Northern Right Whale Tagging Project "There she blows..." announces a spotter to waiting comrades who immediately launch their boats from shore in pursuit of a nearby whale. No, this is not a commentary on the historical whaling trade, but rather a description of current conservation efforts to protect the endangered northern right whale. The northern right whale has been hunted for over 8 centuries. As long ago as the 12 century the Basques of northern Spain employed spotters to man watchtowers along the shore to alert waiting whalers of their quarry. The whalers would launch their rowboats to hunt and kill any whale sighted using hand-held harpoons, harvesting valuable whale bone and oils for trade. Today, sighters are still employed to alert waiting boats of whale sightings, but the watchmen man airplanes instead of towers and the boat crews are researchers, not hunters, seeking knowledge and a means to protect these once hunted and now endangered animals. Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary is collaborating with the New England Aquarium as they perform whale migration studies to track northern right whales using satellite data collection and retrieval, commonly referred to as satellite telemetry. Animals which migrate large distances or spend high percentages of time at ocean depths are especially hard to track, but with the aid of satellite techniques, long term tracking of northern right whales is possible. The northern right whale satellite telemetry project will tag large, mature whales with dart-like satellite transmitters to monitor their movements off the southeastern coast of the United States, the southern most range of their habitat occupied during the animal's calving season. The data will allow scientists to 1) identify behavior patterns of mothers during the calving season, 2) gain an understanding of where non-pregnant females and males go during the winter, 3) collect real time, temporal data during short and long time scales from minutes to months, and 3) identify spatial habitat use off the Southeastern United States coast. To tag a whale for study, airplane pilots fly over coastal waters conducting aerial marine mammal surveys in order to locate and identify whales found in the vicinity. (An animal can be individually identified by distinctive tail scars or by unique cornified skin patches called calosities found on the whale's head.) These 'sighters' relay the location to a boat provided by Gray's Reef which motors offshore to the longitude and latitude coordinates reported from the airplane. Once sighted from ship, the animal's behavior is observed from a distance and candidacy for tagging determined. An inflatable boat is used to quietly approach a designated animal, bringing the it within range of a mounted, high power crossbow used to implant the satellite transmitter into a layer of fat or blubber in the unsuspecting animal. Once implanted, the satellite tag transmits a signal when exposed to air and will do so in intervals of 35 to 45 seconds. The signal is intercepted, when a designated, orbiting satellite is in range, and the whale's location is transmitted to a relay station on land. Transmissions are monitored by Service Argos Inc.. who provide the transmitter number, the coordinates, date, and time of the transmission. Accuracy is determined by the number of transmissions received and used to calculate the data. In addition to tagging the whale with a satellite transmitter, a small cylinder of blubber and skin sample will be extracted by a dart and crossbow. Although this procedure appears painful, scientists have concluded based on repeated observations that the darts neither hurt the whales nor change their behavior. The blubber samples will be analyzed for bioaccumulation of chemical pollutants such as PCBs and DDT. The effects of these chemicals on whale's health and fecundity are unknown. The skin samples obtained will be utilized for DNA sequencing to provide genetic information on the declining population. Previous genetic studies have indicated that historical declines in whale populations resulted in a breeding population stemming from only three maternal lines, indicating that all whales living today descended from only three females. Despite the project's limitations, (i.e. the low numbers of the population and the vastness of their ocean habitat, the problems surrounding tag deployment, the short battery life of the transmitters, and the overall expense involved in satellite telemetry studies) scientists hope to gain valuable insight into the whale population's genetics, health, and migration behavior. Migration Patterns and Conservation Today, northern right whales are known to consistently congregate in only 5 locations in the world, the costs of Georgia and Florida, Stellwagen Bank and Cape Cod Bay, the Great South Channel east of Cape Cod Bay, the Bay of Fundy, and the Scotian Shelf. During the winter, pregnant females travel to the warm waters off the Georgia and Florida coasts-to the only known northern right whale calving area in the world-to give birth. In Late February, males and females without calves migrate toward Cape Cod Bay, followed by mothers with newborn calves in early spring. By May the whales leave Cape Cod Bay and swim out to feed along the Great South Channel. In summer and early fall, approximately two thirds of the mother-calf pairs move into the Bay of Fundy to nurse, while the other whales swim to the Scotian shelf where they feed and engage in courtship behavior. Approximately, half of all known females and three-quarters of all known males have been spotted at least once in this region during the 15 years that researchers have studied the whales. Northern right whales swim slowly, spending a considerable amount of time at the surface, skim feeding and resting. Likewise, their migration routes cross well used shipping lanes, putting them in the path of large shipping vessels and making them highly susceptible to collision with passing ships. As a result, a large conservation effort has sprung up to address this problem. The National Right Whale Recovery Team, established by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to identify the human-induced risks to the right whale, acknowledges the largest risk to the endangered northern right whale to be 'collision with ships'. The Southeast U.S. Implementation Team for the Recovery of the Northern Right Whale is charged with coordinating right whale recovery activities throughout the Southeast and has developed an early warning system to address this problem. By incorporating marine mammal airplane surveys with radio warnings to offshore vessels, The Implementation Team has attempted to decrease ship strikes with successes as recent at January 1997. These are the same aerial surveys which provide sightings, identification, and location coordinates for the satellite tagging study. Conservation efforts to aid injured right whales found stranded or deceased along the coastal United States are conducted through the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. The Network provides manpower, support, and aid for stranded, living animals as well as carcass evaluation of deceased animals found washed ashore. The overall goal of the program is to protect populations while at the same time reducing future deaths. Necropsies, animal autopsies, are performed to identify the cause of death, the health of the animal prior to death, and to understand the impact of humans on the animals. Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary is a participant in many of these programs, but concentrates its efforts in endangered species education and curriculum development. Recently, Gray's Reef with the help of Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, published a curriculum guide with fold-out poster entitled "The Northern Right Whale from Whaling to Watching." Although, this 40 page book targets students grades six through eight, it has been utilized by educators of all ages. Observers involved with a volunteer northern right whale monitoring project maintained by the Marine Resources Council have been trained with this book and accompanying right whale poster. The project recruits volunteers to watch for and report sightings of right whales from vantage points of beachfront condominiums, hotels, lifeguard stations and any other highrise structure with proximity and visibility to the Atlantic coast. Sightings are reported to the Volunteer Northern Right Whale Monitoring Hotline (1-888-97WHALE,) from which they are relayed to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection who verify the information by airplane. As in the aerial surveys, the whales position is then radioed to nearby ships and ports. One of the main goals of this program is to prevent ship collisions with these endangered whales and todate, the program has been highly successful, according to Steve Schafer a seasonal coordinator of the project. To obtain more information or become a volunteer observer, contact Marine Resources Council at P.O. Box 22892, Melbourne, FL 32902-2892. Only approximately 350 northern right whales exist today despite over 60 years of protection. Although population growth of the right whale is slow at best, it is hoped that with each passing year, additional conservation and education measures will decrease the effect humans have on the animal's population, enabling it to thrive in the coastal waters of the Eastern United States. Gray's Reef National Marine Sanctuary is the largest inner continental shelf livebottom reef off the coast of the Southeastern U.S. It is located 17 nautical miles east of Sapelo Island and consists of lime and sandstone outcroppings which support a variety of sealife. top