Three Actions to Improve the Plight of Right Whales 🐋
Success for right whales came today when Governor Baker signed a bill to establish an annual Right Whale Day in Massachusetts on April 24!
Massachusetts House Bill 3869 was filed by Representative Josh Cutler in response to one family's impactful experience with right whales.
In 2004, a few days after Ramona Delaney's 93-year-old grandmother had died peacefully, Ramona, with husband Matt Delaney and 14-year-old daughter Katrina, purchased an over-sand permit for their jeep and drove out through the sand dunes of Race Point at the northernmost tip of Cape Cod.
A ripple in the seawater quite close by drew their attention. Suddenly, an enormous black head rose high above the water. Gazing their way was an eye the size of a softball. The right whale wheeled forward and disappeared beneath the waves. Later, a right whale breached. Its entire body came out of the water, and rotating, it splashed down on its backside, sending up great curtains of spray. The right whale breached many times over the course of about an hour.
The Delaney family all felt this incredible yet intimate encounter was a sign that Ramona's grandmother was OK.
They found the solace they were seeking when the spirit of life shined brightly in a majestic right whale on that day in April. The Delaney family has celebrated April 24 as Right Whale Day ever since and asked that this special day become a time when everyone can cherish North Atlantic right whales.
Ocean conservation and the preservation of whales and all marine life are a central focus of Global Warming Solutions. Along with Beacon Hill's approval of the Right Whale Day for Massachusetts bill, we are advocating for the passage of The Stewarding Atlantic Fisheries Ecosystems by Supporting Economic Assistance and Sustainability (SAFE SEAS) Act. This bill aims to help lobstermen and women with the financial burden of using new trap lines that will no longer entangle whales or others.
The $1.7 trillion spending package recently passed by Congress included a six-year pause on regulations for the lobster and Jonah crab fisheries to reduce the risk of right whale entanglement in trap pot lines. The retracting trap lines with buoys activated to the surface by the lobsterman's cell phone require more time for development and production. The SAFE SEAS Act recognizes that it is in all of our interests to protect the right whales, a national treasure and keystone species in Cape Cod Bay and sandy shore ecosystems. This includes covering the costs of retractable gear for the sake of whales and the price of lobsters. Boat operators will be pleased not to have to steer around lobster pots.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is taking the smart step of proposing changes to the North Atlantic right whale vessel speed regulations to reduce the likelihood of mortalities and serious injuries to endangered right whales from vessel collisions. Ship strikes are a driving factor in the death of right whales.
The right whale requires these actions more than other whales because they only eat zooplankton. The whale grazes much like a harvester, moving slowly along the surface of the water with its mouth open, filtering with baleen plates that may be heard clacking together.
We urge NMFS to strengthen the effectiveness of the amendment. Right whales wander and follow the shoals of copepods that drift with shifting currents. The times and areas where mandatory speed limits are required should be expanded and adaptive to where the whales are week by week. Larger vessels should be required to keep tracking devices always operating in these waters. (Other vessels will appreciate their heightened visibility).
Vessels slowing down for right whales will save on fuel and carbon emissions. The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) could conduct more outreach to make this known. Distributing cards that chart fuel savings versus speed vs. tonnage, along the lines of the Coast Guard's Maintenance Procedure Card, would help this process.
The right whale population was estimated at 350 back in 1978. Over the decades, the right whale population grew to more than 400 and expanded into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Today, the right whale population is estimated at only 340 whales.
Whales require healthy ocean ecosystems that are suffering when we permit runoff water from the land to feed harmful algal blooms, create ocean dead zones, warm surface waters, and choke fish nurseries with sediments. We've only just begun to steward responsibly by thinking systemically to find nature-based solutions. It's paramount that we act more holistically with a great diversity of interest groups informing decisions.
Rob