The North Atlantic Right Whale: Past, Present, and Future

The North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest marine mammals that visits Canadian waters—waters that have proven deadly to the species. A CBC.ca news report from July 25, 2019 notes that, in this year alone, eight whales have been found dead in Canadian waters. These deaths continue a recent trend that Hamilton-Barry records, and it suggests that the endangered species is headed toward extinction by the year 2040.

All hope is not lost. In 1935, the author reports that the population of North Atlantic right whales was estimated at 50 to 100 individuals. By 1997, when Omni and the National Film Board of Canada released the video series “Champions of the Wild”, part 12 Right Whales, the population was estimated at 300. The gradual recovery of the species crested in the recent past, but human activity appears to be key to the survival or demise of these animals.

Hamilton-Barry’s volume is a gift to all Canadians for it provides a well-researched, up-to-date portrait of the history, biology, behaviour, and future of the NARW with special attention to Canadian waters and efforts to study and conserve the species. The book contains numerous colour photographs, maps, and some archival images reproduced in their original black and white.

The very name “right” whale is derived because the whaling industry considered this species the right or correct whale to hunt, possibly “because it is large, swims slowly at the surface, and often stays close to shore.” Over time, the commercial focus of the hunt changed. For some thousand years, blubber was rendered into whale oil, a valuable commodity that had many uses beyond fueling lamps. Cleaner burning petroleum-based fuels largely destroyed the demand for whale oil by the end of the nineteenth century, but baleen found in the gigantic mouths of the whales proved valuable in the early twentieth century for use in corsets, combs, brushes and even fishing rods until flexible steel and plastics made baleen obsolete. Economics may have been as crucial as any nascent conservation movement to regulate whaling and eventually ban the killing of whales. A valuable Timeline records evolving conventions and regulations since 1902, including an international ban on hunting right whales in 1937 and Canada’s ban on all commercial whaling in 1972.

A chapter on the biology of the NARW describes the whale’s place in the world of cetaceans, its diet and migration, how scientists use callosities and scars to catalog individuals, and the role of necropsy to understand the whale. A concise data sheet for the species appears in a half-page fact sheet that provides scientific classification names, size ranges in metric measurements, and other particulars, such as age span, diet, habitat, threats and status.

It is difficult to study an animal that spends ninety-five percent of its time underwater. Most of what is known about the mating, calving, early life of the mammal, its acute hearing and means of communication dates from the last forty years of study. Observed behaviours include spyhopping (keeping its head above water allowing it see the surface of the water), breaching, and lobtailing (slapping its tail fluke on the water’s surface). Scientists speculate as to the purpose of these actions. Some may be warnings to boaters to stay away or a warning of danger to other whales. Is breaching just a form of play? The rise of whale-watching as a recreational activity may be having adverse effects by stressing the animals. The author records some recent regulations in the US and Canada that govern human interaction with whales.

The last half of the book examines causes for the demise of the NARW, efforts to save the species, and opportunities for individuals to continue learning about the species and supporting conservation activities. Ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear are two of the leading causes of death of whales. In the Bay of Fundy and areas around the Gaspe Peninsula, changes to busy shipping lanes and travel speeds are designed to reduce fatal interactions. Noise from ships and other human activities interfere with hearing and communication by whales and add to the stress that is believed to contribute to reduced fertility rates. Entanglement in fishing gear remains a serious threat. The rope used in aquaculture and crab and lobster fishing is much stronger than that used prior to the 1990s. Efforts to reduce the number of buoys and ropes are expensive to employ. Should individual fishers and ultimately the consumers pay the cost of retrofits or should government pay the cost? There are no easy answers. In recent years, the Canadian Department of Fisheries and Oceans began closing fishing grounds for short periods (fifteen days that could be extended) in key habitats near the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence when NARWs are sighted. Human efforts to disentangle whales from fishing gear proved deadly to whale rescuer Joe Howlett in July 2017 and resulted in changes to policies permitting the Campobello Whale Rescue Team to engage in disentanglement missions.

As with other conservation efforts, the small things that individuals can do may seem insignificant but can contribute to overall health of ecosystems. The author’s attempt to address personal response to the whale’s survival is necessarily the weakest part of the book. Ghost fishing gear can be repurposed in art work. People can lead by example, reducing use of plastics and other pollutants that end up in oceans, clean up shorelines, support conservation and research stations, and learn more about whales at one of the twelve museums, universities, and research stations throughout the Maritimes that have educational programs about various species of whales and other marine life and ecosystems.

Scattered throughout the book are eight short case studies or profiles of individual whales identified by their descriptive or nicknames, such as Slash and Mogul, or by their catalog name, such as Whale #3843. Three include photographs but all report details such as how the animal received its descriptive name, its record of sightings, and, in the case of Delilah, killed by a ship strike in the Bay of Fundy in 1992, her ongoing legacy through her offspring and the preservation of her skeleton that is displayed at the New Brunswick Museum.

An extensive bibliography of print and online resource, plus two indexes (an index of whale names is separate from the general index) add to the usability of the volume for young researchers. The North Atlantic Right Whale: Past, Present, and Future is an invaluable introduction to an endangered species.