While it is impossible to pick what is likely to be the next Canadian species of wildlife to go extinct, it might be the North Atlantic right whale. In the eastern Atlantic, off of Europe, it is “functionally extinct,” with, if any, only a handful left. Our western North Atlantic population was doing better, with a record number of 20th century births in 2009, when some 39 calves were reported off of Florida and Georgia. Three years later, the number fell to six or seven, with no births in 2017. That year, 14 right whales were found dead between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Cape Cod, in what is known as an “Unusual Mortality Event.”
There were about 500 of the whales in 2013, the highest such estimate since the massive commercial killing of great whales in the 18th through the mid-20th centuries ground to a near halt. The whaling industry exterminated the Atlantic gray whale and left the North Atlantic right whale, so-called because it was so profitable to hunt that it was the “right” one to focus on killing, endangered, along with the related bowhead and the blue whale, the latter the world’s largest animal ever. This year saw the birth of some right whale calves, but also increased mortality.
When a slow reproducing species reaches such low numbers, every individual counts. This year, at last count, there were three fishing gear entanglements.
To date, nine whales have been found dead in Canadian waters. The population now hovers somewhere around 400 animals, where once there were many, although it was probably never a hugely abundant species. Years ago, I made a visit to what is left of a 16th century Basque whaling station, in Labrador. There, we know whalers caught some 20,000 whales, with the North Atlantic right whale among the easiest to kill because they float when killed, mothers stay with harpooned calves and so are also easily harpooned, they are slow-moving, and tend to feed near the surface.
Years ago, the population bottomed out at approximately 100, in the 1930s, with a slow recovery up to approximately 500 a few years ago. Even with modern technology, exact counts and tracking is hard to achieve, and there is much about these whales and their biology and past history that is unknown, but we do know that birth rates have slowed down – an indication of stressors such as food shortages.
One of the most serious threats to the animals, who move slowly, often near the surface, is being struck by boats or boat propellers. Canada instigated a “slow-down” zone over one of the most dangerous sections of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but time is money to the shipping industry and now we learn that upon approaching the zone some ships speed up, increasing likelihood of hitting whales. Additionally, because these animals are copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, that lives in cold waters, they have moved their summer feeding rage north into the Gulf, in response to warming waters. Ships from as far inland as Duluth, Minnesota access the world’s oceans via the Gulf, leading to heavy shipping traffic. Canada is scrambling to keep up with regulations to protect the animals.
There are two other species of right whale, one in the Pacific, one in southern oceans, both faring better, but the outlook for this gentle giant of the North Atlantic is bleak.
Keep Wildlife in the Wild,
Barry
