{"id":21408,"date":"2024-03-26T10:41:11","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T14:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/?page_id=19316"},"modified":"2024-08-28T14:28:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T18:28:38","slug":"are-fishing-and-boating-regulations-protecting-endangered-whales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/are-fishing-and-boating-regulations-protecting-endangered-whales\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Fishing and Boating Regulations Protecting Endangered Whales?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">The North Atlantic &#8220;right&#8221; whale is a critically endangered species, with fewer than 400 estimated alive today. Two leading causes of right whale mortality are fishing gear and vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>NOAA Fisheries has designated the Southeast coast \u2014 from Cape Fear to below Cape Canaveral \u2014 as a critical habitat for North Atlantic right whales, because these waters are where they give birth to their calves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">To protect right whales from entanglement and vessel strikes, scientists urgently need information on the whales\u2019 diving behavior \u2014 data they can use to better assess risk, monitor the whales, and form conservation strategies.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignwide alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/03\/Right_Whales_Sea-to-Shore-AllianceNOAA.jpeg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/03\/Right_Whales_Sea-to-Shore-AllianceNOAA.jpeg\" alt=\"image: two right whales breech the ocean surface.\" class=\"wp-image-19417\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">A new study supports seasonal speed restrictions for vessels 65 feet and longer. Credit: NOAA.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Tagging the Whales<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Researchers tagged North Atlantic right whales over the course of four winters on calving grounds along the southeast coast. In total, the team tagged 14 individual whales \u2014 10 lactating, three juveniles, and two pregnant whales \u2014 including one whale tagged when pregnant and again when lactating.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The tags had a variety of sensors that measured acceleration, temperature, and pressure. A suction cup held each tag on the whale for about seven hours. From this data, the team gained insight into each whale\u2019s movement and dive patterns.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>How Deep Do They Swim?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lactating female whales spent up to 80% of their time at shallow depths (less than 11.5 feet). Comparatively, pregnant and juvenile whales spent a maximum of 30% of their time at shallow depths.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Pregnant and juvenile whales also dove into deeper ocean waters than lactating whales \u2014 40-foot versus 24-foot maximums. They also spent more time on average at their deepest dive points \u2014 45% of their dive time versus 37% for lactating whales.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why It Matters<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Lactating whales and their calves are at higher risk of vessels striking them, because they spend more time at shallow depths. This is consistent with previous research that found vessel strikes disproportionately kill female-calf pairs of right whales.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Overall, these findings support seasonal speed restrictions for large vessels (around 65 feet and longer) during the calving season to reduce the chances that vessels strike and kill lactating right whales and their calves.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Because pregnant and juvenile whales spend more time closer to the sea floor, they are at greater risk of getting entangled in fishing lines. The study underscores the importance of seasonal closures of fishing activity and the ban on groundlines. If management considers allowing fishery activity in the future, alternatives to floating groundlines \u2014 like rope-less gear or sinking groundlines \u2014 could reduce risk of right whale entanglement.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>the full study<br><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.int-res.com\/abstracts\/esr\/v46\/p35-48\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dive Behavior of North Atlantic Right Whales on the Calving Ground <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in the Southeast USA: Implications for Conservation\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>lead image: North Atlantic right whale. Credit: adobeStock.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>Maya Afilalo<\/strong> is the communication fellow for North Carolina Sea Grant\u2019s award-winning <em>Hook, Line &amp; Science<\/em> series, which published an earlier version of this <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">story: <a href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/hooklinescience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>HookLineScience.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/spring-2024\">from the Spring 2024 issue<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The North Atlantic right whale is a critically endangered species, with fewer than 400 estimated alive today. Two leading causes of right whale mortality are fishing gear and vessels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":22806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ncst_custom_author":"Maya Afilalo","ncst_show_custom_author":true,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"custombg_one\",\"caption\":\"Several male North Atlantic Right Whales engage in courtship - Grand Manan, Bay of Fundy, Canada. Credit: Adobe Stock\",\"displayCategoryID\":1408,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"The endangered \\\"right\\\" whale species faces significant threats from vessels and fishing gear.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","ncst_content_audit_display":false,"ncst_backToTopFlag":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[632,599,1408],"tags":[],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[1411],"class_list":["post-21408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-632","category-critters","category-spring-2024"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":1408,"name":"Spring 2024","slug":"spring-2024","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1409,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":632,"count":15,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are Fishing and Boating Regulations Protecting Endangered Whales? - Coastwatch<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ncseagrant.ncsu.edu\/coastwatch\/are-fishing-and-boating-regulations-protecting-endangered-whales\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Fishing and Boating Regulations Protecting Endangered Whales? - Coastwatch\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The North Atlantic right whale is a critically endangered species, with fewer than 400 estimated alive today. 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