Documenting the Elusive North Pacific Right Whale

Documenting the Elusive North Pacific Right Whale

0:00:00.9 John Sheehan: All right whales are endangered due mostly to historic whaling practices that decimated their numbers. And North Atlantic right whales in particular have rightly gotten a lot of attention and news coverage due to their dwindling numbers and sightings along the busy East Coast.

0:00:15.6 S?: North Atlantic right whales remaining. They're dying faster than they can reproduce.

0:00:20.5 JS: But less attention is paid to their West Coast cousins, North Pacific right whales. Partly because sightings of them are incredibly rare, and the eastern population's numbers are very, very low.

0:00:32.3 S?: Fewer than 50 animals in a massive area, they range from Alaska all the way down to Baja, Mexico, and have even been sighted in Hawaii.

0:00:42.3 JS: This is Dive In with NOAA Fisheries, I'm John Sheehan, and today we'll learn a little about this enigmatic and tiny population of right whales. As we’ll hear, in addition to being rare and elusive, they’re also the only Right Whales documented to sing, or use repeated patterns of whale calls, making them all the more mysterious. My guests are Dr. Jenna Malek, a marine mammal specialist and North Pacific right whale recovery coordinator in Alaska's Protected Resources Division, and Jessica Crance, a research biologist in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. Last summer, Jessica was part of a survey team that spotted four of these right whales which was huge. Jessica Crance and Dr. Jenna Malek, welcome to Dive In with NOAA Fisheries.

0:01:19.6 Jessica Crance: Thank you, happy to be here.

0:01:20.7 Dr. Jenna Malek: Yeah, thank you.

0:01:22.0 JS: So let's start with this past summer and fall. There was a survey out in, I believe the Bering Sea, what was happening?

0:01:31.9 JC: So I was on board the International Whaling Commission's Power Survey, and this year's survey, we were actually surveying the high seas south of the Aleutian Islands, so kind of the Central North Pacific area. And during that survey, we actually finished our planned track lines early, and so we then used the remaining time to survey for North Pacific right whales. We had four days and really pretty terrible weather and the first two days we had to remain really close to shore so we didn't hear anything and didn't see anything those first two days but then the third day I started hearing gunshot calls which is one of the primary call types that right whales make and we were able to spot the animal I believe about an hour after that.

0:02:23.2 JS: And that seems like incredibly good luck.

0:02:27.5 JC: [chuckle] It was very good luck. So we were using an acoustic instrument called the sonobuoy. It's a passive listening acoustic recorder and it allows us to monitor for calling animals in real time. And they also have directional capabilities so if we hear a right whale, we can deploy multiple sonobuoys at once and triangulate on that calling whale's position. So I was able to direct the boat to where the whale was calling from and from there we were able to spot the animal. But even still, there was quite a bit of luck involved. We were in some really, really rough seas and high winds. We were luckily able to get photos, good photos of that first animal before the fog and the rain picked up.

0:03:10.7 JS: Wow. And I want to talk more about sonobuoys and sort of how logistically how that all works. But first, can we go back to gunshot calls? Let's take a listen to this recording that you made.

0:03:40.2 JC: So what you just heard is called a gunshot sound. And that is one of the primary call types produced by the North Pacific right whale.

0:03:47.9 JS: So that's not exactly what I think people think of when they hear of whale song. It's much more punctuated and sort of whale yelling. So can you describe sort of what's happening and what the differences are between those?

0:04:04.4 JC: So right whales will make this impulsive sound, the gunshot call, in a variety of different ways and manners. And one of the ways that they use this call type is in song. So when you think of whale song, you typically think of like a humpback whale song, really melodious tonal calls, something in the background of an Enya CD. But our right whales, their songs are comprised almost entirely of this gunshot call. And so it's the number and the spacing between the gunshots that is consistent. And that makes it song. Instead of having those kind of melodious calls that you would expect, their songs are almost entirely comprised of that gunshot call.

0:04:46.9 JS: Got it. And no other right whales sing?

0:04:50.3 JC: So far only the North Pacific right whale and more specifically our eastern population have been documented singing. This has not yet been documented for Atlantic or southern right whales.

0:05:01.7 JS: That's incredible. That's big.

0:05:03.5 JC: Yeah. And I think it's fascinating that the most critically endangered right whale population is the one that so far has been documented singing. And it really, it raised a lot more questions than it actually answered.

0:05:15.7 JS: So let's talk a little bit more about the North Pacific right whales. Where do they range? Where are they found? What's sort of their status?

0:05:28.4 JC: North Pacific right whales were once widely distributed throughout the entire North Pacific and Bering Sea. And then they became the target of commercial whaling. And somewhere between 26,000 and 37,000 animals were taken, with the majority of that happening in just a couple of decades. And so now the population on for both the western and the eastern population have both been greatly reduced. But then in the 1960s, the Soviets began hunting right whales illegally. And took an additional over 700 animals. And that brought the eastern population down to what we think are its current numbers, which we think right now is fewer than 50 animals total.

0:06:07.8 JS: So the population is now historically low. And so that makes, I'm assuming that makes these surveys and these cruises that you go on extremely challenging. You've mentioned the weather being just one of the factors, but then sort of relying on these sonobuoys. Can you describe what that process is?

0:06:25.9 JC: Sonobuoys are an instrument that we deploy over the railing of the vessel while we're underway, and that will transmit audio signals back to the vessel. And so it allows us to listen in real time to any sounds that are happening in the ocean, whether it's vessel or whale or fish. And so we deploy these systematically during our surveys to get an idea of what marine mammals are calling. It kind of gives us a snapshot of marine mammal distribution at that time. But the other really great thing is they have directional capabilities, meaning they can provide a bearing to a sound source.

0:07:05.6 JC: And so these instruments have been really critical in our surveys and have really helped us increase the number of sightings that we have of right whales every year. When you look at visual surveys, we're limited as to how far from the boat we can see. And not only that, but whales spend a vast majority of their time underwater. So you only get an opportunity to see them when they come to the surface. But using passive acoustics, we can hear for a much greater distance than we can see from the boat. And so if there happens to be a right whale vocalizing, we can hear it potentially from a much greater distance away than we would be able to see the animal.

0:07:46.3 JS: And to give listeners an idea of sort of what's happening, the pictures I've seen, it looks kind of like you are taking maybe fire extinguisher-size tubes and just chucking them overboard.

0:07:58.8 JC: That's about it. Yeah, they're tubes that are about three feet long. They weigh about 20, 25 pounds. And inside, they have an instrument that when you toss it overboard, there's a saltwater switch that will activate a float. It'll pop a float. And so that comes to the surface. And then the hydrophones hang below the float. And then that's what then starts sending those signals back up to the vessel using VHF radio waves.

0:08:26.1 JS: Got it. And you will hear maybe one... You'll get one signal. And then you can quickly start throwing others within the area so that you can then bounce off of them and be able to tell where the signal is coming from.

0:08:39.9 JC: Exactly. Yeah. If we start hearing a call, we can deploy a second or third sonobuoy. We can listen to all of them at the same time. And so then we get a bearing to the call from one sonobuoy, and then we get another bearing to that same call from a second sonobuoy. And then using those two different angles, hopefully those lines intersect, and where they intersect, where they cross, that's the position of the calling whale. So at that point, we give that position to the captain or to the chief scientist, and then we can direct the boat over there. Hopefully, at that point, our observers will spot the animal.

0:09:14.8 JS: That's really cool. And one of the bright spots from this last cruise was you identified a brand-new right whale.

0:09:22.5 JC: We did. We were able to spot four different right whales, and we were able to get good photos from two of them, and one of those two animals was confirmed as a new individual. So it was really exciting. It's always great when we can add animals to our catalog, and especially if we know that they are a new animal. So really fantastic results.

0:09:44.7 JS: Yeah. And I think that is also illustrative of the conservation challenges for this species because when you have one new sighting, that's a big deal.

0:09:55.8 JC: Yeah, it really highlights the precarious situation that we're in. These animals are the proverbial needle in a very large haystack. So when you combine fewer than 50 animals in a massive area like the Bering Sea or Gulf of Alaska, finding any right whale is extremely rare, and finding one that's a confirmed new animal is even more so. So it's always really exciting when we can add new animals to the catalog.

0:10:24.7 JS: I wanna bring Jenna in to talk more about these conservation efforts, because as this conversation has illustrated, having such a small population to work with, that's got to be very, very challenging for conservation efforts.

0:10:38.5 DM: Yeah, there are a lot of challenges to managing such a small population, and in this case, particularly our lack of understanding of what's preventing this population from recovering now that commercial whaling is no longer a threat. So we can assume that the threats that we see for other large whale species like vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear, these may also be impacting North Pacific right whales, but we have very little evidence of these interactions. In fact, there's only two whales in our catalog that have any evidence of entanglement in fishing gear, and we have no evidence of vessel strike injuries, never mind mortalities. So it's really hard for us to understand the degree to which these threats may be affecting recovery. And without even the basic knowledge of where the whales are at different times of years or where they are to breed and have their calves, it really makes management decisions and carrying out recovery actions incredibly tricky.

0:11:27.5 JS: Is the use of technology like the sonobuoys, is that helping to close that data gap?

0:11:34.6 DM: I think so, yeah. As Jess mentioned, the sonobuoys are a really great tool, and unfortunately, they're only useful in opportunities when our scientists can get out on the water and join research cruises. And there hasn't been a North Pacific right whale-specific research cruise since 2010. But we do have other technological tools, other technologies that Jess and others use, including long-term moorings. And this is really the most valuable tool that we have for understanding where the right whales are and when throughout the year. Some other tools that we're starting to utilize are models put together by our colleague, Dr. Dana Wright. And these models are looking to combine where the North Pacific right whale distributions are, so where the sightings and the acoustic detections are, in conjunction with data on prey, oceanographic patterns, and even other species that utilize similar prey resources, like forage fish that eat the same thing right whales do. And our hope is that these models can help us identify other areas that are suitable habitat for North Pacific right whales, and then we can focus our research efforts in these areas in the hopes of learning more.

0:12:35.7 JS: And you mentioned this a moment ago, but what are long-term moorings? What are those?

0:12:40.8 DM: The long-term acoustic moorings we have are put out and they usually sit out for about a year. They sit on the bottom or they're anchored to the bottom and they sit out. Some of them collect oceanographic data as well, and those are done in conjunction with other laboratories. But they collect acoustic data, we pull those up, we're able to download the data, and then Jess and other acousticians are able to go through and listen for sounds of right whales and other species. And this is a great way for us to know who's in the area, when, and how often.

0:13:12.5 JS: So what are some other strategies beyond identification that you're relying on in conservation work? I know that the protected areas for Eastern North Pacific right whales, those areas had up until recently been pretty small.

0:13:31.2 DM: Yeah, so we currently have two areas in Alaskan waters that are designated critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. And so there's a larger, odd-shaped polygon in the Southeastern Bering Sea just above the Alaska Peninsula and the Aleutian Islands, and then much smaller area off the coast of Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska. And these were originally designated in 2008, and we admittedly didn't know much about the species and didn't really know what the essential elements or the critical elements of critical habitat should be.

0:14:01.2 DM: And so it was decided to use the presence of their prey species, mostly calanoid copepods and different shrimp species, in areas where there were high enough abundance of those to be fed on by right whales in a way that was successful. So for example, just having a spattering of the prey in the area, right whales may not stop there to feed, but if it's a high abundance of them, we're likely to see right whales there. And we used presence of right whales that were feeding as a proxy to say, hey, we think there's enough prey in this area. And that's how those two areas were decided upon.

0:14:33.6 JS: Gotcha. So that goes back to sort of that strategy of using your existing data to try and fill in the gaps of making an educated guess on where you can predict the right whales will be.

0:14:45.3 DM: Yeah, exactly. And so that critical habitat's been in place since 2008, but we were just petitioned last year in 2022 by the Center for Biological Diversity and a group called Save the North Pacific Right Whale to revise the critical habitat that we have in place. And they really suggested that we essentially combine those two areas. And we went through our petition revision process and just came out with our final determination in September of this year, saying that we do think it is appropriate for us to revise critical habitat.

0:15:14.8 DM: And so what we're doing now to move forward is we're gonna be analyzing and synthesizing the acoustic data that we have and incorporating it with prey data, oceanographic patterns, and sightings data in order to identify areas that are gonna meet the definition of critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act. And then based on this analysis, we're gonna put together what's called a proposed rule. And this will be released for public comments, usually a 30 to 60-day public comment period. We receive comments and then we update the rule or make changes as needed.

0:15:46.1 DM: Now, at this point, we're not sure if the areas that we identify as critical habitat are gonna be the same as what was suggested in the petition. But we do know that our findings and our identification of critical habitat is gonna be based on the best available science.

0:16:00.4 JS: And so because this population is so small and even seeing them is challenging, can you explain a little bit more, sort of like just the fundamentals of what we don't really know about these whales?

0:16:13.9 JC: Because we're dealing with a population that is so small, most of the studies on this population began after they were already reduced to their low population size. So there's still a lot of really basic questions about this population that we don't know. For example, we don't know what their migration routes are. We suspect they migrate south like most large whales do, but we only have two instances of matches from an animal in Alaska to anywhere outside of that.

0:16:44.4 JC: We don't know where their breeding or calving grounds are. We don't know why they haven't recovered, we don't even know population demographics, how many animals are still reproducing, and so that makes it even harder to study this population when you don't even know where they are for a good portion of the year. So it's really been a challenge to try and just get at some of these basic answers.

0:17:10.6 JS: Yeah, and that's really bonkers. You can probably say, you can make an educated guess on where they are and how they behave, but you don't know. You have very few pieces of actual evidence for what they're doing.

0:17:25.1 JC: Yeah, it's you know, we have I think somewhere around 15 sightings of right whales outside of their Alaskan feeding grounds and that's over the span of close to 50 years. So how can you make any kind of determination on migratory routes or breeding grounds when you have so few data points and of all of those animals sighted, none of them have been matched to anywhere else except for one animal in Hawaii and an animal off British Columbia. So we really have very very few data points to even try and make educated guesses as to where their migration routes or calving grounds might be.

0:18:03.8 JS: And so Jessica, given that you have sort of so few sightings and probably not that many pictures or identifying pictures, how do you tell them apart?

0:18:15.5 JC: Right whales have white bumps on their head that are called callosities, and these are just patches of roughened skin and the pattern of callosities is unique to each right whale. And so if you can get a photo where you can clearly see those patterns along their head, you can match that to a photo catalog of other animals with those callosity patches. And so you can match the patterns among whales, and that's how you can say Whether it's the same whale that was seen five years ago or whether it's a new animal.

0:18:47.6 JS: Yeah. Are pictures from ordinary citizens out on the water ever used? Is that a thing where fishermen or people out on the water will see one and snap a picture and send it in?

0:19:00.9 DM: Yeah, so we've actually gotten quite a few citizen sightings, and when I say a few we've gotten three in the last about 18 months or so, but two of those came from fishers, one in the Bering Sea in February of 2022. And this was particularly exciting because these cod fishermen who'd been on the water for 40 years saw whales they didn't recognize and they sent pictures to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. We ended up with the photos and we said yeah, not only are these right whales, they're feeding in February in the Bering Sea. So that was really cool. And so that was a really awesome collaboration of state and federal agencies working together to identify these whales and involvement of our local fishermen. And there was a sighting off of Monterey Bay in, I believe, early April of this year, or was it March? I think it was March. And it was really cool because this particular individual had barnacles all over it, which is unusual for right whales.

0:19:49.9 DM: They tend to have the callosities, the white bumps on their snouts, but there were barnacles all over the flippers in the back of this individual. And those were taken by a whale-watching company out of Monterey Bay. So those photos and those sightings are incredibly helpful and have helped us learn a lot more. And I believe maybe even add at least one new individual to the catalog.

0:20:09.5 JS: Yeah, that's amazing. So, that's very consequential.

0:20:13.7 DM: Yeah, definitely. And we're really excited that as the public starts to learn more about the species and they learn how to identify them, that we might end up getting more sightings reported to us along with information such as GPS locations of where they are, pictures, and if other scientists are in the area, we might be able to collect biological samples and things like that. So the more we can get people excited about right whales and know what they're looking at, the more we might be able to learn about the species.

0:20:40.6 JS: So I guess lastly, you've had a lot of activity around these right whales in the last year, relatively speaking. It's been several sightings. That's great. For a population that's so small, it's very monumental. But you still have very, very little to work with. So how excited should you be? Set my expectations.

0:21:03.5 DM: Yeah, so we obviously are very excited about these sightings. There are years when there are absolutely no sightings. So the fact that there were three opportunistic sightings and then also the sightings on the cruise that Jessica was on, those are really banner years, it seems like, in terms of seeing right whales.

0:21:20.3 DM: But as Jess pointed out earlier, these whales tend to be robust and healthy-looking. They don't look scraggly, they don't have a lot of entanglement scars. And we have seen a few juvenile sub-adults and calves. In fact, Phoenix, who was sighted in 2017, a juvenile male, that was really the first sighting in at least a couple of years of a younger whale. And so this indicates that there is reproduction happening in this population, even though it's so small. And our hope is that if they are healthy, they are continuing to reproduce if possible. And so that gives us hope that recovery could happen.

0:21:55.3 JC: Yeah, I echo everything Jenna said. This population, the odds are stacked against them, and yet they're healthy, they're resilient. We continue to add new animals to our catalog, we continue to get sighting reports, not just from up in Alaska but all along the West Coast. We've seen a little bit of an increase in recent years, which is really exciting. And so, yeah, we're hopeful that we can give these guys their best chance at recovery.

0:22:24.1 JS: Well, Dr. Jenna Malek and Jessica Crance, thanks so much for taking some time explaining this to me. I appreciate it.

0:22:29.6 JC: Thanks so much. Great talking to you.

0:22:31.0 DM: Yeah, thank you, John.

0:22:32.9 JS: Dr. Jenna Malek is a marine mammal specialist and North Pacific right whale recovery coordinator in Alaska's Protected Resources Division. Jessica Crance is a research biologist in the Alaska Fisheries Science Center. A formal review of the status of North Pacific right whales, one conducted every five years, is forthcoming.

0:22:51.7 DM: And that's gonna have the latest and greatest science and sightings, info and biology that we have on right whales. So keep an eye out for that on NOAA Fisheries website.

0:23:00.4 JS: That's fisheries.noaa.gov. I'm John Sheehan, and this has been Dive In with NOAA Fisheries.