NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. (AP) - Volunteer whale spotters are helping scientists track the right whales that migrate off Florida’s east coast.
The Daytona Beach News-Journal (https://bit.ly/1GeEwGI ) reported on Sunday that volunteers helped the researchers tag one North Atlantic right whale in January. The tracking tag allowed researchers to follow the whale’s movements from the water’s off Florida to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and then further north to the New England coast.
Scientists say right whales are difficult to tag because they do not have dorsal fins, used for tagging some other whales and sharks.
But tagging right whales is important for learning more about their migration patterns and directing ships and other maritime hazards around the whales.
Russ Andrews, a research scientist with the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Alaska Sea Life Center, is leading the tagging project. Andrew designed the right whale tracking tags that are embedded in a blubber layer in the back of a whale.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration lists North Atlantic right whales as “critically endangered.” They were hunted nearly to extinction, numbering as few as 100 animals, before it became illegal to kill them in the 1930s. The baleen whales, which can reach lengths of 55 feet, now number between 450 and 500. Their biggest threats are ship strikes and entanglement in commercial fishing gear.
Researchers have worked for years to perfect a tagging method for right whales. Andrews said scientists are working to come up with the good solutions to protect the whales without overly disrupting shipping and other human activities.
Andrews said the first year of the Florida tagging project had mixed success with the tagging of three whales.
“We didn’t tag as many whales as we’d like, which was a bummer,” said Andrews. “It’s really hard to find right whales unless it’s really good weather.”
One tagged whale, an adult female, knocked her tag off the next day. The tag remained in place on another whale for two weeks. The third whale was spotted off Martha’s Vineyard on Feb. 21. Her tag last transmitted off Nantucket Island on March 11.
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Information from: Daytona Beach (Fla.) News-Journal, https://www.news-journalonline.com
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