portland – One of the rarest cetaceans on the planet has continued an encouraging trend of population growth following new efforts to protect these giant animals, according to scientists who study them.
The North Atlantic right whale now numbers an estimated 384 individuals, eight more whales than the previous year, according to a North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium report released Tuesday. Whales have shown a trend of slow population growth in the last four years.
It is welcome news after a worrying decline in the previous decade. The population of the whales, which are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglements in fishing gear, fell by about 25% from 2010 to 2020.
The whale’s trend toward recovery is a testament to the importance of conservation measures, said Philip Hamilton, senior scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life. The center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are collaborating to calculate the population estimate.
New management measures in Canada that attempt to keep the whales safe while increasing their presence in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have been especially important, Hamilton said.
“We know that a modest increase each year, if we can sustain it, will lead to population growth,” Hamilton said. “It’s just whether we can maintain it or not.”
1 / 23 | Wonders of the sea: an intimate look at whales and dolphins in their natural habitat. Every year on July 23, World Whale and Dolphin Day is celebrated. – Alberto Ortiz
Scientists have warned in recent years that the whale’s slow recovery comes at a time when the giant animals still face threats of accidental deaths, and that stronger conservation measures are needed. But there is also reason to believe that the whales are improving from their low reproductive numbers, Hamilton said.
Whales are less likely to reproduce when they have suffered injuries or are poorly fed, scientists have said. That has become a problem for the species because they are not producing enough offspring to maintain their population, they have noted.
However, this year four female whales gave birth to calves for the first time, Hamilton said. And other whales that had already been mothers had shorter intervals between calves, he added.
In total, 11 calves were born, which is less than researchers expected, but the entry of new females into the reproductive group is encouraging, Hamilton said.
And any number of calves is helpful in a year without deaths, said Heather Pettis, who leads the right whale research program at the Cabot Center and chairs the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.
“The slight increase in the population estimate, coupled with the absence of detected mortalities and fewer detected injuries than in recent years, leaves us cautiously optimistic about the future of North Atlantic right whales,” Pettis said. “What we have seen before is that this population can change rapidly.”
Whales were hunted to the brink of extinction during the era of commercial whaling. They have been under federal protections in the United States for decades.
The whales migrate each year from breeding grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. Some scientists have said that warming oceans have made that journey more dangerous because the whales have had to stray from established protected areas in search of food.