencies and organizations in the region responded to the urgent call for action to develop a plan of how to get the carcass to shore and where to take the whale to do a necropsy.

These scars helped us identify who this whale was.

Back in Boston, our team flew into action trying to identify the individual. Always a disheartening task, this was also a challenging one as the whale was floating upside down and all the usual identifying features were under water. With only three photos to work with, our match was slow to come until mariners posted additional photographs taken from a different angle, showing some scars on the underside of the body in place where the beautiful black skin had not yet peeled off. There was a flurry of emails back and forth as three of our team members came to the same conclusion at the same time. This unidentified carcass suddenly became an old friend- Piper, Catalog #2320.

Piper and her 2009 calf. Photo: Jessica Taylor, New England Aquarium. NOAA Permit 655-1652-01.

With only about 500 whales left, the loss of any right whale is heart breaking. But Piper…. We had been observing her since 1993. We watched her participate in many courtship groups, we saw her entangled in fishing gear two different times- both of which she eventually shed on her own. We watched her grow and mature, giving birth to three calves- the last one just two years ago. We saw her every year and in all of the major right whale habitats; so consistently in fact that we made her one of our right whale sponsorship whales- a selection of some of our favorite whales that kids and adults alike can sponsor and get to know (tragically, we recently lost another of our sponsored right whales, Snowball).

Piper in 2013. Photo: Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Permit #15488.

We have to wait to see if the cause of death can be determined- there were no obvious external signs. Could this have been prevented?? That may be concluded from the necropsy. For now, we grieve for a good mother and an old friend.

- Philip Hamilton

3/24/15

News from the 2015 Right Whale Calving Season

The right whale calving season, which roughly spans December through March, is winding down. But nobody told the right whales that! In the last couple of weeks, two new moms were spotted with their young calves, bringing the current total up to 17 calves. Given the recent spate of new calves discovered, I am cautiously optimistic that there will be a few more to come.

Mantis and her calf. Photo by Sea To Shore Alliance, taken under NOAA Research Permit #15488.

The mothers this year are a mix of first time mothers and experienced mothers and grandmothers. There are four first time cows- the youngest is nine years old. Some of the older mothers include Mantis (Catalog #1620), Clover (#1611), and Aphrodite (#1701). These three are all 28+ years old and have had 13 calves previously among them!

Clover and her calf. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA Research Permit #15488.

Calvin (#2223), a 23 year-old with such an interesting story that she's a favorite in our sponsorship program, gave birth to her 3^rd calf! Her previous two calves were both first seen off North Carolina, so I wonder if this year’s calf may also have been born further north but was just undetected there this year. She and her calf weren't seen on the calving ground this year until February 22^nd.

One of the moms has an interesting lineage. Smoke (#2605) gave birth to her third calf this year. A life size model of her mother, Phoenix (#1705), who is also in our sponsorship program, is hanging in the Smithsonian’s Sant Ocean Hall- the centerpiece of an excellent educational exhibit.

Catalog #2790 and calf. Photo by Sea To Shore Alliance, taken under NOAA Research Permit #15488.

Lastly, the identity of one of the moms is still tentative because we only have distant images taken by an observer on a dredge back in the beginning of February! With so much survey effort in the area, we had expected her and her calf to have been seen again by now. The fact that the survey teams down there have not seen her serves as a reminder of what a large area the calving ground encompasses and how, even with regular, dedicated effort, it is likely that not all animals are sighted.

Wolf and calf. Photo by Sea To Shore Alliance, taken under NOAA Research Permit #15488.

Keep your fingers crossed for a few more calves! Last year there were 11 born, but we have had as many as 39 born in a year- so there’s precedence to hope for more!

- Philip

3/13/15

A Tragic End for a Favorite Whale, Snowball

On June 29, 2014, the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) was conducting their right whale aerial surveys north of George’s Bank when they came on an aggregation of 20 or more right whales. In amongst these whales was a right whale entangled in fishing gear and in extremely poor health. Rope wrapped across the top of the head, embedding itself there. Line lodged in the baleen exited the mouth and trailed behind the animal, having encircled the right flipper along the way. The whale’s skin was pale, and the head and body were carpeted with orange cyamids (these thrive on slower moving and/or injured whales). The whale was emaciated- its normally sleek, plump body was now sunken, with a deep depression on either side of the spine.

A badly entangled right whale in obviously poor condition. Photo credit: Northeast Fisheries Science Center/ Peter Duley. Images taken under MMPA Permit #17355.

Upon landing, NEFSC shared the images with our right whale team to see if we could match it to the Right Whale Catalog. We spent countless hours trying to identify this whale, but the usual identifying features were so obscured by cyamids and new wounds that we were unable to match it. A Departmentof Fisheries and Oceans Canada team took to the sky in an attempt to relocate the entangled whale, but they were unsuccessful. The June 29 sighting was the last time this whale was seen.

"Rope wrapped across the top of the head, embedding itself there." Photo credit: Northeast Fisheries Science Center/ Peter Duley. Images taken under MMPA Permit #17355.

Recently, I spent a day looking at photographs of this whale to see if I could find something that had been overlooked. It was an emotionally hard day- staring at lines cutting deep into the whale’s head and possibly into bone, thinking about how this poor animal was suffering. Just when I was on the verge of giving up, I recognized a mark peeking through the cyamids. I knew that mark. With a sinking heart, I called up images of Catalog #1131, “Snowball,” and made the match.

Snowball was named for the "snowball scar" on the left side of his head. Image credit: Whale Center of New England.

Snowball is an old male in our population, and was one of the whales in our sponsorship program. He was named for a scar on the left side of his head that looks like he had been hit by a snowball that stuck there. We have been watching him since 1979 when he was first seen in Great South Channel east of Cape Cod. We saw Snowball almost every year from 1979 until May of 2010. His absence in our sighting record since then was unusual and our concern started to grow. Given his poor condition in June and the fact that we would usually have seen him every year, it is quite possible that Snowball had been entangled in this gear for several years.

Snowball has almost certainly died since his June 2014 sighting—having slowly succumbed to infection or starvation, or both. His emaciated body would likely not have floated, sinking to the bottom of the ocean and leaving no chance of someone reporting his carcass. Every right whale death is tragic. But our long history with this individual and knowing the lengthy, profound suffering he endured makes his plight almost unbearable. The dramatic decrease in mortalities from ship strike means that for right whales, entanglement in fishing gear is now the leading cause of mortalities, and of their suffering. Though we continue to research ways to reduce entanglement, with 83% of the right whale population having been entangled at least once, we humans have found no effective way to mitigate this harm yet. We must do better.

Our last sighting of Snowball.
Photo credit: Northeast Fisheries Science Center/ Peter Duley.
Images taken under MMPA Permit #17355.

Snowball is gone. All that remains is our record of his life, the children whose hearts he touched through our sponsorship program, and our sorrow for what we humans did to him.

-Philip

12/18/14

Sponsor a Right Whale: Shackleton

Shackleton the right whale (Catalog #2440) was named after the Antarctic explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton. There's a good reason why: when Shackleton was just a one year-old, he swam up the Delaware River and made it as far north as Camden, NJ!

Shackleton in the Bay of Fundy. Photo: New England Aquarium

His adventure lasted for days, during which he was hit by a tug boat (it did not result in any serious injury). Fear of another vessel strike remained constant, and concerns for his health grew as he swam further upriver, since the makeup of the water was becoming more fresh (right whales are made for the salty sea!). The news footage below is from a recording (remember VHS?) from this ordeal:

Luckily, Shackleton found his way back to the Atlantic Ocean, where he faces other sorts of threats. He survived a second vessel strike, which was more significant and left a line of propeller marks on his body. He has also been through at least three different entanglements in fishing gear. Since he's overcome quite a few obstacles, we had to celebrate this year's milestone: Shackleton turned 20 years old!

Healed propeller cuts left substantial scars on Shackleton's body. Photo: New England Aquarium

- Marianna

12/12/14

Sponsor a Right Whale: Piper

Piper is named for a small scar on her left flank. With some imagination the scar looks like a small airplane- a Piper Cub. Unfortunately, she is now easily recognized in the field not for the little "Piper Cub" scar but more for her extensive scars, divots and marks left by multiple entanglement events (and a tagging event).

Piper (Catalog #2320) is named for one of her many scars. On her left flank is her "Piper Cub".

Piper is an adult female that is at least 21 years old. We don't actually know how old she is because she was never seen as a calf. Today Piper is successful reproductive female but there were times when researchers thought Piper's future was grim.

Shortly after being added to the Right Whale Catalog as # 2320, Piper was spotted entangled. The year was 1994 and only a single year had pasted since Piper was first documented by researchers. Her entanglement trailed out of the left side of her mouth. Was it just a short piece of line stuck in her baleen, was there a large chunk of gear in her mouth, or worse, had she ingested gear? The entanglement persisted through much of 1995, but thankfully at some point late that year she became gear free. Things were looking up for the young female. She was documented in the spring feeding grounds of the Great South Channel and Cape Cod Bay, and in the summer habitats of the Bay of Fundy and Roseway Basin. She was even seen a number of times in the wintering/calving grounds of the Southeastern U.S, although she had yet to be documented with a calf.


Piper in 2004, Roseway Basin. Photo: Lindsay (Hall) Cooper-New England Aquarium

August 2, 2002 was a normal day for the research team on the R/V Neried in the Bay of Fundy. The team photographed many right whales that day and amongst them was Piper! As a young female she was important to the small, recovering population. Researchers hoped that Piper would grow to be a successful reproductive female for the population.

However, just two days later a call came in from a Nova Scotian whale watch boat to report that they had sighted an entangled right whale. It was Piper!

Piper in the Great South Channel (east of Cape Cod, MA) in 2004. Photo: Monica Zani - New England Aquarium. Photo taken under scientific permit issued by NOAA. Permit #655-1652.

This time the entanglement was worse; it was more complex and again it involved the mouth. Over the next couple of years, Piper would be documented in her normal habitats. She also became the subject of several unsuccessful disentanglement attempts. As her entanglement persisted, researchers worried about her as there was cause for concern for her long-term health. In the spring of 2005 there was a small glimmer of hope when Piper was photographed in Cape Cod Bay. The images were of poor quality and researchers could not determine if the entangling gear was present. Could she be gear free?

Researchers would have to wait a long nine months before the answer was clear. In January of 2006, a New England Aquarium aerial survey of the wintering/calving grounds of Georgia and Florida photographed Piper. Our photographs confirmed it—Piper was gear free AND she was with a calf!


Piper is seen here in 2009 with her second calf . Photo: Monica Zani - New England Aquarium. Photo taken under scientific permit from NOAA. Permit #655-1652-01.

Piper became one of the team's Sponsorship whales because she truly has a story of survival. She is one of the team's favorites whales and she is known to travel to all five of the known right whale habitats, which allows us to provide numerous updates on her. Piper has survived two entanglements and has contributed three calves (2006, 2009 and 2013) to the population in her relativity short life! She is perhaps as strong as the little airplane she was named for.

Photo: Kara Mahoney-Robinson - New England Aquarium. Photo taken under scientific permit from NOAA. Permit #655-1652-01.

- Monica

12/3/14

Sponsor a Right Whale: Calvin

Sponsoring a right whale through the New England Aquarium supports the critical research we're doing to protect this endangered species. This holiday season, give a sponsorship! It's a gift that gives back to our blue planet. Today's post introduces one of the whales available for sponsorship: Calvin.

When asked to talk about the challenges that North Atlantic right whales face, our team often brings up Catalog #2223, named Calvin, because her story encapsulates elements of threat and resilience that right whales experience. Sadly, it was when her mother's life ended that Calvin's story really began.

Calvin and Delilah (diving) in the Bay of Fundy, August 1992.

Calvin was born in 1992 to Delilah, a female first seen in 1981. During their first summer together in the Bay of Fundy, Delilah was struck by a large ship. Her death was not immediate, but the blunt force caused her to hemorrhage. A boater on the water that day photographed Delilah violently thrashing before she finally stopped breathing and became still. Delilah had died from ship strike with Calvin by her side. With no mother to guide her through the ocean and no milk to help her grow, researchers didn't think Calvin would survive—but amazingly she did.

Calvin, all grown up!

Calvin showed resourcefulness and a surprisingly independent nature, and so she was named after the character in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Curating the Right Whale Catalog has allowed us to watch her become an adult and follow her exploits in various habitats. In 2000, she became entangled in fishing gear, but luckily was disentangled by the Center for Coastal Studies in 2001. She still bears the scars on her head, body and peduncle from that experience. Mind-bogglingly, based on our team's scar coding analysis, we know that wasn't Calvin's first entanglement—that occurred even before she arrived in the Bay of Fundy as an 8-month-old! We know that she's been through at least four other entanglement events as well. Unfortunately Calvin's multiple entanglements don't make her an anomaly, as 59% of the population have also been entangled more than once.

Fluking in the Bay of Fundy reveals entanglement scars on Calvin's peduncle.

Happier news arrived in December 2004 when Calvin became a mother for the first time (of course her calf was named Hobbes!) and she brought her calf to the Bay of Fundy, just as her mother had done 13 years earlier. She birthed her second calf in 2009, and perhaps she will give birth to her third calf this winter! Despite the sad circumstances in her life, she offers hope for the future of this species.

Calvin and her first calf in February, 2005.

How has our research benefited from studying Calvin, and how has Calvin benefited from our research? Our scientists were part of the team that necropsied Delilah to discover how she died, which later helped illustrate the troubling issue of ship strikes and influenced efforts to move the shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy. Philip, Marilyn and Scott published a paper on right whale weaning age (which included Calvin's case), and expanded what the scientific community knew about the age a calf could successfully wean. Scarring analysis work teaches us that Calvin has been entangled six times, which opens our eyes to this growing problem, and our Catalog work reveals that she is due to have another calf, which gives us something to look forward to.

Please consider sponsoring Calvin! Your sponsorship donation directly funds our program and helps us advance our research so we can aid conservation efforts. Thank you!

- Marianna and Marilyn

New England Aquarium