Follow The Food: Scientists Devise New Strategy To Track Endangered Right Whales

A new method of tracking North Atlantic right whales could significantly improve the ability of scientists to predict their locations, potentially bolstering conservation efforts for the critically endangered marine mammal species.

Because of how few right whales remain in the Atlantic and how extensive their territorial range is, tracking them directly is extremely difficult and expensive, forcing scientists to rely on indirect tracking techniques. Historically, scientists primarily relied on phytoplankton production data captured from satellites, as phytoplankton are the primary food source of copepods, which in turn are the favorite food of right whales.

But right whales don’t eat phytoplankton, and estimates of right whale density that rely on phytoplankton are not always entirely accurate. In an attempt to address this problem, scientists working with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, Bigelow Laboratory, and the University of Maine developed a new method that relies directly on the zooplankton that right whales prefer to consume.

“What we did essentially was try to use more direct variables to predict right whale density and distribution,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Camille Ross, an associate research scientist at the Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center and former research associate at Bigelow Laboratory. “This is essentially another approach of trying to get at the comprehensive picture.”

And it worked: Ross found that the new models were much more accurate.

“It actually does make a decent difference in the ability of the models to predict right whale density in the areas where we do expect them to show up,” Ross said. “This work is exciting because it confirms that prey are a powerful tool in accurately predicting where right whales spend their time.”

The areas with the highest concentrations of right whales appear to be the deep basins of the Gulf of Maine and the Great South Channel, southeast of Cape Cod and near Nantucket.

Accurate tracking is an important part of conservation efforts.

“Refining that tool in any way possible is definitely an important advancement,” Ross said. “I would encourage people to not give up on these amazing animals.”

Ross said that the biggest threats to right whales are vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. The other major threat?

“One of the biggest threats to this species right now is climate change,” Ross said.

These threats intersect. As warming waters force right whales out of their usual habitats, they become more vulnerable to fishing gear entanglements and vessel strikes in areas without protections.