For the first time in 114 years, the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale has been spotted off the coast of Ireland! Why did the right whale swim to Ireland? To improve his singing with a kiss of the blarney stone.
Once common along the Northern European coast, the population collapsed during the golden era of whaling. Today, right whales are mainly observed on the U.S. East Coast and Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence. They were last seen on the far side of the pond in the late 1990s and early 2000s around Norway and the Azores. Two right whales have been recorded off Cape Farewell at the southern tip of Greenland.
The journey to the Emerald Isle took the right whale, likely a wayward adolescent, about 3,000 miles away from the usual summer haunts.
Growing to a length of more than 50 feet and weighing up to 150,000 lbs, right whales are notoriously difficult to see in the water with slick, gray skin and often swimming just below the surface. These slow-swimming whales, gulping zooplankton, lack the dorsal fin of fast-swimming humpback and fin whales.
Once, right whales were abundant around Cape Cod on this side of the Atlantic and in the Bay of Biscay on the other side. Right whales feed close to shore, often in sandy shoaling waters. Whalers quickly killed off these in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries for their blubber laden with oil before petroleum was developed.
An international agreement signed in 1935 put a stop to the killing of right whales. Yet, the right whale population has not recovered and, during the last decade, has decreased.
Last month, conservation groups formally requested that federal agencies impose a November 1st deadline to enact long-awaited protections from large speeding vessels. These rules would create new seasonal speed zones where right whales are most vulnerable to vessel collisions, if implemented. Vessels 35 feet or longer would be required to adhere to a speed limit of 10 nautical miles per hour.
Right whales are on the move, so it can be challenging to restrict vessel speeds at the right time and place. Speed restrictions are in place for Cape Cod Bay from January 1 to May 15, Off Race Point from March 1 to April 30, Great South Channel from April 1 to July 31, Block Island Sound from November 1 to April 30, etc.
The Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary will pick up where government regulations leave off. The initial regulation was ham-fisted, including vessel speed reductions in Nantucket Sound, where right whales have not been seen, and ferry boats transport people to and from Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket as quickly as possible before the weather changes. The Right Whale National Marine Sanctuary would provide a forum where all ocean users and interest group representatives meet quarterly to develop more responsible and adaptive solutions to shifting whale situations.
In addition to addressing the killing of whales by ship strikes and entanglements, we must restore the ocean and modify our actions at home and in our neighborhoods to reduce stormwater runoff carrying toxic pollutants and heat to the sea. The more diverse participants' input in the planning process, the more robust and long-lasting our solutions will be.
Seeing the distinctive “v” spout of a right whale off the coast of Ireland has been a thrilling and magical experience for viewers and scientists who spotted him. Whales turning up unexpectedly gives us hope. It's an extra degree of motivation and perseverance in the fight to save this majestic marine mammal, the North Atlantic right whale.
Steady on,
Rob
