DISTANCE LEARNING: Stuck at home with the Kid's. Here's a fun whale project to keep them busy!

This "Blue Whale Puppet" was inspired by one I saw online somewhere. I've included 2 sizes, 8-1/2 x 11

WHALES: New publication: WhaleMap: a tool to collate and display whale survey results in near real-time

My co-authors and I have developed an open source software tool called WhaleMap (available at whalemap.org) to collate and display whale survey results in near real-time. It is described in our recent publication in the Journal of Open Source Software:

Johnson H, Morrison D, Taggart C (2021). WhaleMap: a tool to collate and display whale survey results

RIGHT WHALE: A New publication on possible right whale habitat suitability in 2050

On behalf of my co-authors, I would like to announce a recent peer-reviewed publication on projecting right whale habitat suitability in 2050.

Here is the abstract:

North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) are critically endangered, and recent changes

WHALES: New book on North Atlantic right whales

Disappearing Giants: The North Atlantic Right Whale

Scott Kraus, Marilyn Marx, Heather Pettis, Amy Knowlton, Ken Mallory

Publisher: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, Markham, ON

Paperback/140 pages

Disappearing Giants tells the story of one of the most endangered large whales in the oceans today, from the whaling history for which it is named, to the most up-to-date research efforts and population status. Illustrated throughout with beautiful photos, it describes how individual right whales are identified, how they feed, migrate, and face the challenges of life in the industrialized North Atlantic Ocean.  The authors, long-time right whale researchers from the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life at New England Aquarium in Boston, hope this book will bring awareness to this wondrous but threatened whale species and the tremendous efforts being  taken to help North Atlantic right whales  avoid extinction and thrive far into the future.

To order a copy please visit rightwhaleresearch.bigcartel.com

Why are right whales roaming into danger off the East coast? | CBC Radio

Changing oceanographic conditions mean whales are not where they once were

CBC Radio · Posted: Sep 13, 2019 4:32 PM ET | Last Updated: September 13

A whale discovered entangled in fishing gear in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was rediscovered just two weeks later off Cape Cod and freed in a difficult operation. (Centre for Coastal Studies/NOAA Permit #18786-03)

This summer, eight more endangered North Atlantic right whales were found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. These latest deaths have increased the pressure on whale researchers to understand why the whales have begun moving so unpredictably in the waters around Eastern Canada.

The hope is if they can understand why the whales are moving, they can predict those movements and better protect the whales.

Kimberley Davies, a whale biologist from the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, along with colleagues from Dalhousie University and New England Aquarium in Boston, spent several weeks on a 20-meter crab fishing boat this summer studying whales that appeared in large numbers in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Up until about 2010, North Atlantic right whales spent most of their summer feeding and raising their young in the waters of the Gulf of Maine and Bay of Fundy. In these waters, the whales' movements were reasonably well understood, and limits could be put on shipping — to reduce risk of fatal ship strikes — and on fishing, to reduce the risk of dangerous entanglement in fishing gear.

But in more recent years, the right whales have been showing up in large numbers in the busy waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the result has been an increase in whale deaths — with a peak in 2017, when a dozen whales died in Canadian waters.  Only about 400 whales survive, so these losses are unsustainable to a long-lived and slow-reproducing population.Davies and her colleagues have found that one significant reason for the whales' unpredictable movement is that their food source seems to be moving.  The distribution of the tiny zooplankton called copepods that the whales eat has been shifting with changing oceanographic conditions off the east coast.

MORE AT: Why are right whales roaming into danger off the East coast? | CBC Radio

WHALES: DFO confirms second endangered blue whale found dead in Gulf of St. Lawrence

Necropsy won't be possible because of blue whale's advanced state of decomposition

Michael Tutton · The Canadian Press · Posted: Oct 01, 2019 8:32 PM AT | Last Updated: an hour ago

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is confirming the death of this blue whale. (HO-Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard/The Canadian Press)

The Department of Fisheries and Oceans is confirming a second blue whale death last month in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is again saying an examination of the cause will not be possible.

The blue whale carcass was reported to the department Sept. 7 by a cargo ship and confirmed by Transport Canada and Fisheries Department aircraft about 110 kilometres north of Gaspesie.

DFO said it identified the species from photos, but officials determined a necropsy wasn't feasible due to the advanced state of decomposition.

Spokesperson Barre Campbell said in an email the animal's large size and distance from shore also factored into the decision.

The department had earlier reported a dead juvenile blue whale found on Sept. 18 just northwest of Port Hood, N.S., in Cape Breton, saying a full necropsy wasn't possible in that case either.

A spokesperson said this was because the whale's body was decomposed and in an inaccessible location, and there wasn't a suitable vessel available to tow the whale

WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT! The History of the Oceans Is Locked in Whale Earwax

The Astonishing History Locked in Whale Earwax - The Atlantic:

ED YONG, NOV 21, 2018

The History of the Oceans Is Locked in Whale Earwax

The massive plugs contain spikes and dips of stress hormones that perfectly match the history of modern whaling.

MIGUEL MEDINA / GETTY

Whales are big, whales are long-lived, and whales have paddle-shaped flippers instead of dexterous hands. These three traits inexorably lead to a fourth: Over time, whales accumulate a lot of earwax.

Whale earwax forms like yours does: A gland secretes oily gunk into the ear canal, which hardens and accumulates into a solid, tapering plug. In the largest whales, like blues, a plug can grow up to 10 inches long, and looks like a cross between a goat’s horn and the world’s nastiest candle. Fin whale wax is firmer than blue whale wax, bowhead whale wax is softer and almost liquid, and sei whale wax is dark and brittle. But regardless of size or texture, these plugs are all surprisingly informative.

As whales go through their annual cycles of summer binge-eating and winter migrations, the wax in their ears changes from light to dark. These changes manifest as alternating bands, which you can see if you slice through the

ISSUES: U.S. considers further measures to protect North Atlantic right whales

There are a million vertical fishing lines in the path of the right whales, says U.S. ocean agency

Paul Withers · CBC News · Posted: Oct 03, 2018 7:03 AM AT | Last Updated: 2 hours ago

P.E.I. fisherman Joey Gauthier has been apprehensive that sightings of North Atlantic right whales would shut down the fishery for lengthy periods of time, causing a loss in income. (Katerina Georgieva/CBC)

A new U.S. government assessment of the plight of the North Atlantic right whale is questioning whether local fishing closures are enough to save the endangered species, pointing to the threat posed by vertical sea floor-to-surface fishing lines throughout their range.

The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) evaluation of "recovery challenges" was released ahead of a meeting next week to address proposals to protect the whales that would alter the lobster fishery in New England.

Those proposals include reducing the number of sea floor-to-surface lines by 50 per cent over five years and a month-long lobster fishing closure in the western Gulf of Maine.

Single sighting shuts down fishery

American and Canadian authorities have used local area closures as a preferred management tool to protect the whales.

This year, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans imposed severe restrictions on snow crab fishing in the Gulf of St. Lawrence after 12 right whales died there in 2017. 

In the Bay of Fundy in June, the appearance of a single right whale in a protected area shut down the lobster fishery on Grand Manan, N.B., for 15 days. The industry claims it cost a million dollars in lost income.

"They closed the lobster fishery in an area that hadn't harmed a whale in several

GRAND MANAN: Tuna, sharks and whales ... fishing in 1934

Southern Weirs Hold the Record

Ten tuna fish were taken from the "Dock" weir at Flagg's Cove one day recently, and several more on other occasions, it is said. The first tuna caught were shipped to Portland but the venture did not prove remunerative enough to the shippers due to excessive transportation charges. The tuna more recently taken were given away to neighbors of the weir owners, and those who liked the flesh enjoyed a feast indeed. North Head weirs are noted for their catching of big fish, and recently another large shark was taken in the same weir which produced a monstrous shark some time ago, the liver from which filled a dory. These weirs, however, are just a whit behind those of the southern part of the parish. A good sized whale was taken in the "Big Weir'' located at Inner Wood Island not long ago. The mammal was killed and towed from the weir by Captain Harry Harvey and crew of the Wood Island Life Saving Station. Whales or sharks, however, it's all in the day's work for the weir fishermen who rarely express surprise at anything they find inside the enclosures. (St. Croix Courier 1934)

Sperm Whales back in Bay of Fundy

From NatureNB Listserv.

Image via Wikipedia

The New England Aquarium right whale research vessel heard sperm whales in the Grand Manan Basin August 4 on a hydrophone and confirmed their presence today with one sighted. They also saw 2 sei whales and about 25 right whales today on their surveys.

We had 3 humpbacks near the Wolves and two fin whales off the northern end of Grand Manan as well as about six or more minke whales, many harbour porpoises, and four basking sharks. We also had two sunfish last Friday. 

Laurie Murison, Grand Manan, NB

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Calais LNG whale assessment submitted to FERC - woefully inadequate!

 Since right whale habitat studies have concentrated only in the open Bay of Fundy — not near Head Harbour Passage or in Grand Manan Channel — research is unlikely to reveal actual right whale activity in the unstudied areas, including the 40 right whales that frequented near the entrance to Head Harbour Passage last summer (2009). Such research and results are commonly referred to by the scientific community as "garbage in, garbage out"; the results are a reflection of the quality of the research.

As marine biologist Art MacKay, who has been mapping whale sighting data in the Quoddy area, stated last summer, Head Harbour Passage was "plugged with whales." (See Art's whale-sightings map at the top-left of his I Love Quoddy Wild website. Or go directly to a larger version of his Fundy Whales map on CommunityWalk.)

Danielle Dione's Quoddy Link Marine Sightings and Updates blog has video-recorded and still-photographed prolific whale (including right whale) activity in the proposed LNG transit area, the area that Calais LNG's "research" claims would be unaffected by LNG transits. 

Bob Godfrey

****************
Whales unaffected by LNG plant: report BY BARB RAYNER

February 25, 2010
CALAIS — A biological assessment filed by Calais LNG with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has concluded that increased vessel traffic from this proposed project is not likely to adversely affect North Atlantic right whales.

The lengthy report – a biological assessment on threatened and endangered marine mammals and sea turtles – was prepared for the company by Normandeau Associates Inc of Bedford, New Hampshire and submitted to FERC this week.

It concludes that liquid natural gas transport vessels using the terminal will avoid travel through the areas most heavily utilized by right whales but also notes that low visibility, such as fog and night transit, in addition to the whales’ surface behaviour, limits the ability to see these whales.

The report says Calais LNG has sought the most effective mitigation measures to reduce the risk of collisions with whales.

These mitigation measures, and others, will be included in a Ship Strike Reduction Plan which will be included as part of the charter party agreement with project carriers.

Based on the relatively low percentage increase in vessel traffic (3.1 per cent) that the Calais LNG project will contribute to the entire Bay of Fundy area, combined with the mitigation measures and a ship speed of 10 knots, the authors of the report assert that “the increased traffic from this project may affect, but is not likely to adversely affect the North Atlantic right whales.

The report also states that the overlap in frequency and source levels of vessel noise with right whale calls, vessel noise and presence of vessels may affect but are not likely to adversely affect the right whales. Similar reasons are listed in the report as
to why it is felt the project will also not adversely affect humpback, fin, sei, blue and sperm whales. Due to the relatively low prevalence of loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles within the transit route, the report notes that the vessels are also unlikely to adversely affect them either.

Calais LNG proposes to build an LNG receiving, storage and vaporization terminal and related natural gas send-out pipeline at a site near Ford Point on the St. Croix River in Calais.

The project will allow for berthing and off-loading LNG vessels, storage of three 160,000-cubic-metre LNG tanks and delivery of natural gas to the send-out pipeline connecting the terminal with the interstate pipeline of Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline for transportation to markets in New England.

The terminal site will be located within the Calais city limits on a site approximately six miles (9.5 km) southeast of the city’s population centre and approximately 20.7 miles (33 km) from the pipeline.

The site area is approximately 337 acres which include intertidal land with about 2,800 feet of frontage on the St. Croix River and adjacent submerged lands.

The terminal will be developed on a portion of about 35 acres that lie between US Route 1 and the St. Croix River. It will include berthing and unloading marine facilities and will receive one to two LNG vessels a week.

Initial construction will include two tanks and timing of construction of the third tank will be based on considerations such as expanded market requirements and inventory management in support of supply reliability.

Bay of Fundy right whale numbers rebound

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Record number of calves born this year  
Friday, September 18, 2009 | 7:06 PM AT Comments30 CBC News

Conservation efforts in the Bay of Fundy appear to be paying off for the endangered North Atlantic right whale, with a record 39 calves being born this year. (CBC)

Thirty years of conservation efforts in the Bay of Fundy appear to be paying off for the North Atlantic right whale, one of the rarest large mammals on earth, scientists say.

The species, once headed for extinction, is experiencing a baby boom, with 39 calves born this year, and 37 of them surviving.

That's the largest number documented since researchers from Boston's New England Aquarium started monitoring the whales in the Bay, off the basin of Grand Manan, N.B. The previous record was 31, set in 2001.

"I'd like to think we're moving towards a success story, of right whales being a success story in conservation," said Dr. Moira Brown, a Canadian biologist, who is leading the research team.
The goal is to help keep the right whales safe by documenting how many there are using photographs and an online database, tracking their habits and movements.

Read entire article here: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/09/18/nb-right-whales.html

LNG - Bay of Fundy's Endangered Right Whales Move Inshore at Quoddy - LNG Trump Card?

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Developers who wish to establish LNG Terminals in Passamaquoddy Bay seem to know that the trump card from their opposition might well be the whales that literally plug Head Harbour Passage each summer and the endangered North Atlantic right whales that, later in the season, move into the approaches to Head Harbour Passage.

This year is no exception. As whale watchers have been reporting at ilovequoddywild.blogspot.com, large numbers of finbacks and porpoise are using the passage and approaches daily and 15 to 20 right whales were reported near the entrance by whale watchers yesterday.

Together with Canada's opposition, whales brought down the Pittston Oil Refinery at Eastport many years ago. That will most certainly be the case again as listed species like finbacks, porpoise and right whales frequent this essential habitat and feed a vital Quoddy eco-economy based on tourism, fisheries, aquaculture,education,and research.

Art MacKay

Photo Credit: Danielle Dion, Quoddy Link Marine

A lesson for the Bay of Fundy? Sound impacts endangered western gray whale in Russia

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According to an article by the World Wildlife Fund, noise and seismic activity are threatening the remaining endangered Western gray whales. There are only about 130 Western gray whales remaining, including just 25 breeding females according to the WWF. These whales feed only in the summer and autumn, and their primary feeding area lies in and adjacent to Exxon’s Sakhalin-1 project in the Piltun Bay area of Salkhalin Island.

Wikipedia.com describes a second project, Sakhalin II, that has come under fire from environmental groups for dumping dredging material in Aniva Bay. The consortium has re-routed the pipeline to avoid the whale migration which doubled the projected cost, resulting in the Russian government threatened to halt the project for environmental reasons. There have been suggestions that the Russian government is using the environmental issues as a pretext for obtaining a greater share of revenues from the project and/or forcing involvement by the state-controlled Gazprom.

The impact of sound appears to be clear as related to these projects. What will this mean to endangered and threatened right whales, finbacks, and harbour porpoise in Head Harbour Passage and the Bay of Fundy in general?

Get the entire picture at:
http://www.panda.org/wwf_news/?171481/Exxon-ignores-calls-from-50-000-people-to-stop-threatening-rare-whales
and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakhalin_Island

Photo Credit: Wikipedia.com

Head Harbour Passage Could Become Lethal Echochamber

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It might sound like something out of a bad sci-fi film: whales sent into suicidal dashes toward the ocean’s surface to escape the madness-inducing echo chamber that we humans have made of their sound-sensitive habitat. But since the Canary Islands stranding in 2002, similar necropsy results have turned up with a number of beached whales, and the deleterious effects of sonar and other human-generated sounds on ocean ecosystems have been firmly established.

Read this and then imagine what it would be like in a restricted environment like Head Harbour Passage where whales, porpoises, seals, LNG tankers, powerful tugs, and high-speed security vessels are all sharing a restricted space like Head Harbour Passage!

Read the entire article at: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/magazine/12whales-t.html?_r=4&emc=eta1

Photo Credit: Art MacKay files
Thanks to VN

The Essence of the Bay of Fundy Quoddy Region

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History, nature, and tourism ... the essence of Head Harbour Passage and the Quoddy Region of the Bay of Fundy.

Photo Credit: Brian Flynn

Great Bay of Fundy Images - Porpoise in Head Harbour Passage

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Just in from Danielle Dion of Quoddy Link Marine to celebrate Canada Day. This fabulous shot of porpoise in Head Harbour Passage just off Casco Island where they sighted a group of about 20, with a few cow-calf pairs. More at ilovequoddywild.blogspot.com