A lone critically endangered North Atlantic right whale was recently photographed off the coast of Ireland, some 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles) from its usual habitat in the western North Atlantic. It’s the first confirmed sighting there in several decades.
There are an estimated 360 North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) today, living along the East Coast of North America. They typically migrate between their calving grounds as far south as coastal Florida and their feeding grounds off New England and Canada.
Historically Europe was also part of their natural range until whaling starting in the 12th century drove the whales away, Philip Hamilton, a senior research scientist with the New England Aquarium, told Mongabay in a phone call. He said this is the first confirmed sighting of this species in Ireland since the 1970s.
“We do know that it is the historic range of North Atlantic right whales before they were extirpated by whaling,” Gib Brogan, a campaign director with Oceana told Mongabay in a phone call. “So, this may be somewhere in their collective genetic memory, or this may be an individual from a very stressed population looking for a way to find their way.”
There are many stressors for the whales that might force them towards a different part of the ocean. The western North Atlantic is one of the fastest warming oceans on the planet and the whales’ primary food source, small crustaceans called copepods, are struggling in the warming waters off New England. Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence has proven to be a greener pasture, where copepods are more abundant and more nutritious.
The whales started following their food to Canada about a decade ago. That additional distance makes their migration from Florida 50% longer, Brogan said. Canadians weren’t expecting the whales and had inadequate regulations in place for their protection.
“We detected 13 deaths in Canada in 2017 alone,” Hamilton said. The mortalities were largely from ship strikes and entanglements with fishing gear. North Atlantic right whales spend a lot of their time at the surface of the water near the coast, exactly where they are most likely to become caught up in fishing gear or hit by a passing boat. The Canadian government quickly responded with better regulations, significantly improving safety for the whales, Hamilton added.
Much like the Canadians, the Irish were not expecting a North Atlantic right whale to suddenly turn up in their waters, but Pádraig Whooley, sightings officer with the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group who originally confirmed the sighting, said the whale was safe there.
“Based on the legal framework and the remoteness of the Irish NW region in terms of the main dual threats of ship strike and entanglement in fishing gear, we’d be reasonably certain that this whale would be a lot safer in Irish waters than on any stretch of water between Florida and Nova Scotia!” Whooley told Mongabay in an email.
Banner image: Peter Duley/NOAA Fisheries
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