It was the faintest gunshot call, so quiet research biologist Jessica Crance of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Marine Mammal Laboratory said she almost missed it. In her blog, Crance said that she certainly wasn’t expecting any right whale calls 55 miles east of their critical habitat inside Bristol Bay.
A very large, robust baleen whale species, North Pacific right whale is now extremely rare and endangered. According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the Northeast Pacific subpopulation, which summers in the southeastern Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska, may have no more than 40 animals.
Unlike here in Southcentral Alaska, whale viewing isn’t common in that part of the State, making the right whale viewing even more special.
 |
| Alex Whiting |
Native Village of Kotzebue Environmental Protection Alex Whiting: “Most of the whale activity is further out. The major migration from the Chukchi Sea to the Bering Sea happens in the Chukchi Sea proper. Most of the whale activity happens beyond where people are, and so it is not very common for people to see whales.”
From first call to first sighting was less than five hours – with scientists able to obtain photo-ID quality photos of both whales, as well as a biopsy sample from one of the two animals.
The information obtained from this survey will help scientists better understand the population dynamics of this critically endangered species, and help guide conservation and management efforts in the future.
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the females are larger than the males and can grow up to 55 feet. The North Pacific right whale has a very large head with strongly arched jaws, approximately one-quarter of its body length. The are light, wart-like spots on its head are called callosities.
 |
| Jessica Crance |
Right whales have a wide body, lack a dorsal fin, and are mostly black with some white patches on their undersides. Right whales weigh up to 2,000 lb at birth and up to 220,000 lb at maturity, with a lifespan well over 50 years. There are only two known populations of North Pacific right whales – one in the western North Pacific off Russia and the other in the eastern North Pacific off Alaska.
Right whales are sometimes confused with bowhead whales. Right whales typically have the obvious wart-like callosities on their heads, while the skin of bowhead whales is usually smooth. The North Pacific right whale is one of the rarest marine mammal species in the world due to heavy exploitation by commercial whalers prior to 1949.
Crance’s research focuses on marine mammal passive acoustics, with an emphasis on population monitoring, spatio-temporal distribution, vocal behavior, and call characteristics of Arctic and sub-Arctic marine mammals.
Crance's recording of the faint distant call of the right whale:
http://www.radiokenai.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/RightWhale.mp3
Crance's recording of the faint distant call of the right whale:
http://www.radiokenai.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/RightWhale.mp3
Story as aired on KRSM News:
No comments:
Post a Comment