North Pacific Right Whale: video! Very important sighting of this critically endangered species, the first one sighted off B.C. in 62 years! Only ~38-50 are left in the eastern Pacific Ocean (between Mexico and the Bering Sea); no more than a few hundred in the world. This sighting south of Langara Island was just the 7th in the past century. This whale was first spotted by Canadian whale researcher James Pilkington on June 9; he was joined by colleagues Dr. John Ford and Graeme Ellis on June 13. They videoed and photographed the whale for ID purposes, and collected some of its prey and its scat - which they can analyze to genotype the animal through its DNA and learn more about it, such as its gender. The Canadians have already compared photos with the Americans’ catalogue of 19 whales and none of them match, which means they likely have discovered a new right whale: Wow! The right whale was so-named because it was the “right” whale to hunt for its blubber and valuable baleen plates (used for various plastic-like products including “whalebone” corsets); the baleen hangs from the roof of its mouth to filter out tiny shrimp-like copepods. They were harpooned almost into extinction in the mid-1800s; 30,000 were killed in just one decade! Hunting these whales has been banned since 1935; however, the Soviets continued to hunt them illegally in the 1960s, which likely delayed their recovery. Right whales are still at high risk from collisions with ships and getting entangled in fishing gear. North Pacific right whales are large, stock, shiny black whales with no dorsal fin or knuckles. They are easily recognizable for the highly arched jaw and callosities (growths of orange/white thickened skin on its head). There were only eleven right whale sightings off California (and two off Baja CA) between 1925-2011 - all but one since 1955. Most sightings were of single animals encountered very close to shore between March-May. Some CA sightings occurred in or near Monterey Bay, including September 1998 (re-Jim Scarff). Keep those cameras ready!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 18:07:57 +0000
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