Portland, Maine — PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — One of the rarest whales on the planet has continued an encouraging trend of population growth in the wake of new efforts to protect the giant animals, according to scientists who study it.
The North Atlantic right whale population now stands at an estimated 384 animals, eight more than the previous year, according to a report from the North Atlantic Right Whale Federation released Tuesday. The whales have shown a trend of slow population growth over the past four years.
It’s a welcome development in the wake of the worrying decline of the past decade. The number of whales exposed to collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear decreased by about 25% in the period from 2010 to 2020.
Philip Hamilton, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Ocean Life Center, said the whale’s recovery trend is a testament to the importance of conservation measures. The Center and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are collaborating to calculate the population estimate.
Hamilton said new management measures in Canada trying to keep whales safe amid their increasing presence in the Gulf of St. Lawrence were particularly important.
“We know that a modest increase each year, if we can maintain it, will lead to population growth,” Hamilton said. “It’s just a matter of whether we can maintain it or not.”
Scientists have warned in recent years that the whale’s slow recovery is occurring at a time when the giant animals still face threats from accidental deaths, and that stronger protection measures are needed. There are also reasons to believe that the whales have passed a rough patch in terms of declining breeding numbers, Hamilton said.
Whales are less likely to reproduce when they sustain injuries Or suffer from nutritional deficienciesScientists said. This appears to be a problem for Pisces because they are not Produce enough children They said to preserve their population.
This year, four mother whales gave birth to their young for the first time, Hamilton said. Some other mother whales have shorter intervals between their young, he said.
In all, 11 calves were born, which is fewer than researchers had hoped, but the entry of new females into the whelping pool is encouraging, Hamilton said.
Any number of calves is helpful in a year with no deaths, said Heather Bettis, who leads the Cabot Center’s right whale research program and chairs the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium.
“The slight increase in whale population estimates, coupled with the lack of detected deaths and lower number of detected injuries compared to the past few years, makes us cautiously optimistic about the future of North Atlantic right whales,” Pettis said. “What we’ve seen before is that these residents can get a dime.”
Whales were hunted to the brink of extinction during the era of commercial whaling. They have been protected at the federal level for decades.
Whales migrate every year from calving grounds off Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds off New England and Canada. Some scientists said rising ocean temperatures made the journey more dangerous because the whales had to move away from established protected areas in search of food.