Right Whale RESEARCH' NEWS VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2 NOV
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Right Whale RESEARCH' NEWS VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2 NOV. 2005 ssue: the Lubec Narrows--one of the last f Our Own A Dock of Our Own remaining of such structures-anchored into the bottom with wooden pilings. Sponsored Whale IJpdate By: Dr. Moira Brown and Dr. Scott Kraus When they ceased operations around North Atlantic Right Whale 1990, the owners donated the deterio- Consortium 2005 Annual Meeting Maine's rockbound coast and high rating structure to the New England Bay of Fu ndy 2005 tidal range have always presented a Aquarium. In the first few years of our challenge to mariners making the short ownership, there wasn't enough left of The Grealt South Ct but difficult transition from ship to the pier to use. One spring, Scott Kraus Return to ~oseway: From Fe shore. Each August, the right whales received a call from an alarmed Coast to Near . Famine return to the Bay of Fundy between Guard. The remaining shack on the end Maine and Nova Scotia, and since 1981 of the pier and the wooden pilings The Scoop on rooE7 the biologists who study them gather supporting it had lifted off the bottom The Policy Tunnel there as well. Our base of operations is during an unusually high tide following a -I-- a- &L- located in Lubec, Maine, and for many spring storm and was last seen floating Right Whales UII ult: Web years the first order of business was down the Lubec Narrows. After many Sample C:ollection Ion the relocating the mooring stone that would adventures on the high seas and reports Southeast U.S. C:alving Grc . anchor our research vessel in the harbor to the Coast Guard from passing ships Usina (~enetic-ID techniauh VYllIjll during our stay. Some years it was sim- of a "floating house" at sea, the shack IDis not (: ply a matter of finding the car engine- and pilings fetched up on the Canadian sized chunk of granite in the shallows Continued on page 2 Editor: where we had left it the previous Lindsay Hlall autumn. However, more often than not, the first survey of the year was a bottom utors: survey of the harbor-researchers clad Moira tjrown Scott Kra in scuba gear scouring the area to Sponsored Whale Cynthia BIrowning Kerry La! relocate the stone moved over the win- -- .. - Update Lisa Conger Marilyn n ter by storms, ice or scallop draggers. In the early years, our research vessel, Tim Frasier Heather Pettis By: Yan Guilbauit Nereid, was the only vessel moored in Yan Guilbault Beth Pike the harbor. As the years went by, many The right whale research team is back in Philip Hamilton Roz Rolland more fishing boats followed our lead so the Boston, MA, office after two months Amy Knov that by the time we arrived in late July of surveying in the Bay of Fundy and the only anchorage left was one in deep Roseway Basin. The analysis of photos water, several hundred yards from the from those surveys is still in progress, and publislhed by the New Engla~nd town pier. The long row in a little skiff but we are glad to announce that at Aquarium. We welcor ne your co~mments from pier to Nereid was seen by some least four of our six sponsored whales and suggestions! Or, if you woulId like to as romantic in the early morning hours, have been seen since last spring. hear more aaour. *- a panlcular.. as pecr. or. our projedt, please se te our web!site. but the exposed mooring was of concern As in the previous issue of Right during autumn storms. Whale Research News, a map showing --=L In the 1980s and 1990s, we were the sightings of the sponsored whales often awakened in the early hours by for the past six months is provided to and large transport trucks loaded with fish help you locate your whale. I grinding up the hill beside our field sta- Calvin (#2223) and her calf have tion from the Stinson Icehouse at the done a lot of traveling since they were Central Wh,arf .Bostc bottom of the street. Stinson's had a sighted off the coast of North Carolina WWW. newenglanc wooden pier that stretched out into Continued on page 3 2 Right '\\rhale RESEARCH NEWS A Dock of Our Own Continued from page 1 island of Grand Manan, where we believe it has been converted into somebody's garage. The old wooden pier had clearly become dangerous and was falling apart, so we had it removed in the spring of 2004. Since the Aquarium leases the undersea lands from the state of Maine, state law required replacement of the structure within t years, or forfeiture of the rights to use With the generous help and support of the Lubec c'ommunity a brand new dock was built. It was put into use at the beginning of our 2005 summer field season. With a beautiful backdrop of the Lubec the area for a dock. By this time, the Narrows and Mulholland Lighthouse, we celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony on October 1,2005. Lubec Marina had also fallen apart due Photo/ New England Aquarium to winter storms and had been removed. The Aquarium's research fleet had grown In partnership with R.J. Peacock Moira W. Brown, Senlor Sclentlst to three boats, and moorings were Canning Company, the search began for Moe studied at the University of Guelph. Ontario. becoming scarce. We needed a dock! the materials needed to drive new pil- Canada. She has worked as a professor at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor Maine and ings and establish a floating dock on the served as director of Allied Whale at COA. Moe has space left by the old pier. Through an worked since 1985 with the Aquarium research team outpouring of good will and hard work in Canadian waters: she only joined the research lab from the Lubec community, and with a full time in Janua~yof 2004, after seven years of studyir~gright whales in Cape Cod Bay at the Center combination of funds donated from for Coastal Studies. Her research interests include Irving Oil, Bud Levinson, the Right Whale population biology and genetics and conservation Adoption Program and the New England measures to reduce the risk of ship strikes for right Aquarium, a new dock was built and put whales in Canadian waters. into use in August 2005. In some tides, Scott Kraus, Vlce President for Research, there are challenges docking our boats New England Aquarium as the tidal current rages through the Kraus received his B.A. from College of the Atlantic, Lubec Narrows (our new motto: "Dock or his M.S. in biology from the University of Massachusetts, and a Ph.D. from the University of Die!"), but the facility is well protected New Hampshire. He has published over 50 scientific from storm winds and we can all sleep In 1990, Stinson Icehouse of Lubec, ME donated papers on cetacean biology and comervation, and is this deteriorating wooden pier and accompanying better at night. adjunct faculty at Univ. of Mass. at Boston and the shack to the NEAq Right Whale Project. We were overwhelmed by the extraor- University of Southern Maine. Kraus ' recent Photo / New England Aquarlum research is irtcreasinglyfocused on conservation dinary efforts of Bob Peacock, Bobby issues faced by endangered species and habitats, and Hood and many members of the Lubec the dificulties of identifiing what animals need to community in constructing this facility. A survive in an increasingl)~urban ocean. dock that would have cost $200,000 was put in place for about $40,000 with a tremendous volunteer effort from busi- nesses and individuals in the town. In true right whale fashion we celebrated the efforts of more than 120 people with a dock party and a ribbon cutting cere- mony on October 1"'. Special thanks to Bob Peacock, Bobby Hood, Ricky Wilcox, Carelton Fitzsimmons, Ralph and Jessie DeWitt, Bud Levinson, John Logan, The right whale team came to terms with the demise of the donated pier when the supports Michelle Firmbach, Davis Pike and all of holding up the wooden shack at the end lifted off you who have adopted right whales over the bottom and sent the "floating house" over to The NEAq Right Whale Project Fleet: Rfls Callisto, Grand Manan Island, leaving only this ineffectual the last two years! Your support helped Nereid, and Galatea sit comfortably at the new wooden structure. photo / Davis Pike give US a dock of our own. dock, ~ugust2005. photo / Brenna ~raus Sponsored Whale Update took photographs of the pair, which contact number so that appropriate Continued from page 1 would later be identified as Calvin and protection measures can be taken as her calf. While this is a rare event, it soon as a whale is reported. Four last December. Their last sighting on the has happened before. On April 15, months later, Calvin and her calf were southeast U.S. calving grounds was on 2002, #3103 was photographed in the sighted on August 24" in the Bay of February 17". The pair then moved north Canal and on May 17, 2002; an uniden- Fundy. They were subsequently seen to Cape Cod Bay and were sighted sev- tified right whale swam from the Bourne on August 26" and September 3", 5", eral times in late March and throughout Bridge at the south end of the Canal all and 19". April. On April 29" the pair took a tour of the way to Cape Cod Bay.