Greetings from Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary:
The right whales have been busy here in the southwest corner of the Gulf of Maine recently.
We just received a report from a geological survey team (which is doing a state-of-the-art side-scan sonar survey of the Sanctuary), that 11 right whales were spotted on Friday morning logging on the surface (logging is resting state) at the southern edge of Stellwagen Bank. The bank sits at the mouth of Massachusetts and Cape Cod Bays (the bays are actually one big body of water that is bounded by the Massachusetts coast from Cape Ann on the north to Cape Cod on the south).
Four to five whales were spotted at the same time in Cape Cod Bay. The Captain John Boats (whale watching operation out of Plymouth) also sighted about 11 rights in Cape Cod Bay just off the Plymouth coast (date not available but probably some time over the last few days). Last Wed. the geologists spotted two whales just outside Provincetown Harbor and several blows in the distance. Several fin whales have also been spotted over the past week.
Did anyone come up with some answers about the right whale names?
It seems whale naming has been a somewhat arbitrary and casual procedure, with the "honor" of naming the whale going to the person who first recognizes a new member of the population. Many whales just have scientific numbers, such as #1254, but some have been named because of a callosity pattern, a scar shape, or named after a particular person out on the whale research cruise (that's how PORTER got his name).
PEDIDDLE was so named because she has a large white callosity on her head that looks like a single headlight on a car;
RAT got her name for an entanglement scar on her tail that looks like that type of rodent;
STACATTO has a mark on her back that looks like the musical symbol (she has had no calf since 1991, they were hoping that she would show up with one this year);
STUMPY is missing part of her right fluke (her calf was hit on the calving grounds last season and probably died);
PUNCTUATION has a scar on the left side of her head that resembles a comma (she hasn't had a calf since 1989, another disappointment);
HALF-NOTE displays a callosity with scar on her head that looks like a half-note in music (1989 was the last time she was known to have had a calf, although she was not spotted in 1993 and could have produced a calf that year);
TRIDENT has a scar on his left shoulder that looks like a three-pronged pitchfork or trident; and
RADIATOR has a large set or scars on his left side caused by a boat's propellers.
Scientists are concerned and distressed by the low calving rates, especially among the whales that are long overdue (right whales may produce a calf every 3-5 years). Possible reasons are increased pollution levels, increased whale watching that may be interrupting mating, not enough food -- but there are no definitive answers, only questions. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Until next week, this is Anne Smrcina, signing off.
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