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04 January 2008 Protecting Florida’s 60-ton guests [Keyword: right whale ]
Female right whales migrate to the waters off Florida's east coast during the winter to deliver their calves.
Because there are so few of the endangered North Atlantic right whales left — slightly less than 400 at latest count — they are monitored carefully to protect them from the threat of collisions with ships during their visits to the waters off Florida and Georgia, their only known calving ground.
From December through March, teams of scientists fly over the Atlantic every day that weather allows to track whales so that ship captains and recreational boaters can know their whereabouts, thus reducing the risk of vessel strikes.
"Once we can verify it's a whale sighting, we notify ships in the area," said Julie Albert, coordinator of the Northern Right Whale Monitoring Program for the Marine Resources Council in Palm Bay.
Trained volunteers and others who spot right whales also help track them by noting the time, location and direction of travel and reporting the information to the Marine Resources Council right whale reporting hot line at (888) 979-4253.
Since Dec. 5, the MRC has received 60 reports of right whales off the coast of Florida, from Fernandina Beach to Melbourne Beach. Six calves have been documented this season.
Although most of the winter visitors are spotted north of Cape Canaveral, right whales have been known to venture as far south as Miami and even stray into the Gulf of Mexico.
In February 2006, a mother right whale and calf were spotted 2 miles off Venice south of Tampa Bay.
Beachgoers in northern Palm Beach County were happily surprised on Jan. 9, 2004, when a right whale estimated at 35 feet long came leaping from the water near the Juno Beach Pier that Friday afternoon.
"I couldn't believe how close we were," said Scott Linehan, who noticed splashing in the water as he and fellow anglers were running south toward Lake Worth Inlet in his 25-foot boat that day. Fellow angler David D'Agresta shot photos of the leaping whale.
Juno Beach Pier attendant Mike Scheele said the whale breached, or leaped out of the water, half a dozen times and frolicked around the pier for about 90 minutes.
Even though right whales are most commonly seen in Florida during the winter, there have been exceptions.
A right whale was photographed in July in the ocean off Jacksonville by anglers in a summer fishing tournament.
"That broadened what we know about right whales," said Tom Pitchford, a marine biologist who tracks and studies the whales for the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Even though boaters are asked to note right whale sightings and shoot photos if possible, it's illegal for them to move toward the whales. They should move away if the whales appear near the boat.
Federal rules require boaters and others to stay 500 yards away from right whales. Only researchers with permits are allowed to move closer.
Recognized by their V-shaped blow, lack of a dorsal fin, short flippers and white growths called callosities on top of their heads, right whales feed on copopods, a type of zooplankton about the size of a grain of rice, by filtering water through plates in their jaws called baleen.
Mother whales live on fat and do not feed while they're visiting Florida waters — a fact that makes them less susceptible to food contamination associated with red tide, a toxic algae bloom that has been detected recently along the Treasure Coast.
The massive size of right whales — adults grow to 59 feet long and may weigh 60 tons or more — is thought to contribute to their slow reproductive rate.
Female right whales reach sexual maturity at 8 to 12 years of age and give birth to a single calf every three to five years.
Scientists estimate that a dozen right whales are born annually, one-third the number they believe is needed to sustain the species.
A record 31 right whale births were documented in 2001, but only one birth was recorded the previous year, according to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Research Institute.
Still, the population of North Atlantic right whales has been slowly increasing, from about 300 five years ago to nearly 400 today.
"The research community is really hopeful," Pitchford said.
Source: Palm Beach Post (US)
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