Close X
Monday, November 18, 2024
ADVT 
National

Technology Used In Hunt Of A Different Kind For North Atlantic Right Whales

The Canadian Press, 20 Jul, 2015 11:07 AM
  • Technology Used In Hunt Of A Different Kind For North Atlantic Right Whales
HALIFAX — Scientists are preparing to deploy an arsenal of high-tech gadgetry into the Atlantic Ocean to try to track down one of nature's biggest, but most elusive creatures in a whale hunt of a different kind.
 
A team of researchers plan to use autonomous gliders, air support and acoustic devices to listen and watch for endangered North Atlantic right whales to determine their migratory routes along the east coast.
 
Kimberley Davies, an oceanographer at Dalhousie University in Halifax, said the whales have not been showing up in their usual habitats in great numbers and are likely going to areas not well known to scientists.
 
Davies said similar work last summer in the Roseway Basin, a known right whale habitat, left scientists shaking their heads when they recorded 93 sightings in August and then found they had all left just two weeks later.
 
"The fact that there were so many whales and they just deserted the whole area was shocking," she said.
 
"So it deepens the mystery because we don't know where they went."
 
Canadian and American scientists will slip the sleek yellow underwater vehicles into waters off Nova Scotia on July 27 and begin a roughly two-month long process of collecting data on the marine ecosystem and its inhabitants.
 
The North Atlantic right whales are known to travel into the Bay of Fundy in the summer to feed with their calves. Most make the long trek from their breeding grounds off Georgia and Florida, ending up in the bay's plankton-rich waters around June. They are also known to gather in the Roseway Basin off Nova Scotia's south coast.
 
Moira Brown, a senior scientist with the New England Aquarium, said they are seeing fewer and fewer of the animals in the bay and they are arriving in Canadian waters earlier than usual.
 
Identifying their habitats is important because the slow-moving mammals are vulnerable to ship strikes and entanglements with fishing gear, she said, adding that they can alert ships or rerouting shipping lanes once they know where the whales are going.
 
"Right whales are doing all kinds of strange things," she said in an interview.
 
"If we find other critical habitat areas, then we'll start looking at the human activities in them and see what we need to do to keep giving these whales a little more of an edge."
 
The team will use up to seven gliders, which are equipped with acoustic devices and high-frequency echo sounders that can instantly identify what type of mammal they're hearing. The material they collect will be sent back to the crew in almost real time.
 
"These autonomous gliders are like having a secret weapon in your back pocket," said Brown.
 
"It looks like the whales may be shifting around and this is the first year of a really huge multi-institutional effort to try to figure out where they're going."
 
The project comes as the North Atlantic right whale population inches up slowly, rising to about 520 from a mere 300 in the late 1990s. Their population has grown by about two per cent a year, with an average of 22 calves being born since 2001 - but only 11 born last year.
 
In 2003, the shipping lanes were altered in the Bay of Fundy to steer vessels clear of known whale habitats due to work done by the whale researchers. Five years later, Transport Canada made the Roseway Basin an area to be avoided by ships of a certain size.

MORE National ARTICLES

Four Members Of Royal Navy Face Sexual Assault Charges In Halifax

Four Members Of Royal Navy Face Sexual Assault Charges In Halifax
HALIFAX — Four members of the Royal Navy have been charged with sexual assault causing bodily harm at a Canadian Forces base in Halifax.

Four Members Of Royal Navy Face Sexual Assault Charges In Halifax

Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue Slow Climb: Report

Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue Slow Climb: Report
OTTAWA — The latest emissions inventory from Environment Canada shows the country's overall greenhouse gas output climbed 1.5 per cent between 2012 and 2013, continuing a slow, but steady, upward trend since the global recession of 2009.

Canada's Greenhouse Gas Emissions Continue Slow Climb: Report

Federal Budget To Address Security, Anti-terrorism Programs, Sources Say

Federal Budget To Address Security, Anti-terrorism Programs, Sources Say
OTTAWA — The Conservative government plans to use the coming federal budget to underscore its pre-election messaging on the importance of national security.

Federal Budget To Address Security, Anti-terrorism Programs, Sources Say

French In The Courts: Groups File Complaint Against Quebec Chief Justice

French In The Courts: Groups File Complaint Against Quebec Chief Justice
MONTREAL — Francophone-rights activists have filed a complaint against the chief justice of the Quebec Superior Court.

French In The Courts: Groups File Complaint Against Quebec Chief Justice

Richmond's Surjit Dosanjh Killing Mother-In-Law In House Fire That Left Boy, 13, Critical

Richmond's Surjit Dosanjh Killing Mother-In-Law In House Fire That Left Boy, 13, Critical
Surjit (sur-JEET') Dosanjh has been in custody since the blaze early Monday, when 66-year-old Elaine Leznoff was killed.

Richmond's Surjit Dosanjh Killing Mother-In-Law In House Fire That Left Boy, 13, Critical

Licensed Strip Clubs Banned In Saskatchewan; Exception Made For Charity Events Once A Year

Licensed Strip Clubs Banned In Saskatchewan; Exception Made For Charity Events Once A Year
REGINA — Licensed strip clubs are no longer allowed in Saskatchewan, but the government says it will make an exception for charitable events once a year.

Licensed Strip Clubs Banned In Saskatchewan; Exception Made For Charity Events Once A Year