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Right whale baby boom: The fragile hope that could decide the future of a species · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Alright folks, I have some fantastic news for you.
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  21. That's right.
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  21 North Atlantic right whale calves have been born so far in this season.
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  This is the highest number for several years and we are seeing a huge turnaround
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  or maybe potentially, possibly the beginning of a huge turnaround, but
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  we're not anywhere close to increasing to the point where we need to.
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  But this is actually a big turning point for a fragile species.
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  But like I said, at the end of this, I'm gonna tell you why we're not out
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  of the woods yet, but we're gonna talk about on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  Let's start the show.
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  Hey everybody.
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  Welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin, Marine biologist and science communicator
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  here to tell you what's happening with the ocean, how you can speak up for
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  the ocean, and what you can do to live for a better ocean by taking action.
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  And I'll be honest guys.
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  I'm not feeling the best today.
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  I think I finally succumbed to a cold, maybe a little bit of a flu.
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  I'm doing this because not only is it great news, but we need to put an
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  episode out and I don't want you to go a day of the three days of the
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  week that I post without an episode.
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  So I'm putting this episode out, so excuse if my voice starts to go.
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  But I was at a hockey tournament this past weekend.
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  My voice started to go, then I started to get sick.
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  So I apologize, but this is great news.
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  The North Atlantic white whale, a critically endangered species,
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  has had 21 calves so far.
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  Now for a species with only about 360 individuals remaining,
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  every calf that's born matters.
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  So the question remains, is this a turning point or is this a fragile moment of hope?
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  This is a very interesting and positive outlook on what we're seeing
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  for a critically endangered species.
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  It's a species where the number of calves actually outweigh sort
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  of the population replacement.
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  Every year, if you think about it, there are a number of calves that
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  will pass away just because of old age or something that happened.
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  So with North Atlantic, right whales, you end up seeing, you know,
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  just from old age, they pass away.
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  You see it from entanglement in fishing gear.
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  They pass away or ship strikes they pass away, which are the two that we're trying
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  to control the most to make sure that they don't pass away from those things.
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  But 21 calves actually helps replace more than any of the lost
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  animals that we saw, or individuals that we saw in the previous year.
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  So this is great to see that.
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  Now the calving season runs roughly November through April.
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  This is only the beginning of February.
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  There's still time to get more calves or be able to discover
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  more calves that are being born.
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  Recent years saw fewer than 10 calves that were born and some
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  years as low as zero calves born.
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  So each calf represents a measurable population boost,
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  not just a symbol of hope.
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  Every year, you're probably wondering how these animals get discovered.
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  It's very difficult.
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  You don't actually see the births a lot of the times.
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  You're very lucky if you are even to see it.
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  I don't even know, to be honest, if a North Atlantic right whale
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  birth has been witnessed in person.
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  It's a very difficult thing to see 'cause they might do it underwater.
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  They'll probably go down below over the surface.
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  They may not do it at the surface, but eventually they wanna do it
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  close 'cause they want to get that calf up to the surface and help
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  it breathe for the first time.
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  It's very difficult to see.
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  But when you see the calfs born is usually when you start to see them
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  as they migrate north or even south.
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  In this case, because it's winters, they're probably migrating a little
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  bit south and you start to see them in their calving area, usually
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  around Jacksonville, Florida.
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  And so you'll see aerial surveys off the southeastern United
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  States, photo identification of mother and calves, long-term
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  individual whale tracking will happen.
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  And this is kind of interesting because the population is so low,
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  360 individuals in and around there.
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  We tend to know each and every whale.
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  You can identify them by scars or any kind of unique formations on their body.
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  When you have a population of individuals that's critically endangered, you only
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  have about 360 in and around individuals.
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  You tend to know each and every individual.
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  There have been aerial surveys.
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  There've been photo identifications, long-term individual whale tracking
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  because they're able to identify unique markings, whether they're
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  scars of anything, whether it be from entanglement or just maybe it
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  be from just living in the ocean.
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  It can be rough in the ocean.
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  You be able to identify them.
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  People who are taking photographs from aerial photos, people who are taking
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  photographs from boats, from land.
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  And so what you're able to identify them area, they'll piece it all together.
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  And when you do these types of aerial surveys or from boats or even from land,
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  you're able to see individuals pop up and new individuals pop up.
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  These little calves that are small-ish compared to the rest of the North
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  Atlantic right whale, the adults.
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  And so you're able to see the mothers kind of look after those calves.
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  When you see one pop up, you're like, oh, this is new.
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  We haven't seen this calf before, because there's a database.
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  And so when you put those pictures in the database, they just rifle through.
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  Identify and line up the unique markings.
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  There's programs that look up and predict which of these animals they are.
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  They attach 'em to either a number or a name or both, and they're able to say,
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  Hey, this individual's here and this mother is now a mother for the first time
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  or the third time or the fourth time, and they're able to go back and forth
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  and look at that, which is pretty cool.
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  So the interesting part about all of this is that more calves
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  are being born obviously.
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  But that means the mothers are probably healthier than before.
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  Even the fathers to be able to create these beautiful calves, they
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  have to be in a particular manner where they have to be healthy.
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  They have to be well fed.
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  They can't be tired from swimming all this time.
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  They have to be in a pretty good body condition to feel like reproducing.
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  And the fact that they're doing this indicates that there's some potential
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  short-term success of protections, like these protections are working.
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  So the fact that there are slowing down vessels in and around
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  certain areas like the Gulf of St.
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  Lawrence up in Canada and even down south in the US where there
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  are natural ranges and now they're going into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
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  With climate change, it's getting warmer so they can go more
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  north than they normally do.
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  And so you're seeing, you know, changes during seasons when they're around
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  and you're starting to see some success in that where these animals
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  are not damaged, they're not hurt.
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  They're able to actually be healthy enough to reproduce.
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  So you're starting to see more and more.
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  A couple years ago, like even last year and the year before, the year
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  before that, we started to see some increases in calves, but we were still
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  fairly cautiously optimistic about it.
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  And same with this.
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  We saw a big rise in the number this year.
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  Still cautiously optimistic 'cause we just don't know if this is just a one-off
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  or if this is the start of potentially a new thing where we're starting
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  to see the recovery of this animal.
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  So this is hope, but it's not recovery.
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  I'm gonna say it again.
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  This is hopeful but it's not signs of recovery just yet.
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  If we start to see a number of years put together, 2, 3, 4, 5, then we're
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  gonna start to say, Hey, you know what?
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  We have some recovery happening.
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  And now that'll be really great news.
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  I hope we get to that point.
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  I just don't know if it's gonna happen.
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  We still have some major threats.
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  I wanna bring back the reality of the situation.
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  There are ship strikes where these animals, as they migrate and feed
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  in busy shipping lanes, there's certain times of the year where these
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  animals are in these shipping lanes.
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  And they could be busy times, you know, for those transport ships, right?
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  As they go across, these animals tend not to get outta the way very quickly, and
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  they're very hard to see because they'll stay just below the surface of the ocean.
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  And they'll just kind of hover there.
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  They don't come up often for air and they're just kind of coming and they
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  staying just below the surface where they're more vulnerable to getting hit.
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  So ship strikes and collisions are often a result in fatal injuries.
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  And so to see less of those is great,
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  like just showing by the fact that we have a healthier adult.
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  But it doesn't mean it's gonna stop.
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  That's a big problem.
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  And of course we have fishing gear entanglement.
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  So fishing gear entanglement happens when you have these lobster pots or crab pots.
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  They're down at the bottom of the ocean, but there's a line that
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  goes up to buoys that are at the surface so that the fishermen can
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  come back and grab those buoys.
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  So those fishers will come back.
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  They'll use those buoys, they'll grab it, they'll pull up the crab pots or
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  lobster pots, and then they'll take whatever they caught outta there.
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  Unfortunately, when those lines are going through, these whales can't really
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  see the lines, you know, the actual fishing lines or the lines that prop
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  up the buoys and keep the buoys up straight, or keep the buoys attached
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  to the crab pots or the lobster pots.
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  The whales will actually swim through and they'll get caught.
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  They'll get caught between theyre flipper and like just inside their pectoral fin.
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  And so they'll get it caught there and it'll just keep going.
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  And what happens is that line will actually cut through.
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  As they're moving through the water,
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  it's causing friction and it's causing like the buoy and the crab put on
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  the each side to be dragged around.
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  That line will kind of sever into the pectoral fin causing infection
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  and it's hard to recover when you can't get it cleaned, you
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  can't bandage it up, obviously.
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  And so animals can die from those types of wounds.
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  So we see this happen all the time.
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  In fact, unfortunately a 4-year-old whale passed away.
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  It was, you know, very hopeful that it was gonna do well.
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  But it wasn't the first time that it had been entangled.
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  I think it was like the third or fourth time that had been
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  entangled in his four year life.
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  Because it died of that, we're still seeing problems with entanglement, and
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  we're gonna see problems with entanglement until we get rid of these types of fishing
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  pots where they need a line and a buoy.
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  We're working on solutions for that.
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  There's a lot of fisheries that are going through experimental
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  fisheries where there's no line.
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  It's just like you press a button and these balloons pop up and the crab pots
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  or lobster pots will just float to the top and they have to go and retrieve them.
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  They're not perfect technology yet, but they're working better
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  than originally expected.
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  It's better than it was and it's gonna be better in the future,
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  but we're still seeing loss of animals life because of this.
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  The human cause there response to is still the vast majority
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  of the known right whale deaths.
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  Not just natural causes or beaching 'cause of a mystery.
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  It's usually just because of these two things, ship strikes
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  and fishing gear entanglement.
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  So the fact that we're seeing solutions in slowing down ships so that it gives
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  a chance of the whales to move or it gives a chance for the ships to react
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  if they do see this whale, even though it's difficult to see that is helping.
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  If they slow down from 20 knots to 10 knots, that's shown to
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  help, which is really great.
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  Also, like I said, the ropeless fishing gear really helps.
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  We've seen increased cooperation between Canada and US agencies.
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  I know that's difficult to think about at this point, but we're also
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  seeing that, which is really great.
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  And then we're also seeing real time whale alert systems for
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  mariners happen at buoy systems.
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  So we know when these whales are in the area, they're able to alert different
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  ships that there's whales in the area.
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  They can slow down.
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  And so that's great.
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  So adoption is growing but it's not universal and it's not fast enough.
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  So what you need quicker experiments happening, more starting to use ropeless
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  gear, starting to slow down ships like voluntarily from transport
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  ships, not just making them do it.
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  And then of course enforcement is gonna be huge when it comes to that.
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  So there's been a lot of progress in that.
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  And look, fishermen and fishing communities are working with scientists
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  to help, which is great to see.
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  And you see some shipping industry working as well 'cause
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  they don't want to hurt a whale.
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  They don't want run into a whale.
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  It doesn't look good for them.
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  It's not good for their captains, but it's also, you know, something that
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  they don't wanna have to go through.
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  So I think it's really great.
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  So the, the big thing is 21 calves is real progress.
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  It's really great to see.
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  Species are still critically endangered.
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  They're still dying in recovery will depend on what humans do next.
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  How are we going to make things better through innovation like ropeless gear
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  through slowing down ships to reduce any incidences or chances of ship strikes.
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  And then just more technology for alert systems and being able to detect whales
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  when they're in and around a specific area is gonna be really, really great.
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  I think it'll be a good future for them.
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  I think we're gonna be able to save them.
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  There's still enough individuals, even though they're critically
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  in danger, there's not a ton of reproductive females left.
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  I think there's less than a hundred.
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  If we can see an increase and we can see these calves get to
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  adulthood, that's even better.
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  And more and more calves every year is great.
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  I'm hopeful, but like I said, it's not recovery.
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  We can still have hope, but it's not recovery.
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  We still need to do more.
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  And we still need to like have you guys not only learn about this, but make
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  sure that your government officials are making sure these policies are being
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  stood right up to it and people are abiding by it and we're enforcing it.
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  ' cause that's a huge thing to do.
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  So it depends on not only us, but our governments.
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  Our fishing communities, our shipping communities.
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  This is all happens to work well in our favor.
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  So hopefully we can see the recovery of these species soon, and we're
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  hopeful right now, and hopefully later we'll see the recovery.
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  So if you have any questions or comments or concerns, please let
• 12:02
  me know in the comments below if you're watching this on YouTube.
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  And if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast app, the
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  audio version, which I always love 'cause it started off in audio.
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  I'm always gonna be with there in audio.
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  Let me know what you think by going to speak up for blue.com/feedback.
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  So all one word.
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  And I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the
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  How to Protect the Ocean Podcast.
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  I'm your host Andrew Lewin from the True North Strong and free.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.