Portland, Maine (AP) – One of the world’s rarest whales has continued its population growth trend after new efforts to protect the giants, according to scientists studying them.
The North Atlantic Right Whale now numbers an estimated 384 million, eight whales from last year, according to a report by the North Atlantic Right Consortium released on Tuesday. The whales have shown a trend of population growth over the past four years and will gain more than 7% of their population by 2020, the Consortium said.
It is a welcome development after the wake of the crisis a decade ago. The number of whales, vulnerable to collisions with ships and entanglements, will fall by around 25% from 2020.
The practice of whale recovery is to renew evidence on the importance of conservation measures, said Philip Hamilton, senior scientist with the New England Aquarium’s Anderson Cabot Center for marine life. The institute and its administrative partners are National Ocernic and Atmoskher.
New management methods in Canada that are trying to keep whales safe amid their growing presence in the Gulf of St. Lawrence was very important, Hamilton.
“We know that a modest increase every year, if we can sustain it, will lead to population growth,” Hamilton said. “Either support or not.”
Scientists have warned in recent years that the whale’s slow recovery is taking place at a time when large animals are still facing threats of accidental death, and that strong conservation measures are needed. But there are also reasons to believe whales are turning a corner in terms of low reproductive numbers, Hamilton said.
Whales are less likely to reproduce when they are injured or inactive, scientists say. That has emerged as a whale problem because they are not producing enough children to support their people, they said.
However, this year four of the mothers had calves for the first time, Hamilton said. And some, some mother whales had short intervals between calves, she said.
In all, 11 calves were born, fewer than investigators had hoped, but the influx of new females into the breeding pool is encouraging, Hamilton said.
And any number of calves helps in a year of human mortality, said Heather Pettis, who leads the Right Whale research program at the Cabot Center and chairs the North Atlantic Whale Consortium.
“The small increase in population estimates, combined with fewer deaths and fewer injuries than in the past several years, leaves us with great hope for the future of North Atlantic right whales,” Pettis said. “What we’ve seen before is that this thing can turn on a dime.”
Whales were hunted to the brink of extinction during the commercial trade. They have been protected by force for decades.
The whales travel every year from the yard from Florida and Georgia to feeding grounds in New England and Canada. Some scientists have said that ocean warming has made the journey less dangerous because the whales have had to stray into artificial protected areas in search of food.
Environmental groups warned on Tuesday that whales are on the brink of extinction and need aggressive protection to fully recover.
“Continued attacks on the Marine Wildlife Protection Act and efforts to weaken NOAA’s vulnerable populations put the north at grave risk.
