Right Whales and their Allies:

The Canadian Stewardship Connection

Moira W. Brown

New England Aquarium and Canadian Whale Institute

GREENTECH 2014

2

The Decline of the North Atlantic Right Whale

• The “Right Whale” to kill

– Colonial Whaling (late 1600s)

– Pelagic Whaling (late 1800s early 1900s )

• 5,500 – 11,000 right whales taken

Status:

• The most endangered large whale - about

500 remain, population increasing by 2%

• Recovery hampered by a low reproductive

rate and mortality from shipping and

fishing.

Adults: length 55 feet (17 metres)

weight ~ 60-70 tons

82% have scars from fishing gear

• 60,985 records & 500,000+ photographs of 657 right whales, of which 509 alive

• How do you tell these whales apart?

The Right Whale Catalog

• Gestation (pregnancy) ~12 – 13+ months

• Lactation ~1 year

• Rest ~1 year +

• Single calf every 3 – 6 years, average calving interval ~3.7 years

• Average age for 1st calving ~9 years (range 5 – 21)

• Reproduction is hampered by a low reproductive rate

Right Whale Calving

• 1980 – 2000 ~11/yr = 227 calves in 21 yrs

• 2001 - 2014 ~ 21/yr = 298 calves in 14 yrs

•But not all are catalogued!

Tracking variation in calving over time

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Number of calves per year 1980 - 2014

# o

f ca

lve

s b

orn

Southeast United States

migrate to the coastal waters of Georgia and northeast Florida to give birth

residency: November through March

Right Whale Migration and

Critical Habitats

Moira Brown

Cape Cod Bay &

Great South

Channel

feed, socialize

and rear their

calves year

round

Bay of Fundy &

Roseway Basin

feeding and socializing

BOF nursery ground

residency: June

through December

Delilah (mother of Calvin) feeding at the surface

Feed on plankton near bottom and at surface

Copepod – rice sized

Densities – 300,000 m3

* 50% of body weight = lipid

Consume ~ 1.4 billion/hr

~1,700 hamburgers/day

Since 1970:

• 28 vessel strikes (~50% of known deaths) in

Canada and US waters

• 21/28 (75%) of vessel strikes occurred since

1991

• 6 strikes (1/5th) occurred in Canadian waters

since 1987

The Problem of Right Whales and Vessel Strikes

Delilah’s death in Sept. 1992

Mariner Awareness Program:

1993 – Fundy Traffic (DFO) Right Whale alert and Notice to Mariners (NOTMAR)

Right Whale conservation areas Fundy and Roseway (DFO)

1994 – DFO published Caution Mariners pamphlet

1995 – Right whale sightings and info on back on nautical charts (CHS/DFO)

1995 & 1997 – Two more right whale mortalities from vessel strikes in Bay of Fundy

Mariner Awareness alone did not solved the problem!

Call to Action

Unique partnership formed between researchers and industry in 1998.

Goal: to make things better for right whales and promote species recovery in Canadian waters by reducing the risk of vessel strikes.

Two Options considered:

• Rerouting of vessels around right whale distribution

• Speed reduction

2000 – 2002: Researchers used 12 years of right whale sighting data and 1 year of vessel traffic data to assess the probability and risk of a vessel collision with right whales.

Vessel – whale working group

After amendment to the TSS 90% reduction in risk where outbound lane of TSS intersects the Conservation Area

Highest risk: occurs where outbound lane of TSS intersects Conservation Area

Highest density of right whales and the highest density of vessel traffic

67.2 67.0 66.8 66.6 66.4 66.2 66 65.8

W Longitude

44.0

44.2

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45.0

45.2

N L

atitu

de

o

o

(a)

0 14

Nautical Miles

0 20

Kilometres

-0.0350

-0.0325

-0.0300

-0.0275

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67.2 67.0 66.8 66.6 66.4 66.2 66 65.8

W Longitude

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atitu

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(b)

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Nautical Miles

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Kilometres

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-0.0175

-0.0150

-0.0125

-0.0100

-0.0075

-0.0050

-0.0025

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0.0050

Before amendment to TSS – notice the overlap between outbound shipping lane and high concentration of right whale sightings.

Right whale sightings and Bay of Fundy Traffic Separation Scheme

The new shipping lands were moved 4 nautical miles to the east and a turn out added for wet bound traffic to avoid the highest concentration of whales.

Which option gave the least risk? Re-routing or Speed Restriction

Rerouting gave a 62% reduction in overall risk in the Bay.

Transit time in outbound lane increases by ~1.4%

Speed reduction would have given a 52% reduction in overall risk.

Transit time in outbound lane would have increased by ~20%.

IMO adopted lanes 2002 Implemented by Canada 2003

Vessel Whale working group:

Rerouting solutions presented to Transport Canada – Issue of marine (navigational) safety

Proposal to International Maritime Organization, sub-committee on Safety of Navigation

International support from U.S. and others at IMO – a 1st for IMO

Completed in the absence of domestic legislation

Amended Fundy Lanes

“CALVIN”

• Grand Manan Basin Conservation Area

• Roseway Basin Conservation Area

• Amended Fundy vessel traffic lanes

Continued Mariner Awareness Program with industry and public

Roseway Basin Vessel Strike Stewardship

• 2003 and 2006 – two more right whale

mortalities

• Roseway Basin: no shipping lanes

• Considered speed reduction, recommended routes and an Area To Be Avoided

• Used right whale sighting data, vessel reporting data to assess overlap

• Used passive acoustics to set timeframe

• Lowest probability of encounter with ATBA

By 2003:

66.6 66.4 66.2 66.0 65.8 65.6 65.4 65.2 65.0 64.8 64.6 64.4

W Longitude

42.4

42.6

42.8

43.0

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43.8

44.0

N L

atitu

de

(a)

o

o

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Nautical Miles

0 30

Kilometres

0.0001

0.0050

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Roseway Basin region

Vanderlaan et al. (2008) ESR

• 86% overall chance of whale(s) within Conservation Area

• ~26X more likely, on average, to observe right whale(s) in the Conservation Area than outside

Relative Probability of Observing a Right Whale

66.6 66.4 66.2 66.0 65.8 65.6 65.4 65.2 65.0 64.8 64.6 64.4

W Longitude

42.4

42.6

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N L

atitu

de

(b)

o

o

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Nautical Miles

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Kilometres

0.0008

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• Most vessels transit north of Conservation Area

• Emergent diagonal traffic “lane” through Conservation Area

• Vessels ~2X more likely to transit N or Conservation Area than through it

Relative Probability of Observing a Vessel

Roseway Basin region

Vanderlaan et al. (2008) ESR

66.6 66.4 66.2 66.0 65.8 65.6 65.4 65.2 65.0 64.8 64.6 64.4

W Longitude

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atitu

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Kilometres

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Re-routing vs. Speed Restrictions

• Vessels transiting between Halifax and New York City TSS

• Adjust their heading by 7o, 93 nm (172 km) outside ATBA boundary

• Route would be 2 nm (3.7 km) longer

• Based on an average speed of 14 knots

• Total transit time: increase by

8.5 min or 0.9%

To New York

To Halifax

Vanderlaan et al. (2008)

66.6 66.4 66.2 66.0 65.8 65.6 65.4 65.2 65.0 64.8 64.6 64.4

W Longitude

42.4

42.6

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N L

atitu

de

(d)

o

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Nautical Miles

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Kilometres

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To Halifax

To New York

• Speed restriction of 10 knots in the area

• Based on an average speed of 14 knots

• Total transit time increase by 120 minutes or 11%

Re-routing vs Speed Restrictions

Vanderlaan et al. (2008) ESR

ATBA designed to encompass:

majority of whales

area of highest risk

• The lowest probability of encounter between vessels and whales was with an Area To Be Avoided (ATBA) i.e. re- routing

• The boundaries of ATBA were shaped to roughly parallel vessel traffic

• Proposal to IMO in 2007 adopted, ATBA active 2008

Roseway Basin Area To Be Avoided

Vanderlaan et al. (2008) ESR

Measuring Voluntary Compliance: Will Recommendatory Areas To Be Avoided effective? No IMO requirement to measure compliance

?

Vessel Avoidance Conservation Area Transit Experiment

Automatic Identification System (AIS) Data • Static, dynamic and voyage related data

• Vessel location & speed

• ~1 full year of vessel traffic data recorded prior to implementation of the ATBA

Jun – Oct 2008 1st year post

implementation 70% compliance

Jun – Oct 2007 before implementation

Jun – Sept 2009 2nd year post implementation

80% compliance

Shipping industry able and willing to voluntarily alter course. Significant change in the distribution of vessels.

Vessel A

voidance &

Vessel A

voidance &

Conservation Area Transit ExperimentConservation Area Transit Experiment

• Use AIS data from Vessel Avoidance and Conservation Area Transit Experiment, determine addresses for direct communication with shipping industry (owners and operators)

• Avoider letter – recognize those vessels avoiding the area

• Non avoider letter – to increase the awareness of vessels continuing to transit the ATBA with the goal of achieving 100% compliance

• 2008 - 2012 ~ 80% compliance

• Compliance decreased slightly in 2013

• High quality data – long term monitoring and robust analyses

• Involved all marine users early and often (shipping, fishing, whale watching, and public) – issue of marine safety

• International notification to marine industry through IMO instruments, domestic Notices to Mariners and VTS

• Timeline – 12 yrs from 1st death to amended Fundy lanes, another 5 years for Roseway Basin ATBA = 17 years

• Develop monitoring scheme for 3 years and report back to industry results of monitoring … (20 years!)

• 320 right whales in 1998 to 509 in 2013!

Model of Unique Partnership

Reduced the potential for lethal vessel encounters with right whales

with

Minimal disruption to vessel operations / maintain safe navigation

and

High, but not perfect, compliance

In 2009 – identified as Critical Habitat by DFO under the Species at Risk Act

Precedent setting measures that led the way for other mitigation measures for right whales and other species in the US and worldwide

Vessel strike risk reduction measures in Atlantic Canada

Policy changes to reduce vessel strikes

• 1999 U.S Mandatory ship reporting (educational) - southeast and

northeast

• 2003 Bay of Fundy shipping lane shifted – IMO precedent

• 2006 U.S. Recommended routes – southeast Florida and northeast

Cape Cod Bay

• 2007 Boston shipping lanes shifted

• 2008 Roseway Basin Area To Be Avoided – IMO precedent

• 2008 U.S. Speed rule (≤ 10 knots) and Seasonal and Dynamic

management areas

• 2009 U.S. Great South Channel Area To Be Avoided and amended

lanes

• Right whales now have more protection from vessel strikes throughout

their Canada/US range - compliance is low in the U.S.

iPad

or

iPhone

v1.0

Free App for

There is an app for that! -

WhaleALERT

Why WhaleALERT

• One stop location for all right whale

management measures to mitigate vessel

strikes

• Compliance is best if information is streamlined

• In the U.S. mariners have been fined up

to $92K/event for non-compliance

WhaleALERT Provides

- Current Ship’s Location (built in GPS)

- Real-Time Acoustic Detection Buoys

- Real-Time Seasonal Management Areas

- Real-Time Dynamic Management Areas

- Real-Time Areas to be Avoided

- Mandatory Ship Reporting Areas

- NOAA Recommended Routes

* 2013 - Added Roseway Basin and Fundy

TSS to the app

WhaleALERT Provides • Easy and Efficient Access to All of the most Up-

to-Date Rules, Regulations & Voluntary

Information

• Centralized location for all Right Whale

Information displayed over Raster Nautical Charts

Questions?