MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1998 



National Marine Fisheries Service, the Navy, the 

 Florida Department of Environmental Protection, the 

 Georgia Department of Natural Resources, the Massa- 

 chusetts Division of Fisheries, and the Massachusetts 

 Port Authority. Non-governmental participants 

 include the Center for Coastal Studies, the New 

 England Aquarium, the Humane Society of the United 

 States, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the 

 Massachusetts Environmental Trust, the University of 

 Georgia, and the University of Rhode Island. Offi- 

 cials from Canada's Department of Fisheries and 

 Oceans also participate regularly to help ensure that 

 related programs in Canada are coordinated as effec- 

 tively as possible. 



Between July 1995 and March 1996 eight dead 

 right whales were found, including five in the first 

 three months of 1996, on the species' calving 

 grounds. This focused intense attention on the need 

 to strengthen recovery efforts. To help identify 

 priority needs, the Commission reviewed the right 

 whale recovery program during its annual meeting on 

 12-14 November 1996. Recovery efforts increased 

 substantially between 1996 and 1998 and, in view of 

 that progress and new information, the Commission 

 held another review of the right whale recovery 

 program during its 1998 annual meeting held in 

 Portland, Maine, on 10-12 November. Recent 

 developments and results of the Commission's 1998 

 review are described below. 



Right Whale Mortalities and Injuries in 1998 



During 1998 two dead right whales were observed. 

 The first was a female calf found floating off St. 

 Simons Island, Georgia, on 10 January by a right 

 whale aerial survey team. Within a few hours the 

 Coast Guard had a vessel on site to tow the animal 

 ashore. Necropsy results indicate that the calf died of 

 natural causes during or shortly after birth. Without 

 the Coast Guard's rapid response, it would not have 

 been possible to retrieve the animal and assess the 

 cause of death, and on 23 February 1998 the Commis- 

 sion wrote to the Coast Guard to commend its staff 

 for the prompt response. The second dead animal, an 

 adult male, washed ashore near the Virginia-North 

 Carolina border. Already badly decomposed when 

 found on 7 October 1998, it had several fractured 

 vertebrae, possibly caused by a ship collision. At the 



end of 1998 laboratory tests to determine if the bone 

 fractures occurred before or after death had not been 

 completed and the cause of death was uncertain. 



Two other right whales were entangled in fishing 

 gear in 1998. One, a seven-year-old male, became 

 entangled on three separate occasions. It had previ- 

 ously been seen entangled in August 1997 in the Bay 

 of Fundy with fishing gear wrapped around its tail 

 stock. At that time, the entanglement did not appear 

 serious and no attempt was made to disentangle it. In 

 July 1998, however, the animal was resighted in Cape 

 Cod Bay still entangled and with deep gashes cut into 

 its tail flukes by the attached rope. A disentanglement 

 team from the Center for Coastal Studies successfully 

 removed the ropes on 24 July, but the animal became 

 entangled two more times in Cape Cod Bay. On 12 

 September it was found entangled with rope and line 

 from a lobster pot in its mouth. The Center's disen- 

 tanglement team removed the material. Two days 

 later, the animal was found immobilized by a string of 

 15 lobster pots and barely able to keep its head above 

 water (see Figure 1). The Center's disentanglement 

 team again freed the animal. 



The second entangled whale was seen by a re- 

 searcher in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Canada, on 15 

 August. It was followed for several hours, during 

 which time it was able to free itself. In addition to 

 these entanglements, two right whales became trapped 

 simultaneously in a fishing weir in the Bay of Fundy, 

 Canada, on 13 July. Both were released unharmed by 

 fishermen. 



In addition to the two entanglements, a one-year- 

 old animal was sighted in January 1998 off the 

 southeastern U.S. coast with half of its tail fluke 

 severed by a ship's propeller. Although it is not 

 known when or where the animal was struck, it 

 previously had been seen with no injury in the Bay of 

 Fundy in September 1997. It was subsequently 

 resighted in Cape Cod Bay in February and March 

 1998 and again in August and September 1998 in the 

 Bay of Fundy. While it appeared to be in satisfactory 

 condition, the injury may compromise its swimming 

 ability and reduce its long-term chances for survival. 



Information on right whale deaths and injuries indi- 

 cates that calves and juveniles are far more likely than 



