FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 80, NO. 4 



Table 1.— Summary of sightings of northern right whales, Eubalaena glacialis, (from Schevill et al. 

 1981). Repeaters (the same whales seen on more than 1 d during the year) have been subtracted from 

 column D. Searches took place during all months, and there was equivalent search effort during the 

 years 1959-66 and 1972-79. Roman numerals I through XII (Col. A) represent the months January 

 through December. 



we customarily remained with the first whales 

 that were found, staying with them as long as 

 they could be studied. 



Our searches for right whales were irregular, 

 but were made in all months of the year as 

 weather and other work permitted, mostly under 

 conditions of light wind and good visibility. 

 Fewer trips were made in winter because of poor 

 weather and few sightings, increasing to one to 

 five trips a week in spring with improved 

 weather and greater abundance of whales, and 

 then decreasing during summer and autumn as 

 fewer whales were found. Usually, we made only 

 one trip a day, by aircraft or boat. Sighting ef- 

 ficiency during searches was variable due to 

 changes in weather and whale behavior. From 

 the air, right whales feeding below surface often 

 were located by the light reflected from their 

 baleen. (Though dark above water, baleen ap- 

 pears pale when seen through the sea surface.) 

 Individual whales sometimes were recognizable 

 by natural skin marks and by the pattern of 

 cephalic excrescences (often called callosities) 

 variably covered by light-colored Cyamidae 

 (Leung 1967), a method used for identifying 

 Pacific right whales by Klumov (1962) and 



southern right whales, Eubalaena australis, by 

 Payne (1974, 1976). 



RESULTS 



In 1955 we identified two right whales from an 

 aerial photograph taken by Bruce M. Clark on 24 

 January in Cape Cod Bay off Barnstable, Mass. 

 Then in 1956, six whales were found off Martha's 

 Vineyard Island, south of Cape Cod. In 1958 we 

 again found right whales in that area, and in 

 Cape Cod Bay. Active searches began in 1959, 

 and right whale sightings during 21 yr between 

 1955 and 1980 are summarized in Table 1 and 

 listed in the article by Schevill et al. (1981). No 

 searches were made in 1957 and in 1967-71, 

 although a research cruise through the area in 

 1970 located a large group of right whales. 



The same individual whales were ordinarily 

 sighted for only a few days at a time. Although 

 groups of whales often appeared and then dis- 

 appeared together, the usual sequence was a 

 procession of right whales through the area. Suc- 

 cessive sightings several days apart and within 

 the same area were often of different whales. 

 Right whales were observed alone or in small 



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